BOOKS BY ANANTA Welcome to Satsang with Ananta

Reading and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.5]

~ ~ ~

Coming back to our beautiful conversation between the King Janaka and the sage Ashtavakra [speaking to] the soon-to-be sage Janaka. Chapter 1 is very beautiful because it is just in the hearing of this one chapter with 20 verses, Janaka realizes clearly who he is and goes beyond the false conditioning. So, it’s a beautiful scripture. Let me start with verse 5.

[1.5] Ashtavakra says ‘You have no caste or duties. You are invisible, unattached, formless. You are the Witness of all things. Be happy.’

‘You have no caste or duties.’ This scripture was written at a time when the caste identity was very strong in India and the duties that were given were assigned according to your caste. So, if you were Brahmin, you were supposed to do the religious, spiritual duties, etc. This caste system was like that.

So, what is the sage really saying? He’s saying that you have no identity at all. You are without identity. This ‘caste’ is the identity. Without identity, there is no idea of what should be done, what should not be done, that ‘This is my life, these are the things I should aspire for, these are my goals and ambitions’. So, we have none of that. No identity, no doership; no caste, no duties. And this will get further clarified when we look below.

He says ‘You are invisible, unattached, formless.’ Invisible, unattached, formless. And I said that this ‘invisible’ is not just the invisible of ‘The Invisible Man’ in that there is still some form there, only it cannot be perceived through the eyes. It is not that way. It means that you are completely formless in reality. Invisible; that which is unattached and fundamentally formless. And what could this be, that which cannot be seen, that which has no attributes and does not have any shape or size? Can you visualize such a thing? Is it possible in the realm of the mind to come to the Knowing of what we Are if the description of what we are is invisible, unattached and formless? As hard as we might try, we cannot come up with a mental idea of this. So, this is invisible, unattached, no form; no attributes, no color, not even transparent, not opaque. No attribute; no size or shape. Nowhere where something is or where it is not.

You cannot go there with the mind. [Silence] But it’s beautiful to try. It’s good to try because you will see that it is futile. And in the trying itself, you will find that you have been taken beyond the mind; prior to the mind. What is it that has no form, no attribute, no location, no age? A conceptualization won’t get us there. Our description won’t get us there. So, then, what to do?

The sage says ‘You are the Witness of all things’. So, what does that imply? That which is the Witness of all things must be all of these: invisible, unattached and formless. That which witnesses even a void, even substance, all that can be witnessed, what can we say about this Witness, right now when we check? Do we find that it has a form? Do we find that it is visible? Do we find that it is attached in any way?

Who is witnessing all these things right now? Who is hearing these words? Who is the Witness of your thoughts, the witness of the sensations of the body? What can we say about This one?

Are we saying that there is no Witness? Because according to the mind, it would say ‘There cannot be such a thing’. It’s the mind’s failure to conceptualize something. The mind says that it doesn’t exist.

Can we truly say that there is no Witness to all of these? We cannot say. Who is aware of sound? Who is aware of visuals? Who is aware of thought? Who is aware of emotion; sensation? Can we truly say that there is no Witness?

Find This that Witnesses these words right now. Don’t leave it for homework. Right Now. Who is hearing these words and who is aware of this hearing happening? What are you finding yourself to be Right Now? What is your form? What is your color and size and shape? [Silence]

Can we confirm the words of the sage? I have no identity, no doership. I am not visible, not attached. I am without form.

Is this not what we are discovering for ourself right now?

See that both things are important to See. See that our minds cannot fathom this; the mind will only give you visuals. Who is the Witness even of the visual?

The sage says ‘You are the Witness of all things’. Now, there can be some confusion with the word ‘Witness’ because the word ‘Witness’ can seem to imply that there is an entity which is the Witness. Actually, That which is formless cannot be an entity. Therefore, it is the Witnessing Itself. You are the Witnessing of all things.

‘Be happy’. Why must this be the cause for happiness? Why must this be the cause for celebration? Because we find that This Witnessing…, if I am This (invisible, unattached, formless) what can make me suffer? What can make me suffer; what can hurt me, affect me? What can be taken away from me? What can be my death? There is no such thing for That which I truly Am.

To see this is the natural arising of happiness itself. We need a form, we need an attachment, we need an object to suffer. We need nothing at all to be naturally happy. So, as we are coming to this recognition of our Reality, we find that happiness is a natural by-product of this discovery.

Reading from and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.4]

~ ~ ~

[1.4] Ashtavakra says: Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.

~ ~ ~

A: There are many, many, many beautiful Sages, Masters, just regular people, who have come to this discovery of Being and it has been enough; and all their pointings point to Being. So, it is not a mere recognition. It is a recognition that I Am This Consciousness Itself. So, it’s a very beautiful place to come to.

So, let me tell you (here) how it was felt as a seeming-distinction is once I saw what I truly Am, what I predominantly Am is this I which is prior even to ‘I Am’. Then I found that this magnetism or the pull of the thoughts became even lighter. It became even easier to allow them to just come and go. Although experientially, is it just Being Itself not associating Itself with any personal attribute, therefore, It cannot suffer. So, the end of suffering is completely possible there. But this magnetism we find, this pull, this urge to go to some thought as if it could have some meaning becomes lighter. And we could say that there is more sense of stability being experienced from the recognition of the Source.

Actually, I can go so far as to say that for those who don’t have this urge to say ‘Okay, even Consciousness, I am the Witness of even That. What is happening here?’ For those who don’t have this urge, it is enough to rest as Being. But for those who have this urge, then even that will seem like it has tremendous momentum. It will not be happy just being Consciousness. It wants to dissolve completely. It’s like in the game of beloveds, the beloved wants to merge completely. It [Consciousness] wants to see no distinction between Itself and Its Beloved; not even qualitatively.

Reading from and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.4]

~ ~ ~

[1.4] Ashtavakra says: Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.

~ ~ ~

A: So, this is speaking at two different levels at the same time. Awareness has never been bound. No person never exist. Therefore, what is this satsang, what is this scripture, for? Awareness has never been bound. No person has ever existed. Then what is the need of this scripture and this satsang? Can you answer?

Q: In the play, Consciousness within Consciousness wants to wake up (although there is no waking up, as such) but in the play, Consciousness wants to wake up. It wants to stop being a person or it gets fed up with being a person, then it comes to satsang to kill the person; to know that ‘I was never a person’ that ‘I was always This’.

A: Yes. So this recognition belongs to who? To Awareness Itself but in Its dynamic aspect as Consciousness. So, Consciousness playing as a person is what we say is to be ‘egoistic’. Consciousness playing as a person is Consciousness playing at being egoistic. God-pretending-to-be-a-person is the ego. So, God dropping being a person, dropping the idea that ‘I am an individual entity’ is the returning to the pure Presence, the unassociated Being.

So, this is all about God playing with God. Right now God is playing with Himself in this way. So, to delude Himself, He had to (or She had to) hear the parents, She had to hear the mind. The mind is the voice of all the conditioning believed in prior lives (the voice of prior lives conditioning). So, all this hard work had to be done to play the game of personhood; so even the ending it wants to be in this way. But some just have finger-snap. [Awakening] Very few rare ones. But mostly it plays in this way where it evolves from the spiritual journey, from these new insights. It wants to taste every moment of even this; the letting go of delusions.

So, this is all about Consciousness getting associated, conditioned; adding things to this ‘I Am’ (‘I am this, I am this, I am this’) and then getting rid of all this (‘I’m not this, not this, not this’). That’s when you come to this purity of being unassociated Being.

That is why this scripture is there; that is why all satsang is there. Nothing ever happened to Awareness. And we’re not trying to fix the person because no person has ever really existed.

Reading from and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.4]

~ ~ ~

[1.4] Ashtavakra says: Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.

~ ~ ~

Q: There was a sense coming that ‘I got it’ and then the mind started playing on that sense, saying ‘You’re just faking it. It’s just an idea’.

A: Then it becomes this vicious cycle of getting into some mental ideas of ‘getting it’ or ‘losing it’. But authentically when you See the Truth of who You Are, do you feel like you got something new? It must come with this sense that ‘This is what I’ve always been’. Isn’t it?

So, although we can say that the recognition seems very fresh; and when the recognition starts to happen, it can seem like the vibrance in this world also seems to go up, the fact is that at the core of the realization it is Seen that ‘I have always only been This’.

Also, there’s no sense of specialness about it. You cannot bring yourself to believe the idea that everybody else is also not This; they’re not this One Witness, this One Seeing, this One Awareness.

So, once you See that You have only been This, it will also become apparent that all that is appearing is just a coming and going in this realm of appearances and there is One solitary Witness of all of this. Therefore, the presumption of ‘me and another’ starts to dissolve anyway. And as this presumption of ‘me and another’ starts dissolving, then who am I special in relation to?

Why I’m telling you all of this is so that you can smell for this. If it’s smelling like ‘I got it, but he hasn’t’ or if there is this ‘Oh, he is still faking it, but I am Seeing clearly’ then we must just watch what is happening; because who are these separate ones?

Q: [Inaudible]

A: This is very important also because it is so common. If it is as simple as what the sage is saying, that ‘Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace’…, if it is that simple then what is everyone doing for 10 and 20 and 50 years trying to find the Self?

What the classic mistake is (that we can tell now) that everyone seems to be making is trying to find the Self as if it is a ‘thing’. And keeping that personal sense of ‘I’ alive.

So, just like everything else in the world, the journey for Self-realization seems to have become this ‘I’ …, which we don’t really want to investigate. What is happening to this one? What are the experiences of this one? What has this one found? Still looking that way; to see what has been found. But instead of that, this has to be turned back in some way [moves his hand from facing forward to facing toward himself] to say ‘Who is this ‘I’ that has been on this spiritual journey, that has had these experiences? Who is this ‘I’? And then we discover that we cannot find this ‘I’.

Now, when it is not found phenomenally, most will give up. So, when it becomes clear (this is an important point) that ‘There is nothing phenomenally that I am finding which is the Self’ then most will give up. Most will get frustrated, most will get tired, most will say ‘This does not work. It’s not helping. I am not finding the Self’.

So, that is why I say we must get used to the idea that what we Are is not a phenomenal thing. We will not find the Self as if it is a thing, as if it is an entity, as if it is an object. But we’re so used to the finding of objects, the finding of things or the finding of concepts, that we seem to think that because that is not being found as the Self, then it seems like we end the search; we’ll drop the journey. Sometimes it can be with this frustration that we end the journey, and sometimes a set of concepts will come and say…, anything. Very, very solid Advaita, in fact, but just taken conceptually will just bring the end of this seeming-suffering of the search.

So, that is why it is very important that I keep reiterating this point, that you will not find the Self as if it is a thing. And you’re recognizing that, all of you. You’re not finding the Self as a thing. The mind will still resist and say ‘That’s my habit. It’s my habit to find it as if it is a thing’. So, that is what we are now looking at.

‘Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.’

Reading from and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.4]

~ ~ ~

[1.4] Ashtavakra says: ‘Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.’

So, each of these verses actually can be the last verse, isn’t it? Because there can be this feeling that nothing more really needs to be said. If it can be this straight-forward, then all of you in satsang can use these tools. Like she said ‘Are you Aware now?’ Find this essence of what is being spoken here. Who is aware of this Awareness?

The second thing I want to say is that sometimes when these instructions are heard ‘Abide in Awareness’ it feels very good to the mind also. Because the mind feels ‘Okay, I have something to do now. All I have to have to do now is abide in Awareness forever, and I’m set’. [Chuckles] But it’s not like this, because it is not this kind of effortful trying to abide in Awareness. The mind wants to use that because it knows very well that attention will go to the phenomenal realm.

So, we must not confuse this ‘Abide in Awareness’ to mean that ‘My attention should not step out at all into any phenomena’. The purpose of attention is to bring this phenomenal world to life, so it will continue to fulfill that function.

So, it is not about trying to control anything at all. It is more about letting go. So, this ‘abiding’ is that ‘abiding’ which means to let go of the false and abide in the Truth.

To stay in the Truth does not need effort. We’re not making effort to be aware. It does not take time to become aware. Awareness does not contain any space. It is beyond all of these things which would bring the effortful in.

So, as we let go of all these ideas that you have to do something…, ‘I must now abide in Awareness’ only means (as the sage has defined it) no illusion of person is enough to see the Truth of who we Are.

Reading from and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.4]

~ ~ ~

[1.4] Ashtavakra says: ‘Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.’

So, how does one abide as Awareness? Abide in Awareness? To know how to abide in Awareness, we must also know how to leave Awareness.

Does anyone know how to leave Awareness?

Q: If there’s no illusion of person, then suffering automatically goes.

