– Transcript 174
R: (tape starts abruptly) …it’s about time you sat in meditation for a while, without moving, without squirming, without thinking. It’s wonderful isn’t it, to be able to sit still and be with your Self.
Good evening. (Students: Good evening Robert.) I welcome you with all my heart.
It’s good to be with you again. Always remember all is well. All is well. All is perfectly well. Never forget that. Do not think about it. Do not try to analyze it. Just accept it in your heart. All is well, period, end.
Most of us are here because we want to become self-realized. We want to experience moksha, liberation, awakening. There are three points that you should always remember. If you remember these three points you will be already awakened. You have to remember these three points in your heart. By assimilating these three points, by digesting them, by becoming a living embodiment of these three points you will become consciousness, pure awareness. What you already are.
The first point: Whatever appears to happen to your body or your mind. Whether you have cancer, AIDS, the D.T.‘s, bubonic plague. Whether you’re the strongest person on earth. Whether your mind feels depressed or disillusioned, or your mind feels happy or reassured. Whatever befalls your body or your mind remember this is not happening to you. You have absolutely nothing to do with that.
It makes no difference what is happening in your life. You can be materially, relatively the happiest person on earth or you could be miserable, sick. It has nothing to do with you. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with you. This is your body and your mind not you. You are Brahman. You are nirvana. You are the absolute reality. The goings on in your body and your mind has nothing to do with you. This is the first point.
The second point that you must always remember is that all of your karma’s, your samskara’s, your sins of omission and commission, the sinful acts that you’re responsible for, none of these things can touch you if you center yourself in the here and now.
In other words the here and now is omnipresence. The here and now is all pervading, omniscience. The here and now is consciousness. The here and now is boundless space, effortless choice-less pure awareness. When you hold onto the here and now, when you identify with the here and now the past is no longer valid. There is no past and there is no future in the here and now. There is I am. There is the ultimate reality, ultimate oneness and you are that.When you are living in the here and now your karma’s do not exist any longer.
Samskaras stop dead in their tracks. Sins are abated. You are born again so-to-speak. You become a new man, a new woman. You are free.
The third point you must always remember is that you have absolutely nothing to give up. Nothing to surrender. Nothing to let go of. You are already liberated. How can you believe that you have to let go of something that never existed? You believe you have to let go of your attachments. How can the Self have attachments?
You think you have to surrender all of your fears, all of your depressions, all of the things that have been bothering you. Surrender to whom? Those things are not yours.
They do not belong to you. You are pure reality. You are the imperishable Self. Never were you born, never did you prevail and never will you leave. You are the one. The all pervading one.
Consequently you have nothing to give up. For you never had anything to begin with. It’s really egotistical to believe that you’ve got something to give up. There is nothing you have to surrender. It is only the ego that believes that something has to be surrendered, something has to be given up. You have to let go of something. Who is the one that had something to begin with? There is no one. There is only the one reality and you are that.
If only you can remember these three points by assimilating them, by digesting them, by becoming a living embodiment of them that is all you have to do. If you remember these three points you do not have to practice any sadhana. You do not have to do mantras or meditations of any kind for you will already be awakened.
Again it is the ego that has to meditate. It is the ego that has to do sadhana. Are you the ego? Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? What are you doing here? Where are you going? The answers to all these questions is I am. I am. I am not this and I am not that. I am. I am that which has always been. I am that which will always be. I am that. I am.
Your svarupa is absolute reality. You are not the person that you identify with.
The person who goes to sleep and wakes up. Goes through experiences, worries, thinks, frets, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. That is not you. No longer think of yourself as that person.
When you get up in the morning take a deep breath and realize the truth about yourself. First thing upon awakening, you can say to yourself I am Brahman. I am the imperishable Self. Bullets cannot kill me. Fire cannot burn me. Water cannot drown me. I am that, and rejoice in your true Self. Feel the happiness in your heart, feel your reality in the stillness, in the quietness. Where there is no mind, no thoughts, no words. Who are you then? You just are.
There is no thing you can think of in this universe that can tell you what you are. It is beyond words and thoughts. You can never with your finite mind understand who you are. Do not try to do this. It works in reverse. It is actually when you stop thinking about
Do not think of yourself as an anthropomorphic deity apart from God. Because God is you are. Therefore what God is you are. There is no separation. Awaken to this truth.
If I say anything else it will be redundant. There are so many words, so many stories, so many teachings. Yet if you only remember the three pointers that I shared with you that will suffice. Why talk any further than this. The more words you hear the more confused you become. Actually the first hour that you sat in the silence was the best time for you. There are certain words, very few words that you have to hear and then there is the silence that you should always be in.
It is interesting that the words that I speak to you are really the silence. Those are the words of the silence, truth, infinite truth, reality, consciousness, bliss, pure awareness, ultimate oneness. All this is the Self and you are that.
Feel free to ask questions.
SY: Can I really remember that everyday? (R: Excuse me?) Do I remember what you said all the time?
R: There is something within you that remembers. Something within you knows.
