– Transcript 164
R: Good afternoon. I welcome you with all my heart. It is good to be with you again on this lovely Sunday afternoon in Henry’s house. You had nothing better to do, so you came here. You could have gone to see a good movie. You could have gone to play golf, but you came here. Why? What do you really want? What are you looking for?
What’s going on within you?
You have to be true to yourself. You have to be real with yourself. You have to try to understand where you’re coming from, what you really wish to achieve. Remember, if you’re looking to increase your material gain, you’re here for the wrong reason. That may happen anyway, but you’re still here for the wrong reason. If you’re looking to improve your health, you’re here for the wrong reason. That may happen anyway, that’s a matter of circumstance. But this is not the reason we come here.
There is no reason to come here. No reason whatsoever. It’s just a happening. It’s a karmic spiritual happening. Something has brought you here because there has been something within you for many, many years wanting to unfold, wanting to become free, wanting to become liberated. Yet it has absolutely nothing to do with you. It’s that mysterious power that grows apricots on the apricot tree, and grass in the meadow, grows mangoes in the mango trees, makes the sky appear to be blue, makes the sun shine just right on this earth, in order to sustain, maintain life. The power that takes care of all these things is moving you in the right direction, for you have been prepared to be moving in this direction for many, many centuries. It is no accident that you find yourself in a class like this.
The mind is a very powerful instrument. Imagine that I should say that, for in reality, there’s no mind at all. The mind does not really exist. There is no mind. Who’s mind? What mind? Yet many of you are motivated by your mind. When you have feelings, good or bad, this is the mind that feels, not you. We use the mind to achieve things in this life. The mind tells you, you want to be realized. The mind tells you you’re not realized. The mind tells you you’re a good person, you’re a bad person. The mind tells you something is wrong, something is right. All these things come from the mind. All of your actions and reactions are all mental.
Yet you still believe that if you stopped using your mind, you would be nothing.
You want to be nothing. This is your real purpose in life, to be nothing, absolutely nothing.
To be no thing. When your mind tells you you’re something, you have to watch yourself.
You have to observe your mind and see what direction it’s going, and come to the conclusion that you have no mind. There’s absolutely no mind. You have been hypnotized, you have been brainwashed somehow to accept that you have a mind. And you’ve been walking around the earth like a peacock, strutting your feathers, as if you’re something, and you can accomplish something and do something great.
You do not want to think that in a few short years you’ll be gone. What you call you will disappear completely and totally. This body will exist no more and all your work, all your struggles, all your accomplishments were in vain. I know someone is saying, “But at least I did something to try to make this world a better world in which to live.” Is this a better world in which we are living? Has anyone done anything to make this world a better world that’s happened? The world seems to be becoming progressively worse. Man’s inhumanity to man has not stopped. So what are all these do-gooders accomplishing?
Yet in another sense, they have to do good, because this is their karma. We’re not against anyone or anything. Nothing is right and nothing is wrong. No one is good and no one is bad. There is just that mysterious power working within, motivating you, leading you, directing you. But where are you going? There’s no place to go, so there is absolutely nothing to do, there’s no place to go. This does not mean that you will sit around doing nothing, accomplishing nothing. You will always do something, yet you are not the doer.
This teaching is ridiculous, isn’t it? You’re something, you’re nothing. You’re doing, you’re not doing. You’re accomplishing, there’s nothing to accomplish. This is what the world does for you. It makes you crazy, like me.
We come back again and again to this earth, until something starts to tell us, “There’s no where to go, there’s nothing to do, yet I am that.” I am that, and yet there’s nothing. I am that has no literal meaning. There’s no explanation for it. Yet you are that.
You are that which has always been, which will always be. And that cannot be explained.
Yet, as you evolve, something happens. The mind becomes less and less powerful.
You’re no longer taking orders from your mind that has brought fear to you, and disbelief, and disenchantment. This mind appears to be going away, appears to be dissolving. It never was here to begin with, so there is really nothing to dissolve. Yet something is happening to you. Do not try to analyze this. Do not try to find out what is happening to you.
