– Transcript 144
Consciousness and the Flesh
R: Robert: Good evening. It is wonderful to be with you once again. I love you all with all my heart, unconditionally, unequivocally. All is well.
Most of you have come here to listen to words. You want to hear me say something profound, something different, something unusual. How many years have you been listening to words? Since you were born. And all the words have done for you is today you believe what is real is false and what is false is real.
As an example, you believe the world to be real. You believe your body, your mind to be real. You believe that everything your senses show you and tell you is real.
That’s a lie. And you believe ultimate reality, perfection, infinite love, absolute awareness doesn’t exist or if it exists you don’t know anything about it.
The truth is it’s just in reverse. What you cannot comprehend. What you cannot see, touch, feel, smell, taste is the reality. And what you’ve been worshiping all these years, a home, a couch, a chair, a car, money, the body, is false. It’s false because you have to leave it in the end. That which is not true all of the time cannot be real. And everything in this universe changes to something else. No thing lasts forever. Therefore no thing is real. This is the reason we have this world in the precarious condition it’s in today. For people have been believing in things that change, things that come to an end and you’re always disappointed. The life that appears to you today can only lead to disappointment due to the fact it has to change.
Yet there is something that is unchangeable, immutable. Something you can rely upon. Something that will always take care of you and save you and watch over you. And that something is your Self. You are the one. Your Self is not your body or your mind or your thoughts or your opinions. Your Self is absolute reality. Your Self is existence, knowledge, bliss. You are that Self.
People still want to know what happens to people who are realized, when they awaken to this truth. What good is this teaching if it does not bring you peace, happiness, love, freedom. Many of you have never known real happiness, real peace. You believe that things of this world bring you happiness. And you are conditioned to believe certain things here make you happy, certain things in this world make you sad. You’ve been brainwashed, hypnotized.
Yet how many people want to know the truth? How many people really want freedom and liberation? For no purpose whatsoever just to be free and liberated. It is true when you are liberated the world no longer has a hold on you. The universe, the world, people, places and things can no longer frighten you. You become radiantly happy just by being. In order for you to be happy today you think you need certain things in your life.
You think if you win the lotto you’ll be happy. If you have a new house you’ll be happy. If you have a new husband or a new wife you’ll be happy. You have an endless list of the things that it takes to make you happy. Yet you find through experience that when you achieve these things the happiness is only short lived and then you have to search again, it never ends. Yet I say to you your real nature is pure happiness, peace. All you have to do is discover it within yourself. For you are that. You have always been that.
There is absolutely nothing wrong in this world whatsoever. It is you who see the error. For instance you believe that if somebody dies that is bad. Why is that bad? Due to the fact that you don’t understand what death is. Death is like sleep. When you lie down and go to sleep, you awaken. Yet when you slept you lost consciousness you’re not aware of this world any longer and when you awaken you say, “I slept soundly. I feel good. I feel wonderful.” Where were you when you slept? What happened to you? Death is similar.
You simply go to sleep to this world and you wake up feeling refreshed and happy. Everything else is the same way.
The unknown is the reality. The known comes to an end and brings misery. We therefore have to seek the unknown. And again the place to seek is within yourself. All of the answers are within you. Everything that you’ve ever been looking for is within you.
We have to change our minds and begin to go inward instead of outward.
We have learnt as we grew older, in school, in the streets that we have to be extroverted to get along with people. Take a look at the world and look at what these extroverted people are doing. The extroverted people are all of your politicians, all of the leaders of this world. These are the people that make the rules and regulations. And they are extroverted.
But the truth is that you have to become introverted. In other words you have to go within yourself. And find this truth we’re talking about. This reality, this peace, this love, this joy that never changes. You have to look for it yourself. Search for it until you find it. It is within you. You are that!
You don’t have to travel anywhere or read any books or run to different classes.
You merely have to take the time to be by yourself and turn within. By turning within I mean you have to quiet the mind. You must use any method you can to quiet the mind. It is the mind that has all of these beliefs.
