Livre compilation de Robert Adams
Highlights
Page31
S: What is it exactly do you mean, when…what does Ramana mean when he says, “The mind falls into the heart? The mind rests in the heart?” R: The heart he is referring to is absolute reality, pure intelligence.
Page31
The mind has come out of the heart and does all its damage by making you believe you’re worldly
Page31
Just like the sun in the clouds. When the clouds cover the sun, the ignorant person says there’s no sun. He or she does not realize that the sun is always shining but the clouds are now covering the sun. And whence the clouds dissipate, the sun is shining once again. So it is with us, we appear to have troubles and problems and all kinds of nonsense going on in our lives, those are clouds, but your true Self is trying to shine. You will not let it because you imagine your problems are real. You identify with the evil, with the negativity. You identify with the wrong conditioning. So you keep the clouds from dissipating. As soon as you turn from your problems and turn towards the light, the clouds of your problems will dissipate once again and your heart or your sun will shine through and everything will be resolved.
Page31
the person who wants to trust is the ego
Page31
You just want to awaken and you don’t even want to do that. Just be your Self, be your Self. Ask yourself, “Who wants to trust? Who wants to awaken?” and you will see it’s all your ego, it’s I. I want to do this, I want to do that, I want an experience, I want this. All of that has to go. When all of that has gone, the sun will shine by itself.
Page31
Just observe your thoughts. Do not try to change them. Do not try to correct them. Just observe them. And you can ask yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come?” or you can just witness your thoughts without asking anything, and the process will take care of itself. You will know what to do.
Page36
you use whatever method you have to, to still your mind. The whole secret is to quiet your mind. To keep it from thinking. To keep it from being active. Your mind is a bunch of waves. You want to stop the waves and you want your mind to become still and the fastest way to do that is by self-inquiry or by observing your thoughts, watching your thoughts, becoming the witness to your thoughts.
Page36
Who suffers? The mind, not the body, the body cannot suffer. The body is merely a lump of flesh and bone and blood, but it’s animated by the mind, so the mind suffers and allows the body to suffer, but the body can do nothing by itself. So if the mind is taken away from the body something else will happen, you’ll be free.
Page36
S: What was the line again? Buddha’s line, karma is the taskmaster for the foolish… R: …and the servant for the wise, it’s the servant because you do not pay any heed. S: Control it. R: Exactly, you observe it and you do not respond. So it becomes your servant when you do not respond to karma, then you overcome it. In other words if somebody becomes angry at you and you do not respond, there is no karma, and you’ll be free
Page36
there is a power that knows how to take care of all things if you trust it. That power of course is you, but you don’t know it.
Page36
there is a power that knows how to take care of you, that loves you, that is always on your side. It only requires one thing, surrender. Surrender to your Self. God, guru and Self are one, bow down to your Self, love your Self. When I speak of your Self I’m not referring to your ego self. There is something about you that perhaps you’re not aware of yet. The absolute reality that we’ve been talking about. It is you, that’s what you worship, that is what you bow down to, that is what you express.
Page36
Everyone has made mistakes, forget it. Begin to realize who you are, begin to love yourself dearly, have mercy on yourself, lift yourself up and become free,
Page36
if I say anything at all, if I speak, listen with your heart not with your head. Get your head out of the way. Do not try to analyze because you can only analyze with your own concepts.
Page41
something happens to lift us up above the mundane and into freedom. And you will know when it happens because you will have a feeling of immortality, a feeling of spaciousness. Right now you feel bound to a body. When you become free your body will no longer hinder you even though you may appear to still have it. You will feel omnipresence
Page41
The whole universe will be you and you will be in bliss all the time but you will still appear as an ordinary person to most people.
Page41
ask yourself, “Who is depressed?” See your Self can never be depressed, your ego is
Page41
depressed, it’s playing games with you. In reality there is no ego, so there’s nothing to be depressed, you’re free. S: It never really answers anything about the thing that I ask, (laughs) It may refer to… It’ll say, “I know no such thing as depression… (R: Umm). R: It’s your mind playing with you, it’s playing games with you, but if it makes you feel good for a while continue. S: It has given me some insight R: So continue for a while. It will not make you free but at least it’ll give you spurts of happiness. So if you have to continue, then do it. But the better way is to ask yourself, “To whom comes this depression?” and realize there is no place for it to come. There is no body home to be depressed. Your real Self can never be depressed, it’s free and happy.
Page41
We have to do whatever we have to do in the beginning. For instance, sometimes you have a depression you can’t get rid of it no matter what you do. So a good way to help you is to take a cold shower. If you take a nice cold shower it will change the molecular structure of your body and you’ll feel better or put ice on back of your neck S: Is that a mind game too or is that a… R: It’s a mind game. It relieves it for a moment, for a while, but tomorrow you maybe depressed again and until you get rid of the entire concept of depression.
Page41
: Whatever you have to do and when you do feel better, work on yourself and practice self-inquiry, that’s the fastest way.
Page46
If you want to use your imagination to begin with, you can image a sphere of white light in your heart on the right side of your chest, your spiritual heart. And allow all your thoughts to merge into your heart.
Page46
What do I mean when I say, “Keep your mind on yourself?” Your real Self is your heart, not your human heart, but your spiritual heart. Your heart is God. Keep your mind stayed on God in your heart
Page2846
you see what I mean when I’ve told you all these times, you follow the I to the heart? As you follow the I to the heart, you’re going through the molecules, and the atoms, and the sub-atomic particles, going deeper, and deeper, going back, back to your source, back, back to the source, to the energy waves, to the void, and finally your entire body is totally dissolved and consciousness stands alone.
Page2846
You are just the way you were always. You’re the same person, except something wonderful has happened to you. You realize with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your being, that you never were the body or the mind.
Page2846
You are free. Nothing in this world will ever disturb you again. You laugh at death, for you realize that you were never born, you have never prevailed as a body, and you will not disintegrate, or die. You’re always the same, pure consciousness.
Page2846
As you observe your respiration you become calmer, relaxed and peaceful. Nothing is bothering you or disturbing you. As the thoughts come into your mind you inquire to yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come? The thoughts come to me. I think of these thoughts. What is the source of the I?” or “Who am I?” or “What am I?” And you keep still, you never answer. As you keep still thoughts come to you again.
Page2846
Again you inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come? They come to me. I think these thoughts. I-I-I. What is the source of this I? I’m beginning to realize and understand that all my thoughts, all my feelings, all my emotions, are because I believe that I’m a personal I. They’re all attached to this I. Therefore if the I disappears and returns to the heart centre, to consciousness there will be no I-thought, there will be only consciousness. So I must go backwards, backwards, backwards by following the I and the thoughts.” And the way you do this is by inquiring, “To whom does the I come? What is its source?” And keep still. Remain in the silence.
Page2846
Thoughts may come to you again. Thoughts such as I’m missing my favorite TV program, I’m hungry I want to eat dinner, I’ve got to get dressed for work, all kinds of thoughts may come to you. You repeat the same procedure. “To whom do these thoughts come? Where do these thoughts come from? I am not asking to think of these thoughts. There is nothing in me that wants to think of these thoughts yet they keep coming where do they come from? They come from the I-thought. The personal I. Then who am I? Who is this I?” Feel it returning. Feel it going back, back, back toward the molecular stage, back toward the atomic stage, back toward the sub-atomic stage, back toward the energy wave stage, back
Page2851
into the void, into nothingness. I am, pure awareness, absolute reality, nirvana, sat-chit-ananda.
Page51
People write voluminous texts about nonsense, about existence. And we read and we get involved and we try to be intelligent about it and we suffer. All suffering stops when you stop searching and you stop fighting
Page51
Always be truthful to yourself. Don‟t put it on, don‟t imagine, things are going well when they‟re not. Be free and be yourself. When you’re free you can express yourself positively and negatively
Page51
when you become self-realized, you become God. So you become the Self of all. The real Self of all is perfection. So when you become the real Self of all you see perfection in everything. And the seeing of perfection, not with your eyes, but with your spiritual Self
Page51
say you’re trying to become a surgeon. You have to keep practicing, you make mistakes, that’s why you practice on the stiffs and dead bodies. S: Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do right now… (R: What are you doing?) On myself. R: Yes, you keep practicing, you practice again and again and you have more stiffs to practice on, until the day comes when you give a perfect operation, then you become a surgeon, same principle. You keep catching yourself. S: Yeah trying to recognize through recognition… R: …you keep remembering to catch yourself and it happens more often, more often… S: And that is what the inquiry is helpful for… (R: yes.) …it keeps reminding me that I’m back in me again R: The time lapse becomes closer and closer to reality and starts coming closer to it.
Page56
we keep remembering, remembering, we’ll forget. Then we’ll remember again, sometimes we’ll get disgusted with the whole thing and we’ll stop for a couple of months, who knows? But then we’ll go back to it. If we keep abiding, we’ll get there and become free. But then again if you don’t that’s okay, because you’ll come back again and you’ll be ahead of the game.
Page56
Of course, you’re distracting yourself. You can awaken anytime. S: Yeah, but it’s not a goal to be attained, is a just to recognize. R: To awaken, just like from a dream. You keep dreaming the same dream until you wake up. S: So we’re going to wake up to what is already the reality, truth, right there… (R: Of course.) …aren’t we? R: And the only difference about this and the dream is that this appears longer, that’s all.
Page56
Intelligence for us in our current state, implies so many other things, so that this intelligence when you use the word, and I know you mean something more than intelligence… R: I mean non-discrimination, non-attachment. When there is non- discrimination and non-attachment there is pure intelligence because you see things as they are.
Page56
Realization of consciousness is really, no realization because there’s no one to realize.
Page56
when you realize who your ego-I is and you follow it to its culmination, you follow it to emptiness, to nothing. S: So it’s the ego-I that we’re asking about when we say, “Who is I?” R: It’s the ego-I. S: And it will just annihilate itself by… R: It annihilates itself when you take it to its source, which is nowhere.
