– Transcript 244
No Date
R: Peace. Peace. Good afternoon. Welcome. It is good to be with you again on this lovely Sunday afternoon. I welcome you with all my heart. I love every one of you unequivocally, absolutely. All is well.
Last Thursday evening I touched a subject on which I received many phone calls. I was speaking of the fact that a Jnani, when a person becomes self-realized and becomes a so called Jnani, the body no longer has anything to do with him or her. In other words, the body has nothing to do with the Jnani, but it appears to be a body. And the body will go through its own activities, and do what it came here to do. I must have touched a nerve when I said that, for some people, for I got four or five phone calls in regards to it. And people wanted me to elaborate on this subject, so I will. We’ll discuss it a little further, see where we get.
First of all, what is a Jnani, a Sage? To come up with that answer, is the question, “What is not a Sage?” A Sage is never a yogi or a spiritual teacher, or a meditation teacher. I use the term Jnani and Sage interchangeably. A Sage has absolutely no teaching to give you. If you want to have a teaching, you’ll have to go to a spiritual teacher, a yogi, a meditation Master. But a Sage never has a teaching to give you whatsoever. The idea is to just be in the presence of the Sage, that does the teaching. A Sage does not teach tantric yoga, kundalini yoga, Hatha yoga, raja yoga, laya yoga, or anything else. For all teachings are from the mind. Where else would they come from? They are all mental concepts.
The Sage is beyond the mind, beyond the mental concepts. So how can a Sage give a teaching? A Sage is absolute reality, pure awareness. The term Sage is loosely termed, Sage is meant all pervading. The Sage is not confined to a body whatsoever.
A Sage is the whole universe, all pervading, everywhere present. So to be in contact with the Sage all you have to do is think about the Sage, and you’re in contact with the Sage.
But there is no teaching to give. The teaching is emptiness. When a person, so called, becomes enlightened. I don’t like to use these terms, they are so meaningless. But so you understand what I’m talking about I use these terms loosely. I make it simple for you to understand. But when a person, a being, so called, awakens, the awakening has nothing to do with the body whatsoever.
This is why throughout history we’ve had Sages who have been kings, queens.
Sages have been laborers. They’ve been married or single. They’ve had boyfriends or girlfriends, whatever the case may be. Some have lived in caves and shunned the world completely. Some traveled from country to country, not interested in one place. A Sage is never looking for anything, for he has nothing left to look for. A Sage has attained everything there is to attain. Total freedom is the Sage, absolute reality, absolute freedom. Freedom from desire, freedom from wants. Yet the body of the Sage remains the same. Not to the Sage, but to the people looking at the Sage. The Sage realizes he has no body. He has no body. But the body of the Sage goes through its karma.
In order for a Sage to come to this plane, to present himself or herself as a Sage, they have to take on a body, otherwise no one would ever hear of a Sage. If Ramana Maharshi didn’t have a body, no one would ever have heard of him. So this is true of every Sage that ever lived. They have a body in order to teach in their own inimitable way. So every thing that the Sage does is a teaching, so-to-speak. The Sage is not a teacher, but everything that he does is a teaching.
A Sage kills your mind, destroys the mind. When the mind is destroyed there is eternal, happiness, total freedom. As long as you have a mind, you’re thinking, you never will be happy or peaceful. Impossible, for this is not a world of happiness or thinking. This world is not a world of peace. Yet the body appears to be doing the same thing everybody else does.
It’s like the example of the fan. You pull out the plug of the fan, it keeps rotating till it stops. You pull out the plug of the fan, it doesn’t stop instantaneously, does it? It keeps going for a while before it stops, slows down and stops. Such is the body of the Sage that comes to this plane with the plug out. When the fan stops, so-to-speak, then the Sage disappears. He drops the body and leaves. So while the Sage is on this plane, always remember he’s like the fan, going without the plug. There is no karma being accrued, and he never appears to be.
There are many different Jnanis, and we can’t judge these things. The worst thing we can ever do is to become judgmental, compare, find fault. As long as we believe we are a body and a mind, we can never really understand what a Sage is, never: It’s impossible.
For the mind is not meant to do that.
There are also certain Sages in this world called Avadhuts. Avadhut really means “crazy adept.’ This Sage comes to this world to tear your world apart. He purposely is here to tear your world apart, to see what you believe, your systems. Everything that you stand up for. The Sage tears you all to pieces, to show you it doesn’t matter, not be wrapped up in anything. In other words the Sage can go into a bar, see a bunch of people drinking, he’ll join them drinking, be one of them. He can get twice as drunk as they are.
But they will feel the difference by being with the Sage. So what happens then, they will become sort of realized inside, and start to pursue a spiritual life. A Sage may appear to be a fool, but this comes from your viewpoint. Yet the Sage has nothing to do with the body.
