– Transcript 173
R: Good afternoon. I welcome you with all my heart. It’s good to be with you once again. Many of you are waiting for me to say something, to talk, to give a lecture, to give a speech. Always remember, the highest teaching in the world is silence. We learn to shut up, to keep still, to stop talking. Remember when you talk, you spoil the truth from your heart that wants to express itself. When you come just to hear me talk, the same thing happens to an extent. When you come to satsang, being in satsang is the thing. It has nothing to do with lectures, or speeches, or preaching, or anything else. These things are secondary. Just to be here, to keep still, to keep silent. This is where things happen.
There is no human being, so called, who has ever become liberated, so called, that has said a lot, that had a lot to say. It is when you forget yourself completely, when you let go of all of your preconceived ideas, your concepts, when you forget all about your past life, prior to coming here, then things begin to happen.
Remember, those of you who are struggling along, finding problems, this is because you do not become still enough. When you can become still enough, your problems will vanish, there will be no problem. There will be nobody to feel a problem. There will be nothing. There will be peace and happiness. When most of you speak, you speak about your problems. You speak about other people. You speak about places and things. You just talk, talk, and talk. Talking is the only problem you’ve got. Of course talking comes from the mind. It is the mind that does the talking. The words seem to come from your lips, and your lungs and your talking apparatus, but it is the mind that keeps the chattering up.
If you can only remember, that I am with you always. When I say I am with you always, I’m not referring to Robert. I’m referring to I am. I am is with you always. Loving you, protecting you, taking care of you, leading you. I am is consciousness. I am is absolute reality. I am is pure awareness. And that is always with you. How can it not be? For after all you only exist because I am exists. Or you may call I am God, if you desire. The only reason you seem to appear is because God appears, as eternity, as omnipresence, which is really yourself. You are that. There is no God or I am apart from you. You are a wonderful being, a pure being, a spiritual being, a God-like being. Yet, what do you think of yourself. You worry, you fear, you think you have problems. What kind of problems can God ever have? The appearance may be there, but to whom does the appearance come?
Many people do not understand this path, saying we have no compassion, no love, no understanding of what’s really going on. It’s just the opposite. What do you think is really going on? Would the senses tell you that there’s man’s inhumanity to man, an AIDS epidemic, wars, earthquakes? Is this what you identify with? The only life you’re ever going to have, is the life that you identify with. So we are told, since a period of time, by great spiritual Masters, to lift up your eyes to the mountain top, to see that which is real, to behold Brahman, to behold the reality, the truth, that which is. Yet most people on this earth refuse to do this. They identify with person, place and thing, and then wonder why they suffer. You have to learn to let go, to be still, to have faith, to trust.
Do not be concerned about this world. The power that grows the oranges on the orange tree, takes care of this world. The power that knows the way, knows how to maintain and sustain this world. And since you appear to be part of this world, your needs will always be met from within. This is the truth. You will be saying to yourself, “Well, there are many times when my needs have not been met from within. I have suffered. I have gone through that experience and that experience.” Yet who is it that has gone through these experiences? Not you, you are the one, you are the life, the love, the joy, the bliss.
You have never suffered. Yet you feel something has been suffering, and you call this me.
Some of you may think back to the past, to times when you’ve suffered, you had hard times, when things appeared to be wrong. You have to separate the two. There is the one who suffers, which is an illusion, which doesn’t exist, and there’s the reality. The question is, whom will you follow this day? With what will you identify? The choice is yours. It’s up to you. You have all the power you need. You have everything you need within you.
There is nothing in this outside world that can change things or help you. Never look to the external world for relief. You will find temporary relief in this world, but the problem will come back in another way.
Learn to turn within always. Whenever something happens in your life, do not keep looking at this situation, and telling everybody how bad things are, so they can feel sorry for you. Rather immediately turn within, and inquire, “To whom does this come?
Who is going through this experience? Who’s feeling this?” It is only the I-thought. The mind is really the I-thought. That’s all the mind is. It’s a thought, called I, the first pronoun. This I has to be investigated. This I has to be scrutinized. And you will begin to understand that only the I suffers, only the I appears to have problems, only the I goes through experiences. But you must ask yourself, “Is this I me? Am I this I?” Always ask yourself. In the last analysis you cannot find the answers in books or from other people.
