At What Distance Can You Be From Your Own Self? - 23rd February 2018
Saar (Essence)
Ananta guides seekers to recognize that the Self is not a distant goal but their current, unlabeled reality. He emphasizes that personhood is a mere mask, and by dropping all mental labels, one's true existence as God is revealed.
Your very existence is the only being there is. There is only one I am.
Leave everything you perceive unlabeled, then the one that cannot have a label is completely apparent.
There are only two ways to live: God now, or me and my nonsense.
intimate
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
I say everyone will come to Satsang. There can be only two possibilities: first possibility is that you are the Self; second possibility is that you are at some distance from the Self. Seeking self-realization implies that we are at some distance from ourselves. This must be the presumption before we have the idea of finding the Self. Finding implies that there must be somebody to move something to find. So, at what distance can you be from your own Self? Can you make one meter distance between yourself and yourself? You know what I mean? I am not playing with words, although it can sound like it. But can you make this distance? So then, where do we want to go? What do we want to find?
We might also sometimes have the idea that the Self that I am right now is not enough. I am right now the person and I want to become the Absolute. But this is just a mask. We are taking some equivalents and calling that 'me'. But that which witnesses all this appearance will somehow magically smile at the most obvious mistake. This body appears to me. My hand, my mind, my thought, my emotion, my sensation—all this we call 'me' or 'mine'. What about that which witnesses all of this, which perceives all of this? What can we say about that? And there is no actual reason in reality to say that something is 'mine'. There would be if you could first produce the 'me'. If there is a 'me', then it is possible to have a 'mine'. This 'me' nobody finds; it is a presumption.
This we don't want to investigate. Everything else phenomenally we are very happy to investigate. You know, if it's a car and somebody says it is six-cylinder and you have a suspicion, before you write the check you will investigate properly. Is it four-cylinder or six? Or you buy a house, you may investigate every part of that. It must be clear what the maintenance of all this is. But this that we consider ourselves to be, that is left under investigation. So we pick up the idea that I am just this bucket of flesh and bones and blood. I am the sensations. The sensations draw my boundary. When has this ever been true? Your experience is also not telling you this. The sensations that we call the body, the perceptions that we call the body, they are being perceived within you. All of this! And yet for some reason we say that this sensation, which is within me, defines my boundary. Complete madness. It's divine madness already, or it's complete madness with the divine illusion, and yet illusion nonetheless.
So I am the bearer of good news. What is the good news? Good news is that God is here and even more, I Am. Your very existence is the only Being there is. This 'I Am' is not an entity; there's only one I Am, only one 'I'. This is apparent to you when you leave all that you perceive unlabeled. Do all that you have seen unlabeled, then the one that cannot have a label is completely apparent to you. But our habit is: let's make distinctions everywhere, let's draw boundaries, let's claim anywhere. This is you, this is me, this one is man, this one is woman, this one is young. Everywhere. As I said, even for a few moments, leave everything that you perceive unlabeled. Without the label, what I'm saying to you is completely apparent. You don't need certificates from the mind. It is apparent.
Still, the mind will always protest: 'Objection, Your Honor!' It will always forget this one. Only when thoughts come and go without labels, you are not defining yourself as something limited, and your experience about yourself is always the unlimited. Only when labels come, you see. It's important for me to point this out, otherwise we will keep waiting for some objective experience. And that is self-realization: to realize that you have always been the Self. To recognize this is self-realization. Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi said, 'It seems to you you are yourself, but if you have a "but"...' He says, 'I know I am the Self, but I want freedom.' So if that condition is there, then inquire into the condition and see who wants freedom. And if your temperament does not seem to be able to inquire, then let all your wants and desires be handed over to the Satguru, to the Self. But even these two main lines of approach—self-inquiry and surrender—don't need you to have the presumption that you are something limited first. Otherwise, you know, these are mockingly done.
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And this is the second piece of good news: nothing needs to be done. You are the Self right now. All your prior conditions, all that you feel—'I am a sinner,' your sins, all that you are proud of—everything is gone right now. It is all gone. You have to think about it to bring it back. You are full and complete. You are Brahman even when you pick up the doubt, but it is just to play the pretense. Nothing happens to your original state. That's why this starting point is very important. Now, do you want to start with the presumption of personhood and then hold the bottle? Or do you want to see what already is and see if there is somewhere to go? If you want to be that way, that 'I am a person wanting to get to Brahman,' then the play of the journey will have to happen. If you are open and willing to check what is here now, you will see that whatever there ever may seem to be, I have only always been the same.
The disease has made me naked. It means: don't meet me with this mask on. The mask is gone. It's gone, it's gone. Yes, I'm answering for you automatically. We are naked in this one. You don't even have to become; you don't have to become open. What's the next move? We are going to meet God in a moment. We are going to meet God in a moment, but if you judge Her, She will seem like a person. Who's ready to meet yourself now? This is the only God. If you're judging this God, then you use the mask. Stay unlabeled, unjudged, uninterpreted. I Am just I Am. This divine presence, as you're meeting it now, sometimes the mind will come and say, 'Yes, I just have to hold onto this, I just have to hold onto this.' But I am suggesting now that you are here to get rid of it. Transfer everything from your divine will. Tell me who's acting?
Yes, here. Do not leave it. The way to go everywhere is only within it. It is impossible to go anywhere else. Naturally, it is feeling like I am aware even of this existence, of this consciousness. I am aware of even being aware. Being is recognizing its own source. You know, there is no up, no down, no left, no right, no tomorrow, no yesterday. No doer, no freedom, no me, no mine.
Very existence is made up of this absolute essence. This lens of distinction... one more manifest, no existence, no awareness, no concept of all. Commit to evolve beyond what we can and see beyond any realm. In your experience of dreams, you are the eternal goodness. How long will you consider yourself to be this tiny appearance? I am with the clear of divisions, of distinctions. Not seeking, nor finding, nor losing. I am one without positions. Even then, later, meet me without your mask. We will remove this one. There's no need to collect any more spiritual concepts. All the explosives you need to burn everything that is false are already with you. If the idea you believe—the bucket of the self—is already in the dump, gone, then it is apparent to you that you are much greater than any idea.
So as we go into the break, I am going to the most beautiful experience of this retreat: this purity. Let's make it easy. Let's make this retreat easy for you. Let's not jump to collect and fill you with more. This time I was wrong; you turned out masks. And if you just want to say hello, then just say your own makeup of the time.
Aparna says there is nothing to speak about that which exists and nothing to speak about that which doesn't exist. If there was no presence, then there is no word. So we must be... so I must be beyond to perceive even this. Thank you, Father. But please burn, I mean burn, any arrogance. You smiling around... only words can separate you and me, but we are already one.
So if I would have gone crazy today somehow, this is even the seeming separation of emotions or concepts of words. It is only living separate as pretense. No real separation has ever happened. As the Chaupai says, all things are perfectly resolved in the unborn. It's quite conclusive, okay? All things perfectly resolved in the unborn leave no scope for anything. And what is this unborn? What is your very motionless existence? How to get to this motionless existence? You are already now. And now. Become an ocean. But now, there's a matter with all of this. It is the same as saying God is here. Your very existence is only one consciousness, one Being. All these apparent distinctions are just masks we use. You don't have to even remember this. All the nonsense we just apparently... not apparently of mind, but the power until you of this world. There are only two ways to live: God now, or 'me' all night. Blessings to all of us. May you all have a beautiful dream of Christ. Continue to write it as it goes. Present and filled. So much for me. Incidentally: God now. God now.