– Transcript 216
R: Om shanti shanti shanti om peace, peace.
Good evening. (Students: Good evening Robert.) I welcome you with all my heart.
It is wonderful being with you again this beautiful Thursday evening.
There are three simple ways in which to make simple progress. Spiritual work should be very simple. It should not be complicated. It should be in accordance with your nature. It should not be foreign to you. These rules have been propagated by Sages since the beginning of time. It is part of a lineage of Sages. And if you practice these rules you will see spiritual progress very fast. But the idea is that you have to practice these things. It is true in the ultimate there is no practice. There is nothing to do, but that’s in the ultimate where are we? You have to be very honest with yourself and realize where you are and what you’re doing and what is happening to you. You cannot fool yourself too long. For if you try to fool yourself the whole world will come crashing down on you. Be true to yourself and I canst not be false to any man, our friend William Shakespeare.
So the first rule is coming to sating, when you can. The reason for that is this, what you put first in your life determines what happens to you. That makes sense. Where your mind is your heart is. So whatever you’re doing at home if you think of satsang, you think of being here always sitting at satsang, breathing satsang, even when you’re not here. Feel that the whole world is satsang. All the people are devotees, including the animals, the trees, the mountains, everything is full of life, vibrant life. When you look at everything as being alive, filled with love, filled with bliss and joy then you can feel that you are the source of everything. In other words there is no difference between you and the trees and the forest or the flowers in the fields or the mountains or the animals or any human beings.
There is no difference between an enlightened person and an ignorant person. The difference is only in your own mind. In God’s eyes everyone is God. In a so-called ignorant man’s eyes everyone is ignorant.
When you come to satsang you don’t even have to listen to the words. Just be here, that is all you have to do or be at any satsang you choose. It’s not too kosher to run after gurus or to go to different teachers all of the time, for you become utterly confused. This is reasonable to assume. Every teacher has their own method, their own way of teaching. If you find a real Sage somewhere, stay with that Sage whomever he may be or she may be and try to keep still. Do not keep looking for new teachings all of the time or asking the Sage to explain certain teachings to you. Just be there and be still. Of course you have to make sure that you’re going to a Sage. There are no new revelations in a Sage. In other words if you go to a teacher, the teacher claims to be a Sage and tells you he or she has had a revelation that if you take off your clothes and stand on your head and recite the Vedas upside down you become enlightened. Be careful of that person. (students laugh) There are no new revelations. There is nothing new under the sun. Spiritual life is very simple and has been handed down through lineages. And even those who have their own experiences go along with lineages. Be very careful.
Remember these days they have more gurus than disciples. Open your heart, be true to yourself and you will know where to go, and what to do. All the answers you’re looking for are within you. Do not really look to a teacher for answers. You go to the teacher for grace, not for answers. The sage’s grace always flows, in the silence and if you are in tune with that grace you will awaken. Simple as that.
You can be a sinner. You can be any kind of a person, but if you’re true to yourself, the Self which you really are will lead you to the right Sage, to the right teacher and cause you to awaken. It means you have to be humble, have humility, loving kindness, peace of mind and you’ll know what to do.
This is all satsang. You are satsang. There is no real difference between you and me. Everything is the same, pure, good, blissful, absolute reality, nirvana, pure awareness.
This is how things are now. Not tomorrow or next week, but right this moment! As you keep coming to satsang again and again and again and again and again something begins to happen to you slowly but surely. Your system becomes refined. You become pure enough to receive grace and you become free. This is why I emphasize it’s important to catch yourself during the day and see where you’re really coming from, what you’re really doing. How you’re reacting to things. How you look at life. You have to keep catching yourself and remembering you’re at satsang. You take the satsang with you wherever you go. Consequently when I say, “Be at satsang,” it means to keep satsang in your mind always. There is no excuse why you don’t have satsang. You do not have to be here physically sometimes, but wherever you are have satsang in your mind, the same thing. So again the first rule is to come to satsang, always. Physically or mentally, when you’re working, you can imagine all of the co-workers are satsangees, as hard as that may be for some of you. There are no evil people. Do not see evil anywhere.