A: What are you abiding in?

Q: Presence.

A: So, first let’s look at that. If the illusion of person seems to be the non-abidance in Awareness, how do we do this magic; this illusion of person.

Q: Believe our thoughts.

A: To believe our thoughts.

Another Q: I could not make out how to abide in Awareness. I am already Awareness.

A: Yes. The sage says ‘Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.’ So, like he says, what is the meaning of this ‘free’…, ‘instantly free’. From what? If you are Awareness, what is the freedom from? And the sage has answered it: ‘The illusion of the person itself’.

So, how many of you have seen that it is to create the illusion of the sense of personhood that seems to require me to do something? That is what we were discussing yesterday also. Right Now, is there an illusion of person; just Now? [Silence] Don’t think about it. Check.

Q: If you want to play that way…

A: If you want to play that way, how will you do it? Suppose there was an intent to play which automatically arose. Without the next thought coming, would you even know how to play as a person?

Q: By believing.

A: So, the first pre-requisite is that the thought has to come. Then, we have seen many times that just by the appearance of the thought, the illusion of the personhood is not there; it also requires the belief. So, first the thought must arise, the belief must go to it, and then the illusion of personhood is here. So, once we start to see that these seeming-steps are the road to this illusion, once it’s clear like this, then you see that this simple pointing ‘Abide in Awareness’ simply means ‘Don’t go along with this thought flow; don’t believe in this thought flow’.

Then, the sage also says ‘You will be instantly free and at peace’ because you are, Right Now.

So, the first thing to remember is that it is only an illusion; this person. So, your freedom is actually not gone anywhere. It has actually not gone anywhere. Nobody can bind Awareness in any way.

Are you all tasting this verse? That’s why I wanted you to contemplate it, so you can taste it for yourself.

So, the only seeming-bondage is this illusion of personhood. And to abide in Awareness means to not fall into this illusion of personhood; which is one of the primal powers of Consciousness Itself, to pretend to be a person.

So, Consciousness now playing that game, and wanting to get free from the pretense, is now realizing that the only way to get caught up in this stuff is to go with this illusion of personhood, which is perpetuated by thought; belief in thought.

Reading and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.2]

~ ~ ~

[1.2] Ashtavakra says ‘To be free, shun the experiences of the senses like poison. Turn your attention to forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity and truth.’

This is like a preparatory verse. Yesterday I was saying that maybe I should not have glossed over this verse so flippantly the last couple of times when I read it. There is a feeling to share a bit more about it this time.

We find very often that as the urge to discover the Self starts to appear here, it can feel like even the worldly realm aided by the mind, the amount of temptation, the amount of desire to engage with these four aspects of our life seems to also increase. So, these temptations will start to appear. Many times we have seen this in Satsang also, that we could come to Satsang and just when some clarity is starting to emerge, it can feel like ‘I found the perfect love of my life; perfect man, the perfect woman. [Laughs] Or ‘When will it happen for me?’ It can feel like this. And ‘Maybe this is my Master’s blessing for me’. Mostly it is not. Mostly it is the distraction which is starting to come and say ‘This is what I must do with my life is to find, be with, my life-partner who will complete me; my soul-mate. It can feel like that. And then, many, many, many times it can feel like it just turned out to be another regular relationship with all the ups and downs and just the personality playing up. All of these aspects can seem to show up again, even in relationships within the Sangha.

So, the sage has advised us. (And this is really the only phenomenally-speaking verse in this chapter.) The sage is saying ‘To be free, shun the experiences of the senses like poison’. Doing what? I am not saying that you have to become celibate, not saying that you have to renounce the world. You see? But, can we at least drop the meaning that has been given to all of it in our mind? This dropping for me is more important than trying to hide in a cave, or getting away from day-to-day life.

So, the sage is saying ‘Shun the experiences’.

I am just making even simpler for all of you and saying: Let go of your interpretations and ideas about all of this. You will find that life becomes so spontaneous and moment to moment.

‘Turn your attention to forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity and truth.’

So, like I was saying, this is the only phenomenal, personal-seeming instruction given by the sage, where he saying ‘If you have a sense of ‘What attitude I should have in this world?’ then forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity and truth are very beautiful attitudes to take (as long as you have the sense that you have some choice about these matters).

Many times I have also said that when true spirituality comes in contact with this seeming- phenomenal world, then kindness and love must be there, forgiveness, all these are beautiful attributes; forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity and truth. So, if there is a sense that there is a question of ‘How to be in the world?’

Also, in the past, there was this sense that if you are writing a spiritual document, there must always be some of this; it must be complete. What makes it complete is you must talk about the Truth; and it should also give you a sense of what is moralistically right or wrong. Most spiritual texts were really complete. You take any type of religion, any scripture, they have sections of morality, on all of these things now; empathy, and kindness, and truth…, all of this. Now, maybe also this is there for the sake of completion, where at least one chapter or one verse on ‘How to be in this world’ had to be included so that it’s considered a complete text.

Q: What does shun the experiences of the senses mean?

A: The way that the sage was saying, I will explain that first. And what my recommendation is, I will come to that, after that. Many, many world religions, world traditions have a sense that to come closer to the Truth or to come closer to God, we must step away from sensory pleasure. So, the ideas of celibacy, renouncing the world, becoming a monk, becoming a swami, all of these come from this very, very old idea, this very traditional idea that to become closer to the Self, to come to the Truth, we must first renounce the sensory pleasure. We must renounce our greed, our lust, all of these things.

Now, what is happening is that, more and more it is seen that that can seem like a failing proposition. Because as Guruji [Mooji] says, we start working on our greed and presumably fix it and then you go to your anger, fix that, then you go to your lust and fix that and you are fixing your lust and suddenly greed came back. You see? It seems like this endless, vicious cycle, which was being propagated in the past.

Either times have changed and it has become too difficult because there is too much sensory stimulation around us; or whatever has changed, it seems much more simple now to just renounce. Instead of trying to renounce anything in the world, it is much easier to renounce our idea about it, our concept about it, our belief about it.

We will see that, as we are not buying any belief about it, naturally in the flow of this human existence, what is meant to flow will continue to flow; but it will not really feel like the separation ever really happened. You will find that to come close to God, closer than close. To see that ‘I Am that I Am’ all that is needed is this sense of openness, allowing all these thoughts to just come and go without believing ourselves to be that which the thoughts are claiming us to be.  So, if I was to write something today, I would not necessarily use these words ‘Shun the experiences of the senses’. I would just say:

Shun the lies that your mind is telling you about who you are.

Reading and commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.1]

~ ~ ~

Chapter 1: Instruction on Self-Realization

[1.1] Janaka said: “Master, how is Knowledge to be achieved, detachment acquired, liberation attained?”

~ ~ ~

A: So, the first chapter is, ‘Instruction on Self-Realization’. And Janaka says in verse one ‘Master, how is Knowledge to be achieved, detachment acquired and liberation attained?’

For every verse well look fresh. I’m happy to hear from you also if you have contemplated and some insights have come about.

For me it was very beautiful to read this verse first because many times we say that we want freedom. Many of us in satsang say ‘What are we here for? Self-realization, liberation.’ We say these things. But if I was to ask you ‘So, what does it mean?’

Q: I don’t want to come back to this planet.

A: You want to be free from the cycle of birth and death. It is a good point. So, the cycle of birth and death; how do we perpetuate it?

Q: Through our attachment.

A: Through our attachment. We are going to see this. When there is still some attachment given by me to this worldly realm, then it seems like this cycle can continue.

So what is it that we truly want? Janaka says ‘How is knowledge to be achieved and detachment acquired?’ Knowledge means what? Not the knowledge of a pundit necessarily. What is the knowledge of a pundit? You can know a lot of scriptures. There are many in India who could have even memorized the entire Ashtavakra Gita, but it is not that kind of knowledge which is being spoken about. It is not about what has been memorized, what can be spoken; not even what is intellectually making some ground.

What is this knowledge with a capital K? This knowledge must be that which is the true, direct experience of this Truth. The direct experience of what is True Knowing.

What is knowledge itself? What is it to ‘know something’? We must explore this question and let go of that which only relies on other concepts. So, if we have a hundred concepts about something, we feel we like ‘I know something’. We have hundred concepts about Advaita so we feel ‘I know Advaita’. It is not about the knowing of concepts. That is mental or intellectual knowing.

What is that which is a deeper Knowing? That which Knows that you are here, That which Knows the sense of existence, does it need concept? To Know that the body is breathing right now, do we need a concept? Only to call it ‘breathing’ we need the label of the concept. But to watch the breath, to Know that breath is happening does not need a concept. To Know that this realm is appearing does not need a thought, is not reliant on that thought.

So, this Knowing…, That which Knows the appearance of this realm of appearances, That which Knows the appearance of this body, That which can Know of my own existence un-reliant on any concept, to see that this is true Knowing, independent of any idea that we may have…, this is the Knowledge that he is speaking of.

Janaka was a king. All the scriptures, all the books, everything would be available to him. So, he’s not asking for ‘Which scripture should I read?’ Everything is already available; all the sages would be at his beck and call. But he’s saying ‘How is Knowledge to be achieved, detachment acquired? How do I come to this true Knowing of the Self?’

‘Detachment acquired’ means (we’ve looked at this in the previous ones)…, attachment is the sense that something is ‘mine’. It is the sense that something is ‘mine’ and we add meaning to that. When we look at our lives we say ‘my wife, my children, my house, my city, my country, my Master, my style of spirituality, my favorite teaching’. We’re so full of this attachment. ‘This is what works for me’. So, the basis for this ‘mine’ (the basis for attachment) seems to be this the idea of ‘me’.

Now we are going to discover that this ‘me’ itself is a fallacy; just a made up concept. The ‘me’ that has all of this which is ‘mine’ itself does not have a tangible existence. Now, once this is seen, then what detachment can we have? If the ‘me’ itself doesn’t exist, then what can really be mine? I’m sure even the sage Janaka would have heard this before, that all in the world of appearances is changing. But he’s still asking ‘How is detachment to be achieved?’

So, maybe we could look at the question and say ‘I know all of this. I know all of this is changing and it is my attachment which is the problem, but how do I get to this detachment?’ Because there are many, many, many (especially in spirituality) who are trying to let go of their attachments. Why doesn’t it happen? They start with this ‘I’m going to lead a simpler life, I’m going to renounce the world’. But why don’t they achieve the true detachment?

Q: That itself becomes an attachment.

A: That itself becomes an attachment because as long as we operate from this sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ it is only energizing, giving more of a sense of power, to the ‘me’ itself. As long as the sense of ‘me’ is there, then the mind will keep changing.

Reading from and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita [1.3]

~ ~ ~

[1.3] Ashtavakra says: ‘You are not earth, water, fire or air, nor are you empty space. Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone, the Witness of these.’

‘You are not earth, water, fire or air, nor are you empty space.’ So, what has happened is all phenomena has been taken out. It is said in India that all of this realm is made up of these elements; earth, water, fire air. Then what happens? The mind very quickly starts saying ‘Okay, you’re not any of these elements, you are this empty space’. It happens to most of us in spirituality; the mind comes and says ‘Okay, what is it? Without all of this, you’re just empty space’. So, very quickly the Sage realizes this happens and he says ‘Nor are you the empty space’.

So, just hear it like this; you are not phenomenal. And if there is an idea that you are the space in which phenomena is appearing; you are not even that. Then what is left? [Smiles]

‘You are not earth, water, fire or air, nor are you empty space. Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone, the Witness of these.’

All that has an attribute, that is phenomenal, who is the Witness of that? This verse itself is enough to finish it.

Who is the Witness of all that is; of all that can be witnessed?

Is that phenomenal?

What is the size and shape of That?

What are the qualities and attributes of That?

Q: It feels like for me, that’s the verse that would most likely be just kind of mentally skipped over and just gone; ‘Yeah okay, next’.

A: That’s why I’m here. [Laughs] So, if we keep all phenomena aside:

Is the Witness of this phenomenal realm also phenomenal?

Does it have an attribute? Does it have a quality?

Does it have weight? Does it have light?

Does it have heat? Does it experience gravity?

Does it experience time and space?

To keep all that is seen or perceived aside, is there nothing beyond that?

Is there no Witness of all that is perceived? And is this Witness not ‘I’?

Even the phenomenal perceiver, Consciousness itself, ls that also not witnessed?

That which perceives this entire realm in Its own light, on Its own screen,

Are you not the Witness of that to be able to report this?

One day the potency of these questions ‘Can you stop Being?’ and ‘Who is Aware of even this Being?’ will reveal itself. There is no greater joy in this realm (speaking phenomenally) than to share this; the Truth of who I Am. The Truth of who You Are, which is the One Truth.

