– Transcript 195
R: Om shanti, shanti, shanti, om, peace. Good evening. (Students: Good evening Robert.) I welcome you from the bottom of my heart.
When you sit in the silence the power of the Self is at work. Even though your mind is still thinking thoughts. As long as you’re sitting in your quiet and you don’t talk, no noise is going on, even though the mind maybe busy, the power of the silence is at work. When you talk a lot, have too many conversations Maya is at work. Maya rules over you. I’m not speaking of in satsang in particular. I’m speaking of in your home, at work always have very little to say and you’ll be safe. If you have too much to say it causes conflict, misunderstanding and chaos.
As an example the politicians of today, they talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. Yet people are gullible enough to believe everything they say. This is why the world is always in chaotic conditions because they’re all talking. If we had a politician who said nothing he would raise everybody’s consciousness, or she and we would have a heaven on this earth. But it’s not bound to be. It’s not meant to be. Everything on this earth is unfolding as it should. Everything is happening the way it’s supposed to.
Remember the idea of Jnana is not to make this world a better place in which to live. For the world is Maya. It is an illusion. This is the reason why a Jnani never advocates world peace or bringing good into this world for the realization of this world does not exist. Even though it appears to exist. Only the absolute reality exists, as this world, as the appearance.
We have to remember that the world is an appearance. If we can only remember this if the world is an appearance because it keeps changing all the time, it is never the same. If we just remember this we would be careful what we say, what we do, how we act.
For the appearance is an appearance of duality. What goes around comes around. Cause and effect, karma. This is the appearance of the world.
When you remain in the silence and you do not talk much then the appearance of this world begins to dissolve. The appearance of the body begins to dissolve. You begin to feel differently. You begin to see things differently. You are no longer surviving, trying to make ends meet, trying to improve your condition. You begin to understand there is no condition to improve. You are beyond conditioning. Good or bad. Sickness or health. Lack or limitation or riches. It’s all the same. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s an appearance. And whatever you’re experiencing you have to experience the other.It’s like a pendulum swinging back and forth. The pendulum goes to one side then has to go back to the other side. And so it is with human life. So called human life is the same thing. We experience one side of it then we experience the other side of it sooner or later. But no human being so-to-speak ever experiences oneness, it’s impossible. For the whole universe is duality.
So, many people when they first get involved with Advaita Vedanta or Jnana believe that it’s a very selfish teaching, believe that it’s a very conceited teaching. Why? For the idea is to become self-realized. Jnani’s are always expressing themselves, “I am Brahman. I am pure awareness, I am the absolute reality,” and people who do not understand this say, “why don’t you think about this world? Why don’t you help the poor? Why don’t you help alleviate man’s inhumanity to man? Why do you not help the homeless? Why don’t you try to make this world a better world in which to live?” They say this because they do not understand what we’re talking about.
When a being becomes so-called self-realized the self-realization is not for him or her alone. The self-realization is a universal feeling. I am the universe is a realization. I am the Brahman, the all pervading one this is a realization. The realization is not about yourself. This is something we always have to remember. It is not selfishness. This teaching is not conceit. For when you become self-realized there is no longer a you. What you have called a you has disappeared. What you call you has become the whole universe.
Therefore just by being self-realized you are helping the world without thinking about it. Again why? Because you have become the world, you see? You’re no longer Jack or Jane or Mary or Bob or anybody else. A person who touches their self-realization becomes the entire universe. And therefore you see only the goodness. You do not separate goodness from badness, there is no longer any badness in your psyche, in your consciousness you have transcended badness so-called. Everything is good even the so-called evil, the things we call evil on this earthly plane.
You begin to understand that everything that happens to you is for your own good, for your own benefit. Nothing is here to ever hurt you, as strange as it may seem.
Everything is here for your advancement, everything. Every situation, every predicament is there for your advancement.
Consequently this teaching is the most unselfish teaching there is. For when a Jnani says, “I am Brahman,” He’s not referring to his humanhood.
The attack dogs are at it. (Dogs barking loudly)
SH: He got it alive nonetheless. (laughs)
(Robert continues) So. When the Jnani says, “I am Brahman, I am consciousness, I am the absolute reality,” the Jnani is not referring to himself. That is something you always have to remember. The Jnani is referring to I-am. I-am encompasses the whole world, the whole universe. And of course Brahman is the same thing. Brahman encompasses the whole universe, everything. Therefore you are everything. But to the average person who doesn’t understand this, they think you’re talking about yourself when you say, “I am
Brahman.” And they go home and they say, “All those Jnanis are all for themselves. They only think about themselves. They only interested in themselves because they’re always saying, “I am Brahman, I am consciousness, I am absolute reality.” Try to understand this thoroughly. I-am is eternity. Consciousness is the absolute reality.
