– Transcript 232
I Stand Is Holy Ground
R: Om, shanty, shanty, shanty, om. Greetings! Welcome. To the new ashram.(students laugh) I know some of you had a long trip over the mountains, over the hills to get here, but it’s worth it. I welcome you with all my heart. I love every one of you.
Always remember deep in your heart that all is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes anywhere at any time.
What appears to be wrong is simply your own false imagination, that’s all. But we live in a universe of Brahman, of absolute reality, self-contained consciousness, where there is perfection, perfect life, perfect bliss, perfect being. This perfection knows nothing about wrong and right, good and bad, happy and sad, it only knows itself as perfection and you are that. You are the Self, that perfect immutable Self. Nothing else exists. Nothing else ever existed. Nothing else will ever exist. There is only the one Self and you are that. Rejoice!
When you really understand who you are you will experience unalloyed happiness. Happiness that you only dreamt about. Happiness in the silence, where nothing is happening, but you’re happy, always happy, always at peace.
All of the gods that you’ve been praying to all of your life, all of the Buddhas you’ve taken refuge in, the Krishnas, the Kalimas, the Shivas, the Christ, Allah, they’re all within you. You are that! There is no god that is external to you. There is no Buddha and god and you. There is only the one Self and you are that. Ponder this.
The knowledge of this brings you eternal infinite happiness, instantly. When you begin to understand who you are, your divine nature, that you are not the body, you are not the mind. Once you understand your infinite nature, who you really are and there is nothing else, you immediately become instantly happy. For happiness is your very nature.
Happiness, the Self, are synonymous. Consciousness, absolute reality, pure awareness, are all synonymous. There is only one, has many names. But the one pervades all space and time. That is the only existence and you are that. There is no other existence. Awaken to this truth. You are the only one that doesn’t exist and you are consciousness.
When you say I-am Brahman, don’t confuse this with your body. When you understand what you’re saying when you say, “I-am Brahman,” again this will bring instant release, instant happiness, instant freedom, when you realize what you are saying.
I-am Brahman means, I-am, which has nothing to do with your body — who is consciousness and it’s all pervading. And what I-am does not refer to your body or yourself or your thoughts or your experiences. I-am refers to the universe, to everything that exists. Everything that exists is Brahman, everything, and you are that.
Do you realize the implications?
This is what Moses meant in the old testament when he said, “The ground upon which I stand is holy ground.” Everything is Brahman. Everything is God so-to-speak, everything. Nothing is excluded. When you truly understand this you have reverence for all of life, everything. You have reverence for the animals, the vegetables, the minerals, the human beings, the astral bodies, causal bodies. Everything that exists is Brahman. It’s wonderful. What peace this gives you, what joy this gives you.
When you really comprehend what I’m saying, it means, all is well! All has always been well. But you say, “What about my thoughts? What about my experiences? What about all the things I see?” To whom do the thoughts come? To whom do the experiences come? Who is the seer? Who sees? What is the object seen? Inquire within yourself, “What do I see?” What do ‘I’ see? The ‘I’, not you, but the ‘I’. Never get the I-thought with the small I, mixed up with you. You are Brahman, not your body, but you, not the I, but you.
But when you say, “I see,” you’re referring to something else completely. Something that does not exist, a mirage, an hallucination. This is where the I is, the I-thought. It’s a thought. It has absolutely nothing to do with you.
(A noise interrupts talk, then Robert continues) It’s in the monitor. Dinners ready.
(students laugh)
Learn to love the Self, not yourself as a body but the Self, which is your real existence. Everything appears and nothing exists. Things appear to look real and you get involved in all the nonsense of this world. Where did it get you, nowhere. Only true awakening will bring you happiness, not knowledge, not knowledge of something. Knowledge of something is temporary happiness. But true awakening comes when you transcend all the knowledge. When all knowledge is left behind. Then true awakening comes.
It makes sense if you think about it. As long as you have knowledge that you’ve collected, how can you awaken? Knowledge only tells you something exists. It appears to be real. You have the knowledge that you’re a woman, you’re a man, you live in a house, you live in this world, you have knowledge of physics or of mathematics, knowledge of life. What can this knowledge do for you? It cannot awaken you. Yet people are trying to acquire more knowledge, to what avail? What you really want to do is, know your Self, not through knowledge but through experience.
How to experience the Self? Be still, quiet, that’s how, nothing else. You do not have to go through long processes of yoga, meditation, it’s all unnecessary. Just keep still, quiet. Quiet your mind that is all you have to do. When you meditate you meditate on an object, this cannot awaken you, or you have to go to the pure land of the Buddha where there are no objects. No seer or nothing to be seen. This alone will awaken you.
But by thinking, thinking, constantly thinking and trying to change things, trying to make things your way, trying to acquire knowledge you’ll never awaken, you’ll never
When you first wake up in the morning be aware of the concepts that come to you.
The thoughts, the emotions, the feelings and let go of them, for you will become stronger.
When you practice this you’ll become happier over night. Total happiness by doing nothing. There is nowhere you have to go, there are no rituals you have to perform. By looking within yourself your mind becomes weaker and weaker until it’s finally annihilated.
As you are aware it’s the mind that causes you problems. The mind tells you I have to pay the rent this month, I’ve got cancer, people don’t like me, something goes wrong someplace and you’re thinking about it, this is what keeps you away from your highest good. It is thoughts like this that keep you from experiencing your Self. Where did the thoughts come from? From nowhere. They have no creator, they have no mother, no father, they just appear. They seem to appear by themselves. You never asked to think, but yet the thoughts appear by themselves. Where do they come from? They have no source.
When you practice self-inquiry and follow the thoughts back to its source, the whole secret is to realize, there is no source to your thoughts. It is only the source that exist, but there is no source for your thoughts, for your body, for your mind. That has no source. For Brahman is self-contained absolute reality. There are no thoughts in Brahman.