You are the answer. You are the answer. What is the question? There is no question. Subsequently there is no answer. When you’re looking for an answer to the mysteries of life, there has to be a question. If there’s no question, you do not need an answer. Therefore look at yourself and ask yourself, “Who asked the question?” Say to yourself, “There is something within me that knows everything.” And that is all pervading Brahman, pure awareness. There’s no question. There is no answer. There is only that, and you are that.
It’s so beautiful when you understand this. It’s so grand, so peaceful, so joyous, to understand, I am God. Not the body is God. I am, is God. I am that, is God, is Brahman, is absolute reality. Why not just identify with this and forget the whole thing. Why go
through all these stages. You talk about stages, this stage, and that stage, and every stage.
Why think about stages? Why think about grades, and keep identifying with the level of understanding that you’re at? Forget all these things. These are the things that keep you back. These are the things that keep you back. Thinking at this level or that level, comparing yourself to any human being, so-to-speak, comparing yourself to people, talking about what stage they’re at, whether they’re enlightened or whether they’re an idiot. What difference does this make to you? You will gravitate to where you are supposed to be.
As you stop reacting to person, place or thing, as you stop judging, as you stop bothering people, as you stop asking questions, everything will unfold at a fast rate of speed. You will find that you’re already free. So to be liberated you just have to know that you are already liberated. And you know that you are already liberated when you have an empty mind. When there are no thoughts going on in your mind. When there are no questions going on in your mind. When you’re not looking for answers. When you stop looking for anything. You no longer care about looking, searching, seeking. You become the epitome of compassion, of love. Everything happens by itself. This is one thing you should never forget. Everything happens by itself. You begin with the truth, that you are absolute Brahman, the only reality, nirvana. This is where you begin, by knowing the ultimate truth about yourself. And then everything will take care of itself.
But if you begin by trying to resolve your problems, by thinking, “If I win the lotto I will be able to sit in the silence, and nothing will bother me,” on the contrary, if you’re disturbed in your mind now, if you ever won the lottery, you wouldn’t be able to sit still for a moment. The mind would be going a thousand times a second. People always imagine that if they were somewhere else, or they had something else, things would be different. Things will never be different, because your mind is going on the same way it always is going on. Only the conditions change. But the conditions appear to be at the level where you are in your mind. So if you feel fear, if you had ten million dollars, you would be ten times more fearful, a thousand times more fearful, because you would be feeling the fear that somebody is trying to kill you to take your money.
Whatever you feel, as your humanhood increases, those feelings will be magnified a thousand degrees. So forget about all these things, and dive within yourself where the reality subsides. The reality subsides because you keep thinking, and thinking, and thinking about your body, person, place and thing. But if you dive deep inside, the reality will never subside. You will become that yourself. Stop searching. Stop looking. Try to understand to an extent, that you are the one. There is nowhere you have to go. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to change. There’s no one who has to come into your life, and no one to go out of your life. Everything is right just the way it is.
Why is everything right just the way it is? Due to the fact that you are all-pervasive. You are omnipresence, so how can anything be changed? Whom will change whom? What will change what? It’s like trying to change a dream. You cannot change a dream. Only when you find out you’re dreaming, will you awaken. It’s the same thing with your life now. When you finally understand that you are not the body, or the mind, or the phenomena of the world, you are not the doer, you will awaken.
Take a look at your life. Think of the worries, and fears, and things you go on with every day, some of you, how you’re trying to straighten things out, how you’re trying to make things right. There is no need for you to do this. Things are already right. Things are already straightened out. Things are just the way they are supposed to be. Your job is to completely surrender. Surrender everything. Surrendering is another way to quiet the mind. When you begin mentally to give things up, you’ll notice your mind becomes quieter and quieter. The mind stops fighting, stops arguing, stops needing and wanting.
Feel the presence. Feel the presence. Feel the presence.
Feel the bliss. Feel the bliss. Feel the bliss.
Feel the peace. Feel the peace. Feel the peace.
Feel the happiness. Feel the happiness. Feel the happiness.
With your respiration, inhale, slowly, say to yourself, “Who am I?” Before you exhale, say to yourself, “I am consciousness.” Exhale with the feeling, “I am not the body.”
“Who am I?” Inhale. “I am consciousness.” Exhale. “I am not the body.” Begin to do this.
(long silence)
It is that time again, to play stump the guru.
Will you be so kind as to bring the stumpers?
(Q - Mary reads, A - Robert answers)
Q: I made a decision to go 100% for awakening. I was ??? when I found that everything is the same and I haven’t dropped it all. Please explain what to do.
