– Transcript 165
R: Greetings and Salutations. It’s good to be with you again, this beautiful sunny day. Mary’s my sun screen. She keeps the sun out of my eyes.
What would you do if you woke up in the morning and found that you have no body? There is no body there. You’ve looked under the covers. You’re looking for it but you can’t find it. And you also realize the thoughts that are thinking these things, are not you? You are somewhere as the witness to the thought that you are no body, and there’s nobody there. Yet, you feel your essence in everything, in the furniture, in the bed, in the windows, the whole universe. And when your wife or husband comes in, or children, they see you as a body. Yet you know 100% that you’re not a body. You never were a body.
There is no body. This is an awakening.
The paradox is that you are sure there is no body, yet the body appears. And when you become adjusted to yourself, you see a body which is supposed to be you, but yet it’s not there. You know there is no body, and there are no thoughts. Yet something is thinking, and something appears to be a body. This is a great paradox, what we call Maya, the grand illusion.
Right now you believe that you are a body. You are certain of this. But I can tell you truly you’re not. You never were, and you will never be. Yet you identify with what you call a body. You go through experiences in life. You’re happy, you’re sad, you cry, you laugh, you’re sick, you’re healthy, you’re poor, you’re rich, and you go through all these vicissitude’s of life, making a career out of yourself, putting yourself in various positions, sticking up for your rights, fighting for your survival, and going through all these things that do not exist.
This is the way you are now. This is the truth about you right now. You do not exist. Yet you appear to exist. You appear to have two arms, and two legs, and you move around, you do things, you feel things, you go through things. But do you? I can tell you for sure you don’t. You never have and you never will.
When you realize this about yourself, you stop being hurtable. No thing can ever hurt you again. Your feelings can never be hurt, because you have no feelings. You just exist as pure consciousness, pure awareness. Try to follow me on this. This is your true nature right now, pure awareness. Right now. There never was a body you had to deal with. Yet the impression is so strong with many of you, that not for a moment does the thought leave you, that you’re not a body. The thought is always with you that I am the body, I am the mind, I am the experiencer.All spiritual teachings end with this understanding. Even the priests, and the rabbis and the ministers, and the yogis, and the rest of these people, what they’re trying to teach and what they’re trying to tell you, is this ultimate truth, that you are not a body, but they don’t realize this themselves yet. But all spiritual teaching is for that purpose.
Just as if you’re going to become a doctor, and you go to school for the purpose of becoming a doctor. You go through the second grade, the third grade, the fourth grade, junior high school, high school, college. You’re doing all of these things to become a doctor.
You may not even know that you want to be a doctor yet, but you’re taking the prescribed courses, biology, everything that you need to take, and finally it strikes you that you want to be a doctor, and you become a doctor. So it is with all the religions and all of our spiritual practices. We say we want to become this, we want to become that. We want peace of mind. We want riches. We want all of these things. But what we really want is absolute freedom. The ultimate reality is pure awareness, absolute reality.
This is a goal that is someplace within us, and we don’t know it. We’re carrying it around. The ultimate reality is part of us already. But yet we go through all kind of practices, meditations, sadhanas, trying to awaken the kundalini, doing all kinds of Tantric exercises, learning the Kabbalah, practicing Taoism, doing all these things that are completely unnecessary and ridiculous. They’re all a waste of time, but then again they’re not a waste of time. They’re not a waste of time because if you didn’t do them, you wouldn’t be here, you wouldn’t be in a class that teaches Advaita Vedanta. You wouldn’t be seeking complete freedom. Everything you’ve done has led you to this.
Yet, it is all a bunch of nonsense. How can they both be correct? How can it be necessary and also be a bunch of nonsense? As long as you refuse to awaken, and you refuse to see yourself as no body, you’re going to go through all these rituals and all these experiences, and practice all these teachings, and memorize the bible, and the sutras, and everything else. You’re going to go through all kinds of teachings again, and again, and again, and again, perhaps for many, many lives, until you awaken to the fact that it is not the teaching that’s going to awaken me really. It is no person, place or thing that can ever awaken me, and free me from bondage to myself, from bondage to Maya, to the universe, to the world. And this is the beginning of wisdom, when you realize this.