Page56
It’s like playing hide and seek. You’re trying to find the person who is hiding. So you’re trying to find the thoughts that are lurking deep deep in the subconscious and they come up themselves and you say, “I see you. I know that you’re there. You cannot fool me any longer. The fear is there, I see where you are,” and you ask yourself, “Who fears? Where did you come from fear? Who is your mother? Who is your father? Who gave you
Page61
birth? You have no birth? You don’t exist?” You keep talking to yourself like this, so that part of you no more exists and it dissipates of its own accord. That’s how you work on yourself.
Page61
Being non-attached means being compassionate, being loving, being kind
Page61
If you’re attached you think of yourself first but if you’re not attached you think of the other person first
Page61
instead of calling it self-realization it should be called, realization of there’s no self. (laughter) That would be closer to…would be closer to… R: It would be complicated for some people. S: Because self-realization people think, “Oh me as the self is going to realize something,” but that’s absolutely the opposite. R: That’s what brings them in. That’s how you begin.
Page61
you have to go to total zero, from the point of the mind. So it’s like dying, going to total zero. R: Well it isn’t that bad really. What you are doing is that you are just changing your allegiance. Before you used to have faith in the world and people, places and things. Now you have faith in omnipresence, in the infinite. In something that you cannot feel, taste, touch, smell or see. And the more faith you have in that which is your Self the more faith than you have in the world, the real world, as your Self. S: So really it starts with an act of faith in that… R: Faith in the invisible.
Page61
S: In the invisible so that you go on with it. R: You drop your self-importance. And you stop having conflicts with people, places and things. And you just start loving and you become compassionate. And you realize that everybody is your brothers and sisters and everything happens by itself. S: Isn’t he right in saying in a way that it feels like dying, because I think it was St Paul or one of those who said, “I die daily?” R: Yes, St Paul said that, you’d die daily to the world. But it’s not a negative experience, it’s a good experience. Every time you let go of something you feel better.
Page61
R: It improves you in every way. All parts of you will improve. It’s amazing how it works. You stop seeing evil. First you stop seeing evil in yourself, you sort of forgive yourself for all of your mistakes. It’s like being born again and then you can forgive everybody else, totally, completely. You become free, unlearn everything and you feel your omnipresence.
Page61
In the mental plane everything is alive. There is no such thing as dead matter. Everything lives and wants to express itself, the moon, the sun, the earth, the flowers everything. But when you go beyond that, it doesn’t exist. It only exists on the mental plane but in truth there is no mental plane. So none of that exists it’s like a dream. Always go back to the dream. S: So the whole universe, the solar system and the universe are projections in a sense also. (R: Projection of the mind.) And all the inner planes too? R: All the inner planes, projections of the mind. S: Astral, causal, physical, all of that? R: For whom are these things, where did they come from? For whom are they? They’re all projections of the mind. When the mind goes everything else goes. So that’s why when you follow the I, the I is the mind and the ego. When you go to the source, everything is attached to mind
Page71
In what sense is the spirit of the whole earth our mother? R: Our brother? S: Our mother, as it has given us birth to another state of being. R: The earth has no power without you, you are the power and the earth is within yourself. So when you become powerful, the earth has power. When you are weak, the earth is weak. The earth like the universe is an emanation of yourself. The mother, the father, it’s all within you. Everything is within your self. There is no power outside of yourself. When you see some power happening from some place, it is because collectively people are giving it their power. But the people are the power. They misunderstand. They think the thing has power by itself. Nothing exists except yourself. Nothing exists because everything changes, nothing is ever the same. What changes, cannot be real. Take your body for instance: You didn‟t always look this way. When you were conceived you were no larger than the size of a pinhead, that was you. And then you became a little baby, a teenager, an adult and now here you are. So you were never the same as you were years ago. This is true of everything. This chair used to be a piece of wood, a tree. Now it has become a chair. Everything comes from the same source, nothing. Nothing exists, except the Self. Everything is like a dream. When you have a dream, you dream you’re flying an airplane, you’re going to China and to Japan, then you come back here and you go to sleep. And then you wake up, it was a dream. This life is also like a dream. One day you will awaken and realize who you are and you will realize there is no power outside of your Self and even there‟s no power within yourself. No power exists only the self exists nothing else is necessary. So we make up all these games, they’re all mind games. They do not lead us to self-realization, they lead us to further delusion. That‟s why we’re born again and again and again, until we wake up. And then reincarnation stops and then we become totally liberated and free, which we already are.
Page71
R: Let’s imagine you believe you’re enjoying the blue sky, then the next moment there’s thunderstorms, lightning and you become frightened and you cry. What happened to your enjoyment? When you realize that you are the Self, blue skies, thunderstorms they’re both the same. Nothing can hurt you. S: So you can enjoy both of them? R: There’s no one left to enjoy, you just are these things. You are bliss. You have become sat-chit-ananda, being, knowledge and bliss. That’s your true nature. This is why I said in the beginning, these words are meaningless, unless you’ve experienced That, otherwise they don’t mean anything.
Page71
if you follow the principles involved, by asking yourself, “Who is it that needs the discipline?” You will realize that your true Self, never needed discipline but your ego does. And since you are not the ego there is no one left for discipline it all evens itself out.
Page46
In other words, do not allow your thoughts to go outward. When your thoughts go outward conditions take place. When you keep your thoughts in your heart centered, all of a sudden you find peace
Page136
Your body comes from your mind. But as long as you believe your body is yourself, and you understand that it comes out of your mind, it will be provided for, just like leaves are provided for the trunk of the tree. So this teaching is quite predictable and it can be used to improve your human-hood. Not by trying to improve your human-hood directly, that’s where you’ve got problems, but by forgetting about your human-hood and realizing everything is a mental projection.
Page136
Again what happens? When you realize that the whole universe is a manifestation of your mind you become omnipresence. And in the omnipresence is contained all of your needs, and all of your needs are met from within. But when you start worrying or thinking about it, you spoil it. Then you have to do human things to take care of you. But if you leave the human-hood alone, and go back to the understanding that it’s all in your mind, you automatically let go of your mind, and the Self takes over, bringing the right people into your life, the right situation, the right address.
Page141
the secret, as I told you Sunday, is to think about these things as soon as you open your eyes in the morning. As soon as you open your eyes, what do you think about? You think about food, you think about your day, you think about work, you think about money, you think about friends, relationships, but you do not think about your mind being a projection of all the things that happen. Whatever you think about in the morning will carry you through.
Page141
You should have no feeling. S: As myself? R: As yourself, but something will take over. Something that’s beyond words. There’s a something that will come. It can be called sat- chit-ananda, bliss. Call it whatever you like. But something will take over, and you’ll feel divine, and you’ll be okay, just the way you are.
Page141
R: Nothing is superior to the Self. Be your Self, abide in the Self and you’ll never go wrong. But when you hear voices it comes out of your mind. You’re trapped. S: And the mind is Maya. R: The mind is very powerful. S: Isn’t that one of the questions: Who’s aware of this? R: Well tell me who. Who is? S: Who is? R: Who’s aware of it? There’s nobody to be aware of anything, nobody is home, emptiness. S: I feel that that’s true. R: Who feels that? (S: Uh-uh okay.) Even the feeling is wrong. You just abide in the Self. There’s no feeling. There’s nirvana, there’s emptiness, there’s the state of the unborn.
Page81
R: The best you can do is to make yourself happy. The happiness will take care of everything else. Really be happy from the depths of your soul. Do not look at conditions. Conditions change, but make yourself real happy because you are you. Not because you have something, but because you are you. Happiness has nothing to do with person, places and things. Happiness is the state of mind. If you can be happy it’ll change everything in your life.
Page81
Be yourself and you will know what to do. You did not come to this earth to suffer you came to find yourself and to be happy…
Page76
you can ask yourself — for instance — if you’re feeling depressed, “To whom does this come?” and then you realize it comes to you. So you say, “It comes to me, I feel this, I feel depressed, I feel terrible.” Then you ask yourself, “Who is this I? From where does this I come that feels terrible?” But don’t answer. Just follow it, follow the I to its source and you will realize that all of life, the relative world, is attached to I. And when the I is dissolved, everything else is dissolved with it. It happens by itself. You simply go deeper with the I, deep, deep, deep. “From where comes this I? Where does this I come from?” or “Who am I?” Whatever feels good for you and you will realize that the I comes from nowhere. It doesn’t exist. It never did exist. You are free, you are bright and shining, you are the one.
Page76
S: I thought, gee if I could do that all the time, it would be good. R: Then ask yourself, “Who needs to do it all the time?”
Page76
R: When you’re driving your car what you did is sufficient, but when you go home then you could do it differently
Page76
there are some people who do need that kind of discipline because that’s the way they are in this life. S: How would you know? R: It’s all karmic. Your heart will tell you, what feels good, what feels right.
Page76
S: On the way out here today on the freeway today, I did that, to whom does this state was … or whatever and I did this on the way out here and I was just real calm. Even if I thought of like rushing, who did this idea of time come? You know, I mean the mind was going the whole time asking those questions… (R: Umm.) …yet even though it was, I didn’t feel rattled or ruffled because I didn’t get identified with any of the things that came up. R: It’s a great psycho-therapy. S: Is that all it is though is it? R: No, it’s the highest form… S: It is self-inquiry more or less. S: I mean it kept coming but in between there was some quiet because I mean as soon as something would come up, the question would be there to cancel out any dadadada, you know, imaginings that go with it, once you start thinking about, time in the traffic and… you know how the mind goes, so it just stopped. And another thing that it did was, it may be totally unrelated but every time I did that I could see that there was some kind of … I don’t know. R: As you keep that momentum up you’ll be surprised at what happens. S: Well I thought yeah, if you could do this all the time… (R: Yes.) …everything would dissolve. R: You have to catch yourself. Whatever thoughts come to you, you simply ask yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come?”
Page71
R: Well meditations and mantra’s are good, but they are only there to make you one-pointed, to make the mind one-pointed, so you can disintegrate the mind. S: So it isn’t important then, even now to do meditation? R: It’s important for some people. Again if you can make your mind quiet then it’s unnecessary, but all the spiritual discipline you are referring to, are only to quiet the mind. When the mind is quiet, everything happens by itself. When the mind is noisy the world becomes real and terrible for you. Therefore mantras quiet the mind. Meditation quiets the mind, everything leads to quietening the mind. S: Watching your breath? R: To quiet the mind.