Take the example of the screen. You go to see a movie called, “The Godfather.’ On the screen you see all sorts of violence, murders, mayhem, confusion. All this happens on the screen, blood falling all over the place. But is the screen affected at all? After the movie
is over, the screen is just the same as it was before. The screen has not been affected one iota. The images have finished and are gone, and the screen remains the same. That is how it is with the Sage. A Sage always realizes he is the screen, and all the images are a superimposition on him.
Everything the body of the Sage does is simply like the images on the screen. Yet the paradox is the Sage knows he is the Sage, with other words, with other names. He realizes the body is a body. When you look at the Sage, you see something different. You see a human being. You see a person like yourself. And you create a Sage in your own image. You want certain expectations with the Sage.
You expect the Sage to behave in a certain way, do certain things that you believe are true and right. You believe is real.
Whereas the Sage is always smiling and happy and observes you and watches you. Leaves you alone. Lets you dig your own grave, so-to-speak. The Sage will never interfere in your life. Remember the Sage is not a problem solver. All problems are of the mind. What does the Sage have to do with this? Nothing, all works out of the mind. The Sage is beyond the mind, beyond thinking, beyond thoughts, beyond doing, beyond appearances. This is why there is nothing more powerful than being with the Sage, and having a quiet mind.
Your job is never never to be judgmental whatsoever. Have no opinions for or against anything. Why? Because it’s where you are coming from. That’s how you see it.
But when I speak like this sometimes, it blows the ego. Because the ego’s sitting there saying, “You can’t say that to me. I’ve got my own mind. I’ve got my own opinion.” It just keeps you back really, if you’re here to try to become enlightened, so-to-speak, awakened.
You hold yourself back because you’re judgmental.
You’ve got your own preconceived ideas what a Sage is, what you are, what you want, what you need, and it stunts your growth. This is why the best course of action is for you to stop thinking whatsoever. Catch yourself every time you think. And put a stop to it. Stop your mind from thinking totally and completely. For all thoughts are erroneous.
I don’t care what the thoughts are, how good the thoughts may be, how twisted your thinking may be. As long as you’re thinking, you’re hindering yourself.
Again, some of you might say, “But what about my work? I’ve got to think of my future. I’ve got to think of the present. I’ve got to think of my bills. I’ve got to think of my family. I’ve got to think of this and that.”
There is a power which knows the way.
If you but surrendered to this power, all your needs will be met from within. All of your needs will be met from within, always. But if you sit there being judgmental, say that you can find peace and happiness by doing certain things, it will never happen. And the body will come back again and again and again on this earth plane. Always searching, always looking for something, but never just being.A true Jnani is something that you can never understand yourself. It’s impossible.
You can’t understand with your mind. For there are no explanations in the mind. Therefore you expect the Sage to be what you are. And you will say that is just a person like me.
He or she does the same thing that I do. Always remember the Sage knows he has no body. Even if a body appears to you, the Sage knows a 100% that he has no body. Never had a body, nor will have body.
And the Sage looks at you and sees himself. He looks at the world and sees himself. There’s no one else for the world to look to the Sage but the Self. Because he always sees himself everywhere he looks. By seeing himself I mean he realizes the whole universe is inside of him.
It emanates through his mind, so-to-speak. It’s how it appears to you. You are told not to judge by appearances at all. Every teacher has said this. Do not judge by appearances. Yet most of us do. It’s up to each one of us to do the right thing, and learn the truth about your body.
If you think of the Sage, the Sage will think of you. Again because the Sage is all pervading omnipresence. Now, where are you coming from? What do you see when you wake up in the morning? You worry about your life, it’s not going where you want it to go? You think you have to find a teacher someplace far away? And the teacher will give you something that you need. A special book that you can read, that will enlighten you and make you happy. Give you something that you can do, become peaceful, relaxed, that will last. None of these things ever last, for a while, for a few moments, for a few days, a few months, a few years. Then you revert back to what you were before, because the mind has never been destroyed.
Your job is to destroy the mind that thinks about these things. That’s why you’re here, to destroy the ego completely. That’s the only way you’ll be free, totally free forever, the only way. Ponder these wisdom I’m speaking to you and see if I’m not right. Every teaching is of the mind. Every teacher that you chase, go after. Every teaching that he gives you or she gives you is from the mind. Only from the mind.
If there is no mind, you’ll have nothing to look for. And the mind wants to search and look. But if there is no mind, who’s left to look, who’s left to see? So life goes on with the seek and the object of the seek. This is how you were made to see the objects, and identify with the objects. I’m saying transcend the seer and the objects both, by inquiring to whom does the object come to? Who sees this object? What is its Source? You must ask this question repeatedly all day long. What is the source of my misery? What is the source of my happiness?
