– Transcript 184
R: Greetings and salutations. It is good to be with you once again. I welcome you with all my heart. I love you. All is well. Everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes. Everything is in its right place. Just the way it is.
Ask your self the question, “What is your purpose for being here today? What is your reason for coming to satsang?” If you have a purpose you shouldn’t be here. Who has a purpose? The ego, the mind. The ego and the mind has lots of reasons for being here.
The ego and the mind want to become enlightened, wants to become self-realized. What a joke! (students laugh)
The personal self can never know self-realization. The ego, the mind, the personal self can never receive moksha. Why? Because they don’t exist. There really is no ego, there is no mind, there is no personal self. So if you have a purpose you’re on the wrong track.
Life has no purpose. The universe has no purpose. You have no purpose.
What is the purpose of water in the mirage? Does it have a purpose? You see a pool of water in the desert and you think it’s real. And then you go for it and you’re picking up sand. And so it is with existence. Existence seems so valid, so real, so true. Yet who exists? Have you ever existed? Will you ever exist, what exists? Nothing.
When I say nothing I mean no thing. There is absolutely no thing that has its own existence. The appearance may seem strong, may seem real. The appearance of existence may seem to be valid and yet in the highest truth there is no existence.
Then you ask me what is my purpose? What am I doing here? I don’t know, I’m just here. I have no idea why I’m here. I have no purpose. I really have nothing to share with you. I’m not looking for name or fame or anything at all. For forty years I’ve been running around the country, the world, hiding and people always find me for some reason. And there goes my peace. (students laugh) So what am I doing here? Who knows, yet there is no difference between me and you. I’m nothing special. Again the analogy is, a mirror cannot see itself. I’m like a mirror, I cannot see myself. I see the reflection of the Self, the reflection of pure awareness. Consequently I see you as absolute reality, as pure awareness. I see you as Brahman. This is my reflection. You are also a mirror and you cannot see yourself yet you see your reflection, what do you see? When you look at your fellow man do you see love, peace, harmony, joy or do you see something else?
When you understand how this works you will realize whatever you’re seeing you’re seeing your self. You are always seeing yourself. You may see yourself as an enlightened being and you will see the whole universe as enlightened or you may see yourself as a thief, as bank robber, as a gossip. Whatever you see in others you see in yourself.
Whatever you see in others is yourself. There is only one Self and you are that. So, what is the reason for you being here? There should be no reason whatsoever. It’s just a happening, it happens by itself.
There is a mysterious power in the universe. I like to call it, “The power that knows the way,” which maintains the grass and the clouds and the sky, the trees, the food, the oranges, the wheat and also appears to maintain us and sustain us. Therefore you have nothing to concern yourself about. Nothing to worry about, nothing to fear. The whole universe is your friend. Yet the universe does not exist. Your friend does not even exist. As long as you believe you are the doer, that you are the body and the mind you will always be taking some kind of action. You will always be looking out for yourself. Seeking fame, seeking glory, seeking lust. All of these things are a part of the human experience that does not exist. So why am I talking about it? What else can I do?
You came here to hear a lecture a speech. You came here to hear profound words, they’re not coming from me. I have absolutely nothing profound to share with you. It’s just been my experience that nothing exists. That’s it! Yet when I say those words, “Nothing exists,” there is something beyond existence and nonexistence, something immutable, something ineffable. Something that words cannot describe or utter. There is a beauty, a bliss, a joy but these words are meaningless by themselves. But there is something grand which is your real nature. Remember when I tell you, “You do not exist, I’m referring to your ego, to your personal self.” You are part of a divine plan. As long as you believe you are the body accept this.
If you must believe in the God, Ishvara who grants you boons and gives you karma, controls the whole universe, then put yourself in Ishvaras hands. Meaning surrender completely totally to the power that knows the way. Give it all up. Hold onto nothing.
If you do you will also come to the place in life where you will also give Ishvara up. You will begin to feel, to comprehend, to understand that this Ishvara is an emanation of your mind. In other words you have created God in your own image. This is good, there is nothing wrong with this. You should become mad for God. You should become God intoxicated. You can only do this when you give up this world mentally not physically, you do not have to give anything up physically. The physical will follow the mental. When you mentally become non-attached to person, place or thing you will then begin to live a spiritual life. Until then you’re not living any spiritual life whatsoever.
