BOOKS BY ANANTA Welcome to Satsang with Ananta

[18.44] Ashtavakra said, “The mind of one seeking liberation depends on things for perception. The mind of the liberated one perceives no-thing and is free of desire.”

How do we make things out of our perception?

Are we perceiving one appearance?

How do I make a thing?

How do I make a separation?

How do I say ‘this’ vs. ‘this’ vs. ‘this’ vs. ‘this’?

What do we actually perceive?

Is it actually one appearance or is it the collection of these things which get together to make this one appearance?

Is it one appearance within which these things are arising? Then can we include all perception into that one appearance?

If we include all perception…, including thoughts, memories, imagination, everything is perceived in the same space; in the same Existence. Even space is experienced within your own Existence. You cannot understand; it’s not just difficult! [Chuckles]

What are we saying? Perception. We are perceiving One. Okay, let’s just say: Everything you are perceiving, you are experiencing it in your own Being, inside You. Can we settle for that one, at least? You cannot have an experience outside of YourSelf. Wherever your attention is going must be traversing within YourSelf.

You cannot actually send your attention to the road. There is no physical property which you are sending to the road. It can just seem like there is just something within me which I am moving there and I seem to get the sound from the road more clearly. There is nobody on the road who can catch your attention over there. It is not a physical object that is actually coming into this sort of physical realm. So, attention is just moving within us and everything that we perceive is a play of this attention. So, within this One appearance, then attention is bringing the objects (the seeming-objects) to us.

“The mind of the liberated one perceives no-thing and is free of desire.”

So, empty of these labels, perception is still going on; including the action and reaction of this body is also perceived. But it is Seen that it is all in this one space. It does not make separation, it does not make ‘things’. It does not make things out of your own Self. That is the most important point.

Whether you have the secondary insight of the Oneness of the phenomenal play or not, at least this much is important; that you See that this individual thing that you consider your Self to be is not present. This much we see? Or not? That individual thing that we consider our Self to be is not present.

So, whatever name that we have (the parents, or we, have given you) is the name for an individual form, (the worldly play). But is it actually pointing to something…, to somebody?

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

Some of you might not know this; one of my favorite games is ‘I Am Awareness but….’ [Chuckles] Those who have been in Satsang for a while can get stuck in this game for quite a long time. The ‘but…’ might keep changing.

‘I’m Awareness but… how do I live it?’

‘I’m Awareness but… where is the bliss?’

‘I’m Awareness but… but how do I stay as Awareness?’

‘I’m Awareness but… my family doesn’t see it.’

‘I’m Awareness but… but why don’t I have the peace that was promised?’

So, simply, what we are then saying is that ‘I am Awareness, but also I am a person’. Because what you notice after the ‘but…’ is not about Awareness. There are no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ in Awareness. It’s this switch. ‘I am Awareness but…, what happened to the identity which I always considered myself to be? Wasn’t some eternal peace promised upon the discovery that I am Awareness?’ No; maybe it seemed like that was promised, but what was being pointed to was your own eternal contentment.

As long as you refer to yourself as the truest Self that You Are, you will find that it is beyond all this play of opposites (of desire and the giving up of doing and not-doing, of enjoying and of renouncing). And yet, somehow in this play that we call the spiritual journey, we are trying to juggle the True Self of which we have had some insight…, and the previous identity which has continued to retain some allegiance.

From Awareness, there emerges this Supreme Intelligence, Consciousness, Being, Atma. And this Intelligence has put out this beautiful play; and also the power to believe Itself to be a part of this play.

Many times, when we’re in Satsang, we feel like we’ve seen through the mirage. We’ve seen through the mirage and yet we continue to be concerned about what happened to that water. The mirage which was seeming like there was an individual entity here, the sense that I existed as something with name and form…, even when You See that You are much beyond that.

You cannot, in fact, be that limited one. Yet, even after that, many times these questions seem to get our belief. ‘What is going to happen to this one (me)?’ …, that non-existent one that I’ve been calling the blue cat. Who is going to feed the blue cat which never existed? Who is going to take care of this person who never was?

So, what is your starting point in Satsang? Again, I ask you today. Is your starting perspective already from the idea that ‘I am a person’ and you want your freedom? Or already, you can see right now, that there is nobody that is bound.

And if there is nobody who is bound,

then which problem are you trying to solve?

The minute you pick up the idea that it must always be like this (‘It’s only in Satsang when I come) you pick up the individual ‘I’ again. You see? So, just this little bit. The message comes ‘You, you; but what about me, me, me?’ Just this little bit. As you are watching these messages come and go, notice Your own power as Consciousness to not buy into this story. This much noticing is enough.

Otherwise, what will happen is that you might have an insight into Awareness. You might even see a glimpse. As Consciousness, you might recognize Your own Source, which is beyond even ‘I Am’…, before ‘I Am’ …, and the mind plays a trick on you and it says ‘Yes, I am Awareness’. But even in this proclamation, the limited ‘I’ can sneak in, and you start to feel that ‘I, as an individualized name and form, have now become Awareness and now this is how I need to live.’

I see many trying to live as if they are Awareness. (It’s a joke.) You cannot even imagine this formless One. How will you live as if you are That? It is your Source. The Source is not to be found in the phenomenal play. Because if this was also phenomenal, if you could play as if you are That in this phenomenal play, then Awareness would also be part of the coming and going. Because all phenomena comes and goes.

Don’t try to prove your discovery to anyone. It’s it your own doubt about your recognition which will make you play in that way. Don’t even make ‘I am Awareness’ into a maha-mantra. Don’t make it into an affirmation. Use it just as a pointing if you have to. Because even in this affirmation, the individual, the ‘special-I’ will creep in and you will start to play out the spiritual ego. Become empty of even this idea.

The Truth does not need any idea. You do not need to live a certain way. You cannot ‘live’ an enlightened life. This doer, this try-er, who is trying to live a particular way, who is trying to proclaim something now that belongs to it, is another play of the ego itself. And as I say over and over again, there is no project for you in this. Because in this moment, you are free from all of this.

All of these are just reminders for when the offer comes from the mind, ‘Yes, now I’ve had the recognition of the Truth. Now, what should I do? Should I tell my family? Should I tell my sangha? How should I behave? How should I act?’ And then someone comes and says ‘So, what would you like for dinner today, my dear?’ [and you say] ‘I am Awareness. I do not eat.’ [Chuckles] And then later, sneak quietly to the kitchen fridge and open the door. [Chuckles]

So, don’t let these beautiful pointings become ideas by which the mind tries to retain some sense of individuality, some specialness.

[Silence]

I had a beautiful discussion with someone in the sangha where they said ‘There’s a verse in Chapter 1, Verse 11 (if I’m not mistaken) where Ashtavakra said ‘If you think you are free, you will be free. If you think you are bound, you will be bound. If you think you are free, you will be free.’

[Ch.1, V.11: “If you think you are bound, you are bound. If you think you are free, you are free.”]

And I said that this is one of the rare times where I will go beyond what Ashtavakra is saying. What I wanted to convey was that freedom does not need the idea ‘I am free’. Freedom just IS. And many times, if we pick up the idea ‘I am free’ then that can only nourish (again) the ego, the spiritual ego.

As the Sage said many times later, ‘Beyond all thoughts, beyond all ideas, freedom and bondage both do not apply.’

[Ch.2, V.18: “I am neither free nor bound. The illusion of such things has fallen into disbelief.”]

So, sometimes, to negate this very pervasive idea that ‘I am bound’ the opposite idea that is used as a medicine for that idea. Even in Satsang, you will find this. Like, we take the opposite position just to neutralize the previous position. So, the idea is to come to the neutrality, not to pick up a new position.

Many years ago, many times in Satsang we used to play ‘the opposites game’. [Chuckles] If one thought is coming, then bring your attention to the opposite thought…, and see how easy it is for you to believe either of them. Then you will see the fluidity, the invalidity, of your positions.

[Silence]

Nothing can describe You, not even bondage or freedom.

[Silence]

In the same way, there was another verse, in Chapter 18, Verse 16, where he [Ashtavakra] said that even if you See that you are the Supreme…, (the subtler interpretation is this):

Once you find that You Are This Self (untouched, unchanging) do you need to think about it?

[18.16 Ashtavakra said, “He who has seen the Supreme Brahma thinks ‘I am Brahma’ but he who has transcended all thought, what can he think? He knows no other than Self.”]

[Silence]

You don’t need to think about it. The Truth needs no crutches of thought.

[Silence]

The Sage is not thinking ‘I am Awareness, I am Awareness, I am Awareness.’

[Silence]

But are you empty of your belief system?

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reference to the Ashtavakra Gita from Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

When you exist (the waking state comes, you exist) then when you exist, you will see (within Your own existence) all this play of phenomenality is playing out. Now, so far, we have been trained to go toward certain aspect of this phenomenality and avoid other aspects. Usually we go towards those aspects which give you pleasure and avoid those aspects which give you pain.

Now, what I am saying is ‘Where did your existence come from?’ What is on this side of existence? [Turns the hand from palm to backside] Can Consciousness itself come to the recognition of its own Source?

Then you will find that, in the nature of phenomenality, there is one aspect which is designed to make you play with just this phenomenal creation. So, it will try its best (through thoughts, through attachment, through desire, through something to do) to make You-as-Consciousness focus again and again on just Your phenomenal creation.

So, every Satsang I ask you ‘What is aware of this existence?’ because That must be that which is on this side; which is beyond existence, beyond ‘I Am’.

Many don´t want this. Many don´t want this yet, and that is fine. But for those who are done with playing as if they are objects, done with this play of limitation, done with the play of considering themselves to be an object which was born and is going to die ultimately, then this kind of pointing will be music to your ears.

Where did your existence come from?

What is aware of your existence?

[Silence]

And those who were here in Bangalore, sometimes I tell them ‘Okay, you go on a fast.’ The fast is what? ‘Don´t report anything from your phenomenal side.’ Tell me something about That which is prior to phenomena.

