God Is Now - 11th April 2019

That could be in our mind, not easy or difficult. Identification is happening in an automatic way right now. Still, identification is happening in an automatic way.

Okay, so the doing also will happen is like trying to break that. So okay, what is simpler than that?

Just being.

Good. So what is simpler than that?

No idea.

After just being, are we stuck? Is it... but it's still, you see, in terms when we try to just be, it is still a step. You see? You getting this? When we try to just be, it is already a position that we've taken. We've already made a reference to ourselves. What is even simpler than just being?

Nothing.

Nothing, is it? Nothing. Not even just being, but not opposed to anything is, or for anything. Deep sleep?

Sleep.

You see, even that is not so simple. You see, sleep... my daughter used to be like this. She used to put her head on the pillow, out. You know, two seconds, out. Even now she sleeps like this. She just put, thirty seconds, she's out and she's up. So for some it may be like that, but for most, just by saying sleep... sometimes because of the habit, it seems easier to identify or to stay being or...

Yes, that's what I said. Yes, whatever you think you have to do for freedom... what do you think you have to do for freedom? It seems easier to sometimes put a little bit of effort and to see what you are not.

And sometimes, yeah. So sometimes he says it seems easier to actually put that effort and see that I am not this, like this, you see? And after that effort is done, what do you find?

That it is simpler just to be.

That it is simpler just to be. And when this finding is also not there, you have a sense of what I'm saying? Like, are we always in a position? You see, like this conclusion is that, okay, I see now that it is simpler to just be. You see? Now, is there something which is even simpler than that? You see, because this seems like, 'Oh, ah, yes, I see now it is simpler to just be. Now I can just be.' Then somehow everything doesn't get so sticky. Everything doesn't get so sticky and then you can go with your attention into things and you don't get identified. So now if I tell you that you don't have to go... sometimes it's helpful, all of this is good, whatever you said, it's not bad, you see. But if I tell you that right now in this moment, you don't have to take that circle to come back to this. It is just naturally like this, here and now.

It would be a belief.

It would be a belief. So don't believe, just see now. Is it so? Is there something special that in this now that it is gone?

Probably the trust and somehow to you, like an openness.

Like an openness. See, and this openness will spread throughout our life in a way. See, because when I say actually that the Self and to recognize yourself is actually simpler than seeing that I'm sitting on this ground. Because even in that recognition, there is first self-recognition, which then gets added on with additional attributes of taking yourself to be the body or something, an object. But at the substratum, at the basis of all recognition, is your recognizing yourself. At the basis of all 'I' is the truth. It is the truth of the substratum. And this is metaphorical, okay? It's not actually physical in this way. The substratum is the truth, and then are built on the layers of whatever the truth considers itself to be. First, being. Being itself, see? And then once it takes itself to be 'I am', which is being, you see, then a world of possibilities. You can be whatever, you can take yourself to be whatever. Is it? You can close your eyes and imagine that you are... some don't even have to close their eyes. But for that, for that identification as you called it, there needs this being first. If you were not in existence, then there was no possibility to identify because even to identify, you first need to be, you see? But even to be, you need to be. Even to exist, there must be you. We say 'I am' and say, okay, can you stop being? No. I see that I am. It is not the existence of another. It is not duality in that way, you see. It is just the fragrance of your substratum, which is this, your very being, you see. So it's not two. It's not 'you are', it is still 'I am'. So this being then becomes the light of this conscious play in a way, and then all these objective appearances come and the voice of the interpreter comes, the voice of the seller of limitation comes, you see, who says, 'But this is what I am, this is what I am not, this is what I want, this is what I don't want, this is what I must do, this is what I must not do.' All comes from this. So once all this appears, you see, it is not that in reality something changed. It is just that all of this is now appearing.

In the morning again, probably it's common, but in like the first hour after just waking up, it's really very sticky. And like whatever comes there is like there is no space.

If you take my one tip to heart: never try to solve it for a past you or a future you. Don't try to solve it for the one who was there in the morning and don't solve it for the one who is going to be after satsang. In every moment, just if there is a solving, see if anything has to be solved in this moment.

It's just that sometimes in the hour I can build up so many concepts, so many not true things, that it may last for another hour or so. And then I have to really look at them, what I just built, which is just to be silence and see all of that what I just built is not true, you know.

Yes. So when you're caught up, you're caught up anyway, you see. So these conclusions will not help. You see, when we are caught up, we're just caught up. The minute the seeing comes, you see, then don't try to fix what already happened, you see, or don't try to keep something for the future also. You step back from time, actually, in that moment. Step away from the idea of time.

