– Transcript 161
R: Good evening. It is good to be with you again.
If you came here to hear a lecture, you came for the wrong reason. I do not lecture.
If you came here to hear a sermon, the church is down the hill. I do not sermonize. If you came here to hear a philosophical discourse, again you’re here for the wrong reason. I do not philosophize. If you came here to hear nothing, you’re here for the right reason, for there is only one nothing, and you are that. The most wonderful speeches are given in silence. Silence is eloquence. Words are just words. They fly away, they mean absolutely nothing sometimes. As we sit in the silence, that’s where the entire teaching is. Be still and know that I am God.
There was once a lady who died and wanted to get into heaven, and God wouldn’t let her in. So she nagged, and she cajoled, and she whined, and she screamed, “Let me in. I’ve been a good person.” And God said, “No, you can’t come in.” And she kept on nagging and whining, day after day, screaming at God to let her in. And God said, “No, you can’t come in.” She continued whining, telling God, “You’re just like my first husband.
He threw me out in the street also and wouldn’t let me in. What did I ever do to you? Let me in.” And God wouldn’t let her in. She continued nagging, and whining, and screaming, and hollering, until God opened the gate and said, “For God’s sake, come on in. You’re driving me crazy.” And she was admitted to heaven.
Now what is the purpose of this story? It has no purpose whatsoever. Yet I was just thinking. Some of you ask me for lunch, and then when I say I don’t have any time, you give up. If you really want me to go to lunch with you, you’ve got to whine and cry, and when I can’t take it anymore I’ll go to lunch with you.
When you are aware that you are consciousness, then you are everywhere, and you’re everything. When you realize you’re everything, you become Master of all. When you become Master of all, you can do anything you like. Now what I just said does not give you license to go do anything you like, and make a fool out of yourself or hurt other people. Remember how this goes. When you awaken to the fact that you are absolute reality, that you are pure awareness, that you are consciousness, then you become everything.
When you are aware that you are everything, you become Master of all. Then when you are Master of all, you may do anything you please.
First you have to awaken to yourself. You have to understand your true nature, your svarupa. You have to realize who you are. When you understand that you are consciousness, then you understand that you are everything, for consciousness is not limited to yourself, to your personal self. Consciousness is all pervading, omnipresence. Therefore you know you’re every thing. You are the planets. You are the trees, the leaves, the bedbugs, the cockroaches. You’re everything. The whole universe is you. When the whole universe is you, of course you are Master of all. And then you can do anything you like.
But the paradox is, when you become that state, there’s nothing you need to do.
There’s absolutely nothing you want to do, for you are all things. When you realize you’re all things, what is there to do? It is only when you are limited to your body, or when you believe you are the body itself, then you want to do things, you want to achieve things, become things. When you realize you’re consciousness, all pervading, you’re already those things. You’re everything in the universe. You are the universe. The whole universe emanates out of your Self. You then become God, and all the gods and goddesses will come to you with folded hands, for you have become that.
So remember I’m not giving you a license to do things as a human being. As a human being you have to behave yourself, be compassionate, loving, kind, helpful to others. But as consciousness you have become others. You have become the epitome of compassion, of loving kindness, of bliss. Consequently there’s nothing to do. Do you follow that train of thought? If you’re everything, what is there to do? Everything is already being done and has been done. So you keep still.
Now what is consciousness? We can say that consciousness is a power that knows itself. It is self-contained absolute reality. In other words, there is nothing but consciousness. There is not consciousness and you, or consciousness and the world. There is only consciousness. Consciousness, you may say, is the screen of reality, and all of the images, or the whole universe, are superimpositions on the screen of reality.
When you go to a movie, and you begin to watch the picture show, the screen is covered by images. You forget all about the screen. You do not think of the screen any longer. You’re looking at the images. You identify with the images. You’re enjoying the movie. The screen is far away from you. Yet if you try to grab the images, what do you grab? You grab the screen, not the images. The images never existed. You will grab the screen.
And so it is with us. We forget that we are superimpositions on the screen of life and we are really the screen, which is consciousness. We believe, through many incarnations that we are the image, we are a person, and there are others, and there are external things to contend with in this world.
But I say to you these things are false. The images are like water in the mirage, like the snake in the rope, like the sky is blue, yet there’s no sky, and there’s no blue. And when you find out that the snake was really a rope, it will never frighten you again. When you try to chase the water in the mirage, you become disappointed, you grab sand. In other words, they’re optical illusions.