So, that means what? Don´t report anything about your life events, the state of your body, what emotions you are experiencing, what thoughts still seem powerful; none of this. Not even about the fragrance of love, peace and joy which comes as a perfume of your own existence; not even that. Is there something beyond this? And the clue is: What witnesses all of this? All of this that is moving…, is the witness of that also phenomenal? What can you say about that One?

The mind won´t like this pointing [Chuckles] because all the mind can fathom is all these things that we spoke about (life events, state of the body, emotions or feelings, what the mind is saying and how it is so strong and what blissful experiences you might be having, even in coming to your true Presence) suppose we are not interested in any of that.

Is there nothing left to You after this?

Is that the entirety of YourSelf?

Is it possible that you might be open to my words, that the greater of You is still not included in any of this?

[Silence]

If you are open to this possibility, then this discovery is right around the corner (if not already there).

[Silence]

How many are willing to go beyond this play of phenomena and are open to the possibility of their non-phenomenal Truth?

[Silence]

And you will find that all the ‘buts’…, ‘I am awareness but…’) the ‘buts’ will all start to dissolve, to fade away, because you are no longer considering yourself just phenomenal; just an object, just an appearance.

Q: The witness-er position also seems to shift for me. Sometimes witnessing is going on from different directions. That is how I perceive.

A:  He says, ‘The wittness-er position also seems to shift.’ Now, if there is a shift, there must be something which is witnessing that. You see? If that itself is shifting, then you will not notice a shift. If you are in a plane and the plane is flying, then you don´t notice that the plane is flying unless you look outside for the perspective of the shift. You see? So, if that itself is shifting then you would not notice the shift. If you can feel something shifting, then find out what witnesses that.

If there is a sense that there is a perceiver here that seems to be shifting, then what witnesses this perceiver? Is that also shifting?

He said, ‘The witness-er position also seems to shift for me. Sometimes witnessing goes on from different directions.’ Yes. So, that which witnesses from all these directions, does That itself have a direction?

Now, what you are coming to recognize through all this insight, is that You, the primal witnessing, is beyond time and space; is beyond directions; is not contained in this universe. Sometimes I tell those who have been in Satsang with me that I am taking you on a voyage beyond this universe. So, you´ll find that this concept of directions does not apply because there is no space.

The Sage Ashtavakra, right in the beginning said, ‘You are beyond the four elements and you are not even the space in which these elements seem to play.’ Beyond time and space, You are. So, if you are getting these visuals of various directions, find out what witnesses that.

And even if it is a bit confusing (because we are used to reference point being in space and in time) …, even if it seems a bit giddy actually; you stay with this giddiness. You might not know for some time where to locate YourSelf. We have been used to locating ourselves as some sort of unfound object situating within this body; this head or this heart. Now, You are seeing that You are beyond this universe itself. Beyond manifestation is your truer ground, truest position.

You start to see that You are everywhere. Don´t go to any visuals of this. As I am saying this, I know the mind might also come and create very beautiful visuals. Let’s stay with Your truest insight.

You will find that You are not in any direction. All directions are within You. You will not find yourself as an object. You will not find yourself as something which has only one perspective. This Awareness.

.

.

Reference from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall @

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

Q:  What is coming up here is that belief seems only possible when I am not clear about my true position.

A: Yes. That´s why I say that it is in your recognition of the true position, the Truth; here you will find so much space to let go of  the position which the mind is trying to give you. And as you let go of the position which the mind is trying to give you, it seems the recognition is much more clear. This is the virtuous circle.

The mind has the opposite game plan. It wants to sell you a position about yourself. And as you seem to get stuck in a position about yourself, it seems like this recognition is just word games or mind games. When looked at from an individual perspective, Awareness can just seem like a word game or word play.

But when looked at from the position of the Self, of Awareness Itself, it is our personal play which can seem like an unimaginable game. You will start to wonder how you believed yourself to be a limited entity.

You are absolutely right that for belief there must be still identity saying, ‘Yes, this is meaningful for me.’ And you will find that that which has been nurtured with your belief in the past might still seem to come up as meaningful.

That is why both aspects of this play of Satsang (which is the recognition of the Truth as well as the letting go of the false) are completely dependent on each other. They are one play actually. Once you see that there is no blue cat then it becomes more difficult to buy the ideas about what the blue cat should do or what the blue cat wants.

[18.42] Ashtavakra said, “Some believe in existence; others believe nothing exists. Rare is the one who believes nothing and is never confused.”

[Chuckling] “Some believe in existence; others believe nothing exists.” You see, there is a deep message in this where there are many, many schools of thought about where even existence comes from or what is existence. Is there something like ‘existence’? All these ontological arguments, all of these things, are dependent on that. ‘Is there existence at all?’ Or actually, simply put ‘What is there?’ Now, some can believe there is something; can believe there is nothing, there is no existence, there is just a void. Actually, blessed are those who believe nothing and yet, are never confused.

[Silence]

The last part is important ‘are never confused’ because we also meet many who are really fickle with their beliefs, so we are not talking about those who are fickle-minded, just switching their beliefs based on whichever room they’re in. Because they are really not clear. They just want to fit in in some way or something like this. So, we are not talking about these confused ones. We are talking about that which is empty of belief, and yet he or she are never confused. Why never confused? Because they don’t need to rely on the crutches of beliefs. They have their own insight which is present; which is undeniable. All concepts might fail us but your truest insight cannot fail you.

[18.43] Ashtavakra said, “Weak intellectuals may believe the Self is One without other. But being mired in illusion they do not actually know Self, so live out their lives in misery.”

So, if it’s just an intellectual belief. We stared today’s satsang by saying that just the idea ‘I am the Self’ and to believe that is not enough. It must be your intuitive insight.

And this intuitive insight is completely possible using the clues of the inquiry, using the clues that are present in these beautiful scriptures.

[Silence]

Just the belief will not do now. Just the concept, ‘I am that’ will not do. It must translate into your Seeing; the pure Seeing. Many times, I’ve said that it is to come from our conceptual knowledge to ‘I don’t know’ which seems to be the longer journey. This fear of admitting that we don’t know; then finally coming to that point of surrendering and saying ‘I just don’t know’…, that seems to be the longer part of the journey. From ‘I don’t know’ to this clarity of inner insight is very, very easy; very simple. From ‘I know something’ to the (capital ‘K’) Knowing will be the most tortuous journey. If we are open, if we are empty, the recognition is just HERE. If the Inner Intuitive Presence has to fight constantly with the voice of limitation, with your mind, then it can seem like a journey with great struggle. Consciousness can decide to play in either way. But just as it is pointing these things out to Itself, some clarification can happen.

“Weak intellectuals may believe the Self is One without other. But being mired in illusion they do not actually know Self, so live out their lives in misery.”

That why I spoke about suffering the other day and why in Advaita Vedanta, we keep speaking about suffering. Those that have come to the Truth have let go of the idea of the individual sufferer.

[Silence]

When the rubber hits the road, then we see what our true insight is. Many have reported this. ‘Something was happening in my life, I was fighting with my partner and all these ideas about I am Awareness, I am Consciousness, unlimited Being…, all this went out of the window first thing.’

So, as long as this isn’t digested as this simple Knowing, as a simple Knowingness, if it is only conceptual, then the idea of an individual sufferer can continue. In fact, it might even become worse because the conflict might even seem deeper. If there are two beliefs in you, both having equal position (that ‘I am the Self, I am Awareness, I am untouched by anything in the world’ AND ‘I am person, completely involved with the world and doing, which has desires and is the doer and true separation actually took place’) then it can seem like there is even more struggle.

If there is enough conflict, these two beliefs will seem to crush us more and more. Sometimes it’s better, if you have to have a concept, then pick up the simpler worldly concept. Unless you are using these pointers, these reminders, for your own checking, your own inquiry, your own insight, then just please leave them. Its better.
~ ~ ~
.
.
Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall
http://www.holybooks.com/…/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.39] Ashtavakra said, “The fool thinks peace comes by controlling the mind. He will never attain it. The wise one knows Truth, and is stillness itself.”

Don’t try to control the mind. Don’t try to change the quality of the mind also. Let the mind come and go. If you are the space in this room, are you concerned about the kind of visitors you are getting? If you are the space in this room; the space has no opinion on the quality of its visitors. You are that space which is beyond this space. You are untouched by any of this play of the mind. Just let it come and go.

Trying to change the mind is another trick of the mind. It might have its place in some other spiritual path, but on this ‘direct path’ we find that the simplest approach is just to let it come and just let it go. Don’t try to control it.

If I ask you ‘Can you predict what your next thought is going to be?’ some have even said ‘Yes’. When I ask this question ‘Can you create your next thought? Or ‘Can you predict what your next thought will be?’… we have been conditioned to believe that it is ‘Yes’. But what do you do? You wait for the thought to come and then you report on it. Isn’t it?

So, your thoughts are just coming and going. And if you are attached to the idea that ‘My thoughts have to become pure, my thoughts have to become something, I have to control my mind’ then when it comes ‘Hello, I am still here (impure thought, impure thought)’ then what will you believe about yourself? That you are still not free, that you are still caught up in this cycle of birth and death. So, whatever the thoughts might be, let them come and go.

“The fool thinks peace comes by controlling the mind. He will never attain it.”

Because [we are] still attached to outcome, still attached to wanting this play to be a certain way. When we leave this play to be exactly as it is (including the play of the body/mind) you find that your true position is That which is aware of all of this, yet is unconcerned by it.

“The wise one knows Truth, and is stillness itself.” Then the thoughts don’t disturb you.

[18.40] Ashtavakra said, “For he who thinks knowledge is things and ideas, how can there be Self-knowledge? The wise do not see separate things, only the timeless Self.”

What does he mean ‘things and ideas’? If you look around you will see how the mind comes in and tries to label everything (computer, person, sofa, cushion). It makes things out of this one appearance (like ‘this is a thing, this is a thing, this is a thing’). So much separation. But actually, your experience is of One appearance; you are only experiencing this One appearance.