Spiritual life means a letting go, a giving up, a release of all the things that have turned you on up till now. All the things that seem important to you, good, bad in between and mentally letting go. For it doesn’t matter whether you live in a palace or a hut, whether you have a million dollars or five cents, whether you’re dying of cancer or you’re healthy as a horse it shouldn’t make any difference. For after all to whom does this happen? Not to you, but to I. It is the I-thought that experiences all these things, you don’t.
You are totally free. Yes you are. You are totally free, absolute reality. Your nature is Sat-Chit-Ananda. You are nirvana the ultimate oneness there is absolutely nothing you have to do to attain this state. You don’t have to even wake up. Many times I tell you to wake up because I’m using words. But in reality to wake up means that someone was asleep. Who is there that sleeps? Who is there that is disillusioned, ignorant? Is there one really who is ignorant? There is no ignorance. If there is no ignorance there is no enlightenment.
Therefore when you think of words like absolute reality, pure awareness you are saying to yourself, oh I wish I could attain these things. This makes you believe you’re something else and you have to attain something else. But in truth you’re never anything and you’ll never be anything except a good for nothing. You have to stop trying to become something. You have to stop looking. To become self-realized, awakened. Just be. Do not be this or that. Be the pure being which you are without words, without thoughts, without explanations. It has to come from your heart not from your head. Head knowledge comes and goes but heart knowledge stays forever.
I’m speaking of the spiritual heart on the right side of the chest. Not your physical heart, not chakras, not kundalini. There is a spiritual heart on the right side of the chest that is equivalent to the source of the universe which I mentioned the other day. There is a central source to this whole universe and the whole universe spins around the central source. This earth makes a twenty-four thousand year cycle. Twelve thousand years of enlightenment, twelve thousand years of going backwards into the dark ages. But the point is the spiritual heart is equivalent to the source of all creation and this is on the right side of your chest. It is this that is the pure awareness, the absolute reality, the nirvana. It is within you. It is within you all the time. You really have to dive in it. Dive in it deeply. Go deep, deep inside the spiritual heart.
There is a story which clears this up to an extent. There was once a young girl who was a prostitute and she was born into prostitution karmically. Her mother was a prostitute before her, her grandmother was a prostitute before her. She was born into this kind of life she knew nothing else. One day she was looking out of the window she looked across the street in front of the supermarket. There was a preacher who was preaching about God, to repent, to give up sin. Telling everyone they’re going to go to hell. And he would point to the house of prostitution and say, “See those people in there they’re all sinners. They’re all going to burn in hell. Give up your sins, accept God.” He did this day after day after day. And the young prostitute used to look at him and say to herself, “How I wish I was like him. Why am I going through this life the way I am? Oh God give me the strength to carry on. Whatever you may do for me I will accept. I accept my lot in life but please help me, free me from this kind of position.” And yet she did her work in prostitution which she was supposed to do and in between jobs she would look out the window and wish she was a holy person like that man.
Now they both got older and older and older and they both finally died and left their body. They both appeared before God for judgment and God looked at the holy man and he said, “You’re going to hell,” and he looked at the girl and he said, “You’re going to heaven.” And the holy man was shocked and he said, “God how can this be? I’ve preached your name for years and years. I’ve told people to come to you. To surrender to you. While this girl is nothing but a prostitute. How can she go to heaven and I go to hell?”
And God smiled and said, “My son, you have been preaching for many many years but where was your heart? In your heart was lust, greed, yet you preached to people to change their ways to become pure but you were never pure, only on the outside you put on a good show. But the so-called prostitute, her karma was to be a prostitute. She really didn’t complain she just prayed for realization, to know why. With the power to continue. She prayed from her heart and I in her heart listened. This is the reason why you’re going down below and she is going up above.
So it is with us. We read many books. Many of us have traveled to India, to Jerusalem, to Tibet, to Japan. We’ve been involved in Zen, yoga, Islam, Judaism, Catholicism and everything else. But what are we really doing? What are we really searching for? The one you’re searching for is already within you. The one you’re searching for has not gone any place. The one that you’re looking for is right where you are right now. You are that.
Look no further. You are the one. You are the one. Yet many of us because of karma are inclined toward different paths. Everyone can’t be on the same path it would be boring if everybody in this whole universe and this whole world took the same path. So God gives us variety. All paths lead to the same goal. But the two paths that are very important to realize and to understand are the paths of Jnana and bhakti, the path of knowledge and the path of devotion. In the path of knowledge you understand I-am-that-I-am. You begin to inquire, “Who am I?” You negate the whole world your body included, your mind. Neti-neti, not this, not this. You deny everything and what is left is your Self. The universal Self, the all pervading absolute reality. You awaken as your Self.