This universe, my friends, is an optical illusion. It is a dream, just as when you’re dreaming. No one can ever tell you the dream is a dream, as long as you’re dreaming.
You’ll always stick up for your rights and say, “This is not a dream. Look, there are riots going on in Los Angeles. Fires are burning. People are being killed. How can you tell me this is a dream?” Yet you awaken from your dream, and the dream never existed. It came out of you, and it returned to you.
Ponder this. The dream emanated from you. It externalized itself from you. The dream was not limited at all, was it? You didn’t dream that you were just in one space?
You dreamt about the whole universe, all kinds of things taking place. You took airplane rides to Africa, you went to the Belgian Congo. You were a little boy and you grew up, or a little girl and grew up. All this is in your dream. And again you will fight for your dream.
You will stick up for your rights in the dream. You will even kill in the dream. Yet when you awaken, the dream is gone. The dream never existed.
I can assure you my friends that there will be a day in your life, when you awaken to the truth, when you awaken from this dream. I know some of you believe this is not a dream, this is real. And no matter what I say to you, you will believe this is real, because you keep reacting to life and its vicissitudes. You become happy, you become sad, you become indifferent, depending on what’s going on in your external world. And when you have serious problems, I try to speak to you and explain to you this is a dream, do not react to it, you become angry with me. You tell me, “I’m going through this problem Robert, you’re not. I’m feeling this.” So I have a great compassion for you, great love, and I abide with you until you sort of get over it. Yet it’s just like a dream.
Imagine the same thing happening in a dream. A loved one is dying, you’re dreaming about this, and I come over to you and I say, “This is not true. This is an appearance. Do not judge by the appearance.” But you cry and you say, “This is my grandfather. I love him very much, and now he’s dying.” And I try to explain to you that everybody is born to die. Sooner or later we must all sort of die, so-to-speak. Yet no matter what I say does not change your feelings. And then again, you awaken. You awaken from the dream and you look. It’s all gone. It never really existed.
This world in which we live is the same thing. There’s absolutely no difference.
You are living the mortal dream. Consequently great Sages have told us we have to identify with consciousness, with the absolute reality, not with what’s going on. The only freedom we’ve got is not to react to anything, but to turn within and know the truth.
Again what is consciousness? Consciousness, we can say, is the substratum of all existence. On the scale of evolution, you take an object, and you dissolve it into the most minutest particles. You will get molecules. This is true of any object on this earth, whether it’s a human being, a chair, a tree, a cat, everything will return to molecules. You dissolve the molecules and you’ll get atoms. When I speak of atoms you can’t imagine how small they are. Seven million atoms can fit on one pinhead. It’s incredible when you think of atoms. We know they exist because we can look at them through an electronic microscope.
Now you dissolve the atoms. You get subatomic particles, which are even smaller than atoms. And we cannot even discuss these things, or talk about these things, because they’re just amazing. The whole universe is made up of these things. You go further, you dissolve the subatomic particles, and you get energy waves. Scientists tell us the whole universe is composed merely of energy waves. We can’t see them, yet great Sages in meditation have gone to that stage.
Now here is the important part. You dissolve the energy waves and you get nothing, the void that Buddhism talks about. No-mind, nirvikalpa samadhi, it’s the same as the void. We go beyond the void, and we have consciousness.
So you see where consciousness is on the scale of evolution? Consciousness is the substratum of everything, of all existence. And your true nature is consciousness. This is what you really are. But you see what you have to do to get there? You have to go beyond these levels. You have to become a molecule, an atom, a subatom, an energy wave, and then you return to your real Self, absolute reality, pure consciousness, the screen of life.
Now why would you want to do this? Why would you not say, “Leave me alone.
Let me have a drink. Who wants to go back to atoms, and subatoms and become consciousness?” Well this is why the highest spiritual teaching is not for everyone. Most people are satisfied with life the way it is. But they’re going to die. They’re going to go through experiences. As long as you live in this world, or any other world, you go through the laws of cause and effect, which is like a pendulum. It swings to one side, which means things are looking up for you, you’re doing well, everything is great, in the physical world.
Then the pendulum swings the other way and things begin to reverse themselves, your world starts falling apart, you may get sick, develop cancer, AIDS, you may lose everything on the stock market, your family can be wiped out in an accident, you can become crippled, and if you have nothing to hold onto, what do you do? You curse life.
You become suicidal. Then the pendulum swings to the right again, and things get better and better. You become like a yo-yo. You go up and down, up and down, up and down.
This is the way of the world. This is the way of the universe.