Okay, maybe it's too much. Usually just stay in silence and see that somehow just let everything appear and then automatically in the seeing everything seems not true anymore.

Yeah, this is good. So this is exactly what I'm saying. So in that moment then, you're not... if you try to then fix it and say, 'Okay, tomorrow morning when I wake up, then I should not do this,' you see, then it's just adding to the conditioning. See that? So even now, if it is true that as you say in satsang you experience this effortless openness, then use this hour, two hours, whatever is there, you see. That is the best antidote for everything else anyway, you see. But if you keep saying, 'But now that I have this openness, how do I fix it for my morning time when I wake up?' you see, then even this hour, two hours will get mixed up in all that stuff, you see.

I'm catching this voice more and more. It's like being aware of this voice. It's like I'm taking everything else to be false but this voice true, you know. And now I can see this is also...

In this way, many, many times the mind poses as your friend and says, 'Okay, you're good now, but Eddie, I just want to point out that when you wake up in the morning, you're still caught up for about an hour or so.' You see, then you lose what was there. Even now you don't actually lose it, but you have a sense of what I'm saying. So satsang is available to you. The best thing you can do, if there is something to do in these two hours or one hour, whatever it is, is to remain in your unborn, remain in your notionless existence. And that's what I mean when I say don't try to solve it for that one. From direct experience here, I can tell you that there is no better antidote to anything in life. Really take this to heart what Master Bankei said: 'All things are perfectly resolved in the unborn.' Whatever you may think the problem is, it is better resolved in your notionless existence than any strategy that you may come up with or any tactics you may come up with. Because this is the source of whatever tactics or strategies that you might come up with anyway, you see. Where does everything arise from? Even the mind only comes from this. So if, as you say, that there is some peace or openness found in satsang, then remain in that without trying to over-solve future or past. Because all conclusions that we are making about ourselves, you see, we cannot really be certain about them anyway. They can seem very real because, okay, memory is reporting something or you can use inductive reasoning to say, 'Every time this happens to me,' you see, but that is still reasoning. How Papaji said: 'The past is a graveyard, forget about it.' Past is gone, forget it. Future one you've never met anyway. And right now there is never a problem. Actually, I remember being astounded by this many, many years ago when I first read 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle and he said, maybe in that book somewhere, that in the right now there is never a problem. And I remember I was so astounded because it was clear to me that if I'm living in some time, it must be in the right now. And how can it be that in the right now there's never a problem? I remember being so astounded by this. Even if you take yourself... is it really so?

Yes, yes, it is really so because you are not even... even if you take yourself to be an object which is living in a tiny slice of time, you see, that means I am here in the right now. This object or any object that you take yourself to be is living right now in this tiny slice of time stuck between the past and future, you see. But in this tiny slice of time, there is never a problem for right now to fix, is it? Right now you are, of course, not that object in the tiny slice of time. You're beyond time.

Please, I mean, if there is a body and it is paining...

No, no, now. So this you have to experiment, not think. Is it now? Now? See, you know this in your heart. She had that expression: 'Once he starts doing now, now, then it's all gone.' And which is exactly what I'm saying. In the now you're referring to, there isn't an object there because you're not beginning to think about it.

Yeah, yes. You're not using perception to actually report about now.

Exactly. This is the beauty of it, that you may think that I am a limited object with so many problems and things to solve, you see. But once you actually move from thinking about it to actually seeing for just one moment, then even this idea of being objectified, of being limited, is gone. So how can the idea of the problem that belongs to that limited object survive if that basis itself starts to, or actually fades away? This is what I want you to test. And I don't mind if you argue with me. You have to come and say this is not true because otherwise I'm speaking all rubbish and I don't want to die stupid. If I'm speaking all rubbish for five years, please come and correct me now. I don't want to waste another five years. But what I'm saying is that God is now, you see. Everything that you're looking for is now, you see. The 'me' is not yet here, you see. But an offering for the 'me' can come saying, 'Ah, but you are limited,' you see, and then you seem to be away from or distract yourself away from your true godliness, your true divinity, is it?

Father, when you say there is no problem in the now, what do you mean by problem?

Exactly, that's what I mean. That in the now, the concept of problem loses its meaning.

Every... all concepts kind of lose...

Exactly. But I mean, she said if there is a physical pain, that won't go away.

Yes, but it's no longer a problem.

So this is a very important distinction actually. And I might sound like I'm saying something stupid, okay, but I have experience...

Your true godliness, your true Divinity is it? Father, when you say there is no problem in the 'now,' what do you mean by problem?