The idea of separation comes from the labels, comes from our interpretation. This is what I call ‘the bad photocopy’ of our experience which the mind offers up.

[The Sage says]: “things” … So, you think that you know something in the external world as an objective knowing. Then [the Sage says]: “ideas” … It can feel like we know something on the basis of what idea we have. ‘I know what Freedom is because I have read ‘Ten Concepts About Freedom’. We can feel like having the most or the best sounding concepts will give us some true knowledge. So, everybody is looking for the best concept. What is the greatest concept? It has become very popular to say now that ‘I am Awareness’ (which can be a favorite concept) but now some are going ‘even beyond’ …, ‘Even Awareness, I am beyond.’ It’s just talking, just noise, just mental conceptual illusions of some sort of knowledge.

As I said the other day, Awareness is confirming itself, even in its denial. It is confirming itself even in its denial. When we say ‘Yes, there is no Awareness’ what we are actually meaning is that ‘I [Awareness] am aware that there is no awareness’.

So, if we feel like we know something, it is a concept that we have. And you can’t really blame anyone for that because that is how we have been conditioned. We can feel like we were conditioned first with 2+2=4. That was a lower concept. Then we were conditioned with a higher concept, multiplication, 2 x 2=4. We learned division. All these higher and higher concepts. In every field of learning you go from lower to higher concepts. If you are studying about medicine, first you learn about the body and all the organs in the body, then you zero in the deeper concept or higher concept ‘How does the kidney function, how does the stomach function, how does the heart function?’ Then you zero in even further, go to a higher concept…, in all of these things.

So, we have been taught that you must go to the higher and higher concept of things. But here it is the opposite. You drop all your ideas about everything, especially yourself.

“For he who thinks knowledge is things and ideas, how can there be Self-knowledge?”

Is there is a greater Knowingness itself than this perceptual or conceptual knowing?

What is Aware of your Existence?

What Knows you are present?

“The wise do not see separate things; only the timeless Self.”

[18.41] Ashtavakra said, “The fool tries to control the mind with the mind. What folly! The wise one delights in Self alone. There is no mind to master.”

What is the mind? We also use the word ‘mind’ very often. Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharishi] said the mind is a bundle of thoughts. Simplest. There are many definitions but a very, very specific way to look at the mind is this: Just a bundle of thoughts. Therefore, it is not a constant. When there is a thought, we say there is mind; when we are empty of thoughts, the Zen Buddhists would call it no-mind. Now, for the Self, either mind or no-mind; it makes no difference.

“The wise one delights in Self alone. There is no mind to master.”

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.34] Ashtavakra said, “The ignorant man finds no peace either by effort or non-effort. The wise man by Truth alone is stilled.”

“The ignorant man finds no peace…” Okay, again I am saying that this ‘man’ is not a gender thing. “The ignorant man finds no peace either by effort or non-effort.” It is all about the position, all about what we consider ourselves to be. As long as we consider ourselves to be the person then when the person is making lots of effort, lots of effort, reading lots of books and scriptures, watching hundreds of satsangs; or this one is considering himself as a person and is lying in bed all day…, it is the consideration which is important, not what the outward appearance is.

So, “The ignorant man finds no peace either by effort or non-effort. The wise man by Truth alone is stilled.” What is the Truth? I am That. I am the Self. Not the concept of the truth, not the words in themselves, but the insight of this Truth. Then whether outwardly the sleeping-sleeping is happening or Satsang-Satsang is happening, it doesn´t make any difference.

That´s why I said that when I started speaking again, sharing in broadcast again, I said, ‘What do you consider your starting point to be? Have you come here as people trying to get to freedom? Why don´t we investigate right in the beginning whether it is true, that there is a person sitting there who wants this freedom?’ And if you were open, at least to the possibility that there is no person, there is something beyond person, then all of these Satsangs would have been very enjoyable for you.

Like we were saying yesterday, the ignorant one actually thinks that they know. The ignorant one thinks that they know; the wise ones know that they don´t know. That openness is maturity, is wisdom; that openness. That´s why the Sage said yesterday ‘The wise one knows that he knows nothing’. And there is a big, big conditioning in the world which is against this kind of openness. They say ‘You must know! But you must know! What are you doing? You must know where your life is going!’ Nobody knows that, and yet this concept is very popular. ‘You must know what you are doing! What is your plan for yourself? Where are you going?’ And those who have this kind of conceptual knowledge, they are considered in the world as wise. The Sage has put it upside down. And those who have conclusions about themselves, who seem to know mentally a lot, those ones just will get bewildered by what the Sage is saying. But if you don´t know who you are, you don´t know where your life is going, then you are open to this because that is when you will look.

[18.35] “Though they are by nature Self alone, pure intelligence, love and perfection; though they transcend the universe and are clearness itself, men of the world will not see this through meditation and practices.”

“Though they are by nature Self alone.” So, there is no real difference between the appearance of a Sage and a worldly man or woman. Everything is the Self alone. Yet, in the outer play, it can seem like they are playing differently.

“Though they are by nature Self alone, pure intelligence, love and perfection; though they transcend the universe and are clearness itself …” So, when I say ‘I am taking you on a voyage on every Satsang beyond the universe’ …, it doesn´t mean that you have to move. You are already beyond the universe. The voyage is just the recognition of this. You are beyond time and space.

This is the recognition that you are coming to in Satsang.

“… though they transcend the universe and are clearness itself …” In Reality, Awareness has no confusion, no doubt, about anything.

“…men of the world will not see this through meditation and practices.” As long as we continue to give meaning to this world and our appearance in it as something individualistic (try as you might, whatever efforts you might take) unless you drop this idea ‘that ‘I am something’ then to come to this recognition will seem more and more like a struggle.

Openness is the only criteria for the recognition.

Are you open to the possibility that you are not an object?

Are you open to the possibility that you are beyond time and space?

Is it possible that you are not a thing?

If you feel it is possible (if you feel that it is possible that you are not something that was born and will die; if you feel that you are something beyond this body) then that much openness we can work with. But even if your spirituality, your meditation and practices, you want for this identity, this body/mind, then try as we might, it can seem like that shift in perspective has become more and more difficult because everything you do will reinforce that. If you are taking Satsang also personally, you are just reinforcing the identity.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.36] Ashtavakra said, “The ignorant man will never be liberated by his repetitious practices. Blessed is he who by simple understanding enters timeless freedom.”

So, the Sage must have seen some conditioning which is attached to practices, the aspect of the identity which must still be alive must be this, for a practitioner, meditator identity. That is why He is coming so strongly on that and saying ‘No’.  I heard Guruji [Sri Mooji] recently talking and he said ‘Maybe it was better if I told you some spiritual pushups to do. At least you will feel like you are developing more muscles (or something like that)’. Because it is so direct and so effortless, beyond the concept of doing or not-doing.

If the inquiry is done with openness, how long does the doing of the inquiry last? Not even a moment. The doing doesn’t last even a moment. You say ‘I am going to do the inquiry (say)Who am I?’ [Pauses and looks within] And quickly it is seen that I remain as the witness of everything that is moving; be it thoughts, be it the body, be it anything else that is appearing and disappearing, pain and pleasure, (etc.). The doer goes so fast. Quickly it is seen that there was nobody doing the inquiry, although in the outward play of the world it might have seemed like it.

“Blessed is he who by simple understanding enters timeless freedom.” If you read Bhagavan’s *book [Sri Ramana Maharshi] ‘Be as you Are’ it is a unique book. Like I say, you don’t need to read this entire book. You read chapter by chapter and if you feel like it is clear to you in that chapter, that is where you stop. The first chapter is something like: ‘You are the Self’. You are the Self and some description about how you are the Self, no inquiry, nothing…, and it just becomes clear ‘I am the Self’. It needs some openness, that innocence of a child, that you are not this body/mind, body/mind is just an appearance within You; that You are not this world, the world is just an appearance within You: You are not even Your Presence, Presence also ultimately is an appearance within You. You are the one solitary witness of all there is. And if it is accepted like a small child listening to the mother’s words, nothing is needed; no inquiry, nothing. Because it can never be that these words are Truly heard within You and that the insight is far away. The insight is there all the time to see this.

What witnesses this world?

What witnesses this universe?

I do.

I is what? [Silence]

It is this Awareness, this Self

Anyway, the book goes on like this; so, then next chapter is ‘Self-inquiry’ and next chapter is ‘Meditation’ and the next chapter is ‘Mantra’. Like that. (I don’t know how it ends, I should find out.) [Smiles]

[18.37] Ashtavakra said, “Because he desires to know God, the ignorant man can never become That. The wise man is God because he is free of desire and knows nothing.”

“He desires to know God. The ignorant man can never become that.” (And this is all the small ‘k’.) ‘I want to know God; can I see Him?’ We want to know God as a visual, or a concept of God, or a feeling of God. Then you will not find a phenomenal God [Silence] because to Know God (with a capital ‘K’) you must come to the recognition that: You Are That.

The great Sage (Rumi, most likely) said that: I went looking for God and I found myself. I went looking for myself and I found God.

“Because he desires to know God, the ignorant man can never become That. The wise man is God because he is free of desire and knows nothing.”

[18.38] Ashtavakra said, “Unable to stand steady and eager for salvation, the ignorant perpetuate the illusion of world. Seeing the world as the source of all misery, the wise cut it off at the root.”

You don’t have to do all this, don’t try to cut off the world from its root; just see what is your true position: Are you an object within this world? Then the world will take care of itself. The misery-causing potential of the world will vanish once you see what You Truly Are.

When the Sage is talking about the world, cutting it off from the root, he is saying that ‘The relationship that I have, the ‘me’ has, with this world, that is completely changed…, and goes from the idea that ‘I am something contained in this world’ to seeing that the world is just an aspect of My Being; I am the greater.’

So, the reality of this separation, the reality of a separate world, is cut off at the root. You see that it was not true. All is one, all is within Me. It is your experience even now (although it might not be your interpretation).

