BOOKS BY ANANTA Welcome to Satsang with Ananta

Q: Beloved Father, sometimes you take us on a ride of emptiness when even I do not exist. How is that related to what you say now?

A: I say that when you are empty of all notions, the Truth of ‘I’ is apparent. Let’s take an example. I shared this the other day also with a friend. [Holds up a glass half full of water] Now, this glass has a potential to contain something. So, this one contains, to some level, this water. And the rest of it is empty. Isn’t it? The rest of it is empty. But does that make it nothing? No. It doesn’t make it nothing because in nothing you don’t have the potential to hold something. So, although it is filled with no-thing, it is still possible to fill something in it; therefore, it is not that ‘nothing’. If it was nothing, it could not hold anything. Nothing cannot hold anything. You see?

So, as you’re empty of all your notions, you See that You are no-thing. No-thing exists in this but this no-thing still has the potential for the entire play of Being and all the appearances that come with it. (Who can understand this, what I’m saying?) If it was nothing, could it ever hold something? Is the rest of this glass nothing?

Q: Why do you say there is ‘no-thing’? There is no ‘you’ or ‘I’ in this. It is just this.

A: Yes. So, either this is something which is being recognized by you, or you’re just making it up. And if it is being recognized by You, this is the You that I’m talking about; which is no-thing.

You are right that there is no separation of ‘you’ and ‘I’ there. That’s why I said ‘This ‘I’ is a chameleon; it is used to describe many things.

Q: Yes, so I am that no-thing; that no-thing which contains all things. So, the important point: It is like saying you are not ‘void’ but are fullness.

A: Yes, it is that way, but many call this ability/potential to have fullness within itself…, they call it ‘the void’. I’ve seen many times in Buddhism, what they’re saying is exactly what we are saying in Vedanta but their terminology is different. So, some actually say ‘void’ implying ‘nothing’. But some actually say ‘void’ implying ‘no-thing’ also. So, it’s a question of terminology. Let’s not get too worried about that. As long as it is clear that this ‘no-thing’ that I’m pointing to is not the ‘nothing’.

And also, remember that it is not spatial. I’ve just used a spatial metaphor to explain it to you. So, it’s not like an empty glass or an empty room. It is just showing that in that ‘no-thing’ …, all things arise, including your very Existence. And all of this is apparent to you completely when you’re not believing something false about YourSelf.

Right Now, You Are that ‘No-thing’. It is not a mystery. All the clues are pointing to this. The Sages have asked ‘What witnesses all that is changing, all that is moving?’ [Silence] ‘What is aware of your Existence?’ If it was that ‘nothing’ then how would you be aware? You see? It’s nothing! That’s why I prefer to use ‘no-thing’ because it is not a thing.

Now, you cannot fathom this. We cannot solve it mentally. You cannot compute what I’m saying. This kind of saying can happen in your recognition when you have it; and even then you will struggle to find the words to express this. Because the words are not meant to express the non-phenomenal. They’ve been created as phenomenal constructs to describe our phenomenal experience.

If you say that this ‘no-thing’ is not Self-aware, then you are still visualizing it; because even to say this needs awareness. So, if you See that you are ‘no-thing’ …, who is aware that it’s not Self-aware?

That’s why I tell you: Don’t try to compute it. Don’t try to figure it out. Don’t try to visualize it. And don’t be so much in a rush to come up with an answer. Because you come to these kinds of false conclusions.

What you’re saying is ‘I’m not even aware that it is Self-aware.’ [Smiles broadly] That’s why Papaji said ‘Better to keep quiet.’ Because that Knowingness that I’m speaking about is beyond all concepts of knowing. You only are speaking of perceptual knowing, conceptual knowing, emotional knowing, sensational knowing.

What is That which Knows all of this?

Where is this Knowing?

All of this Knowing, where does it get the power to Know?

This is the Truest Power of Now. What is the truest power of Now? Is that in this Now, you are empty of all your conditions. All the projects that you could have picked up to try and come to the truth is already done for you. I don’t know how to convey this, actually. I’m trying to give it to you as the best news possible!

Okay, let’s say that you attended this course in college and the entire two or three years of college, you didn’t study anything at all. Then, the last day before the exam, you’re trying to study but you realize that it’s just too much. Then you say ‘No point. It’s all in God’s hands anyway.’ So, you show up to the examination hall and you get the answer sheet and you see that it’s already filled out completely, with all the right answers. Wouldn’t that be the best news ever?

So, this is the power of this Now…, that all that you thought you would have to do to find this freedom is done for you already! And anything you add to this answer-paper will only deduct your marks. [Everyone laughs] If you feel like you want to add one ‘But…’ over there, or ‘And…, If…’ [Laughs] ‘But, only if …’ If you want to add something over there, then you’re just losing marks on that. (Not too literally; that’s just a metaphor.) That is what is happening. Everything is done and it is complete. You’re getting full marks; passing with flying colors.

But the mind wants to insert its stories. [Gestures putting there something with pride] ‘I also studied …, I was also sure. God has done everything for me but I want to show that I have also contributed to my freedom.’ So, many times in Satsang, this is what is happening. No ‘but’…, no ‘and’ …, no ‘if…’

Now, the mind will come and say ‘Are you sure this is the right answer?’ Because you’ve not studied, you see, so you can’t even make out whether the answers are right or wrong. [Everyone laughs] Isn’t it? It sounds funny, but this is exactly the doubts that come. Then somebody comes, you know, dressed like a Guru, saying ‘Yes, this is it!’ [You say] ‘But are you sure this is it? Are you a true Guru?’ This is the nature of doubt.

So, one day you will see that anything that you mix with the mind will quickly come to zero. Zero not in a good way; like zero marks.

The other trouble is that some of you have studied too much, so you’re unwilling to accept that all that has to be done is just here naturally. Then you want to write ‘No, no. I will write a better answer.’ [Laughs] So, it is still not that.

That which is naturally available is Your own Presence, Your own Being. And it is so apparent to You that you are aware of it. Not a step you have to take; not a letter you have to write. So, when I say don’t be so much attached to ‘my way’ it is the same as saying don’t be so attached to your concepts, your answers.

To many of you actually, I’ve been saying also that you’re trying to figure it out but it cannot be figured out. Because you cannot solve this empirically using the insight you have through your senses. It cannot bring you your Absolute Self. We cannot resolve this as a rationalist. You cannot reason your way to the Truth. You can reason your way away from the false to a great extent, and in that way, reason is helpful. But to drop this identity of the one that is looking (or the one that is reasoning also) is beyond intellect.

If coming to freedom was a task for any of us to do, nobody could do it. You see?  If coming to freedom was like a scientific discovery, then nobody would find it. Therefore, it is called a ‘recognition’ of What Is.

The answer is already here. [Silence] You cannot even say it is ♪♫ blowing in the wind. ♪♫ [Laughs] The wind is blowing in the answer. (Did nobody get my Bob Dylan reference? Maybe I’m getting too old.) [Laughs].

Truth is neither too difficult, neither is it too simple; it just IS. So, in this exam, the blank answer sheet is the best answer. So, what are you going to fill in? Because the question is: ‘I am ________.’ What are you going to fill into this blank? The mind will always have an answer for you to fill in something; some version of something. It might also be saying ‘Self. Self. Self.’

Someone says: ‘Nothing.’

A: ‘Nothing. Nothing.’ But neither of those answers are actually right ultimately, because even behind these can lie a concept.

The Self that You Are is completely apparent when you’re not filling the blank with something, or ‘the Self’.  That you are ‘no-thing’ is completely apparent when you’re not filling in the blank with even ‘Nothing’.

When your gear is on neutral, you have no trouble. Just to take the car metaphor a little more further, it can feel like for a bit that you are taking your hands off the steering wheel. It can seem like the life is still moving, so it can feel like the car is moving. It can feel like [Gestures the fear of needing to hold on to something] ‘At least, if I can hold on to some idea. Can I please have the idea that I am the Self?’ [Laughs] And, okay, for some of you who are new, I can be okay with that; that you hold on to this side railing or something. [Gestures holding on to a side support] But the Self does not need the idea ‘I am the Self’. Anything that needs an idea is not the final Truth.

Now, there are some concepts which help to burn other concepts. So those, for a while, I’ll let you hold on to…, but not for long. [Smiles]. The ride is a lot more fun. (Okay, now you’re not trying this on the road, alright?) [Jokes and laughs] ‘I heard in Satsang that I’m supposed to drive without holding on.’ It’s a metaphor, okay? [Laughs]

We’re not going to hold on to the steering wheel or the pretense-steering wheel of any concepts. Let go of all your clutches and See. Nothing will happen to you. You’re completely safe.

But if you have some idea about what safety means [Smiles] then that will also be squeezed out of you. [Silence]

So, no gear, no steering wheel! Life is moving. [Silence] It’s worth a try. In any case, we’ve not done such a super-fantastic job holding on to the wheel and the gear. [Laughs] Now, try it this way. You’ve tried it your way for a long time. Now try the High-way. [Laughs] What is it that they say? “My way or the highway!” And it always sounds like the highway is the worse option. But actually, it is ‘Try the HIGH(er)-way now’. That’s the Guru’s way.

When your gear is on neutral, you have no trouble. Just keep your gear on neutral. You can get this internationally also? The same thing applies? Gears are neutral? Even the automatics have neutral gears? [Someone from Satsang laughs and replies ‘Yes’] So, remain in neutral. Neutral means ‘position-less, notion-less’ as I’ve been saying in the last few days. And I’ve been saying also that in this neutrality, what happened? Did your sight stop? Did your hearing stop? Did your tastes stop functioning? Nothing stopped functioning. Heart is still beating. Body sensations are still there. The world is still around. All that needs to happen is still happening. So, getting into a gear is the false sense of control. It’s like you’re pretending to play play-station or something. But your joystick is not connected at all. And yet, you are feeling that you are controlling the thing. [Laughs]
Once it happened like this; my son plays this Football game called ‘Fifa’. He plays it very well. And once I had the other controller and we were like ‘Okay, we’re playing’. And it was going well. I was looking at the screen and I was like ‘How come I am playing well today?’ [Gestures playing with enthusiasm] After a while, he realized ‘Pa, it can’t be you.’ And we realized it was playing via just the computer and my controller was actually not connected. But all this while I was feeling like I am playing. You see? So, it could have happened that day that it was going well, so it was coming that ‘Oh, I am playing well.’ [Laughs] But suppose the computer was playing badly. It would feel like ‘No, I’m playing terrible’. Both options are possible. But the ‘I’ who was controlling it was not there in reality.