For instance when we talk about a certain subject such as healing, health. We have been brought up to believe we are a body. And a body can catch a cold become sick, develop cancer, die. All of these false opinions have been accepted by us subconsciously.
Then collectively these things happen to us and this enforces our belief. Yet the ultimate truth about healing is that nobody ever became sick. Therefore there is no one to heal. This is the ultimate truth. There is no health and there is no sickness.
It is the same when you’re sleeping. When you’re in deep sleep you are not aware if you have cancer or AIDS or anything else. You are free of these things. When you are asleep. In the same way if you are just a heap of flesh and you are, without any consciousness it is virtually impossible for you to get any kind of disease.
But then consciousness comes into the picture. Can you say, “That consciousness bring the disease?” On the contrary. Consciousness is all pervading, it is the substratum of all existence. If consciousness knew anything about disease the whole universe would be immediately destroyed. Yet when consciousness animates your body, you become like a puppet. You’re able to move, run, dance, sing, speak for you have been animated by consciousness. Prior to this you were a heap of flesh. Now consciousness is animating you and you’re able to walk, talk, speak, hear. Everything comes to pass.
But the flesh has not done this. Consciousness has done this. Just like the print on the paper that I talked about last week. The paper is consciousness and the print is your body. If the paper were not available there would be nowhere to put the print. So if consciousness were not there, there would be no body whatsoever. Consciousness is absolute reality, pure awareness. Can you therefore say that consciousness has brought disease to the body? Of course not. Therefore it appears to be a mystery.
If the bodily flesh by itself cannot become sick and consciousness is free of disease where does the disease come from? Well there appears to be a knot between the consciousness and the flesh. A knot that separates the consciousness from the flesh. This knot is called imagination. It is the imagination that brings the sickness, the fears, the frustrations and everything else to the flesh. The imagination.
In our case the imagination has brainwashed us since we were children. Perhaps from past lives also to believe in sickness, in lack and limitation and all of these negatives that appear to be real. Consciousness exists. It appears to be dormant for the imagination has taken over. And makes the flesh believe that it has cancer or anything else, cold, disease.
It is like the snake in the rope. Imagine you live in Texas, in the desert and you are aware of all the rattle snakes. You go to your house during twilight time. You’re going to take a bath. There is a coiled rope lying on the floor that you have forgotten that you put there yourself. In the twilight hours you can’t see clearly and the rope looks like a rattle snake. So immediately you stop short and the imagination begins to work. You start to perspire and fear. The heart starts palpitating. You start shaking. Your imagination has done this to you. It has caused your body to react a certain way and symptoms appear, palpitations, shaking, fear. Then you grab an axe and hit the rope. Then you discover it’s a rope, it’s not a rattlesnake at all. And you start laughing. The fear disappears, the palpitations stop, the sweating stops. But look what happened to you from this false assumption.
Also the water in the mirage is another example. You’ve been in the desert a long time you’re very very thirsty, you want a drink of water. You’ve got to be real thirsty for your imagination to take over. All of a sudden you see an oasis a couple of yards away.
Beautiful flowing water. Shade trees. You crawl over. There is nothing there but sand. It’s a mirage.
Do you see what I’m getting at? The knot between consciousness and your body is the imagination. It is the imagination that causes you to believe and think something is wrong, disease is real and the imagination causes your belief to become real for you.
A simple example is a belief that you’re going to catch a cold because you’re walking in the rain. In truth and reality the rain cannot give you a cold. It cannot do anything for you. Except make you wet. Yet you believe the rain can do this to give you a cold and sure enough you catch a cold. And all of your life you believe these things. You pass this information onto your children. Do not walk in the rain you’ll catch a cold. And they pass it to their children so forth and so on.
Think of all the things you believe right now that are false. Think of all the beliefs that have been imposed upon you. Just about 99 percent of everything you believe is a lie.