Do not think whether you’re making spiritual achievement or not. The one who makes the greatest spiritual achievement, does absolutely nothing. Yet they appear to be doing something. They practice sadhana perhaps, they may pray, they may meditate, yet they’re not doing a thing, for they have discovered that they are not the doer. There is no one to do anything.
In other words, you are already God. You are already God. What you think of God as being, all pervading, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, there’s nothing for God to do. There’s nothing for God to want. There’s nothing for God to be. There is nothing for God to react to.
Therefore you can tell where you are by the way you respond to these things. If your feelings become ruffled and hurt, you’re still feeling yourself to be a human being.
This doesn’t mean you are cold and calculating. It means you have a warm heart, filled with love and compassion, filled with loving kindness. This happens by itself.
Some people still believe you’re supposed to get rid of all those feelings and feel absolutely nothing. This is true and this is not true. You get rid of all your feelings. But the feelings that have been with you since you were born, feelings from samskaras, the feeling of samsara, the feeling of yoga, karma, conceptual ideas, right and wrong, all these feelings have to go. The real you is beyond all these feelings.
Yet you may say, “Robert, isn’t compassion, love, a feeling?” I’m not speaking of human compassion and human love. I’m speaking of the compassion and love that cannot be explained. It’s ineffable. It’s beyond the senses. Only the senses explain. Only the senses have questions and answers. But if something is beyond the senses, there is no explanation. There is just being. Not becoming but being.
Yet being is also limited, to an extent. You go beyond being to that place where there are no words, that place where there is no question, there’s no answer. That place where you are that. It’s so beautiful, so grand. If only I can take you there. Yet you are there. But you refuse to acknowledge it. You wish to be involved in worldly games. You wish to be involved in gossip, anger, greed, bewilderment and occult practices. These are the things that hold you back. You have to develop a sense of trust and faith. Trust and faith in what? In the power that knows the way. The power that knows the way. It’s within you. It will guide you, it will lead you, it will take care of you. There’s nothing to worry about, nothing to concern yourself about. You have with you a joy, a compassion, a love, a peace, if you only knew existed, you would go mad, it’s so grand and beautiful. You are that. You are that.
Yesterday I was speaking of the three wisdom’s, and I apparently hit a nerve with some people, because I received six phone calls about this. So for the people who weren’t here yesterday, I’ll go over them again. It’s simply the admonishment of the Buddha, in different words.
The first wisdom is to take refuge in the Self. The second wisdom is to take refuge in the teaching. The third wisdom is to take refuge in the satsang. If only you can learn to do this, you will be halfway finished with your problems, with your spiritual quest. Taking refuge in the Self. You should do this all day long. When something goes wrong with your life, you shouldn’t think of material ways to handle it. You should be trained enough to take refuge in the Self, first. Then the Self will move you to do the right things, so that you can go forward.
Say for instance, you cut your leg, like Henry did, and have a bruise. Before you get excited and wild, and start thinking you have to go to the hospital to emergency, think about taking refuge in the Self. The Self knows the way. It knows what you should do. It will not let you sit there and bleed. It will make you think of the right thing, so that you can get rid of the problem. The Self is absolute reality, effortless pure awareness. You cannot do any better than by taking refuge in the Self. It’s the best thing you can do. You simply turn within.
And if you want to, you can speak to yourself. You can say something like this.
You can say, “Self, here I am again in trouble. I have no idea what to do next, but you are really me, even though you’re all pervading, you’re expressing as myself. You know what to do. I therefore surrender completely to you. I surrender my body, I surrender my affairs, I surrender the world. I have no need to worry or fret. You will take care of everything.”
And you let go. If you can only learn to do this first, before you take any other action, you’ll be pleasantly surprised what happens. Take refuge in the Self, not in the world, not in other people, but in the Self.