I know some of you may say, “What about what I read in the paper? What about the people going around killing people?” For whom is this, is this for you? This is not your world. I know if you’re here for the first time it sounds sort of strange, when you’re involved in this world and I’m saying this is not your world. If you’re on a high spiritual path it’s not your world. The world of violence, of dog eat dog so-to-speak, of man’s inhumanity to man, you do not belong to this world. You belong to the world of total freedom, total joy and bliss, pure love, unalloyed happiness. This is the world you belong to, what do you see? What you see you become. So again the first rule is to be at satsang.
The second rule is to sit in silence at the prescribed hours that the Sage tells you to.
This is important. For this is the time that you tune into the grace which flows forever. The times that we sit together for this group is from 12 to 3am and from 6 to 9am. I know they seem to be un-godly hours, but try doing it for a week and see what happens. There are people all over the world sitting at these hours and we’re all tuning into each other. Again if you’re serious on this path, if you want to make progress, do not look to read every new book that comes out but do the work that we’re talking about. Take the action. So many of you get involved in all of these books by new teachers that pop up here and there. And you’re always reading reading reading reading reading. And for those of you who are reading like this, take a look at your life. How much progress have you really made in all these years you’ve been reading. You want to start doing and not reading. Sit at those hours and watch what happens.
The third rule is to practice self-inquiry and you can do this every minute of the hour every day. There is no time you cannot practice. To begin with this is the greatest psychotherapy that has ever been invented. It makes you calm and peaceful and relaxed.
It removes the heavy burden from your shoulders that you’re carrying and it’s very simple. For every disturbance that your mind comes up with, simply ask yourself, “To whom does this come? Who is feeling this?” And if you’re being true to yourself you’ll say, “I am.
I’m feeling this.” When you say, “I am,” stop to think a moment what you’re saying, “I am.
What is the I? From where did it come?” Take stock of yourself and realize that all day long you say, “I. I am happy. I am sad. I am sick. I am well. I am rich. I am poor. I feel this. I feel that. I feel depressed. I feel happy.” You’re always thinking of yourself, you’re always centered on yourself as I. “Who is this I? What is this I? Where did it come from?” And you inquire, “Who am I?” All the time keeping the I in your mind. Thinking of the I. This I is your ego. It is the first pronoun that you think of every morning when you wake up.
When you say, “I am awake.” Who is awake? “I am. Who am I?” You never answer that question. There is no answer for that question. There is only the question, “Who am I?” No answer. Quietness, stillness.
Now other thoughts come to you. Whatever the thoughts are, good or bad makes no difference. See in this practice you’re not trying to exchange good thoughts for bad thoughts or bad thoughts for good thoughts. You’re not trying to change any thoughts at all. You are trying to find the source of the I. Therefore whatever comes to you inquire, “To whom does it come?” Whatever thoughts that come to you. The inquiry is always the same, “To whom does it come?” Do not think for one moment if beautiful thoughts come to you, you can stop the self-inquiry. For they’re still thoughts and they will change, as they must. For all thoughts are subject to the law of change, from good to bad, from happy to sad. Therefore do not examine your thoughts so much because it makes no difference what you think. It’s all the same. All thoughts are the same they’re all belonging to the I.
The I-thought encompasses all the thoughts that you can ever think about. Imagine a string with the I at the end of it. As you keep pulling the string out of your subconscious mind, all the thoughts that you ever thought and all of the lifetimes that you ever lived, are attached to that I-thought, the string. This is a wonderful revelation for you. For it means that if you get rid of the I-thought it will all go with it, everything will go with it.
All of the thoughts that you ever thought about, your ego, everything attaches to the I-thought. Therefore you don’t have to work on getting rid of thoughts, you merely follow the I-thought back to its source. And again all of the karma, all the samskaras, all the samsaras that you’re involved in, everything that you have ever been involved in will disappear when the I-thought is gone.