That is a heavy one but it’s true. 99 percent of all the things you believe is a lie. This is why in the higher teachings we are told to stop the mind from thinking. For all of these beliefs are in the mind like dormant seeds waiting to sprout. By dormant seeds I mean, everything is quiet, everything is still until something happens, until there is a storm and you get wet. You believe you’re going to catch a cold. Those are the dormant seeds I’m talking about. Your belief system becomes activated and you catch a cold.
But you have invented the cold. You have invented the disease. I know some of you think that is a strange thing for me to say. Aids is so rampant, cancer is so rampant, heart conditions is so rampant and I’m saying that you are causing these things? Collectively we all believe the same things, so it seems. So collectively we cause the conditions to become worse by accepting them as real.
Metaphysical movements, occult movements try to teach you to renounce these things and use affirmations and so forth in their place. But this is all kindergarten. The only way to get rid of the false assumptions, the samskaras, the mental impressions that have been with you for centuries, life after life is by destroying the mind, totally and completely. And the way to destroy the mind is through inquiring, “Who has a mind to begin with? Who has a mind, to begin with?”
The truth about you is you are mindless. Your mind idea is just a belief. It is only a belief that you have a mind that causes you problems, that causes you to become sick, this is a belief. And this is a belief that has to be transcended and transmuted. You are not the
Therefore the fastest way in this age to transcend the mind is through atma-vichara or self-inquiry. You have to work within yourself. You have to observe these beliefs of humanity. And as you feel them yourself inquire, “To whom do they come? Who has these beliefs? Who feels this?” You will say, “I feel this. I feel sickness. I believe this is like this, this is like that. All the things you’ve been talking about I believe.” There is the answer.
The I that you’re speaking of is not you. The I is the first person. The first thought that ever comes into your mind, is I. For don’t you say to yourself, “I feel this. I have a cold. I feel sick. I have AIDS. I have cancer.” This is a clue for you. Think of what you’re saying, you’re saying, “I have these things.” Not I-am the real you, but I. The I we’re talking about is a thought. The I-thought is connected to all the things of this world. And when you get rid of the I-thought everything else will go with it.
This is why this is called the direct method and the fastest method to become free and liberated. For you’re not trying to remove thoughts. You’re not trying to heal yourself.
You’re not trying to see the truth. You’re working on eliminating the I that has caused you all these troubles, all these problems. You step back and examine the I. You begin to realize all of your life, you say to yourself, “I am this and I am that. I have pain. I hate this. I love this. I feel terrible. I feel good.” It is always the I-I-I-I-I. It is this I that has to go.
The I is the mind, same thing. The I has to be totally eliminated and the only way to do this is to follow it to its source by inquiring, “Who am I?” Which means, “What is the source of the I?” The source of the I is absolute reality, Sat-Chit-Ananda, ultimate oneness, nirvana. Yet you do not experience these high states therefore as far as your concerned they do not exist. But your I does exist. Your I has always existed so it appears, since you were born.
At least you realize that your job in this life is to follow the I and destroy it. Again it is only destroyed when you follow it to the source. When you follow it to the source, your personality disappears which is your personal I. You become all pervading, omnipresent, joy, happiness and bliss. This is the most important work that you have.
Most of you believe that your work is important. The things that you do everyday is important. They have some relevancy of course. But you’re going to die one of these days. When you’re in your death bed will you be concerned about your work? Will you be concerned about your family or the world or politics or anything else? When you’re on your death bed you will be full of fear. Because you’re going to leave this world and everything in it. And you’re going into an unknown quantity an unknown place that you never heard of before. You have no idea where you’re going it is something unknown. Therefore at that time you will give up all of your politics, you will give up all of your wants, your needs.Why wait until then? Why not give it up now? For if you give it up now you will enter reality where there is no birth and no death, no good and no bad, no duality whatsoever, no universe, no world, no others, no body, no mind. You have become what we call God. Which is the absolute reality.
