– Transcript 183
R: Om shanti, shanti, shanti, om, peace. Good evening.
It is a pleasure to be with you once again, welcome. Peace be with you.
Most of us are aware intellectually that we are not the body or the mind. That the world as we see it and know it does not exist. Everything that we believed in to be solid and true are a lie. Yet we only understand this intellectually. This is why we do spiritual practices. For great Masters and great Sages have explained to us that to the extent you…
(dogs start barking) …to the extent you cause the mind to be quiet, the dogs to be quiet, everything to be quiet, to that extent do you start to realize something else. It happens by itself.
In other words if the mind slows down this illusory universe slows down also and you start to pick up a new vibration. You start to feel something else entirely, something different. Yet while you’re on this path something happens to you. You begin to feel different. If you’ve been practicing self-inquiry, if you’ve been practicing the other method to slow the mind down you will find certain attributes happening to you and this is when you know that you’re making progress. This is when you realize that you’re making progress.
The first understanding that you receive is that there is absolutely nothing to fear in this entire universe. You start to become fearless. I don’t mean you become an idiot and you don’t care about anything and you make a fool out of yourself and you say I’m fearless. You stand in front of a bus or you run in front of a car. I’m not referring to being foolish. But the fact is you do become fearless. You’re beginning to realize that the whole universe emanates out of your mind. So there is absolutely nothing to fear because you are the one. You are the ultimate oneness, the creative energy. This is you.
Consequently there is absolutely nothing to fear. For what can hurt you? The universe becomes your friend not your enemy. Everything in this world becomes friendly towards you. You find that things begin to work themselves out. People no longer bother you, frighten you. You’re beginning to understand your real nature. You were never born you can never die. Something appears to happen to you where you just become fearless.
Everything unfolds the way it’s supposed to unfold. There are no mistakes.
You feel someplace in your heart that nothing is trying to hurt you. Even when things do not appear to work out the way you want them to. You never become disappointed again. For you understand and feel that there is a power that knows the way, that takes care of you, watches over you, leads you on a straight and narrow path so you become fearless, not obnoxious or cynical. It’s not, “I don’t care” attitude. You have love, wisdom this is the reason you become fearless.
There is a story that illustrates this. There was once a student going to class and the teacher was explaining to him that he has nothing to fear. God will take care of him.
The universe is his friend. And he became pretty ecstatic about this. When the class was over he was walking down the back road to go to his house. There was a narrow bridge in front of him and some man came running toward him from the opposite direction saying, “There is a herd of wild elephants coming your way! Get out of the way quick!” And he stood his ground and he said, “What are you telling me this for I have absolutely nothing to fear. Nothing can hurt me. Nothing can do anything to me.” And he kept walking on the bridge fearless. Well, sure enough the herd of wild elephants came along and the first elephant picked him up and threw him over fifty yards away. He was bleeding, broken bones.
The Master heard about this one of the students came and told the Master, “Master your students is dying down the road. An elephant picked him up by his trunk and threw him against the tree.” The Master ran over to the student who was lying there and he said, “What happened?” The student explained to him what happened and he said, “Master you promised us that God will take care of us. The universe will take care of us. What happened. Why did this happen to me?” And the Master said, “You foolish person, why didn’t you listen to the person who was telling you to get out of the way? This was God also.
Telling you to get out of the way. You should have listened.” This is true with us.
When I say that you’re fearless do not believe that your ego is going to protect you from harm when you cause problems. Being fearless means that you listen to the trees.
You listen to the sky. You listen to the birds. You listen to some people. Everything is God.
Everything is the universe helping you. You have to use wisdom to be fearless. So remember the first attribute that happens to you on the spiritual path is fearlessness.
The next attribute that you feel when working on your sadhana, spiritual exercises, spiritual practices is a sense of peacefulness. You begin to be totally peaceful. Things that used to disturb you will cease or if it does not cease you’ve grown higher and it doesn’t disturb you any longer. People that used to disturb you, used to give you trouble they can no longer make you feel angry or upset. You feel an innate peace, the peace that passeth all understanding.