The path of bhakti is much easier for most people. To become a true bhakta you simply have to become God intoxicated. How do you do this?
You turn to your spiritual heart and you imagine a beautiful sphere of light in your physical heart. Then you think of your favorite deity. Whether it’s Krishna, Christ, Mohammed, Moses, whoever it may be and you see this person in your spiritual heart, in the light. You begin to love this person to adore this person. You think of this person night and day, day and night until you lose yourself into this person. You can pray to this being.
You may pray to this deity. You can laugh from happiness. You can cry from joy. But you have to develop passion. You have to be passionate in your love. And cry out to this God within you, “Free me, oh Lord, release me. Do with me as you will but free me. Show me I’m not the body. Eat up my ego.”
Keep praying this way. Keep seeing the picture of this deity in your heart and keep diving deeper and deeper and deeper. This means that the external world will become totally meaningless to you. It doesn’t mean that you will do nothing. Remember the body that appears to be real came to this plane of existence to do something, karmically. So whether you like it or not your body will continue to do something. There will never be a
time when you give up doing. You are to understand that you are not the doer, you are not the thinker, you are not the body nor the mind. Yet the body will go where it has to go, do what it has to do but it has absolutely nothing to do with you. You have nothing to do with this body. So you have two paths to follow, one or the other. You can follow them both at the same time. As soon as you wake up in the morning you may say to yourself, “Who am I?” and then see the light in your heart. See the deity in the light and feel the love that you emanate. Feel the love in the heart, the total love, the total peace, the total joy.
Then you can go back into asking yourself, “Who am I?” and try to understand that you are the deity. You are the one that you see. It may appear that there are two of you right now. You are the deity of your choice. But you understand in reality there is only one and you are the one.
If you continue this for of practice, a little Jnana, a little bhakti keep doing one or the other all day long something will give, something has to give! You cannot practice these things without something giving and you will become free. Again this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go anywhere or do something else. You can watch TV, you can go to a movie, you can go swimming, you can go play golf, you can go bowling but never forget who you are, that’s all. Always remember who you really are. Where you have to go you’re going to go anyway. Remember everything is preordained, predetermined. Everything that is going to happen to you is already planned before you came into your body, everything. Even when I move my finger like this. It’s all planned, it’s all preordained.
With all this knowledge what do you have to worry about? What can you possibly fear? Who can hurt you? Whether you believe that you are a body or whether you believe you’re something else, you are very well protected by the divine bliss that is the center of your heart. So be happy. You are free.
(silence)
It is time to play stump the guru.
We have questions. When you come in please be sure to write down the question you like. We use it as a stumper.
SH: I’m waiting for you when you’re really stumping. (laughs) So far it hasn’t happened.
(R: There is one answer for everything.) (laughter) One day someone will stump you. (laughs) SB: What happens when you get stumped? (R: We’ll trade places.) (laughter) (Q - Mary reads, A - Robert answers.)
R: Okay Mary. (Prompting Mary to read the first question)
Q: Okay, What is a soul? What happens when a person dies.
A: What is Kafilter fish? (laughter) A soul is the same thing. (laughter) Or could I say this is a soul. (Points to something) Take your choice. (laughter) To whom does the soul exist? Who has a soul? Who made a soul? A soul is a part of the imaginings. A part of the mental concepts of reality which doesn’t exist. It’s so easy just to be yourself and be omnipresent, all pervading, consciousness, but you want to be a soul. (laughter) So a soul can be anything that you believe. That’s a soul. Whatever you believe it is that is what it is.
Only remember it’s part of your belief system. It has no reality of its own. So a soul is a word that you made up. Something that somebody taught you when you were a kid that you have a soul and when you die your soul goes to heaven or some place like that. The truth is you can never die you were never born there is no soul, you are totally free. Hallelujah! (laughter) SH: That’s telling you like it is. (laughs)
Mary (SM): So is that what happens when a person dies? (R: What’s that?) That was like two questions, what happens when a person dies?
R: What happens when a person dies, nothing! What do you want to happen?
Whatever you believe that is what happens. But in truth if you practice sadhana, spiritual disciplines you never have to concern yourself with things like that. For there will never be a time when you have to die. You don’t die! Who dies? Somebody who doesn’t exist.
Only the person who never existed dies. What exists can never die because it was never born and you are that. Therefore do not confuse yourself with those kind of questions.