Therefore if you are wise. You will begin immediately to work on yourself. This doesn’t mean you have to give up anything, except mentally. You will begin diligently to work on yourself every moment of the day. When you feel hurt, you feel sick, you feel disgusted, you feel depressed. You feel the world closing in on you. You inquire within yourself, “Who feels this? To whom does it come? I do. What is the source of the I?” Become quiet and still and everything will take care of itself.
(short silence)
Feel free to ask questions.
SZ: I have a question. (R: Go ahead.) How should we treat children?
R: How should you treat children? (SZ: Umm-hmm.) Treat children as if they were Gods. Love them with all your heart and with all your soul. If you really love children the love that you feel for them will encompass them also. And they will become loving children. I don’t mean love them with a human idea of love. I mean really love them. With all your heart and all your soul. See them as a sacred being. See them as a God. And realize divine right action is pouring itself through them. See only the goodness in them. Become an example for them. Do not tell them to do anything that you wouldn’t do yourself. Children become what they see not what they hear.
Therefore if there is peace in your home, if there is love in your home, there is joy in your home, I mean real peace, real love, real joy they have to pick it up. It has to pour into them. And they will react with love and with peace and with joy. They will grow up to be kind, compassionate, beautiful human beings and this will become a new world. So again become an example of love and compassion and peace. Whenever you look at them or think about them. Look at them with love and compassion and joy and peace and then you’ll be surprised what happens.
SK: What about teenagers? (laughter)
R: If you haven’t done anything to them when they were kids, when they become teenagers then you’ve got a problem. (students laugh) So even as a teenager you’ve got to become an example. They’ve already been brainwashed. It was Krushov, remember the Russian Prime Minister who said, “Give me a child up to the age of five and I’ll give you a lifetime communist.” It is when children are babies that you have to do these things. When they become teenagers in a household that is filled with error, filled with animosity they will act accordingly. Therefore the only thing you can do with teenagers is to bless them and let them go. Realize that the current that knows the way, that takes care of the whole universe is taking care of them also. That they are in their right place at the right time going through the experiences that they need to go through right now. Become a very positive personality and let them go.
R: See them as your Self. You’ve got to love your Self first. If you’re an angry person, a mad person, bad temper, do not see them as that self. Rather work on yourself first and get rid of all those negative qualities. Then see them as your Self. For there is only one Self. That Self is love. That Self is compassion, bliss, consciousness. Know this about your Self. Then include your children.
But you can’t be a troubled person and then send out love to your children. It will not work. For the children are part of yourself and they become what you really are deep inside. This is why if you want a peaceful household with peaceful children you’ve got to become peaceful with yourself first. And the vibrations will go into your household your children will pick them up and become peaceful children.
SZ: Is there any person that doesn’t grow up with the I-thought?
R: Yes. People who in previous lives have done the work that we’re talking about.
They have gone through this again and again in many lifetimes. They come back to be a teacher. They come back to this planet voluntarily and they come back as a pure being. So there are people who come back to this planet pure.
Try to remember that we’re speaking at a certain level. Most of you who know me realize that it’s a whole bunch of hogwash. There is no coming back, there is no going, there is no planet, there is no universe, there is only the Self and you are that. But as long as you believe you are a body then the things we’re talking about are real and true for you.
SH: Are they real and true or do they just appear to be? (R: They appear to be.) But they aren’t? (R: They aren’t of course not. But the Maya is so strong that you think these things are real and true. The imagination is Maya.)
SK: Robert how come if you know it’s a lie and I’m buying the lie, I see the Maya and I keep dwelling in it and I’m aware that it’s a lie and I still will hang on to it. I mean it’s like there is nothing…if I let go of this what else is there sort of thought, you know?
R: It is like taking drugs. If you have been taking heroine for many years you no it’s no good, you know it’s a lie, you know it’s killing you but you have to keep taking it.
So it is with this. We’ve been brainwashed for so many centuries, so many incarnations yet you’ve done something to be in a class like this. We begin to see it’s all a lie.