We live in a world of duality. Therefore this is the reason to become free. For if you go through life the way you are now, and you have not worked on yourself in order to transcend good and bad, up and down, right and wrong, forward and backward, you keep appearing again, and again, and again on these various planets throughout the universe, taking on various bodies, and going through various experiences. It never ends. You may leave your body tomorrow and come back when the planet is again in the dark ages, and they’re having another Spanish Inquisition. And you become a prisoner and you’re tortured. Your fingers are cut off one by one. You are reduced to nothing. Then you come back again in another life, you become the Vice-president of the United States. You become Dan Quayle. This is the way of the world. This is life. It will never change.
Many people have good intentions. They want to make this a better world in which to live. By a better world they mean they want to make the world go their way, what they think is better, what they think is right. All of these things show you that you are identified with images. Think of the energy you put into this world, your projects that
you do, the work you’re involved in, the things that you believe in, the energy that you expend, all the clubs you belong to, the societies you belong to. These are the things that pull you back to the earth, and pull you back into bodies, one after the other.
The only way you can become totally free is when you surrender yourself totally, when you give yourself up completely, when you begin to leave the world alone totally and completely, when you stop reacting to person, place, or thing, and you start working on yourself. You begin to do some sort of sadhana, spiritual practice. You become very interested in spirituality. You’re not doing it for any reason. You’re doing it because you feel that you want to do it.
You may begin by practicing Hatha Yoga, learning all sorts of postures, asanas.
Then perhaps after a few years you become tired of bending yourself into a pretzel, and you begin the practice of Raja Yoga, mind control, Ashtanga yoga, the eightfold path, pranayama, breathing exercises. Makes no difference what religion you are, you start to search for the mysticism in your religion. If you’re a Jew you start to read the Kabbalah. If you’re a Christian you start to read Christian mysticism. If you’re Islamic you start to read the Sufi material. It all leads to the same goal.
If you’re intense, sincere, you will reach a point, no matter what religion you’re in, where you ask yourself, “Who is the one who’s been going through all this?” You finally get to the place where you can practice self-inquiry. “Who is the one who has been doing all these things?” You start to introspect yourself. You start to think, “All of these years I have been practicing all these different methods. But who’s been practicing? Who’s been doing all this?” And one day, something tells you, “I have, I have been practicing. I have been doing all these things.” Something tells you to go searching for this I. What is this elusive I, that has been practicing all these things, all these years, trying to perfect my body, myself, my personal self? And you start to be quiet.
You begin to enjoy the silence. You begin to sit for long periods in the quietness, and you search for the I, by inquiring “To whom does this I come? Where did this I come from? Who am I? What is the truth about myself?” You begin to realize, as long as you’re involved in doing things, then you are the doer. But if the I is removed, everything will be done by itself. You begin to understand this, and you follow the I to its source, which is the spiritual heart, which is consciousness.
Now do you see what I mean when I’ve told you all these times, you follow the I to the heart? As you follow the I to the heart, you’re going through the molecules, and the atoms, and the subatomic particles, going deeper, and deeper, going back, back to your source, back, back to the source, to the energy waves, to the void, and finally your entire body is totally dissolved and consciousness stands alone.
When I say consciousness stands alone, I do not mean that consciousness is something else from yourself. You have not died. You are just the way you were always. You’re the same person, except something wonderful has happened to you. You realize with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your being, that you never were the body or the mind. You were never an ego. You have always been consciousness. You are filled with bliss. You now understand what the word Sat-Chit-Ananda means, I am that I am, ultimate oneness, absolute reality, nirvana, they’re all synonymous with consciousness. You have overcome.
You are free. Nothing in this world will ever disturb you again. You laugh at death, for you realize that you were never born, you have never prevailed as a body, and you will not disintegrate, or die. You’re always the same, pure consciousness. It makes no difference whether you possess a body or you have no body. It’s all the same to you. Others may look at you and they see your old self. Your family, your friends, see you, as they did before, but you are not what you were before. You are total happiness. You are the universe. You understand that all of this is the Self, and I am that.
Let us now practice self inquiry. For when we are in a group like this there is much power here, shakti. You may close your eyes to remove obstructions. You may begin by observing your breath, your respiration. As you observe your respiration you become calmer, relaxed and peaceful. Nothing is bothering you or disturbing you. As the thoughts come into your mind you inquire to yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come? The thoughts come to me. I think of these thoughts. What is the source of the I?” or “Who am I?” or “What am I?” And you keep still, you never answer.