Then take refuge in the teaching. Think about the teaching. What does the teaching tell you? There is but one life. That life is God, the Self, reality, and that life is my life now. You begin to feel that you are not the doer. You begin to see yourself as a dream, your personal self, and your problems. You keep thinking of the teachings. You think of the dream you had last night, when you were being tortured, your eyeballs gauged out, your toes cut off. And you woke up, and you’re still here. Therefore what can possibly happen to you? If you were still here after you woke up from the dream, you will still be here after you wake up from this dream. And you’ll be fine and well. Very well indeed.
When you begin to think this way, wonderful things happen to you. When I say wonderful things, I do not necessarily mean things that you want to happen yourself. You should have no concepts of wonderful things. For you’re saying, “Well, wonderful things will happen. I’ll be a multimillionaire. I’ll have the happiest and healthiest body on earth.
I’ll have a lot of girl friends or boy friends. I’ll be able to do anything I want in this world.”
Those are your concepts. Those are your beliefs. I’m saying to you that the Self will take care of you in its own inimitable way. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. But you’ll be happy.
So do not outline how this is supposed to happen, simply think of the teaching.
The illusory world in which we live, everything must change. Nothing ever remains the same in this world, everything eventually changes. You ponder this. You think of this. You look at the examples I always give you. The snake in the rope, in the twilight, it looks like there’s a snake in your house. But upon investigation you find out it is only a rope. And so all the fear leaves you and you become free of this fear. So it is with this world. The world seems to show you all kinds of strange things, that’s the snake. But upon investigation you will realize there’s no snake at all. There’s a rope. So you will see there’s no world at all.
There is the Self, absolute reality.
You think about the water in the mirage, where you believe there is water in the sand, and you grab the mirage, which is the sand. There’s no water. There never was any water. You think about these things. This is how you relieve yourself of your suffering, of your problems, of your nonsense, by thinking of these things.
Now we go into taking refuge in satsang. You think of all the satsangees, all of us here together, knowing the truth, as one power, one reality, one Self, one nirvana, one void, one God. As you think of all of us together like this, a tremendous power emanates from you. You become free.
Those are the tools you can use. So I don’t want some of you calling me telling me, “Robert, what am I going to do? I’ve got this problem.” You have no problem. You have solutions. You know what to do. It’s within you. It’s without you. It’s everywhere. You are the truth, the life, and the way. You are totally free now.
It is now time to play stump the guru. So if you bring those stumps over here.
Mary why don’t you read them?
Mary (SM): You want me to read them? Alright.
(Mary reads question, Robert answers question.)
Q: I don’t get this. It says what is correct sila concerning abortion? What is correct sila concerning capital punishment? S.I.L.A. - sila, I don’t know what that means? What is correct sila concerning abortion?
R: What can I say about this? If you take your mind off the body and begin to think of the Self. Your reality what you really are then you will personally make the right decision yourself. When you say what is correct concerning abortion this has to do with the world and its manifestations. It is not right and it is not wrong. But something every woman has to think about personally when the time comes. I’m neither for or against. It’s like saying to me what is right concerning the body. What is right concerning the world.
Try to rise above that. This is some kind of manifestation happening in this world today.
We have anti-abortionists, pro-abortionists. This is part of worldly things. What is right concerning murderers? What is right concerning grass, the sky? If the whole world is a dream why do you identify with certain particulars with this world. Imagine in the dream you get an abortion. So you get an abortion. But you have another dream next week that you need an abortion and you don’t get an abortion. You have a baby instead. You see what I’m trying to say?
It’s all the same, it’s all part of the dream. It’s part of the Maya. I do not take a stand on these things, for or against. These things are part of delusion. Do not give your energy to these things. Use your energy trying to find yourself, trying to unfold, trying to discover your reality, that is where you should use your energies. And then you will know what to do personally when the time comes. (pause) What is the next question?
Q: The other one was, what is the correct sila concerning capital punishment?