You feel very peaceful in whatever you do. It’s a beautiful peace. It’s a wonderful feeling. You are at peace with the world and at peace with the universe. You have reconciled yourself with the entire universe. With the mineral kingdom, with the vegetable kingdom, with the animal kingdom, with the human kingdom and you feel good about yourself.
The third attribute that you develop is loving kindness without motive. You become a loving kind person for no reason at all. You do not think about it you just become
A good example of this is about the two monks who are sent from the monastery to go buy supplies in the city. They were walking along the road it was raining. There was mud all over the floor. They came to a street crossing and they saw a beautiful young lady wanting to cross the street. But she had expensive shoes on and a little dress. So one of the monks picked her up and carried her across. The monks didn’t wear any shoes so it didn’t matter. And he put her down the other side and he went back to his other monk friend and they continued to the city to buy supplies for the monastery. They came back again and it was time for dinner and they sat down to eat. The other monk said, “You know when we took these vows of celibacy we were told never to look at a woman. When a woman comes by we should lower our eye lids and not look at a woman. And you broke the rule. This morning you picked up the girl and you carried her across the street.” The other monk smiled at him and he said, “Well I put her down this morning but apparently you’re still carrying her.”
This is what I’m referring to. To do what has to be done and forget it. Helping others, do not make a big deal out of it just do it. Be of service to other people and not think about it just do it. As you practice your sadhana these attributes become evident in your life without you even knowing it. If you have to think about these things then you’ve not arrived there. If you have to think about fearlessness, peace, loving kindness you have not arrived there yet. It is when these things become natural to you, when they become automatic then you know you’re making headway you’re making spiritual progress.
These three attributes are the first signs of spiritual progress. If you do not have these attributes it’s simply because you’re putting your ego first in your life. It is because you are in your own way. You’re reacting to the world. You’re allowing the world to make you despondent, upset, therefore you have to practice a little harder. For you are always practicing something aren’t you? You’re practicing your anger or your disappointments or your judgements or to be obnoxious. You’re always doing something with your life. Therefore why not practice peace, loving kindness, fearlessness. Why not understand the truth about yourself.
There are many paths to self-realization. Atma-vichara is only one of them. Whatever you have to do, do it!
Do not spend your days and your weeks and your months and your years on nonsense. Remember your body is not here for a long time. What you call your body will have to leave you one of these days. Then where will you be without a body. Therefore if you’re doing things for your body it’s like whipping a dead horse. You should take care of yourself, true but do not spend too much time taking care of yourself. Do what has to be done finish with it and go forward. The more you think of God the more God will think of you.
How do you think of God?When you become peaceful, when you have loving kindness, when you’re fearless.
How do you become fearless, loving kindness, peaceful? By doing spiritual practices. Choose the spiritual practice that you can live with whether it’s Buddhism, whether it’s mystical Christianity, whether it’s becoming the witness, becoming the observer of the I-thought. Whatever method you have to use by all means use it or do something. You are here in this body for no purpose whatsoever. Yet you believe that you’re important and there is a reason for you to be here.
Some people say, “I am here to find myself.” I would say, “You’re here to lose yourself.” Some people say, “I’ve come here for a purpose, to become self-realized.” Yet the truth is there is no one to become self-realized at all. Your body cannot become self-realized. This is why we have such a hard time with this because we’re trying to make the body pure.
This is the wrong start. We start from the top. We are already pure. We are already bright and shining. We are already choice-less, effortless, pure awareness. What we’re trying to do is reveal it and you reveal it by losing yourself, getting rid of yourself. Not by adding new teachings onto yourself or learning new dogma but rather by letting go of everything.
Especially words. We talk too much. This is one of the things that keep us back from making a lot of progress on the path. We have a tendency to talk too much we have to work things out. We want to explain things.