Exactly, that's what I mean: that in the now, the concept of problem loses its meaning. Every concept kind of loses its meaning. Exactly. But I mean, as she said, if there is a physical pain, that won't go away, yes, but it is no longer a problem. So this is a very important distinction, actually. And I might sound like I'm saying something stupid, okay, but I have experimented with this a bit and I've seen that we don't actually suffer from our pain. It is painful, of course; the pain is painful, that's why it's pain. But we don't actually suffer from our pain, but we suffer from our resistance to the pain, you see. And this is not something new that I'm saying; I'm sure Jung, Freud, all of them said all these kind of things also, I'm sure. But it is a beautiful insight. It is a beautiful insight.

This is the difference between a grown-up and a child, you see. A child is in pain, cry, cry, injection, cry, cry; next moment, toy, rattle, you see. But a grown-up, you see, being there, cry, cry of course, and then maybe not so obviously, but try to be strong, all that stuff. And then the pain goes, then the lamentation starts: 'Oh, why my body has become like this? And there's so much pain,' and it doesn't go away, you see. So that is the difference between a child and a grown-up, you see. So a child does not suffer although they may be in pain, you see. Pain and pleasure are a natural part of this existence; there's nothing to say about that, you see. This apparent world of duality has all this duality of pain and pleasure, of course.

So this kind of freedom that we are speaking of is not a freedom from pain. Maharaj in his dying days used to talk about it sometimes, that sometimes the pain is so much that I can't even sit, so much pain. So pain is still being experienced by the greatest of sages, but they are not concluding anything about their true selves. They're not making a sufferer out of it in their conceptual mind. So, such fortunately or unfortunately is not a cheat code from these types of sensations, any type of sensation. But our seeming amplification of it, our seeming amplification of it is what is called suffering through resistance, through conceptualizing, through limiting yourself to be just the one that is in pain. This idea, limiting yourself in this way, is what it is freedom from.

It's like having an image of yourself suffering.

Exactly, that's what suffering is about. You create an image of yourself who suffers, yes. That shape is necessary to suffer. Just one last, sorry, just one last point about this pain thing also is that there are scientific studies now which talk about accepted pain versus resisted pain, you see. And many people who were in deep pain, they were taught in some way to be in greater acceptance of it, to be more spacious with the pain, and they have in scientific studies confirmed that their seeming experience is much lighter after the acceptance has been there, you see. So our mind has a nature of amplification where it can make things seem like they are much worse than they are, you see.

At one time I also was sharing about this sort of strong exercise we did at a previous spiritual organization I was with, where they got us to look at the nature of pain and how energetically it is not so different in the spectrum from pleasure, actually. There's pleasure that can be found even in pain. Of course, these things can sound terrible to one who may be identified with their pain at the moment, you see. It can sound like I'm demeaning the misery or something like that, but that is not my intent. My invitation is just to say that if it feels like there is one moment of space, see if the pain is the entirety of your existence or if there is a space in which even the sensations of pain are occurring, you see.

And for those of you who don't have any attention—because when pain comes, then attention is like a magnet; it can feel like all our attention gets sucked into that—so then no trouble, it's okay, you see. Just as far as possible, don't make any conclusion about that, you see. And when that little bit of spaciousness comes, you see, then use that opportunity to check: where is this pain actually happening? Does it cover the entirety of me, or is there a vaster, greater existence in which the pain is just another coming and going, another appearance?

The pain that seems very frequent—are you speaking of physical pain?

No, it's the suffering part, the identification of the one that has a problem, you see, in stepping out of the real.

So inferentially, logically, yes, I can say I've already stepped out because this is an action I want to get back to myself. And there are passing, seeming passing experiences of being established in the truth of where everything is perceived. The point of view is being established in the true self or sufferer... what did you say?

Being established in the true self.

But I guess from inference, the attention or identification is going in a false self that is suffering and thinking and planning and recalling the past and so...

Yes, that is very accurately the mechanics of it, right? But this body, this false self, seems to be here quite often.

Then this is the idea. Now, when we say that the false is here quite often, is that true or is that false? Byron Katie it, you see. And it could be that the mind is screaming right now saying, 'But everything in my memory is reporting that it is true! You see, yesterday I was fully in the false,' this kind of thing, okay. But what I'm inviting you to do is like, be here now. Frequently the false... I know this one will go, okay. So also let's look at it another way. You see, if we have to be empirical for a moment, in a sense give some reality to this story of time and space, how many moments from yesterday do you remember? You see, twenty, thirty, fifty? If you really think about it, a hundred? No, at best, if you start writing, if you're really very good at this, a hundred. How many moments were there in this supposed yesterday? You see, millions. It depends on how you take the moment. If you take seconds, then thousands. How many seconds? So out of thousands, at best you'll remember those hundred, isn't it? So can you confirm that in the remaining, suppose it is ten thousand moments, so nine thousand nine hundred moments, can you confirm that you were not free? You can't confirm.