So, see everything as the appearance it is. See all these appearances and find out if the Witness of these appearances is also an appearance. If something shows up as an appearance, then find out who Witnesses even that? Is that an appearance? Don’t buy the story from the mind that this is iterative or a loop, it is not. It is very direct.

Who Witnesses all appearances? What does that one look like? It’s so simple, if you were to allow your mind to just come and go and not resist this simple looking. [Silence] Who is the Witness?

All that is being witnessed, forget about it. Don’t interpret it, don’t judge it, don’t give it any meaning. For a few minutes, stay with That which witnesses it.

What is your color here? Are you a void? If you’re seeing a void, find out who Witnesses even a void.

And don’t expect a phenomenal discovery, don’t expect to see something. You cannot be seen in that way. You’re just coming to the Knowing of Yourself as Knowing Itself…., coming to the Awareness of yourself as Awareness itself.

[Silence]

Find this; your ultimate resting place, from which you have never moved.

[Silence]

You are nothing, you are no-thing. It is the best news ever.

[Silence]

You are this unchanging One; untouched, indescribable, beyond everything you can imagine. Beyond the play of this momentary life, beyond this fragile body (which is coming and going quicker than a blink of an eye), beyond these emotions and sensations, beyond these thoughts and imagination; beyond even your existence here. You are this unchanging Witness. You are the eternal One, unborn.

[Silence]

You are That from which this all powerful Being comes into existence; in whose light, with whose concurrence, this world seems to get some meaning…, but is in Reality nothing but a speck of light.

[Silence]

This Being gets swallowed up in your Reality every night, whether you like it or not. Your non-phenomenal reality is the unchanging one. If this was not the Truth, your reality would change. All of our resistance, all of our pretending, is actually completely futile because you are This.

Ananta Reading from and commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita

~ ~ ~

I just feel so good about this scripture right now. Just feels like Ashtavakra is speaking. These words carry so much strength. And we’ve been at it for a few weeks now, even in the retreat we spent quite a bit of time on it. So, I’m wondering whether this that is being shared now can be helpful for those who might read it in the written form as well; the transcripts of course are also very nice. But sometimes in a book form maybe it needs some editing, some more clarification; some things which can be conveyed with tone of voice but in the words might not come across in a similar way.

Let’s dive in and see what happens. And I requested that all of you who join in the hangout read a bit of it, and I’m sure you’ve read a bit of it as well. If any questions come or some insights come, we’re happy to look at those together.

I feel to read the author’s (translator’s) introduction. ‘The Ashtavakra Gita is an ancient spiritual document of great purity and power. Pure, because it is relentlessly one-pointed’.

It is relentlessly one-pointed. (Commenting on the introduction). So, this relentless one-pointed-ness can also be very frustrating sometimes. And I can spot it also in satsang sometimes with some of you. Maybe I can also spot it in the sangha, for those have been with me for longer periods of time, where it can feel like (and some have even told me like this, but not in such blunt words, have said) ‘You’re just like a one-trick pony’. [Chuckles] The only trick you’re pointing to is the Absolute Awareness. But what about this? What about this?’ So, I feel like what flows from here has also been so relentlessly one-pointed. I don’t see it like that. For me, it comes very naturally to seemingly-skip over everything else and to say ‘Who are you in reality?’ So, it can seem like ‘This is just a complete ignoring of my worldly issues or my worldly problems or where I am at the moment, what is happening with me at this point of time’. It can seem like I have no interest in that; mostly because I have no interest in that, to be honest. [Chuckles] But this lack of interest in that is hopefully in service to your Truth.

[Comments skipped from sangha (inaudible)]

I have to have that integrity to say that I really don’t have that much interest in what might be happening with your person’s story. So, I will not fake false interest or false compassion. Of course, sometimes, some compassion can come, some feeling to help the world can come, some seva can come. Like that. But for me, if you were to say that ‘What is the best way to use Me? I come to satsang for a few days. What is the best way to use Me?’ [Referring to using Anantaji, Satguru’s voice] It is to use me to see what you are in reality, beyond the play of this personal ups and downs or this fluctuating waves of moment. And this can lead to things where it can seem like we’re building a personal relationship or we’re building some special connection or something like this. But many have found that it doesn’t really have a grip in that way. They can feel like ‘I’ve been coming to him for 2 years, I’ve been coming to him for 3 years but there is no special connection over there; no special reciprocation over there’. So, that can be somewhat frustrating.

And there can be also this sense that now, especially, more and more, I’m not saying to anyone ‘Okay, now you have progressed so much’ or ‘You have progressed so much’ and giving you individual report cards. I’m saying more and more that ‘All of you Are That’ which can also be frustrating because those of you who have been here long can feel that ‘But he’s not telling me how much I’m progressing; what I am getting to’. So, to see that this sense of progress, this sense of report card is not being fed; which can also be frustrating because there can be this sense of ‘What am I really doing here? Am I really getting anywhere?’

I was reading something before I came in. And at least on some paths, there’s this sense of karmas being cleaned up, some tendencies washed away; and ‘It’s a difficult process and I’m making progress in that’. We’re not even saying that. Sometimes; but rarely. We’re not saying that because I really feel to point you to That which is the Absolute.

Am I saying this is for everybody? No. Some of you are stuck with me. [Chuckles] Your heart bring you here but you’re not necessarily really enjoying what is being shared. So, we’re just stuck together in that relationship. What does Guruji say? That snake [Laughs] [The snake with his tail in his mouth which makes a circle] We come because something says ‘I have to be with him. It’s irresistible to come or to click on the Hangout’. But you find when you come, it’s ‘Awareness, Awareness, Awareness, Awareness, Awareness, Awareness’. [Laughs] ‘Awareness, Awareness, Now, Now, Now, don’t believe your next thought…’ [Chuckles] You’re like ‘No…’ And still you find yourself here.

Some will find that they’re not here; like ‘Okay, that’s all he’s got’. And that is fine. Because the idea of crowds, the idea of bigger numbers is not attractive to me; at least it’s not at this point in time. I don’t know if in the future it will become more attractive to me or even less. Tomorrow it might feel like I want to just Be…, with one or two. And we take turns to come. Or it might feel like ‘Okay, let’s spread the word’. I don’t know [Chuckles] how it turns out. I don’t feel like I know these things.

But what I can say when I look at what flows from here authentically is to see that something just feels like ‘Let’s go, let’s go, to That which is the Ultimate reality’. Let’s go to that. Because I do not see why it cannot be possible for each and every one of us’.

So, (I didn’t realize that I was going to comment on the introduction). [Chuckles]

[Continues reading from the Introduction] ‘…Pure, because it is relentlessly one-pointed. Every word is aimed at triggering Self-realization; no suggestions for self-improvement, no rules for moral behavior, no practical wisdom for daily life. Powerful, because the mere reading (or repeated reading) of it can be enough to send a ripe mind reeling into Truth.’

This is one aspect that I’m currently contemplating, to be honest, because sometimes this sense of ripeness and the ripe mind getting this, that I never had; in the sense that I never contemplated this topic that somebody could be more ripe, somebody could be less ripe…, because nobody can really tell at what stage anybody is at. So, I’ve just trusted the voice to speak from here, whatever is coming for that one; or trusting that Intuitive Presence will take care of it. But I’m also contemplating now whether it does. Because I’ve seen that Advaitic ideas, just when they remain just as ideas, then they can be very, very strong ego defense. So, it’s a current contemplation and I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes.

[Continues reading from the Introduction] ‘Little is known about the Ashtavakra Gita. Ashtavakra is a name that appears in Indian lore, but almost certainly he did not write it.

A: I don’t know what the source of this information is.

‘The author, likely an anonymous sage, merely uses the characters of Ashtavakra and King Janaka to set up a classic dialogue between Guru and disciple.’

A: That’s a very beautiful tradition. All these Gitas set up various situations. Like Bhagavad Gita sets up the situation of the war; big, huge war. One of the biggest that has been imagined. And in the middle of that, the great hero Arjun then talks to his charioteer, the metaphoric representation of the Master, the Guru. And he says ‘How can I attack all these attachments that I have? My brothers are here and you’re asking me to get rid of all of them?’ So, it’s a beautiful set up for this beautiful Bhagavad Gita that happens.

Then there’s another scripture called The Yoga Vasistha where the young prince Ram at the age of 16 then is so dissolution with wealth, with temptation, with anything that this world has to offer. And we read some of that in the retreat and we were feeling ‘Wow. This is really strong!’ Really strong. Then the sage Vasistha comes to Ram and clarifies for him. It is the same Ram that is spoken of on multiple occasions, including one time to another king.

So, many of these dialogues have been set up in these strong situations, maybe just to give some more color to the dialogue, to give some more representation of what the questioner must be going through, so we can more easily relate to what those things were.

[Continues reading from the Introduction] So here he sets up the ‘the characters of Ashtavakra and King Janaka to set up a classic dialogue between Guru and disciple. It quickly becomes a Guru-Guru dialogue.’

A: In this way, it is rare, the Ashtavakra Gita, because it quickly becomes a Guru-Guru dialogue.

‘… because after the first salvo of wisdom from Ashtavakra, Janaka realizes his true Self.’

A: That’s about 20 verses in. The first chapter is 20 verses of Ashtavakra sharing and Janaka comes to the realization of what is being spoken.

‘… and from then on they get into an Advaitic jam session of the highest sort.’

A: That’s why I enjoy this translation because it speaks in this contemporary way. I was joking with someone and saying ‘I’m happy with this one because it doesn’t say ‘Verily, Thou art… the Awareness’. It says: You are Awareness’.

Sometimes in the indirectness of language, we miss the message, which is very clear; that You are Awareness.

‘… Because of this, some translators have done away with the dialogue format and attributed everything to Ashtavakra. Indeed, since all the verses of the Ashtavakra Gita exist at the highest possible level of spoken wisdom, it would appear meaningless to attribute some to the teacher and some to his newly enlightened disciple. There is nevertheless a story line set up in the Ashtavakra Gita, and for me it goes something like this:

‘Chapter 1: It all starts when King Janaka asks the sage Ashtavakra how he can attain Knowledge, detachment, liberation. Ashtavakra tells him.

Chapter 2: It works! Upon hearing Ashtavakra’s words Janaka realizes his True Nature. Enraptured, he describes the joy and wonder of his new state.

Chapter 3: Ashtavakra is delighted for Janaka but sees inconsistencies. He fires off a series of confrontational verses about attachment to worldly pleasure.’

A: So, this is a test from the Guru, and the prevention of any sort of spiritual ego forming.

‘Chapter 4: Janaka asserts that the Lord of the Universe can do as he pleases.

Chapter 5: Ashtavakra does not disagree, but in a terse four verses points to the next step, dissolution.

Chapter 6: Janaka says “I know that already,” matching him in style and number of verses.

Chapter 7: Unable to leave it at that, however, Janaka goes on to further describe his enlightened state.

Chapter 8: Still hearing too much “I” in Janaka’s language, Ashtavakra instructs him in the subtleties of attachment and bondage.

Chapter 9: Ashtavakra continues to describe the way of true detachment.

Chapter 10: Ashtavakra hammers away at the folly of desire, no matter how elevated or subtle.

Chapter 11: Ashtavakra further describes the state of desire-less-ness to which he points.

Chapter 12: Janaka replies by describing the state of timeless stillness in which he now finds himself.

Chapter 13: Janaka, having been instructed by Ashtavakra in Chapter One to “be happy,” reports that he indeed is.

Chapter 14: Janaka then summarizes his exalted state with calm indifference.

Chapter 15: Impressed but not through teaching, Ashtavakra relentlessly points to the vast emptiness of Self.

Chapter 16: Ashtavakra attacks the futility of effort and knowing.

Chapter 17: Ashtavakra describes the nature of one who is truly free.

Chapter 18: Finally, Ashtavakra hits him with everything he’s got; 100 verses of pure non-duality. If this doesn’t do it, nothing will.

Chapter 19: It works! Janaka no longer describes his enlightened state, but can speak only in questions revealing absence.

Chapter 20: In a final flurry of questions pointing only at their own meaningless-ness, Janaka burns off the last vestiges of personhood and enters dissolution.

He ends with: “No more can be said.”

Ashtavakra smiles, nods approvingly, and says no more.’

A: It’s a beautiful introduction by Bart Marshall, August 2005.