Therefore it appears that it will not immediately remove itself from you. For it took you so many incarnations, so many lifetimes to be where you are now. Do not look at time. Do not think how hard it is. But be grateful for where you are to be able to see it intellectually at first, and begin to realize the whole world is a lie.
And little by little slowly but surely like skins on an onion - an onion has many skins and you have to peel them off one at a time - or when a diamond is first found in the earth it doesn’t appear as a diamond but is filled with crud and dirt after thousands of years being in the earth, it’s got to be polished and refined and cut — and so it is with you also you’ve got to be polished and you have to be cut. All the dirt has to be cut away the crud. As you have patience, as you are grateful for where you are, as you work on yourself everyday then you will wake up at any time.
SV: Robert it’s difficult to talk after you talk because you talk quiet and I talk like a storm cloud. When I was at a school in Backlot which is open to anybody. There is a tram there and the tram shows you the studio at Backlot. And the tram also goes through a tunnel and then the tram stops in the tunnel. Now the tunnel is made to revolve around you and it turns off and you know with any doubt that that tram is standing still. That when the tunnel turns this way you feel you turn this way. And you know without any doubt that you’re not turning at all. And yet you feel you’re turning. Everyone who wants to feel what Maya is like should go take that tram ride. (laughter) You know the tunnel is not turning around. You know the tunnel is made to revolve around you but it’s standing still. And if the tunnel turns this way you turn this way, the tunnel turns this way you turn this way. It’s like you’re falling over. You know the tunnel is standing still you know it like you know anything and yet, still. (R: True.) Anyway that is one of the most heaviest experiences of my life I’ve ever gone through. It seems to be heavier than this body. (R: Umm.) Because you know it every time the tunnel turns around the tram will turn around. (R: Yes. That’s a good analogy.) If you just go just to see how strong it is and you know it ain’t so…
R: Where do you have to go to see it?
SV: Universal studios. There is a tram that goes and shows you all the backdrops. One of the most powerful mayas I know because you know it ain’t so. (R: Umm.) And in fact they had one…they told us that one of the scenes in a movie that they made this guy was running after another guy through the tunnel, it was movie actor even though he knows of course that the tunnel is steady, he’s falling over every time he can’t even run after him. (R: Umm.) Believe me, I don’t know how often you would have to go before this illusion would stop. After a certain number it would stop. But boy if anyone wants to see how strong Maya is, that’s it. Universal studios.
R: So we’ll all go to universal studios and get rid of Maya. (students laugh) SL: You know what I remember going to the same thing at universal studios and I remember knowing that it was an illusion and I remember looking down at the base of the tour bus and then just getting my perspective back and then I would look up again and I would still have the equilibrium and also I was leaning and so I would look back down again to become centered then I would look back up again. I think that is what the meditation is for or whatever we do to try to get centered.
SV: But you know what you’re seeing isn’t there and you still totally believe it’s doing it.
Absolutely total you have no doubt you could almost swear on it. (SL: Right.) SF: Sometimes children of the same parents can be wildly different.
R: Sometimes children can be wild and different? (SF: Sir?) What did you say? (SF: Children of the same parents can be wildly different.) Yes, that’s true. That has a lot to do with karma. (SF: There are so many variables.) Umm. This is why the only thing that you should do is become free yourself and then see if these questions bother you.
R: That’s a good point true. (SK: Yeah.) When a person is truly on a spiritual path you forget all about time. Do not ask how long it takes or when am I going to become this.
Do the work that is necessary and leave the rest up to God.
Fred (SF): On Sunday you said something that kind of tickled me, I said that I felt that Sri Rama Krishna was in the same category as Christ and Buddha and Krishna and you said, “That’s a good crowd,” and just thinking about it later I assumed that you agreed with my statement about Sri Rama Krishna. (R: Yes.) And what I was thinking later was that that is the only crowd to run with.