So what if this one who's bringing the evidence to you is already biased and slanted towards telling you that you are not free, you see? Which is in opposition to the one who's every day telling you, 'But you are.' This is the one that's so... but when we look at it even scientifically, very empirically, we say, 'What? I remember a hundred.' And suppose in those hundred moments, even all of those hundred were identified, suppose it is only giving you the evidence to show you, 'Okay, see how identified you are.' But what about the remaining? I don't remember more than maybe a few moments, like twenty, from yesterday if I really refer to my memories. Do that query, you know, run it and see what is coming up. Very few. So we cannot really confirm that this is true, that 'I'm mostly identified and it is very frequent.' But what we can confirm is what is just right now. That is why it is not a trick that I'm playing with all of you to invite you to come into a direct seeing of what is right now, because my proposition to you is that maybe your mind is playing tricks with you and convincing you of your limitation.

And in fact, I would say that with this openness, if you say, 'Okay, let me get frequently identified right now,' I would notice it now. Huh? I would notice it. I don't know how to... okay, in the ten minutes, get identified ten times now. Clock starts now. If you keep playing a game like this, you will find that more and more, it is more effort to get identified than to not be identified. Very silly it seems like.

It seems silly to actually...

No, no, it's not any... it doesn't need any judgment like this. It's not also a crime. What happens with you sometimes is that if I say something and it feels like the look on your face feels like, 'Oh, I've committed this big crime' or something. You have not committed, you see, it's all good.

That's the one that I have trouble with. There's always a, like a policing of every single thought. It's very harsh.

Our satsang knowledge sometimes can convert into this sort of policeman. I call it the 'Checker Guy.' So that's why when we are dissolving, when we are deconstructing everything, we include everything that we even learned in satsang, because this Checker Guy relies on this: 'You are not doing inquiry enough. You are not open enough, you see. You are just getting lost over and over. You will never find it. There's no hope for you,' this kind of thing. And it is the same Checker Guy who will make the other conclusion also: 'You're doing really well. I think I'm really getting it today.' Yeah, this one who's giving you a report card. Sometimes it gives you an A+, but then uses that A+ to give you the C- and see, you are so much better off, isn't it?

And there's nobody who has not gone through this Checker Guy. All of us have experienced these manifestations of this in one way or the other. There are some who I say—not some, very few—who I say that because of how I see you today, I'm so glad that I can confirm that being in satsang works, you see. So even with them, I remember that there were times where the Checker Guy was so strong. But over this just being in satsang, being open, now it's not that strong. So all of us go through this in some way or the other. And now it also, once it's recognized, once it's noticed, you see... but the thing is that this is why I call the Checker Guy my arch-nemesis in a way, not to be taken too seriously, just using a comic book metaphor, you see. It is because even if I say, 'Okay, so now don't give it to the Checker Guy,' the Checker Guy will take that and say, 'See, now you're giving it to the Checker Guy again. Father said don't give it to the Checker Guy,' you see. This is the thing, you see. So you don't try to escape it like forcefully. Something has brought it to your attention; that much is enough. Now I don't want to fall for the Checker Guy because that is just the voice of the Checker Guy itself.

And this version of the mind is responsible for most of the suffering in spiritual seekers. This version of the mind who is constantly giving a report card and saying, 'I can turn this off for a...' how good you're being, how bad you're being, whether you're succeeding, whether you're failing. 'Are you getting this? Are you not getting this? What is keeping you on track? What is not keeping you on track? Now I figured out how to lose it.' Now all you have to do, you see, all of this stuff, subtitles. Just the subtitles to your spiritual journey using your spiritual knowledge. So coming to the innocence of a child is not to know a lot of spiritual stuff. That's why almost every satsang I tell you that everything I'm speaking is nonsense words. Saying drop your identity, drop your story, you're here and that is enough.

Yes, that is so comforting because it hits it like exactly for that. Yeah, that is it actually. Just to say you're here and that is enough. That's like so reassuring. Just stops the mind.

Father, the sort of the victim identity became clear now. So all these thoughts believed in were perpetuating that.

Yes, yes. And still has some momentum. Quite a long time, it's been there for a long time anyway. Okay, sometimes these conclusions you can just see and things like that, but don't take them too seriously. It's okay. Just the being that is here. What to say about that? The being that is here. I fail to say, if you only realized who that was. Talking about your being, there is no God other than that. Your simple, your very existence.

For those expressions that you are using like 'your very existence,' I'm having trouble reconciling some part of... if there is only one being here, it seems like this one and that one and everyone else is speaking on behalf of that one being.

