– Transcript 167
R: Good evening. I welcome you with all my heart. It’s good to be with you once again. I love every one of you. All is well. Everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes. Everything is in its right place.
There are certain principles we should always remember, if we wish to be happy all the time. The first one is, the highest teaching in the world is silence, to be still. There is no higher teaching than this. Silence is Brahman. Silence is grace. Silence is absolute reality. I’m speaking of real silence, not just keeping quiet for a while. Real silence is when you go deep within and you become totally oblivious to your surroundings.
There is no disturbance, even though things may still be going on all around you.
The telephone may ring, people may knock on your door, the dog may bark, yet if you go deep within, you’ll be silent.
True silence has absolutely nothing to do with the world. True silence is omnipresence, is all pervading. Your real nature is silence. Always remember, it is different than just keeping still. Anyone can keep still for a while, maybe a couple of seconds, before the mind starts attacking you. But true silence is when you go deeper, where you forget about your body, you forget about your affairs, your mind, your world, and you enter that atmosphere where there is bliss-consciousness.
True silence is the nature of creation. The planets turn on their axis, the galaxies spin through space, they hurl through space, galaxies, billions of galaxies. Everything is in a state of flux. Everything moves. Yet, it’s all very silent. You do not hear a thing. If you get up at four o’clock in the morning and go outside and look, what do you hear? You hear silence, deep silence, total silence, beautiful silence.
It is not hard to get into that type of silence. You simply begin to sit still and become oblivious to everything. It will happen by itself. You will go deeper, and deeper, and deeper, and deeper, until you’re no longer aware of your body or your surroundings. The true silence can be kept up at all times. You do not have to sit to go into the silence any more. In the beginning stages you do, for you’re learning how to keep silent. But as time goes by, you can be shopping in the market place, you can be working in the factory, you can be washing dishes, you can be doing all kinds of things, and you will be in the silence.
The silence is another way of saying to keep your mind stayed on God all the time. God is the silence and you are that. Feel the silence right now. You can feel it. It’s a thing of beauty. You know when you’re getting into the true silence, you begin to become happier, and happier and happier for no reason. It makes no difference what’s going on in the world. The world is in one place and you’re in another place. In the deep silence you are identifying with the substratum of creation. Always remember to go into the silence. A Sage is always in the silence. A Sage may be talking, listening, partaking of activities, but to the Sage there’s only silence.
The second principle you should always be thinking about is when you feel feelings such as, “I wonder if I should leave my family and go to India to search for a guru. I wonder if I should give up my job and go to a monastery. I wonder if I should become a Buddhist monk or a nun, and give up the world.” When you think about your anger, your frustrations, pain, lack, limitations, sickness, when these things seem to be falling down on you, grabbing hold of you, this is what you should realize. If these things were external to you, then you’d have a hard job getting rid of them. You’d have to get an Uzi submachine gun, a tank, all kinds of weapons, to get rid of these things that are external to you, to go to a monastery, become a nun, feelings of impoverishment, feelings of lack, limitation. If these things were external to you, you’d have a hard job getting rid of them. Then you’d have a battle on your hands. But these things are you. You are giving birth to these things.
These things are your thoughts. They’re not external to you. Just like a dream. A dream may appear to be external to you, but upon awakening it all took place within your mind, no matter what you dreamt.
What I’m trying to say, is, there is nothing in this universe that is external to you.
You are the universe, and everything in it. For instance, if you try to move to a cave where you think you’ll find more peace, you have to take yourself with you, and if you are not at peace before, nothing will change, new conditions, same feelings, same thoughts. You are the universe. You are everything. Think of this. There’s no world apart from you. There’s no condition apart from you. Why worry? Why be fearful? Why believe something is wrong somewhere? You are giving birth to all these thoughts. You yourself are doing this.
You have to think of these things.
Consider the dream world again. When thoughts of depression or insecurity strike you, or you want to move away from LA because of earthquakes, the earthquake is within you. Depression, the anxieties are within you. There’s no cause for these things. There’s nothing in this world that can cause you any problem. It is your acceptance of these things. It is your belief that something outside of you is hurting you.
Therefore you must turn within, and you inquire, “Who am I? Who am I? To whom do these things come? Who’s experiencing this pain and suffering, the fears?” And you say, “I am. Who am I? Where did this I come from? Who gave birth to it? What’s the source?”
As you inquire this way, the I will finally dissolve and disappear, and the reality of your being will come forth. The truth about you will be revealed. But if you accept these conditions, the wanting to go on a vacation, to a monastery, the wanting to leave Los Angeles because of earthquakes, the desires, the passions, the lust, all these things are part of you. They’re part of the ego, the mind.
