– Transcript 208
R: Om, shanti, shanti, om, shanti, shanti, om. Peace, peace, peace.
Good afternoon. It’s good being with you once again. I welcome you with all my heart. It is good to see all these smiling faces once more. Happy face. Let’s see the happy face.
Be happy, be happy right now. There is nothing in this world that will make you unhappy, nothing! What would make you unhappy? There is absolutely nothing that will make you unhappy, except your thoughts, your thinking, your belief, your habit patterns that you’ve carried around for years and years. Only this would make you unhappy.
You’re thinking about the past or you’re thinking about the future. Instead of staying centered right now in the moment, you choose to think about the past and the future. In this moment nothing is going on. In this moment there is total peace, total love, total joy, total harmony. But when you start thinking about it, it changes, doesn’t it?
The idea is to stay centered, stay centered in the moment, in total harmony, in total joy, in total peace. Stay totally centered without thinking at all, if you can, and you’ll see that you’ll always be happy, for there is a power and a presence that takes care of everything. It is the Self, which is always happy, pure, peaceful. This is you, if you stay centered.
Again most of you are waiting for me to give you a lecture, or a talk, or a sermon, or whatever you call it. But what if I told you that the talk you are waiting for me to give you, is already within you. Everything that I’m saying to you, you already know. It’s within your Self. Everything I’m sharing with you is within your Self. You are that. You’ve always had it. There is nothing new I’m telling you. Everything you’ve got. You’ve got it all, within you, right now, right this minute. You brought it with you at birth. When you were born everything came with you, everything.
You have created me out of yourself. I am merely an image of yourself. If you weren’t born, I would not exist. And it is because you were born that I exist for you. You gave me birth, as well as the entire universe. It is you who gave birth to God. It is you who gave birth to all the goddesses, all of the gods, all of the worlds, all of the universes. Before you were born, where were they? Did they exist? For whom did they exist?
You don’t know if anything existed before you were born. You say that everything existed before you were born. But it’s just a dream. When you were born everything came into play. When you took birth everything happened like it is now. You created everything. Think about this, ponder this. It is out of you that all things emanated. The gods that you pray to, the beings that you see, the world and the universe that you see, is all an expression of yourself, nothing else. Consequently see only the good, see only the happy, the joy, the peace. See only that which you wish to experience.
For everything you see becomes your experience. Why believe something is wrong someplace? Why believe something is not right, and blame someone, when you gave birth to it yourself. It is your creation. This is something you should always be aware of, always. I am sitting here talking to you, but I’ve come out of you, and the things that I say to you, you already know. They’re within yourself. Feel this. You are the one. There is no one else but you. Yet there is not two of you or three of you, or four of you. There is only the one, only the one expressing as yourself.
On Thursday we were discussing the easiest and fastest way to solve a problem, to get out of your misery, that you may be in, get out of your depression, whatever, is to love yourself. Yet some people didn’t get it too much. I received four or five phone calls regarding this. I didn’t elaborate on it too much. We’ll discuss it a little bit now.
People ask me, “Well, do you love the higher Self? Do you love the lower self?
How do you love yourself?” It’s true, if you love yourself there would be no problems for you at all, nothing. There would be total harmony and happiness all the time, if you learn to love yourself. And the self that I’m speaking about is not the higher self, or the lower self, for most of you don’t understand what the higher Self is at all. You just read about it.
You heard me speak about it. People told you about a higher Self, but you’ve not had a direct experience of it. So as far as you are concerned, no higher self exists for you. So how can you love it? It’s an illusion.
As far as your lower self is concerned, that appears to be your physical material self. That’s the self that is a sinner, that makes all kinds of mistakes, does all the wrong things perhaps, has to struggle to survive. That’s the lower self. Surely you’re not going to love that self? So what self do you love?