Again, when you realize that all the teachings in the world, all the spiritual practices in the world, all the yoga practices, all the disciplines that you’ve been doing, is not going to awaken you one iota. You’ve been wasting your time. There is nothing that can awaken you. You’re waiting for me to tell you what will awaken you. There is no thing that can ever awaken you. If a thing awakened you, it would not be awakening. If you relied on something to wake you up, it would not be a real awakening. What happens is you simply begin to see. You become pure being. But nothing made it happen. Do not think that all the hard work you’ve been doing will make you awaken faster.
I’m telling you these great truths tonight for your own benefit, because most of you have been here for a long time. All of the things in this world will not awaken you.
There is nothing that can awaken you, for you rely on some thing, and all the things simply pull you deeper and deeper into Maya.
You and I know many people who have been practicing spiritual disciplines for many years. They can recite the bible backwards and frontwards. They memorize beautiful stanzas and spiritual books. They’re good debaters on points of Advaita Vedanta, or other teachings. They’ve been around the world to many teachers, to many places. They’re still the same as they always were. All they’ve done is add on to their ignorance. They keep adding, and adding, and adding all of the different teachings. They’re filling themselves up with teachings. This will never awaken you.
It’s when you dispose of the teachings, when you get rid of the teachings, when you empty yourself out totally and completely, when there’s nobody left to learn anything, that’s when you simply see yourself as no body. You look at yourself and you realize what you are. But no thing can make this happen to you.
Therefore what is the attitude to take? No attitude. What should you do? Nothing.
What should you study? What should you learn? Nothing. Where should you go? Nowhere. With whom should you associate? No one.
When you can get to this place, you are already awakened, for there was never anyone who had to be awakened, there was never anyone who had to practice spiritual teachings, there was never anyone who had a body, there was never anyone who existed. I know to some of you this sounds very strange, yet it is the truth. It is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The only way you’re ever going to learn this, is by not learning anything, by keeping silent.
Look how your mind is thinking right now. Some of you are saying to yourself, ‘That guy is crazy,’ and you’re right. Some of you are already thinking about lunch tomorrow, clothes you’re going to wear, going to work. Your mind immediately starts to think.
The lesson you have to learn is how to stop thinking. And no one can teach you this, really, because there are no teachings that can adequately stop you from thinking. You have to want it yourself.
In other words, instead of looking to me, or any other teacher, and a person who is going to give you a sacred mantra, or a person is going to tell you a certain secret so you can awaken, forget this. Look at me as a mirror for you, that’s all. See me as a mirror for yourself. When you look at me you see silence, if you’re looking in the mirror correctly.
There’s no mind, there’s no movement, there’s no body, there’s no one home. Then you see yourself, and you’re just that.
Remember, you haven’t awakened to it, for there’s no one to awaken. Always remember this. Many books, many teachings tell you, you have to awaken. Who has to awaken? There was never anyone asleep. There has to be somebody asleep who is awakening.
Yet, where you’re coming from, you believe you are asleep. You believe you need a teaching. You believe someone has to touch you, or give you a mantra, or do something to you. You always want something. You always think you have to get something from the outside. The outside is a total illusion, just as you are. Therefore the only thing you can get from the outside is total nonsense, foolishness, Maya. That’s all anybody’s going to give you. You have to listen to these words and act accordingly. Just be. Do not be this or that.
Do not think of just being. Just be.
Forget about your dreams, your goals, your ambitions, your future, your past.
These are all illusions. If you want to look to your future, or to your goals, then the ultimate goal you’re striving for is death, for that’s where everybody appears to end. This is where your goals get you. This is where your future is, in the grave. This is where everybody appears to wind up.
Therefore the wise person begins to know themselves as absolute reality before another day passes. They no longer keep thinking, “What am I going to do when I leave this meeting? I’m going to go and see a movie, I’m going to go out to dinner, I’m going to go home and watch a TV program, I’m going to go home and listen to records.” Instead the wise person thinks, “I have nowhere to go, and I have nothing to do.” Yet, you will do some things that you have to do. You will still go to a movie. You will still watch TV, perhaps, if you want to. You will eat dinner. But you will realize you’re doing nothing.
