– Transcript 210
R: …shanti shanti shanti om, peace. Good afternoon. It is good to be with you once again on this lovely Sunday afternoon.
Jnana Marga is not for everyone. It is a teaching for those beings who perhaps in a previous existence or bhaktas that are involved in deep spiritual practice or for people in this life who have been bhaktas who are yearning for awakening. To those people Jnana Marga becomes meaningful. But to the average person it is an ego trip. To the average person Jnana Marga means absolutely nothing. It’s an intellectual jargon that you hold onto using certain words, that I am consciousness, that I am freedom yet their mind is somewhere else. Their thoughts are on something else. After all how many people can really feel Jnana? Feel the teaching deep in their heart.
It’s really ludicrous for me to sit here and tell you that the world does not exist, the body does not exist, the universe does not exist, God does not exist and you accept it. Why should you accept this? The thing that separates Jnana Marga from other teachings is that…(silence)…that’s what I mean. There is silence. That is what Jnana Marga is all about.
Total silence. The mind becomes quiet. It goes within, into the heart and disappears.
It is not really a teaching. For to have a teaching there has to be thought and a teacher, an object and a subject. Jnana Marga has no object, has no subject. It has no teaching. It is not like yoga. It totally transcends everything that you understand and know.
When the average person looks at the world they see all the dastardly things happening, man’s inhumanity to man, everywhere in the world there are problems and I come along and tell you, “All is well.” It’s ludicrous, ridiculous to the average person. I tell you, “All is well and everything is unfolding as it should. Everything is in its right place there are no mistakes,” and yet you’re feeling this world with all its problems.
You turn on the TV and you see people getting killed in different countries. In India, Muslims are fighting with Hindus. In Africa whites are fighting with blacks. People are fighting all over this world and if they’re not fighting there are calamities that come along, cataclysms, earthquakes, hurricanes. Most people are involved in saving their lives taking care of themselves so they can live another day. Yet I come along and I tell you, “Forget about these things, turn within. Turn to the reality within you and then you will see the world completely different. You will see your Self when you look at the world and you’ll see peace.” In the midst of all this confusion there is peace. There is love. There is harmony and joy. Yet this doesn’t make any sense. How could this be? You haven’t felt it you haven’t seen it. This is the reason that a teaching like this can only be taught by a person or a Sage who has the experience of this. Who has experienced all of this.
If a teacher begins to teach something like this and has not had the personal experience of its truth and reality they will lead everybody to chaos and destruction. Everybody will become very egotistical. This is why prior to getting into this kind of a teaching there has to be a tremendous humility, a humbleness, a loving kindness, a forgiveness, a joy. When you have developed these traits then you can step higher into Jnana Marga and it will be very clear to you and it will be very plain and it will be the absolute truth and you will have no problems with it whatsoever.
Jnana Marga does not consist of lectures or sermons or talks. It is not a question of becoming a teacher to teach this to people. A Jnani always runs away from this. The person who experiences this does not wish to be a teacher because there is nothing to teach.
Think about this. When a person has transcended the world, transcended the universe and realizes the nothingness of things what could they possibly teach? What can they say?
I do not prepare fancy sermons or lectures or profound teachings like I get in a book to share with you. I tell you the truth I am absolutely nothing and I share my nothingness with you, will you accept the nothingness? Will you accept that you are nothing and I am nothing and nothing exists and nothing ever existed? Yet it’s difficult to share this with the ordinary people.
This is why this teaching can be a dangerous thing to some people. For the people cannot reconcile this teaching with the ways of this world. You can’t bring the average person in the street in here and tell them about Jnana Marga. They’ll say to you, “Look at the city. Look what’s happening to people. People are killing each other there is man’s inhumanity to man going on everywhere. Everywhere you look there are problems with man, fighting, killing, destroying and you come in here and tell us this doesn’t exist?
You’re a liar,” they’ll tell me. “These are plain and clear look at them, everywhere. Riots in LA. Killings in India with Muslims and Hindus, in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia people are killing each other by the thousands.” And so somebody like me comes along and says, “Hey this does not exist. All is well!” That sounds ridiculous doesn’t it when you make a statement like that. How can I possibly make a statement, “All is well,” when your senses tell you it’s not?