Yes, yeah, exactly. That's what that... perception begins there, yeah.

What to say about that? The being that is here. I fail to say if you only realized who that was. Talking about your being, there is no God other than that. Your simple, your very existence.

For those expressions that you're using, like 'your very existence,' I'm having trouble reconciling some part of it. If there is only one being here, it seems like this one and that one and everyone else is speaking on behalf of that one being.

Yes, yeah, exactly. That's where perception begins there. Yeah, in the sense, I clarify like that because I didn't want anyone to have this—somebody might be new in the broadcast or something—so you might be feeling like he's picking off Ananta or something. Not the appearances in this being, but the very being which is the substratum for all these appearances to happen. That's the one I'm speaking of. Notice there's a little uncomfortableness being just this all. Yes, it can feel a bit uncomfortable, and the uncomfort seems to be there is a thought that is being believed that what is now has to appear this way, or a story has to match with that.

That's what we were saying the other day: that it is the easiest, simplest thing to meet God if you did not have any idea about what God is or should be. And it is impossible to meet God if God has to live up to your projections or the mind's projections of what God is. That's the only struggle here, actually. It is the simplest, easiest. In fact, that seems to be the theme of satsang today: that it is the simplest to meet God empty of our expectations of what God should be or is, and it is impossible to recognize God if that recognition is burdened with our mind about what God should be. Don't burden your life. In fact, let me say it in a simpler way: don't burden anything with your idea of 'should be.' That is where the struggle comes from. 'Should be' is equal to 'should not be'—same two sides of the same coin.

Years of conditioning... just with that decision not to go to 'should' and 'should not,' would that be sufficient? Should it be or should it not be?

No, I meant... no, I'm saying, should it be sufficient or should it not? No, it is not sufficient. This is what I'm talking about because, I mean, this is ingrained over years—what God is or what it can be. The ideas are... unless until you do some magic and take it. Okay, magic done. Now this is...

So, another version of this conversation is this man came to Papaji—I've repeated this—and he said, 'Can you show me God?' And Papaji told the story about the child, basically talking about the innocence of the child. And then he said, 'Okay, let's not... you don't have to wait till tomorrow to check this. If you don't doubt, you will see God.' So this man says... and then Papaji says, 'What do you see now?' The man says, 'I don't see God.' Papaji said, 'Don't is doubt. I said don't doubt. What do you see now?' Now you have to honestly say whether this still sounds like wordplay, huh? Still sounds like wordplay. Is this like, you know, it's a nice like hocus-pocus thing? Can it be like that? You see, that exactly is doubt. If you did not have a precondition on what God should be, and you are just hearing with the innocence of a child that everything is God, then what do you see?

Yes, yes, but it is that innocence and that freshness... yeah, is lacking.

It's not lacking. It's here now. Is it? But we sell it to the mind in a way. It's here now before that 'but, but, but' comes. And its coming also is not the end of innocence. The buying of what it is selling is the end of innocence. And it will then tell you the idea.

But that just happened. So then even what Guruji said, which is that 'you are here and it is,' is enough, is it?

It is enough. It is all. The minute you take yourself to be as if it is not, or you are something small, then even this beautiful pointing gets pushed to the background, isn't it? So all pointings are just reminders or pointers for us to just check. We can start... if you start, if something appeals to your heart and you start with a belief about that, it's okay. See, but it cannot be the end belief because all beliefs are debatable. All concepts are debatable. A better, more credible debater may come one day and... 'But it is not all. It is like this, you see. I was fooling myself, you see. I got stuck in this spiritual trap for so many years. Now I realized that actually I am a person and I have to do something easy.'

And many actually go through like this because if it is just a question of belief, then any belief can be argued against, you see? And then if our beliefs... if it is only going to be at the level of belief, then a super debater or one with very seemingly rational arguments might come and shake us out of that belief, you see? That's why if there is belief in satsang, use that belief to check for yourself. Confirm to yourself through your own seeing that takes you beyond belief. That's why Guruji said the other day that we are not a satsang of just believers. It's a very beautiful pointing. Not just a believer. Because if belief is there initially, it's okay. Maybe some trust is there. Use that. But use that to explore: 'Is this true or not? Is this really like this?' Then you will find that what you are discovering for yourself, the concept which is pointing to it is tiny compared to that. Even though it might sound like the greatest concept, it's tiny compared to your seeing, isn't it?