Now you may do this anywhere. While riding on the bus, driving your car, making breakfast, watch, be aware, look, see what your mind is doing. Even when you’re siting in the prescribed hours from 12 to 3, from 9 to 6 you can practice self-inquiry. Remember self-inquiry is not meditation. Meditation requires a subject and an object. You are the subject and you’re meditating on an object. Meditation alone can take you so far, but to go beyond the subject and beyond the object, self-inquiry is the thing to do. For the subject and the object, like the body and the mind, the world, the universe, even God, all of these thoughts are attached to the I-thought. They’re all part of the I. If the I weren’t there could you say, “I believe in God?” There is no I to believe in God the I has been gone. You have transcended the I so who believes in God? Which means that you have become God. It is only when you’re aware of I, that you think that you’re separate from God.
This can be very egotistical to some people especially to new people who have never heard these things before, be very careful. For instance somebody asked me the other day, “Robert is it true there is no God, there is no universe, there is no world, there is no liberation, there is no ignorance, there is no body, there is nothing?” I said, “No no it’s not true. There is God, there is a universe, there is a mind, there is a body, if there weren’t you wouldn’t ask the question.” This is what I mean when I say, “Do not kid yourself, do not fool yourself.” As long as you feel that you are a body and you feel it all day long for some of you, for every little thing bothers you. How many times did you become upset today? How many times did you react to life in a negative or positive way? This shows you where you are. So you can’t go around saying, “There is no God, there is no body.”
You’re lying to yourself. The ultimate truth is that there is no God and there is no body but are you experiencing the ultimate truth? Until you do be humble, have humility. Love God as yourself. Pray to God as yourself. Worship God as yourself. Bow to God as yourself.
And one day all the images will disappear and you will find that you are that very Self.
So you have to begin where you are. Anyone can do self-inquiry. You simply ask, “Who is thinking these things? To whom do these thoughts come? To whom do these feelings come? To whom do these emotions come? To whom do these fears come? To whom do these doubts come? To whom do the suspicions come? The hate? Who is feeling these things?” Be honest with yourself and say, “I am, I am feeling all these things.” But as you keep practicing with these things, you will begin to separate yourself from the I. You will notice whenever you say, “I am,” that you’re not talking about yourself any longer. When
you come to this point you’ve made headway in spiritual life. When you can say, “To whom do these things come? To whom does this fear come? This fear comes to me,” and yet you have a smile on your face because you realize, I am not me. So you inquire further, “Then who am I?” And again you keep still. It’s very simple. Make it very simple.
But like some of you if you’re reading four or five books at a time, going to a different teacher every night of the week, following twenty-thousand paths, you’ll go crazy.
You won’t know what to follow and pretty soon you’ll drop everything you’ll say, “Ah, this doesn’t work.” Again you have to be true to yourself. You have to ask yourself, “What do I really want out of life? What am I really trying to acquire? Do I really want to become free or am I really looking for name and fame? What am I really looking for? Am I doing this practice because I want to have millions of dollars? Have abundant health? Have recognition?” Those are all the wrong reasons for doing spiritual work. These things may come to you but they have absolutely nothing to do with spiritual life. Spiritual life is for liberation, for freedom, that’s all.
Why do you want to be liberated? Why do you want to become free? For some of you realize that to be free and liberated means you will never have to be born again. There will no longer be any birth for you. And if there is no birth there’ll be no death. You will live forever. You have become absolute pure awareness. Your essence is all over the universe. You’re all pervading. Your essence is in the mountains, in the trees, the universe, you are that! And you have bliss, total bliss, which can never be explained, can never be comprehended. It is so far beyond human thought. This is the reason you want to become liberated. This is the reason why you want to become free. Again you have to be totally honest with yourself and see what you’re doing with your life right now. What direction you’re really going in. What you’re really striving for, what you really want to do. People call me all week long telling me they’re going to Hawaii, they’re going to India, they’re going to the moon. They go everywhere to see all the gurus, all the swamis. Why? Don’t you realize by now that it is all within you. That the whole teaching is within yourself. You are the teacher and the teaching. There is only one and you are that. Awaken to your true Self. Stop playing games.