This is why I say to you this teaching is not for the average person. The average person wants to argue, to fight, to debate to get their point across. But the person who has realized the truth has nothing to argue about, nothing to debate about. They have become a living embodiment of reality. And they understand that the world does not see the same thing. This is the reason you find most Jnanis do not give any teachings whatsoever and we know nothing of them.
You should never believe everything I say to you. You should never accept anything I tell you. But you should not argue about it either. What you should do is go within
yourself and find out if I’m telling the truth. Find out if I’m sharing the truth with you or I am telling you a pack of lies. I tell you in the midst of all this confusion, in the midst of all this chaos there is beauty and joy and love and total happiness and what you see depends where you’re coming from.
You are the one who has created your life and you’ve created your universe the world in which you see. It comes from you. Where else would it come from? It didn’t appear by itself. Everything appears because you were born. Before you were born nothing existed like this. You were born, here is everything existing as place, person, thing. But in truth no one is ever born, no one subsists and no one dies. There is no universe as you see it.
You’re simply hallucinating. You’ve been hypnotized and you are living out of the hypnosis as if it were real.
In other words what you’re doing is you’re allowing your senses to tell you what is real and what is not. It is the job of your senses to carry you through this life in a body until you die. But there are people who have seen things a little differently. Human beings on this earth that they call Sages, Saints, way-showers who for some reason have been able to experience another world, another life, something completely different. These people have been very few and in between. You can find spiritual teachers by the dozens all over the place, teaching systems of yoga, teaching laws and rules and regulations, how you should conduct yourself, how you should live. This has been going on since the beginning of time. Have things improved? Things have gotten relatively worse, not better.
So there must be something else. There must be some other truth that we don’t know about. And a person starts working on themselves removing their egos, looking at themselves really, truly, absolutely. See what is going on in their lives. It all begins with you not outside of you. Never try to change a person, change a thing or change an idea. It begins with you the way you are right now. You look at yourself and you see what you are. How you react to person, place or thing. What kind of personalty you’ve got. You have to be totally honest with yourself.
“What kind of a being am I?” you ask yourself. “Am I a terrible person always getting into fights with people, arguments, always confusion? Trying to straighten people out? Trying to straighten things out? What am I doing in this world? What’s my real focus?
Did I come here to change anything? To prove something? Show people how good I am?
Why have I come into this world?” You have to ask yourself that question. “What am I really doing here? For what purpose have I come?”
The average person just cannot comprehend this. Because they believe what they see. That’s all there is for them. What the eyes see, what the ears hear, what the mouth speaks, what the feelings feel. That is all they know. This is neither good nor bad but it has absolutely nothing to do with you.
There are those people who have experienced many lifetimes of spiritual work, spiritual practice and are prepared to go into the final round of spirituality and be totally free and liberated. Those people will be attracted to the correct teacher, the correct book,the correct mountain, the correct tree whatever it is they need at the time to break the shell and set them free. You can tell where you are by the feelings you have. If things are becoming totally meaningless to you and you do not become frightened over things. You do not become angry over things. You do not become judgmental over things. You begin to leave things alone and just observe everything. Then you know you’re on the path of self-realization. Before you know it you will be absolutely free and liberated.
But if people bother you, people annoy you, people make you angry, upset, then you’ve got a long way to go. You and I know people who have followed spiritual paths for many years twenty years, thirty years, forty years, fifty years and what have they become?
Dictionaries, encyclopedias, they can tell you everything that is going on in different movements, different teachings. But have found no peace. They have found no peace whatsoever. They keep running around to different movements, different teachers, different books, different categories. Trying to change people. Trying to make people believe what they believe, wanting people to do what they do. And getting older and older and older, pretty soon they become so old they become feeble and have no idea what life is all about and just drop dead and life goes on.
But those of you who are sincere to the extent you want to awaken totally and completely know what you have to do. It begins with you never anybody else. Never mind what anybody else is doing. The only way to bring peace into this world is to become self-realized. Not trying to bring externally you cannot do this. People have tried this since the beginning of time, trying to bring peace into this world. It cannot be done.