Again this is a great paradox. How can you do something, yet at the same time be doing nothing? But this is exactly what’s happening. Your body will appear to go through the motions and do all sorts of things, but you are doing nothing.
When we speak of things like this, the finite mind cannot comprehend this. The finite mind wants to fight, argue, stick up for its rights. And many people forget about this kind of a teaching, and go about their business, and they say, “Well, let whatever happens, happen.” It is only a very few people that can grasp what I’m talking about.
Everybody is ultimately going to come this way. Everybody is going to awaken one day. And yet as long as you’re engrossed in the body, the way you are, and in the world of persons, places, and things, you will appear to come back, life, after life after life after life, after life, until you come to the conclusion I’ve come to.
We’re all hell bound for heaven, so-to-speak. Everyone’s going to get to this place, whether we like it or not. You may ask, “If this is our true nature, nothing, no one, how did I get here in the first place?” and this is a good question. Who asked that question? I did.
So I’ll answer it. Nothing is happening. You never got here. There is no here to get.
It’s like hypnosis. Many of you have seen people hypnotized. And in the hypnosis they seem to be seeing certain things the hypnotist tells them, yet these things do not exist.
So it is with this world and your appearance in it. You appear to be here because you’re hypnotized. You have certain thoughts, certain feelings, certain emotions, because you’re hypnotized. You feel you want to become self-realized, liberated, because you’re hypnotized. Everything you feel, do or act, is hypnosis. You are not the one that’s acting, or doing, or being. You are beyond all this.
You are boundless space, nirvana, Sat-Chit-Ananda. You are not what you think you are. You are eternal happiness, unalloyed peace, joy. This is your real nature. You are the substratum of all existence, the underlying current, out of which all things come. Yet you are not those things that appear to be coming from you.
You can tell if you’re getting closer to this by the peace that overwhelms you, the happiness that takes you over. It is not a happiness because there’s a thing happening in your life that you favor. It is not a happiness of something you own that you didn’t own before. It is not a peace because you’re in the right environment and you feel peaceful. It is a peace and happiness that is always with you. You are that peace. You are that happiness.
It is always there. It never leaves you. As long as you believe you’re a body, it is virtually impossible to have this peace and have this happiness. You cannot, for a body is part of the world conditioning.
Therefore you have to search for peace. You have to search for happiness. You believe that if you do this, you’ll be happy. If you do this you will become peaceful. And then when you do this and you do that, the happiness and peace, how long will it last? For a short while. Things change. Environments change. Conditions change. Your family changes. Everything changes. Therefore again, it is virtually impossible to have real peace, and real happiness, as long as you believe you are a body.
Consequently, we do not go searching for peace or happiness. This is a mistake.
What we do is we become our real Self, by not trying to become our real Self. All this begins by quieting the mind, by not allowing the mind to react to conditions and situations.
I’m not only speaking of negative conditions and situations. I’m speaking of everything that arises in the mind. When you wake up in the morning and you see the beautiful trees, the sun up, the mountains, the flowers, birds, this also is a false image. It is not the truth about you. You’re not trying to exchange bad for good. For the singing bird that you listen to, will only last a fortnight. How long is a fortnight?
SH: Two weeks.
R: Two weeks. That’s enough. All the trees you see will die in the winter time, or change in the winter time. Everything you see changes. The beautiful flowers you pick for your morning breakfast table die within twenty-four hours, or less. They’re no longer beautiful flowers.
What I’m trying to show you, you cannot depend on anything in this world for your happiness or your peace. It’s a false premise. Things in this world only make you happy temporarily. When you come to the realization that you’re not the body, and sometime you will come to the realization that there is no world, there is no universe, there is no God, there is only that, which is indescribable.
You have to be very honest with yourself. Do I really want to become free? Am I really looking to awaken, be liberated? What am I doing about it? Be honest with yourself.
Listen to those kids having a birthday party, whatever they’re doing. They’re so happy. Yet at the end of the party, they have to go home. And they have to go to school tomorrow, or they have chores to do, and then they have to do things they don’t like. Soon their mind starts thinking about partying again. They make more parties and they keep this up until they grow up. It never stops. Party after party after party. They become party animals, searching for happiness, searching for peace, searching for everlasting joy, yet, they do not understand that nothing outside can give you this. Nothing.