(Robert laughs) am I right? (R: Of course.) Thank you.
R: This is why it tells you in all the ancient scriptures that the fastest way to really become enlightened is to hang out with a guru, with a Sage. This is why we have satsang.
Also while I forget because many of you have wanted more than two satsangs a week we are now having a third satsang on the Saturday from 1 o clock till 4, in the valley.
In the home of Indians. The Indian family is letting us use their home. So those of you who are interested and want to come to another satsang feel free to come on Saturday 1 to 4.
We’ll try it out and see what happens. (SG: This Saturday?) Umm? (SG: This Saturday?) Yes.
Mary (SM): Robert can I ask you a question? (R: No. (students laugh) Go Mary.) Is there any significance to dreams of a spiritual nature?
R: Is there any significance to dreams of a spiritual nature? Dreams are of the ego.
Yet when you become advanced you do have visions and you do have high spiritual dreams that become sort of meaningful sometimes. So the answer is yes and no. It depends on the person having the dream. Some dreams are spiritual, high dreams because you’ve been working on yourself diligently and you come to a point where you can have dreams like this and see visions. So this is true.
To others, dreams are just venting the emotions. If you didn’t dream you’d probably blow up. Dreams are a ventilation of the emotions. Just as this life is a dream. This whole universe is a dream. Everything we’re doing now is a dream. Yet you take it to be real and you react to it. This is why you suffer for you’re reacting to a dream. Observe watch but do not react and you will wake up.
Fred (SF): Maharshi said, “Visions add zest to meditations.” (R: Visions exists as what?) Visions add zest… (R: To meditations?) But they’re in duality. (R: Umm, sure.) SK: Robert, I just wanted to comment on. I have experienced some hallucinogenic drugs before and what I was just thinking of is talking about Maya and the mind. It’s like from one second I could be in absolute panic fear and then in the next second just absolute bliss and ecstasy and happiness and smiling and then back and forth like a ping pong ball. And it’s just like the clock just takes you and it becomes so real and the next second. I mean that’s a magnified example of you know what seems to be happening… (R: Where are you now?) Where am I now? This second?
Peaceful. Anxious and peaceful. (laughter)
R: Do you need any hallucinogenic drugs to become peaceful? (SK: Do I need it?
No. Not any more.) Be your Self. (SK: That is always a good one, be your Self.) Then you will find peace that you never dreamed existed.
Fred (SF): I always thought that I should be something other than what I was in one aspect or another but come to think about it there is no way for me to be at any one time, to be different than I am. In other words it’s really a matter of acceptance and realize that I don’t really have any control over anything, as an individual. So if I can accept myself. I’m pretty good at not judging other people but I’m pretty hard on myself but if I could accept myself I would be in pretty good shape.
R: True. What you really want to do is get rid of that self. (SF: With a small “s.”) Yes, then you’ll be your real Self.
Do we have any announcements?
Mary (SM): No, most of the 59’s have come back are coming in thank you very much everyone for bringing them in. We will put them on the table for people who want them.
SW: If anybody wants to buy a copy of the Ashtravakra Gita, I have a few. Good book.
(general discussion about satsang on the Saturdays. Directions to get there and bhandara organization.)
R: We have some delicious prashad, thanks to Tony.
(Prashad is passed around)
Remember to love your Self, to pray to your Self, to worship your Self, to bow to your Self, for God dwells in you as you, peace.
(tape ends)
Absätze ohne Sprecherpräfix gehören dem zuletzt genannten Sprecher — so steht es im Buch, wo der Präfix nur den Anfang einer Rede markiert. Die Zuordnung ist eine Folgerung dieser Ausgabe. Namen in Klammern sind aus dem Text erschlossen: sicher belegt sind SM = Mary, SF = Fred, SJ = Jay, SC = Nate, wahrscheinlich SG = Glen, SR = Jorge. Alle anderen Kürzel bleiben stehen, weil der Beleg nicht trägt.