Some of you came here tonight to see what Robert is all about. To hear something profound, something illuminating. And I will purposely always disappoint you. For there is nothing profound to say. There is nothing illuminating to say. I’m not here to try to make you feel better so you can go home and say, “Ah that was a great lecture, I feel good.” You can go to any church and hear that. I’m not trying to do anything. I’m just sitting here talking to myself. You are that Self. It’s fun talking to your Self. I can say, “All is well. Everything is unfolding as it should.” I can say, “I-am is absolute reality. I-am is pure awareness. I-am that,” and yet I am not talking about myself. Talking about I-am, who is the entire manifest universe. So you see I always throw it back to you. This is your ball game.
It’s your life. Are you tired of playing games? Reading the books, going to gurus, running all over the world. When everything has always been within yourself. So again, the three rules to remember: Be at satsang as often as you can. When I use the word satsang, I’m speaking of the spiritual truth which is within you. So satsang could be in your office, in your home, in the woods, the mountain top, it’s all satsang. Always be at satsang.
Rule number two. Sit with me at the prescribed hour, 12 to 3am and 9 to 6am.
Number three. Practice atma-vichara, self-inquiry. By inquiring, “To whom do these things come? Who has these thoughts? Who do they come to? I feel them. I have them. They come to me. Who am I? What is the source of the I?”
If you practice these things I’ve outlined for you, you have to make spiritual progress. There is no question about it whatsoever. There is no doubt about it, you have to make spiritual progress. That means you have to drop everything that has been taking hold of you all of these years. You’ve got to drop it! And practice these three rules. Let go of everything else.
Of course in the ultimate reality, there is absolutely nothing you have to do, because there is no one to do it. Like I say you’ve got to be honest with yourself and ask yourself, “Am I living the ultimate reality? If I am living the ultimate reality I will not be aware of my body or my mind or the world. I will be in the world but not of the world.”
And your feelings will no longer be hurt. You will no longer really feel anger or distraught. Then you can stay in the ultimate reality and don’t have to do anything. Because again there will be nobody left to do anything. You will have transcended the I-thought and the body and the mind. They’ll all be gone and you’ll be totally free. But as long as you still feel the body and react to it, then practice the three rules that I outlined for you and become totally free. Peace.
Feel free to ask any questions.
S: Robert I was trying to remember all week when you said imagine you are boundless - is it consciousness? (R: Boundless pure awareness.) Boundless pure awareness?
R: But consciousness, it’s all the same. Consciousness, pure awareness, I-am, absolute reality, they’re all the same. This is the pure state that is unaffected by the world and the universe. This is the substratum of all existence. Call it what you may. It makes no difference what name you give it. It’s what you feel. Words are really not that important.
Those who feel the ultimate reality have no name for it. So when we talk about it, I have to make up a name and call it the ultimate reality. No one can really know what it is unless you’ve experienced it. When you experience it there is silence. There is nothing to say.
(long silence)
R: Could you read the Jnani?
S: Yes Robert. (Student reads the Jnani)
R: Thank you Mary. Announcements?
(announces availability of the 1990 satsangs in book form).
R: It is time for prashad, the real reason why you came here. (laughter) To eat…
(tape ends)
Absätze ohne Sprecherpräfix gehören dem zuletzt genannten Sprecher — so steht es im Buch, wo der Präfix nur den Anfang einer Rede markiert. Die Zuordnung ist eine Folgerung dieser Ausgabe. Namen in Klammern sind aus dem Text erschlossen: sicher belegt sind SM = Mary, SF = Fred, SJ = Jay, SC = Nate, wahrscheinlich SG = Glen, SR = Jorge. Alle anderen Kürzel bleiben stehen, weil der Beleg nicht trägt.