– Transcript 218
R: Good evening. I welcome you with all my heart. It is good to be with you once again. I love you all. All is well. There are no mistakes. Everything is in its right place unfolding as it should.
There are some schools of Advert that teach that when a person becomes enlightened and I use that word loosely - for nobody really becomes enlightened, it is your natural state - but they say when a person becomes enlightened so-to-speak, that particular person brings peace and joy and happiness to the world. That person brings healing to the world. That person makes the world a better world in which to live. That person alleviates man’s inhumanity to man. This is all a lie. No such thing happens. How can it? Think for a moment. When a person awakens there is no ego left, there is no mind left. It is the mind and the ego that create the world and its manifestations. But if there is no mind or ego left in a Janna what business does he have with this world. This world is a non entity to a Janna. It doesn’t exist. So if a Sage goes around trying to heal people, heal the world there is something wrong there. For a Jnani does not make this a better world in which to live. A Sage has transcended the world where there is no longer an ego or a mind left to do anything with.
This is why Advaita is known as a selfish teaching to some people. Some people believe that this is a very selfish teaching, for a Sage really has nothing to do with the world whatsoever, because a Sage knows that the world does not exist. To the Sage this world does not exist at all. The universe does not exist. To a Sage it’s like a moving picture.
They’re images on a screen. Yet you do not get involved with the images. For you realize they’re only images, they’re not real. If you try to jump in the screen to beat up the bad guy you’re only punching the screen. That is how a Sage sees this world.
Now perhaps you can understand why people like Ramana Maharshi, Rama Krishna and others had nothing to do with their body or healing their body. For the body is part of the world. It’s part of Maya. Do not get both worlds mixed up. The spiritual world is completely different than the material, relative world. To the enlightened one there is no relative world at all. The relative world does not exist. It never has existed.
There is no relative world whatsoever. People see a world which is really a movie. It’s a play in consciousness. The universe, the world is a play in consciousness but people take it to be real so they suffer accordingly. The Janna realizes that the world does not exist whatsoever. It never existed and it never will exist. Therefore the Sage has absolutely nothing to do with this world. Ponder this, try to understand this, it’s very important. There is no-body to heal, there is nobody to save, there is nothing to do. The whole universe is Maya, an illusion. It has no substance and no validity. It is false. This is the reason I say do not get mixed up in the world. A real Satguru, a real Sage, never gets mixed up with the world, never takes the world seriously. For again he sees the world as you would the water in the mirage. He realizes it’s an appearance. It has no substance. So again you will never find a Sage going around the world healing people, saving the world, trying to make this world a better place in which to live due to the fact that there is no world. It’s all Maya.
An illustration of this Maya is told by a little story I tell once in a while: One day Sakimuni Buddha and his chief disciple Nerada were walking down a dirt road in the forest, in the silence, they were both silent. Then Nerada asked Buddha, “Master explain to me what Maya is. What is Maya? What is this Maya of yours that you always talk about?
You always talk about Maya, I don’t understand what you’re talking about, can you explain this to me, what is this Maya?” And Buddha didn’t say anything and they kept on walking. An hour later Nerada asked the Buddha again, “Please Master explain this Maya for me. I do not understand this Maya please explain it for me.” The Buddha looked at him compassionately and he said, “Would you please go to the first house you see and get me a glass of water, I’m thirsty.” Nerada obeyed.
He ran half a mile ahead, he saw a house and knocked on the door, and an old lady answered. Nerada told her that my Master Buddha would like a glass of water can you oblige please. And she said, “Certainly my son, come in.” He came into the house, he saw the most beautiful girl he ever saw in his life, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. The old lady saw him looking like that, full of lust and she said, “How would you like to marry my daughter.” So Nerada was spell bound by her and he said, “Certainly.” They had a big wedding at the Beverly Hilton Hotel… (laughter) …thousands of guests were invited. Just before they were about to be married the girl asked Nerada, “By the way Nerada how often do you have sex?” and Nerada said, “Infrequently,” the girl says, “Is that one word or two?” (laughter)
Fred (SF): What was that again I didn’t hear. (laughter) (R: You’re better off you didn’t hear me.) (laughter) Depends on what? (R: You’re better off that you didn’t hear.) (Robert continues) Anyway they got married and their relatives gave them forty acres of land. Nerada had to get up every morning and grow rice, he was a rice farmer he worked very hard. Pretty soon the girl became pregnant and Nerada had to work harder.
