– Transcript 152
Realize The Self
R: It is good to be with you again on this lovely Sunday. All is well.
Think about that statement, all is well. No thing is the way that you think it is.
There is no thing in this universe that is what you believe it is. Everything is something else. Nothing is ever the same, or appears to be the same. The only thing that appears to be the same and doesn’t change, are your thoughts.
Most of us have a mind set, and it is very difficult for us to change this. This is the only thing that keeps us from seeing reality. As long as your mind is set, it is in accordance with the universe and the world, and you see things as they appear to be, but not as they are. You look out the window, you see a beautiful tree, a beautiful sky, woods, a lake. That sounds great. Look in the other direction, you see rioting, man’s inhumanity to man, destruction, earthquakes. How do you reconcile this?
Look at your own personal life. You have good times and bad times, and it’s from this you know what you want to experience. You want to experience the good times, not the bad times. Yet what you fail to understand is where there are bad times there are good times, and where there are good times there are bad times. You cannot have one. You can never have one.
A good illustration of this is the story of the two frogs. Once there were two frogs.
They inadvertently jumped into a vat of milk. There was a fat frog and a skinny frog. And they couldn’t get out. They were swimming around, the sides were slippery, and the fat frog said to the skinny frog, “Brother frog, there’s no use in paddling any longer. We’re going to drown, so I might as well give up.” The skinny frog said, “Hold on brother. Keep paddling. Somebody will get us out.” They paddled for hours. Again the fat frog said, “Brother frog, I’m becoming very tired now. I’m going to just let go and drown. There’s no way that anybody can ever get us out of here. It’s Sunday, nobody’s working. We’re doomed. There’s no possible way we can ever get out of here.” And the skinny frog said, “Keep trying. Keep paddling. Something will happen. Keep paddling.” Another couple of hours passed, and the fat frog said, “I can’t go on any longer. There’s no sense in doing it because we’re going to drown anyway. What’s the use?” And he let go. He gave up. He drowned in the milk. But the skinny frog kept on paddling. Ten minutes later he felt something solid beneath his feet. He had churned the milk into butter and he hopped out of the vat. So it is with us. We go through so many experiences in life. We think there’s no way out. We believe we’re human and we’re caught in Maya. We’ve got to go through certain experiences, and suffer, and be happy, and do all kinds of things. But when I share the truth with you, that there is no Maya, there’s no universe, nothing is the way it appears, it is only your mind that creates these conditions, and your mind doesn’t exist, you don’t believe me!
You want me to talk about karma and reincarnation. You want to get into all kinds of facets of the universe. You want to hear eloquent lectures about how we’re gonna be saved. Yet there’s no one to save, for no one ever existed. Yet you do feel human, don’t you? You do go through experiences, don’t you? If you would only learn to sit still, to be quiet, to stop reacting to the universe, to the world, to the situations, to life.
We give everything a name, that’s the problem. We say this is cancer, this is poverty, this is an earthquake, this is a million dollars, this is a new home, this is a new car, this is a war, this is a dog, this is a cat. We have names for everything. What if we forgot about those names, and we stopped seeing things as something? What if we just observed things, watched things without giving them a name, without coming to a conclusion?
What do you think would happen? You would transcend everything.
Whatever you’re no longer attached to, gives way. Whatever you’re no longer holding on to, no longer holds on to you. And as you let go of your opinions toward person, place and things, you find that you’re growing, you’re evolving. You’re beginning to become something that is ineffable, something that cannot be explained, something that’s so wonderful, you never dreamed that something like this existed. Yet it does.
Why do you appear to have a body, if you don’t have one? Why do you appear to be playing these games, if they’re not real? The answer is you’re not playing any games.
There is nobody doing anything. This is something difficult for most people to comprehend. Nothing at all is happening? But I move, I swim, I play golf, I go to work, I watch television, I’m doing all these things. These things appear to be happening.
You have to remember the question, “To whom is it happening? Who is experiencing this?” And of course we remember it’s the ego that’s experiencing this. But then you remember again you have no ego. There is no ego. An ego never existed. If it did, where did it come from? Who is its creator? Whatever you believe in, there has to be a creator to have created this. If you believe you’re human, something created you. You say your parents created you, you go back in time, who created them, and who created them. You go back to the very beginning. Everything you believe in, there has to be a cause.
Yet when I tell you there is no cause, therefore there cannot be an effect, you think I’m crazy, and I am. Who wants to be sane? To be sane means you conform to society, and to anything happening in the world. You think alike.