Yet in reality there is a power within you that knows what to do without your help. The power that knows the way does not need your help. It needs you to surrender to it. To let go completely and thoroughly, then everything will take care of itself. Again it’s hard to understand how everything takes care of itself. For we’ve been taught that we’ve got to do it. If we do not do it, it will not happen. We believe we’ve got to do it and this makes you the doer. Where in reality we want to get rid of the doership that you are not the doer.
Ponder these things. There is no one to do anything. Yet you appear to be doing something. Do not be confused about this. Paradoxically you will always be doing something yet in reality and in truth you will be doing nothing. There is really no one who has to do anything.
You did not ask to be born. So what gave you birth? It goes beyond your father and your mother. The truth is nothing gave you birth. Really you were never born. See these things I’m sharing with you sound ludicrous to some of you. You were never born.
You’re absolute reality. You’re effortless choice-less pure awareness. You’re boundless space. You have no body. Nothing that you do matters at all. I know to the average person this sounds ludicrous, totally ridiculous but yet this is the truth.
This is the reason I take you down a couple of notches to show you that as you progress on this path as you’re doing your humanhood find yourself becoming happier and happier, more peaceful. Things do not bother you too much. You take control of your life. And then I say, “You have no life. There is nothing to take control of. There is nobody
When your mind gets confused thinking, “Am I not the body? Am I the body? Am I empty space?” Just by pondering these questions within yourself the mind begins to slow down and this is exactly what you’re trying to do. To slow down the mind. So be confused it’s good for you. It’s a tremendous help for your unfoldment.
When you’re not confused you are simply attached to your beliefs, your preconceived ideas, your concepts and your linear thinking. When you are confused your linear thinking begins to break up, your concepts begin to break up, your values begin to break up, everything that you believe and stood for begins to break up. Which means you’re becoming free. And that is the whole idea to become free.
So when I speak to you from both levels. From the absolute level and from the relative point of view you understand why I’m doing this. To confound you and confuse you so the mind can be broken up to pieces, fragments until they disappear. Only when you have your own experience will you know that what I am saying is the truth. This is why I tell you so often, “Do not believe a word I say.” Go out and have your own experience.
But yet again here is a contradiction. It is only when you come to satsang, when you find a teacher who has gone that way that you can have your own experience. There are very few people who have had a personal realization without a teacher or without satsang. Yet it’s possible. But it is satsang and the Sage that really ruin your mind. Scorch your entire mind. Make you mentally deficient. Which is a blessing in disguise.
When some of you walk out of here you tell me, “You’ve got me completely confused now.” And I say, “Good that is what my job is. To confound you, to confuse you. To break up your mind into fragments.” My job is not to tell you the things you like to hear.
My job is to hit a nerve someplace within you that makes you think, “That guy is crazy.
He’s out of his mind. What’s he talking about?” That is when you’re starting to make spiritual progress. When you totally agree with me this is a hindrance to your spiritual path. I am not asking to agree with me. I am asking to have your own experience and to find the truth for yourself.
Think of the experiences you’ve been having in your life from the moment you open your eyes in the morning until you go to sleep at night. What goes through your mind? What do you feel? What do you see? What do you believe in? What is happening to you everyday?
The worst thing you can do in the morning is turn on the TV and read the newspaper. That is the worst thing you can do.
The best thing you can do in the morning when you wake up is to ask yourself, “Who am I?” and “What am I doing here?“The worst thing you can do at night before you go to sleep is to think about your job or your family or your finances or your sicknesses or your…all the other things that has been going on in your life.
The best thing you can do before you go to sleep or when you’re sleeping, going to sleep is to inquire, “To whom do these activities come? To whom has the days activities come? Who has experienced these days activities.”
So you see it’s up to you to do the right thing. Wherever you go in this world you still have to take yourself and no one can transcend your mind but you. No one can cause self-realization but you. No one can awaken you but you. You are the one. The world really has nothing to offer you. Your dreams have nothing to offer you. Look to yourself. Look to eternity within yourself. Learn to love yourself. When you’re loving your self you’re loving the universe for the Self is the whole universe.
