– Transcript 168
R: It is good to be with you once again, on this wonderful July weekend.
I’m so happy you can come.
If you only knew who you were, if you only realized who you really were, what you were, who you are right now, who you’ve always been, it would make all the fire-works seem like nothing. If you realized your real nature, all of the gods and goddesses would bow to you, would pay homage to you, would worship you, would come to your aid. Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, all the Saints throughout the ages would come to you, would bow to you. When you understand that you are the Self, the imperishable Self, the absolute reality, then you realize that all of these things, the goddesses, the gods, comes from your mind.
You are the one. Everything, everyone, is a part of you. When you do not understand your divine nature, you think you are a frail human being, and you worship many gods and goddesses, you pay homage to Saints, Sages. But when you understand who you are, everything changes. You become all-pervasive, infinite like the sky. You are the universe. You are that which has always been.
Do not believe what the world tells you, what the newspapers tell you, what the TV tells you. Separate yourself from all these things. Become free from attachments. The world in itself is neither good nor bad. It is an appearance. You can play in the universe, you can suffer in the universe. It’s all how you see it. Do not react to it, whether you’re going through good times or bad times. They’re both impostors. Look to your Self. You are the one. Everything the senses behold is of the mind. And there is no mind. The mind never existed. Therefore who are you? There are no words to describe who you are, for if I use words to describe it, it would not be that. You are beyond words and thoughts, beyond gods and goddesses, beyond everything and anything that you can ever think about.
Love yourself. When you love yourself, you love the whole universe. Do not think about the world and all of its manifestations. Think of the Self, the one reality, the pure awareness, the Sat-Chit-Ananda. You are that, free.
Forget about the past. It never existed. It cannot hurt you. Forget about karma, samskaras, samsara. Those things are all of the mind. And remember the mind doesn’t exist. You are ever so free, so bright and shining.
Yet, what do you think about yourself? What do you believe about yourself? Ponder this. Look at all the years that have gone by, when you’ve looked at yourself as a person, going through experiences. You’ve been taught in spiritual life that you have to suffer, work out your karma, go through several experiences, several lives, hundreds of lives, thousands of lives. Yet, to whom does karma exist? To whom does suffering exist? To whom does the world exist? Only to no mind. For you can come to the conclusion yourself that there is no mind, there never was a mind, there never will be a mind, you will see who suffers? No one. All is well. There are no mistakes. You’re in your right place, right now.
When I say you are in your right place, do not think about where you appear to be, whether rich or poor, sick or healthy, sad or happy. This is not your right place. Your right place is devoid of all these things. Your right place is boundless space, choice-less awareness. You are the God that you’ve always been looking for. You and you alone are the Sage, and the saint, and the awakened being, that you’ve been striving to attain. You are that right now. This is your right place, and there is no other place.
Yet you say the world appears, conditions appear, situations appear, and I ask you again, “To whom do they appear?” To your so called ego, to your mind. But in truth you have no ego and you have no mind. Therefore nothing appears. It is said that Brahman appears as the world. God appears as the world. Yet why would Brahman, God, want to do this, to appear as the world? The truth is there is only Brahman, the absolute reality.
There is no world.
Yet you say, “I experience the world every day. How can you tell me there is no world?” To understand this you have to go back to the dream experience. When you have a dream, good or bad, as far as you are concerned this is reality. The dream is your reality, no matter what it is. And no matter who in the dream tells you that this is not a real world, you will argue with them.
You will say, “Yes, this is real. I’m going through this experience here. I’m getting married. My whole family is here, hundreds of guests. There’s a big reception going on.
How can you tell me this is a dream? I’ll even pinch you and show you this is not a dream.” Yet, this is a dream pinch. The whole thing is a dream. And even though you do not believe it you awaken, and it’s gone.
The question is, where did it come from to begin with? Where did it go? Was it external from you? It was not external. If it was external you would have a battle on your hands, to overcome the dream world. But the dream came out of your mind. It is your creation, so it appears. But if it were a real creation, it would last. It wouldn’t vanish when you awaken.
Now take this world. Most of you here would argue with me and you’d tell me, “The world is real, because I see it, I feel it, I go through certain experiences.” Yet you do the same thing in your dream. There’s no difference. You would argue with me here just like you would argue with me in the dream. You can walk over right now and pinch me, and I would feel it. But this is all part of the dream.