I can assure you, nothing exists. And I can assure you when you think about nothing, the nothing you’re thinking about does also not exist. Once you think about nothing, you spoil it, because it becomes something.
No matter how many times I tell you this, you’re still thinking, thinking, judging, judging, coming to conclusions, trying to work out your life. You have to let go, totally, absolutely, completely. You have to let go so completely, that you will feel no body, no mind, no pain, nothing. That is the only time you will make progress. Do not think about this. The thoughts cannot help you. There are no thoughts that can help you realize the self. It is only a total completely letting go, giving up.
What do you give up? You give up the ego, the mind, your opinions about things.
That’s all you give up.
But yet a tree seems to appear, and turn into a beautiful tree as it grows. So will you appear, yet you will know you’re not the appearance. You will know that you are totally free and you are omnipresence, all pervading. The whole universe is taking place inside of yourself. And if you are no self, there’s no universe. You are beyond the no self, where there is a no-no-self. You’re beyond the no-no-self, where there are no words to describe it. Yet it’s so beautiful, so blissful, so joyous, that if you have had a taste of it, you’d never return. You’d never want to go back to humanhood.
This is why there have been many who have been touched slightly by this realization. They have been touched by truth, and they can remember there’s something there, even though they’re back to their human self, so it appears. They never forget that touch.
And these people are the one’s who strive forward, to go all the way into realization.
What does it mean to go all the way? It means to look at your life as a picture show. All the experiences are images on the screen. It means not to regulate your life at all, in any way, but to observe it and watch it. To look at it intelligently. To see the emotions that come into your mind. To observe the fears, the arrogance, and not to do anything about them. But to look at them, look through them and become free of them. Only by looking through them can you become free of them.
Think of an emotion that you have that bothers you. Perhaps you have a bad temper, a fearful disposition, whatever. First you have to see it. Then you dive deep, deep within it, and it will totally and completely disappear. It will never bother you again.
When you try to change things, they all appear to be fine for a while, then you will find yourself in the same position you were before. Different people, different places.
You don’t want to change anything. You want to be still and look. As you become still and look, what you’re looking at will look back at you. As you look at the world without interpretation, as you look at the world without attachment, what the world is will be revealed to you. The world will be revealed to you as no thing, as an image on the screen of consciousness. You will become radiantly happy for no reason whatsoever. You will find the peace that you never dreamed existed.
You have to want this. You have to love this. You have to want this more than anything else in this world. When I say want it more than anything else in this world, I don’t mean in a “I don’t have it sense and I want it.” I mean to feel, and believe, and know, that you are that. And you want that to be uncovered for you, by going deeper all the time, by letting go of all the things that seem to be happening in life, continuing to dive deeply within the self. You dive deeply within the Self to the extent that you give up the stuff that you’ve been carrying around for years.
There is no one who cannot awaken. Since your real Self is already awake, there is nothing that can keep you back but yourself. By the self I mean your mind, your thoughts.
Your thoughts are the only thing that keeps you back. You have to look at these thoughts and not allow them to do anything to you. Do not allow them to frighten you. You have to remember to practice self-inquiry. To inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come?” To always think in your mind, there are no thoughts. All these thoughts are a mirage.
Remember, you use your mind to destroy your mind. You introvert the mind upon itself. When the mind is introverted upon itself, it disappears, for it never existed. But when the mind is extroverted, then you are alive and well in the world, going through all types of experiences. In school they taught you to be extroverted, to have an outgoing personality. What has it done for you? It made us all into a bunch of idiots. Look at the world in which we are living. See what’s going on. Look at our figureheads, government officials, state officials. These are all extroverted people.
We have been told that to be introverted is to be a loner, and you never get anywhere. Where do you want to get? If these people only realized that the world in which they are playing is all karmic. In other words, everybody is in their right place, where they are supposed to be. There are no mistakes. So these people do not believe they’re not a body and the world does not exist, but they believe there are bodies, and there is a world and a universe. They should accept the fact that karma is the ruler of the universe, and everything that appears to be is karmic in effect. This is why I always say there are no mistakes. For you are where you are supposed to be in accordance with the laws of karma.
But do not keep thinking about getting rid of karma, for you will have a battle on your hands. You have to grow out of this and see that karma never existed and does not really exist. So just wake up. Awaken.
Yet if you want to play with karma, you’ll have many lifetimes, many experiences.
It will never stop. It will go on and on indefinitely. Start to realize karma never existed.
There are no previous lives, and you do not exist now. Do not try to analyze this or figure it out in any way. Just keep it inside of you. Wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “I do not exist now, I have never existed previously, and I will never exist in the future.”