You love the self that appears in the moment. In the moment the self that appears has no problems, has nothing to do with higher selves or lower selves. It just is. As you begin to love the self, without thinking about it, things begin to happen. You’re loving the self that is in the now, the self that is in the moment, the self that appears every moment, from moment, from moment. That is the self that you love. It has no past, no future. The self I’m referring to is born every moment, fresh and new. That is the self that you love, continuously. But when the mind starts playing tricks with you, bringing up the past, or the present, or the future, you can’t love it then. Let go. You may look in the mirror, and feel the love for the self that you see in the moment, when there’s no past, no background, no future.
The question again arises, how do I make love to this self? You imagine in your mind the most beautiful thing you can ever comprehend. Think of somebody or something that you have fantastic love for. It may be your dog, or your cat, or a person, or a place, or a thing. Something in your life that you love ultimately, with no strings attached.
It may be a deity. It may be the Buddha, or the Christ, or Krishna, or a teacher, or something that means something to you, that you have unconditioned love for. You have to have unconditioned love for this, whatever it is, and feel that love, and realize that love that you’re feeling is for yourself. You are that yourself. You are the Krishna, you are the God, you are the Buddha, you are the Christ, you are the deity, you are the guru. It is you, yourself, and feel that love.
This requires practice. But I can assure you if you practice this, you’ll see results very fast. Loving yourself is one of the oldest spiritual techniques in the world. Yet most people never understood it, because they think they have to love the self they are, that appears. Or they think that they have to love God. You can’t love God, you don’t know what God is. You can’t love Brahman, or the absolute reality, or pure awareness, for you have not experienced these things. You have to love something that you’ve experienced, and it is yourself. And it expands, it becomes omnipresence, all pervading. If you’re doing this correctly you will then see that you can go out and love everything that you see, everyone, without qualification. You will not let anyone out of your love, and it will not be an effort for you to do this. It is then that beautiful things happen to you. It is then that you start to feel something that you never felt before, something so grand, so joyous, so wonderful, so beautiful, and it has always been yourself. That’s the funny thing about it, it’s always been you.
You are not what you think you are, no one is. You are not the body, nor the mind, nor the experiences, nor are you the doer. This is not you. You are not the person who has made all the mistakes in the past, that feels sorry for herself or himself. This is not you at all.
Just the way you appear right now, this is God appearing, this is Brahman appearing.
Remember there are not two selves. There’s not a higher self and a lower self.
There’s only the Self, and you are that, just the way you are right now, this moment.
There’s nothing you have to do to make it happen, to make it appear. You do not have to beseech it, or petition it, or pray to it, or desire it, or want it. You have to be! Just be! Be that which you always were. Be that now, this moment, pure unconditioned Self, the Brahman.
Nothing else exists but you. You are the one. You have always existed. There never was a time when you were born, or that you die, or that you prevail in between. Who prevails? There’s no one to prevail. There’s no one to experience anything. There’s no one to express anything. There’s no one to be anything. Know yourself as boundless space, as pure awareness.
Feel it. Feel it in your heart. Feel how good it feels. There is only joy, only love.
Give up thinking. The only power your thoughts have is the power you give it yourself. When you laugh at your thoughts, they dissipate, they go away. But when you believe your thoughts, they become more powerful. They make up all kinds of things.Know that you are already free. Know that you are already liberated. You do not have to take courses, find teachers, do meditation. You are totally, absolutely free right now. Total freedom. Free of everything that’s happened to you in the past. Free of karma, free of samskaras, free from the illusion of samsara. You’re not the person who has to experience karma. That person is dead, never existed. For whom is there karma, but for the one who believes they are a body? As you give up your body right now, you give up karma also. You give up everything, and you become totally free.
The world can never harm you when you know who you are. When you believe you’re the ocean, you have everything. When you believe you’re the bubble on the ocean, that comes and goes, then you have things for short amounts of time. The bubbles burst on the ocean, the waves come and go, but the ocean remains the same.