Soul, death, birth, they’re all illusions, they’re all impostors. Accept the fact that you are God and be finished with it. Next case.
Q: Alright. Please give us some divine inspirations for human beings living with HIV, AIDS and cancer.
A: Well those things are a part of the game. As terrible as it may seem it’s part of the human so-called existence. Since the beginning of time mankind so-to-speak has had calamities. There used to be the black plague, leprosy. You can go back in time and find all sorts of diseases and now we have AIDS or whatever. When you believe you’re a human being the planet has to balance itself out. When there is an over abundance of people on this planet people are worried about being over population. This will never happen. For the more mankind prolongs his life the more there will be diseases to take it away. We can say something like this. There have been approximately three billion souls - that do not exist - that are allocated to this planet. (laughter) And they come and go. There is a time when more come then there is a disease, a famine, an earthquake and part of the population is wiped out.
R: More than 4 billion. (ST: Yes today we have 5 or 6 billion on the planet.) Take or leave a billion. (ST: I like your attitude.) (laughter) So anyway what will happen - and this sounds terrible to an extent - It’s like the millions of people who died in the concentration camps. During the inquisition millions of people that were killed. People have come people have gone. Remember this planet is billions of years old. There have been many civilizations on this planet. Some of them have surpassed us where we are now and they were all destroyed and it starts all over again. So disease is only one way of cleaning the planet.
Do not worry. Do not be concerned.
Now you can look at me and say, “Well he doesn’t care because he doesn’t have AIDS.” This body has its own disease but it doesn’t mean a thing to me. Do not be afraid,
that is the thing you must know. Have no fear. You are in good hands, for your sake.
(laughter) As long as you have insurance what are you worried about? (laughter) No seriously, all is well. Nothing wants to hurt you. Nothing can hurt you. Take your mind off it.
Give your mind to God. Think of God all of the time not of the problem and you will be safe. There is a love that is taking care of you that is much greater than the AIDS or whatever. This love is yourself, find it, look for it, go for it. It’s there. For you are that and you’ll be okay. Have no fear. I can assure you all is well. Next case.
Q: What is the process that helps us to know we’re God in satsang or that the presence of God is in us even though it leaves later?
A: We’ve been talking about this for two hours. Ask yourself, “Who am I?” Inquire, “To whom do these problems come?” Become passionate for God. See God in the right side of your chest at the source. And dive deep into your chest into your heart center. Deep within where you’ve never been before. And you do that by letting go of everything. Diving deep inside the heart center. Into your deity of choice and be free. Practice those things.
Q: How can the spiritual heart be located in a specific spot in the physical body. Since spiritual means non-physical and since the body is an illusion anyway.
A: In reality this is true. But as long as you believe you are a body there is a spiritual heart, don’t you see? As long as you believe you’re human then you have to have something to work with. So there is a spiritual heart that is presented to you that you may dive deep within it and become free. But you are saying the truth in reality everything is the spiritual heart. But you don’t know that or you would be free already. You would have awakened. Since you have to ask this question then you will have to play with your spiritual heart. When you have reached a sense of maturity, a spiritual maturity, then you are the spiritual heart, the leaves are the spiritual heart, the mountains are the spiritual heart, Henry is the spiritual heart. But until you realize that you are not the body then go for the spiritual heart on the right side of the chest. Next.
Q: I don’t know how to let go deep inside myself it’s very painful to hold on. Can you speak to me on this? Thank you.
A: Who doesn’t know how to let go? The real you has never held on. The perfect you that is absolute reality has nothing to hold onto. So you have nothing to let go of.
Think about this. Ponder this. “Who has to let go of something? I? Who am I? Who am I?”
You are not the I. It is the I who asks the question. It is the I who cannot let go. Go beyond the I. Trace the I back to the source, to the center of the heart. Follow the I back. Let it merge in the soul which doesn’t exist, in the heart, follow it. Dive inside. This is all done mentally first. Do these things mentally, imagine it within yourself and make it happen.
Then you’ll become happy and free.
Q: Is satsang an expression of (these are capital letters) AS IS, or is satsang AS IS itself?
A: As is, as is not. You are! You are the satsang yourself. As is, IS! It is not this, it is not that. It is is-ness. “Is you is or is you ain’t my baby.’ Remember that song? (laughter)So forget about all this is-ness. Go beyond is-ness. Become free and happy and peaceful. We make up all kinds of words. It’s like putting ourselves in a dungeon. And we can’t get out when the door has always been open to the dungeon. All we have to do is open the door and get out. We come up with all these parables and statements and words. Try to empty your mind totally. Do not add to the mind, empty it. Forget about words and statements and stories. You’d rather have an empty mind, no mind and see yourself as being empty, free, happy, divine. What you are anyway.