When your mind is calm in the morning hours when you awaken, you say something like this, you will get a beautiful warm good feeling. You will feel wonderful, for it relieves
I know this teaching sounds absurd to most people. Yet this is the teaching that has been propagated by Roshis, Sages, since the beginning of time. This is it. This is your opportunity to awaken. Why not use it? Do not let another moment go by where you’re sitting there and believing and thinking something is wrong somewhere. Everything that is happening in this world today, has happened before. Different times, different people, different place. All of these things have happened before previously. They’ve always happened in this world. This is the nature of this world.
There are so many people who want a beautiful world in which to live, where there’s everlasting peace and tranquility, where there’s joy and abundance. Yet these things are temporary. This is not the way of this world. It’s interesting, when you stop thinking of joy, when you stop thinking of sadness, when you stop thinking of good things and bad things, again, something wonderful happens to you, for you are no longer attached to anything. Yet in this non-attachment, you feel love and kindness, beauty and joy, in a totally different way.
Why not awaken now? Will you do this for me? Wake up! Do me a favor. Stop playing these games.
Most of you know when you walk out of this door today, you will forget many of the things I’m talking about, and revert right back to your stuff, where you begin to think about eating dinner, going to a movie, thinking about work, and you become involved in the material world once more. You have to begin to catch yourself. Say when as you walk out of this door, and you’re thinking of a bill that you’ve got to pay, or you’re thinking of a sickness you’ve got, or somebody in your family has, or you’re thinking about a promotion you’re going to get tomorrow at work. Catch yourself! Catch yourself! Stop yourself! Immediately say to yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come? Who’s thinking these thoughts? Where do they come from? I am thinking these thoughts. Who is the I? Who gave birth to the I who is thinking these thoughts?” And you’ll feel and say, “The I does not exist. It never existed.” You will feel beautiful. You must keep this procedure up. The mind must be transcended. All is well. All is exceedingly well.
Do we have questions in the box?
Mary (SM): I don’t think there are any Robert.
SS: Oh here’s one. (laughter)
R: Thank you Scott.
Q: (Robert reads) Robert for the last six months my mother has been grieving and crying due to the death of my father. What can I say to her to ease the suffering?A: (Robert answers) When there is a death in the family it is difficult indeed. Yet if we can only look beyond it. If we can only see the truth involved. Nobody dies. Yet you cannot say this to a grieving person. They’ll have no idea what you’re talking about.
Therefore all you can do is love this person.
If you can love this person enough then she will feel it deep in her heart and become calm. Love is the answer. Not words. When a person is going through grieving like this words cannot help. And we do not wish to be wise guys and say, “Oh nobody died.
Why are you crying, you’re wasting your time.” This is idiocy, this person is feeling the death, terribly. When you have to hug the person, love the person. And your vibrations will go into this person and make her peaceful.
So do not talk too much. Do not say too many things. Just understand. Hug her, love her. But you know the truth within yourself. Realize within yourself for her that no one was ever born and no one can ever die. Don’t tell her this she doesn’t understand this. In all humility feel this truth in your heart. And if you are sincere she will feel this also and have peace.
Do we have any other questions you like to ask?
Glen (SG): Robert you’ve talked a number of times now and I’ve read also how important it is to get to the root of the heart of ones anger or pain or whatever it is, that is caught in ones mind and distracts him from reality. And it makes sense, but somehow I think it is easier to talk about than do. Just wondering you have any instructions regarding that. And also on the secondary level isn’t this in a sense talking about an ultimate kind of healing which you sometimes discount as you talk about the importance of seeking enlightenment as opposed the healing? (R: What was the first part of the question?) Some instructions as how to go about this, maybe in a more systematic way or just intuitively. (R: To go about what?) Getting through to the root of pain or anger or whatever it is distracting me from seeing through?
R: Okay, we were talking about this last week. When there is a hurricane. At the center of the hurricane there is a peaceful spot. The center is peace. There is nothing happening in that center. When there is disharmony going on, anger, frustration, fear. At the center of the anger there is peace. At the center of the fear there is peace. If you can only dive in there long enough and dive past the external condition and dive into the peace.
Then you will become one with the peace and the anger will dissipate, it will be gone, it will disappear. Due to the fact in reality the anger never existed. The fear never existed.
Only the Self exists, consciousness, pure awareness. And that is at the center of yourself and the condition.