Now you can perhaps understand why a Jnani never takes revenge on people.
Never is concerned about getting hurt. Never cares about the body too much. Because the realization again is, “I am not the body!” Again when we’re speaking of I-am we are not speaking of Henry or Sue or anybody else we’re speaking about I-am. I-am is not the body.
Consciousness is not the body. Therefore when you’re in your highest state of thought and you affirm I-am consciousness you understand what this means. Everything is consciousness. Everything is I-am. Everything is Brahman. And of course in that state you automatically have reverence for all of life. What else can you do? You have no choice because you are all of life. So how can you hurt yourself? It’s impossible. But you have to understand the thinking of a Jnani thoughts like this do not appear. That I’m hurting or not hurting myself, that I’m all pervading. Those thoughts are gone. A Jnani just is. Not this nor that, just is. Is-ness. And there is really nothing to say about that. So this teaching is not selfishness, not conceit. It is the truth, it is reality.
But of course it does happen when some people become involved in a teaching like this. They may become completely insane and believe they alone are God. They may believe their body is consciousness. That their body is the absolute reality. This is a grave mistake that some people make. You have no body to be reality. There is no body to be consciousness. There is no body to be pure awareness. This has absolutely nothing to do with your body whatsoever. The body idea falls away. Always remember this. We are not trying to elevate our body, to make the body perfect and make it live forever. The whole concept of a body is erroneous thinking, false imagination. The body idea is a dream. The body does not exist the way it appears.
So again by sitting in the silence all of these truths become evident to you. Everything happens by itself. Everything happens all by itself. There is nothing you have to do and now you know why? Because when you are the doer, you are the body and the doer and the body can never be anything else but itself. You cannot be a body, you cannot be a doer and you cannot be self-realized at the same time. The body idea has to go. The doer idea has to be transcended. You cannot be self-realized and be a body. But then you’re saying, “But I see many Jnanis who are a body. So how can you say that?” You answered your own question, “You see this. Who are you? Are you self-realized that you can say that you see a Jnanis body?” The Jnani knows he has no body. He never had a body and never will have a body. But the ajnani sees the body.
Don’t ask me why things are like they are, I don’t know? That some things appear.
The whole universe is a grave mistake. Why does it appear as it is? That’s an important question people ask. Why is this universe here if it doesn’t exist? And the answer may be a little lucid for some of you but you will understand. The answer is there is no universe. It doesn’t exist. Very few people can comprehend this. No one made it appear.
There are people who believe God created the universe. This is the story that is told to children to have an explanation for the universe. We have to have some explanation we don’t want to appear dumb, do we? Human beings don’t want to appear as if they don’t know. Therefore when you ask somebody, “Where does this universe comes from?”
They tell you, “God created it.” And when you ask them, “Where did God come from?”
They have nothing to say. They will say, “That’s not for you to know.” As many churches tell you, “That’s blasphemy.” They say, “Never ask where God came from, that’s blasphemy. You’ll go to hell and burn. (laughter) If you ask questions like that.” But we have to think about these things some time.
Remember I’m sharing with you my own experiences. It’s so wonderful to know these things, to be so sure of these things, to understand these things, that there is no universe and nothing is going on. Nothing is happening. As long as you appear to be happening and you think you are a body, even though you know this intellectually what I’m saying, this helps, to know it intellectually. For you will be careful what you do.
What I’m saying is, when you come to satsang and your own state of affairs you hear what I’m saying intellectually, and you want to believe it somewhere inside your psyche. Just by knowing this you will be careful what you do. For you have an idea that you are the Self of the entire universe. So you will never hurt anybody. You will never think of anybody being evil. You will never think anything about anyone but in the same instance you will never think about anyone being good. That’s the same mistake, no good and no evil. They’re two sides of the same coin. And when your mind starts to accept that everything is nothing, the mind begins to ease off, to let you go. But there has to be no conflict with the mind. You are never to have conflict with your mind. By conflict with the mind I mean never to try to change the mind or tell the mind what to do or practice affirmations as if you’re trying to convince yourself of something. The mind is too smart for that. It will never let you loose by being in conflict with it. But by smiling at it, by laughing at it, by ignoring it, by observing it, by watching it and not reacting the mind becomes weaker and weaker and weaker until it disappears altogether. This is how you stop the mind.