Simply because this world is a world of Maya. It’s an illusory world. It has no substance behind it, no meaning. No beginning, no end. You therefore begin to observe yourself, to take a look at yourself. You inquire, “Who am I? Where did I come from?” You become still, quiet. You stop trying to win points.
Do not allow your body to tell you how you feel. Do not allow the mind to tell you how things are. Do not allow the world to tell you what is going on in the world. But look through all these things with your spiritual eye. Develop loving kindness, compassion, peace. Everything takes care of itself. It always begins with you. It begins with your existence. Who exists? Who exists? I exist. What is this I? Where did this I come from?
What is the source of this I? There is absolutely nothing for you to worry about to be upset about if you realize that the I does not really exist. There is no I. If the I does not exist how can the body exist. How can the world exist? How can the universe exist? These things only seem to exist because the I exists.
If I tell you everything was beautiful can you agree with me? Can you believe this? Of course not. Most of you would be lying if you said you could. When you can’t see beauty in yourself, how can you see it externally? If you only knew who you really were.
You keep identifying with your humanity and that is the biggest mistake you can ever make. To identify with your humanity. This is why you have the problems you have. With people, places and things, with yourself because you’re identifying with these things as if
they were real. And if the world is real for you then you have a big fight on your hands trying to make things right. Trying to straighten things out. Therefore you must leave the world alone, leave people alone, leave God alone, leave yourself alone.
It’s okay to admit that you don’t know who you are, to say to yourself, “I have no idea who I am or what I am.” At least you’re telling the truth. When you develop that humility, the humbleness that you don’t know who you are this is the beginning of wisdom.
But when you think you know who you are then you’re stuck in a place that you can’t get out of.
When you hear about man’s inhumanity to man, when you’re watching television and you see the dastardly things going on in this world, do not imagine that it doesn’t exist this is the worst thing you can do to imagine these things do not exist but also do not say they do exist. Have no opinion whatsoever, just watch. And if you have no opinion whatsoever you’ll be led to the truth automatically. You will be led to reality to make you understand what life is all about what is really going on. For when you think something is real it means that you know this thing to be real and you become a part of it and you have emotions that go with it. You become upset, disillusioned.
So, here we are. We’re nowhere yet we appear to be somewhere. We think we’re somebody and we’re nobody. Why not leave everything alone just do this for yourself. Do not try to change one person. Do not fear anybody or anything. Do not come to any conclusions of any kind. Do not allow your thoughts to run away to run-a-muck. As soon as the mind starts thinking catch it right away and stop it by becoming aware of it. That is how you stop it. When you become aware that your mind is thinking it slows down. It is only when you follow your thoughts, you believe you are your thoughts that the problems arise. For when you catch the mind worrying, you catch the mind fearing, catch the mind thinking about anything, by observing it, by watching it the mind has to slow down.
Try to be happy just the way you are. Do not think you have to better your life or make things happen that you don’t have. Acquire things in your life that you don’t have that you need. Do not consider these things. Learn to live in the moment, become centered, learn to love yourself, not the human self but the Self. Awaken and be free. Awaken right now and be free why don’t you do this? Wake up from your sleep, the sleep of ignorance, the sleep of Maya. Awaken and be totally free. You are free already and all is well.
(long silence)
It’s now time to play… (Students call out together) Stump the guru!
R: Right. We’ll see what kind of stumpers we have today. (SM: I have news for you.
We have no stumpers.) No stumpers. (laughter) (SM: Not a single one.) SH: We’re already stumped out. (R: What a bunch!)
SV: That means you know all the answers.
R: Well well have to have some questions.)SK: I’ve got a question. (R: Sure.) The Bhagavad-Gita talks about one in a thousand is interested and out of the people that are interested out of a thousand of those, one gets there and you were kind of talking about, you know this differences of people that are apparently devoted enough or interested enough than all the other types. And I read some lives of Saints from one of those encyclopedia people that talked about in twenty years and they seemed to be particularly in caves who are fasting, a lot of weeping, a lot of very intense devotion of the path, they see as straight and narrow. What about the rest of us that what you said, “the twenty year people,” can you give us any advice. Can we achieve something in this lifetime as well or are we doomed to reincarnate or maybe get it when we die or why is it so tough and what is our chances, I mean we’re are a gambler throwing our cards and saying I’m going to go play another game here because God’s at stake.