That's why some teachers say that all you can do in front of God is be in awe. If you try to define it, no chance. And to define it is actually our escape from this awe or from this wonder of what is, is it? When we say we feel fearful, what are we feeling fearful of? Just this. You see, all of this thing, you see, there's a manifest, unmanifest—all this is mental definition. But still, just to point to you, just to taste yourself now, you see, you cannot actually not be in awe of it. But then the mind will come and say, 'Well, let's calm down a bit. See, settle down. What's actually happening here? There's one body which you are, sitting here,' you know? And this kind of... it starts defining. And somewhere that can feel... because when suddenly we are in awe, we like the comfort sometimes of going back to a, you see, like a comfort zone of our suffering, actually. Many times also a comfort zone. It can sound strange, but at least we say, 'Okay, to it now, this is too much.'

It's just right now. If you were to just assimilate everything without judgment, you'll see that even phenomenal... then you start, like I say, you know, include everything, everything. And then don't forget to include the elephant in the room, which is the non-phenomenal witnessing of all of this. Include everything in your perception and then include that which is aware even of this perception. This moment is wonder. That's all. We cannot put one word that accurately defines it, describes it. You're in awe of who you are, and that's all you can be in relation to yourself. Even that is just a word, a three-letter word which doesn't mean much. And it's like, you see Niagara Falls or something, and then just in the seeing of it, maybe it feels like too much, so maybe I should draw it, or today's version, take a photo, and you know, like this. It feels like a bit much to meet life as it is.

So this is the quantum leap, or the cow who jumped over the moon, going away from our head to... it's a bit cliché to say from head to heart, but in a way like that. You're just switching from this constant judging, judging, judging to just... best even not to make a reference to what. So something that I may say very simply, like 'God is now' or 'Mukti is now,' all the head is full of 'me, me, me.' But simple letting go of this 'me, me, me' mahamantra of 'me' is all that is needed, if something is needed.

Okay, so namaskaram, Ananta Ji. There are statements arising in me telling things about me. You were just talking about this. At times I just maintain awareness and the statement just recedes and dies into silence. At times I take it as my statement and go through the consequences. So what do I miss in the second instance? Lack of awareness? Question mark. Sorry, I'm not able to see how the statement gets my approval and becomes my representative.

From when you're caught, you're caught. Just see how things are now. Don't worry about the one who's caught for a moment. It can sound like a simplistic trope or something that I'm saying, but it's actually not what your mind might be making it out to be. When you're caught, you're caught. Forget about that one. That one is in anyway in the Master's grace. Nothing can be done about that one who's caught. But you see now, and that is enough. Don't exchange your present seeing trying to help that one who's caught, who cannot be helped anyway. In this way, you cannot be held by any personal idea of you anyway. Surrender that one to the Master's grace. But you see now what you are. That is enough.

By saying, 'staying in this, get caught less and less,' is that also speaking from that which is getting caught?

Yeah, because you still have that benchmark in mind. I want to say also in a way that it is natural, you see? And yet, you will see that that actually gives it more fervor. This is what I mean by the 'checker guy' also. That, 'I now... now the perfect strategy how not to get caught is to not worry about the one who is getting caught.' Still there's a tinge of this plan-making. This just came clear this now. I wanted to say before, it felt so real: 'Just stay in this and then that will solve your future personally.' Nothing about finding truth of God can be depicted here. You cannot think about finding the truth. You can only find the truth. And that can seem like a pain for some time because all that we are used to doing is thinking about things. 'What do you think about this? What do you think about that? What do you think about everything?'

Now when I come in... but you cannot really think about God. You can only find it. In fact, when you're not thinking about anything, that is called the finding. It is not a two-step process. You're not thinking about, 'Have you found it? Is that true? Is it like that? I find it.' That is not it. And I said that even the most devotional, the ones who are concluding about themselves being the most devotional, at this point the mind can really get at them. And you realize that many times our devotional conclusions are also coming from a mental place. This is not meant to create any guilt or something like that. And they're saying that the ones that even feel that 'I'm not very mindy or mental, I'm more heart-like in my temperament,' when it comes to this point of letting go of all conclusions about yourself, at that point you start to see how much we are still in the mind and labeling ourselves and concluding about ourselves.

So it's not going to be like Archimedes—he's the one who shouted 'Eureka!' It's not going to be that the perfect formula will come to you. Sometime you say, 'That is it, finally.' If it is going to be something, it's going to be... I'm missing Joy now suddenly, she always starts... she's just going to be... but this is always like this. I've always been this. If some conclusions come, they will be more like this. I say, 'I found that something new,' you see? It's more like, 'How did I miss? How could I have missed this?' You see, here for years I was frustrated about this 'I am.' 'What is this I am? What is this I am?' Then one day, he said, sitting in that auto-rickshaw, I was just... 'What? I was missing this?' But it is impossible to miss this. Yeah, just like that.