You do not have conflict with anybody. Whatever happens, happens. You leave it alone. This is sort of a contradiction again because sometimes I tell you to take action and do whatever you have to do but it’s not really a contradiction they’re both correct. When you leave your mind alone and you do not think of having any kind of vengeance or suing people or getting involved with people in a negative way automatically the power that knows the way will make you do the right things whatever you’re supposed to do. But you will always remember that you are not the doer. These things are very paradoxical, very subtle, very contradictory. For you’re doing something yet you are not the doer. To me it’s very clear. Yes it’s possible to be doing things and not be the doer. For the appearance of a body has to be in a world of action or the appearance of a body will not be here.
In other words it’s virtually impossible for a human being to sit still all of his life or her life and do nothing it’ll never happen. You may say there is great Saints and Sages who live in caves. Who’ve been living in caves all of their lives, who live by themselves, well who says they’re doing nothing? They have to go out and search for food. They cook their food.
They take a bath in the river. They go to the bathroom. They do all kinds of things. You cannot be a human being and do absolutely nothing, it’s impossible. But you don’t have to think about this. You merely have to know the truth.
And again the truth is that you were never born, you do not prevail and you never die. The same truth that is for you is for the universe. For you are a replica of the universe. You’re the microcosm in the macrocosm. What you think about yourself you have to think about the universe also. So you understand that the universe never existed, never came into being. There was no beginning to the universe just as there was no beginning to you. The universe does not prevail and the universe does not go into disillusion some place, it ends. Just like your body. Everything you attribute to you body you attribute to the universe.
This is why when a person becomes self-realized they then realize that there is no separation between them and this universe. There is only one. The realization comes that this whole universe has always been you. You are that! You are able to understand and exclaim, “All this is the Self and I am that.” It’s really very simple it’s not complicated. It’s all right to know it intellectually.
Many people come to me and tell me, “I know what you’re saying intellectually. I hear what you’re saying intellectually but when is it going to happen to me actually?” It will never happen to me actually because there is nothing to happen. What do you want to happen to you?
People still want to see blazing light and see stars and geometrical figures and hear beautiful music. These things are all of the mind. All you’re doing when these things ensue you’re going into subtle areas of the mind. Where there are things happening just like they’re happening in this plane of existence. So in the subtle planes of existence there are also things happening. They may be a little different. You may hear sacred voices talking to you. You may hear the voice of your deity. Maybe it’s the Christ or Buddha or somebody else. You’re making headway but remember this is to…also of the mind. It is the mind that causes all of this. You want to go beyond that. You want to go beyond everything. Never stop and say I have arrived. For when you make that statement, “I’ve arrived,” it shows you you have not arrived because there was somebody to arrive. When you have arrived there is nothing to say and there is no one to say it. It’s all been transcended.
So as long as you can ask the question, “Am I enlightened? I think I am.” That’s a joke. Laugh at yourself. For if you were truly enlightened there would be nobody to ask a question like this. You will have nothing to think about. For the thinker has been transcended there is no thinker. Therefore remember that the story of creation is a myth. You body is a myth. The universe is a myth. Nothing appears as it seems. Again just knowing this intellectually does a lot for you. Again why? Because it will teach you to react differently towards person, place or thing. You will begin to react with love and compassion.
You will have reverence for all of life. Why? Because all of life is you. You are That.
All selfishness will leave you. You will stop thinking, “What’s in it for me. I come first. Survival of the fittest,” and all that crap. (students laugh) That kind of thinking must go and it will go. When you just accept, “All this is the Self and I am that.” You are the Self of every so-called human being, every animal, every creature that flies, every tree, every mineral. You are the Self of that. It is you. It exists because you exist. When you cease to exist that will cease to exist.
As an example is sleep. When you are asleep there is no universe. As far as you’re concerned you do not exist, the universe does not exist. It’s only when you wake up you say, “Here is the universe, here’s my body.” This is the reason sleep is given to you. Sleep is not given to you psychologically.
Many psychologists and psychiatrists think human beings sleep because they have to rest for a certain amount of time in order to renew and refresh their bodies. This is true in a bodily sense but sleep has a deeper meaning. Sleep is to make you see that you disappear during sleep. You do not exist. As far as you’re concerned you’re dead.