Will your mind try to be judgmental? Catch yourself. Ask, “To whom does this come? To whom does this judgment come? It comes to me. I think this. But am I really the I that thinks this? Am I an I? Where did I come from? Who am I? Who is the thinker?” And go beyond. Keep going beyond everything that comes to your mind. Go beyond all the
answers. Until you’re left in total peace. When there are no more answers, you’re totally free and peaceful.
As long as you are looking for answers, you can have no peace or happiness. Always remember, this world is not a world to improve. Even if you are trying to make this a world in which to live. You can’t do this. It will only be for a few days, a few months, a few years. This world is not a world to be improved at all. It’s a world to be gotten rid of, IN THE MIND. It starts in the mind. It begins in the mind.
Don’t think, some day the world will be a better place in which to live. You’ll be happy. It will never happen. Since the beginning of time, man has tried to improve this world, of no avail. Things some time seem to improve for a while, but it will become worse than ever before. Why? Because this is the way of this world.
You have to have friction in this world in order for it to survive. If there is no friction in this world, this world would disintegrate totally. You’d have no world. It’s good and bad, right and wrong, up and down, forward and backward. In order for a jet plane to fly, there has to be the same amount of power pushing it back, resisting. This is how the plane flies, It has to have resistance. If there was no resistance it wouldn’t fly. It wouldn’t be able to get off the ground. So it is with our life. In order to achieve something, there has to be resistance. Think about this. All you wish to achieve in life, you have to have resistance, in order to achieve. If there was no resistance, there would be nothing to achieve.
This is why I say to you, Advaita Vedanta has nothing to do with this world whatsoever. You try to make yourself a better human being, or a more competent person. This just makes you more worldly. You’ve got to get off this planet totally and completely. And when you get off this planet, you have to fly away to some place like mars, where you go deep within and touch reality. Its what’s comprehensible.
What happens when you touch reality? It’s more beautiful than you can ever understand or appreciate. So stop searching, stop looking, stop being what you are, what you think you are. Stop doing everything you do, mentally. I know you’re concerned what’s going to happen to you if you stop thinking. You’ll always be taken care of. You’ll get all the things you need.
One thing you’ll awaken now. Whether you like it or not, you will awaken. And then you’ll see who’s been awake. There never was a time when you were asleep. So do not become bored, bored with life. Some of you become bored with satsang. And you look for new teachers, new satsangs, new jobs, new people in our lives. We’re looking for happiness, aren’t we? Immediately we’ll have happiness, if we do all these things we just mentioned. Nothing could be further from the truth. It will only be a temporary condition.
This is why the wise person hangs on the Jnani in all circumstances. They don’t look to be bored or not bored, no matter what’s going on. If you’re being in the presence of the Sage all the time, it’ll happen automatically. If you get bored and want to change things, you start all over again. You’ll be born again. You go to a new country, you find a so-called teacher. And hear something interesting. Get involved with the teacher. The teacher becomes boring after a couple of years, and you look for somebody else. It never stops. Everything will stop when you stop. When you become still and consciousness begins to move through you, becomes you.
This is the meaning of “Be still and know that I am God.’
Be still! Stop searching! Stop looking! Stop being!
Everything you already have. You are totally free and liberated now. So be it.
Peace.
Feel free to ask questions.
S: I have a question. I have been reading a lot about a few people in Ramana’s time. Just by a look or even a hug, there is a story of Animali. Ramana ran over to Animali, hugged him for two minutes, and he became spontaneously enlightened. And then he spent the next thirty-eight years stabilizing in that, and then certain other cases. So I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about transmission.
R: Yes. Remember that Animali was not an ordinary person, he was extraordinary because he had been in the teachings many years. He had prepared himself and he was very humble, filled with humility. (S: He was just a boy when it happened.) Yes, he had a joy in his heart, and looked at Ramana as the divine universe. Ramana was the whole universe to him. So he had something inside of him, so when Ramana hugged him and loved him that way, what was left dropped away, and he became enlightened. Now this is true of us too. We’re not different from Animali. Except that with us, we have such things in our heads that keeps us back from being ourselves, we are filled with our own garbage.
And when this happens we have a long way to go. So we must first develop humility. We have to develop love, peace.
If we stop thinking so much about person, place and things, the Sage will give you a hug, or whatever will happen to you too. Depending on the person, depending on what’s going on, depending on circumstances. There are no mistakes. Everything is in its right place
S: So, Robert, that transmission is radiating all the time. It’s not that Ramana just all of a sudden turned on the juice, to that one person. (R: Yes, exactly.) And it’s just that the person has to be receptive and open so that the transmission can be received.