As you keep still thoughts come to you again. It makes no difference what kind of thoughts they are. Whether happy thoughts, powerful thoughts, sad thoughts, negative thoughts, thoughts are thoughts they’re all the same.
Again you inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come? They come to me. I think these thoughts. I-I-I. What is the source of this I? I’m beginning to realize and understand that all my thoughts, all my feelings, all my emotions, are because I believe that I’m a personal I. They’re all attached to this I. Therefore if the I disappears and returns to the heart center, to consciousness there will be no I-thought, there will be only consciousness. So I must go backwards, backwards, backwards by following the I and the thoughts.” And the way you do this is by inquiring, “To whom does the I come? What is its source?” And keep still. Remain in the silence.
Thoughts may come to you again. Thoughts such as I’m missing my favorite TV
program, I’m hungry I want to eat dinner, I’ve got to get dressed for work, all kinds of thoughts may come to you. You repeat the same procedure. “To whom do these thoughts come? Where do these thoughts come from? I am not asking to think of these thoughts.
There is nothing in me that wants to think of these thoughts yet they keep coming where do they come from? They come from the I-thought. The personal I. Then who am I? Who is this I?” Feel it returning. Feel it going back, back, back toward the molecular stage, back toward the atomic stage, back toward the subatomic stage, back toward the energy wave stage, back into the void, into nothingness. I am, pure awareness, absolute reality, nirvana, Sat-Chit-Ananda.
(long silence)
Om shanti, shanti, shanti, peace.
Feel free to ask questions.
ST: Robert would you say something about psychotherapy and the need for that?
R: Psychotherapy is on a mental level. And as long as you think you are a human being you need psychotherapy. As long as you believe you’re an individual, a person, this shows that you’re crazy. So you’re into psychotherapists.
Actually as long as you’re living in this world you have to straighten yourself out I guess. So you look for psychotherapists, psychologists. It’s all very well, very good in this world. But it depends where you’re coming from of course. It’s a good modality for problems if you believe you’re that kind of a person who has problems. It all depends where you are coming from.
The best psychotherapy in this world is self inquiry. For it causes you to go deep within yourself beyond the problems. As you go through all the different molecular stages, atomic stages, you transcend all the problems. Everything is transmuted. You become totally free. That’s all I have to say about psychotherapy.
Glen (SG): Robert you mentioned nirvikalpa samadhi? (R: Umm.) That refers to a conditional state, does it not? (R: Yes.) How does that correlate to the void that you spoke about? (R: When you…) That is a conditional state and the void and then beyond that state there is consciousness?
R: Umm. When you sit in meditation for many many years, you bypass the world, the universe and you come into yourself which is nirvikalpa samadhi, you become identified with that which is beyond creativity, which is beyond the world, which is beyond the universe. The only thing is, is when you come out of it you are again identifying with the world and the universe. It’s not a permanent state. But it gives you an inkling, it gives you a feeling of what reality really is. But as you go deeper into nirvikalpa samadhi as you practice self inquiry, as you realize your pure awareness you become the Self. Twenty-four hours a day you are the Self. Which is sahaja samadhi, nirvikalpa samadhi is only part time. (laughter) A part time job. You go very deep in nirvikalpa samadhi. Deep within yourself. Very deep. But you only stay there for a while and when you come out you’re still involved in the world. Therefore you’re still conditioned to an extent. There is still conditioning left in nirvikalpa samadhi.
Most Yogi’s believe nirvikalpa samadhi is the ultimate stage, you can’t go any further. If that was the ultimate stage they wouldn’t come out of it. They would be in it twenty-four hours a day. But they are coming back out of it and becoming normal so-to-speak. It shows you it was not the ultimate stage. Because the ultimate stage is just consciousness there’s nothing else. And once you touch consciousness you are consciousness.
Your ego disappears, your mind disappears, your thoughts disappear, you disappear, you become pure awareness. So nirvikalpa samadhi is still a conditioned state.
SX: Robert can someone attain liberation by simply being aware? (R: By simply being aware?) I mean like right now there is consciousness awareness. Maybe it’s just the ego who feels this awareness.R: Of course. You can become that right now if you can wake up! I tell you this so often, wake up and be free! You can awaken any time. Why not do it? Stop playing games and wake up. Be your Self. (SX: Is this pure awareness that one feels, is this just another manifestation of the mind and body or is this…) When you experience pure awareness you have transcended the mind and body. As long as there is a mind and body you can’t feel pure awareness. (SX: But we all can feel this awareness, consciousness…) Your true nature is awareness, you are that. This is your true nature. And you do get a glimpse of it sometimes. (SX: Or should one say, “Who is aware or…?”) You should always inquire, “To whom do these feelings come?” As long as you have a feeling, inquire, “To whom does it come?” When you have arrived there is no longer any feelings and there is no one to ask the question. As long as you can still ask the question, you’ve not experienced the ultimate reality. For when you have experienced the ultimate reality who is left to ask the question?