This gear, this joystick, is not connected to anything at all. Our idea of personally doing something has no impact on our phenomenal existence. What is happening is happening. It is just that we’re dropping just this false sense of control, which we’ve never had.

And you know that I like to report from direct experience. So, from direct experience Right Now, I’m telling you that there is no Ananta sitting here speaking these words. There is no objective entity who is the creator of these words. These words are just appearing in the Light of Presence. We can’t even say ‘My Presence’ because it is One Presence.

That’s why the other day I was saying that the perceiving of them is the speaking of them. There is no two. It is one appearance. The speaking is happening. But I remember there was a time that there was a sense here that the words that were coming here were being spoken by some ‘me’, some entity. But this is just not true. The non-existent one cannot move a finger. The mind might come and say ‘Yes, yes, but I can; I’ll show you.’ But whether it happens or not happens is up to the will of Consciousness alone. The mind does not know how to do any of this.

Just like the words of many in the world, those who are not in Satsang, also feel like they are creating their thoughts; individually. So, they are trying to think positive; which is useful at some level but now you’re seeing that even this concept that ‘I’m trying to think a certain way’ is not really help). Thoughts are just coming and going. Just like these words are being heard, in a different qualitative way you are perceiving your thoughts. Both are just appearances in Your Consciousness, in Your Being. When You are, then all of this Is. When you are not, then no appearance is. Even to presume that it is…, like you might have an idea that the world disappears when I’m asleep, but this can only happen when you are awake. Even that presumption cannot happen in your sleep. What exists independent from your Existence? That must be there. If there is something like that, it must be there when you are not. But you are finding that ‘If my attention is not on something then I cannot truly say that it exists. I can only presume.’ So, we’re getting out of this ‘presume’ business. We’re not presuming anything. Because we’ve presumed an ‘I’ [Laughs] and this presumed ‘I’ is never You. So, when Guruji [Mooji] says ‘Who are you without your story?’ that means the same thing: ‘Who are you without these presumptions about yourself?’

In neutrality, no presumption. In presumption, it’s always pretense. In neutrality, reality is apparent. It is only a notion that there is something missing. How can something be missing for the One without a boundary? The idea that ‘I stop at the body’ is a presumption; it is not natural. We have presumed that we live in this three-dimensional or four-dimensional existence. But I am taking you out from there. That which we call ‘going within’ (when we say ‘I’m going within. I’m checking on the source. I’m staying with ‘I am’) in which dimension is that? Is there a ‘I am’ sitting within the body? If you call a doctor and he says ‘Okay, I’m going to open the heart with a surgeon scalpel’ or something, will we find one ‘I am’ sitting there? ‘Here it is’? It is not in this dimension.

What are the dimensions we feel we exist in? The three dimensions of space. What is it? x, y, and z; three dimensions. What does it mean? Front-behind, left-right, and up-down. These are the three dimensions in which we feel. And the fourth dimension is the presumption that we are living inside a ‘time’. So, the movement happens in time; it can feel like. But when you go to ‘I am’…, is it in front or behind? Is it left, right, up, or down? Where is it contained? Your very Existence, where is it? You have left this Universe. It’s not a big deal. [Chuckles] Too crazy? [Laughs harder] It can seem like that, because we have considered ourselves to be an object for so long that it can feel like ‘No, I can move only in this way’. But really, this inquiry ‘Who am I?’ introduces you to that greater aspect of YourSelf which is not included in any dimension. Tell me where It is? Where are You? Where is your existence? In which direction should I come to meet Your Existence? Should I come in front, behind, up, down, left, right? We cannot find it that way.

Just this simple Seeing will show you that you are not an object because all objects are within these four dimensions. Three dimensions of space and fourth dimension of duration or time. Isn’t this so plainly obvious? Can you just check? My existence is not contained here in space or time. And this will become more and more natural to you. And the idea of being an object will start to sound funny.

I know, for many of you, what I am saying might sound a bit out there right now. But you will come to this point where Nisargadatta Maharaj was able to say that ‘This apparent Universe is nothing but a firefly dancing in front of me.’ So, be this cow that jumped over the moon. The moon is your objective worldly appearance. We’re going beyond that. Where are you witnessing this world from? And even if it feels like ‘I’m witnessing it from behind my eyes’ …, find out who is behind these eyes. Who are you?

[Silence]

You will see all of this in your neutrality when your belief is not so caught up with ‘What’s in it for me?’ …, when your attention is not fully invested in the mind. Then you’re starting to recognize Your own beautiful Being. This is Atma. This is God. This is Consciousness.

Can you stop being? Just because the question is simple doesn’t mean that the insight is not tremendous. You don’t have to find that which is so obviously here. You can’t even stop it. Just stop being. Don’t be for a second. Don’t exist. Go away from yourself. Separate yourself from your existence. Don’t be. Who can do this?

[Silence]

This is clear to all of you. Now, the only misunderstanding is that this Being is personal; this Being is not that Being. You see? This is the idea from the mind that ‘I can’t stop Being. What is big deal in that?’ It is the biggest deal. Your Being is the biggest deal ever. Everything else is small in relation to it. But you have thought that you are a small being. ‘I am just a ‘me’…, ‘little old me’. [Chuckles]

This is the mask of the mind; that That universal Being is considered to be ‘little old me’. Don’t buy this story. You Are. You Are! I Am. This Being is running all these lives, all these appearances. It never has been any other way. And this Being has played with the mask of individuality now for long enough. You are reminding this to YourSelf. Long enough have you played with this tiny mask. Now we can throw it away.

Hand over everything to this Being, in this pretend play. Hand over everything that has always belonged to it, back to it. Let your mouth be just an instrument for Being. Let your hands be an instrument for Being. May all your senses serve Being. Let all your relationships become the relationships of Being with Being. Allow Being to take care of this body, shelter, food and clothing. Give up any sense of control. The idea that you are the doer, or the non-doer; both you give up. The idea that you are the experiencer or you are not the experiencer; both you give up. The idea that you have surrendered or not surrendered yet; both you give up. The idea that you are free or bound; both you give up. Remain in neutral. The idea that you are the Self or not the Self; both you give up. The ideas about life or death; both you give up. Attached or unattached, me or other…, all this play of opposites; give up both sides. You are not contained in any of these. No concept is Your Truth. The idea of being in Satsang or outside satsang, of finding peace or not finding peace; give up all these notions.

Letting go is your gateway to Divinity. [Silence]

Give yourself the biggest gift of your own Self-recognition. Enough with the conceptual denial of what is so apparent to all of you. Enough dancing with ideas. Enough even spiritual fantasy. See the glory of Your own Existence.

Q: Can you talk about: What lasts beyond death?

A: What lasts beyond death? One example could be: A glass is full, or the glass is empty; what’s in the glass? Once it’s empty, what’s in it?

Q: Space…, air.

A: Air. Suppose it is empty of air also…

Q: Space.

A: Space. So, it is not ‘nothing’. It is not ‘nothing’ because it has the potential to hold something. If it is ‘nothing’, then I could not put something back in the glass. So, it is empty of water, then I can put juice in it. So, we cannot say it is ‘nothing’ because the potential for existence of something is there. So, actually, there is no such thing as ‘nothing’.

So, after death, again, what exists is that ‘no-thing’ in which again the potential for life is there (or that from which life came in the first place). So’ if it was ‘nothing’ then it could not hold anything including existence or life. So, That is the substratum of all things.

What is a better explanation?

Can you think of ‘nothing’?

Q: No.

A: Cannot even imagine it because even to try and imagine ‘nothing’ we’re imagining an empty space; maybe a dark, empty space. So, this ‘nothing’ is just conceptual.

If we can say something, we can say that after death It is That which is before death and That which is also here in life. Because That is independent of life. The space in the glass is independent of what the glass contains. The space in this room is independent of what this room contains.

So, That from which life comes, That cannot come and go. And the whole point of Satsang is to See this.

Q: Right here, right now.

A: Right here, right now; That. That which I am, the Reality of ‘I’, is beyond life and death. And then you will find that, in this, we cannot say anything conclusively about time, or future, or past because it is so beyond time and space.

So, to say that ‘Death is the end of all things and life will not come again’ is not valid. To say that ‘Life will come again’ is also not valid. This, we can say: Whatever the primal urge of This is (although even terms like urge do not apply because that means some sort of desire) but This is so beyond even desire that we cannot fathom why creation happens, why existence happens, why life happens. We cannot really fathom it. And yet to communicate (to use some terms in this worldly realm) we say the ‘primal urge’ or the ‘base-primordial desire’ of the Self Itself is to experience Itself in some way. But That cannot even have a desire.

Q: The primal urge, we leave it aside. Individual desires, does that last [beyond] death? Does that stay…

A: Yes, because it is completely possible for it to, because nothing has been contained outside of This [Source]. So, everything has always belonged to This [Source]. Now if It [Source] wants to continue to play with this [phenomena] (again we have to use the concept called ‘play’) if It wants to continue to play with this for a million more lifetimes, It can.

Because the Source of this intelligence (the source of this mind also) is that same Source. This is All There Is. So, where did all of this come from? It is made up of This [Source] alone. So, as long as the play is there (or we can say the urge is there) to play more with this, it can continue; or not.

So, what I want to tell all of you is that all of these (reincarnation, your personal lifetimes, all of these) are just conceptual notions that we have used to try and make sense of this unexplainable. But you will come to the Seeing that ‘This That Is’ is completely free; free beyond any concept of freedom, so all things are possible in it. So, whether It wants to play this way [straight line] or whether it wants to play round and round; whether it wants to experience lifetimes in the future, or lifetimes in the past; time, space, all of this is independent.

Q: So, the recognition for recognition is not there right now, let’s say.

A: Why say? [Laughs]

Q: Then you’re not living totally in the Truth, let’s say. Then it will ….

A: The Truth actually cannot be ‘lived’.

Q: Truth is living you.

A: Yes, yes, that is one way to put it, but actually we cannot live as the Truth. When we try to live as Awareness, or live as the Self, then it creates another contradiction within us. This worldly of play appearances is moving; this body is moving, this life is moving; it’s constantly changing. But when we try to fix that we say ‘This should become the unmoving’ or something. That creates an inherent battle or contradiction in us and the seeker gets more and more activated that ‘I’m not living it yet.’