R: Indeed, very true. Grace is always with you. There is never a time when grace is not. It’s up to you to receive it in the right way, by preparing yourself. And the best way you can prepare yourself is to keep the mind still and quiet.
S: How can a seeker maximize his serious relationship with the Sage? What can he do to make the relationship deeper?
R: Simply by sitting with the Jnani all day long. When you’re home, where you’re working, think of the Sage. When you think of the sage’s form, the sage’s name, things will begin to happen to you. Find peace.
Try it. Then you will be with the Sage continuously. Whenever you think of a living Sage, the Sage becomes part of your heart, it’s the complete heart and you feel the love of the Sage within you. So if you think of the Sage, the Sage will think of you. Whatever you think about, that you become ultimately. So you have to be very careful what you think about. Whatever you think about, you become. Think of the Sage, you become the Sage.
S: Robert, this week you said that the mind has to be destroyed. And in the past you’ve said there’s no mind, the mind doesn’t exist. So how can you destroy something that doesn’t exist?
R: To the one who believes he has a mind, he has to destroy the mind. But the one who knows he never had a mind, there never was a mind, there is nothing to destroy. So it’s a question of the person who is seeking, where they’re at with their mind. There is no mind. No mind ever existed. But because people have a strong belief they have a mind, just like there is a body. As long as you think there is a strong mind and a strong body, you have to do things to make it become less and less. Destroy the mind and the body.
We have to sit around talking like this many times. Depending on who I’m talking to and depending on who’s asking the question. Certain people will have to do everything they can, to obliterate the mind. Other people want to be still for a while and the mind will disappear by itself. Everybody is different. But everybody has a state of mind. Obliterate the mind completely and become liberated. This is everybody’s gift. You don’t have to stay where you are, you can become liberated. It’s a gift to become liberated. But will you do it?
I mean you have to want liberation more than anything else in this world. So think of the things you’re attached to that come before liberation. That’s what I’m talking about. You have to let go of everything. Let go of all your attachments, and liberation will come by itself.
S: Robert, I’ve been studying metaphysics most of my life. And I’ve never been able to get an edge on my suffering. And then after I’ve been listening to you like, there has been a progressive thing happening. At first I was able to identify with the problems of the world which was just a tremendous relief to me. And then about a month ago, all of a sudden I was able to not identity any more with the thoughts, the problems with this person. And I found a place where I could be more peaceful and watch this persons thoughts happening. And that’s the most freedom I’ve ever had in my whole life and the most peace. And I’m very grateful to you.
R: That’s wonderful, you’re getting rid of the self. You’re doing what you’re supposed to do. You’re making progress, that’s wonderful. Keep it up.
S: I wonder if you could say something about creativity. You said something about the creative life. It is hard to reconcile dropping the mind and using the mind creatively?
R: Not really. Some of the most famous sculptures, famous artists, did their best work when they did not think. Take Thomas Edison, for example: He used to sit in his rocking chair every day and lose his mind completely. Not think at all. And all the ideas came to him, because it comes out of the Self. The Self of consciousness is always prevalent. But you give it back, because you’re thinking too much. Once the mind stops thinking, consciousness, the Self, appears by itself as your creativity, and you become more creative. So do not believe your mind will not be creative. It’s not true. You become more creative. Your mind keeps you limited. When your mind is gone, you become more expansive. In any event, what you came to this earth to do in a body, you’re going to do, to fulfill. It’s all preordained, all predestined. It has absolutely nothing to do with what you think about it or don’t think about it. Your job is to make yourself more peaceful and still, and let nature take its course. Then you’ll find that you’re totally happy and peaceful, more than you’ve ever been before.
S: Are the mind and the ego two separate entities? Or, when you say mind do you mean ego? When you say ego, do you mean mind?
R: They’re both simultaneous. They’re both the same. (S: They are the same?) Yes. In order for us to talk about these things, we have to talk about body and mind, the self, the ego. There is only one. The one is you. The one is the Self.
S: Robert, you said you’re not the body but yet every week I see you, and your body looks different to me. Some weeks you look very very young and some weeks you look very very old. Yet I’ve read in the books that Jnanis have spontaneous transformation, where they would get super rejuvenated. Like they were ready to die, and then all of a sudden they look thirty years younger and have many years to live.
R: That’s what you see. (S: But when the person is enlightened, and one with this force this consciousness, would that have an effect on the appearance of the body?) Only on your appearance. What you see is what you see. The Jnani has no appearance whatsoever. The Jnani is completely empty. (S: You mean you are the invisible man?) If you see an invisible man, then I-am. What you see is what I-am. (S: Sometimes you appear to have no head.) Then I have no head. (S: It’s like the headless horseman.) Whatever you see is what you get. You get what you see.
(end)
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.