(laughter)
R: As long as you’re thinking this way then you have a problem. (laughter) (SK: Yes.) The whole idea is you have to let go of all types of longings, wantings, desires. You have to become a true devotee. It means you don’t care anymore. You’re not interested in getting anywhere or trying to do anything. Simply get lost in the teaching itself. Without looking for answers, without trying to become enlightened. Without saying I have to do this, I have to do that. You just live every moment, by moment, by moment in devotion, in love, in joy, not thinking whether you’re going to get enlightened or not get enlightened.
Whether you’ll make it in this life or not. The person who is like this is already enlightened, already free.
Get rid of all questions, all doubts, all fears, all apprehensions about spiritual life and live in the moment unafraid, full of total joy and happiness and peace. And you will see you have always been enlightened you already are enlightened everything is okay. But if you keep worrying about when it’s going to happen aren’t you really saying, “I don’t have it yet, there is something really wrong? I am not that and I have to become that?” For in truth you are already that. For in reality you’re already enlightened there is nothing you have to do and nowhere you have to go. Be yourself. Be the way you are, totally, completely. The way you are is not the body nor the mind nor the experience. The way you are is not the doer.
You have to be intelligent so you look at the whole situation, the whole picture and quiet the mind totally, absolutely. Stop worrying about anything, stop thinking about anything. Surrender completely to the Self and realize that you are the answer to all of your questions. When you have a problem look at yourself. The problem comes from you and can be eradicated by you. You are the solution to everything. No one exists but you.
You are totally absolutely free already. There is nothing you have to do.
So you come to satsang and leave it alone. Try to empty yourself. Be totally empty of ideas, of thoughts, of wants and desires and when that happens you will see that you’re already self-realized. Already awakened, already liberated. Make it very simple. Always live in the moment. Never concern yourself about yesterday or tomorrow. Stay centered in
the moment. In that moment all is well and everything is unfolding as it should. In that moment you’re okay. But stay in the moment for you will be alright.
SX: I have a question for you. (R: Umm.) How can you keep a concept on, I am not the doer in this? You’re not the doer so you can hurt someone?
R: That is the wrong attitude. That is what I was thinking of before, this teaching can make you become very self centered and very egotistical.
SX: But at the same time we can remove the reaction in other words thinking I’m not the doer so I watch this process happen I’m sort of taking responsibility for an action, in other words say like wars… (R: Yes.) …say between two countries with nothing else to do with themselves are really relinquish their responsibilities on other people.
R: When you’re really not the doer there is nobody to relinquish anything. When you are not the doer and then you are free you’re not avoiding any responsibility. What you are will take care of everything the way it’s supposed to. (SX: You mean the doer still will happen?) The happening will happen without you being the doer. Everything will take care of itself the way it’s supposed to. You will not be concerned with it at all. So when you are not the doer it doesn’t mean that you avoid responsibility, that you don’t care. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about anything. It means that I am not the body. I am not the mind. I am not the person that has to do something or has come here to do certain things. I am the imperishable self, consciousness, pure awareness. This will take care of everything for you in the right way. And you will find that your body is doing things that it was supposed to do. Your body is doing things that it came here to do.
SX: That is an interesting thought because I find that happening to me a lot that there is especially when there is an everything will take care of itself. It seems like something was here to be done by someone or by the doer. And why is there so much of a concern about trying shape that?
R: Because you’re living out of your mind. It is the mind that is concerned. For when you understand the teaching right the mind has nothing to do with it. You do not choose the mind to be a doer in the real sense. In the real sense the Self is the doer, the higher Self. It takes care of everything when you get yourself out of the way. It all begins and ends in your mind, in your thoughts. Watch your thoughts, examine your thoughts.
That is the way to stop being the doer. Ask yourself, “Who does these things? Who is the doer?” question yourself. “Who is responsible for this?” and you will find out that you’re not the doer at all. You never were the doer. Yet everything is being done in the right way to the good of all concerned. Do you see what I’m saying?
SX: I think so, I’m just questioning that process kind of. It’d make an interesting that you’re describing. There is a fine line between allowing something happen around you and to know you have no control over it whether you should be involved or not involved to be in that process is really.