You begin to see yourself as omnipresence. Everything is taking place within you.
I keep reiterating, because I want to make sure that you get this. There is nothing outside of this universe or this world that is not you.
After all, what happens to the universe when you go to sleep? When you are in deep sleep there’s no universe, there’s no world, there’s no body, there’s no mind, there’s nothing. It is only when you awaken that the world begins for you. Therefore inquire who you are. “Am I this pain? Am I this desire? Am I the person who’s going through this experience? If I’m not, who is?” Always inquire within yourself. Inquire, inquire, inquire.
Something will happen. As you continue to inquire, something will give. You’ll become happier and happier. You will become your Self.
The third principle you should remember always, is everything is right, just the way it is. Everything is right, just the way it is. Now what do I mean by that?
This second in which you now live is right, just the way it is. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this second. This second is perfection, pure awareness, ultimate reality. But we do not live in the second. We live in the past or in the future. This is why the problems arise. But in this very moment, this very second, all is well, extremely well. You may be going through the most dastardly experiences in life, yet your mind dwells on these things, they get worse. But if you draw in your mind to the moment, to the second, everything will stop, and you’ll be in perfect peace.
Learn to live in the now. There really is no past and there’s no future. There’s only this moment, and in this moment all is well. I know it appears sort of rough to some of you. You’re thinking of what you have to do next week. You have to pay your bills, you have to go to the doctor, you have to get married, you have to get divorced. Your needs, your wants, your passions, all these things go through your mind all the time. But if you would only learn to live in the now, in the moment, nothing is ever happening in the moment. The moment is eternal peace, eternal love, joy, happiness. Feel this. Feel the moment I’m referring to. How beautiful.
When your mind begins to wander, creation begins for you. You lose the moment, and the world begins for you. According to your karma, your consciousness, your samskaras, you start creating this world, as soon as you begin to think. Thoughts are not your friend. They do not really belong to you. Do you feel the perfect silence?
As you breathe and you inhale, feel as if you’re sucking in the whole world, the whole universe, and as you exhale, you’re letting it out again. This exercise makes you feel that the whole universe comes from you, goes out and comes back. Like when you’re sleeping. In deep sleep the universe is not here, the world is not here, your body is not here. As you awaken, everything is here. Do this with your breathing. You inhale, there’s absolutely nothing. The universe has gone back into yourself. You exhale, and the universe is out there again, external to you. There is only the one Self, and you are that. You have no body. You have no mind. You are like boundless space.The old you is beginning to disappear. The old you is thousands of words, millions of thoughts, reacting to everything that comes along. This you no longer exists. You are fresh and new. There is no longer any karma that can hurt you or do anything to you, no longer any samskaras that you have to experience. You have already crossed the ocean of samsara, and you are already the Bodhisattva. There’s nothing you have to earn. There’s nothing you have to pray for. There’s no one you have to see. There’s absolutely nothing you have to do. You are already free.
You are beyond freedom, beyond liberation, beyond delusion, beyond ignorance.
You are neither wisdom nor ignorance. There are no words for you whatsoever. There’s no description of what you are. There’s no one to say.
You are that pure awareness that has always been and will always be. There is absolutely nothing you have to do to earn it, for you are awake from the dream.
Feel this freedom you’ve never felt before. Feel the joy, the happiness, the love that you have become. Feel the reality.
(silence)
Om shanti, shanti, shanti, peace.
Feel free to ask questions.
Fred (SF): I have a question. The world comes to an end when I go to sleep. And it comes in again when I wake up. But there seems to be something in relativity that remains in deep sleep otherwise I might go to sleep as Fred Burnel and wake up as somebody else, can you comment on that?
R: Yes, when you got to sleep as Fred Burnel why would you wake up as somebody else? You will wake up as Fred Burnel because that is the same Fred Burnel that went to sleep. (SF: The rest of the world vanishes in deep sleep, but I don’t vanish?) As far as you’re concerned there is no you, there is no world, there is nothing. But when you wake up again you’re Fred Burnel. Because you woke up the same person that went to sleep. If you woke up enlightened you wouldn’t be Fred Burnel. But because you wake up, you wake up as Fred Burnel.
When you awaken from this mortal dream called the world you will not be Fred Burnel any longer. But when you awaken from the dream, you awaken as the same person that went to sleep. There is nobody else that went to sleep but you. And because you woke up in the same consciousness you’re still Fred Burnel. See what I mean? (SF: Not exactly.) You went to sleep as Fred Burnel. The only change that was made was during deep sleep, you have no idea who… (SF: Everything just disappears except the person…) During deep sleep you have no idea who you are or what you are. There is no world, there is nothing.