Page71
S: When you refer to discipline what do you mean? What is the definition of it? R: Well I mean not being rude to other people, not being obnoxious, being kind and loving, putting other people first, having compassion, helping others.
Page71
R: As I said before, this path is sometimes a contradiction because it is true you need discipline, and then again you don’t need discipline. There’s a time when you do and a time when you don’t
Page66
R: On the mental plane everything is in a state of flux, nothing is solid, everything moves. For it doesn’t exist because it’s non-duality, non- duality exists. Duality is when everything is in a state of flux, then there are atoms, there’s energy, there are molecules, and there are things and they’re in complete motion. But if you go beyond the molecules and the atoms and the energy then you’ll have nothing, emptiness, and that’s reality.
Page66
Remember I love you all and I always think about you, but remember to love yourselves, to pray to your Self, to bow to your Self, to worship your Self, because God dwells in you, as you, peace. See you again next time, God bless…
Page66
Robert: What I teach is utter nonsense, gobbledygook. It has no meaning except to my Self. I have no teaching. It is simply my confession. It‟s useless for most people because I‟m not giving you direction. I‟m not telling you to meditate for twelve hours a day or to stand on your head or to utter mantras, there is no instruction. There is just my personal confession, the way that I feel. Now, it does some people good for it is an invisible instruction, by just being here, by just opening your heart, something happens. So don‟t listen with your head. Do not try to analyze or judge or come to any conclusions. As I always say, “Do not even believe a word I say,” why should you? Who am I? I am nobody, nobody important. Listen to your own heart. I‟m sort of a mirror. What you see in me is your self. Subsequently the way you feel about yourself is the way you feel about me because you’re looking into the mirror. I can truthfully say that I am ultimate oneness, absolute reality, emptiness, unborn, nirvana, I am that I am.
Page66
What I am saying is simply this: You’re always looking for a reason, for why you are like you are, why you have these habits, why you look and appear to be this way, why your kind or why your mean. You’re always looking for a reason, a solution, a cause, but there is no reason, there is no cause, there’s no effect, there’s emptiness. Emptiness is the Self and I am that.
Page66
Now when I speak of I-am, I am not referring to Robert. I am referring to omnipresence
Page66
If we all looked at this room and I asked you, ‘What is your impression of this room?’ One person will say, ‘Oh I think it’s lovely,’ another person will say, ‘I hate it!’ Another person will say, ‘It’s too small,’ somebody else will say, ‘It‟s too big,’ somebody else will say, ‘It‟s very clean,’ someone else will say, ‘It‟s very dirty,’ and that’s how it is, you’re seeing yourself. You’re seeing nothing but yourself. The world is a reflection of your mind. The universe is an emanation of yourself. If you didn’t exist there would be no universe. The universe exists because you exist. You are the universe and that’s true of every so- called fact in your life. It’s a fact that someone is dying and if someone dies, that’s a fact but it‟s not the truth. The truth is, we are all unborn. Noone was ever born. If noone was ever born how can you die? Noone was born and noone dies. Again I‟m expressing my confession. That‟s how it appears to me. That‟s what I mean when I say, ‘This teaching is useless to most people,’ because you can’t do anything with it, yet things happen, lives improve, spirituality grows, happiness ensues, bliss comes. It all happens spontaneously. Just by being present and this is what satsang is all about. By being present, without taking thought, without manipulation, without playing mind games, without trying to improve yourself, without thinking of yourself, without thinking of others, everything good happens, all by its self. Why? Because emptiness is goodness, nirvana is absolute reality. The unborn is the Self and you are that, what else can I say
Page56
S: Because I thought for a long time that it was the I who was awareness? R: That exists by itself, but when you don’t know it, then you’re talking about the ego-I. S: So in self-inquiry when you say, “Who am I,” you are talking about the ego-I? R: The ego-I, yes. S: The little I, you might say.
Page56
Always watch, always be aware, always watch yourself, watch how you react, watch how you think, watch the kind of thoughts that come to you, while the music is playing, while you’re meditating. Be aware of all these things and the more aware you become the more you disappear. All these concepts start to disappear, just by you being aware of them.
Page66
when I utter I am, I‟m speaking for all of us. For there is only one, ultimate oneness and we are all ultimate oneness, there is no distinction
Page66
when someone takes me outside and say, ‘Robert, look at the beautiful blue sky,’ so I agree, but I know in reality there is no sky and there is no blue! It just doesn‟t exist! It‟s an optical illusion, a mirage in the desert, there appears to be an oasis with water but when you get closer there is only sand. It’s the same thing. Your eyes deceive you, your senses deceive you, things are not like they appear. All is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes.
Page66
Consequently when you see a condition, before you judge you have to ask yourself, ‘Who sees that condition? For whom is that condition?’
Page71
Moses said, “The ground upon which I stand is holy ground.” Everything becomes holy, not only certain places but everything. And that‟s only because you have become that your Self. Your omnipresence makes it holy. You have become one with all there is and you can truthfully say, “All of this is the Self and I am that.”
Page71
I enjoy my Self. I always enjoy my Self twenty-four hours a day.
Page71
I see the blue skies but I see my Self, as the blue sky. S: And you enjoy it?
Page1151
This is why words are always inadequate. You are already liberated. All you really have to do is to get rid of those things that tell you you’re not.
Page1151
When thoughts come to you, when ideas come to you, whatever comes to you, realize that’s not what it is. Neti, neti, not this, not this. Reality is your real nature. You don’t have to go anywhere to find it.
Page1151
It’s like you go and see a movie and you identify with the plot and the actors and the actresses. Then the movie ends and you’re nowhere,
Page1151
for you’ve spent all your energy identifying with the actors and the actresses, the roles they’re playing. This is what we do with our lives. We identify with conditions, with situations. We try to protect our interests, and that’s only ego. We have no interests. We own nothing. We come into this world with nothing, and we’re going to leave it with no thing. What you do in between birth and death determines what happens to you from thereon in.
Page1151
. When we’ve been kicked around by life enough we become determined to go all the way in the pursuit of truth.
Page1151
Remember you have been brought up to believe certain things about life. How your life should be. In other words you have been brainwashed. Just about everything you believe is anti-reality. Think about your belief system. The way you think that things should be in your life. Things shouldn’t be any way in your life. Things just are, they come and they go. You have no life. You are reality. You are the Self, and that’s not a life that’s just being, pure being. Pure being is your real nature. I reiterate again. Stop looking and stop judging at appearances. Leave the world alone. Stop coming to conclusions. Do not be for or against anything. Be easy with yourself, be gentle to yourself.
Page1151
You are God in all its essence. You are not a piece of God or a parcel of God. You are the whole. You are absolute oneness, nirvana, emptiness. You are the Self. Why not accept this? All you have to do is intellectually accept the truth and the intellect will cause it to go into the subconscious, the subconscious will go into the reality, the reality will turn into consciousness and consciousness will express itself as bliss. This means that while you appear to be wearing a body, it will be a body of bliss. Others will not see it like that. But you will not be concerned with others, for you are others. And as you see your body of bliss, of course it includes the body of the universe because your body of bliss is omnipresence. Therefore you see everything as bliss and you have unalloyed happiness, joy and peace.
Page1161
the ego is afraid of annihilation. The ego mind is very powerful and it will fight you at every inch so that you do not destroy it. This is why it’s usually only through self-inquiry that the mind is used to get rid of the mind. Other methods usually enhance the strength of the mind. They make you think that you are powerful and that you’ve got siddhi’s and you can do all kinds of things. It increases the power of the mind. It makes you into an ego maniac.
Page1161
The only blasphemy that exists is the fact that you believe that you are human. That’s blasphemy, to believe that you are a human being. It’s the ultimate lie. You are not what appears to be. No thing is what it appears to be. Then who are you? You have to find for yourself. Is there really a you? Are you really an individual? Are you separate from a tree, an animal, the world, the universe? Is there any separation? Find out. Do you really exist? Find out. Do you have a purpose in life? Find out.
Page1166
Put first things first. And the first thing you have to remember is that you are pure awareness. You can tell yourself that. “I am pure awareness.” Sure it’s the mind that does this, but there is something that grabs hold of the mind and annihilates it as you turn into I am. These are the things that you should think about. I know it sounds strange when I say this, but do not concern yourself with the world. The world was here, with all of its destructive mechanisms, before you came upon the scene. It will be here after you leave. People who do not understand Jnana Marga, Advaita Vedanta. They say it’s your duty to help others, to make this a better world in which to live. But they do not understand that if you awaken and you become liberated, you become others. You are others. There’s no one to help. This doesn’t mean again that you will do nothing. Your body will appear to be helping, to do all kinds of things. But the truth is, when you help yourself, you help others. And when you help others, you help yourself. It’s all one. You wonder what to do with the rest of your life. Should I work? Should I sit home? Should I join the army? Shall I become a dictator of a country? All these great thoughts go through your mind. Do not allow that to happen. Catch your mind. Catch your mind thinking and stop it.
Page1166
The mind is necessary as long as you are a human being. You make decisions. You know what’s wrong or right, good and bad. Your mind creates the world of duality. But as you progress in the spiritual life you begin to realize that the mind is a hindrance, not a friend, for it brings up all the things of the past, and worries about the things of the future. Who needs a mind like that? Therefore take control. And again, the best time to do this is early in the morning, as soon as you wake up, for the first thoughts that you think about will carry you through the day. And before you fall asleep, the thoughts that you think about before you go to sleep will continue when you wake up. So fall asleep understanding that I am pure awareness.
Page1166
Think, if you will, of what comes first in your life now. It may be your husband, your wife, your job, your house, your car, your friend, your ambitions, your desires. This is what is keeping you back. You have to desire to rid yourself of past mistakes, past experiences. Stop thinking of the future. And this is hard for most people to do, for they are always anticipating the future and worrying about the past. Yet this is exactly what they have to do to let go, of past and future problems. Your physical life is already planned, and all you have to do is to unfold beautifully into it. Everything will happen the way it is supposed to. You have to remember there is no evil in the universal, so nothing evil can ever happen to you. If you think it can, it’s because of your imagination.