Don’t feel like you have to come to some higher level of Seeing or something like that. Don’t feel like you will have some supernatural vision where the world becomes a tiny thing. It doesn’t have to be that; those can come. But right now, all of this…, the universe which you are calling ‘outside of you’ is only an experience within You. It is how it is now.

So, this way we chop of the root of the identity, the false separation, the idea that ‘I am something. Then the world cannot cause any misery.

[Long meditative silence]

What was the theme for today? You cannot ‘do’ this, and you cannot ‘not-do’ this also. You cannot take a position with respect to anything at all.

See, what you are without taking a step?

What is your most natural, what is your most original position?

What does not come and go?

What is the witness of all things?

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

.

[18.31] Ashtavakra said, “The liberated one does not exert effort to meditate or act. Action and meditation just happen.”

So, action without the actor, meditation without the meditator. That is how it naturally has been always. It is only a conclusion that you keep thinking that there is some individual one here, (sitting here, put your name over there, this one sitting here) but there is no such one. We have just labelled a set of sensations, a set of appearances and called it this name, given it this form. In Reality, all this appearance is one appearance. “Action and meditation just happen”.

[18.32] Ashtavakra said, “Hearing ultimate Truth, the dull-witted man is bewildered. The wise man hearing Truth retreats within and appears dull-witted.”

[Laughs] The Sage has probably realized that by the time you come to this point in Ashtavakra Gita, you also need some humor.

“Hearing ultimate Truth, the dull-witted man is bewildered. The wise man hearing truth retreats within and appears dull-witted.” Many have reported like this. I also said that after I met Guruji [Sri Mooji] and I came back, I just felt like sitting. For a few months, not much outward activity seemed to move. Something was just remaining with this inner insight. Then, my family started to consider me dull-witted. ‘What’s wrong with you? When you went, you went with so much enthusiasm. You just did such a big project at work and then you went over there for a break. Where is your enthusiasm? [Chuckles] Are you depressed?’ So, it can appear outwardly that something is wrong with you because are no longer swinging to the beat of the world, dancing to the drums of the so-called regular life. It can be that way also. But it can be, many times, like this that when you come to this inner Darshan of your True Self something takes a bit of time before it can come back; before the life energy can be back to, come back to, this outer play with enthusiasm.

In fact, it might not be wrong to say that in those one or two years, I might not have spoken as much about spirituality as I do share now every day in Satsang. The entirety of that time, I must not have spoken as much about the Truth, in that way, as today we are sharing this.

So, that emptying out can seem like to the world ‘What is wrong with you? See that is why you shouldn’t go to satsang, you are too young. [Laughs] Wait until you retire.’ In India, it is a very popular thing to say ‘You are too young’. Even parents say this. ‘It is our age to go. Why are you going?’ Because it can feel like you lose your ambition. It can feel like you have no goals. It can feel like ‘Without this, how will you survive? The world runs on ambition’. That is the idea, isn’t it? Then you come to see the world runs on God. God is running Himself.

All these individualistic ideas fall away and yet nobody can predict how the play will happen. It might be that one day you wake up with so much energy. Life energy is full, pulsating through your entire system, so it’s like: [Gestures more and more] action. So, we cannot predict. Why I am saying that is that, many times, you can have this idea ‘Okay, Ananta said it like this, Guruji also said that he sat for many months in his sister’s house not doing anything, so that must be the way to go’. There is no such template. But one thing that will become common is that this body will start to be looked at more and more as an instrument. You will not consider it so much to be a doer. Or you will not consider it definitely to be You. But it will be seen that it is part of the appearance which is now surrendered to the Divine Presence.

“Hearing ultimate Truth, the dull-witted man is bewildered.” What does this mean? This means that if you try to approach all of what Ashtavakra has said mentally, it is just crazy business: [expressing bewilderment] ‘What?! I thought this was going to improve my life. He is not telling me one thing how to improve my life!’ So, if we approach it in a mental way, what is the maha mantra of the mind? ‘What’s in it for me?’ Now, in the eighteen chapters and thirty-three verses, we have not found one thing for me. And if you think that you have found something for me, then that will get squeezed out of you. Better throw it away while there is time. There is nothing here ‘personally’.

Many times, it can happen that (I wouldn’t go as far as to call them dull-witted, it is just that they are not used to this kind of sharing and they’ve only known this idea of ‘me’ and not looked beyond this ‘me’) to them, the Ashtavakra Gita, Avadhut Gita, Ribhu Gita…, in India, actually (to them) they are not shared. These scriptures are kept in secret.

[18.33] Ashtavakra said, “The ignorant practice meditation and no-thought. The wise, like men in deep sleep, do nothing.”

It only takes a certain set of ears to hear this. When you are open to the possibility of your true existence being beyond this body/mind, then these words will not seem too ‘out there’. If you are very strongly attached to your object-like identity, then it will just sound like gibberish.

“The ignorant practice meditation and no-thought.” What again I am re-emphasizing (and I have nothing against meditation or any practice) is that it is the meditator-identity which can be held onto for a long time. It can be an aspect of the seeker identity itself which plays as the meditator. The practitioner is the trouble. Any limited notion of yourself is the trouble, never the action in itself. What is moving in this world, is moving in this world. It is the conclusion, the belief in your ego, which is the cause of identity, the cause of suffering.

“The wise, like men in deep sleep, do nothing.” So, at one level, it is a very straight-forward point, but at a deeper level there is something very beautiful in this.

As the state changed from sleep to waking, what happened to Awareness? Nothing. That is the greater of Your Reality. Then the allowing happens on its own. Once we see this, then you don’t pick up the ‘allower’ position. Then you come to the seeing that sleep and dream and waking and whatever other states might be, they come and go; I remain untouched. Then in the play of your dynamism, then in the play of your Consciousness, also it seems to play with a lot more ease. The resistance falls away. Like I told you, nothing can happen in this waking state that will ever make the tiniest scratch on Awareness; which means that you cannot be hurt, there is nothing to defend. It is only identity which can be attacked. Only the defenses that you put up can be attacked. And the identity is nothing but a defense against ‘What Is’. You are trying to fight Your unlimited nature. You are trying to fight Your God presence. You have taken Your ‘I Am’ and said that ‘that is a person; me’.  [Chuckles]. Who has done that? ‘I Am’ Itself.

‘I Am’ is playing as ‘I am something’. Now, I Am is reminding Itself that ‘I am not something. I just Am’. That´s why I said the other day that basically what is this mis-identity? It is just taking this Presence and considering it something personal. What is the ego? It is just that, isn´t it? We know we exist but we just considered it to be something limited or something personal. That is called the ego. And then, what are we unraveling here in satsang every day; what are we checking? You are finding that there is nothing personal in this ‘I Am’ that ‘I can find no boundary to it. All the boundaries that I considered were my boundaries are just found as appearances within My Being’.

This insight drops the idea that ‘I am something’. ‘I am something’ means? I am playing as a limited entity. I am operating with egoic belief. So, often I´ve said that when the Sages have said ‘Be quiet, keep quiet’ it is not so much the outer silence that they have been concerned about (although the outer silence also is a beautiful tool) but it is the absence of egoic belief. ‘Be quiet’ only means the same thing as ‘Don´t take a step. Don´t move. Don´t go to your mind for an answer. No conclusion.’

Just look, no effort. The looking is happening on its own. The sensations are being experienced. Sounds are being heard. Visuals are being seen. All of these are experiences within You, within Your existence. If you did not exist, could you have this experience? It´s not possible. This movement of attention is all happening within Your Being, within YourSelf.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

.

[18.28] Ashtavakra said, “Beyond stillness, beyond distraction, the great soul thinks nothing of liberation or bondage. Having seen the universe is void, even though it seems to exist, he is God.”

Where is the dream you have dreamed last night? It seemed to exist. Where does this world go when you go to dreamless sleep? Doesn’t it seem to exist right now? Don’t be concerned about these states which are coming and going. Let them come and go. Don’t try to control life. Let it come and go.

The Sage said yesterday, ‘You are beyond existence and non-existence.’ These are not trivial words. Because Existence, Consciousness, I Am, Beingness, is the Light of this manifest universe and yet the Sage is saying, ‘You are beyond this. All these four states are contained within You; You are not contained within any of them. You go beyond them; they do not go beyond you.’ Beyond even stillness or distraction. Even these operate in the play, but You witness.

The Great Soul thinks nothing of liberation or bondage, so don’t think of yourself as bound and don’t think of yourself as free. Freedom does not need a thought. Bondage needs a thought. To consider yourself limited needs a thought. To be everything is natural. Everything (and ultimately the no-thing which witness everything) needs no thought. You are aware of your existence, thoughtlessly.

Give no thought for your bondage, and you will just see that naturally: Freedom is here. You don’t have to think about freedom, especially thoughts which are related to an enlightened person or a free person. That you will never be; there is no such thing. Enlightenment and Freedom will happen, but they will not happen to you personally. Nothing can happen to the no-existent one.

[18.29] Ashtavakra said, “He who believes he is a person is constantly acting, even when the body is at rest. The Sage knows he is not a person, and therefore does nothing, even when the body is in motion.”

That is exactly what we were saying earlier, that if I tell you ‘Drop all effort’ and you say “Okay, how do I drop all effort? I will go lie down’. That lying down is also ‘a doing’ that you are doing; you are not dropping the doership. But for a Sage, all this movement can continue to happen and yet he is not considering himself a limited doer of them.

That is why I encourage all of you, when you speak your next words, see who is speaking them. When you write the next thing, or when you take the next step, find out who is taking them. Is there a person sitting there somewhere doing it? Only Presence is; only Consciousness is. In whose Light is all of this movement happening in? … (apparent movement.)

So, don’t get the idea that the Sage has come to some special kind of stage. It is a very simple Seeing. Everything phenomenal is just appearing and disappearing. You witness this appearance and disappearance and yet You are not phenomenal.