R: Same story. Think of it this way. You have a dream, in the dream you have a family. Somebody rapes your daughter and kills her. And you want to see this person punished. So you catch this person and you put him in a gas chamber and you’re very happy. You’ve got your revenge. Then you wake up, it never happened it was all a dream.
You go to sleep again, this time you dream something similar. You dream you had a daughter, she got raped and killed. Only this time you feel sympathy for the killer. You feel as if you knew not what to do. His upbringing was wrong, he had troubles at home, he was left alone as a child. So you’re not for capital punishment. You have mercy. Then you wake up, again you were dreaming. So both of those incidents was a dream. In reality you have nothing to do with these things. Do not be pulled in by this. Go beyond it. Rise above it. And you will understand yourself what is happening what is going on. You will be free, next.
Q: Okay, Robert should I try to remember insight and realizations? Or should I let them go as soon as they arise?
R: Do not try to remember anything. Do not count on your memory to give you answers. The memory is part of the mind. It may appear to give you right answers and it may appear to give you wrong answers. Rather look to the Self. Surrender totally to the Self. Surrender everything, all of your opinions, all of your doubts, all of your frustrations.
And then right action will take place. Next Case.
Q: Alright. Robert can an enlightened Sage like yourself know if someone is right for awakening or if they will awaken in this life time?
R: First of all I never claimed to be an enlightened Sage. If I claimed to be an enlightened Sage then there is a doer within me who claims to be something. I have no idea what I am. When I look at you I see the Self. I see God. I see absolute reality. Just the way you appear now. Therefore there is no difference between an enlightened Sage and a person they’re all the same. They’re different to you. Because you think there is something to look for. You think there is a difference. If you would look to yourself and see who you are, then you will see everybody is an enlightened Sage. No one is exempt from this. And then again you can look in the eyes of somebody and see where they’re at, to an extent. This all goes back to the occult when you do things like that. In reality we do not wish to judge people, look at people, tell people what they are, what they’re not. It’s sort of immaterial to me, who is enlightened, who is not enlightened because those words do not exit for me. I use those words for your sake, but those words do not exist. Forget about these things look to yourself. Become free then see who cares who is an enlightened Sage. (pause) Next case.
Q: Please explain, “Taking refuge in the satsang.” Does that mean we’re supposed to cultivate friendships with your other disciples or what? What is the satsang?
R: The satsang is a group of individuals who come to a teaching of an enlightened Sage. (laughter) Contradiction isn’t it? (laughter). The whole teaching is a contradiction. So you wish to come to satsang to be around an enlightened Sage, so you do this. This is your opinion, this is what you do. When you think of your relationship to satsang it should give you a warm glow or a warm feeling that tells you to take refuge in this.
Well look at it this way, it’s better to take refuge at satsang than to take refuge at a topless bar. (students laugh) Maybe it’s not? (laughter). ( SH: I beg to differ) Whatever turns you on! (laughter) ( SH: Topless bar hands down. ) Just be happy. (SH: Robert you’re confused.
(more laughter.) You’re telling me? (laughter)
Satsang is whatever you want to make of it. But when you think of all the satsangees, it releases an energy that lifts you up and makes you feel better. So when you take refuge in the satsang, you’re taking refuge in God, in the spirit, in reality. Next case.
Q: Robert, I am fed up of inquiry… (students laugh) …satsang and everything else. Why do I need to do anything to be myself? It’s all a joke, a postponement into the future. Why can’t I wake up now. Forget purity of mind, practice and boring talk. How can I wake up NOW! (with a big now) (SH: You got some good questions tonight.)
R: I’m with you. (more laughter) Wake up! Why don’t you do it? What are you waiting for? There is nothing keeping you back. Nothing exists but the reality. And I’m not too sure of that either? (students laughing). Just wake up and forget about the whole thing. You can do it. (laughter) Next please. (SM: That’s it.) Now you have all the answers that you’ve always wanted.