If you cannot get to the center this way, you have to inquire, “To whom does this anger come? To whom does these feelings come?” And keep still. Then something will give. So there are two ways to do it. One is to face the fear or the anger. Face it. Dive into it.
See it, what it is. And go deep into it and will be gone, it will dissipate. The other way is to inquire, “To whom does it come?” And realize it doesn’t come to anyone and it never existed and doesn’t exist now and you are totally free. Does that make any sense?
R: Well if there were anybody to be healed then I wouldn’t discount it. But who is to be healed? When you’re talking about ego, you’re talking about healing the ego. Healing comes because no one was ever sick. And if somebody is sick you’d have a lot of work to do, to heal that person. And that is ego.
But when you can just keep still and not get involved in the condition but look at the condition, do not look at the condition as sick or well or in between. Just see the condition for what it is, nothing. Do not think you’re a healer or think you’re healing somebody or something, feel that there is total absolute consciousness and nothing else. Therefore who has to be healed? And who is healing whom? There is no healer and there is no one to heal. When you look at this way, what is supposed to happen will happen by itself. Your job is to know the truth. Everything else will take care of itself.
Anyone else like to say something?
Jorge (SR): Robert, a year or two ago I was at the place you were talking about after a long, very long fast. So my question is, why is it when one has become skin and bones by fasting one can be at this place but when one starts to eat the place disappears and one gets back into the body consciousness?
R: Sure. The body is made of food stuff. Food makes the body. You’re made of food. Your skin, your organs, everything inside of you, blood is made out of food. So food is the ego. They’re both synonymous. When there is no food the ego begins to subside. As the ego subsides the reality comes in because reality was always there. (SR: Could you explain again how food is ego?) Food increases the ego, expands the ego due to the fact that food builds cells, builds molecules, builds atoms, builds mental conditioning. Someone with a sharp mind eats good food. Eats a lot of food. When you stop eating food your mind is not sharp any longer. This is for the material world.
As the brain keeps starving itself from lack of food, it begins to dissipate and then the mind becomes weaker, so-to-speak. Until it disappears altogether. But if you keep on fasting you will just give up the body and go. So you eat again and you come back to your senses, so-to-speak. You become sensible. (SR: What happened was the ability to reason and logically think left but what came was a state of knowingness. You just knew.) That is what I’m referring. The reality has been coming to you in that state. The truth has been expressing itself in that state. But as soon as you eat again you return to what you were, Jorge a human being. And everything else goes into abeyance. This is why many spiritual Sages like Jesus and Buddha and many others have fasted to have a taste of the reality.
Jorge (SR): What are some other methods Robert of diminishing the mind. This is partly this fellows question here. Okay fasting is one way to diminish the mind. I suppose repeating a phrase like, “I love God,” a million times would do it too, right?
R: Not necessarily. The best way of course is to ask yourself, “Who has a mind?
Where did this mind come from that you’re trying to diminish” That would be the best way I should think. As long as you believe that you have a mind then you have to do a lot of work to make it disappear. So gently see yourself as mindless. By inquiring, “To whom does the mind come?” And just by looking at yourself objectively, seeing yourself as what you are, no mind.
(short silence)
R: Today is mother’s day, happy mother’s day.
SH: Happy mothers day to you Robert.
R: Thank you. There is a divine mother who is the mother of us all and that divine mother is the Self. You are That. So happy mother’s day.
ST: Also today is Buddha’s birthday. (R: What’s that Tina?) Buddha’s birthday is today.
(R: Who’s birthday?) Buddha. (R: Buddha’s. Happy birthday Buddha.) SV: He’s getting old.
R: He’s getting old, is he? (laughs) Yes that’s nice. Mary you haven’t read the Jnani in a long time. Do you still have it? (SM: Yes.)
SH: So we’re all our own mother?
R: Of course. When someone calls you a mother you know what they’re talking about.
SH: What is even worse than that is that we’re also everybody else’s mother too.(laughs) R: Sure. Do we have any prashad? Tony isn’t here with the prashad. (laughter) We should get a hold of him. (SG: He must have a mother.) (laughs) He took the prashad to his mother.
SH: Here we are prashad-less.(laughs) That’s okay.
R: So, remember that all is well, exceedingly well, there are no mistakes, none have been made, none are being made, none will ever be made. You are in your right place going through the experiences that you’re supposed to be going through. Do not be angry at anyone. Look to yourself. Love yourself. Pray to yourself. Bow to yourself. Worship yourself. For what you call God dwells in you as you, peace.
Until we meet again have a great mommas day, enjoy yourself. Finish.
(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.