A: Well, by making a decision like this, that you’re going 100% for awakening, it means that you’re 100% screwed up. Because after all, you are awake. So when you go to 100% awakening, it means that you’re 100% fouled up. There’s something wrong, because you have to go for 100% awakening. You don’t have to go for 100% awakening. You are already awake. What you have to really do is to know it, and let go of everything and stop complaining.
We always look at time and space as if things have to be done now, and truth is only now. But from where you are coming from, the person who has this question, try to remember, it’s taken you so many incarnations to be where you are now. It may have taken you fifty-million incarnations to be where you are now. Therefore do not think, I’m going for 100% awakening and something’s keeping me back. What you have to do is to gently let go of those thoughts. Let go of those beliefs. Let go of wanting and needing to be awakened. Forget about percentages. Forget about everything. Just live in the moment.
Live in the now. Live in the present.
Do not be concerned about awakening at all. If you just quiet your mind by any method you can, then everything will take care of itself. It’s like saying I’m going for 100%
to be a brain surgeon. And you have to study, you have to go to school for a long time, you
have to practice, you have to do all kinds of things before you become a brain surgeon.
And even when you become a brain surgeon, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be the best brain surgeon or the worst brain surgeon. But when you try to awaken, it’s different. Since awakening is your real nature, this is what you really are. There is no one, in other words, who has to be awakened. There is nobody left to be awakened. Stop living the mortal dream. Empty yourself out. Start being happy, joyous, by realizing you are Brahman, you are pure awareness. Have no goals. Have no limits. It’s all happening right here, right now, this moment. See it. Feel it. It’s already happened. You are already free.
Q: Robert, how can I become more loving?
A: By understanding who you are. By realizing you’re not the person who is not loving. That person does not exist. By realizing you are God. Your real nature is God, and God is all love. The one you are referring to who is not loving does not exist. Do not feed that person energy. You are feeding a nonentity energy. Do not do this. Love is your real nature. Love is what you really are. Get rid of the other by not giving it power by thinking about it, by not responding to it, by not looking at it as a real person. Lift up your eyes.
Stand up tall. Know who you really are, and you will see that you are already love. Next case.
Q: Robert, how do we know if we are doing spiritual progress?
A: You will know. You will find yourself becoming more peaceful. You will find yourself not reacting to things any longer, to things which used to disturb you, make you angry, upset you, will not be any longer. It will not matter where you are, or what you are doing? You will be peaceful. You will be happy. It will all happen by itself. You will see it.
Do not try to remove anything from you. Simply change your mind. Change your mind from a thinking mind to a non-thinking mind. Try to be still, quiet. When your mind gives you thoughts, inquire, “To whom do they come?” and realize you are thought free. You are no-mind. You are nirvana, the ultimate reality. Identify only with the higher things. Next.
Q: Robert, are siddhis a good sign, or is it better to ignore them?
A: Siddhis keep you from becoming enlightened. Siddhis actually keep you back.
Some people, because of past lives and past experiences, as they progress on this path, they develop certain siddhis. They can … read the future, look into the past, be able to do astrology, the I Ching, become a Master of occult powers. In the Upanishads it clearly states, occult powers will keep you back for thousands of incarnations. Do not rest on siddhis. Leave the siddhis alone. Go beyond them. Go beyond everything, until there is no one left to do siddhis. To do siddhis, there has to be an entity. There has to be a person to experience these siddhis. In Advaita Vedanta, the person becomes obliterated. Therefore for whom are there siddhis? So when you see a person with great siddhis, really that person has a mind. His or her mind is still working, and they will not be free. Only when you give it all up, and you destroy the ego, the personality, do you become omnipresence. If you are everything, why do you need siddhis? Forget about siddhis.
Q: Why do spiritual groups always seem to turn into cults, and teachers into cult leaders?A: Ask yourself, where does this happen? To whom does this happen? Remember every religion in the world began as a cult, what you call a cult. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, everything began as a cult, for there was a teacher, whether the teacher was Jesus, or Mohammed, or Moses, or Abraham. And this teacher had followers. And it went against the modern way of doing things, in those days, against the system. So they were considered a cult. So why does this disturb you? Know yourself. Go within yourself. Be yourself. Find yourself, and then see if you’ll be disturbed by cults. What have you got to do with cults? Leave all the cults alone. Leave everything alone. Work on yourself and you will not have time to think about cults. The person who is always practicing sadhana, always thinking of the highest, has no time to think about things like this.