“He who believes he is a person is constantly acting”. What did he say yesterday or the day before? He said, ‘Everybody in the world is suffering because of their constant effort.’ This is what he meant. We are constantly considering ourselves to be the doer. We are doing even our spirituality; we are doing meditation, we are doing sadhana, we are doing our satsang. Find out the one who does.

[18.30] Ashtavakra said,  “The mind of the liberated one is neither troubled nor pleased. It is action-less, motion-less, desireless and free of doubt.”

What does this mean, ‘To make yourself troubled’? If I said ‘In the next ten seconds you have to find a way to trouble yourself’ …, can you do it without going to a thought? What is your state before that? It was not in the duality of this play of having desire and the relief of fulfilling a desire. It has come back from this play and Seen that ‘No matter what comes and goes, the Reality of what I am remains untouched’ because no phenomena can make a dent on the non-phenomenal. Nothing is going to happen in this world that is going to make a scratch on Awareness. Therefore, there is nothing to fear.

~ ~ ~

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

Chapter 18: Peace.

[18.27] Ashtavakra said, “Having had enough of the endless workings of the mind, the wise one comes to rest. He neither thinks, nor knows, nor hears, nor sees.”

Have we had enough of the endless workings of the mind? Or are we still feeling like, ‘There is the eternal secret that the mind is hiding from me so far but one day it will tell me. One day it will figure out how to run this life. One day it will tell me the truth about who I am.’  Are you done with this expectation? Because the mind, the way it functions, the energy-construct called thoughts, had no idea about what you are. The mind cannot fathom it. That´s why there comes a point where the Sage said, ‘Done with the endless workings of this mind.’ It comes to peace, comes to rest.  This is the ‘Aah’. This is the ‘Aah’ …, the letting go of all positions. You understand what I mean when I say ‘All positions’?

So, it can happen that if I say ‘You must not lie’ then the mind picks up the idea that ‘I must always tell the truth’. But I didn´t say that, I said ‘You must not lie’. As I was saying yesterday, the mind never translates it into ‘I must be quiet’. It will always sit at the opposite position. If I say ‘You are not the doer’ then the mind will say ‘Okay, I am the non-doer’. You see? Opposite positions always. We say ‘Drop all effort’ then you take on the position of ‘Dropping all effort’ or ‘I will just sit in a yoga pose all day’ but that is also effort. Or ‘I will just lay in bed all day’ but even that is a doing. You see? So, the mind only deals in opposites. Neutrality it cannot understand. Why do I keep emphasizing this? Because no matter what position you take, it only comes from a limited idea of yourself. You must be considering yourself to be limited in some way to be able to take a position.

What position does no-thing have?

[Silence]

If you are not a thing, then how you can have a position?

If YourSelf (the truest, most absolute Self) is empty of attributes and qualities, what stance you can take?

So, whatever stance we are taking, whatever position we are taking, it is just putting on a mask.

[Silence]

The mind is constantly selling you a position about what you are and who you are. But in this moment, you become empty of all positions. Naturally it happens. [Silence] Just recognize this, just notice this. It will bring a great lightness into this play called the spiritual journey also.

If you constantly pick up the perspective that ‘I am so full of conditions and I am so full of tendencies and I am so bound; I am not free’ then it can seem like your spiritual journey becomes this heavy bondage, like a dark prison, waiting for the release to come. But that is not your natural position even now. You have to put on that mask, you see. [Silence]

“Having had enough of the endless workings of the mind, the wise one comes to rest. He neither thinks, nor knows, nor hears, nor sees.” We can say this (so that you don´t misunderstand it) we can say this in this way: He doesn´t consider himself to be the thinker or the knower or the hearer or the see-er.

As I was joking yesterday ‘You are just the Being, not the Be-er’. (Okay, the Germans should not get upset with me. I have nothing against beer; but not in satsang.) [Chuckles]

Our position of even this…, when I tell you, ‘Just be’. You take on the position ‘Okay, now I am just going to be’.  That is also a position, a facade, a mask that got taken on. That is why I constantly say that for the mind I am saying is impossible. Because the mind might even be jumping up and down right now saying ‘So, then what I am supposed to do?’ [Chuckles] Neither this nor that. The mind only knows this or that, and I say, ‘Neither this nor that’.

[Silence]

And the good news is that you start empty like this every moment. Then what happens? The offer comes from the mind: ‘Here take this! Take this! This is going to bring you something very useful. It´s going to make your life better. It´s going to make you happy.’ [Chuckles] And then we buy that story. Consciousness plays this game and buys this story from its own creation. And then it poses as if it is the doer, it is the desire-er, it is the suffer-er; all these ‘-ers’. [Smiles]

How to be rid of these positions? Just to allow your mind to come and go. Just to let your thoughts just come and go. That´s why Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi said, ‘If there is still something where you feel like you have a choice, then make the choice not to go along with your thought-stream.’ This is what it meant: Allow your thoughts to come and go. You don´t go with them. Which means, you don´t buy the story that they are selling. Because they are only selling the story of your limitation. Come to the end of your story now. Nothing has to happen. No explosion, no spiritual fireworks, no halo, nothing. [Silence]

This is the meaning of the Sage coming to a rest …, after being done with the endless workings of the mind. [Silence] Everything will take care of itself, as it has always been doing. Nobody has been individually running your life. It´s a big myth; it’s a fallacy.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

Let’s do this small experiment. Bring to your attention something that you feel you are very attached to, or can’t do without in life. If that something was taken away, then you might feel like you won’t be able to survive or some great suffering might come and last for a long, long time. The strongest attachment you can think of, bring that into your attention.

[Silence]

Now find the one who is concerned about that. Don’t worry about what the attachment is. That is more like psychotherapy or something. If we were to dwell on what the nature of the attachment is and whether it is valid or invalid, that is a different approach.

Find the one who is concerned about it.

What does that one look like?

So, if someone says, ‘I’m really concerned about not having money in my life’ …, find this one who is this one who is concerned. At what level are they?

Is it the body that is so concerned about the money? Does the body in itself (the sensations that we call body) does it have any sense of relationship with money; with job, with promotion with relationships? [Silence] Even with freedom? Is freedom a part of the biological functioning? Does the body become thirsty; like if the body is not given water we start experiencing the sensations called thirst? Freedom is not like that, even though we use the term, ‘thirst for freedom’. It is not like that. It is something else that we consider ourselves to be that is thirsting for all of this.

Can we identify this one?

[Silence]

Who is this one?

[Silence]

And if you can’t even find this one, how can what it is attached to have so much value?

How can the attachments of this invisible man have so much value?

[Silence]

So, what’s going on?

What’s going on?

[Silence]

So, even this play must be part of some divine magic by the unlimited One. You have the power to consider yourself to be something with limitations, with boundaries. [Silence]

So is it possible for you, for a few minutes, to identify your boundaries?

What do you really consider to be me?

Be honest with at least your own inquiry. You don’t have to expose it to the rest of the sangha. Find out for yourself: What is it that I truly still consider to be me? With no sense of judgement or guilt, bring these ideas into your own light.

[Silence]

Who is this me?

[Silence]

What is its size, shape, color?

When was it born?

Where did you come from?

[Silence]

Where are you going?

[Silence]

You must already know that you are something beyond this body because the answers for this body are very simple. Where did the body come from? It came from the mother’s womb. Where is it going? To the cremation grounds ultimately. Then there would not be so much confusion. Already there is knowing that there is something that I am which is beyond this body. [Silence]

Who is that one?

[Silence]

And if you don’t have an intuitive insight about it yet, allow yourself to remain in the ‘I don’t know’. Don’t make a conclusion which is just imaginary and mental. Don’t be in a rush also to use big words like Consciousness and Awareness. Consciousness and Awareness which are just words from the mind are completely useless. ‘I don’t know’ is much more useful. [Silence]

This is how you will go from being a knower of things into the Knowingness itself.

[Silence]

You will go from considering yourself to be an object to being this Awareness itself.

[Silence]

Now any idea you have about being this ‘me’, find out where it came from.

When was this idea born and what was where you before that?

And you will find that all these ideas were picked up at one point or another.

Anything you can say about yourself is not original to you.

[Silence]

Your limited identity has no basis in Reality.

[Silence]

This ‘me’ is not real.

This ‘me’ is not the truth.

It is just an idea.

We already saw that every idea can have the opposite. Therefore, no idea can contain the Reality which is all-encompassing, which contains all opposites. You cannot define yourself using this mind.

You cannot find yourself through concepts.

I’m here to remind you of this now.

The mind is just selling you identity. Like Ashtavakra said, “Having had enough of the endless workings of the mind, the wise one comes to rest. He neither thinks, nor knows, nor hears, nor sees.” [18.27]

You know very well by now that the appearance of thinking can happen, the appearance of thought can still come; they are just ‘not served tea’. They are just not given belief. “He neither thinks nor knows, neither hears, nor sees.” Basically, the idea of doership has fallen away.

Yesterday we did this exercise of not taking one step; not taking one step because the Sage has said the Self is at no distance from You. In fact, You Are It.

If You Are It and the Self is no distance from You, you don’t need to move one step.

Referring to your thoughts is one step; no need for that.

Referring to your senses is one step; no need for that.

Referring to any sensations is a step;

Pain and pleasure is a step.

What is it that you are naturally?

Are you contained in these in these phenomenal appearances?

Or are you something which witnesses that?

What is your greater position?

[Silence]

All that is appearing is disappearing. Can you be an appearance?

[Silence]

If you are an appearance, who are you appearing to?

[Silence]

That must the Eternal one, that must be the unborn, unchanging.

Who is that?

Is it not You?

At no distance, what is there?

[Silence]

That is why the Sage has said ‘Don’t go to your senses’. Not because there is an aversion to the phenomenal appearance; only because very quickly we latch on to the idea that ‘I am something phenomenal’.

But wait, before that, what witnesses this phenomenal world?

[Silence]

Don’t move one step because it is at no distance from You.

What are you most naturally now?