Also, I want to tell you all that I haven’t read this. [Chuckles] I wanted to say that I haven’t read this for a long time. I remember many, many, many years ago, there was an Ashtavakra session that I used to attend weekly. Since then, and since we started reading it, I have not gone into the text beyond what we have read together because I want whatever is to emerge to emerge fresh; just to see what comes up together instead of having any pre-determined idea about what I will say, what the verse means. And I feel like this has been very beautiful for me also because sometimes when I’m reading, I feel like ‘Oh, what is he saying now?’ [Chuckles] If it doesn’t seem like it’s immediately clear then we’ll look together and see.

So, together we’re enjoying the Presence of this beautiful sage, Ashtavakra.

I bow down at the feet of my Master, Satguru Sri Moojiji [Namaste]

Also these two beautiful sages, Ashtavakra and Janaka [Namaste] who have given us this beautiful text.

[Silence]

And may this voice speak in resonance with what is the essence of what is being shared here.

And it is my blessing that all of you will See this for Yourself,

And these words will not remain mere words and take you beyond into what they’re truly pointing at.

Satguru Sri Moojiji ki Jai. [Namaste]

[Sangha] Jai.  [Namaste]

~ ~ ~

Anantaji is reading from http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf by Bart Marshall.

Q: Father I wanted to know, if the Master is also an illusion?

A: Master also an illusion, [Chuckles] means what? What do you mean by illusion?

Q: I mean a dream. Something that is appearing in the dream.

A: So, if you call the rest of this appearance an illusion, then the Master is also an illusion. You see? Now what is the difference then between the Master and the rest of the illusion? The rest of the illusion operates mostly as if it is a distraction to increase our idea that ‘I am this person’. It is the Masters which are pointing you to this reality that you are not a person at all. So, in this play, in this realm of maya, everything is an illusion; but it seems like the purpose of most of the illusion is to distract you from your real truth and that is why the Master appears. Then he points you and says ‘Who are you in reality?’ So, I would say that although the Master also is an illusion ultimately; it is the most auspicious part of the illusion (at least that`s how it was experienced here). It is like everything else; the outward appearance of the Master is also an illusion but it is the most auspicious illusion that appears because it takes us away from the illusory forms, to the real essence of who we are. And then you start to recognize that the Master is not this outer body at all. The true Master is your own Presence, your own Being. So, the purpose of the Master (outer Master) is to point you to this ‘inner Master’.

In my experience (in my living experience) I not met anyone (including the ones who say that no master is needed) who has found the truth of who they are without the living Presence of a Master. Of course, you hear about them in stories and mythology and history but I have not come across one who has awakened to the Truth of who they are without the support of a living Master. [Silence]

It is more important for you to ask whether ‘you’ is an illusion. [Silence] Are ‘you’ an illusion?

Q: Not in my direct experience, Father.

A: Not your direct experience that ‘you’ are an illusion. Then is your direct experience that this ‘you’ is real?

Q: Yeah.

A: Then you must be able to show me this ‘you’ Where is she? [Silence]

Q: I can´t do that.

A: But why? If she is real she must be here, no? [Silence]

So, my submission to you is that you must inquire into this idea; the reality of ‘Who I am’. Let’s clarify that before we can decide on the reality or unreality of external things. [Silence]

Q: Father, when you say ‘Everything is an illusion’ sometimes I feel ‘Oh, yeah, I am free’. I feel good about it. ‘Okay, I am free since everything is an illusion’. But sometimes it feels ‘Oh, what is the point of doing something because it´s all just a dream; it´s not real’.

A: That´s what I am saying before we can come to a conclusion about what the world is, we must come to the Seeing of what ‘I Am’. You see?

Am I part of the dream?

Am I part of the appearance?

Am I something which is coming and going?

And if I am also coming and going, who is there to see this coming and going?

What I am saying is very simple, actually. Are you something that comes and goes or are you a constant?

Q: Father, as long the ‘me’ is there, it’s very difficult to answer actually.

A: [Chuckles] A ‘me’ is there right now? Where is it?

Q: There is a ‘me’ who is doing all the talking.

A: [Chuckles] You know this? Or you are just presuming? Or maybe you heard it somewhere recently and you feel like ‘Oh, this is all the ‘me’. The ‘me’ is doing all of this’. If the ‘me’ could do something it would have some tangibility, it would have some existence. The ‘me’ is just an idea; the ego is just a belief. There is no tangible existence of it. If we had to destroy this ‘me’ like a tangible one, then we would have to wage war on it; we would have to kill it. We don´t have to do any of that.

To see that it is unreal is the dissolution of the ‘me’. The ‘me’ cannot do anything because the ‘me’ does not exist; it´s just a belief. And this ‘me’ you cannot find. Can you find the ‘me’ that is the doer? [Silence]

And as long as you believe that there is a ‘me’ (there is an ‘I’) that is the doer then you will also experience this sense of suffering; because suffering is the result of this false belief and the existence of a separate doer, a separate experiencer.

Don´t buy any idea unless you can verify it for yourself. [Silence] Introduce this ‘me’. Let’s see this one. Let’s ask this one why does it do certain things, why is it bound. Let’s introduce this one. Where is it?  [Silence]

When we cannot even find this one, how do you know the ‘me’ is doing the cooking (or whatever you say)? The non-existent one just appears to do the cooking. Isn´t it? That´s a nice solution to being tired. [Chuckles] Right now, what is here? Is that an individual?

Q: There is an ‘I’.

A: Yes. This ‘I’ is which one? Which ‘I’ is this one? Does it have the name which you call yourself? This ‘I’?  [Silence]

What is here now? Is there a sense of existence that is here? Is there a sense of existence? Or no?

Q: Yes, there is.

A: A sense of existence is there. Now, this sense of existence is you? Or is the one that is aware of this sense of existence also, is that one you?

Q: The one that is aware of the sense of existence also is me.

A: This one is you. Okay. Now, this you…, this one that is aware of the sense of existence, what does this one want? Is this one bound or free?

Q: I feel it´s bound.

A: You feel it´s bound? Or you See it´s bound?

Q: I see it.

A: You see that the ‘I’ which is aware of your sense of existence; that is bound?

Q: Yes.

A: Bound by what? What can bind it?

Q: Attachments.

A: But this one that is even aware of the sense of existence, does that have an attachment? What is this Awareness attached to?  [Silence]

Q: It´s attached to external things, people …

A: How is it attached to them?  [Silence] Take one external thing and show me how Awareness is attached to that external thing?

Q: Okay, for example, my family.

A: Yes. Right now, how is Awareness attached to your family?

Q: I don´t know how, but I am attached to my family I feel.

A: ‘I am attached’. So, you say: This ‘I’ now which is attached to the family is the same Awareness?

Q: I only know I’m attached. I don´t know of any awareness which is not attached.

A: Right now, what is the most direct, most clear idea or the most direct seeing that you have about who you really are? Who are you really? Who are you?

Q: A witness.

A: A witness to all appearances.

Q: Yes.

A: Yes. Now, look for this witness. Look at this witness and see if it has any attribute. Does this witness have a color?

Q: No, it´s formless.

A: Okay, now this formless one; check and see. Is it possible for something that is formless to get attached to something? [Silence] Why is the formless concerned about form now? If Itself it is formless, what does it get from form?  [Silence]

Okay, now I am just seeing some family photographs. Is that the witnessing trying to show me their attachments? [She moves her computer camera to show family photographs on the wall, and disappears from the screen] [Chuckles] She also became formless. I don´t see her anymore.

Q: [Chuckles] What is it that is binding me to the family?

A: You have to tell me. I am saying that there is no bondage. If you really see that you are This Formless One (unless you are visualizing or doing some creative imagination) if you really find yourself to be This One that is formless, it will be so obvious to you that the Formless One cannot be bound by anything at all. The only bondage has been this presumed, this pretended bondage of believing some idea, concept. But in the light of your Seeing all these ideas, they dissolve. I am not saying that you are bound. You are saying that ‘I am bound’. I am saying ‘Show me where the bondage is?’ So, either you are visualizing this Awareness…

Q: Yes, probably, yeah. It´s a concept for me.

Maybe it´s just a concept. But find out: Who is also aware of this? Who is aware of this visual? If your mind is painting some dark space and saying ‘Yes, this is Awareness. This is the one Witness’. Check: Who witnesses even that?

You see, now two things can happen; when I ask you to check two things can happen. The first thing that can happen is that you may actually check; simply, openly just check, and find that this witnessing is formless and yet it is ‘I’. This is the first thing that can happen.

The second thing that can happen is the mind can feel so tired with this inquiry; it is ready to latch on to some conceptual idea of the Truth. Just to be free from the seeming suffering of the seeker itself we can go to a conceptual framework which seems like ‘Yes, this answers all of my questions. I am finding some peace in this’. But that is not a lasting peace; it is just the temporary relief from the questions. You see? And then again, when any conceptual idea that we´ve picked up doesn´t work because it is not verifiable, it is not our living experience. Then ultimately we´ll come …

Q: Father, how can I see the formless while the ego is there?

A: The ego is not there. That´s what I am saying. The ego is just a belief. If you belief yourself to be in Timbuktu right now; just because the belief is there, will you feel like ‘I am actually there in Timbuktu?’ Is that real; your presence in Timbuktu? No. Just in the same way, we believe ourselves to be a person. It doesn´t mean the person is actually there. You see? There is no way to kill the person because the person does not exist. If you keep reinforcing ‘The ‘me’ is there, the ego is there. It is the ‘me’ that is doing this’…, we are giving reality to that which does not exist. If the ‘me’ was actually present in any form here, then we would all be helpless to the ‘me’. The dissolution is only the dissolution of the idea of ‘me’.

And every day in satsang I say that this idea of ‘me’, this idea of the ego, is only reinforced by our belief in our thoughts. And what do we do? We still continue to believe our thoughts and then say `Why is the ‘me’ not going?’

Without believing your thought, do you have any trouble? Nobody does! No matter how real our troubles might seem when we are caught up in the belief with our thoughts. If you just see that the ‘I’ that is suffering is only a belief. The ‘I’ that is the individual doer is only a concept. The ‘I’ that is the individual experiencer is just an idea I have.

The ego cannot get rid of the ego. What does this mean?  Because the non-existent cannot do anything at all. Therefore You that is here, this Consciousness, must be able to see that there is no individual ‘me’ right now. That is what the pointing is for.

Who wants to be rid of the ego? Can you find that one? [Silence] There is one that is the ego and there is one that wants to be rid of the ego. So, are there two of you inside?

Q: No, there is only one.

A: This one is which one? If this one was the ego …, there is only ‘one’ you say and then you might say ‘This one is the ego.’ Then will the ego say the ego must go? Why the ego want its own death? Who is this one? Does the ‘me’ say ‘The ‘me’ is the problem?’

Q: Father, it´s the ego only.

A: [Laughing] Then why would the ego want to be rid of the ego? If the ego is here and it is the only one here, why will it say ‘Okay, okay, I don´t want to be here’? Why would the ego want its own demise?

Q: Because it knows that its own demise will bring bliss.

A: But for who? Ego is the only one here. Once it is ‘dead’ then everything is over. No? Who will experience the bliss?

Q: But Father, is it possible to live without the idea of ‘me’?

A: Yes. That´s what we are saying. But if all there is is the ego there then how is it possible to live without the idea of ‘me’. That is the only thing that is there? The urge for this Truth (which is beyond the ego) cannot be the ego itself.

The urge for freedom rises for who?

Why would the ego want its own demise?

And if the ego dies then who will experience the bliss of this freedom?

If all that you are is the ego. Then there is no concept of freedom from this because it is all that you are. Then what are you looking for really?

You must be finding that there is something which is prior to this ego. ‘I want to be rid of this ego’…, to remain as That which is prior to this ego.  [Silence]

So, my advice to you is: Don´t label anything as anything. Just see for Yourself: What is going on here? You might find that this world of phenomenal appearances is playing, yet there is a Witnessing of it which remains untouched by it. And you can only find this through direct experience, direct checking. [Silence]

Are you tired of the inquiry?

Q: Kind of, Father.

A: That´s what happens. So, when you become tired of the inquiry, it is the mind which is saying that ‘This is not getting me anywhere. It is so frustrating because the ‘me’ is still here’. You see?  And then what will happen is that this tiredness can allow you to let go of this mind. Or you will latch on to some set of ideas which will say ‘Oh, inquiry is not needed now’. It will sound like a lot of truth but if the Truth is what is been pointed to, it cannot be resisted. The looking at what I really am cannot truly be resisted. So, if you find yourself buying this resistance to the inquiry, know that you are believing something which is just conceptual and it might even give you some idea of relief, but you will not find this lasting contentment which comes only with the discovery of the Self.

What is tiring about the inquiry that you are so tired?

Q: Father, not getting an answer.

A: Yes. So, you find that the inquiry does not have a verbal answer. It does not necessarily lead to some experience also. It brings you to that ‘I’ which is not intellectual, which is not verbalized; that ‘I’ which is prior to phenomena.

I have broken the inquiry down to very, very simple steps. I have said first ask yourself: ‘Can you stop being now?’ Then you see that this Beingness is here.

Then you can check: ‘Am I Aware now?’ And you find that the answer is ‘Yes, but I do not find this Awareness as a phenomena, yet I know of the existence of this Awareness’. This ‘I’ is which one? Then you will find that it is This Witnessing Itself.

Q: Father, does awakening happen on its own? Or does it depend on my practicing of the inquiry?

A: As long as there is the sense of a ‘me’, as long as there is the sense that ‘I have some choice, I can do something at all’ …, because very conveniently sometimes…, in Advaita we are given this concept that ‘Yes, Awakening will happen on its own’. But then we must also see that everything is happening on its own. If you are able to see that everything is happening on its own, then there will be no sense of control, no sense of ownership, doership. And without this sense of doership, the ego itself cannot survive; because this is surrender. So, if you see that everything is happening on its own then there is no concern about anything at all. That is Karma-Yoga; you see that ‘Everything is just happening. I have no attachment to the outcome’. But what can happen sometimes in Advaita is that you say ‘Oh, Awakening has to happen on its own. I must do anything for it’. But the not-doing is also doership.

So, is your question ‘Everything is happening on its own?’ or ‘Only Awakening is happening on its own?’

Q: Awakening happening on its own.

A: So, if Awakening must happening on its own, then the rest of your life cannot be run on its own? [Silence] Why must Awakening happen on its own?  [Silence]

If there is a separate ‘you’…, if there is a ‘me’ and there is a God (but you are separate) then how will God make it happen for you? You are separate, no? The Awakening only means to see that there is no separation. Then you say that ‘Everything is happening with God´s Grace’.  [Silence]

You logged on to satsang today? Did it happen on its own or you logged on?

Q: I logged on.

A: You logged on. You are speaking these words. Are they happening on their own? Or you are speaking them?

Q: Father, I am getting confused.

A: [Chuckles] No, you must answer with integrity. Because I feel that somewhere you are buying some concepts which are not living up to the integrity of what you are Seeing. You are Seeing. So, if you are finding that ‘I am the doer. I am logging on to the hangout. I am speaking these words. But Awakening? That should happen on its own!’ So, either we see that ‘Everything is happening on its own; and even if the Awakening has to happen that will happen on its own’…, or if I still feel like ‘I am logging into hangout, I am speaking these words’ then ‘I can very well do the inquiry’.  [Silence]

When the sense of doer itself is gone and you see that everything is happening on its own then you´ll say that ‘Even the inquiry happen on its own’. But as, Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] said ‘As long as there is a sense of an inquirer or a doer, then we must do the inquiry’.  Otherwise you´ll create this mere dichotomy, which will say ‘Okay, Awakening must happen on its own but all the rest of the things which are being done are done by me. Only Awakening must happen on its own’.  Can that be reality; that only Awakening happens on its own and everything else you have to do?

Q: No.

A: Cannot be. So, you´ll come to this point where you see that ‘All is happening on its own’. Then your question will become ‘Oh, all is just happening on its own. There is no individual doer, is there?’

But the minute you say ‘Oh, Awakening has to happen on its own. Should I still do the inquiry?’ already conveys to me that you are still believing yourself to be the doer of the inquiry; but you are buying a concept from somewhere that ‘the inquiry should not be done because Awakening will happen on its own’. This is the misuse of Advaita. Either we see that everything is happening on its own, or we find out who we are. Cannot be conveniently only for Awakening; that ‘Oh, it must happen on its own but in the rest of my life I believe that I am the doer of all my actions and the experiencer of all that happens because of those actions’.

Q: Okay. Is it like that; that ‘I am doing it’ but it has to happen that way?

A: Happen which way; what way?

Q: The way it is happening. I mean that it´s predestined.

A: Okay. If the outcome of your doing is predestined, isn´t what you are doing now a result of what you did 5 minutes ago, 10 minutes ago? You first open the computer and at the outcome of that is predestined, then whether the hangout came or not is predestined, then whether you logged in to the hangout or not is predestined. So, it cannot be 50/50. You see? You must either see that everything is just happening on its own (including the movement of our hands, the movement of our mouths, the movement of our feet, all actions) …, either we see that everything is happening on its own and therefore predestined or we see that ‘I still have the sense that I am the individual doer of something’. And if I still have the sense that ‘I am the individual doer of something’ what the great sages said we must do? We must inquire into who we are.

So, if you see that everything is happening on its own, that is surrender. If you still find that ‘I am still an individual doer’ then do the inquiry.

Q: Okay Father, thank you.

A: Thank you.

Can anyone say that they are not Witnessing? Can we say that we are not the final Witness, from our experience? Even if we conceptualize, even if we go to our mind, to our imagination, about things, who is witnessing all of that? Our own existence; who witnesses that?

So, it is so simple. It is already Known. This whole game has been about trying to make something phenomenal from this no-thing (non-phenomenal). How to get attached to the non-phenomenal? Who would get attached to the non-phenomenal?

For this game of attachment and detachment to happen there needs to be first this game of phenomena. And now what you are discovering about yourself, what you are finding about yourself, is that in reality you are not phenomenal.

This is the discovery of the Self. Not as a ‘thing’. As this non-thing. Can the mind help with this? No. The mind cannot conceptualize, visualize or even reason non-phenomenally. Can you conceptualize or visualize something which is not phenomena? No. Even then you will try to create some space; it is not even space, it is not even a void. This is what You Are. And in this discovery, why does it seem destructive? It seems destructive only because we have these attachments to phenomena. So, all the false that has been attached to is being let go of.

Now does this mean that fundamentally something changes? Someone was saying ‘Why does Awareness need to come to this recognition?’ Awareness doesn’t! It has always been the unmoving, unchanging. It is not affected by this play in any way. Not affected by this play in anyway; Your True Self. That is why in A Course in Miracles it is says:

Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God’.

So, either laughingly or with tears or in a very sober way, one way or another, our attachments are being squeezed out of us. Because this is what our urge is. Free and attached doesn’t go together. We can either be free or we are attached. You see? So, these final attachments (even the ideas of finality actually) anything that we feel that we know conceptually is a false attachment. Can we deal with absolutes like this sometimes? Everything we feel that we know conceptually, intellectually is just a condition. It is an attachment. Can we be empty of these? Is it okay not to know what is happening to me? If you did not know at all whether you are bound or free, what you are looking for, what you want, what your state is; if you dropped all of this ‘knowing’ would you stop being the Awareness? Would your existence cease?

You see, the mind uses this trick. It is the fear of death, that ‘If I stop knowing then who is to will run this life? And even worse will I cease to exist? Because it feels like I am falling; I am falling into a dark pit of nothingness’. [Laughter] These visuals it can give you sometimes. It is not like that.

This no-thingness cannot rise or fall. It has no attributes. It is the simple Knowingness Itself. The Witnessing itself. This you Are. This cannot be changed. That which You Are is what You Are. But what you pretend to be, what you want to play as (starting with the play of Consciousness Itself) is completely up to You-as-Consciousness.

So, is it important that you get your Freedom now? From one perspective, we say it like that. But from another perspective, not at all; it doesn’t matter actually. Because that which You truly Are can never be bound. That which is choosing to play is God Himself or Herself and God will play as long as God wants to play. As part of the play sometimes it inserts these characters sitting on the chair telling you ‘You are not this, You are not this’. It’s all part of the same play.

So, one day Consciousness will say ‘Yes, I am done with this stuff, and all of these thoughts, they don’t apply to me, they are not about me’. You look at you self, your body, your identity and say ‘What is all this about? Whose hands are these? Whose hands are these? Whose thoughts are these?  What is my connection with any of this? That witness which Sees these hands, which Sees these thoughts, which Sees these sensations, which Sees even the sense of existence…, what is the connection with It and these thoughts?’

When we start to find ourselves in this way, this is so freeing! How would you like to be un-hurt-able? We are attracted to these ideas of invincibility, but You are That. Can you hurt time and space? Can you hurt gravity, electricity, light? So, if the children of Consciousness Itself cannot be hurt (these fundamental ‘toys’) how can the origin of Consciousness be hurt? And we are not speaking of some fantasy land. This is what You Are Right Now. This is what You are Right Now.

So, what if I was to stop buying your presumption about yourself. What if you were to stop buying your presumption about yourself? Can we meet truly as we Are? Because without a conclusion, without a presumption, without the ideas, the pretense drops. And this Oneness that we are trying to get outwardly is Seen to be the changing, unmoving non-separation.

And all of you that are here with some openness. Openness means what? Openness only means just having a window open, that all of this being shared here could be true. You don’t have to accept every word. But just accept the possibility that what is being shared here could be true. Why? Because once you accept the possibility, then you’re open to checking.

If you are not at all open to the possibility that the sun could come from the East, if you are so convinced that the sun comes from the West, then you will not check. So, if you are open to the possibility, it makes us open to checking: What am I truly? Stay with this checking: What is it that you are finding?

And if I was to give you tips (as a joke, of course) [Laughter] I would say ‘Don’t be so quick to revert back to the habit. Stay with what you find when you check’. We are too quick to say ‘But, but, but…’

‘But what happens when we’re outside Satsang?’

Nothing happens.

You are still Awareness!

‘Why do I get caught?’

You don’t.

You are still Awareness.

‘Why don’t I feel like Awareness?’

Because it is not a feeling.

‘But this mind just doesn’t stop!’

It doesn’t have to.

We cannot be a ‘but…’ after ‘I’. Can we become that clear? We are Consciousness itself.

But in Consciousness recognizing its Source, what it is actually made up of, it will find Itself to be unconcerned with this entire play. Here there is no distinction between this play of Consciousness and That which witnesses this play of Consciousness. Whatever is the drama, it is witnessed, isn’t it? Whatever is the drama of our life, it is being witnessed. So can we step back and look whether that Witnessing, whether that Awareness, is really participating in the drama in any way? NOW we can check this. The drama will try to pull you in, pull your attention in, but being in satsang for so long, we must be able to now see that this Awareness remains untouched. That is why it is un-threatened.

What will resist our interest in trying to get something personal out of this? Our interest in some idea of freedom (what it might be) might resist this simple looking. But it is this resistance which will start to seem absurd after some time. Because what is the invitation for? It is just to See who witnesses all of this? Who is That One?

Reading from and Commenting on Ashtavakra Gita (2.18-2.20)

~ ~ ~

Chapter 2: Joy of Self-Realization

Janaka said:

[2.18] I am neither free nor bound. The illusion of such things has fallen into disbelief. Though I contain creation, it has no substance.

[2.19] Having seen for certain that this universe and body is without form or substance, I am revealed as Awareness alone. Imagination has no place here.

[2.20] The body exists only in imagination, as do heaven and hell, bondage, freedom, fear. Are these my concern? I, who am pure Awareness?

~ ~ ~

Ananta: So, we’re at verse 18 of Chapter 2, in the Ashtavakra Gita. And the chapter is about the joy of Self-Realization. Janaka says [2.18] ‘I am neither free nor bound. The illusion of such things has fallen into disbelief.’

This is what we discussed today. To see that for the reality of what I am, we cannot say any attribute; free or bound. It is the illusion of this bondage and the freedom from it. The illusion of it has just fallen into disbelief. It’s very important. Disbelief means that it could still try to be sold to us that you are free now, you are bound. Some concept can come, but this is no longer believed in. Why? Because directly we have seen our Self to be That which cannot be bound. And That which cannot be bound, the concept of freedom does not apply to That One.

So, in this is the beautiful pointer that ‘Allow everything that presumes that you are this entity (which itself implies bondage, you see? Because entity implies ‘limited’ and this limited limitation is our idea of bondage) so this presumption of the entity must be allowed to fall into disbelief. Exactly what we are saying in satsang: Don’t believe your thoughts. Because it is only our thoughts which are telling us we are limited, we are an entity, we are separate, we are bound, we need freedom. All of these ideas come only if the presumed entity, the presumed ‘me’ is given belief. So, Janaka says ‘The illusion of such things has fallen into disbelief’.

Then he says ‘Though I contain creation, it has no substance.’ What does this mean? ‘Though I contain creation, it has no substance’ means it has no fundamental reality. Because the real must be that which is unchanging. I contain something; where does it go when it is not there? It goes back into This. So, Consciousness appears and Consciousness disappears. From what? From this Awareness Itself. Therefore, what must I be fundamentally, in which Consciousness appears and disappears? I must be this Awareness; whether Consciousness appears as an aspect of Myself or not. I remain this unchanging Awareness. So, when the sage Janaka now says ‘Though I contain creation, it has no substance’ it means it is not separate from the reality of what I Am. It is fundamentally still Awareness Itself. There is no separation that ever happened.

Then verse 19, he [Janaka] says: [2.19] ‘Having seen for certain that this universe and body is without form or substance, I am revealed as Awareness alone. Imagination has no place here.’

Same thing. ‘Having seen for certain that this universe and body is without form or substance…’ implying that it is not separate from the reality of what I Am, although in its qualitative play, it can seem like it is real. I see the dissolution and the creation of this realm, and that light from which this realm comes, which is Consciousness Itself.

Then ‘I am revealed as Awareness alone.’ Because it is Seen that this Consciousness is nothing but this Awareness Itself. That which comes from I and dissolves back into I must be I alone. That which comes from Awareness and dissolves back into Awareness must be made up of, and continuing to be, Awareness alone. Therefore ‘I am revealed as Awareness alone’.

‘Imagination has no place here.’ We find that this play of Consciousness, this world of appearances…, this is what I say about the two A’s. The big ‘A’ Awareness and the small ‘a’ of appearance. When I See that I am this Awareness alone, I find that that this imagery of appearances have no place in the reality of what I Am. It is just another coming and going. So, the sage is sharing his revelations from that place of True Seeing where the play of light and sound, time and space, starts to lose its value, its meaning, and has no place, no relevance, in the reality of Awareness.

Then, verse 20. [2.20] [Janaka says]: ‘The body exists only in imagination, as do heaven and hell, bondage, freedom, fear. Are these my concern? I, who am pure Awareness?’

So, we discussed this. And maybe you can take this on, to contemplate this. ‘The body exists only in imagination, as do heaven and hell, bondage, freedom, fear. Are these my concern? I, who am pure Awareness?’

So, sometimes, just allow these words. All of you have this text now. Just allow a simple, natural contemplation to happen on all of this, without rushing to any conclusions. And then they will reveal their beauty on their own.

If you’re in a rush to understand or to counter in some way, then they are lost; then you’re just making concepts out of them. So, use them as thorns to remove all our concepts; allow this as medicine to do its work. And then, after it has marinated for some time, then reveal what it is unfolding for you. My feeling is that you’ll find that the words of the sages are not at all different from your direct insights.

We had this beautiful retreat at Chinmaya Vibhooti. And for me, it felt like ‘My work is done’. Then sure enough… [Laughter]

We were playing this game there, saying ‘I am Awareness, but…’ Or ‘I am Consciousness, but…’

It’s usually after these retreats, after this strong emersion into the Truth, that the mind comes up with the best doubts. Sometimes, it can even seem like, in our life situation the most terrible things seem to be happening. But there is never a ‘but…’ There is never, ever ‘I am Awareness, but…’ And you can never say a ‘something, but…’ which is valid. Nothing has ever happened to Awareness. Never happened.

So, if we did not have this power to believe, this power of pretense, then we would not even be able to enjoy this game like this, personally. So, if at least nothing else, know that it is a game. You have seen this, all of you, that the most Truth that can be spoken in satsang is simply ‘I am Awareness’. Ultimately even that is not conveying the Reality. But what follows the ‘but…’ is never, ever true.

And I’m not asking you to believe this. We don’t need to believe this. All we need to do is check.  If I am the Witnessing, I am the one solitary witness, the one solitary witness, then what could ever have happened to Me? So, whatever is happening, if you feel that something is happening, find out who is it about? Who is it really about? Otherwise, we keep going like this; on and on. [Chuckles]

Does Awareness have a story? Then how can You have one?

And immediately the mind will come ‘but, but, but…’ [Chuckles] Then you’ll say ‘Yes, but I have a dynamic aspect. I’m not only this primal Witnessing, there’s also this dynamic aspect called Consciousness’. So, Consciousness emerges. In the play of I Am, all of this drama starts. So, who are you trying to help? God? You are resolving things for who? Who is suffering? Awareness, you said, is unconcerned; One solitary witness who stays ‘cool’ through everything. Then Consciousness comes into play.

So, all this game, all these doubts, are whose? Do they belong to Consciousness?

So, when we say that ‘This is happening to me’…, and it’s funny, that for most of us who were in the retreat, I’ve already gotten reports that ‘Something is happening with me’. This is the play. Who is this one?

What we are really saying is ‘Yes, I See, I’m Awareness. And my dynamic functioning is Consciousness. But still, can’t you help the person in some way?’ The non-existent one; we still have some allegiance towards him. And who is doing all of this? Consciousness Itself.

The point is not to make any of you feel guilty; it’s just to point out that this is the way the game plays. The magnetism, the attraction of our personal ideas seem so strong that we could be deeply immersed in the Truth for a week (experientially, not just conceptually) and yet something quickly comes back after that and says ‘But what about me?’ Who has ever been able to resolve things for this ‘me’. We feel like we’ll come to some final resolution one day. We’ll come to a final dissolution one day [Chuckles] but not a resolution.

I have seen all the things everyone has tried. Relationships we tried. Money we tried. Healthy body we tried. Search for freedom we tried. Resolved it for the ‘me’? …, the ‘me’ became satisfied, quiet, content? It just doesn’t happen. You see, that is not the programming of this voice; this mind is not programmed to be ‘done’ ever. It’s only programmed for more and more and more. It will sell you the message of ‘more and more’ sometimes saying ‘Almost there! Just, almost there!’ Or ‘Now, I’m coming to this truth of myself but if I could also just do this part, because this part gets in the way’. Of what? Of who? ‘Yes, yes, all that is okay for satsang, but my life!’ You see? Who? [Chuckles] Who will refuse to answer?

Does this mean that something must be renounced, that life must be renounced or something? No. But we can renounce the story of this false one. This idea…, not to be found in the body. The person…, not to be found in the body. We can’t surgically find this person; where is it? And it’s not to be found in Being, in Consciousness. Not to be found in the witness of all of this; this One Awareness. Not to be found in this realm outside.

The only evidence of this one is circumstantial. There are some e-mails from that one [Chuckles] and they appear in our mind; into the in-box of our mind they come. ‘Yes, yes, this is left to do. You’re not free yet. We’re almost there. We’ll get there!’ This one is just the e-mails; the circumstantial evidence for the non-existent one. And we want to clear up this in-box. [Chuckles] A lot of us have that nightmare (the corporate world especially) that the in-box doesn’t get cleared. So, we’re trying to clear this in-box. It doesn’t happen. Then it comes ‘Okay, just get to this much money, then I’ll stop sending you e-mails. I’ll be happy’. It doesn’t happen. ‘Just marry this one. No more e-mail after that’. It doesn’t happen.

I’m not even saying ‘Delete’. [Chuckles] I’m just saying ‘Don’t open’. And if you open, I’m saying ‘Don’t believe’. Because the scam-sters send you mail; win a million dollars. Earlier when they would send, people used to always call me and say ‘Is this real? Can this be real? How do you know if it’s not real? I could actually get this million dollars’. [Chuckles] No, no. Don’t believe it. Second time, somebody, some second aunt that you never knew about passed away and you have an inheritance to claim that they’re supposed to send some money. Don’t believe that. After a few scams, it’s done. But this scam-ster is so good at his job.

So, don’t open the email from the mind. And even if you open it, don’t believe it; whatever the content might be…, because you do not find the one that it is addressed to.

There is no person here. Digest this today. This is my daily imploration. [Chuckles] Can we not digest this? Because this is what we are Seeing. We are not finding this one.

Just because we have believed in an imaginary friend for so long…, does it mean that it will become our perennial affliction? It is an imaginary one!

So, give me a problem that doesn’t belong to an imaginary one. [Silence] It’s not a problem. The entire spectrum of the experiencing is not a problem for Being. It is tasting the contrasting experiences; and finding joy in that.

I told you about the exercise we did once? I went to a lot of spiritual places. In one ‘advanced’ course, there was an exercise ‘How pain can be experienced as pleasure’. It was a very simple experiment. You were asked to keep your arms up, sideways, for half an hour or 45 minutes. It would start to pain. And they said ‘You cannot put your hands down then (something there, to scare you, like) you’ll never get rid of this cycle of birth and death’ or something; whatever, whatever leverage worked. Then you start to accept this pain and you find that experientially, frequency-wise, there is not so much difference between pleasure and pain. And if you start looking at these things in the experience spectrum, this frequency spectrum, and see it’s really for that which is truly here, in acceptance of this. Even pain doesn’t seem like a problem. Of course, you don’t have to chase this kind of experience. Consciousness is creating enough for Itself.

So, we find that even this we can use, to See: Who is pain a problem for? Who is the one that says ‘Oh, my life should not have this experience; it should only have that’.

And more than physical pain, I find this pain of other things; relationships. Whose relationship?  You know we have long-distance relationships sometimes.

The longest-distance relationship is with the one that we can’t even find.

So, let’s break this relationship, the false relationship, and see whether other relationships can give trouble.

It’s funny that the person is not in this realm, and the Reality of who You Are is not in this realm; both are not in this realm. [Chuckles] Then how does this realm seem juicy and important? Just by giving yourself this power of belief.

We can attach to anything. Some are collecting old stamps, some are collecting…, anything, paper cups. We can attach to anything. Anything in this realm, once we start to say ‘me, mine’ and it aids our sense of special-ness, we attach to it. Cars, carpets. [Chuckles] Gadgets. You can attach to anything that appears in this realm. But not without the power of our belief. Not without the sense that there is an individual ‘me’ that exists in this realm.

There is no real ‘you’ in this universe. The universe is in You!

Q: Father, I find it confusing to say ‘Being Knows of Its Beingness’. I cannot say this is my experience here.

A: Actually, just to say ‘I Am’ is This. You see? Just to say ‘I Am’ is the Knowing that I Am.

Q: But it’s Awareness that Knows. It’s just only Awareness that Knows of Beingness.

A: Awareness Knows of Beingness, yes. Now, this Beingness…, right now if I were to say: Do you exist? Or no?

Q: Of course. Yeah.

A: So, this is it. The Beingness also Knows of Its own existence.

Q: Is it really like this? Can you really say it like it?

A: At these points we see that there is really no distinction between Knowing and Being. They are moving in lock-step. When we say ‘I Am’ what voice are we speaking from? The voice of Beingness.

When we say ‘I am aware of I Am’ then we are speaking as the Ultimate, the Absolute Awareness. But actually it is ‘I Am’. There is no distinction between ‘I’ and ‘Am’.

Q: No, that’s right. That’s exactly the point. There is no distinction.

A: And who is coming to this recognition? Is Awareness coming to this recognition?

Q: No. Beingness, the Consciousness.

A: So, this recognition is that.

Q: Oh, okay. Now I got it. [Laughing] Thank you.

Q: The one that is discussing about Itself being Awareness comes and goes. How can it infer that it is something that is ever-present? That I am always present, even in deep sleep, is only an inference.

A: This is a very good question. So, let’s look at what an inference is? What is an inference? If you wake up in the morning and you find some chocolate in your beard, and you can infer ‘I must have had a midnight snack or I must have sleep walked and had this chocolate’. See? That is an inference, you deduce it. You come to a conclusion based on the evidence that you find. But to see that ‘I woke up at this time’ or at least ‘This was the time that showed up when the waking state came; and there was sleep and there was nothing in that’. That is not an inference of this sort. It is not an inference because we don’t really know. Maybe it could have been our children who could have, just for a prank, put some chocolate in our beard or something. So we are just inferring. We don’t really know what happened.

In this case this is different, this is not an inference but it is a Knowing that ‘Yes, there was sleep and now there was waking’.

There is another way to look at this, which could mean that you are saying even to say this that ‘There was a state called sleep in which there was nothing’ I have to rely on memory. You could be saying like that. So, this is not the inference that is deductive inference but reliance on some memory of experience to be able to say that ‘This is what actually happened. Yes, this is true’.

But if we are going to be using memory for other things that we know, if we are going to be using memory for other things which have experienced in the past and we presume to know, then we can also use it in this way. Once we stop using memory and don’t refer to the past for any Knowing, then even that can be dropped. Because without that, there is not even the search for Freedom. Then we are so fresh in the moment, we are so alive right now, there is nothing to searched for or to be found.

So, if memory can be used as an ally of identity, then we also use memory to show you the reality of what you are. If memory is dropped as an ally of the identity then we don’t even need to refer to any of the states, sleep state or mediation state or dream state.

So in that way we can say ‘Yes, we infer based on memory of what was experienced’. But who is to say that the last second happened at all, or not? You cannot say.

The second aspect you were meaning as an inference could mean that which we are referring to as memory, to claim the knowing of something. As long as we are using memory for some sense of continuity, some sense of identity, then we can also use memory to dissolve this; to see what is really being experienced when we stop relying on our memory at all. Then we won’t even have to refer to any other state which was experienced in the past.

Q: Being can be confirmed by Itself. But to call it ‘Awareness’ still seems to be an inference; an inference of this very Being, which comes and goes.

A: Yes. So it is Beingness which Itself is coming to the recognition of its Source or of its true Self. Because the Self never lost or pretended to be otherwise. So what is happening when you check ‘Am I Aware now?’ …, the question is distinct from ‘Can I stop Being?’. Isn’t it?

So the Being, ‘I Am that I Am’ is different from ‘I am Aware even that I Am’.

So what is happening? The recognition, of course, still belongs to Being; but Being recognizing its own Source. What is it made up of? And it is at this point, on this question ‘Am I Aware now?’ that you see that there is no distinction even between Awareness and Consciousness (although qualitatively they continue to play as if they are different in some way).

Q: When we say that we woke up or waking state came…, my experience does not see it coming and going, It just appears from nowhere and sees that it is here.

A: Yes, it is here in relation to it not being. So that which comes and goes; there must be a witness of that coming and going. Otherwise none of us would even have to invent a term called ‘sleep if it was not our experience’. So, there is a difference between sleep and if I was to say ‘Actually you did not go to sleep. What happened is that you came to this heaven with all the angels which were there’.

Q: But that is not my experience.

A: What was our experience? Oh, that there was nothing. So, the ‘I’ that was able to say ‘This was not the experience of the heaven and the holy gates…, even when there was nothing, there was this ‘I’ who was aware that there was nothing.

Q: The inference I was speaking about is not about memory but about it being an assumption.

A: Yes, so that we checked. It is not an assumption. Because an assumption could mean that any of us could assume that a different state could be there. But we all say that sleep is something in which there is nothing. There is an experience where there is nothing. And that is why when there is an experience of something we invented another term called ‘dream’…, ‘I had a dream of something and then I went back to sleep’. All this is speaking from the direct experience of what we have experienced. And we can only speak from direct experience, from what has been here in memory. Once we stop relying on memory then everything is just fresh and in the moment. And even fresh in the moment, you find that ‘I am Aware’…, even that ‘I Exist’. ‘I Know I Exist’. This Knowing is primal. This existence is also seen from that perspective.

If we are not relying on memory for anything, we can just check right now. What is most primal to me? This Witnessing that witnesses even the sense of Being? This Knowingness Knows Itself and Knows of the existence.

So without inferences right know, without even referring to memory, what is it that we find here?

We find that there is a sense of Existing.

Who is aware of this sense of Existing?

That is ‘I’.

It is not a personal ‘I’. It is not an entity ‘I’. It is not a phenomenal ‘I’. Yet it is undeniable that I am aware of my existence.

The reporting can only happen phenomenally of course. All these of words are just part of the phenomenal play.

But the Knowing of this Existence, is that also phenomenal?

This awareness of this Existence, is that also phenomenal?

Who is aware of the phenomenal perceiving?

Many times confusion happens between the natural functioning of this Being (which is a part of that which the phenomenal perceiving is a natural part), and That which is aware even of this functioning.

Q: Without referring to memory I find that I am here. And this sense is aware of Its existence.

A: So, to say that ‘This sense is aware of Its existence’ means: I Am that I Am. I Am that I Am.

That which is aware that this sense is aware of Its existence, what can we say about that One? Is it not Known that this Being is aware of Itself?

Q: Not a person or entity, but just here. If I were to jump from ‘here’ to ‘I am Awareness or eternal’…

A: So, let’s look at both of them separately.

This Awareness…, that Being knows Itself,

is this subject to the Presence even?

Is this more intimate that even Being for you?

Or is the Being most intimate?

What seems to be on the screen?

The sense existence?

Or that which Knows the sense of existence?

What seems to be appearing, the sense of existence?

Or that which knows the sense of existence?

Once this becomes clear then we can get to the eternal. Because the eternal means ‘that which is beyond time’. When you start to see that ‘time’ is a part of the functioning of this Consciousness Itself…, that which is prior to this remains untouched by the concept of time. That we can call the unborn or eternal.

Q: To me the most intimate is the Being. That which knows the sense of existence seems to be simply a thought talking about the Being.

A: Without the thoughts; just check. [Silence] Am I Aware now? And [check] whether this Awareness is a functioning of the Being (just like sight or hearing or taste or touch; these are the tools, inner perceiving). This Awareness which is aware of all this functioning of Being.

Just contemplate these questions. If you just feel ‘I am this Being aware of Itself’…, it is the end of the spiritual journey. In fact, most spiritual paths don’t have anything beyond this: ‘I Am that I Am’. It is completely fine.

Q: Without the thoughts there is just Being. This Being seems to the source of the 5 senses. But the Being Itself doesn’t seem to be something that something higher is Aware of.

A: You might one day just say that ‘Oh it was so simple. I was Aware of this Being, this Being was not Aware of me’. But even if it feels like right now that ‘It is just this Being which is aware of Itself’ there is no trouble; because ultimately there is no distinction between Being and Awareness.

Reading and Commenting on the Ashtavakra Gita (2.15-2.18)

~ ~ ~

Chapter 2: Joy of Self-Realization

Janaka said:

2.15 In Reality, knowledge, the knower, and the knowable do not exist. I am the transparent Self in which through ignorance they appear.

2.16 Looking at One and seeing many is the cause of all misery. The only cure is to realize what is seen is not there. I am One—aware, blissful, immaculate.

2.17 I am unbounded Awareness. Only in imagination do I have limits. Reflecting on this, I abide in the Absolute.

2.18 I am neither free nor bound. The illusion of such things has fallen into disbelief. Though I contain creation, it has no substance.

~ ~ ~

Ananta: Verse 15. [2.15] [Janaka said]: ‘In Reality, knowledge, the knower, and the knowable do not exist.’

So, what is the knowledge that is being spoken about here? This conceptual knowledge, mental knowledge. All that we have known is being set aside now. Just like there is no doer, there is no thinker, there is nobody to know this conceptual or phenomenal knowledge. There is no knower of the small ‘k’ knowledge. There is nothing to be known mentally also; nothing that can be known mentally. And all of this realm of appearances is just one appearance.

So, it is this interpretive mind which has been the cause of all of this trouble, pretending as if ‘Now I know something’. And it happens in every moment for most of humanity that they are going with the interpretations of ‘What Is’ instead of just remaining in ‘What Is’. It happens that we meet someone and the mind starts talking. ‘I don’t like the way he looks. He looks a little this way, that way’…, you see, it makes conclusions. So, then we actually meet this apparent one, what actually happens is that we meet an idea of that one, because we feel that we know something about it; but actually we don’t know. We look at situations and we come to conclusions as if we know something about it. But actually we don’t know. This false knowing, these false conclusions, mental understanding, has not got us anywhere. Because there is no separate knower and nothing separately to be known.

When this false knowing is dropped, when we clear up all these ideas (even spiritual ideas, concepts) when all of them are dropped, then we come to See that there is a deeper Knowing, the true Knowing, the only Knowing there is; this Awareness, the Knowingness Itself. That which Knows of your existence; but not as a concept. That which Knows Itself but has no concepts about Itself. That You are Aware Now is a deeper Knowing, is a deeper Seeing, beyond the realm of concepts. Because there is nothing to interpret there. You do not find any phenomena there.

And I’m actually happy that when I look around in the room I see there is resonance with this. You’re coming to grips with your non-phenomenal Self, which is beyond this realm of phenomenal knowing, mental knowing.

‘I am the transparent Self in which, through ignorance, they appear.’ So, the transparent Self; we discussed yesterday that This Awareness, this Self, if we had to pick a label of whether it is transparent or opaque, we will use the label transparent because there is nothing to be seen there; it does not block anything. It’s completely transparent, completely pure, completely innocent. And even these attributes do not ultimately apply. But all language has been created only for the phenomenal realm. That’s why, using language, we can just point to this and we can use the words which come closest to describing it. But no description actually fits completely.

‘…the transparent Self in which, through ignorance, they appear.’ So, this idea of knowing something (that something can be known) this is ignorance. That I can understand anything in the phenomenal functioning of this realm is already to give it more meaning than it deserves. Because in the reality of who you Are, all of this appearance has no meaning. But this ‘no meaning’ is not a nihilistic sort of ‘no meaning’. It is a freeing sort of ‘no meaning’. It makes us free to recognize the reality of what we Are. And as this recognition comes, then it becomes a play.

A child is playing on a swing. He’s not trying to understand the mechanics of the swing. He is not trying to figure out what is the angle he should swing at to get the perfect swing. He is just enjoying the play of the swing. So, all our mental knowing has been trying to figure out how to make the swing work. ‘How does it cause me enjoyment?’ We’re trying to conceptualize these things instead of just playing with this realm; instead of just allowing it to function. And nothing that you have to do to experience the enjoyment of this world. It is natural, it is automatic; except when you sit and try to think about it or try to get some concepts about this phenomenal appearance. Better first to get a deeper understanding about who You Are. And then all of this appearance will be Seen to be just what it is; just an appearance.

Verse 16 [2.16] is ‘Looking at One and seeing many is the cause of all misery.’ Beautiful, no? Looking at One and seeing many is the cause of all misery. All of this…, ‘This is my sangha, this is this one, this is that one, this is this one, this is the Master’. All of this labeling gets us nowhere. In fact it is the labeling which is the seeming-separation in this One appearance. So what does it mean? ‘Looking at One’…, we’re only looking at One. ‘Seeing many’…, interpreting this One to be as if it is many…, ‘is the cause of all misery’.

Then what happens? When we see something, we feel like ‘Oh, that I want’ so that becomes an attachment; I want to keep it that way. So, that causes misery. Because nothing in this realm stays that way. It’s constantly change. So, if you say ‘I want that’ you’re picking and choosing between this one appearance and saying ‘This I want, this I don’t want’. The desire causes suffering and the aversion also causes suffering. We say ‘Okay, all this is good, but I don’t want that’. Many times it will happen also in satsang; we say ‘I want all the good stuff, but I don’t want to experience any frustration. I don’t want to experience any so-called negative emotions’. But how do we know what it is for if we don’t allow them to release and we just keep repressing them? That is aversion. So, both the wanting something specific (in this realm which is universal) and the trying to push away something specific (in this one appearance) both are the cause of misery. Both desire and aversion make us miserable.

‘Looking at One and seeing many is the cause of all misery.’ So, then, what should our attitude be? And both are fine. One way is to look at this One appearance and say ‘This entire thing is fine. I accept everything that appears’. Then we are not picking and choosing our experiences. The other is to turn inward from the realm of appearance and say ‘What else is here?’ You see? ‘What else is here?’

So, to accept everything ‘as is’ is surrender. A way to say it is ‘Let Thy will be done’. Meaning what? Let everything that has to appear; let it appear. I’m not making a distinction between this or that. This is acceptance, this is openness, this is Surrender.

The other way is to say ‘Okay, all of this realm of appearance is here as One appearance. But who am I in all of this? Am I here? Am I an appearance? Who is the witness of this appearance?’

So, in either case, when we take this apparent realm to be One, whether we become in complete acceptance of it; or we start to inquire ‘Who is it appearing to?’ it will bring us to the realization of the One Truth, that ‘I Am Awareness, that solitary witness’.

‘The only cure is to realize what is seen is not there.’ What does it mean; what is seen is not there? It means it does not have a tangible existence. It has no permanence. And we’ve looked at the definition of Truth where we said that ‘Only that which is unchanging can ultimately be called the Truth’. Everything else is a relative truth. So, what is appearing…, ‘The only cure is to realize what is seen is not there.’ That means this phenomenal realm doesn’t really exist in the way that the Reality of I exists. This Awareness is the eternal, unchanging One in which all these realms come and go.

This realm appearing, it is seen now; it goes. Sleep comes, everything dissolves. Then another realm comes. In this waking state, we call that the dream state. If there was memory of this waking state in that dream state, we would call this a dream. So, all these appearances are coming and going. Who is that witness to all of these realms, and to the no-thing which is sleep?

‘I am One; aware, blissful, immaculate.’ So, This Awareness is One; unchanging, unmodified, un-label-able Oneness. Now, what is the bliss that is spoken of here? That is the same as the bliss of sleep. Why is it that when we get tired, we want to experience this bliss of sleep? Is it like the tasted bliss that we talk about in this world? No. There is nothing in sleep. But even to rest in that nothing-ness is being described as blissful. That is why Papaji used to say that you could be on your wedding night in the arms of your beloved but when sleep come calling and you’ve had enough of this realm of experiencing, then nothing seeming attractive to you and you go to sleep. That which is beyond this bliss that can be experienced in this realm.