Page1166
You have a certain concept, a preconceived idea, of how you think things should be. And of course you’re always disappointed because things are never the way you think they should be. Yet everything works out for your benefit, due to the fact that there’s nothing in the universe that can or wants to hurt you.
Page1166
Everything is on your side, from the minutest blade of grass to the giant cosmos. Everything is on your side, due to the fact that you are that. Everything is on your side because there is only one. There is ultimate oneness, and that ultimate oneness is perfection, absolute reality, consciousness. That is omnipresence, all-pervading. So where is there room for evil? Where is there room for anything wrong?
Page1166
Why do you fear? Why do you become upset? The power that brought you to this class, knows what to do to continue your spiritual growth. But you have to put it first. It’s like the story of the student who was in a class like this, and he kept asking his teacher, “Teacher, explain it more. I don’t understand, tell me more.” And this went on and on. And at the end of the class, when all the students left, the teacher told that particular student to stay here, and then he told him, “Follow me,” and he took him to the edge of a river. And he said, “Look into the river.” The student did, and he pushed him into the water and held his head underneath the water until he nearly drowned. Then he pulled him up by the hair. And he looked in his face and he said, “What is it you wanted more than anything else in the world, while you were under the water?” And all the student was able to do was to gasp for air. And he said, “Air, air, air.” And the wise teacher said, “When you want to awaken as much as you wanted air, you will.”
Page1166
Just take a look at your personal life. Just for today, what did you want more than to awaken today? If you were angry, then you wanted that, more than awakening. You see, whatever you put your feelings into, that’s what comes first in your life. If something upset you? Then that became your God. You wanted that more than anything else. If you were in doubt that became your God. Whatever turns you on, whatever turns you off, became your God for that time. And that’s what you give your energy to, so you increase that condition. As an example, if you are having problems with somebody, the more you think about it, the more you fuel it. The more you try to take any kind of an action to stop it, or to prevent it, or to change it, the more you are saying, “This is the truth about me.” How should you react to something like that? You should not react. Something within you will do what it has to do, and you will be at peace if you will allow it to do so, first things first. “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all of it’s righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you,” which means first things first. Focus your attention on the Self. Realize that you are pure awareness, that you are aware that I am consciousness, resulting in bliss.
Page1166
You can never have anything wrong in your life unless you put your mind on it and make it so. This is why you have to control your thinking. Do not allow your mind to tell you what’s going on. If you learn to live in the moment, if you learn to center yourself and stay only in that moment, then you will be expressing consciousness, for consciousness is a moment thing. Consciousness is not yesterday or tomorrow. Consciousness is this moment. It’s the gap between yesterday and tomorrow, the fourth stage of life. After waking, dreaming and sleeping, then there is consciousness. So putting first things first will alleviate all of the negative conditions of your life, if you have any. It will awaken you. And as you work on yourself, and your mind brings up all kinds of things, as it will sometimes. In a very gentle way ask yourself, ‘To whom does this come?’ and keep still.
Page1166
of course the answer will be, ‘It comes to me. I feel out of sorts, I feel depressed, I feel as if I’m not getting what I want, I feel that somebody is taking advantage of me.’ Further questioning, ‘Who is this I? What is its source? Who gave the I birth? Where did it originate from? Who am I?’ There is never an answer to the question of, ‘Who am I?’ By doing this process you will immediately feel better. And every time the mind brings up something else, you use the same procedure.
Page1166
Robert, I’ve been practicing for twelve years, and I feel despondent and I feel depressed.’ So I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because all my friends are enlightened except me.’ I had to laugh. ‘How do you know?’ ‘They told me.’ How can you explain that there are no others? It makes no difference what anyone else is doing. Let them all do what they will do. What does this have to do with you?
Page1171
when you try to change other people, when you try to make other people do what you want, you’re holding up your spiritual progress. Bless everyone and let them go. Leave the world alone. The world doesn’t need your help, thank you.
Page1171
This world, remember, is an emanation of your own mind. Therefore you are seeing yourself when you look at the world.
Page1171
As you begin to go within, you will realize that you’ve always been within. There’s nowhere to go. The within and without is the same, pure consciousness. It begins with you.
Page1171
I can sit here and talk all night, but what are you doing about your life? How do you see yourself? Forget about time. Even though you say, “I’m getting older, I haven’t awakened yet. I hope I awaken before I die,” this is all false thinking. No one is getting older, and no one has to awaken before they die, because no one dies. Get rid of that type of thinking.
Page1171
Forget about your age. Forget about your body and identify with consciousness. Identify with your Self. If you can just do that, everything else will take care of itself. I can promise you that.
Page1171
Stop thinking of your needs. They will be met if you stop thinking about them. How will they be met? Remember there is only ultimate oneness.
Page1171
the ultimate oneness has never needed anything. It is self-fulfilling, self- contained, all-pervading. So the one who thinks they need something is the deluded self, the personal ego, the I.
Page1171
reality is present here and now. This means that you are fulfilled here and now. There is no thing you need and there is nothing that has to change. I’m not saying you’re going to keep on suffering if you think you’re suffering. What I’m saying is simply that the one who thinks they’re suffering is deluded. No one suffers. Take your mind off the pettiness and begin to realize that your mind is causing you to feel these things, the belief that you are a body and a mind.
Page1171
Continue the work. Do not worry about the world or other people. Work on yourself, diligently, constantly. Never let up, and you’ll find that you become happier and happier. The old you is fading away. And you will awaken to yourself.
Page1171
If you took the average person walking in the street tonight and brought him or her to satsang. They would be filled with fear and run out of the room because their evolution has not come to that place as yet.
Page1171
you’re getting double credit because you are saying, “I am is pure awareness,” and when the other thoughts pop up in your mind you’re asking, “to whom do they come?” So you are attacking yourself from all directions. Something has got to give sooner or later. But put it to practice make it work for you. So by doing that it creates a surrendering, a giving up, a letting go? You can say that, yes. But if those words come to you as you are doing that again, ask yourself, “Who has to surrender? Who is there to let go?”
Page1171
So Robert is it that which recognizes itself? That which you speak of is self-contained consciousness. It only knows itself and you are that Self. What happens when ego intercedes? Ask yourself, “To whom does it come?” Whatever pops up you do the same thing, “To whom does this come?” Robert, asking, “Who is aware of this?” be equivalent? Who is aware of this? Yeah who is aware of whatever comes up? Is that the equivalent question? Well that is not too clear. It’s better to ask, “To whom does this come?” For all different thoughts arise. You have to take them one at a time. If you say, “Who is aware of this?” it’s sort of ambiguous. But if you’re feeling some kind of fear or you think you are wasting your time, you merely ask, “To whom does this come? Who feels this? I do. Who am I?”
Page1176
In this life is there an entity other than the mind that is operating? There is no entity at all. Nothing is operating. What is operating are your thoughts that appear to be operating. So you must keep asking yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come?” When I said it’s trying to be an empty vessel. That’s …it’s identifying with an empty vessel.
Page1176
No, again, you have a concept of an empty vessel that has got to go. All concepts, all ideas, all preconceived ideas have to go. If you think you’re an empty vessel then you keep seeing yourself as an empty vessel and that keeps you back. It’s all got to go.
Page1176
As soon as you feel tension ask yourself, “To whom does it come?” (S: Yeah, I realize that.) And then keep going down further. Is that related to the thought at all or is it just…? Of course it is. Tension is related to all thoughts. Thoughts bring
Page1176
tension and tension brings thoughts.
Page1176
you may ask yourself, “To whom does this pain come?” And you will realize that it’s your ego that feels it. So when the realization comes that you are not the ego, the pain will disappear
Page1176
Where does it come from? It’s part of the body. The belief that you are the body. When that belief is eliminated, everything that goes with it is also eliminated.
Page1176
What are useful way or ways to work on for disbelieving we are the body? (R: What are useful ways?) How do you get rid of the body idea? That’s what we’ve been talking about all night. (laughter) Ask yourself, “To whom does the body come?”
Page1176
As you continue to work on yourself the ego like a balloon begins to become deflated and it bothers you less and less. As you keep inquiring, “Who am I? Who am I? To whom does this come?” Your ego becomes smaller and smaller until it finally disappears.
Page1176
The real silence comes when there is nobody to be aware. The one who is aware has been transcended
Page1176
So in that position there is no need for any… (R: No.) …”To whom this comes to?” No, in that position there is only silence. (S: Right.) It doesn’t come and it doesn’t go. It just is.
Page1176
If a person was born in the jungle or something, lived their life according to the natural way of life, no concepts, no ideas. Would that person be in the silence atmosphere? It all has to do with karma. It depends on your karma. I thought you said there wasn’t any karma. There isn’t. But you are speaking of a person being born in a jungle.(laughter) So as long as somebody is born there is karma. Well unconditioned then. Well if you understood that there is no karma, there wouldn’t be any jungle and there wouldn’t be anybody being born. But as long as you feel there is then there is karma. And you are caught up in it. Sure and all kinds of stories, you have analogies, stories, predicaments, it’s all karmic. It doesn’t exist. So it’s all just to stop the thinking. You’ve got it, that’s it. (laughter)
Page1176
As you keep asking yourself, “Who am I?” You become quieter and quieter until the day comes when you stop asking and you remain in silence.
Page1181
You automatically do what you have to do. As you keep questioning you will find that you are becoming calmer and quieter and more blissful and you will question less and less. But as long as you are aware you question? R: As long as you’re physical you question.
Page1181
Do you see energy? Do you see consciousness? Do you see a play of lights? Do you see emptiness?” If I saw any of those things I wouldn’t be able to function. I see what you see, you! The only difference is, I realize I am not the body. And when I say, “I’m not the body,” I’m speaking of the universal body, which contains you. Therefore, if I’m not the body, and I see that, I see that you are also not the body. I simply see the world as superimposed images on the screen. But I’m always aware that you are images. And so is the body, and so are the trees, and the sky, and the planets, and the animals, and the insects, and everything else. For some reason I’m always aware of that. I’m aware that it’s like a bubble, and the bubble bursts, and the reality expresses itself as consciousness. Therefore I see you as you see me, but I see you as consciousness, the reality. Or I see you as I see myself, as a screen, and the whole universe is simply a superimposition on the screen. I do not see you as a human being. I do not see this radio, or the lamp, or this table, as a entity of itself. I see it as consciousness. This doesn’t mean that consciousness manifested these things. As I always explain, consciousness is self-contained, and only manifests itself. These things are like optical illusions. They do not really exist, as a dream does not really exist. In the dream you’re carrying on, you’re flying back from New York to California, you’re experiencing all kinds of things in your life, and everything appears to be real. But you wake up and the bubble is burst. So I guess the only difference between you and me is that I’m always aware of that. If you’re always aware of that, there’s no fear. Fear only comes when you believe the world to be real. When the world proves to be an illusion, where is there fear? What in the world can upset you, if you know the world is but a dream?