When I say to love your self I’m not referring to your small self, your ego self. I’m referring to your real Self. Learn to love your Self.
There is absolutely nothing wrong anywhere in this universe and that includes your life. Do not react to conditions. Be happy, always. Do not look for things to make you happy. Just be happy. Everything you own you’re going to have to leave when you leave your body. Look to yourself. Everything begins with you. You are the one and there is no other.
Feel free to ask questions.
No one gets any prashad until you ask questions. Say something!
ST: That was a very profound talk. (R: What was that?) It was a very profound talk.
R: So ask a profound question. (ST: I must ask a profound question?) Why not? (ST: Good question. I think you ruined my life.) You never needed it anyway.
SY: Robert can I ask a question? (R: Sure.) When I think of going on the path to enlightenment it feels like a very long road of struggle. I think the …unclear…
R: That’s a good question. And you have to inquire, “Who feels like that? Who is the one that feels that it’s a long struggle? To whom is a long struggle?” See the truth is that you are already realized. In your heart of hearts you know that you’re free already. Therefore it’s the ego that thinks it’s along struggle. The ego tries to fool you and makes you think about a long struggle and you will never get there, but hold onto the truth that you’re already there. There is nowhere to get there is no one to struggle and you’ll go beyond the ego. There are many ways to do this. When the thought comes to you, “This is a long struggle. This is a long path.” Take a look at the question that came to you that makes you see this, that makes you say this to yourself and have a good hearty laugh. Laugh at…(tape break) …this. “I’m not afraid of you.” And keep still and laugh at yourself again. If you keep on doing this you will unfold at a very fast rate of speed.
So again whenever the question comes to your mind, the thought, “It’s a long struggle. I have to do a lot of work.” Immediately catch yourself. Do not continue along
And keep still, stop. That is how you overcome that.
Fred (SF): Do you want us to share? (R: Yes.) Okay there is something I learned not too long ago.
That Lord Krishna at one time or another stated that each of the three main paths, knowledge, devotion and service are the best or is the best. And it’s been said that he made this statement out of his magnificent compassion. And he also said something which is especially beautiful. He said, “In whatever way men love me in that same way they find my love. For many are the paths of men but they all in the end come to me.’ (R: Yes Fred, very true.) SK: Robert I find that that idea of the observer and the observed are the same. And just to get it clear. Does that mean that everything the observed is observing is his own projection? (R: Exactly.) So it’s all coming out of my mind, whatever I see is my own thing? (R: True.) Creating all my own thoughts, creating all the thoughts…the whole is coming from me, is myself.
R: It’s all coming from you. Look at yourself again as a mirror. And the mirror cannot see itself. It sees a reflection of itself which is the world. So we’re all mirrors and we’re all seeing our reflection. Consequently whatever you see is yourself. So if you see hate and malice all kinds of nonsense in this world that is where you’re coming from right now you’re seeing this because you’re seeing yourself. But as you grow and the mirror becomes polished and clean you start to see a new image. You start to see in the imperfection you see perfection. In the chaos and confusion you see love and harmony. Because the dust has been polished off the mirror and you’re seeing the true picture.
SL: (students question unclear) (R: Say that again.) Is it always the mind that says ???
R: Yes, yes it is, it’s the mind. The mind sort of becomes washed so-to-speak in the beginning. It becomes clear. And the mind causes you to see harmony and joy. But in the end the mind goes also and there is no one to see anything. Now you’re in a completely new dimension. When the mind goes there is no clarity, there is no disharmony, there is no good, there is no bad, there is no God, there is no devil. The mind is the one that causes these things to happen. So when you start seeing good things in this world it is the mind that sees the good things. It’s a very high step. But in the last analysis the mind has to be totally annihilated. Totally wiped out, totally killed and then there is no one to see anything. Then you become bliss, consciousness, pure awareness by confusing the mind until it breaks up into fragments, into pieces.
SL: Is it confusion what causes people to be liberated and free?