[Silence]

What is here which is unchanging?

[Silence]

And many of you will have this recognition, many of you are having this recognition, but quickly you will take on the next project, ‘Okay, so I am the Self which is non-phenomenal. How should I live this?’ You don’t. Living goes on. [Silence] If it has to.

What did the Sage say yesterday? “Life continues without him.” [Chuckles] You don’t have to take on the project of trying to live the enlightened life. That is still the egoic idea we have about it. The recognition is very simple very clean, in fact in can be very sober. The exciting by- products may come or not; it’s okay. The recognition that you are this non-phenomenal witnessing is very straight forward.

But if, as you are coming into this recognition, you buy into this story from the mind again, of ‘Yes, now how do I live life like this?’ …, again, you’ve picked up this limited idea of yourself.

‘How do I live life like this?’ you cannot.

Life is living itself.

Life is in service to the Self.

It is an aspect of You; it is not the entirety of You.

You are the greater.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reference to the Ashtavakra Gita, is from translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

Some of you might say ‘Why is it said, especially in Advaita Vedanta, that sufferings stops? Is suffering also not the will of Consciousness?’ That´s a very valid question.

Why do we focus on this end of suffering or almost 100% end of suffering? Why is it an important notion in Vedanta? It is because in the design of this play, unless there is this egoic identity, unless there is belief in this limited self, the play of this aspect called suffering cannot happen. Because suffering is not a pure energetic appearance. Isn´t it?

We can say anger can be looked at as a pure energetic appearance. Something happens, something feels attacked, anger comes. You see?

Now, how to make anger into resentment? Can you do it without mixing egoic belief with that? How to make it (not just anger) into resentment? How will you make an action that happened…, (suppose you shouted at your children, some shouting happened at your children) …, how will you make that movement into guilt? Can you do it without mixing egoic identity, mixing the false into it? How will you make something which was said, which helped another one in a great way …, (suppose you were just with someone and something was said like ‘Mom, thank you that helped me so much!’) …, how do you convert that movement of appearances into pride? You cannot do it without mixing the ‘I-concept’ into it.

So, suffering is just a play of all of these ‘B-grade’ emotions (are what I call them) which means that you take this pure emotion (which might be sensational, which might be coming) and mix it up with some thoughts about yourself and then it becomes like…, anger becomes resentment, appearances become guilt or pride.

So, suffering is just a generic name for all of these ‘B-grade’ emotions. It´s a generic name. In the experiencing of any of these (if you seem to experience any of these) you say that this is [like that].

Now, as more and more we´re becoming empty of egoic belief, as we´re coming to the pure insight about what you really are, then to pick up this individualized I-thought becomes more and more of trouble. And you already saw that guilt, pride, resentment, regret, remorse, any of these qualities of suffering that we spoke about, are not possible unless you mix up some sensation with the individual I-thought.

That is why it is seen that those who have come to this discovery (and more and more, are letting go of the false conditions about themselves) they come to the end of their suffering. Just like saying they come to the end of guilt or pride.

Of course, everything always was the play of Consciousness, but we are now talking about the mechanics and the design of Consciousness Itself, in its apparent way. And it seems to work in this way, that unless you pick up the notion of a limited ‘I’ you cannot play with experience such as guilt and pride, resentment and guilt. That is why it is said in Vedanta, over and over again, that you come to your end of suffering only in your true recognition of who You Are.

Now, like every notion there is a downside to this notion also. The downside of this notion also is the ‘suffering comes to an end’ is handed over to the seeker-identity, the rampant seeker-identity called the ‘checker-guy’. At least, I call it the ‘checker-guy’. Which it then uses that itself, at the mildest appearance of any sensation and says ‘See you are still suffering’. And thereby enhancing egoic belief and therefore enhancing suffering itself; in the play. So, when it is handed over to the ego itself that ‘Suffering must come to an end’ then it can become a terrible notion.

Therefore, this statement, this ‘end of suffering’ must be just an innocent statement of your finding about the play of this life. It must not become a column in your report-card. Because you will say…, you will use concepts like ‘I should no longer feel guilt’ to make yourself feel guilty.

So, one is a report of how the design of Consciousness as a functioning of this play works and the second is the notions of ‘trying to get there’ or ‘trying to come to it forcefully’ which itself seem to amplify the trouble. Are you hearing what I am saying? Because it´s a bit subtle.

If your hands are truly open, then this notion of suffering will seem more and more alien. If they are closed, if there is resistance, if there is just conceptual understanding, then it might seem like suffering still perpetuates. And when suffering still seems to perpetuate, don´t then feed yourself also at that time the notion that suffering must end. Just remain as empty of notions as possible.

It is important to present both sides of this tool, because there are many who present just one side and that might cause confusion on that side. And I know that especially those who have been in Satsang long enough now are able to see this from both perspectives.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.20] Ashtavakra said, “The wise one is not troubled by action or inactivity. He lives happily, doing whatever gets done.”

“Doing whatever gets done” …, it’s a little bit Zen, no? …, these few verses? [Laughing] What was the earlier one? “His is life proceeds without him” is like “doing whatever gets done.”

[18.21] Ashtavakra said, “Like a leaf in the wind, the liberated one is untethered from life; desireless, independent, free.”

“Untethered” …, so, we have been tethered to this identity, to the concept of myself. Now, we’re flying free, like a leaf in the wind, not tethered to anything; no sticky identity, no preconceived notions about ourselves.

[18.22] Ashtavakra said, “For one who has transcended the world, there is no joy or sorrow. With a stilled mind, he lives on with no body.”

We’ve explained all these points earlier. If anyone is still confused about some of this, about ‘no joy’ which might be a scary notion; no joy. ‘Oh, will I lose all my joy?’ I have explained it so many times that I’m not repeating it now, but if you’re new to satsang, you can ask.

[18.23] Ashtavakra said, “One who knows Self, whose mind is serene and spotless, does not desire to give up anything, nor does he miss what is not there.”

[18.24] Ashtavakra said, “His mind being in a natural state of emptiness, the wise one knows nothing of honor and dishonor. He does what comes to be done.”

All of this is straight-forward now.

[18.25] Ashtavakra said, “One who acts knowing ‘This is done by the body, not by I, pure Self’ indeed does nothing, no matter how much acting takes place.”

[Chuckling] Now ‘done by the body’ means done as a movement of Consciousness itself. ‘I’ (the ultimate I) remains unconcerned with all these movements of Consciousness. That One becomes like this. He sees he “indeed does nothing, no matter how much acting takes place” …, how much action takes place (although ‘acting’ has another meaning also which applies).

[18.26] Ashtavakra said, “The liberated one acts without claiming to be acting, but he is no fool. He is blessed and happy, even though in the world.”

What is happening here? I won’t get into every line. “Even though in the world” means it is countering the notion (which is also spoken from a different place and has some truth in it of course) the notion that one is suffering. That means as long as the world is existing, suffering must be there. So, that is a misunderstanding of what Buddha said. To consider yourself to be an object within this world, a limited entity in this world, is the cause of suffering. The world by itself (un-interpreted, unjudged) cannot lead to suffering. So, the sage is saying that even though the play of the world continues, the play of suffering stops.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.5] Ashtavakra said, “The Self, which is absolute, effortless, timeless, immaculate, is without limits and at no distance from you. You are forever It.”

How many clues in just one verse? Power-house verse, isn’t it? “Absolute, effortless, timeless, immaculate, beyond all limits.” What is it that is your discovery that conforms to all of these clues? Now what is it that you can say is absolute? Because in the previous verse we saw that even Existence comes and goes. Even Existence comes and goes, and is effortless. You are not trying to aware; in fact, if you were trying to become un-Aware you couldn’t do. It needs no effort. Nobody taught us how to be aware.

“Timeless” …, beyond this play of time and space. Awareness herself is not aging. How old is Your Awareness? That which is witnessing all phenomenon, does it have an age? Is it subject to time? The unborn and the undying, the eternal, is timeless.

“Immaculate” …, immaculate because it is completely empty of any qualities, any attributes. To have a lack, to be tainted in some way, needs some quality. How can this Self, which is empty of any phenomenal quality, have any sort of incompletion, any sort of lack, any sort of taint? None of these apply to the Self. Therefore, it is always immaculate.

“Is without limits” …, like I said, beyond time and space. Limitations do not apply. This is the opposite of what the mind is telling you because the mind is always trying to define you. Always trying to set your limits. You are the undefined.

Now the Sage is saying that “at no distance from You.” It has no distance from You. You are forever It. Forever It. That means you have always ever only been This. That is the whole play of maya (illusion). How the absolute, effortless, timeless, immaculate, limitless One starts to consider itself to be all these opposites; subject to time, subject to birth and death, guilty of things, full of doer-ship and effort.

Now the Sage is saying ‘You are this One and you are forever It. It is at no distance from You.’ Where to go to find it?

[Silence]

Look; even to find your body you have to take the step of noticing a sensation or a visual of the body. To find your mind, you have to take a step to notice a thought or an imagination or a memory. To find emotions, you need to take a step to notice some sensation. To find the world, you need to take a step which is to go to the senses. How to find that which is at no distance from You? Don’t take a step anywhere.

[Silence]

So, when you take a step you are moving to this side of the perception; the moving side. [Holds up stationary hand, and waves his other hand on one side of it (which he had spoken of earlier). One hand is waving/ moving, while one hand stays stationary in the center; then he moves the waving hand to the other side of the stationary hand, where it remains still there. Here he is first showing the waving hand/moving side then showing the side that remains still]: What is on the other side?

Before you take this step, Who are you? What are you?

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.11] Ashtavakra said, “Heaven or poverty, gain or loss, society or solitude, to the yogi free of conditioning there is no difference.”

That’s pretty clear from whatever we have said so far.

[18.12] Ashtavakra said, “Religious merit, sensory pleasure, worldly prosperity, discrimination between this and that; these have no significance to the yogi free of opposites such as ‘I do this’ and ‘this I do not’.”