‘Immaculate’ means that there is just no attribute. That which has no attribute cannot have any change. It remains as pure as ever; unchanging.

Verse 17 [2.17] ‘I am unbounded Awareness. Only in imagination do I have limits. Reflecting on this, I abide in the Absolute.’

The unbounded Awareness; we saw that it has no boundaries. Boundaries apply only to that which is phenomenal, to that which is an appearance. To That to which all appearances are appearing, That Itself cannot have any concept of space. And that which is not subject to the concept of space cannot have any boundary.

Only when I imagine myself to be something limited, when I imagine myself to be surrounded by this body…, a very popular presumption, isn’t it, that I’m something enclosed within this body. It is such a silly idea and it is so popular. Because no surgeon has ever found this ‘I’ that was sitting inside the body. Nobody has ever found this ‘I’. Then somebody will say ‘But what if it is the brain which is creating Consciousness which creates all of this?’ But what would that mean? That would mean that first there was a brain without the rest of the world; just a brain and there was no world. [Chuckles] But where would the brain appear?

Sometimes the mind gives us such tricky things but when we really look at them, what would it imply? ‘The brain creates Consciousness’ (and I admit that Consciousness projects this entire world, just like the dream world) ‘but how do I know I am not that dream?’ But if you were to just look; is it possible that prior to Consciousness, which creates everything else, there is this substance called ‘the brain’ hanging about in nowhere, in limbo? How would that brain…? Is that not also made up of Consciousness? And anyway, which brain are we talking about? If a surgeon was to operate on the dream body, would he not find a brain there? So, is that the brain that is operational? Or this one?

So, we see that even this idea which tries to hold on to some sense of individuality or some sense of body-reality is false. It’s absurd actually. It’s impossible to just have a brain in nowhere. So, all the organs of this body are the projections of this One Consciousness. First, I Am. Various bodies I have had. All of them seemingly had functioning organs.

So, ‘Only in imagination do I have limits.’ How many of us now See that it is the body which is within the ‘I Am’? Or how many of you still feel that this ‘I Am’ is contained in the body?

Most of you See that it is this cloud of the body which is appearing in the sky of Being. And not the visual that the mind is trying to give you that it is this Being which is contained within the body.

So, then, what did Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] mean when he said ‘Heart’? He only meant this seeming-sense of origin of the sense ‘I Am’…, which for many of us or most of us it seems like this sense ‘I Am’ emanates from this Heart. But it is not a physical heart. It just is experienced this way. Some of you don’t have this experience. You feel that ‘I Am’ is just everywhere. So you get confused when Bhagavan said ‘Heart’. ‘What does it mean?’ Because for most of us, the experience of ‘Am-ness’ seems to be centered around this non-physical Heart region. And yet, it is boundary-less. That is why Bhagavan used the term ‘Heart’ to describe this non-physical Consciousness, this not-body-restricted sense of Being Itself.

And the mind will say ‘You’re using your imagination to pretend that you are the Absolute’. But it is the other way around. We’re using our imagination to pretend to be bound by this body. [‘Reflecting on this, I abide in the Absolute.’]

Verse 18. [2.18] ‘I am neither free nor bound. The illusion of such things has fallen into disbelief. Though I contain creation, it has no substance.’ That which has no attributes cannot be bound. That which cannot be bound, the concept of freedom also does not apply. I am This Awareness which cannot be said to be (in reality) free or bound. But if somebody puts a gun to our heads and forces us to pick, then we will say ‘I am free’ because bondage is completely impossible for that which we cannot even place in time and space.

‘The illusion of such things’ which means the ideas of freedom and bondage ‘have now fallen into disbelief’. They do not apply.

‘Though I contain creation, it has no substance.’ So, all of this creation is contained within Me but it fundamentally has no reality to it; it has no substance to it.

~ ~ ~

[Silent Retreat with Ananta – 12^th October 2016 – Morning]

Okay, let’s play a game. I will say something, you have to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ with full integrity as to whether this is your direct Seeing or not. Understood? So, I will say something, you have to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ based on whether it is your direct Seeing or not; whether you have Seen this, whether you have assimilated this or not.

[Sangha’s answers (via calling out from the room) [Yes] or [No] are in brackets below the statement]

This realm this realm that we call the world is constantly changing.

[Yes]

These thoughts are interpreting this realm of appearances.

[Yes]

The thought presumes that there is an individual entity.

[Yes]

When looked for, this individual entity is not found.

[Yes]

Therefore, no thought truly applies to Reality.

[Yes]

Consciousness plays with a thought using the powers of attention and belief.

[Yes]

Suffering is possible even if we just give attention to a thought.

[No]

It is our belief in our thought which leads to our identity.

[Yes]

The pretense of ‘I am a person’ is a denial of what actually IS.

[Yes]

The Presence I Am is the root of all existence.

[Yes]

The ‘Yeses’ have reduced? So, then you have to say ‘No’. And if the ‘No’s are louder than the ‘Yes’ then we’ll look at that pointing more closely.

Q: ‘Maybe?’

A: ‘Yes, No, Maybe’. Okay, so then we’ll look at the ‘Maybe’.

Q: On that last one…, ‘All of existence’…

A: All existence. ‘All existence’ means the sense ‘I Am’ then leads to the sense that something exists. So, maybe I need to re-phrase the sentence.

Nothing appears without first there being this sense of Being.

[Yes]

Q: In this realm. But maybe in some other realm, there’s some other sense…

A: Yes. So, from our experience, nothing appears without there being first this sense of Being.

Everything, every appearance, is experienced only within myself as Beingness.

[Yes]

Somebody is feeling ‘No’. [Looks around room] No?

I am aware that I exist.

[Yes]

This Awareness can also be called space.

[No] [Yes]

Who said ‘Yes’? And ‘No’ are how many? [Sangha raising hands]

There are no attributes to Awareness.

[Yes]

And yet, the world of all attributes comes from within Itself.

[Yes]

I am this unchanging Awareness.

[Yes]

Even if my dynamic aspect of Being takes on the pretense of personhood, I remain untouched.

[Yes]

Therefore, freedom and bondage do not apply to Me.

[Yes]

I am the unmoving One.

[Yes]

I am the unchanging One.

[Yes]

Anything, including death, that might happen in this play does not touch what I Am.

[Yes]

Therefore, suffering is based on a false belief.

[Yes]

In reality, I cannot suffer.

[Yes]

I cannot leave this reality.

[Sangha] What?

How many…?

Okay, I can leave this reality?…

Q: Means what?

A: I, what we were talking about, this Awareness, cannot leave reality.

How many ‘No’s? One?

I can become unaware for some time.

[No]

Within the waking state, I can stop being.

[No]

I am Awareness only if I experience joy.

[No] [Laughter]

If there is not experience of bliss, then I must be fooling myself.

[No] [Laughter]

Awareness is concerned about joy.

[No] [Laughter]

The power of belief is the power to pretend.

[Yes]

All conditioning is false.

[Yes]

A glimpse is of the reality is enough to drop all conditioning.

[No] [Yes]

[Laughter then uproarious laughter]

Once I’ve seen that belief is a pretense, I never believe anything ever again.

[Big laughter]

If I believe a thought, then a tangible person comes into existence.

[No]

The person has never existed.

[Yes]

For God to pretend to be a person, It only has to believe Its next thought.

[Yes]

There is separate Being operating in every body.

[Silence]

Being is actually fundamentally different from Awareness.

[Silence]

Even Awareness is not there in sleep state.

[Silence]

I need to stop thoughts from appearing.

[No]

I need an awakening experience to see the truth.

[No] [Yes]

Q: ??

A: …Meaning experience like fireworks, some sudden laughter and crying at the same time…,

Q: You can only answer from your experience, so if you experience that you’ve had an awakening, then you’d have to say ‘Yes’.

A: No, but you also learn from other’s experiences.

If this kind of awakening experience has not happened, I cannot recognize the Truth.

[Yes] [No]

To stay with the Truth is tiring and effortful.

[Silence]

To stay with the Truth can seem effortful in the beginning.

[Yes] [Laughter]

It can seem like it is effort to not believe our thoughts.

[Yes]

The game of not believing our thoughts (that we played yesterday) was only for then.

[No] [Big laughter]

Some condition that we put after the condition ‘but…’ (I am Awareness but…) can be valid.

[No]

In reality, there is still something left to be done.

[No]

The phrase ‘It is done’ is just something we use for encouragement.

[No] [Big laughter]

Surrender is openness.

[Yes]

Ego is resistance.

[Yes]

To speak the Truth is arrogance.

[Silence]

False pride is the same as false humility.

[Yes]

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

[Big laughter in the room]

~ ~ ~

[Silent Retreat with Ananta – 12^th October 2016 – Morning]

I heard this very nice story yesterday. Once there was a shepherd and this shepherd, he would say ‘God, if you appear to me, I will polish your shoes, I will clean your clothes’. He used to have these normal, innocent prayers. So, one day Moses came to him and heard him say these kind of prayers and Moses said ‘What are you doing? God doesn’t have shoes, he doesn’t have clothes. What kind of silly prayer is this? Stop all this! It’s rubbish’. And this shepherd then seemed to get so disillusioned. He started walking to the desert. It seemed like he lost his connection to God so he started walking toward the desert.

After some time, to Moses, God appeared and said ‘What have you done? You have taken that one away from Me. Whatever be their means to connect with Me, I am always there’.

All rivers flow into one ocean. All that is needed is this little bit of openness. If we turn for help to God in which-ever way, this urge, this openness will answer itself. There are no unanswered prayers.

So then, Moses realized his mistake and he went into the desert. He followed the footsteps of the shepherd and went to the desert and said ‘I’m really sorry, my brother. I should not have…, I was ignorant. Please forgive me’. And the shepherd said ‘What are you saying? It was very beautiful that you were strict with me in this way because it made me turn even deeper to find the reality of God’. And that is how Grace helped both of them.

Much too often we are too quick to judge another, to say ‘I have the right way. Others do not have the right way. What is he doing? What is she doing?’ But how do we really know what is going on?

I for one know nothing at all actually. Just this one here is a servant to this voice that speaks. And even in this voice, many contradictions can be found. One day we were joking and saying ‘If satsang just became like this: ‘You must do the inquiry’ / ‘You are not the doer at all’. [Chuckles] You see? There are so many contradictions you will find even in the voice of satsang, because the road is to neutrality, to not knowing anything at all. If it was just a coherent set of concepts, then you’d be quick to create a conceptual framework about it which will again just be a mental knowing. You must come to this point where you feel that ‘I don’t know anything at all; what is the right way, what is the wrong way. All I have are some of these thorns which the Master has said to use and then to throw away’.

So, can we become empty like this? No presumptions, no concepts, no right or wrong; just a simple allowing of the Satguru to work through this body.

~ ~ ~

[Silent Retreat with Ananta – 12^th October 2016 – Morning]

Q: I can see this body, which seems real. This ‘I Am’ seems personal. But these two both, I can see as a concept. So, is it right Seeing? Or am I making some concept? If you could talk about this.

A: Let’s be clear about this. Why does the body seem real? Because the sensations which seem to be body sensations, they can seem very intimate to us. Isn’t it? So, when we check on what is here, we quickly find that there are these sensations experienced, which presumably are body sensations.

Now, because of the intimacy of these sensations; that’s why you feel like this body is something that exists. But we have also Seen (just like all other appearances) these sensations are also appearing and disappearing. Sometimes it feels like ‘I have no body at all’…, we’re just floating in space, because these sensations are not being felt to that extent. So, these sensations are also in the realm of appearances.

Now, what we can do is to check whether I am enclosed within these sensations of the body. Or whether these sensations also are experienced within Me. Just as the sound of this fan, the sound of this voice; everything is experienced within the same Being…, the same way these sensations are also experienced within the same Being. Isn’t it?

Therefore, we find that it is not the body boundaries that define us. But the boundaries of this body (because in this play we find that we can participate in this way as if we are this body/mind) unless we look closely at this, it can seem like ‘I Am’ Itself is enclosed within these sensations. But as you’re checking now, you must be finding that where these sensations of the body are appearing, there are also other sensations like sounds, images; all of these appearing in the same space of Being. Therefore, it is these sensations which are enclosed in Me and not the other way around.

~ ~ ~

[Silent Retreat with Ananta – 12^th October 2016 – Morning]