But if you wake up again you will wake up as Fred Burnel. Because that is the person who is dreaming, that is the person who is sleeping and you have that type of consciousness, a mortal consciousness. So you awaken at the same place that you went to sleep. (SF: It’s not clear again, but…) Why should you awaken as someone else?
Fred (SF): Because if the world comes to an end and I’m part of the world. When I fall asleep the world comes to end… (R: Yes.) …including me.
R: Yes, but when you awaken again the same way that you went to sleep, why do you awaken again? Why do you wake up again? (SF: It’s not clear in my mind.) If you didn’t wake up you wouldn’t be Fred Burnel but because you wake up you’re still Fred.
Fred (SF): I’ll have to wait on that one, thank you. (pause) Another thing, a week or two ago you mentioned pranayama as one method a person can use to help still the mind. Could you give us a simple safe method that might appeal to some of us as a means of trying to still the mind?
R: This is what we talk about all of the time. You can use the “I am” meditation.
When you inhale you say, “I,” when you exhale you say, “am.” You may do that or you may inhale the universe and exhale the universe. (SF: Not that one, they were talking about breathing in one nostril and breathing out.) Well those things are not too necessary. Those things are part of the mind. (SF: I just thought of this anyway.) And you go beyond the nostril breathing. Beyond the pranayama you were just talking about, you go to “I am.” It’s a very high state of meditation. If you have to meditate use the I-am method. Inhale say, “I,” exhale say, “am.” Or practice the existence…dissolving of the universe as we did before. Inhale the universe and exhale the universe. This makes you feel that you are in control, that you’re in charge. You are the universe. (SF: Thank you.)
SK: Robert for someone who has awakened they seem to have, when they got to sleep, when they wake up they’re a different consciousness but there is still a remnant of the old self there? Is it the ego, or there is no…?
R: What are you referring to, the Sage? (SK: Yeah.) A Sage does not sleep like an ordinary person does. A Sage is aware of himself or herself during sleep, during dream and during wake. There is the one Self that is dreaming. The one Self that is in deep sleep and the one Self that wakes up. And the Sage is the witness to all three states. Even when the Sage is sleeping he’s awake. Even when he is in deep sleep he is awake. Even when he is dreaming he is awake. And even when he’s in this world he’s awake. The witness to this world.
SK: Well in connection with that I have something else to ask you. Would you say that you have…or someone like you, a Sage has as many preferences or dislikes than an ordinary person? (R: No.) Because all of the teachers that I’ve been around and I assume yourself included, they prefer to be away from a lot of problems, hustle and bustle, a lot of noise that a lot of ordinary people have to go through. So in that sense they would probably be more bothered by a stressful life than other people. Maybe they would be in a position where they wouldn’t have to deal with those things but would you be in as much trouble with that sort of thing as any of us?
R: As I mentioned before, there is an appearance of going through certain things that a Sage does. But a Sage doesn’t go through anything, a Sage does nothing. A Sage has no body, there is no world, there is no thing. There is nothing going on. Therefore the Sage is only alive because you see him that way. But the Sage himself knows he is not the body, he is not the world, he is not the universe, he is not the experiences. A Sage is always at peace, whether in the market place or in a cave or anywhere else. It is the ajnani or ignorant that sees a Sage going through certain things. The Sage himself is free of everything.
There are no experiences left in the Sage. There is emptiness.
SD: It seems that the description of the Jnani that you sometimes have Mary read goes into that completely. (R: Umm.)
SK: Robert I’d just like to expand on what you just said. It’s like one not having any interpretation or perception of what seems to be going on. There is no personal attitude or…
R: There is no personal I left. (SK: …acceptance or a denial or there is no more interpretation to…) Because there is no mind to interpret. The mind that has interpreted has been totally annihilated. The ego does not exist. So there is no faculty to really interpret anything. Except what the Sage does momentarily, from moment to moment. Besides that there is nothing else.
SP: Living without reflection seems to be a process.
R: Living without reflection? Are you speaking of yourself? (SP: When you are living without thinking…unclear…it feels like a process.) Is that the experience you’re having? (SP: On occasions.) That’s good. (SP: As you say, mind is …unclear…) Yes. (SP: Mind is quiet when truth…) In reality there is really no mind. Again we should never really think that the mind is a real entity and has to be destroyed. Those are just words. In reality no mind ever existed. This is why this teaching is a contradiction sometimes. We talk about destroying the mind but there is no mind to destroy.
SK: What about the truth so-called? (R: The truth?) Well, I mean what he said that in silence you could see a truth.