Again, we’ve discussed most of this; “religious merit, sensory pleasure, worldly prosperity, discrimination between this and that; these have no significance to the yogi free of opposites such as ‘I do this’ and ‘this I do not’.” All of this play opposites we have discussed for a long time.

[18.13] Ashtavakra said, “The yogi who is liberated while living has no duties in this world, no attachments in his heart. His life proceeds without him.”

[Smiles] So beautiful, isn’t it? Last line: “His life proceeds without him”. [Laughs] The last line clarifies; it is not playing in the opposites of duties and no duties, attachments and no attachments. It is just allowed to play as it is. “Life proceeds without him.”

[18.14] Ashtavakra said, “For the great soul who abides beyond desire, where is illusion? Where is the universe? Where is meditation on That? Where even is liberation from them?”

Therefore, all of these things (all the contemplations, all the meditation, all the inquiry) is to come to this discovery: ‘What is it that I am? I am complete beyond the concept of complete. What desire can I truly have?’ Once we come to this desire-less-ness, then all of this is seen to have been part of the play. And whatever continues after that is also seen to be part of the play, the movement of Consciousness.

[18.15] Ashtavakra said, “He who sees the world may try to renounce it. But what can the desireless one do? He sees there is nothing to see.”

It means, ‘Sees the world as something which I have a relationship with’…, me and the world’. Many times, when we come to the discovery of the Self, we get stuck in expectations of how the world should perceive us now. Many have said it like this; somebody was telling me also last time. We expect our closest relationships to see this. ‘I am making this discovery. Why can’t they see? Why can’t they tell there is something different about me? How blind are they?’ [Smiles] These kind of expectations and ideas get picked up and these become then the back-door for the ego to come back in; the spiritual ego plays upon this. So, ‘me and the world’. As long as this play of ‘me and the world’ continues, then notice that this ‘me’ is still holding a concept about itself.

In our openness, we find that everything is allowed. There is freedom for everything to move as it is. And when I say ‘everything’ it also includes this body. The body will continue to move on its own, in its own way, as designated by Consciousness. So, don’t separate the appearance of your body from the rest of the appearance. Many are doing that. They say ‘The world is an appearance’ they are looking at everything. [Gesturing outwardly] But this also. [Pointing to the body] And if you see that the appearance is moving effortlessly and that includes this also. [The body] All of this.

So, don’t allow your mind to come in with that subtle trick which makes that boundary here [Gesturing a line between body and world] between this and the world…, some physical boundary. No. Everything phenomenal. Everything phenomenal is the world. Your actions are the world, the words are the world. So, when we say ‘Allow the world to move effortlessly’ it means this allowing, which includes the body in it. Don’t be so concerned now what other’s thoughts are about the movements or actions of this one. That is another trump card of the mind. It will tell you that ‘Yes, yes, you in pure thoughts now. You are not believing your thoughts. But why are the others thinking of me like this? Why is my husband or wife thinking of me like this? Why is my partner thinking of me like this?’

And what did we find about thoughts? That they need no consideration. They can just come and go. But this thought will still come here saying ‘Oh, but you must explain to them that their thoughts are not true.’ All these tricks the mind will play. Include everything phenomenal in the world and know that it is moving with the will of Consciousness, as it has to move. You don’t even have to step back from the world, as we have seen. To give the world the notion of reality means a step forward; you have to go to the mind, you have to go somewhere to pick up a notion.

Q: Father, how does the Sage live in the world? They are being seen as a Light entity.

A: A Sage does not actually live in the world. A Sage does not really live in the world. That outer expression…, in this play what is happening is that it seems like some aspects of Consciousness are discovering their true source. (None of this is true, the Absolute Truth, but just to give some explanation to clarify): In the appearance, we find that most aspects of Consciousness continue to move as if they are individual entities. Some rare aspects of Consciousness seem to come to this discovery of their true Self, which is non-phenomenal.

So, your question must mean then that ‘How does this outer appearance of this one seem to move?’ That one seems to move in the same way, with the same power that it always did; only Consciousness was making this movie come alive and it continues to be Consciousness making the movie come alive. But Consciousness is also designed it in such a way that those who are open to this very same discovery about themselves, yearning for the same truth about themselves, those aspects of Consciousness who are yearning for this, when they come across such an aspect, such a being in their outward play, will immediately sense a sense of attraction; some resonance.

And it is not just with this; it seems to be a design of Consciousness. I have seen it like this in worldly life. You see, like this: If you have some friends who are very interested in wine, for example, they are a collector of wine, they are a connoisseur of wine. All they have to do is hear the word ‘wine’ and they will be so attracted. [Gesturing excitement] ‘Oh wine! Okay, what is it? Which vintage do you like to collect?’ All this will be there. So, this attraction to commonality, to resonance, is there in the play of Consciousness.

In the same way, when there is one aspect which has come to this unwavering discovery about their Self, if that yearning is true in your heart, when you come across such a Being there is bound to be this resonance and attraction. So, then this is how the life of the Sage plays out where, due to some reason or another, those who are meant to come to them to find the same Truth that they have discovered about themselves, they seem to be drawn. So, that is why in the presence of the Sage, you might find a lot of peace, a lot of joy, a lot of Shanti; coming to a stillness, quietude.

Whereas another, who is yet not looking for this in the worldly play, might find just torture of boredom and frustration. And that has happened here also, that some who have come fresh without knowing what they were getting into, just couldn’t handle it. Some had to leave within the first few minutes. [Chuckles] This is the outward play of the Sage.

Now, if the Sage was deciding how to live, then the Sage would still be considering himself the doer. The Sage doesn’t live on the basis of this kind of effortful doership. And you know very well what that means; it doesn’t mean that the doing stops, but a simpler way of putting it is that the Sage’s body just becomes an instrument for the Divine Presence.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.4] Ashtavakra said, “The universe is but a thought in Consciousness. In Reality, it is nothing. One who sees the true nature of existence and non-existence never ceases to exist.”

“The universe is but a thought in Consciousness.” Now, usually in Satsang, we have defined thought as that particular energy-construct which is always claiming our individuality; that which we call the mind. This particular energy-construct, which is this voice which sells us the message of individuality, we have called a thought. Now the Sage has broadened the definition of a thought and he is saying that every energy-construct is just a thought. All is made up of Consciousness. He is saying that all of these energy-constructs (no matter what their shape and size might be) he is considering that to be a thought right now.

So, he is saying “The universe is but a thought in Consciousness.” Consciousness is ‘I Am’ and as this ‘I Am’ wakes up, then this play of Universe wakes up. So, all of it is just the Light of Consciousness, made up of Consciousness Itself. So, we can consider thought be like a product of Consciousness, a subset of Consciousness. The Universe is just a thought. Just like the dream can be called just a play of thought. It seems like it is a manifest of Universe but on waking up, you find that you say ‘Ah, it was just my minds play’. What does it mean? Actually, play of Consciousness playing as a manifest universe.

Now what did we say? Find that which is unchanging. Now, from that reference point, you will see that this Universe, any manifest play, is just coming and going. These words can only be spoken from that position.

As long as you still consider yourself to be an object within this manifestation then these words will not smell of Truth when they are spoken by you. So, don’t be in a rush to proclaim any of this. Because many times, when we hear these glorious words that ‘For me, the Universe is just a thought’ the mind wants to quickly jump and proclaim this for yourself. There is no rush for that. You stay with the Truth of what you are discovering about YourSelf. Let all these utterances, if they have to come through your mouth, let them come on their own, with their own beauty and their own fragrance. No ‘person’ has ever spoken these words as if they were true. Makes sense?  No person has ever spoken these words as if they were true. It can only be spoken from intuitive insight, from the Divine Presence. Every time it is spoken personally, it smells untrue.

So, Universe is just a thought, from which reference point? If you consider yourself to be just an object in the Universe, then from that reference point we cannot say something like that. We must find what the truth of ‘I’ is; who is the Self? Now if you find YourSelf to be this unchanging, unborn, undying, non-phenomenal Self, that is the pure witnessing of all that is coming and going, then these words will start to smell true, to ring true. If you consider yourself to be just a mere body in this apparent Universe, these words might sound really glorious but they might not still ring so true.

So now, from that position, what do you find about the Universe?

From the position of the Self, what can you say about the Universe?

Sangha guest: Like a reflection.

A: Just like a reflection. Just like a dream; like a coming and going. Now, when we use the term ‘thought’ in Satsang, we refer to a particular aspect of this reflection, which is this energy- construct called thoughts, thinking. Now, the Sage has broadened that and included everything into that energy-construct and said that everything is just one big coming and going, this entire Universe. For the Self, there is nothing but a big coming and going; play of Consciousness. So, he has no trouble in describing it as a ‘thought’ in Consciousness.

“The universe is but a thought in Consciousness. In Reality, it is nothing.” He means it doesn’t have any reality. It doesn’t have a real tangibility in relation to Your Reality. Again, it is the perspective which is important.

“One who sees the true nature of existence and non-existence never ceases to exist.” This is one of the most beautiful lines. Which One is this One? “One who sees the true nature of existence and non-existence.” Let us see if we can find this One right now.

What is Aware of your existence?

And if you are struggling to understand what it means by ‘Existence’ then follow this simple exercise which I give you, which is to:

Try and stop Being. Don’t Be.

Try to stop Being.

Just don’t Be.

You will notice that there is a Presence here which cannot be stopped: I Exist, I Am.

Now when you say ‘I Am’ itself (stay with me) when you say ‘I Am’ itself, you could be saying it in one of two ways. One way could be ‘I am not sure but I like the idea that I Am’. And the second could be ‘I am Aware that I Am’.

So, is it just an idea that you Are (an attractive idea of your Existence) or it is so plain that you Exist? You are Aware of your Existence. Isn’t it?

This, that is Aware of it…, (again stay with me, because the mind will resist it; don’t be worried about it) …, THIS that is Aware of your Existence, is that Awareness also an object contained within Existence? Or is it independent of Existence?