He bought a cow to have milk for the baby. He became more successful. Bought stocks and bonds. Became president of the chamber of commerce. And had two more children. Was an executive, owned property houses, had money in the bank. They built a bigger house for the big family. One day a hurricane came along. Powerful hurricane with winds of a hundred thirty miles an hour. Nerada’s house began to flood and he took the family up to the roof and the flood was rising higher and higher. The winds were blowing harder and harder. On the roof were the grandmother and the three sons, Nerada and his wife holding onto a television antennae for their dear life while the winds were blowing. The winds
were blowing so hard that the old lady couldn’t hold on any more she let go and she drowned. Then Nerada said to the rest of the family, “Hold on! Hold on!” and he told his wife, “She was old anyway. She only had a few more years to go so it’s okay we lost her.”
But then the winds became stronger and the TV antennae snapped and his three sons were drowned in the hurricane. They were swept away. The wife was screaming and hollering.
Nerada was troubled, but he said to his wife, “We’re both young we can have more children.” Then she said, “Nerada I can’t hold on any longer,” and she let go and she drowned.
He was completely distraught. He was about to let go of the antennae also when he found himself on the road again with Buddha, walking on the dirt road. And the Buddha said, “Well did you get my cup of water?” And Nerada said, “Now I know what your Maya is.”
It’s all Maya. All this stuff about properties, marriage, children, stocks and bonds, Beverly Hills hotel, it’s all Maya. It’s all an illusion. It’s not the truth, it’s not reality. There is only one reality and you are that. You are reality there is nothing else but you. Yet you think you’re not. You think you’re something like a human being. Who has to go through experiences and suffer and you’re hurtable. When will you wake up and realize the truth about yourself. That there is only Brahman, not duality. Not Brahman and the world or Brahman and man, only Brahman. Nothing comes out of Brahman. There is no world that comes out of Brahman. The world is an hallucination, your hallucination. You’ve been taking too much L.S.D. (laughter) You’re seeing a world with people and things.
Yet some of you may say, “Robert you see the world also?” “Yes, I see you. Peek-a-boo I see you.” But I see you as a movie. I see you as images. There is no question about it at all, that you don’t exist. No question, you don’t exist as you appear. But I see the appearance. I know it’s like the movie screen with the images but you think its real. That is the only difference between me and you. I’m a thousand percent certain that this is all a movie, picture show that doesn’t even exist. My body is the same thing. The body that appears as me is a part of the picture show. So naturally it’s going to see you as a picture show also. If I didn’t have this body I wouldn’t be able to see you at all. I wouldn’t be here at all, I’d be everywhere. But since I have this body I’m able to see you.
You have to stop getting caught up in Maya. I have lunch with many of you and you get so involved in your problems, you get so involved in circumstances. You think you’re the only one that has this problem in this whole world. You know what has a problem? Only the mind, only the ego, not you. This is why in the highest teaching is to get rid of the mind and the ego completely, totally, absolutely. To work on that. Do not work on resolving your problems. For if you have that consciousness where you have problems, when you resolve one problem another one will pop up. As many of you know it’s happening in your life. You try for years to resolve your problems. You work at your problems you go to psychiatrists, psychologists, witch doctors, trying to resolve your problems. And then when you think you’ve been helped and the problem resolved something else pops up to the same degree as your other problem which is a different situation completely.
And you always have that happening to you. If you look back in retrospect you see I’m telling you that truth. It’s one problem after another. The secret is to leave the problems alone and get rid of your mind. When you no longer have a mind how can you have a problem. It is the mind who has the problem not you. You are bright and shining. You are absolute reality, Sat-Chit-Ananda, nirvana that is what you are. But you don’t believe me because even now when I’m talking to you some of you are thinking of some problems. You are thinking of something being wrong someplace. Something that you have to deal with. Something that you have to overcome and I keep insisting that there is nothing to overcome, there is nothing to deal with. All is well. But you won’t believe me. You keep on feeling problems. You keep on feeling hurtable. You keep on feeling that there is someone trying to do something to you. What can anybody possibly do to you? Even if you’re playing this game of karma you have to realize that your karma is burning up as you keep going. You only accrue new karma when you react to a situation, when you react to a condition and those of you who feel the world on your shoulders have karma to work out. Only because you feel the world on your shoulders. As soon as you let go of the world it will fall off your shoulders and crack into a million pieces and there will be no more world for you. So drop the burden right now. Drop whatever burden you’re carrying right now. Whatever it may be, how serious you think it is, drop it right now, be rid of it. Think of it for a moment then drop it and watch it crack into a million pieces. Your problem it’s gone, it’s finished, kaput. You’re free.
You’re totally free, absolutely free. Do you feel free? Some of you actually refuse to feel free. For some strange reason you don’t want to feel free. You’re afraid to be free because you don’t know what you will encounter. You’ve been caught up in problems for so many years. They’ve become like a friend of yours and you’re afraid to release them, let them go because you’ll be in space. There will no longer be anything to lean on, to hold on to. Yet I can assure you if you let go you will be filled with bliss. Bliss is waiting for you to let go.
Do not pay attention to what your body does. You will do whatever you have to do. Everything will be done at the right time in the right way. Trust the current that knows the way. Having faith in the efficacy of consciousness will do it for you. Even if you do not understand what I’m talking about. Just having faith in the efficacy of God, of Brahman, of pure awareness, will do it for you. As you keep saying to yourself, “Not this, not this, neti-neti,” to the world, to conditions, to situations, you keep changing slowly but surely.
Begin this when you get up in the morning. Immediately when you get up in the morning when you open your eyes. Deny the whole universe. When your mind starts to think of the problems that you have or the situations that you’re involved in, don’t carry it through, deny it. Keep denying it as long as you have to. Accept nothing, good or bad, it’s all Maya. It all turns into suffering. It’s like the presidential inauguration. Everything is beautiful during the inauguration then problems begin. Then there is trouble. This is true of everyone on this earth. As long as we believe in the world as authentic we’re going to suffer there is no question about this. This planet is a third grade planet. Since the beginning of time we’ve had wars, man’s inhumanity to man, dastardly conditions going on in
this planet. Things have not gotten any worse. The only reason we believe things are worse is because of communication, television, fax. We are able to know what is going on in any place in this world at a moment. So it’s all condensed for us on television. People getting killed all over the place. We therefore believe things are bad for us than they’ve ever been before but this is not true. These things have been going on since the beginning of time. We had Atilla-the-hun, the Spanish inquisition, the crusades, go on and on where millions of people were killed. And no one has ever saved this planet. No one has ever saved this planet. Yet we read about Sages, Sages, Jnanis all kinds of people in this world and the planet is still going on the way it’s supposed to go. This is the point I’m trying to make. Everything is unfolding as it should. This planet is unfolding the way it’s supposed to. It’s not your business to run this planet. Your business is to try to get the hell off this planet, by awakening. But as long as you believe you’re part of the crowd you have to realize that you are on a third grade planet and go along with this until you get old and die. And according to your karma you go to another planet perhaps, which is a little more peaceful. You may go to a second grade planet. If you think this is bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet, or a first grade planet where things are really terrible or a fourth grade planet where things are improving. It’s like school. Maya is a university to educate the soul so-to-speak. There are different grades, different classes. But who needs to go through all this, the ego, the mind? Why do you allow this to be? Stop it now while you hear these things.