Q: There is two questions on that, what is understanding?
R: Understanding is understanding. Understanding is sitting here listening to me and then asking the question what is understanding? What is understanding? Nothing.
Who has to understand? Does a light have to understand its brightness? Does the sun have to understand that it shines all the time? Who are you that thinks it doesn’t understand? Realize that you are all pervasive, like the sun. And there is absolutely nothing to understand. There is just beingness, consciousness, that is you. Does God have to understand anything? It’d be a sorry God if it had to understand things. There is nothing for God to understand, there is nothing for you to understand. Just be. Be happy. Be filled with joy and bliss. Be yourself.
Q: Is waking up always sudden and irreversible?
A: True awakening is sudden and irreversible. Partial awakening is under the awakening. For instance in nirvikalpa samadhi. This is a person who goes into states of samadhi, states of clarity for a period of time then comes out again. And is back in the world with all its problems and nonsense. Sahaja samadhi on the other hand is a being who is awakened twenty-four hours a day. There is no longer any sleep for that person.
No longer any going or coming. That person acts like a human being and is always in a state of bliss. So true awakening comes in a flash. It’s as if you’re in a dark room tripping over the furniture then you turn on the light. The light didn’t come on gradually. It wasn’t at first very dim and you can’t see it but you’re still tripping over the furniture but you’re able to see it and then the light gets brighter and brighter, it doesn’t work that way. The light goes on, the darkness has dissipated. Darkness never comes back. If it isn’t a full awakening it isn’t a real awakening. A real awakening is spontaneously and permanent.
Q: Is it likely that we need to become fairly established in the witness consciousness before going beyond the witness?
A: Yes and no depends who you are. If you want to be a witness be a witness. It’s up to you. You’re in control you’re in charge. You can be anything you like. Just know that you’re absolute reality that you’re free. If you just can realize that you’re free, total freedom, total love, total bliss then there will be no reason to be a witness. But if you want to play around with witnessing by all means do so. You can be the witness. Be the witness of what is going on here today. By being the witness your mind is in abeyance and you’re witnessing you’re watching without reaction that is being the witness. You’re observing you’re not reacting to anything you’re just looking, watching. Your feelings are on God
and the Self, on reality. But you are witnessing creation in its play. So be whatever you want to be. (pause) Bob?
SB: Advaita teaches to transcend the mind and be silent. But the highest Buddhist teachings teach to remain in pure presence watching thoughts. Is one more equipped to realization than the other? Transcending all thoughts directly or just remaining as pure presence being aware of thoughts until you arrive but still identifying with pure presence.
R: Realization is a gift of God. It is God’s grace that makes you totally and fully realized. Everything else is just a coming close to God’s grace. It brings you close to God’s grace. All of your sadhana’s, all of your practices that you do, everything you’ve ever done was to bring you close to God’s grace. All of your practices are to release the mind, to give up the mind, to make the mind quiescent. Then you’re close to God what we call God.
God’s grace becomes part of your being and you become totally free.
Do not make your life complicated. Do not make the teaching complicated. The teaching is very simple it’s for a child. All you have to do is to look at the world with awe and realize that the world is really God in expression. Pray to the God within you say, “God this is your world that I see. This is your illusion. This is your Maya. This is all you.
Even my body is you. Even my mind is you, my thoughts are you. You are all and I am that.” As you passionately learn to love God, as your Self, you become free and grace flows and you become the true Self. That’s all you have to do.
SB: If you have trouble keeping the mind quiet is the next best thing to just stay as consciousness and when the mind arises just be aware of the mind arising but yet remain in the pure presence of consciousness?
R: You can ask yourself, “To whom does the mind arise?” Always question yourself. Question yourself. You question yourself, “Who has this mind? Who thinks it has to watch and witness? To whom do these thoughts come? Who has to go through all this trouble? My real nature is already perfect. I am that ultimate reality, so who has to do all of these things? Who has to go through all of this?” Keep talking to yourself like this. Question yourself continuously question yourself, question yourself and then you’ll run out of questions and be free.
Remember to love yourself, to worship yourself, to pray to yourself, to bow to yourself, for God dwells in you as you.
We have some prashad feel free to enjoy. Om shanti peace.
(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.