Page1181
You may say, ‘Well it may be a dream, but I don’t want to be hurt in the dream. I want my dream to be smooth and easy. I want to be happy and harmonious and healthy.’ If you think in those terms, you are not aware yet of what consciousness is. Consciousness transcends all of that. Consciousness is divine harmony. None of those things exist. I realize that’s hard to comprehend. The worst things can appear to happen to my body, to my affairs, to my life, yet I am aware that it’s not happening. I’m not imagining that it’s not happening. I’m not repressing it. I’m not saying to myself, ‘Robert, you’ve got to see only the good.’ It’s beyond all that. There is no good. There is no bad. It’s total freedom, total liberation.
Page1181
the universe is ultimate oneness. Ultimate oneness is another word for divine harmony. It is beyond all concepts and preconceived ideas. The human mind cannot comprehend it. Suffice it to say that all is well. It is when we begin to quiet the mind that you come closer and closer to this understanding. It’s when the thoughts begin to stop, when they slow down, that you become more aware that all is well and the reality comes to you by itself. As long as you keep identifying with the world and the things of this world, you can never know the truth about yourself.
Page1181
And again you may say, ‘Well, I’ve got to function in the world. I’ve got to work, I’ve got to have a family, I’ve got to look after my interests.’ Who says you don’t? But it has nothing to do with you. You have to understand that your body will take care of itself. The dream will go on by itself. You will do whatever it is you came to this earth to do, without you thinking about it, without you trying to make something happen, without trying to straighten out anything in this world. This is what I mean when I say, ‘Be yourself. Just be yourself. Live in the eternal now.’ That’s being yourself. Be spontaneous. Allow the world to unfold as it should. Do not be judgmental. Look at everything fresh and
Page1181
new, with awe. Have reverence for all of life, and ask yourself, “Who am I?” Then things will begin to happen.
Page1181
The closest thing you can come to, to having an experience of quiet mind, is chanting. Chanting has a vibration in the nervous system that actually causes the mind to slow down. There are many people who cannot do atma-vichara, self-inquiry too long. And for those people who are practicing self-inquiry, sometimes you are meant to take a break. So put on a chanting tape and chant along with it to yourself, or out loud, and you will find that you go deeper within yourself and the mind begins to become quiescent, still, calm. So let’s do that right now, shall we.
Page1181
We claim we want to be self-realized. We do not realize that we are already self-realized, and we just have to let go of believing, “I am the doer.” It makes no difference what you’ve done in the past. It makes no difference if you’ve done good deeds or bad deeds, as far as self-realization is concerned. Once you know the truth, you become free. The truth is, there is no past. There never was a past. The universe has no foundation. There is nothing to hold it together. Therefore there is nothing that you have done that can keep you out of heaven, so to speak.
Page1181
Now remember, this doesn’t give you license to go out and hurt people and rob banks, and do whatever you think you want to do because it doesn’t matter. That’s not what I’m saying at all. As far as you’re concerned, as long as you believe you are the doer and you are the body-mind phenomena, everything you do has to be accounted for. The lord of karma is going to get you, as long as you believe you are human and you are the body. Then you can’t get away
Page1186
As long as you believe you are human, you are the doer, and you are a personal I, then there’s a personal god, and that’s where prayer comes in. You can pray to your personal god, and you will be helped. Your personal god will take care of you if you surrender and submit to him or her, whatever your personal god is.
Page1186
You’re saying I am nothing and you’re everything. This helps you. As you keep going in that direction one day you will awaken to the fact that the god you’ve been praying to is none other than yourself. For how can this god be separate from you? Where would he live? What would be his nature? You begin to understand, I am that. You find freedom in yourself. You begin to see that god is not within myself, actually, I am in God. What I call God, is consciousness. I am conscious. I am aware. I exist. I am. And there’s nothing else. You begin to see yourself as omnipresent. You are no longer limited to your body or to the personal I. You have broken through, and you live in glory.
Page1186
Your job is to keep the mind from wandering. The mind has to be held by you, to stop it from thinking. Stop it from going berserk. The mind is not your friend. It makes you human. It makes you believe you are a body, separate. As soon as you can see that your body is an emanation of your mind, it has no existence whatsoever except in your mind, you also begin to see that the body of the universe is the same as your body.
Page1186
You have to ask yourself, “Who do I really think I am?” And you can tell by the amount of sorrows or happiness or human endeavors that you go through. If you believe you are human then you experience human happiness, human sadness, you go through human experiences. You can never know the Self that way. But as soon as you stop reacting to your human goodness…
Page1186
There are people who tell me, “I’ve never had a bad day in my life.” So I tell them, “You’re just as stuck in your good days that you are in your bad days. For realization is not having good days.” Try to understand that human goodness has nothing to do with this. Human goodness is karmic, and when the karmic patterns wear off you will experience the opposite. You want to go beyond, beyond all understanding, beyond all conceptual thinking, beyond all intellectual concepts, beyond anything that is known to man, and of course that’s silence.
Page1186
Everything leads to silence. It is in the silence that you experience pure awareness. It’s in the silence that you experience bliss. It’s in the silence that you are. You are not any thing that you can describe. You have become the pure Godhead. You have awakened.
Page1186
Why not awaken now? Why continue to play games? Wake up. Know who you are. Be yourself. Leave the world alone. Again, your body, as it appears to you, will function in the world. And it will do whatever it came here to do. But leave it alone. Do not interfere with the process. Do not react to any conditionings. Keep identifying with the Self. The Self is I- am. You simply become aware that I-am. That’s how you identify with yourself. You feel, “I-am, I-am, I-am.”
Page1186
If anything comes after that, inquire, “To whom has this come?” I am not this and I am not that, “I am.” Even if the word God comes after I am
Page1186
, your mind is playing tricks on you. Ask, “To whom does this come? The word God?” I am will suffice. That’s all you have to be is I am. Everything else is redundant, superfluous. If your mind tells you, “I am the body,” again inquire, “to whom does this come?” Whatever words are put into your mind, get rid of them. Listen to the silence. Listen to I am.
Page1186
There is a certain point about this teaching, you may be wondering about, something you do not understand, so you should ask a question. On the other hand if you come in here with the right attitude, all your questions will be answered from within yourself. Therefore do not feel strange if you ask a question. That’s all part of the teaching. There might be something going on that you’d like to know, that I haven’t covered.
Page1186
Student: Have you found a deepening as you continue, a deepening of the experience of your Self, has it deepened as time has gone by, or has it stayed the same? In other words when a person realizes that, does it continue to deepen and mature with time or…? Robert: There is no deepening involved, you either become awakened or you’re not. But on the other hand the appearance is, you become more peaceful on the path. And all the things that used to disturb you, seem to dissipate. S: So there is a process as realization occurs, there is a sort of process… It’s not really a process for realization. (S: Yeah.) It’s a process for yourself to become a better person. But awakening comes by itself. And it has nothing to do with that. But the appearance of what you’ve said happens also. As a better person you continue to be a better person after that self-
Page1186
realization? No, not after. After self-realization there’s nobody left to be a better person. The better person comes before. On the other hand, there have been thieves, murderers, who have, all of a sudden for one reason or another, have become self-realized. It depends on the person. But again, you’re either awake or asleep. There is no in between. Once you wake up you realize that you’ve always been awake. There never was a time when you were not. But before that you go through all kinds of games and rituals and experiences, sometimes. It all depends on the maturity of the person. What if the person is immature and they have, as you say, a realization itself. That immaturity, is that healed in the course … in the presence of self-realization? Is that immaturity healed and so the person becomes more established in their…? If a person awakens, there is no question of immaturity. Those questions are gone. For again, there is no one left to be mature or immature. You’re just awake. And all concepts are finished. All the things we’re talking about go on before awakening. But once awakening comes, there’s no question. So those beings, those - I’m sorry to keep going… (R: That’s okay.) Those individuals, those so-called sinners who suddenly have realization, what happens to all those tendencies, those samskaras? Are they burnt up in that realization? R: Completely burnt up. They never existed.
Page1186
Freedom is only a word that’s spoken before realization. For whom is there freedom when one is realized? One becomes freedom. There is no such word for the realized person.
Page1191
Soul is something that the human body thinks it has. As long as you believe you’re human, then there is a soul that leaves the body after you drop your body. And it goes into the astral plane and plays games with itself. But as you begin to understand that I am not the body or the doer, then for whom is there a soul? There is no body, there is no soul, there is no astral plane. There is only the Self.
Page1191
Isn’t the soul identical to the Self when it is purified of all mind? No. If the soul were identical with the Self, then there would be duality, there would be two. There would be the soul and the Self. Isn’t the soul the Self? (R: No.) When it is purified of all personal I and mind? The soul cannot become purified. The soul is part of the personal I. The Self is soul-less. Why would the Self need a soul? So then you’re saying the soul is the mind? The soul is the mind. The soul is the personal I. Okay.
Page1191
We get caught up in all these concepts that keep us earthbound. For instance in my diet, I eat grains and fruits and vegetables, but I don’t give much thought to it. My body automatically gets up and it goes for the food it needs to sustain itself. Yet I have nothing to do with that.
Page1191
your body will always take care of itself. Who grows the oranges in the orange tree? Who grows mangoes in a mango tree? Who grows the grass? Who takes care of the world and the earth? The same power that takes care of all the things on this planet, will take care of your body. You don’t have to worry about it. Everything will be okay.