That’s why it’s better what [Nisargadatta] Maharaj said: ‘Let your worldly life take care of itself.’ Let it move the way it is moving. So, then that can continue to move without this idea that ‘Is Soumya constantly…, is her attention always in Awareness? Is she always coming from the Self?’

You don’t have to bother with this because the Light of Consciousness is running this world perfectly, which includes this body. Because even in this notion that ‘I am not living it yet’ you are identifying yourself as this one [Points to her form] no? …, as this boundary. You’re not identifying as All and even beyond this All.

So, best to drop this notion. Best to drop the idea that somebody can live it fully. Best to drop that idea that somebody can live it fully because it is only another concept which can keep us down in a way. So, leave that.

Q: Isn’t that …

A: No, it isn’t. Isn’t that the idea? It is not. That is not the purpose of this [Satsang]. The purpose is to rid ourselves of all these limited notions about ourself. Once you see that you are the screen and the light of the projector, is there some trouble with what scene the movie might contain?

Q: The Seeing is not continuous, so…

A: The Seeing is always continuous; the interpretation is changing. You can never not See this. If it was a coming and going, then according to the Sages, all that is coming and going is not true. Then even this Truth would not be true. If Awareness was also coming and going…

Q: Huh.

A: Awareness is not coming and going, but I am.

Q: Awareness is not coming and going, but the identification with Awareness and with the body is happening…

A: …is changing; yes, And even in that coming and going of identification, what happened to the Truth? What happened to Awareness?

Q: Nothing.

A: Nothing has happened to Awareness. So, are You That?

Q: Yes.

A: Therefore, nothing has happened to You. Now the nature of identification itself is that way, that we consider ourself to be something other than That. That’s why it can feel like, or we can think, that we are not in That constantly. But actually, we are That only.

And one way to identify is to say that ‘I am not there fully yet.’ That is another way to identify itself.

Q: Yes.

A: So, then you might say ‘If this is true, that the Truth remains untouched, then what is the point of all of this anyway? What is the point of Satsang or ridding ourselves of the identification?’ There is actually no point, but we can (if we were to say that there is a point) we could say that Consciousness got tired of Its suffering-based experience of the world and now It is ridding Itself of Its suffering-based experience and coming to a more natural existence by ridding Itself of Its limited ideas about Itself. So, whatever that idea might be, in true Satsang, that idea will not survive.

So, as you continue to come, you find that over the years your idea about yourself has also changed (that now you’ve come to a different, different, different quality level). And even this will pass; even these notions will pass.

Q: So, the moment doubt arises about anything, we are in the mental realm.

A: Yes. Just not when it arises, but when we buy into it.

Q: Okay. When we buy into it, we’re in the mental realm. So, that is how I see moving from Awareness to the mind space.

A: As long as you’re not confusing the ‘I’ then this could not cause trouble. When you say ‘We are in the mental realm’ are you speaking of Consciousness?

Q: The feeling is…, whatever is making me buy that…, there is no doubt space…, doubt is not arising at all, you just know space. And then there is this space where…, the regular space [Laughs]…

A: So, That which witnesses both, That remains untouched by it. That is clear, isn’t it?

Q: Yes.

A: Now, when we pick up the notion that ‘I am not That’ then the changing of these spaces (as you call them) can make a difference.

Q: This view is only when I’m in the mind space. If that is not there, and there are no thoughts; those ideas are also not there.

A: In this report, who is the ‘I’?

Q: [Laughs]

A: That is why I am trying to highlight this point that all this confusion is only confusion about ‘I’.

Q: But naturally it should be felt, Father. It can’t be convinced. It can’t be convinced from the mind space. Right now, the operation…

A: What you are saying is that ‘The mind is convincing me.’ [Laughs] And it is saying ‘The mind is convincing me that it should be felt naturally, not convinced.’ [Laughs] So, you are willing to be convinced by that, but unwilling to be convinced by me. [Laughter in the room]

No notion can help us here. Even this notion. It can sound very true actually. It can sound very true. That’s what I call ‘Very well-dressed thoughts’. They come with their full suit, three-piece suit, well dressed; this one. ‘It must be felt naturally, it must not have to be convinced.’ But that itself is trying to convince you, you see?

Q: Yes.

Firstly, it is very good that we’re not in some sort of Advaita denial. Advaita denial means that the experience is something but we’re using a concept from Advaita to try and fight that experience.

So, if the experience is that I’m feeling fearful, and I’m using the concept ‘Oh, I am the Self; I can’t feel fearful’ and yet the fear is bubbling…, in that way, we can get into a worse conflict. But you’re completely right when you say ‘the Self-inquiry, the invitation’ …, these are beautiful tools which have been provided for our direct intuitive insight to the Truth. But it cannot guarantee that they will be the band-aid for some phenomenal trouble that we’re having. Some can even say things like ‘Why does my car break down? I’m so spiritual now. I’m free.’ [Chuckles] These kinds of things. So, we try to apply this truth to various layers of this phenomenal experience but we find that it doesn’t really [help] …, it’s not applicable in that way. That’s why recently lately I have been saying actually ‘Truth for Truth’s sake.’

The beginning of our journey might have been that we came into this because we wanted some freedom from some something, from some feeling, to feel different things, for our life to be a certain way. But there comes a point where you recognize that my longing for the Truth is so empty of expectation that I have no trouble in saying ‘I want the Truth just for Truth’s sake. If nothing changed in my life, I’m still in this looking, in the inquiry, in this invitation for the Truth alone; irrespective of the by-products that it might produce.’

This is a very, very vulnerable part of the seeker’s journey because here all of its expectations of better feeling, better life, better relationships…, all that is being thrown away and we come to this naked surrender. ‘Whatever You do with me, Lord, is fine. Even this fear is Yours to deal with. Nothing I’m doing is helping. But I trust You, my Lord, my Satguru. And whatever in this play I have to face, as You carry me, everything will be well, it will go fine.’

So, then it moves away from Advaita being a tactical tool to try and help us manage our life better to a more open, a more naked existence, in which there is so much openness that in one moment, strong feelings of anxiety might come, the next moment, a peace that might feel so strong that it can never be touched might come. And yet, even these are surrendered at the Father’s feet.

So, as we’re empty of all tactics, everything that we thought we could use to be a certain way, then we come into a greater beauty, actually; that which recently I’ve been calling ‘our notion-less existence’ where we have no plan, no strategy, no interpretation, no judgment about anything that might be the content of our experience. Even the labels start to become milder and milder; not as strong. All the sensations can still be alive; they can still shake up the entire body. It might feel like death is coming. But even in this strong shaking, there is no notion about ‘what is going to happen to me.’

And we don’t have to ‘do’ this, because in the way it is being said, actually it might start to sound like a task. So, don’t misunderstand. I’m not trying to make a task out of it.

I’m just saying that naturally, every moment begins like that. Like, in this moment, you have no notion about yourself. And if I was to say ‘So, tell me what is going on with you’ …, you have to first reach out for those notions, and then make that quote ‘Ah, yesterday, Ananta, this happened (or Father, this happened). The day before, this happened. Then last week when I was at the hospice, then I was feeling this fear of how can I help this one when I, myself am feeling like this.’ These kinds of fears can come. But these are not originally present in this Now. And that is the good news; that whatever might have happened in the last few months, Right Now You Are completely open, completely naked, empty of all notion. And there is nothing special about this Right Now; because everything is this Right Now.

So, although we are not getting into any conceptual denial of reality (we can’t even call it Reality) …, of this experience, we are actually finding the Truth which is so apparent that ‘Whatever the content of my experience might be, I am not contained in that; it is contained in Me’. And you will See that when you are empty of notions, you will find that this Truth is so apparent; that everything, all the anxiety, all the depression, is sensations happening within You. But This, within which it is happening, remains untouched by all of these sensations.

So, although we did not use it as a concept, whenever we find the space to check on the Reality of this…., we’re just checking and we can even say ‘Has this vulnerability, has this fear, taken over EVERY aspect of my Existence?’ And the mind will come and say ‘Yes, of course it has. You are completely shaking from this fear.’ But if we find the space to check, we’ll find that (and for you, especially, it will be very clear) that there is an aspect that remains untouched. That which witnesses all of this shaking is untouched.

And if you don’t find the space for even this checking, then just make it Guruji’s [Mooji’s] problem.

And if you don’t find the space even to make it Guruji’s problem, then be as that; be identified. It’s fine; because in this moment, you will be empty of that. No feeling of guilt or trying to use something or trying to get it or no unworthiness because of whatever might be appearing; no sense of not doing something right.

Q: When you speak of notions, about Atma…, is that about a notion or dropping of the notion?

A: Yes. It is that thorn which you are using it to remove the thorns. But your Atma is independent of the notion ‘I am Atma’. You being seeker is dependent on the notion ‘I am the seeker; I want to find the Truth.’ But the Truth is independent of the notion. So, your Atmiyata, your Atma-ness, is independent of whether you carry the concept or not.

Suppose you didn’t have the notion. You are still here. Your Atma, Your Existence, Your Being is independent of the notion. This is the best test of the false verses true, isn’t it? If that goes when I drop the notion of it, it was not true. You see? Then, at best, it is the thorn that we use to remove other thorns and then throw it away. That is why Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] uses the example of the stick used to light the funeral pyre; ultimately, you burn even that stick. So, when we feel like there are too many notions that you are still caught with; when you see that ‘I am getting this identity and that identity and it seems very strong, then I remember I am the Self, I am Atman, I am Brahman’ (whatever the notion might be). Then if it helps to eradicate, to wipe away, all other notions, good. Now that notion is also gone. So, do we need to reiterate it? Not really…, unless we are again getting embroiled in the jungle of notions again.

[Silence]

This example is coming. [Chuckles] It’s like mosquito spray. There are lots of mosquitoes around, so you spray. But once it’s done its job, these mosquitoes are powerless now. Then you don’t need to spray anymore. Because Atma is independent of notion ‘I Am’. So, if you need the mosquito spray, if you feel like it is too too strong (the idea ‘I am this person, I am the body, I am my family, my relationships, my freedom’…, if all these identities are too strong) then if you found something which helps to give peace from all of that (to get all these bugs away) then you can apply that. But even that cannot be ‘something’. Our finding of Truth can’t be notional.

Omkar had posted something very beautiful the other day from Papa Ramdas ji (Swami Ramdas). So, I’ll read a bit of that here.

Swami ji is saying: “What is self-realization? It is the giving up the pretention that You are not the Self, that You are a mere body. People say to me, “You are God himself.” I reply, “You are also He.” … “We are not He,” they rejoin. What else is this…, but that they simulate, for some Leela of their own, (what I call ‘the play’) hide behind a mask their real and Divine nature?”