Therefore the wise person like the Sages of old, the Rishis used to think about these things. I do not exist in sleep but I awaken and I seem to exist. Therefore what is the truth, “Who am I?” They used to ask themselves the question, “Who am I? Where did the I come from? The I that thinks it is sleeping and the I that wakes up? Where did the I come from?” The great Rishis of old used to think this way and they used to sit in the silence for hours just thinking about this, “Where did I come from?” When I say, “Where did I come from,” I’m not referring to the body I’m referring to I, the idea of I, the I-thought. “Where does this I-thought come from? How did it arise? Who gave it birth?” And by asking this question over and over again and keeping still the ancient Rishis were able to perceive the I disappearing into nothingness and they experienced illumination.
Now most of us are too busy to sit under a tree for six or seven hours a day and contemplate the I. But we can inquire, “Who am I?” We can inquire, “To whom does this world come? To whom do the problems I have come? To whom does my anxieties, my depressions come? To whom does everything come?” You can inquire this way and this will make you go deeper and deeper.
Remember the purpose of self-inquiry is to make you go deeper and deeper and deeper into the Self. That is the only purpose. The more you inquire the more you go into the Self. Yet ninety percent of the people who practice self-inquiry drop out. They become tired of it, they become sick of the whole thing. Yet you have to realize that this method is very valid. It has been valid for thousands of years and is valid today. It is up to you to practice it and find out for yourself what happens. Practice it again and again and again
and again without thinking about it. “Who am I? Where did the I come from? Where is its source? Where do my thoughts come from? What is the source of my thoughts? What is the source of my body? What is the source of my universe? Where did it all come from?”
The answer is within you. And if you are sincere, if you truly practice, forget about time, just do it. You will have to see something happening to you sooner or later. You will awaken and be forever happy and in peace. So be it.
Jorge (SR): Robert I had an experience today I’d like to share and ask you what you would suggest that I should have said?
R: I hear a voice in back of me. (laughter) (SH: It’s Jorge.) SR: An eighteen year old man was…came to me this morning with his mother and because he was being kicked out of many schools, one after another and they wanted to know where he could go to school. Of course he wanted to talk to me about his life. And he told me that he had a strange power that comes over him sometimes. And sometimes it tells him to go to his gang members and go out and do some rumbling with them and shooting at people and beating up people and stealing from them. And other times, he says, the power seemed to direct him to got to church and pray to God and speak in tongues, at a charismatic methodist church. And he enjoys reading the bible. And if you listen to him you get the impression that he really wants to be one with God and close to God but he’s also very attracted to the things that he hears, coming to him from what he calls the devil which tells him to have sex with many girls and steal from people and shoot at people and he enjoys that. He gets a high from it he says.
Now when he was asking me what he should do, I immediately thought of Robert Adams and I said, I suppose, should I give him a Robert Adams answer and tell him that everything is um everything is happening as it should and let the power lead you it knows the way. If it tells you to go out and shoot people and steal from them, you do that, and when the power leads you to church to pray to God and read your bible, then you do that. And you just keep going back and forth shooting one day and going to church the next. And everything will evolve and you’ll be balanced out in years to come. I could have told him all that but I said, I have a hunch I should give a more of societally acceptable answer. So I talked in terms of the power of being a neutral force and his own motivation was his decision. So I broke another Robert Adams cardinal rule and let him know that there was no predestination and that he had a choice on how he used this power either for enjoyment of power and being power hungry or use it for his selfishness or his glory versus humanitarian type of pursuits. And he admitted to me he loved the power, he loved the high the power the intimidating other people, he admitted that.
So I then got into the subject of karma and reincarnation without using those words about…how if we go in that direction of listening to the…what he calls the devil then what that would lead to us in our lives and in future lifetimes and vice-versa. But I kind of felt a little guilty that I wasn’t giving him a Robert Adams answer because I’m a student of Robert Adams. But another part of me thinks that Robert would have said, “No George for this person if you would have told him all is well and everything is unfolding as it should, don’t worry son just follow the power whatever it tells you to do you just keep doing. Everything will work out.” I kind of feel that Robert would’ve not told me to say it that way. But I’ll ask anyway because maybe I’ll learn something here.
R: You are right Jorge. Render unto to Caesar that which is Caesars and render unto God that which is Gods. Which actually means, people who come to a meeting like this, satsang are not forced to come. They are not the average person… (break in tape) …you have been working on yourself a great deal spiritually to be attracted to something like this. This is not a teaching for the average person in the street. You are correct by telling him not to do the things they’re doing to try to work themselves into an understanding, they are an important individual, that they count, that they matter and trying to elevate their consciousness. That is all you can do with a person like this. You cannot give them these teachings for they are not ready for teachings like this.