Page1191
Your body will not walk into the street and get hit by a car unless you are day dreaming. You will be awake. Being awake is not being in a stupor or walking into walls, or getting hit by a car purposely. Being awake is being aware. Everything just happens spontaneously. But it happens better than you can ever imagine, if you were thinking about it.
Page1191
See I picked up a glass of water and I drank a little bit. I didn’t think about it. It was spontaneous. I didn’t say, “I wonder if I’ll be able to drink the water. I wonder if the water is pure and fresh, or if the glass is going to break.” It’s the same with your body. When you stop thinking about your body, it’ll take care of itself better than you can ever do it. To those of us who have expressed verbally, “Oh, I’ll never get this, or, it seems so difficult, or, it may take life-times,” you say, “don’t say that.” Is this from knowing that our words have power, because our lives have power to create what we expect?
Page1191
When you say something negative about yourself you’re keeping yourself earthbound. Even if you
Page1191
make a mistake, realize you made a mistake and forget it, and go forward. Do not dwell on the mistake. Do not dwell on the error. See what it was, correct it if you can, and go forward. But keep your mind on your Self, on I-am, and you will find everything will go well for you.
Page1191
ask yourself, ‘For whom is there creation?’ and you’ll find out that it never existed. No thing has ever been created.
Page1191
You want to go beyond, you want to go beyond yourself to eternity, to total bliss. But if you don’t want to then stay where you are. This is why I always say, everyone is in their right place. There are no mistakes. I’m merely voicing where I’m coming from. You can listen, or you don’t have to. You can practice, or you don’t have to. The choice is always yours. You see, our relationship is different from what you think it is. It is not a guru-disciple relationship really. I am nobody’s guru. I am just here, and you can look at me anyway you like. I didn’t ask to be a teacher. It just happened. So here I am and here you are. What are you going to do about it? (laughter) You can shoot me, you can do whatever you like.
Page1196
Nothing is useful for liberation, except realizing I-am. Every experience you have, including your heart center experience, you have to inquire and ask, “To whom does this come?” Eventually everything has to go, including all spiritual experiences.
Page1196
Take Kundalini yoga. I am focusing on the chakras, on each chakra. There’s always I and I and I. Take prayer. I am praying to God. Again there’s nothing wrong with these things, but the reason we call this the direct path is because this is the only teaching that investigates the I. We’re not interested in effects. Whatever the effect may be, we realize that the I is behind it. We realize that if we find the I, and follow it to its source, everything else will be wiped out and we’ll become free. This is why it is called the direct path. Also what is the difference between meditation and Jnana marga, because I mean most of you realize that on this path it is not really necessary to meditate? So what’s the main difference between meditation and this path? There has to be someone to meditating. R: True, but that’s not the answer I’m looking for. In meditation there’s always an object of your meditation. And again the I is concentrating on certain words, mantra, or whatever. Therefore you’re not getting rid of the I. You’re concentrating on something else, where you exclude everything except that mantra or the words of your meditation, whether it’s God, or whatever. In this teaching you simply inquire for the source of the I. “Who am I? Where did I come from?” Even when I say to you, “Where did I come from?” some of you are relating to your body, aren’t you? You’re thinking where did I come from, as a body? But that’s not what we mean. You want to know where the I came from, not where you came from. If you find out where the I came from you will realize that you do not exist. You never did and you never will. That’s the point. Where did I come from? And as you get used to this kind of thinking, whenever you use the word I, you will never refer to your body again.
Page1196
There’s only one I actually, and that I is consciousness. When you follow the personal I to the source, it turns into the universal I, which is consciousness. Begin to catch yourself. Begin to realize your divine nature. And you do this by keeping quiet. The fastest way to realization is to keep silent. Yet you have to know why you are keeping silent. This is why you can’t tell this to the average person. If a person has no inkling of Advaita Vedanta, you cannot say keep silent. For to them it means just to be quiet. They don’t realize it means to go deep, deep, deep, deep within, to that place where absolute reality lives, and that’s the silence. Actually the human body cannot keep silent. There’s something else that enters the silence. It has nothing to do with your humanity. It’s only after years perhaps of meditation in previous lives, that you can be mature enough to really know what this path is all about. When I give you these practices, it’s not for you as a human being. You appear to be able to go through it as a human being, but I can assure you your humanity has nothing to do with it. When you enter the silence you enter a profound peace, bliss consciousness, pure awareness. That’s what the silence is. It’s not being quiet. It’s beyond that. It’s not just quieting your mind, like I say all the time. It’s understanding that there’s no mind to quiet. When you realize there’s no mind, you automatically become silent. When you still think you’ve got a mind, you make every effort to quiet the mind, and you can’t. How many of you believe you can quiet the mind through effort?
Page1201
You can’t do that. It’s not the effort that makes you quiet your mind. It’s the intelligent understanding that you have no mind to begin with. Then you just keep still and everything takes care of itself. If you have to meditate, by all means meditate. This path is never against any other method, due to the fact they all eventually lead to awakening. You have to do whatever you have to do. But for those who can understand what I’m talking about, and realize you’re dealing with no mind, no body, no world, no universe, no God, an awakening comes immediately, because there’s no one who is sleeping. Do you follow this?
Page1201
If you think you’ve got something to overcome, if you’re going to believe you’ve got to work on yourself, you’ve got to make some kind of effort, it will be hard. After all, who makes the effort? The ego, who’s telling you all these things you’ve got to overcome? The mind, you think you’ve got to overcome your bad habits, you’ve got to overcome past karma, you have to overcome samskaras. That’s all a lie. I realize that I talk about these things sometimes. It sounds like a contradiction, but I am sharing with you the highest truth. There are no samskaras to overcome, because they never existed. There’s no karma to overcome because it doesn’t exist. But for those immature students, they have to work on something, so we explain to them there’s karma, there’re samskaras, there are latent tendencies that have got hold of you, and you have to transcend them. Yet I’m telling them a lie. But they really need to hear that at this time of their evolution, otherwise they couldn’t work with anything else.
Page1201
But the truth is, you have nothing to overcome. Think about that. If you had something to overcome you would never overcome it, for it is the nature of mind to play games with you. As soon as you overcome one thing, another thing pops up, and you have to overcome that. When you overcome that, something else pops up. Say you have a drinking habit, and you say, “I’ve got to overcome this.” You may overcome it. It leads to a bad temper. Then you have to overcome the bad temper. It leads to telling lies. Then you have to overcome telling lies. It never ends until you begin to realize I has nothing to overcome. Then you start working on the I. It is then you finally realize it’s this personal I that’s been giving the trouble. That’s an advanced state, but that’s also a lie, due to the fact the personal I never existed
Page1201
Because you think the personal I exists, you have to use self- inquiry to lead you to the place where you realize the personal I does not exist. It never has, and it never will. Yet wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could just sit down and realize all this in a flash and become free. We will not allow ourselves to do that for some reason. We want to play the game of overcoming. So we say, “I’ve got to work on myself. I’ve got to practice. I’ve got to meditate. I’ve got to be alone. I’ve got to do this and I’ve got to do that.” But I say to you tonight, there’s no thing you have to do. You just have to realize what I’m saying and awaken, and that’s it.
Page1201
Again, who has to awaken? It’s all a pack of lies, but I’m using words. How can the Self awaken? The Self never went to sleep. Do you not realize who you are now? You’re not a mortal human. There are no words to express what you are. You have to find out. So you practice. But while you’re practicing your sadhana, keep in back of your mind someplace, there’s really no one who practices. After all who does the practice? It’s your body and your mind. If you can only remember there’s no body or mind that exists, then there’s no one to practice. So while you’re practicing, remember that.(laughs) I know you’re going to walk out tonight and say, “Well, what do I do now?” (students laugh) Look at it this way. As long as you feel body consciousness, and as long as your mind, so called, still has the power to make you feel this way and that way, then you have to do some practice. Otherwise your body- mind will control you. The highest practice is atma-vichara, self-inquiry.
Page1201
The reason I’m talking to you like this tonight, is because I can feel that all of that who are here have been through many paths and you’re not newcomers, so you’re ready for this. You’re ready to hear that there’s no practice, there’s no God, there’s no enlightenment, there’s no past lives, there’s no you, and you’re free. People still want to know, when everything is gone, what’s left, what is the substratum, the cause, the underlying cause of all existence? There has to be something that holds it all together. Says who? There’s nothing to hold together. Remember also, that the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. So when I say there’s nothing that holds any
Page1201
thing together, I mean there’s nothing that words can describe. When I use the words like bliss or pure awareness, consciousness, sat-chit-ananda, Parabrahman, and Parabrahman is very powerful because it means beyond Brahman. What can be beyond Brahman? Silence. There’s no such thing as Parabrahman, due to the fact when you think of it, it signifies an object to you, for instance, a place to be in. A place to be in the silence, that is Parabrahman. You’re wrong. There’s no place, there’s no silence and there’s no Parabrahman. Then what is there? Find out. Only you can know yourself. For there are no words to describe it. You have to come to terms with your life. It takes total honesty to do that. You can’t go on fooling yourself. Look how you run around from pillar to post. You go here, you go there. You’re always searching, you’re always looking, you’re always striving, for what? Some of you think that you’re going to find a teacher up in the sky someplace, and you’re going to go searching for that teacher until you find him or her. No such teacher exists. When you finally settle down and start going into the silence more often, your teacher will appear to you and you will find he’s none other than yourself.
Page1201
people?” I am your Self. I can see that very clearly. There’s no difference between you and me. When you feel depressed, when you feel angry, when you feel out of sorts, that’s me you feel. When you feel happy, when you feel enlightened, when you feel beautiful, that’s also me you feel. All this is the Self, and I am that. Some of you still think I’m talking about Robert. Robert has nothing to do with this. I’m speaking of omnipresence. I’m speaking of no-thing. And I think to continue speaking is a waste of time. (silence) Om, Shanti, shanti, shanti.
Page1201
The ancient Rishis in the Upanishads, they came to the conclusion, and most of them never knew each other, that there is only ultimate oneness. Advaita Vedanta means, “The Oneness of the Vedanta.” There is only ultimate oneness and this was about four or five thousand years ago. They handed the teaching down by mouth to mouth, from person to person.