When you go to the movie, you look at the screen, you see images. Images changing, changing, changing. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end, the images. But the screen always remains the same. The screen never changes. Would you rather be the screen or the images? The screen is always at peace. Just stands there, unaffected by anything. Different movies are shown on the screen, continuously, day after day, week after week, year after year. The images come and go, but the screen remains the same.
Look at your life that way. If you become affected by the vicissitudes of life, then you’re like the images, identifying with the images. And you can take a step backwards and just observe and watch the images, which are people, places, things, and nothing can harm you, for you’re like the screen. So you make your choice. What do you want to be, like the ocean, the screen, or like the bubbles on the ocean, or the images on the screen?
Know who you are. You do not have to find yourself or look for yourself, because you were never lost. Your nature is consciousness. Your nature is pure awareness. Your nature is absolute reality.
This will never change, no matter what you do to yourself, no matter how you abuse yourself, it can’t change your divine nature. You can never change that. No matter what appears to be going on in this world, what’s happening in this world doesn’t matter.
What’s happening in your life matters, the way you react to things, the way you judge things. This determines what happens to you.
So become like a person who does not react to things. Do not judge things. Leave things alone and become totally free. Why not do this now?
Those of you who have trouble with what I’m talking about and need a technique to work with. There is a technique we can practice together, that will help tremendously.
We’ll do this now.
Close your eyes. As you inhale say to yourself, “Who am I?” Before you exhale say to yourself, “I am Brahman,” and as you exhale say to yourself, “I am not the body.” You’re inhaling you say, “Who am I?” In between inhaling and exhaling you say, “I am Brahman,”
and exhale and you say, “I am not the body.”
If you don’t like to use the word Brahman, you can change it to whatever you like.
You can say I am the Christ, I am Buddha. Say whatever you want. But understand what you’re doing. You are declaring the truth about yourself. “Who am I?” as you inhale, “I am Brahman,” before you exhale, “I am not the body,” with exhalation. Let’s practice this for a while.
(silence)
(break in tape, starts abruptly)
R: …Stump the guru. Stump the guru time. Henry is trying to burn us up. You turned the heater on. The first stumper.
SV: Maybe a stumpee you don’t know? (R: Stumpee, could be?) SH: I hope somebody stumps you one day, that’ll be good. A great day. (laughter) SV: It’ll never happen.
(Q - Mary reads, A - Robert answers)
Q: Robert since your identification with Self is complete. (and there is a tiny little question mark) Why does your body not drop away?
A: Who says my body has not dropped away? If you see a body I can’t help you.
Who tells you to see a body. Where does this vision come from? Who has it? Who tells you that I am a body? This is what your limited vision shows you, this is what it tells you. I can assure you that I am not a body and neither are you. There are no bodies here at all. No body is home. You see all the bodies sitting here? You’re seeing a mirage, an illusion. They do not exist. Always remember it is you who sees these things. And you should inquire, “To whom do these things come?” That is the best method of getting rid of this. By inquiring, “Who sees this? To whom does it come? Who feels it? I do, well, who am I?” Keep doing this until the body form disappears. I’m not saying that I do not see you as a body. If I didn’t see you as a body I wouldn’t be able to function with you. But I see you as a bubble on the ocean, as an image on the screen. But for some reason I’m able to go through it and see the ocean and see the screen when I keep my mind on the image. And since there is one screen or one ocean I always see myself, wherever I look. Therefore I see you as perfect and pure and happy and joyous.
Q: There is a follow up to that Robert. Can you tell me who or what was feeling warm and had to take the jacket off?
A: Whatever you feel it was. What do you think it was? Whatever you believe that is what it is. As I said, if I didn’t sort of have an image of a body, I wouldn’t be able to function, I wouldn’t be here. But you see the body has to eat, has to drink, is warm or cold or whatever but it’s not the body. But it appears to be the body. It appears to be a body. It’s all an appearance. Like the sky appears blue. It’s not blue. It just appears like that. As the clouds seem to rest on top of the mountain peak. But the clouds aren’t resting on the mountain peak. As the water is in a mirage. But there is no water at all, it’s only a mirage.