These teachings we teach here are not for everyone. The average person cannot understand these things at all. And if you give teachings like this to the wrong person they will take it for license to do what they want, what they please. Of course you cannot tell them nothing matters for they will go out and do worse things, if nothing matters. You cannot tell a person like this the world does not exist. Your body does not exist. They will take it all the wrong way. You have to give them practical advice because that is your job.
Do not confuse both.
Your job as a psychologist is to try to elevate their psyche. To make them so-called normal. To be able to function in society. For it is completely different from what we’re doing here. For here there is no society. We do not wish to function in society. It’s all together different. But you cannot tell this to your patients because they’re coming from a different level than where we’re coming from. You therefore did the right thing George.
Always remember do not confuse both places. This place is for you. The streets are for the students for you to help them in a materialistic way. But! What you should do for yourself which will help them tremendously is to know the truth yourself without voicing it.
In other words, as you’re working with this young man. Know that this young man is a child of the universe, child of God and he is perfect in God’s eyes. There are no mistakes. You are dealing with a perfect being who lives in a perfect universe and all is well. This is knowing the truth for yourself but do not voice this to the person. If you know the truth yourself about the person this will help the person subconsciously. And the person may even tell you, “I don’t know what you did to me but I feel better.” Just by knowing this truth about the person without voicing it to the person. For again if you voice it to the person they will take it the wrong way. So you work on two levels. On one level you’re telling them what to do materially how to function on this earth. You explain to him whatever you do comes around back to you. On the other hand you’re knowing the truth about this person in your mind. You’re seeing this person as God. This person has come to you as God himself. This person is God. And everything is already perfect, everything is already clear. All is well. Just by you knowing this truth will help the person tremendously. So that is the way you should function, on two levels. (SR: Thank you.)
R: Is everybody happy? (laughter) (SR: They will be soon if they eat the prashad.) (laughter) Thinking of prashad again Jorge. (SR: Umm?) Always thinking of food.
SH: Why not? (R: Anyone have anything to say?)
SS: Robert everybody the same? You and me same? You know everything. Why I cannot know everything? (students laugh) You and I am same you know. You are it, I am also it.
R: Who says you don’t know everything? You say that? I don’t say that. You are the one who makes that claim. Why do you say that? That’s not true. As far as I’m concerned you are me. We are the same there is no difference. (SS: If you know something we are same?) We are same. (SS: How can I don’t know anything?) Why? (SS: That’s what I’m asking you?) I say you know everything. I say you are everything. But you’re the one who says you’re not. Find out why? (SS: You know philosophically I am everything but I don’t know everything.) You know everything because you are everything. Whatever you need to know you already know. Ask yourself why you think you don’t know everything. Inquire within yourself, “Who says I don’t know everything? Who says I’m human? Who says I’m limited?” It is your ego who asks this question, not you. You are pure and bright and shining.
You are Brahman. You are the absolute reality that is how I see you. That is you. But if you refuse to see yourself that way what can I do? (SS: If I don’t born and if I don’t die then who born take a rebirth and everything, according to karma theory.) No one. There is no one to do this. No one who is alive that can do anything like this. This is all an illusion, it’s Maya.
Like the snake in the rope. Like the water in the desert in a mirage. It’s an optical illusion, it’s a belief. It’s mesmerism. You’ve been hypnotized. (SS: By whom?) By yourself. You’ve hypnotized yourself into believing this. So you have to dehypnotize yourself by inquiring, “Who is hypnotized? Who feels limited? Who am I?” And through this inquiry you will come up with the answers and you will become free.
Jorge (SR): Do you know of any spiritual shock treatment method to break up these patterns of belief that are screwing us up? (SG: Come to satsang.) (laughter) R: How many more shocks do you want? I shock you every time you come here. If you can’t feel the shock I can’t help it. Just by being here that is a shock treatment. (SH: True.) Or you can put your finger in the socket and see what happens.
SV: I did that once. (SH: You did Fred?) Yeah. (SH: What happened?) Well I wanted to experience things and one day I just wanted to know what it was like to feel electricity, so I put my finger in it. (R: That’s why he is like he is.) You can see the way I talk nowadays that’s from that.
(SH: Now I understand you better.) ( R: He never used to have an accent.) (students laugh) Okay Mary read the Jnani.
(Mary reads the Jnani refer to the beginning of this book for text) R: Thank you Mary. SM: Thank you Robert.
R: Now this is all you’ve been waiting for. I know why you come here, to eat.
Whole cashews, roasted and salted. Just for you…
(prashad continues as 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.