Sounds so, so, so similar to what we share in Satsang because the Reality is never changed. It’s only this pretense (what he calls ‘the pretention’) that ‘I am not the Self, I am the body, I am the mind’. The Master is saying that we are One, we are the same. But the mind will come and say ‘But I still don’t have what he has.’ This is the nature of the mind. [Silence] Until we are able to take the Master’s words in our Heart, and just look: ‘what is true? The Master says that I have no boundary. If I keep my belief system aside for one minute, what do I actually find?’ Just these few seconds of open looking.

[Silence]

So, we’ve taken this example of the Master saying that You have no boundary. Is it possible to keep our belief systems aside for a few moments? The mind will come and say ‘No, no, you can’t find this yet. You are too attached to the body. The sensations are too strong right now.’ Can you let all these noises from the mind just come and go? And check for yourself:

Is it true that I have a boundary?

Is it true that I am contained in something?

Am I also an appearance?

Will I also come and go?

Any of these, if you just check openly, without any expectation, without any concept or judgment, no inference, no meaning, then what Swami ji is saying (“You are also He.”) will completely be apparent. Because he did not say that there is any anything really wrong. He just said it’s a pretention. What is Self-Realization? It is giving up the pretention that You are not the Self …, that You are a mere body. He did not say that you have to ‘find’ the Self.  Like, Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] also said: ‘True knowledge is just dropping of the ignorance, dropping of the false.’ Knowledge does not have to emerge. It is already there. The Self is Self-illuminating.

People say to me, “You are God himself,” he says. I reply, “You are also He.” (Then the ‘but’ comes.) “But we are not He,” (or I am not He)’ they rejoin. What else is this…, but that they simulate, for some Leela of their own, hide behind a mask their real and Divine nature?”

Now, he does not also say that you have to now proclaim that ‘I am the Self’. This would be a position. Dropping of the pretense is the not picking up of another concept. Can we remain empty of all notions? This is our natural state, our original nature; Right Now is this. Right Now, you have no pretense. All that is gone; history is gone, seeker is gone. Everything is gone. Masks are coming on the conveyer belt of the mind. Some are terrible masks of the unworthy seeker, some are the fancy proclaimer, but both are masks. Let them come and go. And if you picked one up, what happened? Nothing! It is not the end of the world. Don’t make a big deal about it [Laughs] because it is gone Now. So, no guilt, no unworthiness, no perpetuating this seeker identity based on something from the past.

When I say that we’ve the best clean-up crew in the world…, all your past, all your guilt, all your conditioning, everything is gone Now.

[Silence]

Which notion now is greater than Your Existence, Your Being? No notion is greater than Your Being. Why you want to exchange a notion for your Being? (Or should it be ‘Your Being for a notion?) [Chuckles] Your Being is here effortlessly. Are you going to put it in a box called ‘a concept’? And the idea comes that ‘I have got it’ or ‘not got it’. ‘I am just not ready for this.’ Or ‘I am completely so done.’ [Laughs] Either position is the play of notions. It has nothing to do with any Real You.

Are you with me so far? How many have lost me? [Chuckles] Anything your mind is saying has nothing to do with the Real You. It is just the mask salesman. The mask salesman is coming and saying ‘This mask now is worthy of you. This mask now is worthy of you.’

When are you ready to remain naked of these masks? It can only be Now.

I don’t need to say anything, actually. Like I was sharing this story the other day. I feel all of you have heard it or read it, so I won’t tell the full version.

There was this very learned, accomplished seeker who once went to this Sage called Yājñavalkya. This accomplished seeker was saying ‘I’ve seen great Sages and they have taught me a lot, but they said that if I want the ultimate understanding, I have to come to you. So, please, give me this blessing of the ultimate understanding.’ And the Sage Yājñavalkya, he’s just sitting quietly. And the disciple feels ‘Maybe he didn’t hear me. He’s old and he must be hard of hearing.’ [Chuckles] So, again he repeated the same thing. ‘Please, Master, give me the ultimate understanding. All the teachers I’ve been to have told me that you are the one who can show this to me.’ And again, the Sage is just sitting quietly. So, the disciple asked over and over again, until he got irritated, angry. ‘I was wrong. I heard wrong from all these other teachers. They are obviously wrong about you. I’m begging you, I’m imploring you, for the final Truth! And you’re just sitting here smiling. You must be very egoistic,’ the disciple tells the Master. Then the Sage speaks. He says ‘I’m answering you. I have answered you every time you have asked. But you refuse to listen. If you have truly heard what the other teachers have told you, if you really, truly have some insights in your heart, you must be able to hear the answer by now.’

So, this silence is the starting point for that which we call ‘direct satsang’ like this. If you can hear the silence, nothing more needs to really be said.

But then, some of you might say ‘I’ve woken up really in the morning, 3:30 a.m., and I logged onto this Zoom Satsang. It couldn’t have been so that I could hear this silence. So, please, because I have taken this effort…’  You see, in the olden days, people would say ‘I have walked 30 miles to come to Satsang. Please, share something.’ So, if this silence is not heard, then the Sage would say something like ‘You are the Self.’ or ‘You are Brahman, the Absolute.’ And he would give it to you; in Sanskrit if he was so inclined. ‘Tat Twam Asi.’ That You Are. [Silence] That You Are. Then also full stop. Nothing more to say.

But then, the disciple might ask ‘I don’t see that. How do I know this to be true? I don’t know this yet.’ Then the Sage would say ‘The ‘I’ that you claim yourself to be, the ‘I’ that you are representing, who is this ‘I’?’ If you cannot find the ultimate Truth, show me the false one.’ This is what we call inquiry: ‘Who am I?’

What happens then? Most of you know. You go looking for yourself and you find God…, just like when you go looking for God, you would only find YourSelf.

Then somebody might say ‘Master, this question, it sounds too intellectual. I can’t deal with this question. I’m not the inquiring type.’ Most of the time, this is a myth, actually, because the same ones keep inquiring ‘Why me? Why me? Why me?’ So, that inquiry is fine [Chuckles] but when we change the question to ‘Who?’ suddenly we become the non-inquiring type. But some truly are of a different temperament, so to them the Master said ‘Okay, for you; you don’t have to inquire also. Just everything which you consider yours, all your problems, all your grievances, your body, your actions, your inactions, what others have done to you; everything! …, you let that be the Master’s problem now. Just surrender it all. Let go of everything.’ And as I’ve been saying the last few days, as you let go of any notion about yourself, the non-conceptual Truth is completely apparent. What You Truly Are is clear. There is nobody who is confused.

Then the disciple might say ‘Yes, Master, but my mind…, it is too active. It doesn’t keep quiet. Please, help me.’ Then the Master might say ‘Let the mind do whatever it wants. You just let it come and go.’ He might explain the difference between attention and belief and tell you that even if attention is going to these thoughts, you are not yet identified. You can allow thoughts to come and go; just ‘don’t serve them tea’.

Again, back to the silence; the same silence…, which has nothing to do with outer silence. The outer silence is, at best, a tool, an aide, for recognizing this inner Being, this inner Self.

Then, some might say that ‘No, no. I can’t let them go. The minute the thought comes, I’m just caught. I’m caught, and to not believe my thought seems impossible to me.’ Then the Master might ask you ‘Have you had any devotion towards anything in your life?’ And if the disciple said ‘Yes, yes, when I was growing up, I used to love Hanuman. When I was growing up, I used to love Jesus Christ. When I was growing up, I used to …, (whatever).’ Or ‘Even now, I’m a great believer in Ram’ (for example). So, then the Master might say ‘Okay, with all my blessings, with all my Heart, I give you the mantra of ‘Ram’. Whenever you feel that your mind is over-active and you have no control over your belief whatsoever, just take a few minutes, dissolve in the Ram mantra…, (or the Jesus mantra or Krishna mantra; whatever you feel devoted towards’). And because the Master’s blessing is there and the names of the Lord themselves have so much inherent power in them, activated by our own devotion, which you will find that with this kind of repetition, it feels like the mind is not so big; not so out of control.

Now, some might even say (you see how this is going) [Chuckles] ‘Even this…, I have no concentration, Master; no concentration. I start chanting and then all the emails I have to reply to, all the phone calls I haven’t returned; all these things, they come back to me and I can’t even chant at all.’ So, then the Master might try a different approach. He might say ‘Can you put your attention to your breath for a few minute?  Just stay with your breath: ‘So-hum, So-hum’ in the flow of the breath.’

We know by now, even this is not going to stop. So, whatever the excuse is. The disciple might say ‘This is also not good.’ The Master will say ‘Okay, do something physical. Do Hatha Yoga. Do Surya Namaskara 108 times every day and then do some Pranayama exercise and you’ll find that the mind will get better.’

The disciple says ‘I’m too lazy, I’m not so inclined.’ So, the Master will say ‘Okay, sing some devotional songs. Or, if you can’t even do that, have some gratitude in your heart for anything at all. Say to yourself ‘I am thankful to God or Guru or my friends, my wife, my husband’ …, whatever. Just, this small thing.’ He might say ‘The next one you meet, just smile at them. Instead of giving them a big fat frown, just give them a nice smile instead.’

But no matter what approach works for you or worked for you, which of these paths (or there are many more also you can try) …, which of these paths you’ve taken, you will only always end up Here. Which means what? Only with Your own Self. (It doesn’t mean that you’ll end up in this Satsang. I mean Your own Self.) That is all you actually have because it is all You actually Are.

But remember the start of that journey? [Chuckles] So, this is the play of spirituality. Now, where you want to meet the Master, that form of Master appears in front of you. And there are many in each of these steps. And even this, you cannot hold onto as a concept. And based on how you choose to play next (which doubt, which ‘but…’ you choose to believe about yourself) the Master’s instruction, the Master’s pointing, might change. The form of the Master itself might change. Because every expression of the same Consciousness expresses itself in a different way. But ultimately, all the True Masters are saying the same thing.

A: The mind uses even our deepest spiritual insights to make it about ‘me’. (‘I found it. Why does this still happen?’) How quick we are to pick up. You could be experiencing your very original Self in which there is no ‘me’ and ‘no’ you. All this universe might be just a little bit of shining light, but in the midst of all this, your mind would come and say ‘Okay, this is good, but what does it do for me?’ [Smiles] You better sacrifice this ‘me’ at the Heart of the Satguru.