Every object comes and goes. If I don’t exist, there is no objective experience; and yet Awareness remains which sees this, which is aware of this, that ‘I Am’ has gone, all the objects have gone; ‘I Am’ has come, all the objects have come.’ That is why we are able to say that there is something called sleep state, there is something called waking state.

That is why Papaji [Sri Pooja] very often used to ask this question ‘What wakes up?’ when you say you woke up. It is the sense of Existence…, and yet, there is a Witnessing of even this.

So, this Awareness (this Self that is Aware of Existence and also of non-Existence, of sleep state) that One always exists. That One always Exists: before I Am.

One of the best clues that Guruji [Sri Mooji] has given us is the title of one of his books ‘Before I Am’. The Sage is speaking at that level. ‘I Am’ is sense of Existence. There is something which is before, prior, not in time…, but greater, truer, because even ‘I Am’ ultimately comes and goes.

That is why the Sage has said “One who sees the true nature of existence and non-existence never ceases to exist.”

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.6] Ashtavakra said, “For those whose vision becomes unclouded, illusion evaporates and the Self becomes known. All sorrow is instantly dispelled.”

As you find yourself to be this timeless, non-phenomenal Self, you struggle to become miserable. What I mean is that it will be a struggle if you want to get suffering for yourself. All suffering has come only from the limited notion of yourself. Empty of notions you cannot suffer. And once you see the reality of what you are which is empty of notions, then to pick up notions will seem like a struggle.

[18.7 Ashtavakra said]: “Seeing everything is imagination, knowing the Self as timelessly free, the Sage lives as a child.”

Then we really feel like Ashtavakra is here and guiding these words because this is what we just said; when you see, when you go to perception, then you are seeing all this moving…, when you look at what is prior to that, then you see this timeless, unchanging, non-phenomenal Self. (Exactly what I just spoke of.)

[18.8] Ashtavakra said, “Knowing himself as Absolute, knowing existence and non-existence to be imagination only, what is there for the desireless one to learn, say or do?”

This is important because many times there can be confusion about: ‘But does Awareness really know itself?’ Sometimes, Sages have also said contradictory things, so we get confused.

Now, just to say ‘I am aware’ implies that Awareness is aware of Itself. Even though the saying is not a prerequisite; just this simple recognition: It is Awareness Itself. How could It be unaware of Itself? It is awareness is everything.

Here there are very few words to explain this because this is so beyond words. The Absolute is completely aware of Itself. How would it not be? It is the Absolute!

Otherwise, Awareness Itself would have to go on a journey of Self-discovery. [Chuckle]

We can say ‘I am aware’. We can say it actually in two ways. We can say that ‘As Consciousness, I am coming to this recognition of My Source which is Awareness Itself.

Now, if an aspect of Awareness (which is Consciousness) can come to this discovery, how would the Source be empty of this discovery?

It is because our idea of ‘knowing’ can still be confused. Our idea of knowing is still having the concept of something. Our awareness is conceptless, so that way it does not know Itself. If you feel like knowing means having a concept about yourself, then it doesn’t. If it feels that having a perceptual experience of something means knowing something, then it doesn’t. All of this also belongs to It only. But I am saying that in Its purest non-phenomenal Self, there is just a Knowingness…, Knowingness knowing Itself. Itself cannot be outside of Its own knowing. Though there is nothing to be known mentally, nothing to be known perceptually or emotionally, or in any worldly way:

Knowingness Itself Knows Itself.

That is why the Sage has said, “Knowing himself as Absolute, knowing existence and non-existence…” So, Awareness is aware; which means It knows Itself. Knowingness knows Itself and Awareness is aware. And it is aware that ‘I exist’. You are aware of your existence. Right Now, you are aware that you exist.

Anyway, these are wordless things which we try to put some words to just to add some clarification if possible. If they are still very confusing for you, best to leave it aside and stay with the simple clues that have been given. Find out what is that unchanging witness of all there is, and all these things will come clear to you.

“What is there for the desireless one to learn, say or do?” Nothing for the Self to pick up; any such effort is from some sense of limitation.

[18.9] Ashtavakra said,: “Knowing for certain that all is Self, the Sage has no trace of thoughts such as ‘I am this’ or ‘I am not that’.”

“No trace.” So, ‘no trace’ means that thoughts can come and go, but they leave no trace, they leave no footmarks behind, they leave no identity or condition behind, because they are not even real; they leave no marks, they leave no condition. To come to our unassociated Being means only this: that all that has left a trace is now let go. The ‘basket’ of beliefs is emptied out.

[Smiles] If you do not believe anything about yourself would you be alright? If you had no concept also of ‘alright’? [Laughs] How many of you still feel like ‘At least these few beliefs, I need to have to exist’? Come on, tell the truth. [Chuckles] [Silence] One or two hands are going up.

This is where trust and devotion helps you. As your trust and devotion is going [deeper] you find that ‘All my existence is the problem of the Satguru’. Existence is Existence’s problem.

You use this as an opportunity to throw away these beliefs into the ‘Fire of Satsang’…,

Right now, today, here!

See if you collapse; see if your existence goes away.

You are still here.

Innocently, like a child, throw away these toys that you no longer need.

[Lovingly smiles]

You are still here. You exist.

Your existence is effortless.

The world’s play is effortless.

YourSelf is effortless.

It needs no crutches of anything at all.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.3] Ashtavakra said, “How can one whose innermost heart has been scorched by the sun of sorrow that comes from duty be happy until the sweet rain of torrential stillness?”

Very poetic verse. What is that scorching that happens, that comes from duty? It means the sense of doership. ‘I must do.’ What did the Sage say yesterday or the day before? ‘Everyone is miserable because of their constant effort.’ [Chuckles] What does it mean ‘constant effort’? Again, not the movement of the body itself but because they consider themselves to be the doer. Now, the Sage has also warned us that because we hear this, now don’t pick up the position of the non-doer. Neither doer nor non-doer you are.

The mind will not understand this, because the mind can only understand opposites. If we say ‘Don’t do this’ it feels like ‘I must do the opposite’. ‘Don’t tell a lie’? The mind will say ‘Tell the truth’. Hardly any mind will say ‘That means be quiet’. [Chuckles] You see? If I say ‘Don’t tell a lie’ the mind will say ‘Yes, you must always tell the truth’. Why does the mind not say ‘Okay, this means be quiet’? Because it deals in opposites. ‘You are not the doer’. ‘Okay, then I am the non-doer’. ‘You must not be concerned about what worldly pleasure is coming’. ‘Ah, then I must give up all worldly pleasure’. And sometimes, the words in scriptures also sound like that. That’s why sometimes it’s needed that we share like this in more detail. Because the Sages will put the clues in very clearly but the mind will latch onto its idea of what the Sage is saying.

So, like that, we have to look at that and come to this stillness. From doership we don’t move to non-doership; we move to stillness. Stillness means? Doing and non-doing can happen; I am untouched by it.

[Silence]

That’s like Guruji [Sri Mooji] also said ‘Surrender the surrender-er as well’. That’s why. Surrender all the “er’s” …., the doer, the non-doer; experiencer, the non-experiencer. Any position you can take on, just give it up. Give up the one who is giving up.

How to do all of this?

Just don’t buy what your mind is selling you.

Don’t believe your next thought.

Allow it to just come and go.

Allow YourSelf to just remain as ‘I Am’.

Just Being.

(Not a Be-er.) [Chuckles]

Sangha guest: To allow yourself…, to remain open…, can be a position.

A: To allow yourself, to remain open can be a position. That’s why. Then how to do all this? Just don’t buy what the next thought is telling you. Because it is Consciousness Itself, I Am, which picks up an attribute for ‘I Am’ which is ‘I am something’. So, this attaching of attributes only works with our belief. Now, suppose I see you as ‘something’ without picking up any concept?

[Silence]

At least you need the concept of what you have to pose as. It’s not possible. And the mind itself will come and say ‘But this belief also happens just automatically’. And I know it can feel like that. When we’re still seeing from a limited perspective, many times it can feel like ‘Belief just goes to it automatically, so how not to believe?’ But you notice that belief is to give a ‘Yes’…, to give assent to yourself, which only comes from Consciousness. The power of belief belongs to Consciousness. And Consciousness is never powerless. It can never say ‘Oh, Consciousness Itself doesn’t have any power to let go of these concepts’. So, Consciousness is only playing as if it is habituated to (has the habit of) giving belief to something. And Consciousness has also given you the solution to that. When it feels like there are some concepts which always get our belief, then pull those concepts, those beliefs, into our inquiry.

So, the popular concept in Satsang is ‘I am not yet free. I’m not yet there. I am not yet free’. So, investigate this ‘I’ who is not yet free. Does this ‘I’ have any reality? And you’ll find that ‘There is no such ‘I’ here who could be free or not free. If it doesn’t exist, then the concept of freedom or bondage does not apply. We saw this previously also in the Ashtavakra Gita. So, that which persistently seems like a habit, then pull it into your inquiry and see ‘Who is the ‘I’ who is not free?’ And notice the mind (as I was saying) will immediately try and sell you the opposite: ‘You are free’. But I didn’t say that. I said that freedom and bondage do not apply. Because even in the concept that you are free, you can pick up the concept of the limited ‘me’.

Guruji, when he says ‘Come to me naked’ he means naked of these concepts …, of all opposites; empty of any conditioning. It is completely in Your power as Consciousness to withdraw Your belief from any concept that has been nourished even for millions of years in the past. Then you come to the simple letting go. So, when the thought comes (because it will try to keep coming and poking you ‘You are not yet free’ or ‘I am not yet free’) you will find that there is a greater ease in allowing it to let go; allowing YourSelf to let it go. This is the allowing.

When I say ‘Open’ I’m not talking about the position of open. When I say ‘Open’ I’m saying ‘Empty of all reference points; empty of all self-definition’. [Silence] That’s why I keep saying: Like a newborn baby.

~ ~ ~

.

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf