– Transcript 219
R: Good afternoon. (Students: Good afternoon Robert.) It is good to be with you again. I welcome you with all my heart. Peace unto you.
There are many people who still believe that when you become enlightened you have to give up your entire lifestyle. I use the term enlightened loosely. Nobody ever becomes enlightened. What you do is you sort of wake up to your natural state. That’s not really true because there is really no state to wake up to. You just become what you’ve always been.
For instance the sun shines all of the time but when the clouds hide the sun you do not go around saying, “Lets go create a sun? We have to create a sun or the sun won’t be here.” You realize that if you wait a while the clouds will dissipate and the sun will shine once more time with all its glory and splendor.
So it is with us. We don’t have to make anything happen to us, there is no enlightenment we’re looking for — as if it were gone and we’re trying to bring it back to us — we simply wish to awaken to what we were before we were born. Before the body came into being so-to-speak what were we? Where were we? We always were and will always be.
The body has absolutely nothing to do with it. The body is simply a superimposition on consciousness. We are consciousness. We are an image as a body but consciousness is our real state. And when we forget about the body, consciousness takes over by itself. There is nothing you have to do. There is nothing you have to make happen. There is no prayers you have to do. There is no mantras you have to do. You just have to be still and everything happens by itself.
So, there are those beings who think when this happens to you, you become dull, uninteresting. You have to give up all your life. This is a false notion. The only thing you ever give up is your thoughts. Your thoughts about person, place or thing that is what you give up. But your body will continue doing whatever it has to do. In other words you don’t have to give up sex or wine or beer if you like to have a drink now and again. You do not have to give up your family or give up anything for when you awaken everything takes care of itself. You will find you’re just the same you’ve always been. Yet you see things differently. Nothing actually changes only the mind has been transcended.
When the mind has been transcended there is no longer a world that you see like it was before. You see the world as images, appearances on the screen of life and you become blissful. You become more blissful than anything this earth can offer you. This world, this universe cannot offer you anything as good as this bliss that you already are.As good as the bliss that your Self is. And we want to have this bliss because it’s our natural state. This bliss is peace happiness, joy. Can you ever imagine being in eternal happiness, eternal peace, eternal joy? When nothing bothers you any longer. Nothing comes into your mind any longer. Nothing disturbs you any longer. Yet the so-called disturbances are still going on. They’re still going on as it was before but not for you. For you no longer have a mind to comprehend these things. The mind has been totally annihilated, totally destroyed. Yet the body will continue what it does yet you will understand that you are not the body. You are not the doer. You are free. You are total freedom. You are effortless, choiceless, pure awareness. This happens by itself.
Now this may cause some of your habits to drop away. It may cause some of your negative things to disappear from your life. It’ll bring you a peace that you never understood before. A joy, a happiness that you never realized existed before. But we’re talking about two different worlds so-to-speak.
There is really only one. That one is Brahman. Yet it appears there are two, the world of reality and the world of relativity. This appearance goes on until the body is dropped completely. When the body is…body is dropped completely the Jnani becomes the Self which has always been, the consciousness which has always been, he is merged in the absolute.
You don’t have to think about giving up things. Some people say this teaching is for monks and nuns. People who have renounced the world. But again I say to you there is nothing you can renounce as a human being which will stay renounced. There are certain people all over the world who say they’ve renounced the world because they said so.
There is nothing you can do about these things with your physical body, with your active mind like renouncing the world. You may say you’re renouncing the world then the feelings may come to you when you see the world in action. Feelings of greed, feelings of lust, feelings of inadequacy, feelings of depression, feelings of fear these feelings come to all these so-called people who say they’ve renounced the world.
For who are you to renounce the world. Who gave you permission to renounce the world. You are not here to renounce anything. You are here to transcend. To see yourself as who you are, bright and shining. It has nothing to do with the mind or the ego or your mouth or anything you may say or do. It’s not a question of wanting something or trying to become something. You simply let go of everything as it is by doing nothing. Then you will find that whatever you’re supposed to be doing you’re doing and whatever you’re not supposed to be doing you’re not doing. Everything will take care of itself.
It’s a wonderful feeling to realize that you have nothing to do, nothing to prove, nothing to become, nothing to be. It’s a beautiful feeling. You have absolutely nothing to fear, nothing to fight. Just be what you’ve always been and you don’t even have to know what that is, because they’re just words. No one is called upon to renounce a thing. Yet this doesn’t mean that you make a fool out of yourself and use this teaching as license to do anything what you want.
Remember as long as you think that you are the doer you are under the laws of karma. As you sow so shall you reap. This law is always in effect for those of us who have not reached the other side. The law of karma is always in effect. No one can escape it. It is only by inquiring, “To whom does this karma come?” by inquiring, “Who am I?” that the time will come when you no longer have any karma to bare. All of the samskaras have been transcended. Karma has been eradicated forever. But of course this only happens when you have dropped the body mentally. Everything is done mentally, not physically.
When you’re able to see yourself as your true nature, who you really are then you will find that you never had a body to drop to begin with. There never was a body. And if this sounds sort of contradictory, it is. The body that you feel you have, does not belong to you. You do not own your body. So why concern yourself with it, why worry about it.
Keep your mind on God always.
How do you keep your mind on God? By keeping your mind on yourself. How do you keep your mind on yourself? By not thinking, by stopping your thoughts, by erasing your ego. When the thoughts slow down you become happier and happier automatically.
For when the thoughts slow down something is rushing in to take their place. And what rushes in is bliss. Therefore to the extent that you make your mind slow down to that extent do you feel blissful and happy. Some of you have already proven this in your life, you’ve told me so.
When you’re no longer fretting or worrying or concerning yourself about anything, you’re becoming more peaceful. Do not think you come here to solve problems.
Some people still believe they come to this earth to work things out. There is nothing you have to work out. Only if you believe you have to work things out, then you have to work things out. But where does it come from? It comes from your mind. You are giving power to things like this. You are creating the situation like this that you have to work things out.
There is nobody to work anything out.
Just be your Self, what you’ve always been. Rest in your own svarupa. Center yourself, drop the past, drop the future. See yourself as an expanding entity — what I mean by an expanding entity I mean — your body circumference is not the end of you.
You think you’re a body and you’re enclosed in a jail so-to-speak which is your body. This is not true. Break through this shell called the body and you will pervade the whole universe. The whole universe is really your nature. How is the whole universe your nature?
Think of the dream state. In the dream state you see a universe, a world, actions taking place. You dream that you’re a prince or a princess, you own a kingdom, you go through all sorts of experiences. Where did this dream come from that’s so real for you?
The dream comes from your mind. Which means that you are in the dream, you are in everything, you are all a part of the dream. For the dream comes out of your mind and you’re playing all the parts, aren’t you? How can there be different people playing the parts when you’re dreaming the dream?
Do you see what I’m saying?The dream is coming out of your mind. Not out of a thousand minds just your mind. So you are the grass in the dream, you are the trees in the dream, you are the sun in the dream, the people in the dream. It’s all you because it came from you. And when you awaken in the morning the dream is gone it’s gone back inside of you.
So it is with this world, what you call the earth, the universe. For some reason you have been hypnotized to believe that you’re separate. So you’ve got to take action, you’ve got to work, you’ve got to stick up for your rights. You have to do all sorts of things. It’s just like when you’re dreaming you believe you have to do all kinds of things also. And then you find out your dream was just a bubble. It came from nowhere and ends in nowhere.
This world is exactly the same. What you think is the world is only an extension of your consciousness. The whole universe emanates out of your mind. You are dreaming the mortal dream right now, right this minute. Because you’re thinking there is you and me.
There are the trees outside, the flowers, there is furniture and you believe it’s all external to yourself. This is what keeps you back from your freedom, from your unalloyed happiness, from your total bliss. By thinking that the things of this world are apart from you.
So the solution is just to understand that everything in this world comes out from you. This understanding alone will take away all of your fears, all of your frustrations, all of the things that have been disturbing you, just by knowing this. This universe cannot be if it were not for you.
Again as in sleep. When you are in deep sleep and you do not dream where did your world go? What happened to the world? There is no world for you. The world only begins when you wake up or when you dream. Then there is a world. But in deep sleep there is no world, where did you go then? What did you become then? Find out.
So the beginning of wisdom is when you understand that this world is only an emanation of your mind. That is all it is, it’s a bubble, a dream bubble. If you really new this and you understood this, would you ever feel serious about anything that’s going on in this world again? Would you believe someone is trying is trying to hurt you? That you have to have revenge and hurt somebody else? Would you believe that you have to have your own way and make things happen the way you want it to be? You would simply become the observer wouldn’t you? Where you observe this whole world and all its manifestations wouldn’t you? You just watch everything happen, taking place. You would not react to person, place or thing. You would not react to anyone and you would never be hurtable again. What could possibly hurt that you think is separate from you? For in truth you are one with it.
This is the reason I say so often, no one can ever leave you or be away from you.
There is nothing you could ever lose. For you are all of these things yourself. All of your relations, all of your co-workers, all the people you dislike, all the people that you like.
They’re all part of your creation. If they’re all part of your creation consequently you would not wish to be in conflict with them because you would be in conflict with yourself.
Do you see what is happening now? Whenever you’re in conflict with anything, any place, any person, you are really in conflict with yourself. For there is one Self and you are that.
Just by knowing this frees you. Just by understanding what I’m saying to you.
Your body is also part of the dream. For when you sleep and you’re dreaming you are not aware of your body, you’re only aware of the dream. And so it is that your body is also part of the dream. It’s all part of the whole dream. This is wonderful news. It’s something you always have to remember. Always be aware of this. Just being aware of this causes something to happen to you. Become aware of this truth. Now you know what I mean when I say, “You’re not the body. You’re not the world. You’re not the situations.”
They are all part of this dream. Awaken to your Self. Become free.
Stop trying to analyze things, to figure things out. Do not be judgmental. Do not walk around with a chip on your shoulder. Stop playing a role. When you start looking into these things you will find out they all drop away and then your true nature will be revealed. Then you will understand what Brahman is. Brahman is that aspect where everything is dropped away, including your body. I don’t mean physically, I mean mentally.
To others you will still appear to be in a body, but you will know definitely, sincerely, truly, beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no body. There never was a body and if there is no body there is no world. See it all starts with a body.
Do not try to eradicate anything in this world, or change things in this world because it’s the body that is doing this, can’t you see this? It is your body that is trying to make the changes. It is your body that believes something is wrong, that something has to be changed. But when you realize the body is a dream like the world is, like the universe is, like everything else is, then there is nobody left to change anything. You just observe it you watch it you let it go and it dissolves into the Self which you are. Everything dissolves into you, you are the one and there is no other.
Think of yourself as a God and let the dream manifestation take place. Do not fight it. Just observe it, watch it, look at it. Do not fight it or try to change it because if you do this it is the ego that you’re working with and the ego will take over and become more powerful. Anytime you use your mind to try to change anything you are inflating the ego and it will cause you more problems. Watch yourself or your body self. Look at the things that you’re thinking about. Watch yourself doing things as if you were the doer.
Watch yourself in action, judging people, coming to conclusions. Saying, “This is right, this is bad, this is good, this is terrible, this is wrong.” Who can say such a thing?
Can God think like this? If what we call God were able to think this way there would be total destruction, total chaos and confusion. To God all things are a dream. They have no relevance of their own, no existence of their own yet you walk around the world trying to change things, trying to do things. Even visiting holy temples, visiting holy people. It’s all part of the dream, where there are no holy people. It’s all yourself. You’re playing games with yourself. In other words some of you think this is okay as far as problems are concerned.
When it comes to visiting holy people or seeing holy books this is different, there is me and a person. This is all false, it’s all false thinking, false imagination. You are the one. You are the holy one and there is none other but you.
Think of all the years you’ve wasted, yes wasted, reading holy books, chasing holy gurus, going here, going there, trying to find answers outside of yourself. Can’t you see now everything has been happening outside of yourself. Why didn’t you go inside of yourself to begin with where everything came from? Doesn’t this make sense to you? Everything came from yourself to begin with, therefore why don’t you jump into yourself and you would have been free many years ago. But instead you insist on thinking the things external to yourself are real and have power. But you always wind up with yourself, don’t you? When it’s all over. You might get a big thrill, feel good for a while.
Go and tell all your friends, your relatives, “I saw this person. I felt so good when I saw this person. I felt bliss, I felt joy.” The bliss and joy you’re feeling are coming from your Self not from the person. For the person is your Self. You are that one. There never were two of you there has always been one and you are the one. Awaken to this truth, awaken to this fact, and be free once and for all. You are the one you’ve been searching for all of your life. It helps to understand what this means by understanding that everything comes out of you. That is why you’re the one. There is no other one. You are that one.
Be still and know that I am God. Again this means to be still. Not to do anything.
Not to try to make things happen. But be still and know that I am God. Only when you are still can you know that you’re God. When you’re making noises with your mouth, when you’re blabbering all over the place, then you think you’re someone. You think you’re a person who has to blabber. You have to get your point across, win an argument. But when you really know that you are the one, there is absolutely nothing to win, nothing to lose, nothing to be, nothing to become. For that one there is no delusion, there is no liberation.
There is no good, there is no bad. Why? Because you have created that one out of your Self. And that one has created all of these conditions out of itself and they’re all happening within you.
This is why when I talked to you in the beginning I said, you do not have to do anything to become enlightened. You do not have to give up anything that you’re doing.
Stop thinking that you have to give up something. Things that you love. By thinking this way it will go away from you, physically because you’re thinking that you have to give it up. Therefore forget about giving up anything and turn within the Self where all the answers are and be free.
(silence)
(tape restarts with students laughing) R: So do we have any stumpers back there?
SB: Could you please walk us through a sample of “Who am I?” (R: A sample of “Who am I?”) Yeah.
R: As soon as you get up in the morning the first thing you do is ask yourself, “To whom does all of these things come?” Which means your body, your thoughts, whatever you see there, whatever comes into your mind. In other words do not get up and go about your business like you always do. Get up and inquire, as soon as you open your eyes, “To whom does this come?” What you’re really saying is, “Where did my body come from?
Where did the morning come from? Where did the sun come from shining through the window? Where did all these things come from?” What you are trying to do as I just said before, you are trying to understand that it all came from you. It came out of yourself. It all manifests out of you. By asking this question something happens that makes you realize this, this is true. So you inquire, “To whom does this come?” Whatever it may be. If a problem comes into your mind you inquire, “To whom does this problem come?” If you feel good and wonderful you ask yourself, “To whom does this come to? Who is feeling good and wonderful?” You keep inquiring, “To whom does it come?” And after when you do this something is going to say, “It comes to me.” I’m the one it comes to, I feel this. Right away you’ll feel a separation from the I, that you’re not the I, because I feel this. “I,” feels depressed. I feels wonderful. I feels good, hallelujah. I feels this and I feels that but it’s not you. By inquiring, “Who am I?” you’re really saying, “Then who is the I that feels this?”
That’s what who-am-I? means. Who-am-I? means where does this I come from that feels this, that feels the world and all its manifestations. “Where did this I come from?” And then you keep still, you never answer that question. For if you answer the question it’s the ego answering. By asking the question and keeping still, sitting in the silence , the ego will become weaker and weaker and weaker.
But of course as you sit in the silence in the beginning stages, more thoughts will come into your mind you repeat the whole thing again, “To whom do these thoughts come? Who is thinking this?” Again, “I am. I feel this, they come to me.” Again you separate the I from yourself and you ask, “Who is this I? Who am I? Where does this I come from? What’s its source? Who gave it birth?” And you keep still. As you keep still you will find the space between the question, “Who am I?” and the thoughts that come again — that you have to ask, “To whom do they come?” — will become greater and greater, the space between. This is when you know you’re making progress.
For there are no longer any thoughts. The thoughts begin to slow up. As the thoughts slow up the mind becomes quieter. When you say, “Who am I?” nothing will happen. As you keep doing this week after week after week the space will become greater and greater. The space between, “Who am I?” and “To whom do these thoughts come?”
when you have to do it over again. The space will become greater and greater and greater.
And that space is your reality. That space is consciousness, that space is pure awareness and everything will happen by itself. Yet this takes some time with people.
This takes some time for this to happen but keep persevering, keep doing it, don’t stop! Sometimes you think you’re overwhelmed by thoughts and you have to keep doing it again and again, but that’s okay. It’s better than some of the things you’re doing. So keep doing it don’t be afraid to do it over and over again. Do it all day long. Before you fall asleep. While you’re washing dishes. While you’re working in the office. Whatever you’re doing keep it up. “Who feels this? To whom does this come? Who feels depressed? Who feels sick? Who feels lack, limitation? Who feels that if I do this I’ll have enough money to buy a house and I will live happily ever after? Who feels this? I do.” The I is the ego and you’re trying to annihilate the ego. You want to get rid of the ego totally and completely.
The ego has to be annihilated, totally annihilated, totally destroyed. And this is how you destroy it by inquiring, “To whom do these thoughts come? They come to me. Who is me.
Who am I?” Keep still that is all you have to do.
SB: Robert if consciousness is reality why do we lose it in deep sleep? It appears that consciousness seems to be controlled by where it is in the body, in the waking state, in the brain connected to the mind it’s awake, and when you fall asleep it seems to fall down to lower centers in the body and if consciousness is reality why should it be controlled by centers and bodies why does it seem to lose itself and lose consciousness as it sleeps?
R: You are referring to consciousness as an entity. The consciousness that I’m referring to, is not an entity. The consciousness I’m referring to, is the absolute reality, Brahman, God. But you’re referring to consciousness as an entity, as a thing. (SB: So a Jnani doesn’t lose consciousness in deep sleep?) No. (SB: He’s always just as conscious as he is while he is awake?) There is no difference. (SB: Why do we lose consciousness in deep sleep?) Because you believe you do. Who loses consciousness? The one who believes he does. (SB: The mind appears to lose consciousness in deep sleep.) Who has this appearance? Find out, go within the self. Who does it appear to? Who appears to have this consciousness? (SB: The mind.) Of course it all goes back to the mind. (SB: Yeah.) So by knowing this it will stop.
SB: Sometimes maybe once every few years I can stay conscious in deep sleep, I mean there is something there that’s awake in deep sleep and it’s a very blissful experience but it happens very rarely.
R: Yes when I use the word consciousness I’m always referring to the absolute reality. It isn’t an entity, a thing. Consciousness is synonymous with God, pure awareness, Brahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda this is all consciousness. You can never lose consciousness except when you refer to consciousness as an entity, as a thing. That’s what I’m talking about when I use the term consciousness. Ask yourself, “Who sleeps?” Always inquire within yourself, “Who is doing this? Who is going through this? Who is experiencing all these things?” Keep working on yourself, never stop.
ST: Are you saying that the universe is a belief?
R: Yes, it’s a bubble. Like bubbles in the ocean. They keep coming and going continuously while the ocean remains the same. The bubbles keep merging in the ocean. New bubbles are born they merge new bubbles come, they continue this process. So it is with us. You are the pure Self and on the Self images come and this is like images on the screen in a movie, it’s filled with images. But you don’t identify with the images you identify with the screen, then you become free. But if you identify with the images you become an image yourself. The whole universe is an emanation of the mind. Because when you’re in deep sleep there is no universe, nothing. For when you dream, there is a universe, when you wake up there is a universe. They’re both false.
Fred (SF): Seems that all religions agree that the truth abides in the silence and it’s the only place it abides. And once words enter the picture there is a departure from the truth but at a certain stage of the game words have a purpose and that’s what we’re doing here this afternoon to some extent.
R: What is the question? (SF: Is that right?) It’s not wrong. (laughter) (SF: Same thing SB: Robert in deep sleep again, if consciousness is still very much alert and yet we’re not aware of it, I still don’t understand why is it that we’re not aware of it. If we are that consciousness that never sleeps. Why do we appear to lose consciousness?
R: Who loses consciousness. (SB: The consciousness that I feel I am right now.) Of course, but you’re not that consciousness at all, you’re beyond that. You are the Self. The Self doesn’t sleep. (SB: You’re telling me that but I don’t experience it.) What can I do then.
(laughter) (SF: I need shock treatment.)
SH: You just got it from him. (laughter)
SB: Everybody loses consciousness in deep sleep and it shouldn’t happen if they’re really consciousness. Why do they lose it?
R: Why are you a body? Why do you appear to exist? Why do you appear to go to work and do all kinds of things? The same reason. (SB: It’s a disaster.) It’s all a false notion.
It’s hallucination. You’ve been hallucinating for many years that you’re a body and that you have to sleep and wake up. It’s all an hallucination. Go beyond it, step backwards and watch what’s going on, observe yourself. Observe all the thoughts that come to you, observe all the situations you’re involved in. Look at yourself, see what you’re doing and realize that this is just a superimposition on consciousness. Like the words, the ink-words on paper. If there was no paper there couldn’t be ink-words. There couldn’t be any print.
The paper is consciousness, the print is the images. Because there is consciousness you can read the print. The same is true of us, because there is consciousness your body appears as consciousness. If there were no consciousness there would be nothing. You wouldn’t have to worry about the question. So identify with the consciousness or the white paper rather than the words on the paper.
S: Everything that appears must necessarily appear on consciousness as a manifestation?
R: Yes, that’s how it seems, that’s how it appears. (pause) It’s all the same dream.
(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.