This is what the conclusions are not: 'Ah, see, now I give birth to my Atma' or something. Suddenly now it is here, you see? Not like this. How could there be a blind spot to this which is the most obvious thing, you see? That's what I mean by pointing, saying: simpler, simpler.

So what happened at that moment? It's impossible to say what really happened, but let's presume that what happened is that for a moment the complexity was drawn. One moment the complexity was drawn and it was never picked up again?

No, no, it can get picked up. Now there's nothing like that. There's no 100%, you see? It is... Bhagavan has a beautiful metaphor for this. He says the rope becomes the burnt rope, you see? Why is it beautiful? Because it's not that the remnants of the rope go. It's not like every thought has to stop coming. Yesterday the kids were teasing, 'Do these thoughts still come to you?' and...

What happened is that for a moment the complexity was drawn. One moment the complexity was drawn and it was never picked up again. No, no, it can get picked up now; there's nothing like that. There's no 100%, you see. Bhagavan has a beautiful metaphor for this. He says the rope becomes the burnt rope. You see, why is it beautiful? Because it's not that the remnants of the rope go. It's not like every thought has to stop coming. Yesterday the kids were teasing, 'Do these thoughts still come to you?' and I was like, 'Yeah, they can appear.' So the remnant of the rope can still be there, but the rope, now a burnt rope, can it tie anything? No, it has no power. This is exactly what happened. This is the manonasha. It is not the stopping of all thoughts from coming; it is that the thoughts, the strength of the rope, is now burnt. It is dissolved, you see. It has no power over you. That is the destruction of the rope.

You see, your identity will become like cauterized, you see, because the mind is like the burnt rope now. So you get a different identity, like almost notorious. But the mind and its thoughts, they will still continue to come and go, but it is still the dissolution of the mind because this doesn't have any power. You see, Consciousness itself has divested the rope from its power and now it is like the burnt rope. So it is not that they have to stop coming, but it's just that it doesn't have that stranglehold. Like, the thoughts keep coming even now, but there's no belief to it. Yeah, there's no belief, therefore no identification. And even if belief goes, it is so momentary that it doesn't really exert any strength. It's not the cessation of thought. It's not the cessation of thoughts, although there might be a quietening. Cessation means a complete full stop, but you might experience a quietening of them in the sense they don't seem like there's so many and like that. But even that, you don't have to bother with. How does it matter how many they are if they have no power?

If you don't have to cross the road anymore, it doesn't matter how many cars are going on that road. Only if you think you have to cross, then you have to say, 'Okay, why is this road so crowded? When will it become less?' See, now if it is just a flowing stream, how does it matter if it had rained and the stream is full or if it's a tiny thing? It doesn't really matter if you have nothing to do with it. You don't have to cross it, you don't have to swim in it, you don't even have to do anything with this mind stream. Just the stream is flowing. Only when you make a relationship with it to say, 'I am dependent on it for something,' only then. So that is the rope and burnt rope metaphor where if you have nothing to do with the rope anymore, then it already lost its power over you. So for you, it is burned. If you have to think about it, it is not the truth now. If you're thinking about it and you're thinking about it and you're thinking about it, then like it happened here, maybe in a way that I thought about it so much that I got tired of the thinking and I kept it aside. That is the only seeming benefit of thinking about it: that one day you will get so tired of it that you will keep it aside.

See, because many times I ask, what is the benefit of thinking about this or identifying yourself as a product of your thinking? Now this is the only one that I thought of. Feeling a bit like fidgety, yeah, sleepy and like getting distracted. Yes, it's really annoying.

It's fine. It's happened. It's not like it hasn't happened. And then it's okay. Don't be too hard on yourself also. It's just already you're doing very well if you noticed it. You don't have to struggle, don't have to do. In fact, if it happened over a long season for only a few times as you say, then you did very well. Only invitation, huh? Only invitation. At the beginning things will come, okay? Because you're beating yourself up or you're feeling guilty or even concluding that, 'Okay, this is the mind,' will just add to the conditioning. Maybe what will you do with that knowledge? You either make yourself feel guilty or you'll say, 'Okay, I've not done so well today, tomorrow I won't give to the mind,' this kind of thing. But yeah, we have transcript recording and basically I'm repeating the same thing every day.

Better then, then you heard more than everyone else if you just heard even this much. Even this, don't think about. And again, we defined what 'don't think about' means. It's not that the thoughts should stop. Is it that they're coming and going? The stream is flowing, the traffic is moving on. Like this road, there's so much traffic. Like some people, they come, people who lived in India for many years, they now like some college trip they went to America and then they stayed there for many years, then they come and say, 'But you cross this road? I can't cross this road.' You see, because of that. So treat the mind like that. But the good news is that you don't have to cross. You cannot not be the Self. You don't have to go anywhere at all. So let these thoughts come.