Therefore you have to inquire within yourself, “If the dream world is a dream, if the real world is a dream, so-to-speak, then who am I? Where did I come from? What am
I?” There is no answer to this question, for the answer is an experience. The answer is an awakening. The answer is liberation. The answer is realization. The finite mind cannot comprehend this, so all the words we use are fruitless. All of my talking is a waste of time.
Everything I say is nonsense, for you are merely listening to words. What good do the words do you?
You will leave when I’m finished and go home, and continue your life as it has always been. And you’ll either say, “That was a nice talk,” or “I don’t believe a word he said.” But where will you be? In the same old place, in the same old Maya. Playing your games. Going through your experiences that you always go through. Saying, “This is good and this is bad. This is right and this is wrong. This I like and this I hate. Of this I’m afraid, of this I’m not afraid.” And all of your prejudices, all of your obnoxious living, all of the things of this world will be carried on your shoulders.
Some of you will believe you have to bring peace to this world, and you join peace organizations. This is commendable to an extent, but it’s virtually impossible to bring peace to the world. You cannot. Has anyone ever brought peace to the world? The only way you can bring peace to this world is through awakening. As you awaken yourself, you will see you are the Self of the universe. The whole world is your projection. It is you who caused the homeless, and man’s inhumanity to man, and the dastardly things that go on in this world. Where else do they come from if not out of you? Otherwise they would just appear. But remember nothing is external. Everything that happens is a part of you. You are the one.
Find your Self. Look to your Self. Dive deeper, deeper within yourself. Try to understand who you are by diving deep within yourself. Do not look to man. Do not look to the universe. Do not look to things. Look to your Self. Only you can know yourself. No one can really help you. In the last analysis you have to give up all reactions to this world.
Whether you are enjoying yourself in this world, or you are having problems with the world, you have to look at it as a dream, as something that appears.
Surrender yourself totally. How do you surrender yourself? By letting go, letting go of all the concepts, letting go of all the ideas, letting go of the beliefs, letting go of all your prejudices, all of your emotions. Just drop it. If you can do this, all of your sadhana, all of your meditations, all of your prayers, are no longer necessary.
To whom are you praying? What is the meditation doing for you? If it makes the mind still and quiet, that’s good. Yet if you simply awaken to your true nature, to your svarupa, there’s no need for meditation, there is no need for prayer, there’s no need for anything, if you live in the moment, spontaneously, and hold on to the truth, the truth being I am Brahman, I am the absolute reality, I am nirvana, I am that.
Ponder these things. You have never been what you appear to be. The sky appears blue, but upon investigation you will find out that there’s no sky and there’s no blue. The rope appears as a snake. Upon investigation you will realize there’s no snake. It is only a rope. The water appears in the mirage. Upon investigation you will find there’s no water. In the same way you appear as a body. You appear as a mortal. But upon investigation you will find that you are not a body, you are not mortal. You are beyond mortality. You are beyond anything that you can think about. You are beyond all concepts, all ideas.
Consequently the best course for you is silence. There’s absolutely nothing to debate. There’s really nothing to think about. There’s nothing to argue about. In the silence everything will be revealed to you. All you really have to do is to keep still. I know that’s hard for some of you, for you keep chatting away all your life. Yet if you would learn to keep still, you would make tremendous spiritual progress.
Feel the stillness within you.
(silence)
When your mind begins to think, stop it, catch it, put an end to it.
Many of you are still under the impression that you come to hear lectures, talks.
Let me ask you, how many lectures, how many talks have you been to all of your life? And what has it done for you? It simply adds more confusion. Always remember what you are trying to do. You’re not trying to add more knowledge to your ignorance. You’re trying to empty yourself of all your knowledge, all of your ignorance, everything that you have accumulated. You want to become empty.
Yet most people seem to go to different teachers, read many books, and they add on. They keep adding, adding, adding, adding, adding. Yet the day must come in your life, when you stand naked before God, so-to-speak, when you have no crutches to hold onto. All the books are gone, there are no more teachers for you, there’s no one to ask for help, there’s no one to ask if you’re on the right path. It is then that your sadhana actually begins.