If your mind is always in your heart, and you’re always peaceful and happy, always looking at the highest, trying to realize that you are Brahman, that you are the absolute reality, where will this question come from? How will a question like this get into your mind? You have nothing to do with cults. You are freedom.
What are you writing, Mary?
Mary (SM): I just thought of a question. (R: So you want to stump the guru, huh?) I want to stump the guru, yes. Are you ready? Yesterday, Robert, you mentioned something about only 80%
of the people leave the spiritual path, and only about 20% continue. And there are very few out of that, that go on with it. And I wanted you to maybe elaborate a little bit on that.
R: Well, on this particular plane of existence, approximately 80% of the people who pursue spiritual life, drop out. Why? Because they become disillusioned. They want something to happen today, this week, right now. They have no understanding that while they are on the spiritual path, the real spiritual path, things may appear to become progressively worse, at first, for all the karma’s are coming up, and being destroyed, so you feel this, you experience this. But all the great spiritual books tell us not to pay attention to this. Not to respond to this. Just let go, and let whatever happens, happen.
And the example I give, is when you’re building a new building, the old has to be destroyed. So there comes this big iron ball, breaking down all the old structures, destroying everything it sees. And if you look, you will say, “Why is this destruction going on?” If they didn’t want to build anything new, they would have left it alone. So the destruction is there in the beginning. Then it’s all cleared away, it’s swept away, and a beautiful new edifice is built. And so it is in your life. When you get on a real spiritual path, everything comes up, at a fast rate of speed. Things may seem very bad, terrible, to some people. It doesn’t happen to everybody. It is because you are accelerating your karma. It’s all coming out of you. It’s all being totally dissolved. And then if you hold on, become still and quiet and do not react to these things, all of a sudden you will start feeling a profound peace, a profound happiness, a profound joy. You will finally feel freedom. But this is not explained in most teachings. This is the reason why 80% of the people usually drop away.
What do you think of that, Mary?
Mary (SM): I think that’s very good. That answers a lot of questions for me.
R: Anyone have anything else to say?
SY: Robert, what is the purpose of Bhajans?
R: Bhajans, Kirtans, singing, it makes the mind one-pointed. It causes the mind to become still. You know yourself when you chant a lot, you become peaceful, you become still, you become quiet. So this is the purpose. To make you one-pointed. To prepare you for what’s going on. Bhajans are good. Kirtan is good.
SY: So when we have an opportunity to do it, we should do it?
R: Of course, yes. This is what we do Saturdays, about two hours of it. Everybody feels so happy, so blissful. These things have been known for thousands of years, chanting, singing. Takes you away from everyday experiences. Lifts you up. It’s good for you. Good for the soul.
Nate (SC): I have a question. I’ve asked a number of times, to be made to be aware of the consciousness, rather than of the mind? The mind seems to takes over, and I’m not aware of who I am.
(R: Yes.) I know there is no techniques, but is there some way that I can be aware I’m not my thoughts?
R: Of course, I’ve been telling you this for years, Nate. Inquire to whom do these thoughts come? That’s all you’ve got to do, so simple. To whom do these thoughts come?
Who is thinking this? Who has this problem? I do? Well, who am I? It’s a simple technique and it works. By realizing the I is a thought, it is not you, and by inquiring, “Who am I?”
and following the I-thought to the heart, the I-thought dissolves and you become free. But you have to do it.
This is the greatest psychotherapy that’s ever been invented. Whenever something disturbs you ask, “To whom does it come? Who’s feeling this? I am. What is the source of this I that is feeling this?” In other words you’re saying you’re not feeling this, the I is feeling this. The I, feels this, not you. Nate is the I. Your thoughts are the I. The I has to go.
And by inquiring, “Who am I? What is the source of the I,” the I will become weaker, and weaker, and weaker, until it disappears.
Nate (SC): It just seems that at times, the I or the thoughts are very powerful. It just seems to take over even when I do inquire.
R: At that time observe, become the witness, watch. Try never to react to those feelings or those emotions. Do whatever you have to do. Ask from where do they come, where the thoughts come from, or become the witness to the thoughts by keeping still and watching the thoughts disturb you. Another is to take a cold shower. Seriously, you take a cold shower. It changes the molecular structure in your mind, in your brain, your neck, and you feel better. Ice cold shower will do it all the time.
It’s time for prashad. Oh, we have announcements…
(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.