You are fortunate that in your life that you’re able to hear these things. To understand that you’re not the body nor the mind nor the world. Do something about it, free yourself. Do not accept this any longer. Forget about this world. Don’t pay too much attention to your body. Do not think too much about having a good time or a bad time. You have to loose it and let it go. Let go of all the stuff that has been hounding you for years and years. Become free, happy. By knowing who you are. It’s only by knowing who you are that you become free and have unalloyed happiness. If you’re looking for happiness in this world you’ll be fooled all of the time. The world will show you happiness for a while and then it will pull it right out from under you and you’ll start crying and screaming again until more happiness comes your way. The same thing happens, again and again and again.
And Maya is laughing its head off because you are taking it all so seriously. You’re taking the world so seriously, you’re taking the world so seriously, why? Stop it, stop it right now.
Quit while you’re ahead.
You’re all divine beings. You’re all consciousness. Pure awareness is your nature, why not go for it, why not do it now. It’s not hard. It only means emptying yourself out.
Becoming totally empty of your thoughts, your fears, your emotions, your reasoning, your dogma’s, your preconceived ideas. Empty it all out of you. Get rid of it. It’s not important.
Save yourself. You can do it and you will. Peace.
(silence)
Shanti shanti om peace. Feel free to ask questions.
SY: How did the hallucination originate if our essence is space?R: The hallucination never originated at all. It appears to have, it appears to have originated. It really has no substance. It didn’t come from anywhere, it’s like a dream. How did your dream originate when you dream at night? It’s the same thing it has no substance, nothing. It didn’t originate it’s a mirage. It appears to have originated as is. Only Brahman is, consciousness, pure awareness but nothing ever originated. It’s like when you’re hypnotized when you’re hypnotized you’re made to believe that something is…a spider on your arm, crawling up your arm and you believe it. And actually you come out of the hypnotic state there is a red welch on your arm where the spider was. There was never a spider there but yet you saw the spider yourself. The hypnotist made you see a spider. No spider ever existed, the same thing. We’re seeing the world. We’re seeing things in this world. We’re seeing planets, universes. We’re seeing all these things it has no origins, no substance. They come out of your mind but it doesn’t exist. So nothing ever was originated. Only call it hallucination for want of a better term. And it’s as if you were hallucinating. Seeing all these things that does not exist. Nothing exists, it didn’t come from anywhere. When you begin to dream the dream has no beginning, it just begins, the same with creation. Creation just appears to begin. It came out of nowhere but we didn’t come from any place because there is no creation. It’s all part of the mind stuff. Stop your mind from thinking and everything else will stop also.
SL: Robert, (R: Umm.) what do you mean by when you said, Maya exists for the so-called education of the so-called soul. Why does the soul need to be educated?
R: It doesn’t but it exists when you believe in the world. And you believe that what you see is real. Then we say that Maya exists for the education of the soul because we have nothing else to say. It’s all part of the nonsense I always talk about. But if you believe you are a body living in this world going through experiences then Maya will really educate you. It’ll make you suffer, it’ll make you be happy, it’ll make you suffer, it’ll make you be happy again and again and again until you get tired of this whole thing and you go on to the next plateau. That’s how you’re being educated. But forget about all that and go right to the top. There is really no top to go to. Don’t go anywhere just sit the way you are.
(silence)
When I watched the tape of Ramesh people seemed to ask him questions for hours but our group never had any questions to ask. That’s good. After all the answer is always the same. So whatever you ask it’s all a lie it doesn’t exist there is really one answer to all of the questions. When you get into all the scientific explanations it’s only to pass time.
Just accept that you don’t exist and forget it. (SF: It’s a waste of time.) Of course, you’re a waste of time, I’m a waste of time were all a waste of time. Time doesn’t even exist.
(Mary reads the Jnani refer to the beginning of this book for text) R: Thank you Mary. (SM: Thank you Robert.) Do we have any announcements?
Mary (SM): Yes, I do…
(tape ends abruptly)
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.