This is our biggest attachment. We might feel like our biggest attachment is our family, our children, but actually it is only because they are ‘my’ children. The ‘me’ is primary. My plants in the garden, my house, my body, my relationship. Imagine if you cared about every relationship as much as you cared about yours? [Chuckles] How would that be? Imagine if you cared about everyone’s money as you cared about yours; everyone’s freedom as much as you cared about yours.

This ‘me, me, me’. We often call this ego ‘the cat’ (actually we should call it a goat) …, always ‘me, me, me’. Every time you are going ‘me, me, me’ know that it is the goat talking, not you.

Nobody can use this knowledge for any sort of personal benefit. Just like knowing it is a movie doesn’t change the content of the movie; nothing has to happen. This is what the Zen Masters were trying to say when they said: Before enlightenment, chopping wood, fetching water; after enlightenment, chopping wood, fetching water (and I usually say ‘or not’).

But it is a chop to this expectation that ‘Something should be different in my life now that I am discovering the Truth of who I am.’ If you truly Are, then you know that it is not this bucket of flesh and blood which is discovering the Truth, so why should things be different for this? There is still attachment to this set of sensations. [The mind/body identity]

You are not contained in this universe. If anything, the universe is contained in You. If you give it the notion of reality, it is contained in You. If you don’t even give it the notion of reality then the universe has never happened. But either way, You remain untouched.

I was saying the other day that even the idea of ‘Just being; to just be’ can also become a position…, that ‘I found a way to be free, and the way to be free is to just be.’ But in the ‘Just be’ the ‘I’ who is doing the ‘Just be’ is not there. I wonder if it’s clear like that? You see, many times you can decide to be ‘Just be’ (‘I’m going to just be now’) [Chuckles] but it’s still a mask. Empty of all masks, you are naturally just Being. Completely open, completely empty of any position, Being is here effortlessly. That’s why we call this the pathless path. But actually, there is no way, there is no strategy, there is no practice that will make you That. Why? Because You already Are That.

Therefore, Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] said ‘True knowledge is just the dropping of ignorance.’ It’s not the picking up of something new. That’s why Bhagavan also said that the words of satsang are just the thorns we are using to remove the thorns which are already embedded. What are these thorns? These thorns are the beliefs we have about ourselves; the conditions we have about ourselves. ‘I am this way. I am that way. I like this. I don’t like this. These are my friends. There are my enemies. These I have grievances against. These I really desire.’ All these conditions at the center of which is the individual idea of ‘me’. The identity of ‘I’. This is ignorance. Just these false ideas about ourselves, they are being dropped.

But you will not become something other than You already Are. You see? The journey from ‘person’ to ‘Being’ is transformative only in the sense of the dropping of the person, not the creation of a new Being. This is a very important point which gets mistaken many times. It is not something new which is being added on. To use the metaphor, we can say that it is just this (what I call) conceptual dust which is being shrugged off now.

The bath in the Ganga has already happen this moment. All the dust is off. But as Consciousness, You can decide to pick up some more. ‘I will have a dust-bath with the mind.’ But as you remain empty of these notions, then the notion of ‘person’ doesn’t have any room. As we remain concept-less, it is the mind which has run out of moves…, (unless the ‘remain concept-less’ itself has become a concept).

Now, you might feel that ‘If I’m empty of notions, what does that have to do with the Self? Have I found the Self? I didn’t find the Self. Where is God?’ This might be an idea. But this is not true.  You are actually always experiencing only the Truth. That’s why [Nisargadatta] Maharaj said ‘You are not experiencing suffering, but you are suffering your experiencing.’ You are experiencing only the Truth. You are suffering from your mental interpretation of it. We cannot suffer from that which is naturally here without any interpretation. No suffering is possible.

We can look at this in some depth, if you like. What is an example of suffering?

Sangha: Believing your thought.

A: Believing your thought. So, suppose now Krishna is sitting here. The mind can come and say ‘I don’t like the way he’s sitting.’ That notion can come; and if that notion is believed, then that becomes a grievance. So, the experience is just an experience; certain sensation moving about. But when the interpretation comes, then it comes with its likes and dislikes; anything that we call suffering. This is an example of ‘grievance’. The other example could be ‘It’s a gate’. Some word emerged from here and that is believed, then that becomes a guilt. But you see that without this idea, what is appearing is just appearing.

Now when all of this is appearing, what are you? Don’t try to interpret it. Don’t be quick to the answer. Are you an object along with the rest of the appearance? (Again, I’m saying I want no answers.) As you are empty of any notion, what do you find yourself to be?

I’m emphasizing over and over that I don’t want answers because our idea of knowing has become ‘I have the right concept of it.’ So, I’m saying that I’m not interested in any concept that you come up with. The question has been asked; you leave the question unmolested by any notion. If any notion comes, you let it come and go. Don’t bother with it, because I’m not interested. And you also don’t be interested.

Your question is: This appearance is happening, all that is appearing is appearing:

What are You?

Are You also an appearance?

Are You also an object?

What is aware of all of these appearances?

Is That also an object?

You are not confused about this at all in Reality, you see? You concepts might be getting mixed up, but that is not Your confusion; that is the confusion of the mind.

But this secret I want to tell you all today (I’ve told you before) that as you are empty of any notion about yourself, the Truth is Here; the truth is completely apparent to You. You don’t have to take a step, You don’t have to move an inch to find the Truth.

That’s why Papaji [Sri Poonja] used to take a different approach. He would say ‘Okay, you want the Self? Just for a fraction of a moment, don’t think.’ So, when he used to say ‘Don’t think’ …, in that moment, the mind would just stop for a moment; and Truth is completely apparent.

Now, I don’t usually say ‘Don’t think’ because that becomes a thing also. We know that thought just starts coming, then ‘Oh, I can’t stop thinking.’ So, don’t worry about that. But You see that as You are empty, as You allow these notions to come and go, what You Are is completely present. You are aware of Your existence. You don’t have to struggle with it at all. You don’t have to make this a conclusion. Whatever judgment, conclusion, concept you might be believing about yourself, the Truth never changes. The Truth is not waiting for your mind certificate. [That you are awake now, enlightened] Truth is not waiting for your attention to settle down. Whatever benchmark you have created for yourself to be free, to find freedom, the Truth is not waiting for that benchmark. You might have said that ‘But I need to settle into this.’ Truth is not waiting for that. ‘I just have to stabilize a bit more.’ Truth is not waiting for that. Because in all of this, the ‘I’ is the false one. It is not the true ‘I’. The ocean is not waiting for the waves to have a certain quality before it becomes the ocean. But the ocean, strangely enough, gave itself the power to identify with the wave, to believe the idea that ‘I am a wave’.

That’s why I’ve been asking this recently: How long will you believe yourself to be just this set of sensations?

And if you want to believe that You are a set of sensations, then take a bigger jump, and believe that you are every set of sensations; every very visual, every sound, every taste. That at least is closer to the Truth of what You Are.

A: But joy is also a taste. This Perceiver, is it joyful? Or joyless?

Q: Joyful.

A:  If joy was not there, will it cease to be? In the sense that, when you are not feeling joy, when you are feeling sorrow, say you are feeling grief…, does the Perceiver go away? (Independent of whatever the quality of feeling might be.)  Because even joy is perceived, grief is perceived.

Now there is another type of joy and I will tell you about sometime, but that becomes very attractive to us… (‘Tell me about Ananda of Sat-Chit-Ananda’).

But here I have started saying these days that: Do you want the Truth for the sake of Truth?

Or because of the by-products that it will bring to us? So, independent of the by-products, the longing in our Heart now is for the Truth Itself.

So, this that perceives the opposites of emotion, of all pain and pleasure also, this is independent of even this feeling of joy; independent of all feelings.

Don’t settle for any answers because that knowing is never a True Knowing. Just stay with your insight.

What is it that percieves the coming and going of all things?

Is that itself a thing?

If that is not a thing, then what am I?

What am I?

[Silence]

What is your relationship with this perceiver?

Where are you in relation to it?

Perceiver is where? You are where?

Q: Both are here.

A: Both are at same location?

Q: [Silent]

A:  So, start with one. Where are you?

Q: Here.

A: Here? ‘Here’ means?

Q: This space.

A: In the body? Body ‘here’? Body is here. Are you this body? [Chuckles]

Q: [Nodding ‘No’]

A: Then? If you are not the body, where are you?

Body seems to be here, surrounded by other objects. It is an object itself.

If you are not an object, then, where are you?

If you are not an object, can you have a location?

Q: [Nodding ‘No’]

A: So, where are you?

Q: Here.

A: Here. ‘Here’ means?

Q: Awareness.

A:  Awareness?

Q: Of the perception.

A: What is not here?

What can hurt you here?

What do you want here?

Are you free or bound? [Silence]

Can you leave here? [Silence]

Are there questions here?

Are there conclusions here?

Q: [Nodding ‘No’]

A: Now, what did we discover? We discovered that there is a mind (which is a ‘coming and going’ of these thoughts). There is a Being, this Consciousness, which perceives it. And there is a deeper aspect of the Self which is Awareness…, which is aware of even this moving aspect called Consciousness.

Now from this understanding, what is happening?

When we say we are shutting off the mind, what are we talking about?

Did we invent another entity?

Is there another entity?

Q: Like everyone had shut off their mind.

A: ‘Everyone’ is what? There is mind, there is Consciousness and That which is aware even of Consciousness. What is ‘everyone’?

Q: Consciousnesses

A: Consciousness. Now, are there multiple Consciousness?

Q: It is one.

A: So, Consciousness sometimes plays with the mind; sometimes it doesn’t play with the mind. Does Consciousness have the question of how to shut off the mind?

Q: No.

A: Who does?

Q: Mind.

A: [Chuckles] It’s the thief which tries to catch the thief, posing as if it were the policeman.

If you See the mind for what it is, then what trouble can it cause you? The fluttering of the mind is nothing; not even a gentle breeze flowing through you. Then, will you want to shut it off?

Q: [Nodding ‘No’]

A: So, mind doesn’t have to go. It only becomes powerless. As Consciousness is withdrawing its belief from it, it becomes nothing but just a gentle movement of energy. That’s all.

But if you take on the project if how to shut off the mind then you have believed the mind again. [Chuckles]. And if Consciousness wants to play that way, then it will play that way. But this aspect of Consciousness is here to remind you that this is also a mind trap.

Empty of that notion, how are you? [Silence]

Is there a desire for something?