Ponder this very well. Your sadhana, your spiritual practice does not begin when you’ve gone to many teachers, and you’ve read many books. It actually begins when you give up everything. That’s when real sadhana begins, when you have surrendered everything, when you’ve emptied yourself of all knowledge, all desires for liberation. When you have become an empty shell, then your spiritual life begins. Until that time you’re only playing games with yourself.
You and I know so many people who can recite scriptures backwards and frontwards, quotations from everybody on this earth. They’re walking encyclopedias. But do they have moksha? Do they have liberation? How can you, when you’re so full up with garbage?
When you have no one to turn to, nothing to read, you will turn within yourself, and you will begin to inquire within yourself, “Who needs to read all these books? Who needs to go to all these teachers? Who needs to ask other people for help? Who am I?
What is the source of the I? What am I?” Remember you’re asking yourself all of this.
“Where did I come from? Where was I before I was born? Where do I go after so called death? What is the purpose of life?” All of these answers are within yourself.
Yet there are very few of us who are sincere enough to completely let go of everything. We’re afraid to do this. We think if we let go, we will turn into a vegetable. We will lose our friends, our families. We will become worthless. Nothing can be further from the truth. Your real Self is no thing at all. The real you is nothing. I use the term nothing here to denote it is not something. It is no thing. You come from nothing and you’re going back to nothing.
Absolute nothingness is your real nature. Rejoice.
Ponder these things.
(silence)
We will now play stump the guru. We have written questions in the bag, I think?
I forgot to pass the basket around. (students give questions to Robert) Thank you.
(Q - Mary reads, A - Robert answers)
Q: Only one question Robert. Okay: Why do you use the word “refuse” as in, “As long as you refuse to awaken,” because refuse to me seems a deliberate action and no one is doing this knowingly, deliberately?
A: It’s a semantical term. What difference would it make what word I use, refuse, don’t want to, it’s all the same. What I really mean is you were more eager to play in the world of attachment than you are to let go. This is what I’m talking about when I use the word refuse. You have a choice. As a matter of fact the only choice you really have. Everything else is preordained. You have the choice to either surrender, let go and dive deep within the Self. Or not to do it and play in the world and get involved in things in places and people. The choice is yours.
So once in a while I’ll tell you, “Why do you refuse to let go? Why do you refuse to become enlightened?” and you say, “I’m not refusing to become enlightened.” But take a look at your life, see what you’re involved in. See what you’re attached to. See how you’re tied down to this world of Maya. The things that you really believe about the world and people and places and things. Therefore you refuse to let go.
Again it’s only when you give it all up that something will happen to you, not by adding to yourself. You don’t need any more experiences. You want to free yourself from experiences. Become totally empty. Totally clear and when you do you will be free.
Is that another question?
Q: This isn’t a question Robert. I think someone’s just put a number of these in the basket and it says, “I realize that everything, everything, excluding nothing is nothing, I realize this in my heart.” (R: Good.)
Mary (SM): There are a number of these in the basket. (SV: That is from a transcript, it’s a beautiful transcript.) Oh is it. Did you put it in there Fred? (SV: Yeah.) Oh right, Fred put it in.
R: If you would like to ask a question feel free to do so. Feel free to say anything.
Make a loud noise.SY: Robert can you explain the I-am meditation and how does one know if one is ready for that?
R: The I-am meditation is for everybody. You do not really have to be ready for it.
It’s a very simple thing for you to do. What you do is you relax. Surrender your mind to the Self by just letting go, watching the mind. You begin by practicing Vipassana meditation. You observe your mind, your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, just watch, for a couple of moments.
And then you ask yourself the question, “Who is watching? Who is the witness?”
and you say, “I am.” With your respiration, you inhale you say, “I,” you exhale you say, “am.” What this does it quiets the mind. Makes you very peaceful. Makes you go into the next step. Makes you one pointed. It’s a very powerful meditation.
It’s for those people who wish to meditate. Whenever you meditate there is an object for your meditation. Either a saint or a Sage or a guru or a flower or a mountain or a blade of grass or a candle. Meditation always needs a subject and an object. Yet the highest form of meditation is the I-am meditation because I-am is the first name of God. “I Am That I Am.”
Consequently when you practice I-am meditation you become very quiet and peaceful and wonderful things ensue.
(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.