R: In the silence the truth will present itself. (SK: Silence is the truth.) Right, if you can really get into the silence that is all you have to do. (SK: Yeah, I mean but who is there to interpret anything or create anything if there is nothing happening?) Of course, that’s right.
SP: I can only speak from where I-am as far as getting into an intellectual discussion which is not the truth.
R: Umm, true, the best bet is to keep silent. You can’t go wrong if you do that. You can’t make a fool out of yourself. (SP: That’s why I said the you’re ahead of ??? there really is no mind.) There is also nobody trying to get rid of the mind. It’s all a game, an illusory game.
We get involved in trying to get rid of the mind, get rid of the body. Get rid of the things that never existed to begin with. ( SP: If I’m trying to get rid of something I’m not living in the now.) Exactly (SP: It’s much more fun being now, to live now.) Of course.
SZ: (question unclear then student repeats for Robert)
R: I didn’t quite understand what you said. Do you want to repeat that again?) (SZ: Should I repeat the question again?) Yeah. (SZ: In our lives there are many things arising.) Yes. (SZ: The things of the body or the things of the mind. Or things of the world. And it gives us this tendency to follow such things because these things are impermanent.) Yes. (SZ: And our Self is permanent. And if we give up the permanent things we can abide in our unborn Self.) Yes. (SZ: And therefore I think if something arises through the operation of our senses or of our mind then we
should abandon the seeking of these things. But in our daily lives we have to use our senses. Then how should we…) (R: function.) (SZ: Yes, how should we not fit in this thing and give up our senses.)
R: What happens is this. As you keep giving up all the reactions to life. As you begin to surrender everything to the one Self. The one Self which is the absolute reality, the pure awareness takes over. And will do whatever you have to do, even better than you can do it yourself. This power that knows the way will take you over completely. And it will speak for you. Do everything for you that you have to do and yet you will feel that you are not the doer. Yet everything will be done perfectly.
Many people are afraid to give up their senses. For they believe that they will turn into a vegetable. But this is not true. You will always function. You will always do what you came to this earth to do. And you will even do it better than you ever can imagine. So do not concern yourself about these things. Simply go within, surrender everything to the Self. Give up everything.
SZ: But in our daily lives we have to also sometimes pay attention to many things. Life requires us to solve many practical problems.
R: Yes of course. But as I said the Self will take over and do all these practical things for you without you believing that you’re the doer. Everything will be done. You will see. (SZ: We have to pay attention to many things therefore we cannot give up the tendency to follow the arising things.) As you follow the arising things as you say all of the senses will become destroyed and the Self will take over. And the Self will do the things that has to done. Everything will be okay. You don’t have to worry. (SZ: Do you mean, when I abandon the tendency to fix the things by my attention, the Self will take over and will automatically fulfill all the functions?) Yes, exactly. (SZ: And when things are arising, I follow them or not by my senses?) No, the idea is to get rid of the senses. You do not want to use your senses to do anything. What you should do in your case, is to inquire, “To whom do these things come?” And as they come you say to yourself, “They come to me. I feel these things. Then who am I? What is the source of the I that feels these things?” And the I will disappear one day and you will be completely free.
SZ: Another question is that, our body must be prepared to receive the grace of the liberation? If the body is not prepared then the shock of the grace will cause great harm to our bodies?
And does that mean our growth for liberation will take time?
R: If you inquire correctly. Every time a thought comes to you, just like the thought that you just had. If you ask, “To whom does this thought come? Who is thinking these things? To whom do they come? Who do they come to?” and you say, “They come to me.”
The me you’re referring to is the ego, the mind. So you ask further, “What is the source of this ego or the mind? What is the source of the I that thinks all these things?” And you keep still, then slowly but surely the I will begin to be dissolved and the one Self will take over and there will be no problems. (SZ: But when I think about the practical problems of life I must think to solve the problem. Is that true?) You think what about the problem? You have to solve the problem? Do you think you have to solve the problem? (SZ: Yeah.) As long as you’re speaking as you are, you’re speaking from the senses. So you will have to solve the problem. But if you go beyond the senses by inquiring, “To whom do the senses come?”
You will realize that you have no senses whatsoever. And you will be free of solving problems by yourself. Things will come easy for you. Everything will happen like it’s supposed to.
See all the questions you’re asking is from the sense of your ego, your mind. Get rid of all this and everything will take care of itself.
Mary would you like to read the Jnani? (SM: Sure Robert.) (Mary reads the Jnani. Refer to beginning of the book for text.) R: Thank you Mary. We have some prashad?
Ultimate chocolate chip. Mary would like to pass it around?
(passing around 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.