If you sit still put a smile on your face these things will come forth. Then we always have the transcripts where you can review everything. That’s an interesting question. A sincere student has an open heart and the highest truth that is revealed may sometimes not be remembered by the brain but the heart never forgets. And when you rest in the silence, you sit still and you remain quiet something begins to work within your heart. And you become the living embodiment of the realities of the truth, of the Self.
Always spend time by yourself sitting alone in the silence being quiet. Be still and know that I am God.
ST: Does meditation serve a purpose in the spiritual quest?
R: Meditation serves a purpose in the spiritual quest for the beginner. It quiets the mind to an extent and it makes you one-pointed. It makes the mind one-pointed so you can concentrate on one thing at a time. It does help. But as you advance it actually becomes a hindrance. For whom are you meditating on? To meditate you have to have an object and a subject. You are the subject meditating on an object. But in truth and in reality there is no subject, there is no object. There is only the one Self there is only Brahman.
Therefore you have to ask yourself the question, “Does Brahman have to meditate? Does God have to meditate?”
ST: Isn’t meditation modeled for us for the mode of our natural thought? Can you show me meditation for us?R: For the person who believes they are separate from God, yes. If you believe you’re separate that Brahman is up in the sky or someplace else. That God is someplace else. That Shiva is someplace else. That Krishna is some place else. And yes you have to meditate on these deities. But when you remember that you are that, tat-tvam-asi, who is to meditate on whom? You have become Krishna yourself. You are Shiva. You are Brahman. You are that. All you have to do is be aware of the truth. Then again when you believe you’re separate then by all means you have to meditate.
This is why Jnana Marga teaches there is only the one and I am that. There never was two of you. There never was God and you. But as long as you believe this or perhaps somebody has told you this before then you have to meditate, you have to pray. You have to do all the rituals. You have to perform bhajans, sing kirtans, do puja. All these things are necessary when you believe you are separate from God. So why not start from the top.
Fred (SF): The unmanifest and the manifest are one in Christ?
R: Yes, same thing. I and my father are one. If you have seen me you have seen the father, same thing.
Glen (SG): Sitting in the silence is different than meditation? (R: Yes.) But sitting in your chair with your eyes open looking at your garden or sitting with your eyes closed without an object, just sitting there… (R: It doesn’t make any difference.) …and ask, “Who am I?” and so on?
R: Of course you can always practice atma-vichara. Inquire, “Who am I?” And as soon as thoughts come to your mind inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come?” Realize the I is not you and you look for the source of the I. Which is in your heart again. (SG: Then the source of the I will gradually start to remember that like there is something lost that comes back to us?) You can say that, yes. The I becomes the real I. (SG: But as you remember it more and more, you’re more aware of it and you remember it for longer times and you forget everything else?) Yes.
SS: In the meditation, when you sit down in meditation do you try to stop thoughts or do you try to be distant from them?
R: Never try to stop the thoughts. If you try to stop the thoughts they will become bigger and greater and they will win. Because the mind appears to be very powerful. Yet in reality the mind does not exist. There is no mind. There is no such thing as a mind. So when you sit in the silence you observe, you watch, you become the witness.
You can do many things. You can watch your breath by practicing the Vipassana meditation. Watch the feelings in your body. Observe the breathing. Yet the better way is still to inquire, “Who am I?” You never answer that question. You just ask the question and keep still. When you keep still thoughts will come into your mind. Simply inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come? They come to me. I think these thoughts. Then “Who am I?” “Who am I?” simply means what is the source of the I? From whence did the I arise.
You follow the I back to the source which is the heart center. And one day the I will disappear and you will be totally liberated.
Do you not say, “I feel this and I feel that? And I am this and I am that?” All day long you’re using your I. All day long you’re saying, “I am this. I am happy. I am sad. I am sick.
I am well. I am tired. I am everything.” But when you practice atma-vichara you become aware of this. Totally aware that you’re always saying, “I am this and I am that.” And you question this by saying, “Well who am I? Who is this I? Who gave it birth? From whence did it arise?” Just by asking this question you will find peace.
SS: Is the mind exist, really exist? (R: Say that again?) Is the mind exist in the real world? Mind itself?
R: Is what in the real world? (SS: Mind. Our mind.) Does it exist? (SS: Yeah) It appears to exist. It’s an appearance. (SS: It’s not there?) There really is no mind. (SS: This is just a belief?) The mind is a belief but it is really the thoughts. All of your thoughts are the mind. Your thoughts come from out of the mind. It is really your thoughts that you have to get rid of, to remove from yourself. So the mind is a conglomeration of thoughts.
Thoughts about the past and worries about the future. This is all the mind is. When you really understand the nature of the mind the mind will disappear.
The mind is like a rainbow. The rainbow seems to be real. But when you get close to it, it doesn’t exist. It’s an optical illusion. Such is the mind. The mind is the same thing.
The mind makes you believe that you are a body. And that you have to go through experiences with your body. And the mind continues to fool you by making you believe there is karma and reincarnation and samskaras. And the whole mess of things that you have to get rid of. But when you inquire, “To whom does the mind come?” The mind will flee it will run away and you will be free.
SK: Robert when you’re referring to the mind in that question what about things like cooking or electronics or driving your car on the freeway, don’t those things enter the mind?