You have to jump within yourself. You have to learn to sit in the silence, to quiet the mind and it will come by itself. You do not have to pray for it, or practice sadhanas, as I said before, do certain rituals, or read certain books. You simply have to sit, quiet the mind, by observing it, inquire, “To whom do the thoughts come?” be still, and know that I am God.
That’s all I have to say. (pause) Feel free to ask some questions.
Jorge (SR): Robert, what is love?
R: Love, happiness, peace, joy, are all your real nature. It is a feeling beyond the feeling. It is a total ineffable something that you are. It makes you know that you are one with everything. Everyone is your brother and sister. Including the flowers, the trees, the animals, the bedbugs, the cockroaches, the mountains, the sky, the sick people, the healthy people, the poor people, the rich people. When you can look at everyone with one I and not differentiate. Then you’re in love.
But when you pick out somebody special and you think that one you’re totally in love with because he or she has the right features, the right figure, the right assets that you want, this is infatuation. This only lasts for a day until you get what you want. But true love never changes. It doesn’t go away because it never came from anywhere. It’s just something that is and you are that.
Jorge (SR): Robert how can one keep in touch with you when one is faraway?
R: The Self is all pervading therefore the Self is always wherever you are. It never came from anywhere and never went anywhere. It just is. Therefore wherever you may be, if you think of the Self the Self thinks of you. For the same Self that you see sitting here is within you. It is your essence. You may be in Cambodia or Bali, India, Tibet, anywhere, how can the Self ever leave you? It is always with you for it has nowhere to go. It is pure omnipresence.
SZ: I have a question. (R: Sure.) I heard that the vasana are obstacles to God realization.
How do we create the vasana and how do we destroy the vasana? (Dogs barking loudly) (R: How do we create what?) The vasana, the vasana. (students spells the word) V A S A N A. (R: Oh vasana!) Yeah. How do we create it because I heard that the vasana are obstacles to God realization? And what should we do to destroy the vasana?
R: For whom is the vasana? Where did it come from to begin with? It never existed. See here is what you have to understand. If there was a real problem, if samsara, vasana what you’re talking about… (SZ: What is vasana?) Mental impressions, that is what you’re talking about right? Vasana, samsara and the rest of those negative things. If they really existed then we would have to figure out how to destroy them. But the reality is
they do not exist. They’re only a concept, an idea accepted by the personal I, by the little self. So do not think of destroying them for if you do you’ll have a fight on your hands.
Simply become still and realize that you have nothing to fight, nothing to fear, nothing to change. You are pure awareness. There is nothing you have to fight. Do you see what I mean? (SZ: Umm-hmm) You have nothing inside of you that is holding you back. It is all your imagination. It is all your dream. It appears to be real. It’s all Maya. It doesn’t exist.
Wake up! You are free. Do you see what I mean?
SZ: Does this mean that I have a lot of mental impressions in my mind and perhaps through my past actions and when I sit for meditation, so this mental impressions arise. And this mean that I should not go after them and if I stay everyday in no seeking then I will realize God?
Does it mean so?
R: There is no one who has to realize God. Do not think about the past. Do not believe there are past lives where you have to sit and work and pray and do spiritual sadhana. Forget about that. Be here now! This moment, in this moment, you are awake. In this moment there are no hindrances holding you back. (SZ: But I’m still in my body?) Says who? That’s a belief! This is the hypnotism I was talking about. This is the Maya. This is your illusion that you’re still in your body. If you did not believe right now that you are not in your body, you will never believe that you are not in your body. You will always appear to have a body until the day comes when you sit down and you say, “I have no body.” And it’s gone. As simple as that.
SZ: Will I need some preparation for that? (R: Who says so?) Because the mental impressions in me for a long time in the past time.
R: And again it’s your belief in mental impressions that’s keeping you back. There are no mental impressions. That is just a story. That is like when you watch a movie on the screen. And the movie ends and there is no more figures on the screen and there are no more images. Images are gone. And so it is when you sort of awaken to yourself you realize there never were mental impressions. There is no past! No past has ever existed! Forget about the past, now! Now is the appointed time! Right this second! In this second there is no past, there is no future. There is just now! And now is another name for absolute reality or nirvana. This is now!
