– Transcript 157
R: Good afternoon this Thursday evening.
I was watching CNN news before I came. Ross Perot is running as a kind of independent president, made a statement that when he gets into the White House he will not have any homosexuals or adulterers on his team. So looks like he’s going to be a lonely guy. He’ll be all by himself. Just thought I’d pass this on to you.
People are always trying to change the world. They don’t realize the world is what it is, and nature takes care of it. We live in a world of duality, Maya. It will always be like this. Some people are dreaming about an Aquarian age. Some people are dreaming about the age of enlightenment, where everybody is at peace with one another. It will never happen. This is not the kind of world we live in. Perhaps there are planets where there is peace, but this is not one of them. Since the beginning of time, there has been man’s inhumanity to man.
Our job is to find out who we are, to awaken and become free. That’s what this is all about. Not to do things externally, but internally. Not to try to change people, places and things, but to go within the self, and realize that you are not the body. There never was a body. And if you’re not the body, you’re not the world. There is no world, as it appears. If you’re not the world, you’re not the universe. None of these things really exist in truth. They exist in Maya. But Maya does not exist itself. Therefore nothing exists, for there is no Maya. There never was and there never will be.
But you’re sitting here looking at yourself, and looking at others, and you’re asking where did everybody come from? Where did I come from? Find out where I came from. That’s a good question. Where did I come from? Find out. Check it out. When you find out where I came from, you’ll find out where everything else came from. From nowhere. For I never existed, the personal I.
I have been with many of you for a few years now. I’ve had lunch with many of you. I’ve been on personal relationship with many of you. And now the honeymoon is over. What do I mean that the honeymoon is over? You all know what a honeymoon is, I’m sure. When you look in each other’s eyes and you see God, love, joy. But then after you’re married a while, things begin to change. You get used to the other person, and the love changes to something else. You sort of begin to tolerate one another. So it is with our relationship here. The first time you met me, many of you were in awe. You looked forward to seeing me for the first time. It was quite a thrill I suppose. I don’t know why. I always told you I am nobody important. But then when we got used to each other over the years, you see me two, three, four times a week, I become just another guy to you. This is the way you should see me anyway. I’m just another being.
I remember when I was in Ramana Ashram many years ago. I was always a loner.
I never used to mix much with people. And I would watch, from the old hall, Ramana on the couch. I would be standing in a corner. Newcomers came in, they were all so full with awe, thrilled. They’d heard so much about Ramana. They would pay obeisance to him, prostrate themselves on the floor in front of him, cry. They would say something like, “You are my mother, Ramana, you are my father, you are my wife, you are my God. I will be with you forever. Six months later, a year later, I heard the same people talking to one another, gossiping, “I wonder if Ramana is really enlightened. He’s just a funny old man.”
Somebody else would say, “If he were really enlightened, he wouldn’t have rheumatism, cancer, and whatever else he had. And these people would leave, go somewhere else, looking for new gurus, new teachers. Sad.
I am speaking mostly to the seekers and to some disciples. The devotees couldn’t care less about what the Sage says or does. They are just devoted to the Sage, without any motives, without any reason. And of course those are the people who awaken, in most instances.
When you find a Sage, and I’m not speaking of my own self aggrandizement, because I couldn’t care less, as you know, where you go or what you do, but wherever you find the Sage, it is an honor for you to be there, for there is something within you that has led you to a Sage, and it is your business to serve the Sage in every way you can. This is a true Sage-disciple relationship. A devotee serves the Sage, for he realizes he’s serving himself. There is only the Self, and what you do to the Sage, you’re doing to yourself. How you treat the Sage, you’re treating yourself. There is no one but the Self. You are that.
Do you feel yourself as one? Can you feel the power, the oneness, the love, the compassion, in the Sage? You’re feeling it in yourself. There’s no difference. You are the one. That one is pure awareness, absolute reality. When you realize that you are the one, you’ll be able to see in the Sage your own reality.
And yet you have to be careful sometimes. There are so many teachers out there.
As you know by now, you are always attracted to the teacher that you need at the time. If you are fraudulent, you’ll be attracted to a fraudulent teacher. If you are full of mischief, you will be attracted to a teacher that is also full of mischief. You’re always seeing yourself, and the Sage is simply a mirror for yourself. Yet there are certain qualities you should look for. I’m speaking of the highest form of sagehood. You have to check out the Sage before you become a disciple, devotee. There are certain qualities to look for.
The first quality is, a Sage owns nothing at all. A true Sage has no possessions whatsoever. A true Sage is taken care of by his devotees, doesn’t own anything.
Another quality to look for is, the Sage does not care where he or she is. It’s all the same. A true Sage does not have to travel everywhere, trying to pick up devotees, or disciples. Couldn’t care less if anybody heard of him or her. Never looking for name or fame.
Not really interested in publishing books, putting out tapes, making him or herself well known all over the world, so people can come. A true Sage just doesn’t care about these things, because there’s no self left to care about these things. The ego has been totally transcended. There is no ego that needs to do anything. That is why people like Ramana Maharshi never left Tiruvannamalai, Arunachala. There’s nowhere to go. It’s all the same.