R: When the mind is gone then those things are spontaneous. What we call the Self, consciousness motivates you. You will do these things spontaneously. All the things you have to do will be done. But will no longer be the mind doing this. It will be consciousness, the Self. (SK: So those things and the mind are different things.) The mind is really consciousness but appears to be a mind like a dream. When you give up the mind only consciousness exists. And then you’ll be motivated guided by consciousness. (SK: Then what would you call these practical things. That they’re not mind they’re just objects out on their own? Inanimate objects?) What you call practical things… (SK: Yes.) …is also like your body.
As long as you believe you are a body then there will be practical things for you to take care of. But when you realize that you are not the body, you are not the mind then there will be no more practical things for you to take care of. Yet you will appear to be taking care of them. But they will be taken care of better than you could ever do before. At the same time you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s not you that are the doer.
You are not the doer. Yet everything will be done.SG: Your stand on bhakti and puja and things of that sort perpetuate duality but it also feels to me sometimes that self-inquiry itself does the same thing. Sort of presupposes a questioner and that which is being questioned. And sometimes when I try to practice self-inquiry it actually feels annoying like I’m being mental when I prefer just to be silent.
R: Then by all means you should be silent. Self-inquiry is good for many people.
And there are many people who cannot do this. So by all means do what you have to do.
Keep silent. Keep still. All roads lead to the same goal. All roads lead to the summit.
Therefore do whatever you have to do to become free and liberated.
SX: Many years ago when I was working ??? one day I’m just here and I didn’t remember anything what I did ??? and everything that would’ve been a problem dissolved. (R: Umm.) and all the way home and when I got home I ??? and the absolute, the totally of it frightened me and I turned right back off again. (laughs) And I think I’m probably not ready for this yet.
R: You have nothing to do with it and you have nothing to say about it. When it happens to you it will happen totally and completely. You got a glimpse of it. And apparently you got a good glimpse of it. But who are you to say you’re not ready for that?
(laughs) (SX: Well because I turned around right out of it.) You speak as if you are an authority on God. (laughter) That you have something to do with it. When God is ready for you God will take you over completely and you will have nothing to say about it whatsoever.
But that was a good experience. If that happens again surrender to it. And have no fear. It’s beautiful. Nothing can ever hurt you. It’s all bliss. It’s all love. Joy. (SX: That is what I mean by that and I really remembered it.) It will remember you. (SX: It will remember me? I won’t have anything to do with it?) No.
SZ: Robert when you die what happens?
R: When you die what happens? What do you want to happen? (laughter) Who dies? The ego dies, the body dies. But you never die. You live forever. So nothing really happens. I know you’ve heard all kinds of different stories about going into different realms, planes of existence. This is all part of the dream. You created these things yourself.
You created all these different planes. The subtle plane, the mental plane, the causal plane, all these things you read about in the yoga texts are of the mind.
They all belong to the mind. So when you believe in these things you go accordingly to what you believe. It’s all created by you, you create your world after you die. But the ultimate reality is no one ever dies and there is no where to go. You’re already here.
This is it. You are eternity. You are fathomless space. You are the essence of the whole universe. You are the sky, the sun, the moon, the flowers, the animals, the insects, human beings you are everything. This is your real nature. No one ever dies.
Glen (SG): Robert when our lady friend said that she had this experience and she turned back or couldn’t handle it. Does that mean that the mind can’t handle all that? It’s kind of a new energy or a new perception so the mind can’t handle it so the mind has to be coaxed slowly into accepting reality.
And this is your very nature right now. So what is there that cannot handle reality? This is your nature. This is what you really are. The things that you’re dealing with is the mind.
The mind makes all these experiences up. It makes you believe you can’t handle it, it’s too much for you. This is why work on destroying the mind on inquiring, “To whom does the mind comes? Who is this mind? What is this mind? Where did it come from? Who gave it birth?” And you will experience there is no mind. When you see there is no mind there is no longer any experiences you’ve got to go through. All experiences cease. But be aware that all experiences come from the mind.
In reality there are no experiences. For who is to have them? There is no you.
There is no one to have any experiences. The life you’re living now is an experience. The false life we all live, this is the experiences I’m talking about. It is all of the mind. And the average person believes in the mind so strongly that when they seem to drop the body.
They go forward in the plane of existence that they’ve created for themselves out of the mind. And then they come back and take on another body. It is all from the mind. So rather than to go all through these things transcend the mind and be free.
Glen (SG): How long does it take to get another body? Is that a stupid question? How long does one after they die before they…?
R: Why worry about this? (laughter) Why be concerned about another body. There are no bodies. Try to find out who you really are that you never were a body to begin with and be free.
Mary would you like to read the Jnani? (SM: Yes Robert.) (Mary reads the confessions of a Jnani refer to beginning of this book for text.) (tape starts abruptly)
R: …love yourself, to worship yourself, to pray to yourself, to bow to yourself for god dwells in you as you. Om shanti peace. Until we meet again God bless you. Be happy.
Don’t worry. All is well. Good luck. (students laugh)
(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.