Q: [Nodding ‘No’]

A: Is it a boring nothing?

Q: No.

A: Neither boring nor exciting. And as you get used to this No-thing, then the Ananda of this No-thing, the bliss of this No-thing, will become more and more apparent. So, you won’t feel like you are missing any joy or some feeling…, because this joy is beyond feeling.

A: So, we’ll go very slowly and stop me where you feel to, or where you feel like you’re lost; just stop me there and we’ll repeat that part.

‘How you know something now?’

So, let’s go slowly on that. So, you have a perception of something; you have the experience, a phenomenal experience of something. So, there’s a perceptual input coming in and you feel like ‘I know this experientially.’

There is a body sitting in front of you.

These words are being heard.

All these perceptions are happening.

So, that is one knowing.

How do you know the Earth is round, or spherical? It’s a conceptual belief actually. You have a concept of it which has come from credible sources; our parents, our teachers have told us that the Earth is spherical and also there is perceptual evidence (you’ve seen photos). So, you have the concept of something. So, for example if I say ‘There are trillions of stars in the sky’ …, nobody has counted them (maybe somebody has tried). It is a computation. So, you have a perceptual knowledge, you have a conceptual knowledge, and then you have a computational knowledge (like an inferential knowledge). Now, what knows all of this?

Let me give you a simpler question:

What knows your existence?

What type of knowledge is your existence?

How do you know you exist?

Do you have a perception of your existence?

I say ‘Can you stop being?’ That ‘being’ that did not stop, did you have a perception of it?

Q: An idea.

A: Yes, but if that idea was not there…, because all ideas they come and go. Does your existence also come and go with the idea?

Q: [Laughs]

A: So, this we can check. Actually, in this moment, you have no idea; but you exist. It takes a moment to pull in an idea; but your existence is prior to that.

So, just go deeply into the question, ‘Can I stop being?’ And in fact, try to stop ‘being’. Try to ‘not be’.

Succeeding? Are you succeeding? If you try to ‘not be’ (try to ‘not be’ now) …, are you making progress?

Q: [Laughs]

A: Cannot, isn’t it? No matter how hard we try, this existence just exists effortlessly. That which exists effortlessly; no matter how much effort we make, it does not go away. So, your existence is here, but the idea of it is coming and going. So, it is independent of the idea of it; of the concept of it.

Are you seeing your existence with your eyes?

Are you hearing it with your ears?

Smelling it with your nose?

Tasting it with your tongue?

Are any of these senses helping you figure out that you exist?

So, it is not a perception in that way. All the concepts also, we said, they are coming and going.

So, what is this ‘Knowing’ that knows of your existence?

And does It know Itself?

That’s how your question is answered. Because all these objects are the coming and going. That’s why the sages are saying that ‘That which is coming and going is not the Reality. That which remains unchanging is the Reality.’

Now your question is ‘Is that an object or a subject?’ And you say that ‘I know it is the subject. But how do I see this for myself?’

So, you know you exist? Or no?

Q: Yes.

A: What knows that you exist?

Now when you say ‘I am aware’ it is the Knowing of Awareness Itself. Self-Awareness is evident in that statement ‘I am aware.’

Because when you say ‘I am sitting’ …, you know what sitting is. ‘I am standing’ …, you know what standing is. ‘I am angry’ …, you know what anger is. In the same way, when you say ‘I am aware’ it is the dissolution of the subject-object relationship, but it is the subjective Knowing of Itself. Awareness does not Know itself as an object. Actually, it is beyond subject and object, isn’t it? (Maybe you lost me somewhere.) But when we say ‘I am aware’ what is it that we are referring to?

Now you see mind cannot help you; all concepts cannot help you. It has to become very, very innocent here. Because no concept, no learned knowledge, nothing, can support us here. Here we are a blank.

‘I am aware.’  What is the distinction between this ‘I’ and ‘aware’?

All objects are gone; they don’t matter here.

And this Truth is apparent to you when you are empty of all notions.

This is the conundrum. We feel that we will know it when you have the right notion of it. But this Self is completely Known to Itself. But when it plays with any notion of Itself, it seems to lose Itself. (You’re with me?) So, if you pick up any idea about it, that is not it. And as you are empty of all ideas, that is it. [Chuckles]

Now are you able to articulate it? Maybe not; not yet, anyway. Are you able to explain it (what you found)? No. Is your mind convinced that you found something? No. Sometimes, it can be, but mostly no. Because it will keep saying ‘Not yet, not yet, not there yet.’

So, independent of all of that, in this moment, You Are It …, independent of whatever objects might be perceived; independent even of this Consciousness perceiver.

Some of these words might not immediately hit home, but at least they get seeded. That which is aware even of your existence; even aware of the perceiver itself (the phenomenal perceiver).

So, we step back even from this play of subject and object and we see that ‘I am aware.’ Here all boundaries between the dynamic aspect of the Self and the non-dynamic (the non-phenomenal) aspect of the Self start to dissolve; they start to fade away. All is the Self here. No distinction is valid here. Who is the subject for who? Who is the object for who? All this is gone.

Q: [Audio cut out]

A: No, well in a way, but not really because all intelligence is also appearing from out of This only. So, it is not a sort of an inert seeing. Many times, we can pick up this idea (and many spiritual paths also have this idea) that the Self, the ultimate Self, is like one (sorry to use the word) dumb thing just sitting there. No. It is the Supreme Intelligence from which all intelligence arises. It is the All-Knowing from which all the different types of knowing arise. All this perceptual knowing, conceptual knowing, emotional knowing; knowing of existence itself, all of this comes from That. So, That must be the Source of all knowingness; but that knowingness is beyond mental comprehension.

That is the ground on which Consciousness is born. It’s not even ground like ‘ground’. That No-thing-ness from which all things arise. That which is the Source of all, gives birth to all, and yet remains untouched; dissolves all back into Itself, and yet remains untouched.

So, it might seem like ‘I don’t get anything when I remain empty of concepts’ but all of this becomes immediately apparent to you. You might not have the words yet to translate this insight into explanation. That is fine. That’s why I keep saying ‘Don’t go with any inference. Stay with your natural insight.’ All that is happening from here is the speaking of that. What is so natural to you right now? None of this has ever been lost, in Reality, to You.

Now, the only thing that we are dealing with is the withdrawal symptoms from concepts. Because if you See that ‘As I am notion-less, I am not suffering, I am not missing the Truth also; It is so apparent.’ But when the concepts of my individuality start to come again, it seems like there is some magnetism in them; there is some power in them to grab us.

So, that’s why Guruji [Sri Mooji] says ‘Satsang is the rehab for Consciousness Itself, by Consciousness Itself.’ And what is the discovery? Consciousness Itself.

This is the play. And once you have this longing for this in your Heart, then no other play seems as sweet as this.

When you See the pristine Reality of You, then the play of shrugging off all this conceptual dust is the best. So, we come every day to Satsang to shrug off this conceptual dust that we picked up along the way. And our pristine, shining Truth is revealing Itself.

A: First we have to say ‘What is this mind? Who is perceiving this mind?’

Q: Is the mind only perceiving the mind or …?

A: That is what I am asking; is the mind perceiving the mind?

Q: No.

A: No. [Laughs] This is when you know the answers. So, who is, then?

It is not a second-hand report. [Another satsang member] is not telling you what your mind is saying. And yet there is some hesitation in calling it ‘I’. What is that?

Because we have identified ‘I’ with the wrong thing for so long, so now that we are saying ‘Oh, that one is not perceiving the mind’ and yet it is You…, so, for a while it can seem like it is not ‘I’. But it is ‘I’ But it is a new type of ‘I’ …, a fresh ‘I’. We are Seeing with fresh eyes, this fresh ‘I’ that we have not really looked at. We have just presumed that the mind is ‘I’ …, or who the mind is representing as ‘I’.

Now, over the last few days I have asked you ‘Who is it? Where is the person that has this ‘lawyer’ who is representing it?’ And you looked and you found nobody like that is there. But who is even making this discovery? What is the quality of that one?

Q: Definitely not the mind, but …

A: Yes, definitely not the mind, in the definition of the mind which Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] used sometimes, which was ‘The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts’. So, a bundle of thoughts cannot perceive themselves. (There is a bigger definition of mind but don’t worry about that; we don’t use that.)

Just stay with this question ‘What is perceiving it?’ Thought is coming, going. What is the space between thought? Then next thought is coming, going. What perceives this coming and going? Is it you?

Q: Yes.

A: Tell me about that ‘you’.

Q: [Silence]

A: And this is a question for all of you: The one that perceives thoughts and the space between thoughts, what can you tell me about that?

[Silence]

Can that one be perceived?

Q: No.

A: No. Then how are you reporting on it?

Is there a deeper knowing than perception?

I won’t spoil it completely for you; this is a beautiful contemplation. My Master [Sri Mooji] says this is his ‘piranha’ question: ‘Can the perceiver be perceived?’ And as you contemplate this question, all ideas about the false that you considered yourself to be will start to fall away. The piranha eats everything in its path. Have you heard of this fish?  Like this, it will eat up all the concepts that you had about yourself.

Now we have a question like this then don’t change the question, because the mind will say ‘Let’s go do ‘Am I aware now?’ or ‘Let’s go to ‘Can I stop being?’ You already started digging a well with this question; the water is near. Don’t leave this question, because it is appealing to you.

Something is perceiving thought and the space between these thoughts. Can this perceiver be perceived?

[Silence]

Q: The perceiver can only perceive perceiving.

A: Is this an inference or is this an insight?

Q: Insight.

A: So, what is the basis of this insight?

Q: It’s something existing other than mind.

A: Yes. What is the nature of that existence and how is it known?

This is very good. Something exists beyond mind. Most in humanity don’t even come to this recognition, so this is already very good. There is an existence beyond mind; how is this existence known, or how is it perceived?

[Silence]

Q: Mind cannot, is not able to conceive that.

A: Yes, because mind is just a bundle of thoughts and similar energy like imagination, memory; all of this is coming and going.

What about this perceiver, is it coming and going?

What knows this?

What is the color of this perceiver?

Q: No color.

A: What is the shape?

Q: No shape.

A: How old is it?

Q: No Age.

A: No age, no color, no shape. What is the taste of it?

Q: No taste.

A: Any other experience you’ve had like this? Have you ever reported on the existence of something which doesn’t have any attribute, any quality?

A: So, we got so used to making a report about ourself on the basis of this side of attention [Makes a gesture away from the body] which is the content which is being brought.