SX: Can I ask one more question? (R: Sure.) Is there any useful function that the mind has? If there isn’t then why was it created?
R: Where did you get the idea it was created? (SX: Because it exists.) For whom does it exist? (SX: For most of us who perceive it.) Of course but you perceive a lie. (SX: I know, how can I get rid of it) This only means to use the mind, (what you call the mind) to destroy the mind. You use the mind to destroy the mind by inquiring, “To whom does the mind come?” As you inquire, “To whom does the mind come?” The mind becomes weaker and weaker. This is the only legitimate use of the mind. Otherwise it just doesn’t exist and brings you trouble, problems. (SX: So how does one know if one is doing right action based on what the true Self, will do, as opposed to what the mind would suggest is the Self’s will.) As long as you’re thinking about it, then the mind is being used and you have to take the action that is appropriate for you.
But if the true Self is at work you would not have a question like this. It would just become a happening all by itself. You wouldn’t have the slightest doubt. There wouldn’t be any doubt whatsoever left inside of you. There will be nothing left to ask a question like that. But as long as you asked the question then that is why you’re using the mind which doesn’t exist, to ask the question to take further action. So what I’m saying is, surrender to the Self. Let go of the mind. When the mind is totally surrendered it will take the appropriate action, yet you will realize that you are not the doer or the actor. There will be no one doing anything. Yet to all people you will appear to be doing something.
It’s like when Rama Krishna died, who was suffering? Who saw him suffering?
The people who believe in suffering, who believe in the world, who believe they are a body or a mind. And he said, “I do not suffer.” He laughed at the people, “Why do they look at me like this?” And yet the people were crying because they saw him suffering.
Who sees this? Who feels this? The ego. The mind.
So again whenever you feel that you have to do something, you’re compelled to do something and you have to think about it, it is your mind that does it. But when the day comes when you no longer have to think about anything and you have gone into the silence and you’re totally completely quiet and there is no action taking place in your head, in your mind but your body is still performing certain deeds, you will know that you’ve arrived. (pause) Anyone else want to make a comment?
SE: Which is better Perot or Brown? (students laugh)
R: That is for you to find out. Know yourself and forget about Perot or Brown.
SZ: I heard that there was a certain relationship between a certain guru and a certain disciple. If two ripe disciples go to one guru, one enlightened guru then can it be possible that one of the disciples can be attracted to this guru and the other is not and how will we know that who is our guru? Our natural guru?
R: That is a good question. As you practice sadhana, spiritual disciplines, as you go within yourself, day after day, week after week, month after month, you become sincere. You become devoted to the Self, to the power, to God within yourself. Your heart will open up and will lead you to the right guru. It will happen by itself. But, if you have to make decisions and say, “Shall I go to this guru? Shall I go to that guru? This one sounds good. I have to go see this guru because he or she sounds like a wonderful person. I’ve heard good stories about this guru.” You’re going for the wrong reason. Even though the guru maybe great. Only when you are compelled to be moved by the unmovable do you make the right decision. But when you are moved by the mind and you go to the wrong place when it appears like the right place and you stay there. You get involved with devotees, you get involved in the satsang, get involved with the seekers and yet we’re always in the right place. Wherever you are it’s the right place. There never was a time when you are not in the right place. But if you surrender yourself to yourself. If you surrender your body, your emotions, your world to your God. To the one Self which is you, then you will wind up where you’re supposed to be. And you will be with the right person.
So again if you read about a guru from a book and you have feelings to go, as long as you have the feeling to go there is something wrong right there. But if you just go without the feelings, if something takes the place of the feelings and motivates you to go then you’re going for the right reasons.
In other words if you wind up there without thinking, no planning, then you are there for the right reason. But if you have to think about it and there is doubt, it may not be for the right reason. (pause) Do we have announcements?
(audiotapes available of the satsangs for the students who are interested) R: Do we have any prashad?
Mary (SM): Yes, this is my first cake. I don’t think we’ll have enough for everyone.
(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.