R: As long as you’re thinking about it you’ll come to that conclusion. You will always have choices to make as long as you keep thinking about these things. (SX: Do you keep thinking.) Do not keep thinking about anything. Go within yourself. Dive deep within yourself and surrender to the Self and then everything will take care of itself properly. But thinking about the decisions you have to make or choices you have to make and that is the mind thinking again. And sometimes you make the right choice and sometimes you won’t.
But as you dive within the Self and focus on the Self, on consciousness and reality, you forget about everything else then you will find yourself making the right decisions and do what you have to do, in that way.
Let’s take an apple tree. An apple tree doesn’t say I’m going to grow apples. It’s very nature is to grow apples. This is what it came here for and this is what it’s doing. But if an apple tree was able to think like us it would say, “I’m not getting enough sun. (laughter) I’m too close to the other apple trees. (laughter) People are picking my apples I think something is wrong.” It’ll have all kinds of excuses why it can’t grow apples. And the apples won’t grow. And because an apple tree cannot talk like us or think or make decisions it grows beautiful apples because that is its nature. Your nature is to be God. Your nature is the absolute reality. This is your nature. But when you start thinking about it you spoil it.
SX: I have a question. When you told me to watch the dream take place I guess it helps you to get to some kind of level of awareness. I’m never watching, I need to avoid separation.
R: For whom is there separation? (SX: Say that again?) For whom is there separation? (SX: Right that is an interesting question gets you back watching again.) Always question yourself about these things. Always inquire within yourself, “Who is experiencing this?
Who is suffering? Who has this problem? Who is going through all this?” All the answers are within you. Inquire and you’ll find out. It will all come out of you in a beautiful way.
Glen (SG): Robert I have a question. (R: Sure.) Trying to get some clarification on this. As I understand it the primary thing for us is attention. And that attention moves to any form as an object when we go astray and that - Maharshi talked about it’s more of a feeling sense and if we focus on the feeling of being, itself shouldn’t that be the proper perspective because as I understand it, it would be a more subtle form of attention would be ??? it is a thoughtless feeling of creativeness which could also be the opposite other side of the coin as feeling a separation but that if we focus on the feeling itself. The feeling of being itself that even that sense that we have, you know - we’re kind of thoughtless but we have a feeling relatedness to everything. Wouldn’t that be the way to transcend even that more subtle form of the I-thought?
R: Where does the feeling come from? When you try to focus on something. The feeling has to be transcended. The feeling that you’re talking about has to go. There should be nobody left to feel anything. Just watch, just be, do not try to feel a thing.
Glen (SG): How do we know when we start to subtly move away from that? And how do we know that to be for sure? What I’m saying is when it starts to move away our attention starts to move away from that?
R: Who wants to know? The knower is not there anymore. There is nobody left to know. It’ll happen by itself and you will just be that, you become that. You become emptier and emptier and emptier. There is no more thoughts left, there is nothing left to decide.
(SG: Can we focus mainly on the feeling of emptiness?) There are many other feelings of emptiness. Just be aware that you’re that feeling. Be aware that you’re that by being quiet. As the mind becomes quiescent everything else disappears and then you become that all by itself. But don’t try to do it. Just be it. There is quite a difference between trying and being.
Be that which you already are. Do not try to do anything to yourself. Because when you try you’re using the mind. And the mind will always fool you it’ll take you else where.
Rather just be. Just watch, just observe. Let whatever happens, happen and you will be on the right track. Be your Self, just the way you are.
Do we have any announcements Mary?
Mary (SM): Except that the thing will be on Wednesday night instead of Thursday and of course the following week, same thing. (repeats announcements for a student) SE: What time is the bhandara on Sunday?
S: The bhandara is at 1 o clock. And Sue isn’t here but we have a list on the table for things that people should bring. Vegetarian dishes please. And if you want to sign up so that we don’t get too much of one thing, but we usually don’t.
(announcements continue for a short time)
R: Anyone else have anything to say?
(There is talk about decorations)
R: We have no prashad today. We ate on Thursday. Enough to choke a horse. So we have to suck on our fingers. (students laugh and joke with each other) So until we meet again bless you, be happy, remember to love yourself, to bow to yourself, to worship yourself for God dwells in you as you, 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.