Q: Exactly.

A: So, that´s why I draw this line of Being. [Holds up the side of his hand] Actually it´s not to be taken seriously. There is no ‘line’ of Being. But suppose this is the Being [Holds up the side of his hand] then on this side [Moves hand to his right side] is all the perceptual world or phenomena; thoughts, pain, pleasure, all of this is there. And you rightly said attention is going to all of this.

Now, what is attention reporting back to? So, attention is like your spy that is bringing you all this. Who are you?

Q: So, actually what I am seeing, Father, is that it all arises from emptiness in a sense.

A: Yes.

Q: It seems (I don´t know if that is correct or not) there is no attribute. There is nothing I can say. And even ‘I Am’ seems to happen; it doesn´t have any attributes it seems, Father.  You know, it´s just that all this appearance is there. Everything is there. It´s not me, yet I Am. ‘I Am’ has no shape; or it seems there is nothing to grasp.

A: Yeah, exactly.

Q: You know? There is struggle in the mind to grasp, but that is also seen.

A: The mind struggles to define it.

Q: Yes, yes.

A: It cannot define it. That´s a ‘grasp’ because you are not trying to grasp something that you can´t leave. I ask you: ‘Can you stop being?’ You can´t stop being.

Q: No, and yet ‘being’ is not a tangible thing. It´s not…, it´s emptiness, Father.

A: Yes, it is prior to time and space. So, you cannot give it spatial constructs or time-based constructs.

Q: And there is no sensation to it.

A: Yes, except that there is a qualitative tasting of ‘I Am’ …, like ‘I exist now’ verses ‘I was nott when there was sleep’.

Q: Yes, yes, yes. So, it almost seems like that is the only difference between Awareness and ‘I Am’.

A: Yeah.

Q: ‘I Am’ is just …

A: … the extension of Awareness; the extension which has the qualitative sense of existence but it is not separate from the Self.

Q: Okay, as I look, Father, there are a lot of subtle, subtle, subtle sensations. Some of them are just very subtle. And I know that even bliss is not Me, even happiness is not Me…

A: Yeah.

Q: The mind is slowing. I can see the grasping reducing over the last few days. It is trying to grasp but it can´t grasp (but it is still grasping). There is nothing I can use to describe anything. But definitely, I am seeing what´s been happening last few days, Father; there´s a seeing of the mind/body kind of fighting, trying to do something…, and I don´t know what is going on. [Laughs]

A: It´s best to not know, because we don´t even really know that. It might feel like ‘I have a memory of what was happening the last few days’ but what memory is really reliable? So, we don´t know anything about past, really, and we definitely don´t know anything about the future. So, all you have is that You Exist Now. And ultimately even this existence is not Your container.

So, if we don´t go to anything past or future, and we don´t go with any interpretation of any sensation, of anything of this side of ‘I Am’ [Makes a gesture away from his body] any perception…

Q: It feels empty…

A: But is it perceptually empty, in the sense of…, is it like an ’empty room’ empty?

Q: No, no, no…

A: Whatever it feels like, what witnesses that?

Q: The witnessing is just happening.

A: Yes, is it empty or full?

Q: It doesn’t have a quality.

A: Even that, it is not. Although if I were to force you and say ‘You have to pick one’ and you say ‘Okay, empty seems better because…’

Q: It seems full also…

A: Yes, actually it´s true. So, that´s why we come to ‘not applicable’. You see? But if we start Satsang by saying ‘Not applicable’ to everything, then it won´t make much sense. So, we have to use terms like empty, we have to use terms like position-less, reference-less, unchanging, primal witness. And yet, we will see that nothing really applies to This. You are that No-thing to which nothing applies.

Q: And yet…, nothing applies. I can´t turn it off and I am really just watching it, Father. The mind really struggles to understand this.

A: So, I am saying to you that you don´t have to cater to the mind at all. Whether it is struggling or relaxed is none of your concern anymore. Let it do its thing, whatever it has to do.

Q: But what is nice, Father, is that even this ‘checker-guy’ is starting to be seen. The checker-guy is not affecting Me. There is something that it can´t touch. It can only report on something…

A: Yes, and this is also the checker-guy. [Laughter in the room] You see, it is tricky and has happened very naturally for all of us. They say ‘I see the checker-guy is also ….’ That one! [Laughter] ‘I see this one is also…’

Just like any layer of conclusion, any layer of interpretation actually, is the mind trying to subtly get [something] like, ‘Give me one tick mark, give me one approval, give me one yes.’ [Laughter] And it seems like you come to Satsang saying ‘I am like…’ [And I say] ‘No, not that.’ [You’re saying] ‘Yeah and even that is….’ [And I say] ‘Not that.’ [And you say] ‘But you know what I mean! No, please come on…’ [Laughing together] [I say] ‘But actually, no, not that.’

Then you see that the mind…., all these layers…, even including the Self…, it could arise from a very natural insight that you are having, but it likes to take on something. It could be very subtle. I have seen many, many times over the years that it starts off as a very subtle thing and then ‘Boom!’ [Makes exploding gesture with arms] When I see a bit of concluding… [Makes gestures of discarding that also]

Q: Yeah, this was good. Thank you, Father.

A: You see? Because even our best conclusions actually are sometimes a defence-mechanism from the wobbliness of just not knowing anything at all. Empty of all notions. But I am telling you, we start enjoying this. So, then, all this which can feel like conclusions or where things are going or what is happening can feel like ‘No, no, I don´t need it’. The wonder of this play is so beautiful, so empty of concepts, that you will not want a concept to define it. Then concepts will arise from you just in this way; as it might seem like there are many others who are concept-ridden so some concepts might arise from your mouth to rid them of their concepts. But you will never take your own notions very seriously.

So, the nature of the mind? Not your concern now. How it is transitioning or not? Nothing to do with you. What is happening in the body? Also, Consciousness. Everything; Consciousness. And your inquiry has brought you here…, and this is surrender. Or your surrender has brought you here…, and this is your true inquiry. Here you are Seeing that there is no difference actually. Because the irrelevant test finally becomes irrelevant, whether you call it inquiry or you call it surrender.

If they made a move called ‘Finding Nemo’…, but suppose the premise of the movie was that Nemo goes looking for Nemo. Would you say it is absurd? The movie starts with the character named Nemo and he says ‘I have to go and find Nemo.’ You say ‘What crazy movie is this?’ Isn’t it strange? But when we say ‘I am looking for the Self, I want to find the Self’…, why is that not absurd? It should be, isn’t it? What must you be to go finding the Self?

And the word ‘Self’ itself signifies Self. ‘I am going to find myself; my Self.’ [Chuckles] This is the funny seeker identity. And we, humanity, have always been seeking. We have been seeking different things. But we come to this seeking which is now looking for the Self because it got tired of finding these transitory things, things that come and go. And somewhere, all of us know that the death of the body is approaching. That is inescapable. What do they say? ‘There are two things which are inevitable; death and taxes.’ [Chuckles] So death is coming. And as we know this, we want to go beyond this. What is beyond death?

And it doesn’t matter how old we are. In the Indian scriptures there is a young boy, Nachiketa, who also has the same conversation with the God of Death, who offers him all kinds of worldly pleasure. He says ‘Don’t ask me for this knowledge. You are just a young boy. You have your whole life to entertain yourself with all kinds of pleasures.’ But this young boy says ‘Will any of that outlast my death? Will it outlast you?’ And the God of Death says ‘No.’ This boy says ‘No, then I don’t want that because it is another coming and going.’

So, all of us, some way or the other, if we are in satsang, are like that young boy. We are truly asking ourself ‘What is it that is beyond death? Who am I? Am I something that will die? Am I something that was born?’ And then we go on this adventure of trying to find the Self. And it is a beautiful adventure actually, with all the dramas of the ups and downs, all the transitory ideas of getting it and losing it, of being a worthy seeker and being an unworthy seeker. But ultimately, we come to see that ‘I cannot find it like I find other objects. I cannot find it like a feeling. I will not find it like an inference.’ It will not be the same quality as Archimedes who discovered the scientific principle of buoyancy and shouted in the bathtub ‘eureka!’ because he solved something. So, you will not resolve it or solve it in this way. It is independent of whatever you might be feeling also.

You don’t need to have a full yoga body, or if you have an unhealthy body; either way it has nothing to do with the Self. It doesn’t matter how much money is in your bank account or not. It doesn’t matter whether we have wonderful personal relationships or not. None of this matters. What is it that You Are…, independent of all of these things? Our worldly situation, our bodily situation, our mental situation, our psychological situation, our intellectual situation; all these stories are there. Consciousness is playing with all of these. But You are beyond all of this.

How long will we use these benchmarks to signify ourself?

What does the ‘I’ represent?

The Sages have given us many clues. They have said that: That which changes is not the Self; that which comes and goes is not Your Reality…., That which cannot be perceived through worldly eyes and yet it is That which knows Itself.

Who are you? What knows your existence?

You see, this is so primal to us that the mind can come and say ‘It can’t be this, because this is too obvious’. How many have heard this song? ‘Is that it? Ananta, is that it? It is so simple. It is too straight forward.’ But actually, now we are tired of that which is complex. What is it that Ashtavakra said? ‘The mind is complex, let it go.’

The world is like a coloring book of Consciousness. It has colored all these colors, but within this coloring book It has taken one object and said ‘this is me’. The entire book, the entire universe, is nothing but a giant coloring book. The page that It is visiting, the frame that It is visiting with attention, that seems to create time and space. All of these are nothing but aspects of Consciousness Itself. Time is only so that It doesn’t taste every color all at one go. It wants to savor every bite. Space is only so that everything doesn’t continue to appear as one; which is Its actual reality, but It wants to savor Itself in all Its flavor. That’s why time and space.

In Reality, You are beyond this time. You are not contained in any space. And all of these are not fancy things; they are not esoteric. And the best, best news is, that as you are empty of notions, this truth is completely apparent to You.

The mind will protest and say ‘It is not apparent to me, actually.’ It is not apparent to the mind and it will really never be. To the mind, all of this will only seem like a concept. But what is your insight about yourself Right Now? No report is needed. In your heart you know that this body boundary is not my Reality.

Where are you now?

Do you have a location?

Do you have a shape?

The sensations that you are experiencing, do they contain you?

Or do You contain them?

What perceives all things?

And what is aware of this perceiving?

Can you remain without your conclusions? Can you remain without your interpretations? You have deluded yourself to believe that they are helpful to you. But they are completely meaningless.