Brahman is not a source. Brahman is something beyond words and thoughts. Something that you alone can experience. In other words Brahman can be experienced. Not as anything you’re aware of now, not as a person, place or thing but as life experiences itself.
Ponder these things deeply.
Continue to ask yourself, “Who am I? Who am I who worries or thinks, who frets, who is upset, always believes something terrible is going to happen? Who is this person?
Where does this person come from who thinks like this? This person must go.” You find yourself here in a body so-to-speak, on this earth, but is this the truth about you. Is this who you really are? Find out. Find out who you really are.
As you continue to be really silent something will tell you this whole thing appears as a dream. This is what the source says that you’re looking for, it’s a dream. You’re dreaming the mortal dream right now. Destroying your beliefs as in person, place or thing as being real, you’re destroying the dream image. When you dream at night you’re able to awaken in the morning, but when you get caught up in this dream it appears to be very strong and it’s hard to wake up. Due to the fact that you keep identifying with person, place, and thing as being real. This is why you can’t wake up from the dream.
I’m not saying that you should ignore people, I’m saying you should stop thinking that everything comes from your mind and your mind tells you the truth. Stop believing that everything you see is real. Do not be bothered by the vicissitudes of life, always turn within. That is where all the answers are. Without is the dream, within is the Self. In reality there is no real without there is no within but for the sake of explaining this we have to turn within because we think we’re living without. When you turn within, the within will eventually disappear and without will eventually disappear. Everything will disappear when you begin to turn within. Yet when you awaken everything will be the same as it is now. Except you will not be a part of it. You will see things as you do now but you will no longer be fooled. The world will no longer fool you. By telling you this is right and this is wrong, this is good and this bad, you will be finished with all of this.
Remember again, why do you wish to awaken? Because you’re sick and tired of this world the way it is. By the changes that take place. Everything happens here. It is false. You have happiness. You have sadness. You have good and you have bad. When you will awaken you will never experience these things again. You will be in total bliss all of the time and you’ll keep silent, you’ll keep quiet. There will be nothing to explain, nothing to discuss, nothing to prove, then you will become the immutable Self that you’ve always been.
This is your life. You always have the freedom to make a choice. You’re always free to make a choice, always. The choice you make depends on what you know, right now.
Feel how wonderful it is to sit in the silence. When thoughts come just ignore them. Do not try to change them at all or try to stop them. Just ignore them. Let them come, let them go. Feel the sensations in your body. Become the witness of what is going on inside of you.
(silence)
Ask.
Glen (SG): Like when you talk about the silence, you’re talking about the mind being silent?
R: I’m talking about becoming completely silent. The mind cannot be silent by itself. The mind is a conglomeration of thoughts. When you become silent the mind slows down. And you will find that it disappears into the nothingness from which it came. You can’t really make the mind still. There is only silence, pure silence. (SG: The absence of thoughts?) Yes you can say that. If you try to make the mind silent you’ll have a hard time, because the mind doesn’t really exist. Therefore who are you trying to make silent. You just want to be silent. The mind will take care of itself. What appears to be the mind will disappear of its own volition and become silent because it never existed. When you become quiet, quiescent everything takes care of itself. The true Self emerges with all its splendor and beauty and everything else that appeared will disappear.
So it’s a misnomer to say, “I’m going to kill the mind. I’m going to make the mind silent.” There never was a mind to make silent. Again you just want to be silent. Forget about the mind. And if you become really silent you will see you never had a mind to begin with. You will be of no mind. You’ll be out of your mind. (SG: I mean usually when people say be silent, they’re relating to speech. You’re talking much more than just talking.) Yes, what people are talking about is quieting their mind. I’m not talking about that at all.
We’re not trying to quiet the mind we’re trying to reach an inner silence which is Brahman.
R: Sue would you like to give a progress report on your leg and so on? (student demonstrates mobility) (laughter) (SS: It’s improving actually.) Good, can you jog? (SS: Yeah and I exercise and I walk.) Do you elevate it? (SS: Yeah it’s been a very good experience, it really has.) Tell us about these things. (SS: There’s been a lot more silence.) (laughs) R: Anybody have any announcements. Like the world is coming to an end or something like that. (laughter)
ST: There is no satsang on Sunday. (R: Right.) And there is again starting next week, every Thursday and Sunday.
SS: Is it the same time on Sunday at two? (R: Yes.) ST: Two o’clock Sunday, 8 o’clock Thursday, forever! (laughter) (R: That’s a long time.) Forever, for a moment. I love you forever only lasts seventeen days on the average. So forever is not that long. (laughter)
SP: I have a comment on that? (R: Okay.) I appreciate the later time 8 o’clock and yet the freeway is pretty horrendous. So I don’t know whether it’s possible to make it a little later? (R: No.) Or possibly have it on the weekend when traffic isn’t so terrible.
R: You’ll have to use the back roads.
Jay (SJ): It wasn’t bad coming up on one to Malibu and then across to penny kenny, real quick.
R: I haven’t had a cold since I was about sixteen years old. I used to go and see Joel Goldsmith and I lived in the Bronx in New York. I had to take a train, take a bus in the snow. Walk about a mile after that. But I did it because I wanted to be there. So if you really want something it doesn’t matter what’s going on in traffic or what’s going on in the world. You will be where you have to be.
SE: There are no trains, no buses, no snow. (R: Well imagine there is.) (general talk)
ST: Just in case somebody doesn’t know, there are books and tapes in the back.
R: Perhaps we can pool, use one car with ten people in one car.
(general talk)
R: Boy, we have some prashad tonight. This looks good. We have sugar coated cookies…
(prashad continues as 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.