Page1201
What about his question about the “Who is I?” If there is no small I and there is also no big I… (R: Umm.) …In that sense it doesn’t make any difference but if I’m asking, “Who is I?” small I - this is a very different kind of a feeling of a question from asking, “Who am, big I?” Yes, due to the fact when you inquire deeply, “Who is I?” the I begins to disappear. It turns into the big I which is pure awareness. So you use that method to lift you up and make you free.
Page1206
Robert, what if you ask, “Who am I?” and you get confusion and from that you get fear? Then you have to ask yourself, “To whom does this confusion and fear come to?” And realize it comes to me, then you say, “Who am I?” again. “Who is this I that feels fear and confusion?” And keep still. And the fear and confusion will ultimately disappear because it never existed to begin with.
Page1206
Robert how did this illusion start? (R: It never did.) Why is it here then? It doesn’t exist. (laughter) See that is your perception. (S: Why do I have perception?) Because you believe you do. (S: Why do I believe?) That is what you want. It’s like when you are hypnotized you see things that don’t exist. But how do we all get hypnotized to be able to make a butterfly and a snowflake? We never did. It appears that way. But nothing ever happened. It’s the agreement of illusion is what baffles me. (R: The what?) The agreement of the illusion between us… (R: (laughs) …this ego and that… It baffles you? Then ask yourself, “Who is baffled?” I know some of the answers I give you sound like a cop out. (students laugh) But believe me it’s the highest truth.
Page1206
Robert when we meditate is there a way to avoid hypnotizing oneself rather than being in awareness? Well sure, you simply use the method of your meditation to bring you to the place where you are not hypnotized. What makes you think you are being hypnotized? Because I seem to lose the time, I lose awareness, but I am quiet and my mind might be going on but I don’t even know it. Well what makes you think that you are hypnotized? You probably are going deeper into yourself. I don’t really know what hypnotism is, but it has occurred to me that way. Well you are better off if you don’t know. But it’s felt as if I might just really have been asleep? That’s good! Even if you are asleep the work is carried on while you are sleeping. And when you wake up it will continue. You definitely are not being hypnotized, don’t even think of it. You might ask yourself, “Who believes she is being hypnotized?” And you will come to realize it’s your ego that makes you think that. Yet in reality that is not happening. But every-time you feel that is true that you are being hypnotized, ask yourself, “Who is being hypnotized?” and you will realize that it’s only for the ego and not for you and you’ll go beyond it.
Page1206
You will know because you will feel a bliss, you will feel a joy that you have never felt before. You’ll know. There is quite a difference. It’s like being asleep and being conscious. When you get into a real jnana state, you are consciously asleep, you are aware but not of the world and you will know.
Page1206
Who will know? (R: Umm?) Who will know? (R: You will know.) Who? R: You. S: Phew. (Students laugh) Who would I be? Whoever you want to be. Whoever you think you are.
Page1211
So Robert you are never asleep right? Never asleep? I’m asleep but I’m aware I’m asleep. (S: Awareness?) I sleep about three hours a night
Page1211
Then what do you do in those three hours? Nothing, the same thing I’m doing now. (students laugh) What do you want me to do? (S: Do you dream?) Hardly. So when you are aware is the awareness the same as it is when you are not sleeping? It’s always the same.
Page76
The ego is suffering, you’ve got to work on yourself. If you change conditions it’s no good. As an example, if you think that your husband is giving you a hard time and he’s unemployed and he can’t support you, so you say, I’ll trade him for another husband. Then when you get the other husband you’ve got other problems, because you’ve not resolved it in your own mind. It has to start and end with you. You can’t change outside conditions. It only appears for a while that you can, but it always comes back again. The chickens always come home to roost. So wherever you go, wherever you run, you have to take yourself with you and if you’ve got a poverty consciousness, wherever you go you’re going to experience poverty. So don’t change anything, but work on yourself and see who you really are and what you really are and you’ll
Page81
never have to be concerned about poverty again.
Page81
if you don’t have the consciousness, you can cause a lot of problems for yourself. I remember many years ago we had a class about something like this and I used to talk about when I lived in Hawaii, and I used to talk about the fact that I never locked my car and nothing has ever been stolen because I never felt that I needed to lock my car, so I never did. But I apparently said the wrong thing to somebody, because there was one person in the class who always locked his car because he didn’t trust anybody. When he heard me talk about this, he said he was going to do the same thing. He was a shirt salesman. In the back of his car he had samples of about twenty different shirts and the one time that he didn’t lock his car, someone stole all of the shirts out of his car. (laughs) So I said, “I didn’t tell you to not lock your car” I said, “I don’t lock my car!” But you have to do what you have to do until the time comes that you don’t have to do it anymore. Everybody is different.
Page81
You want God to live up to your expectations. (laughs) S: And that’s your ego wanting freedom? R: Yes, in other words, you are creating God in your image. S: So it’s the ego that… ??? R: So you expect a guru to do this. As an example, say you’re celibate, so of course you’re going to expect your guru to be celibate.
Page81
Don’t we do that to God too? R: To God, same thing. S: And we anthropomorphize… R: Exactly, but the true way is to totally surrender to your Self. Then
Page86
you will be led to the true sat-guru which is none other than your Self and then there will be harmony. Because you couldn’t care less what the guru does because the guru is you Self.
Page86
doesn’t that also happen in personal relationships rather than love the guru you have that love in your personal relationships and you have expectations… (R: Yes.) …and then you get put down? (R: Of course.) Not any different? (R: Of course.) S: I think most people fall in love with an image of the other person has and what usually happens in relationships is that neither person can live up to the other so the other has to move forward. R: Expect nothing and you will never be disappointed. S: And should you also see the other person in the relationship as your Self? (R: Yes, you should.) How do you do that? R: You simply realize there is one Self and that Self is me. So you and I are one, therefore, whatever you do to me I can’t be mad at you. S: Yes, but how do you do that? (laughs) R: By working on yourself. S: That’s self-inquiry? R: Through self inquiry, through mind control.
Page21
What you appear to be is not the truth, it may be a fact but it is not the truth. A fact is something that appears to be true but it changes.
Page21
You cannot be who you think you are for when you were a baby, you were quite different. And when you were a little boy or a little girl you were also different. And the way you are now is completely different than you were before. Consequently how can you be the body? What are you? Who are you? Sat-chit-ananda? What’s that? Even if I tell you this, it means absolutely nothing. You must have your own experience. You mustn’t believe a word I say. Why should you believe me? What do I know?
Page21
What is this world? It’s as if you just woke up from your dream and you still remember the dream. In the dream you were going places, getting married, having children, getting older then you wake up and you halfway remember the dream and halfway remember the world in which you wake up. So which one is real, the world or the dream? It has been my experience that they’re both alike. There is no real difference.
Page21
You attach yourself to this world, in the same way you attach yourself in your dream.
Page21
If you were dreaming and you dreamt you were falling off a mountain and I was falling beside you. And I said to you, “Don’t worry, nothing can happen to you, you’re dreaming,” you wouldn’t believe me, you would be filled with fear and you would say, “Can’t you see we’re falling, can’t you see what’s happening, how can you tell me I ‘m dreaming?” Just before you hit the ground you wake up, and you laugh, “It was all a dream.”
Page21
In the same way you have attached yourself to sickness, to health, to good, to bad, to happiness, to unhappiness, these are all concepts. You’ve attached yourself to person place or thing. You have forgotten that this is a dream. You believe its real and because you believe its real you suffer accordingly.
Page21
You have to let go mentally of all conditioning, of all objectivity. And you must still your mind. Make your mind placid, like a motionless lake. Then reality comes of its own accord. Happiness comes of its own accord. Peace comes of it own accord. Love comes of its own accord. Freedom comes of its own accord. These things are synonymous. They happen without you ever thinking about them. But first you must get rid of the notion, that I am the body, or mind, or the doer and then everything will happen by itself. Be still And know that I am God.
Page21
It’s not what you say. It’s not what you proclaim. It’s what’s deep, deep, deep in your heart that determines what happens to you. It’s not reading books, it’s not studying, it’s not going to classes. It’s sitting by yourself, becoming quiet, going deeper and deeper within yourself. Transcending your mind and your body until something happens. When thoughts come to you, you simply ask yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come? From whence cometh these thoughts,” follow the thoughts to their source. Find out the source of your thoughts. You will find that the source of your thoughts is I. Follow the I thread to its source by asking, “Who am I?” or “What is the source of I? Where did this I come from?” You will realize that the pronoun I, is the first word that was ever spoken and everything else is attached to I. Every other word. Every other thought, every other feeling, every other emotion, they’re all attached to the I. I feel happy. I feel sad. I feel sick. I feel well. I feel poor, I feel rich. Everything is attached to I. If the I becomes dissolved, so does everything else and you become free. Find out for whom there is an I and you will discover something amazing. You will discover that I never existed. There never was an I.
Page26
discover that you are the imperishable Self. That you are never born and you can never die. You will discover that you’re omnipresence, omniscient, omnipotent. That there are no others. There is no world. There is no universe. There is no God. There is only the Self. All this is the Self. All that you behold is the Self and “I-am” is that. This will give you a feeling of freedom, of bliss, of happiness. You will not lose your awareness.
Page26
When I speak these things people believe that they become completely annihilated and there’s nothing left. They melt into the great ocean of nirvana. This is not necessarily true. You will always be awareness. You will always be pure intelligence for that is your real nature. You will always be blissful. Except you will understand that you are not who you appear to be.
Page26
Your body will still appear to be doing things, going through its motions. You will appear to be an ordinary person but you will know. You have lifted yourself up above the gross world into the heavenly world of pure consciousness and you will be at peace.
Page26
We’re not trying to exchange bad for good, they’re two sides of the same coin. We are trying to get off the wheel. To become completely totally free of human good and human bad.
Page26
It’s a completely different dimension. If you exchange bad for good, you’ll have to exchange good for bad. For we live in a world of duality. For every good there’s a bad. For every bad there’s a good, for every up there’s a down. For every amount of pressure pushing this way an equal amount of pressure pushes the other way. Like in the flying of jet planes. Without pressure the plane couldn’t fly, without resistance. This is the world in which we live. I am talking about transcending the world, going beyond the limitations of this world. Becoming pure bliss, pure consciousness while embodied. Completely different, do you follow?