R: It is relative confusion, yes. But as you grow spiritually. The relative confusion goes into a higher realm. Where your mind begins to break up the relative confusion and the disharmony plus the harmony begin to disappear. As the mind sees these things disappearing you go higher and higher in your unfoldment until the mind disappears in its entirety. (SL: So you’re making progress in the beginning when there’s confusion and harmony.) Yes, when you realize that everything is from the mind, everything emanates from the mind, beauty, harmony, hate, evil, it’s all two sides of the same coin. Yet beyond the relative beauty, beyond the relative evil, beyond the relative goodness and joy there lies something more beautiful and more joyous than you can ever imagine. There are no words to express it or explain it. You have to experience it for yourself. There is a joy beyond the joy of relativity that no human being can express. For the finite cannot express the infinite.
We have to go beyond words, beyond mind, beyond thoughts, beyond everything we’ve ever known and then we become that. Then there are no longer no explanations.
There is nothing we have to do. There is nothing we have to explain. We have just become that, Sat-Chit-Ananda, the absolute reality. But the mind has to be totally wiped out for that to happen.
SH: How do you wipe out the mind?
R: By looking at the mind. Watch the mind, observe the mind — what appears to be the mind. Watch what it does, watch how it thinks by not reacting to it, observing it, looking at it, but never reacting to it. Or inquiring, “To whom does the mind come? Who has this mind? Where did it come from? Who gave it birth? I did? Then who am I?” By observing your thoughts and saying it comes to you, as peace comes to you, as all these relative things come to you, just watch without reacting. Then the mind becomes weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker until it finally dissolves and you’re home free. But the moment you react to anything you spoil it.
SK: You just explained the terminology of “I and the Father are one,” to get to that place where there is no observer observing it. It’s just right now “I and the Father are one.” ??? I sense that, you know. Once the mind is gone you’re just there.
R: The Father refers to God. I refers to the small self. When you say, “I and the Father are one,” it means that the small self has merged into the universal Self and you’re free.
SY: How about, “Be still and know that I am God.” That’s when we’re that, I mean…I’m confused. (R: Good that’s great.) I came here and I’m confused now and… (R: You’re making good progress.) The only thing that makes sense to me is when I’m silent by myself or when I’m silent here with you and like I just have to be still and know that I am God.
R: Well that suffices and it’s good. (SY: Yeah.) If you can be still and know that you are God that is great. (SY: But I forget it, when I’m walking around I forget it.) You forget it because you’re not practicing, are you? (SY: No, I mean I meditate and I pray in the morning and in the night you know…in my own way. I don’t have any special practice, I just say what comes in my mind.) See if we were together like in an ashram and you saw me everyday then there would be nothing at all which you have to do but sit there in satsang and that would suffice. But I only have you about four hours or five hours a week. Some of you less than that and the world has you the rest of the time. This is why you have to diligently practice self-inquiry or observation of the mind. You have to be your own teacher. That is why you have the transcripts. It is good to read these transcripts before you go to sleep at night.
Also when you get up in the morning. And be with these ideas that we’re talking about
For as an example, You read in the transcripts that you have to ask yourself, “Who am I?” continuously. The transcript will remind you and then you put down the transcript and you do it. When you’re getting dressed, when you’re washing the dishes, when you’re going to work, when you come home, you keep repeating to yourself, “Who am I?” Even when you’re working. It will not interfere with your work. Keep inquiring continuously, “Who am I? Who is doing this work? Who feels this and who feels that? It is the I not me.
Then who am I?” or “Where is the source of the I?” and keep inquiring like this all day long. Then after a while something will break and you will begin to feel peaceful as we discussed in the beginning. You will begin to become fearless, peaceful, you will develop loving kindness then you know you’re making progress.
R: Mary would you read the Jnani? (SM: Yes.)
(Mary reads the Jnani refer to beginning of this book for text) R: Thank you Mary. (SM: Thank you Robert.)
R: Do we have any announcements?
Mary (SM): Ah yes we do.
R: It is satsang time. It’s time to eat.
(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.