And that's what I was even saying, I don't know whether you heard that part. So I said that the one who's caught is caught anyway. When you're caught, you're just caught. There's nothing to be done with that one anyway, you see. But now when you're not caught, then don't get caught up in that one. You see, I don't feel like I've said it better than this actually. You see, the one who's caught is caught up anyway. There's nothing that can be done about that one. But in the moment when you're not caught, at least don't get caught up in that one. You'd be surprised how common it is for the one not caught also then to get caught up in the one who was caught, and then therefore becoming the one who's caught. And nothing can be done about that.

So if you don't take any position about the one who was fidgety and not listening and things like this, you see, then it's perfect. Because if you do take a position and say, 'Okay, but now that should not happen,' or 'That should happen,' or 'I've been bad,' or 'Is it not my fault? It just happened,' you know, any of these positions, then it's still a variant of that same one. I don't even need to say it. I'm sure I was quite fidgety sometimes during the season as well. Yeah, you don't need to be harsh on yourself or rough on yourself or tough on yourself in any way. In fact, I've said that if anything that I said makes you feel guilty or something like that, just throw it away. That is never the intent. But words are not true descriptors of what is trying to be conveyed. Exactly like this. So sometimes it might sound like even what I've said can sound like, 'Okay, this is an invitation to feel guilty,' or 'I've been bad,' or something like that. But it's never the feeling here because it is never helpful.

You see, that is what I call the dessert of conditioning. The starter can be, 'I wonder what movies are running in Bangalore right now?' Like that. You could be sitting in satsang thinking about, 'Oh, did I send that email I was supposed to send?' and 'What all things do I finish?' All this stuff can come. So that's the starter. Then the main course is like, 'Okay, okay, now stop being like this. Listen carefully. You're wasting your chance.' You know, like this. And then all this like main course: already you're stressed, emailing, movie, movie, all that, and satsang, satsang, 'You're not the person,' all that. And then the dessert is coming, which is saying, 'But you are such a waste. You can never get this stuff.' You see, it is just, 'Look at these people, they look like they're in so much bliss and they're getting it. Look at you, you're thinking about movies and you're just you.' So you can just feel like that. And this dessert, you know, is making you into something so limited. You see, it is making you into an object, a person, so strongly. The starters were okay, but at least you're not like, 'I'm such an unworthy seeker, I'm just wanting to watch a movie.' So just enjoy the dessert. It is the opposite of the metaphor.

Okay, okay, so I should clarify. If you were on a diet, yes, you're trying to reduce your calories, which is the egoic conditioning of the calories. Yeah, then sometimes the egoic conditioning of just being distracted by a movie or some email or some work or something like that, you see, versus taking yourself to be an unworthy spiritual seeker, you see, that has a lot more egoic conditioning than just, you know, 'We got distracted for a minute, it's okay,' or for an hour. It's more you just notice it and that's it. Yeah, that's it. It is noticed anyway. Noticed and that's it. There's no other shovel that you can send in there and pull it out anyway, besides your attention, which you call noticing. You see, what other tool do you have anyway? What are you going to send in there? Just more concepts. Just more concepts: 'I've been very good' or 'I've been very bad.' Noticing is enough.

I feel like teasing her more. She doesn't know me well enough, my humor well; she might take it personally. 'I am trying as hard as I can but nothing is happening. I'm unable to see the distinction between Consciousness and the one who identifies with the thought and gives belief to the thought.' So don't try at all. In fact, all satsang, that's all I've been saying: don't try at all. Whatever you think you have to do, it is simpler than that. Whatever we think we have to do to get this stuff is simpler than that. In fact, you don't have to see any distinction in anything. If you are saying that you are unable to find any distinction, that is one of the highest pointers I have for you anyway. Don't make any distinction between anything. Not even Consciousness, person, awareness, being, body, emotion, sensation, perception. All these things, forget. Anyway you're coming soon, don't worry so much about it because a spiritual seeker on overdrive is not necessarily the best way to get this, or the spiritual trial. 'I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying.' It's okay. You can play out this way and I can play out the other way. It's all okay.

'I'm trying as hard as I can but nothing is happening.' Now you could say this in a completely different way: nothing is happening. In fact, one of Papaji's highest pointers was nothing has ever happened and nothing has to happen. For trying or not trying, for getting the distinction or not getting the distinction, you have to exist first. Your existence and that which is aware of this simple existence is independent of all these positions. Okay, enough. Thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Satguru Sri Mooji Baba Ki Jai. Guroo.