Page26
the only freedom the mind has Ñ and this has to do with the mind Ñ is to turn within and find the source. S: It’s almost like connecting to the same circuit, just freeing it from the mind. R: Yes, you have to use your mind to destroy your mind. (S: Is that so, yeah.) The mind is nothing but a bunch of concepts. All that the mind is, is bunch of thoughts of the past and the future. If you understand that everything is preordained…preordained you have nothing to worry about. S: Is that also what people say is you have an attitude of, “What the heck, it’s preordained?” R: No, that’s no good, I’m glad you brought that up, you have to act as if nothing is preordained. (S: Even though it is?) Even though it is. S: Then why is that? R: Due to the fact it will give people license to do whatever they like. The average person should never hear anything like this. For they will all go out and do all kinds of strange things. So we say, your life is preordained but don’t just sit back and say, “It’s going to happen anyway.” Act as if it’s not, act as if you’re free, but realize it’s preordained and everything will take care of itself.
Page26
Because ultimately you’re the watcher? R: Yes, your real nature is freedom. S: But when you have all those stopping points in between and that’s worth it? R: It’s the mind, it all comes from the mind, all creation exists in the mind. Your universe, what you see and feel extends out of your mind. You create your own universe, everyday. The way you see things with your eyes and your senses, it’s an extension of your mind. When you pull in your mind and rest your mind in your heart, you’re in a completely different universe. S: You don’t need a mantra to do that? R: No, just awareness, it’s a waking up process.
Page26
There is no such thing as a void. S: There’s still awareness? Even though it’s… R: There is pure intelligence, absolute reality, but that’s ineffable, you can’t explain it, you’ll have to experience it for yourself. What we call the void in Buddhism is pure awareness. It’s not really a void, the reason it’s called a void, it means it transcends the world, it’s beyond anything you know and so it’s a void as far as that’s concerned but it’s really true awareness. S: And so in meditation if you have no experience, it means nothing? R: Absolutely nothing, doesn’t matter. Experiences are not reality.
Page31
All forms of meditations, affirmations, yoga, breathing exercises are all to make the mind stop, to still the mind, to make the mind quiescent, but that’s going about it the hard way. The fastest way to do this is to ask yourself the question, “To whom comes these thoughts?” As I mentioned before, you must use your mind to annihilate your mind. And by asking the question, “To whom do these thoughts come?” but not answering, it will take care of itself. S: By not answering? R: Do not answer, due to the fact when you answer it’s your ego answering. Your ego seems to have all the right answers and you never get anywhere. You do not answer but the feeling will come to you, “These thoughts come to me, I feel these thoughts,” and the next query should be, “from where does the I come from?” or “Who am I?” and again you do not answer. And one day you will find out that the I does not come from anything, its mesmerism, there is no I, there never was an I, there is only I-am, freedom, bliss, consciousness, existence, they are all synonymous. And you will feel your Self not as a body but as omnipresence
Page31
you get upset, all these terrible things, these dastardly things that are taking place in this world, but when you wake up all these feelings are gone. You realize the illusion, the dream, and you are no longer that. S: Do you behave then differently in the world with things that used to interest you no longer interest you? R: In a way that can be true but in a way you could still be doing the same things except you’re no longer attached to them. As an example if you have a good job. Be the president of a bank or if you’re a garbage man, doesn’t make any difference, you will do your duty whatever you have to do, better than you ever did it before. You will no longer look at time. You will no longer think that you are the doer. You will just do whatever has to be done. Whatever your body is supposed to do will be done. Your body is under the law of karma and whatever you have to do, you will do. But you will have no attachment, you will have compassion, you will have love, you will have lovingkindness and mercy but no attachment.
Page31
the way you get rid of these things is by asking, “From whence do they come? From whence do they come?” In other words, “Where does the idea that I have to trust some power come from? It comes from me. I believe that. Who am I who believes that?
Page36
Never defile your Self, by hating yourself. Never believe there is any mistake you’ve made that is going to rise up against you
Page41
let it happen, let it be, become open and then things begin to happen.
Page41
something motivated us to come here, what?’ Ask yourself. There is a mysterious power that motivates people to do what they do.
Page41
We can say God does it, but of course God is within yourself and some of the things you do, you would never allow God to make you do that, if God is yourself.
Page41
So we would have to say it’s your karma. It’s your karma that motivates you to come here or to go anywhere else.
Page41
If you truly want to repent, just sit in silent meditation and see the perfect reality within, for all manners of error merely arise in erroneous thought, and like the morning due before the rising sun, can perfectly be eliminated through the benevolent light and wisdom. Om, shanti, shanti, peace.
Page41
When we meditate like this, it’s for the purpose of emptying the mind. The mind is like a garbage can. It’s full of preconceived ideas, thoughts, concepts, not only from this life but from previous lives. There’s a lot of stuff in that mind. In truth there is no mind, but as long as you’re expressing a concepts, ideas, opinions, then we will talk of a mind.
Page41
As you sit in silent meditation and you watch your thoughts, observe how they come and they go. Observe the kind of thoughts that come to you. We do not try to change them. We do not repeat affirmations. You merely watch the thoughts and they leave of their own accord. This is how you deal with your mind. You observe your thoughts, you become the witness to your thoughts or you ask yourself, ‘To whom do these thoughts come?’ one or the other. If you do this often enough, the day is going to come, when you become totally free and you realize and understand what I mean, when I say, ‘You are unborn, you are nirvana, emptiness.’
Page41
everything is unborn. Take a tree for instance, what gave birth to a tree? A seed, where does the seed come from? Another tree? Where does the tree come from? Another seed, and you go back like that and there is no answer, no validity. Take for instance, creatures, worms, cockroaches, bugs, who gave them birth, originally? Where did they come from? Flowers, the moon, the sun, the earth, the stars, human beings, ideas, intuition, discrimination. I tell you none of these things exist. Nothing has ever been born.
Page41
There is no birth. What gave anything birth? Where did it come from? Do you know what anything is? You have no idea what anything at all is, you just give it a name. For instance, a cat, what is a cat? You have no idea.
Page46
It was here when you came into existence and we called it a cat. Why don‟t we call it a tree? We call it a cat. We give everything a name. That’s the first mistake because no thing is, what it appears to be. Therefore the first rule of the true spiritual path is called divine ignorance.
Page46
When you have a dream, do you give birth to everything? The dream just begins, with everything as it appears. You do not go to a beginning, or to an end. The dream just starts from nothing and it goes on until you awaken. The waking state is called the mortal dream. We’re dreaming the mortal dream.
Page46
All of the things that you are interested in, all of your fears, all of your frustrations, good and bads, all of your happy and sads, it’s all a dream. And the more you get attached to it, the more human you become. It’s like getting attached to a dream and never waking up and you keep living the dream.
Page46
Metaphysics teaches you, there’s a cause for everything but that’s kindergarten. Cause does not exist. There never was a cause, for there would have to have been someone to make the cause, to produce the cause and of course most people call that God. So we get into duality, into separation. We say that God made the cause and we’re experiencing the effect. So I ask you, “Where does this God come from that made the cause? And who made the God?” It’s all concepts, it’s all relative thinking. Do not try to understand this with your finite mind, you cannot. The infinite can never comprehend the finite or the finite can never comprehend the infinite. They are two different things.
Page46
Suffice it to say, that you as you exist now are complete emptiness. You are pure intelligence, pure awareness, absolute reality, nirvana. Just the way you are right now! Do not think about it, if you think about it you spoil it. Do not just try to understand this with your finite mind, you cannot.
Page556
everything we see is an optical illusion. This is why the world is a joke, a cosmic joke. Because the only thing permanent in the world is change. Everything changes continuously in this world, especially your thoughts. You know yourself. One minute you’re thinking one thing the next minute you’re thinking something else. And somehow, if you want to find freedom and liberation in this life, you have to slow down your mind and stop your thoughts. It is your thoughts that keep you
Page556
in bondage. The only thing your thoughts think about, is the past and the future. But somehow you’ve got to get yourself to become centered in the moment and become totally spontaneous.
Page556
S: Robert what did you mean when you said earlier that we become Ishwara because on the highest level there is no Ishwara, is there? R: No, that’s why you become Ishwara. (S: I don’t really fully understand.) Ishwara or God has always been you. When you awaken everything merges into oneness. So Ishwara has become you. (S: And always was?) Always was, yes. But you have given it separation. As long as you give it separation, you’re under the law of karma. S: You can’t help but give it separation? (R: Why?) Because it’s the way we are. R: On the contrary, if we couldn’t help it nobody would ever become enlightened
Page561
get involved in some spiritual practice and give yourself over to it. Like Bhakti for instance, devotion. Surrender your life to God and
Page561
let God take care of all your problems, give it all away to God. Are you willing to do that? Give everything to God. Let God carry this load and become free
Page161
In the beginning stages you try to separate your Self from your body. You say, “I’m not the body.” Then I must be something else, so that’s duality. But as you advance you realize, “There’s no body. There never was a body, there’s only the Self and I am That.” S: ??? R: Yes right. In other words, what you believe as your body is the Self, but you think it’s the body. S: Because everything is the Self? R: Sure. You’re not limited to a body. S: Is it possible to experience the Self through focussing on, say a waterfall, or a tree, or something outside of our own body presence? R: It can give you a good feeling, a very high feeling, but there has to be an experiencer to experience. Yet no experiencer exists. So as long as you’re the experiencer, you’ll be experiencing all kinds of phenomenon. When you transcend the experiencer, then you are the waterfall or the mountain or whatever. There’s no difference.
Page161
S: It’s the same obstacle though isn’t it? The obstacle that’s in the way of realizing the Self within the body is the same as realizing the Self in the waterfall.
Page161
R: Yes, you are the obstacle, exactly. S: Did you say you are the obstacle? R: Yes you are the obstacle. S: You mean the mind? R: Yes, in the mind.
Page601
R: See as long as we’re playing with concepts, we’re going to get stuck longer and longer. Forget about predestination.(laughter) Focus on reality and stop the game.