But your mind wants to think about the past, wants to think about the future. It wants to think about sadhana, about spiritual practices. The mind is fooling you, it’s playing its tricks on you. Because you really have no mind so how can these tricks be played on you? Do not think about all this. Just let go and awaken.
SZ: Did the Buddha said that we should renounce all sins, so to say, because if you say I am now myself and pure consciousness but if I use my six sense organs then how can I stay in the self as my pure consciousness?
R: The problem is that you believe in your sense organs. You believe that you’re using your senses. What I’m saying is stop thinking all of these things. The pure teaching of Buddha was no mind, no body. No preparation, nothing. Yet he spoke differently to different people. For to have a teaching you have to have different things to say.
Therefore voluminous texts have been written about the Buddha and his teachings. But in reality his teaching was very simple. No one exists. There is no mind. There is no universe. Yet to explain this to the people he had to tell all kinds of stories and make up all kinds of things. Because the people of that time just like the people of today insist on hearing stories. They want methods to work with. They want things that they can practice and things that they can do but in truth, you are the Buddha. Right now just the way you are. You have the Buddha nature. You are that. There are no samsaras, no samskaras, nothing like that exist. You are totally free. Why not accept your freedom and be happy.
Why do you insist on thinking about all of these practices that you have to do?
The practices will never stop. They will continue and continue and continue and continue and life after life after life after life after life, they will never stop. Until you vehemently come to the conclusion that nothing exists and you are free.
See you’re thinking about this, that spoils it. Because when you start to think about it you come up with vasanas, about samskaras, about samaras and all kinds of nonsense.
Stop thinking and be free!
In other words you do not want to become a scholar in Buddhism, or a scholar in Hinduism or a scholar in Vedanta - Advaita Vedanta. You never want to be a scholar, a pundit and learn all these voluminous texts and be able to recite them and write many books. This is all a waste of time. Those are all human concepts. What you wish to do, what you really want to do is empty yourself completely totally and be free. Empty yourself of everything. Right now this second. When I speak of emptying yourself, I’m not speaking of time. I’m not speaking of little by little, day after day, I’m speaking of right now! This moment! This second become empty, become free! Be yourself! Hallelujah!
(laughter)
SZ: I think everybody here wants to be that but it’s not possible.
R: Don’t concern yourself with everybody here. You become the first one to be free, leave everybody alone. When you become free you will realize that everybody else is also free. There is no bondage. There is no enlightenment. When you realize that you are the Self you will realize that everybody is also the Self. You are the Self of all. You are not limited to your body. You are all pervading. You are the creator of the universe. (SZ: But why do I not feel that?) Because you want to dream. You want to stay hypnotized. You’re holding onto the Maya very strongly. You’re holding onto your teaching and your past and all the mind stuff that is coming out of you, you’re holding onto these things. Let go of everything and you’ll be free. Just let go. Drop it. (SZ: Everything impermanent?) Excuse me? (SZ: Should I let go of everything impermanent…) Let go of everything impermanent, everything permanent, let go of everything. Have no concept or reasoning whatsoever. Make no differentiation between impermanent and permanent. When I say let go I mean, Everything!
Everything! Hold onto nothing!
Fred (SF): I have a question. (R: Fred, where did you come from?) A few months ago a book came out that stated that Krishnamurti for many years had an active sex life and created quite a stir in certain quarters. And I don’t see why it should have but it did. And in fact when I came out to Santa Monica to see him in 1972 and somebody asked him about his sex life, and he let the fellow know in no uncertain terms that it was one of his business. (R: Umm.) So in the minds of a lot of people apparently there is a connection between celibacy and realization. And I wondered if you want to comment on that idea which seems to be prevalent in certain circles.