So it is that the body appears to be real too. The body appears this way yet it doesn’t exist.If you investigate closely you will see it doesn’t exist. If you truly investigate the nature of the body, you will see that there is no body that exists and never has existed. And yet it goes on as if it does exist. But it doesn’t exist. Nothing exists.
What we call the Self exists as the Self and nothing else. It is Self contained absolute reality. And that is your nature, that is what you really are. As you contemplate your nature you become what you contemplate eventually. So do not contemplate yourself as a body going through experiences, having problems going through this and having to do that. Contemplate yourself as a Brahman, as the absolute awareness. Always catch yourself. Remember to see yourself in your true image. You may forget for a while but catch yourself more and more. And as you keep catching yourself the time will come when you don’t have to think about it at all. You will no longer be a body or mind or an ego. You will be free and liberated. Next case.
Q: There is one word I can’t make on this. Is sickness just a purification system just to get rid of extreme negativity off the planet. Is the goal of sickness just the self cleansing the body of a person and the earth planet?
A: If there is no body what needs cleansing? If a body doesn’t exist, who are you cleansing? What are you cleansing? What is there to cleanse? Forget about cleansing. Try to see the world as it is, an illusion. See your body as part of the illusion. Do not think of yourself as having a healthy body or a sick body or any body at all.
Go higher than that, go beyond it. Go beyond everything. Do not limit yourself whatsoever in any way. Let come what may. Do not attach yourself to conditions. Attach yourself to absolute nothing, zero. Know the truth about yourself. That you are free and liberated right now. Everything will take care of itself. Everything will take care of itself if you don’t worry about it. Do not concern yourself about it. Everything will work itself out, beautifully. In a way you know not of. But you must begin the motion by realizing this world and your body and the universe only exists because you believe you are real as a body. If you didn’t feel yourself as a body nothing would be real to you. As long as you feel yourself as a body, everything appears real.
In other words it begins with you, where you are right now. Do not try to change outer conditions. Do not try to change the world. Change yourself. Know the truth about yourself. And then you’ll see the world as yourself, perfect and pure.
Q: Would you rather that we not tell our friends about you unless it happens spontaneously? Or is it okay to let our mind think it would be nice to tell person X and then tell the person?
A: Well as most of you know, I’m not looking for name or fame or anything. I do not want to set myself up as a teacher or anything else. I’m just here with the people who seem to come here. I’m glad that we can hold about 50 people and no more. Unless we’ll have to go away somewhere else. I’m not looking for anything. So why make a big fuss about this. If you do know of someone who is really sincere about spiritual life and you think they’re are ready for something like this by all means bring them if you like. But do
not go around broadcasting the meetings for we get so many seekers who come to look, to observe. And on some other day they go somewhere else to look and observe.
People run around the world all the time, seeking, trying to find the right thing, the right teacher, the right satsang and they do this for years and years and years and get nowhere. As you surrender to the Self, as you surrender to the satsang, as you let go of all your motivations, as you let go of all the feelings the thoughts, the ideas about satsang and you just come here with an open heart, you will start seeing things happen to you.
Many of you have told me how it is with you that you’re beginning to see reality, you’re beginning to see the truth. The world no longer affects or bothers you nor causes you pain, you’re making good headway. Because you’re being your Self.
You are not thinking about other people, pleasing them or not pleasing them, making them happy or unhappy. For you are beginning to know that you are the other people yourself, you are them. And therefore if you take care of yourself they will be helped tremendously. Because they are all part of the one Self.
This is how you bring peace into the world. By becoming peaceful. By becoming an embodiment of pure peace. Then wherever you see you’ll see peace. It all begins with you. Leave everything alone, don’t push. Just keep doing what you’re doing and everything will take care of itself.
That’s all Robert.
(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.