You will not find the Self in any corner of the world. You might run a thousand miles in every direction looking for the Self, but you will not find it there. You will not find it in any corner of the body. All your chakras might be open, all the energies might be flowing, but that is not the Self. You will not find it in any emotion, any feeling; joy or pain. You won’t find it in any well-dressed thought because all these are changing. The Self is the unchanging.

All three states; the waking state, the dream state, sleep state, and the turiya state…, none of these states can contain You. But you have believed yourself to be an object in this waking state. How could that be? Because You were prior to this.

Even if there is a world in time, without You there is no time, for you are the substratum. In none of these things can You be contained.

You don’t even have to transcend them, just transcend your ideas of them. You don’t even have to transcend the ideas of them, just transcend the idea of yourself. Just this one idea; the idea of ‘I’ is enough. The idea of ‘I’ …, when you transcend it, the truth of the real ‘I’ is completely apparent. No struggle needed. All the struggle is just the withdrawal symptoms of the idea of ‘I’.

It is a funny struggle. It is like the fish swimming comfortably in water but dreaming that it is thirsting for water. This beautiful amusement park is here for Your joy and yet You got so caught up in the ride that You forgot Its playfulness; the fact that nothing here can hurt You. It is safer than Disneyland. [Laughter]

And through the ages, you have heard so many assurances that Your Reality is That which cannot be cut, it cannot be burned, it cannot be scratched. And nobody has said that you will become that Immortal one; everyone has said that You Are That.

Just transcend this idea of ‘I’. Let it be wobbly for a bit, if it has to be. It is like we’ve had these needless crutches. We are absolutely fine, but we have these crutches because we believed we need them. When we throw away these needless crutches, for a while it can play as if it is a bit wobbly. ‘Without my crutch what am I doing? I am going to fall.’ But you are like a bird with perfectly-functioning wings, believing that you need crutches to walk; but actually, You can fly. So, the wobbliness is your take-off. You might feel like it is a falling.

Don’t buy the story of ‘I’. Don’t let the concept rest behind any phenomenal thing. Don’t let the concept of ‘I’ rest behind relationships, don’t let it rest behind money, don’t let it rest behind health of the body, and don’t let it rest behind the seeker identity. You are none of these. How long will you represent one of these, or many of these?

That is why the question is: ‘Who does ‘I’ represent?’ All confusion is only about this. All confusion, no matter what it might seem like, is about ‘Who I am’. All regret, all guilt, all pride, everything that you can call suffering is just a confusion about ‘I’.

If You are ‘All There Is’ (in fact, beyond even ‘All There Is’) tell me what is Your suffering? What is Your trouble? First You have to invent the individual.

This is a very nice report actually, as far as seva is concerned here, because we don’t have an ashram and we don’t have any donation, nothing; no financial work needs to be done, no actual physical work (not much; some of them, some cleanup things happen here that needs to be done). So here, I have always suggested that transcript seva is the best. And many who have done this transcript seva they feel like ‘Before we did this, we never heard what you were saying in satsang. It felt like we were hearing but when we typed the transcript we said: Oh, this is what you are saying!’

So, I feel like it is very beautiful because it immerses in you so much in the power of satsang, in the field of satsang. And most of you actually have done the transcripts so you have experienced this. So, this can happen; very strong satsang can happen when we are in the transcript seva group. And you say that there is something hit you so strong that you saw that you are not contained in the waking state nor you are not contained in any state; the body doesn’t contain you. So, this hits home as Your Reality at some point.

This is very good because many of us (especially in India) have heard this concepts for a long time, that ‘You are not this body, You are beyond’ so it has become just conceptual. But as you immerse yourself in the satsang field, you will see this as Your Reality. You will see that this body is just in the appearance on your own screen and this idea that ‘I was speaking the words, I was doing the actions’ …, all this start to fade away. And this sense of doership gets replaced with the sense of wonder. Just like a wonder of a child when you are reading a fantasy story or something.

So, this is the wonder that comes because you don’t know but what this play is going to bring. It’s a beautiful play because you see that You cannot be hurt in it, You cannot be harmed in it. So, that which you call stress, which used to be so strong…, as long as we believe ourselves to be individual, when we believe ourselves to be an object, then an object can obviously be harmed by other objects. Once you see that you are not, that you have no objective reality (all that is objective is just a play appearing in front of you) then all this doesn’t have a place to land. Grievances, anger, fear; all of these can come and go but they don’t have a landing point. Just like they are trying to land on space but they can’t find a hold; nothing to hold on.

So, like this, as you see Yourself beyond limitations. And we don’t even have to make any conclusion, any judgement, nothing. Don’t try to answer ‘What is happening to me?’ Don’t try to answer these questions because if you make a conclusion then again, it will become a position. Remain position-less, empty of any reference point about yourself. Because you will not become ‘The Free One’. ‘The Free Person’ can only be another position that you will take; and that can only come if you make a conclusion about yourself.

So, if you don’t allow your mind to sell you any story about what is happening to you and whether something is real or not real and whether you are free or not free, whether you have got it or didn’t get it; none of this applicable actually.

This is very good. So, this the force of the words of my Master who is using this body also as an instrument. As you are transcribing these words, you are finding that the mind’s runway, the mind’s landing strip, is being chopped away. Because nothing can represent You. Then only the Truth is your truest representation. As nothing phenomenal becomes a container for You, then You will find that You are beyond all concepts, beyond all that is perceived.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi said that ‘The discovery of True Knowledge is only the letting go of ignorance.’ So, letting go of ignorance is all that is needed. We don’t have to find anything, because to find would mean it is not You. Recognition, True recognition, is always apparent when the false is let go of. The Truth is completely apparent to You, Right Now; always (whether eyes closed or open) always apparent. But it is just that the mental certificate, the mind certificate, doesn’t seem to always be available.

Right Now, You Exist. And You know of this Existence. It is not a mental knowing, it is not even a perception. Your existence is definitely not an emotion. So, it is not mental. You are not thinking that ‘I exist’ and that’s why you exist. You don’t have to think it. You don’t have to feel ‘I exist, I exist, I exist; I am, I am, I am.’ You don’t have to reinforce it with some emotional feeling. It is not a feeling. It is not even an object of your perception; like, does it have a shape, a size or a color or any physical attribute, Your Existence?

So, this Knowingness, which is called pure Knowledge itself (Knowingness is a better term but traditionally they called it pure Knowledge) …, just Awareness is Here. You don’t have to remember it. You cannot forget it. It has nothing to do with mind, intellect, emotions, perception of anything. This Truth is completely apparent. But not in the way we have got used to thinking about Truth. And we have been trained like this, unfortunately

What is the capital of Namibia? Capital of Namibia? [Chuckles] You see, because we don’t have concept of name for it, we feel like we don’t know it. And because we don’t have concept for the Self, it can feel like ‘I don’t know it.’

That is the struggle of the spiritual seeker. That which is so obvious and apparent, we are waiting for some concept to prove it, we are waiting for some sensation to prove it, we are waiting for some awakening experience to happen; something must happen to prove to me that ‘I have discovered the Self.’ But the Self is not discoverable in that way. It is not something you will learn conceptually, it is not a feeling you will have. And even the experience will only be a by-product. The experience itself will not be the Self.

If you get excited after seeing those laughing Buddha videos and say ‘When is that experience going to happen to me? That is when I will be free’ [Chuckles] then know that that experience doesn’t mean much, actually. Many have had such experiences and then gone back to believing themselves to be people. There is no such thing as final experience. This is just an idea.

Many times, it can be that you might have very strong spiritual experience and you might feel like you’re so special. That spiritual ego is impossible (not impossible but difficult) to shake.

So, experiences do not guarantee freedom, a concept doesn’t guarantee freedom, any feeling doesn’t. Your freedom is pre-guaranteed. [Laughing] You exist! is your freedom guaranteed.

That which exists is always free. But that which you consider yourself to be has to be shaken off. That’s what Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] meant when he said ‘True knowledge is only the dropping of ignorance.’ (When you stop considering yourself to be that which you can never be.)

We can never be limited. We can never be something which has a duration, a birth and a death. You are That which is beyond all of this, and beyond all perceptions even.

The Being is the Light of this Universe. Within Your Being, such beautiful qualities are born; sound, light, gravity, objects, space, fire, water, all these elements. All of these are here because You Are. And when you have had enough of the play of this experience, all of this vanishes; and yet You Are.

What is this beautiful dance, of phenomenality and non-phenomenality, of Being and Knowing?

We take Existence for granted [Silence] and the non-existent to be our Reality. The non-existent person has got all our time, attention, beliefs so far. It never existed! But This Existence, You Are.

How do you exist right now?

How did you wake up this morning?

What woke up this existence?

The mind’s descriptions are not worth it anymore.

Where did you come from?

Where will you go?

In worldly terms, my clear response is that there is no greater price to pay than to believe a notion about yourself. Put another way:

Nothing is worth exchanging Your Reality for, Your Being for.

God is here. Satguru is here. Your Being is here. They are all words for the same Being.

Now we exchange that (in the play, we exchange that) for just some idea about ourself. It’s not a very good deal!

I have a ‘but’ for the ‘but’. When the mind says, ‘But…’ just say: ‘But, God is here.’ Or just say, ‘But Guruji is here.’ No objection can be stronger than this.

That’s why the other day I shared this very simple line which still, it stuck with me; it’s very beautiful:

‘Don’t tell your Guru how big your problem is, tell your problem how big your Guru is.’

Whenever the mind goes ‘But, but, but…but, but…’ then you say ‘But, my Guru is here.’ That’s the whole point of having a Guru. Therefore, if you have a Guru and then you have to make up the entity that has to deal with the problem, then it’s pointless.

You can either have a Guru, or you can have a ‘way’. I saw this was posted as a quote, but I wonder how many would get it without the context. If you have a ‘way’ …, (which means that you want to do something your way): ‘This is the way I’m going to get freedom.’ Or ‘This is the way my life has to go.’ Or ‘This is the way…,’ (something something)

Whatever the ‘way’ might be, then you don’t really have a Guru. At least not in your Heart; you’ve not accepted it fully.

To have a Guru means that, this life is His or Hers to run.

And you know the funny thing? That it has always been that way anyway. But the experience of it, the taste of this life, seems to have a different quality. A surrendered life seems to have much more sweetness. Even in the pain, there is more sweetness than the life which is dominated by ‘my way, my way, my way.’

This ‘mine’ anyway is a big, big fallacy and big suffering.