R: If you will spend you time disappearing you wouldn’t have time to think about sex life or no sex life. Leave those things alone. It makes no difference. Keep your mind on losing your mind. Keep your mind on reality until your mind disappears. What is the difference if you’re celibate or you’re not celibate? That is not the point at all. It’s the same like saying, “I’m eating or I’m fasting.’ (SF: Say that again please.) It’s like saying, “I’m eating or I’m fasting.’ (SF: Oh yeah. It’s not doing anything.) It doesn’t matter whatever you want to do you do. Your job is to disappear. To become invisible. Leave the body alone.
(SF: Leave the world alone.) Leave the world alone. Leave the body alone. Leave people alone. Leave Krishnamurti alone. (students laugh)
Fred (SF): You advise us when we attempt on trying to sit in the silence but when the thought appears I don’t like or seems to be serving no purpose I say, “Drop it!” And that seems to work pretty well. But it doesn’t take long for another thought to appear and I have to do it again. And I heard something interesting just the other day, Ram Dass, the American Ram Dass, when he is in this position he tells the thought, “Go back to the kitchen.” And I thought that’s kind of a key because what it means is that thought doesn’t belong in the front of the house. So I thought that was on key.
R: Well if that helps you, do it. By all means… (SF: I use the “Drop it.” For most of the time.) You can drop it in the kitchen. (students burst out laughing) Try not to make things complicated. Before you came in I was talking about, we do not have to learn any methods. Do not look for methods. Because when you look for methods you are using your mind and it ties you down deeper to the Maya. No matter what the methods are.
Just be yourself now! And yourself now is pure awareness, boundless space, absolute reality. This is you right now, there is nothing else to think about. There is nothing to get rid of. Nothing to add. Nothing to do. Live in that moment and it’s pure awareness.
Fred (SF): Thank you. (pause) There is something else I was thinking about. Not long after I got sober I was talking to a guy that had experienced a lot of DT’s. (delirium tremors) And I asked him, “Are the things that you see and feel in DT’s are they real?” And he said, “Oh yes, they’re more than real.” And I’ve always wondered if that…he said that because in that experience those things appeared or were felt without going through the filter of the conditioned mind.
R: That is a good point. When alcoholics have DT’s they see all kinds of things, elephants on the walls, all kinds of visions, hallucinations and they appear real. Very real.
(SF: Really real.) And no matter how much you tell them they’re not real they will not believe you. Such is the workings of the mind. The mind can accomplish anything do anything. This is why I keep telling you do not try to change the condition. Because it will just change to another condition. Get rid of the mind and the condition will never come back. Drop the mind, not the condition. Get right to the cause which is the mind, the ego. The I-thought. When this goes everything else will go with it. But it’s a good question because it shows you what the mind can perceive. An illusion. This is how we see the world. We see this world as being real but it’s an illusion.
Look at a beautiful sunset. We all think it’s so beautiful but it’ll be gone soon where did the beauty go? The beauty is gone with it. And then you feel sort of sad and you say, “I wish I could see that sunset all the time.” But you can’t! In the morning you watch the sunrise, same thing. It’s beautiful. You can’t wait for the sun to come up you see it over the ocean, it looks so gorgeous and when it gets to the middle of the sky, which doesn’t exist, you feel hot and bothered. And you say, “God damn sun, I wish you would go away.” So what is the truth what is going on? All the beauty, all the joy, all the things you like turn into something ugly soon. Forget about all these things. They’re coming out of you. You are the creator of all the suns, the sunsets, the moons, the planets, the universe, that all comes out of you. You are the instigator, the culprit, the boss.
You may stop playing the game anytime you wish. By pulling everything back inside of you. The whole universe pulled like a rubber band snaps back inside of you. And then you are the Self. So again do not rely on anything in this world to make you happy because everything is temporary it turns into something else. Rather turn into the truth, become the truth, reality, the absolute reality, the pure awareness.
(long silence then Robert continues)
Om shanti, shanti, shanti, peace, peace.
Remember to love yourselves, to bow to yourself, to pray to yourself, to worship yourself. For God dwells in you as you. God bless you, I love you.
We’ve got prashad. Remember the whole teaching is in the prashad. If you wish to awaken eat some prashad. And Norman brought some fruit.
SV: What does the word prashad mean Robert?
R: It means blessed food.
SV: Blessed food, thank you.
(prashad given out 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.