SX: But a lot of times when inquiring there seems to be…the mind will always be like answering like this, “This is mind and body,” or “this is the ego.” And you know what I’m saying?
Does one then just question, “Who is aware of the mind? Who is aware of the ego?”
R: You question, “To whom do these things come? Who feels this? I do. Who am I?
What is the source of the I?” Everything that comes into your mind, everything, you question it. Makes no difference what it is. When you reach the state there will be no mind no questioner. They will both be gone. But as long as you feel that there is something there you’ve got to question it. “Where did it come from? To whom did it come?” (SX: Even if it’s just awareness?) Yes.
SP: How do you reach that stage, no mind, no body?
R: You reach that stage by following the I-thought into the heart center which is consciousness. When the I-thought disappears you return to your original state which is consciousness. No mind, no body.
SX: So is it possible that you can enjoy the state of nirvikalpa samadhi while remaining in sahaja samadhi?
R: No. Nirvikalpa samadhi is a different state than sahaja samadhi. Nirvikalpa samadhi is just temporary. You enjoy it while you’re there and then you come out of it.
When you are in sahaja samadhi, you are in that forever. There is nothing to come out of.
You have become something completely different than what you are now.
SI: Robert? (R: Umm.) You talked about these gazes or stages that people go through along the path before inquiry really can begin. And I’m wondering if you’re suggesting that there is something that occurs like a preparation or base that forms so that then inquiry is comprehensible.
R: It depends on the seeker. People are very different. To some people it happens immediately, they can awaken totally and completely without practicing any sadhana of any kind. Others have to practice sadhana very intently. But when you achieve, you have always practiced this perhaps in a previous life. In a previous existence you might have practiced. Therefore you awaken in this life very easily. While others have to work harder and harder. But all the sadhanas that you do, the practice that you do, the spiritual disciplines that you do can never go in vain or be lost. You carry this with you wherever you go. In a new life perhaps, but you always have this practice that you’ve been doing. And then you’ll be born into a family that’s advanced spiritually where you can continue the practice easily.
So when you hear about people who’ve achieved realization by doing absolutely nothing and then there are people who have worked hard and hard and hard and never seem to get anywhere, it is because the person who has achieved it right now, immediately, has practiced in previous lifetimes. And they are ready to awaken in this life. While the person who is practicing in this life very intently is chalking up good karma for himself or herself. And they will achieve in great states of consciousness which they will experience some time or another. So everyone who becomes realized deserves it. They’ve earned it.
Fred (SF): I have a question. (R: Sure Fred.) Is it not true that in reality with a capital R, there is nothing apart from me? (R: The what?) Sir? (R: What did you say?) I said in reality with a capital R there is nothing apart from me? (R: Nothing apart from you?) There is nothing apart from the real me? The real nature being pure awareness.
R: Reality is pure awareness. Reality is your real Self that is what you really are.
You’re not me, you’re the real Self, you are pure awareness. This is your real nature. This is what you are. This is what you’ve always been. This is what you’ll always be. No matter what you think, no matter what you do, no matter what you practice. You are pure awareness, you are absolute reality. You are not a me. You are an I am!
Fred (SF): Reminded me of what Mr Osborne the editor of the “Mountain Path” said, “It’s not a question, is there a God apart from you. It’s a question of is there a you apart from God?” Of course these are all words.
R: If you like to say that you can say that. (SF: Sir?) If you enjoy saying that, say that. (SF: I’m sorry you said that, once is enough.) (subtle laughter) R: Mary would you like to read the Jnani? (SM: Yes Robert.) (Mary reads the Confessions of a Jnani)
R: Thank you Mary. Do we have any announcements?
Mary (SM): Yes I have some transcripts to give out if I may? We have another new transcript called Consciousness is Silence, it’s number 69. I would like to have 5 people make some copies.
R: Tony did you want to say something?
ST: Robert asked me to make available this fifty verses of guru devotion. This is a very famous Buddhist text on this subject and Robert said it would give you a good laugh. (laughter) It is a good one, a very profound text and they’re here on the table.
R: We have prashad.
(The giving out of prashad as 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.