Another quality to look for is compassion. A true Sage has total compassion for everyone. Does not differentiate the ones that talk about him behind his back. And he has more compassion for them then for anybody else. It’s like the story of Jesus with the lost sheep. He said the sheep herder will go after the sheep that has been lost, and seek the sheep, and love the sheep, and take care of that sheep. So it is with the Sage. Those that are unkind to the Sage, the Sage has greater compassion for those people.
You see, the whole thing is different than what you think it is. We’re not here to become famous, people should know us all over the world. We’re not here to compare ourselves with anyone else, or be anyone else. We’re simply not here. When you believe you are here, then you have to do all sorts of things to exist. Not to make all kinds of waves, so people will know about you. You make videos, you make tapes, you write many books, they go all over the world. This has been going on since the beginning of time.
What has it done for us, for humanity? Absolutely nothing.
The only thing that is true is that you exist, and it’s your job to find out who exists? Who are you that exists? You’re supposed to dive deep, deep within the self and awaken yourself to this truth, that you are not the body, you are not the mind, you are not the world, you are not God, you are nothing. You are no thing. And then you are free.
But when you get mixed up with the external world, you get externally involved in all kinds of things, in places, books, meetings, then there is total confusion. This is the reason I like to act stupid, so that so many people will not come here.
Remember, I never asked to do this. It just happened. Most of my life I ran away from these things. But here we are. Everything unfolds the way it’s supposed to. Nature takes care of everything. We’re here together, so accept it. There’s nothing you can do.
Everything appears to be preordained, and you are where you are supposed to be. Why are you here? Ask yourself. What is the reason you came here tonight? What are you looking for? What do you want? I really have nothing to give you. What are you looking for? If you come here with love in your heart, period, then you’re here for the right reason.
The entire teaching, of course, is that you’re not the personal I. The personal I doesn’t even exist. Yet you feel that it exists because you feel the world, and you feel your body, and you feel others. You consequently have to do certain things to yourself so that the personal I will just transcend self, and disappear. You practice self inquiry. You practice observation, witnessing. You do all these things until the day comes when you do not have to do anything, and you awaken to freedom and happiness, which is your divine birthright, which is your real nature.It begins by loving yourself. When you love yourself, which you call the personal self, it expands and becomes the infinite, the I am. And that includes the whole universe.
You have become the whole universe. You have become everyone and everything. Your essence is in every flower, in every bird, in every raindrop, in every worm. This essence is pure awareness. Feel this essence. This is your real nature, your true Self. You are boundless space. Feel your spaciousness. Now feel yourself as the observer of all these things, the witness, the witness to your spaciousness. In other words you are beyond boundless space and you are boundless space.
Paradoxically you are both at the same time, the one who observes boundless space, effortless choice-less pure awareness, and the one who is these things. When you are able to observe yourself as such, they call you names like Jnani, Sage. They call you other names also, but we won’t go into that. It’s beautiful, when you think about these things, when you start to feel a little bit anyway that you are not limited to the body. The body is like a prison that keeps you bound in one place.
This is the reason I never have to go anywhere. People send me tickets to come to Tahiti, to come to Hawaii, to go back to India, to do this and to do that. Why? It’s all the same. Everything is happening within me. Everything is taking place within me. I am choice-less pure awareness. Not Robert, but I am. I am is choice-less pure awareness. There is nowhere to go. There’s nothing to do. There is just beingness.
I’m speaking about all of you. This is the truth about you. By hearing this truth, you become this truth. You are not your karma. You are not your samskaras. You have never reincarnated. You have no body. You have no mind. Do not think about these things.
If you think about these things, you spoil it, for you are beyond thoughts. You are the silence. Try to feel this. You are the infinite silence, where there are no words, no thoughts, no God, no universe, just perfect silence. There is nothing you have to do. There is nowhere you have to go. There is no one you have to see. You are the one.
As your thoughts stop, the so called body experience vanishes. There never was a body. There never was a birth or a death. Feel yourself birthless and deathless. You can feel this. When you begin to feel happy, when you have unalloyed happiness, total happiness and peace, you know you’re getting there. You know you have become something else, when happiness arises by itself, when there is nothing in this external world to make you happy any longer, and you have become total happiness. Then you have become.
Let go of everything else, right now. Let go of the fears, the frustrations, the searching, the dogmas, the preconceived ideas, the concepts, everything you came in here with. Drop it. Just drop it. Let go of everything, and feel your freedom.
There are no lectures, there’s no lecturer, there’s nobody listening, there’s nobody talking. Feels good, doesn’t it? You begin to spoil it as you allow thoughts to come into your mind, any thoughts. You cannot think yourself to self-realization. It’s a question of letting go, or to continue thinking about persons, places and things.
Sometimes it’s a little fearful to let go completely, for you believe if you empty completely, you don’t know what you will become, what will happen to you. Yet this is exactly what you have to do, to drop everything you have ever believed. The whole belief system, that brought you up in this world as a human being, has to be totally transmuted.
Some of you are worrying about your families, your jobs. You’re thinking if you become like this you’ll not be interested in anything, and you’ll wind up in a homeless section of the city.
All this is Maya, illusory thoughts that come to you for no reason at all, and tell you nonsense. Your body will always function. The belief that you are a body will do what it has to do. You do not have to concern yourself about anything at all in this world, or in any other world. Empty yourself out totally, right now. Drop those fears, those frustrations. Feel everything dissolving.
(end)
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.