How to Stay with God

Yes, but this one is... that's why I'm saying that this one will keep pretending as if it wants that, but actually, even in its pretense, it is blocking that. So leave it to Ram.

Okay, I'm just... so what happens when you leave it all? What compels you back? It's like I leave it, then something comes up and is this that? Something like that happens. So that pulls you back in the mind, the mind saying, 'Is this that?'

So leave that. Like some knowledge is that heart knowledge, that thing, yeah. Some knowledge will come up and it seems very different from the previous knowledge. So then who wants to check whether it's heart knowledge or head knowledge? Oh no, I don't know what is the third option. Even these two options... if the heart is guiding, then is the heart itself saying, 'Oh, is this that?' No, something is checking on that, you see. Now, besides the mind, what could it be?

Even the first... only I'm not very on heart and mind, that the difference... like I know it's coming, it's going round and round and round so many times.

Okay, so we started by saying you're empty. Empty of what? Empty of the mind. So you're in the unborn, the no-mind, yes. In the no-mind, you find that it is not a lost state; it is a found state. Then some guidance may come, you see. Mostly it will just move you. Initially, you get used to it just moving you. The light just moves you. So you don't need to hear or to know what the guidance is; you just allow the holy presence to move you.

And once you get used to surrendering in that way, living in that way, then you may start receiving some guidance in your heart. So start like that. Just be empty. Come out of the 'me' because if you're going to oppress it with the spiritual seeker wanting to know, wanting to grasp, wanting to attain heart knowledge, then that won't... that will just delay the maturing. Even now the mind wants to say something.

Yes, something it'll do. I know this also. Try that.

You cannot do anything about it doing whatever it is doing. It will keep doing whatever it is doing. You don't follow that. Are you using inquiry or prayer or what? What are you using today?

Today? No, I'm saying overall.

So let me recap for everyone. I advise that you don't start your day without coming to God's presence, yes. So when you start, don't just rush into things and start replying on your phone and getting to what is called doom-scrolling and all of that. Just keep that aside for some time and just first come to your center where God's presence is alive. Stay like that. Be centered in that way. So the heart temple, which is always there, get the Darshan of God's light in your heart temple and then allow the rest of your life to move from there.

Actually, once you come to that, then you don't have to do anything at all because God's presence is there; He will move you, He will guide you. Just allow that to move you. Don't pick up the false doership. You've done your part; you've come to God, now just allow His will to unfold. Okay?

Then what happens is that this sounds quite straightforward, but I don't feel anyone can just do that, you see, that 'ah, done.' Because you need an anchor. Because the mind is so tempting, it will tell you some story. It will tell you this, this, this. To pull you out of the temple in your heart to go to the realm of the mind, it will tell you some seemingly compelling, important things—problems you need to solve, things which are unfair, whatever narratives may be.

And that is why you need an anchor. So that anchor can be inquiry. When it offers you a story, you can ask yourself, 'Who am I? Who is that? Who's the protagonist of the story?' Or you can keep chanting your prayer or your mantra, or if you feel comfortable, just remain in the presence of unconditional love in your heart. Just anchor yourself with that.

Because most of us by now would have heard that... heard in Satsang, heard Master Bankei said this very famous thing, which is: 'All things are perfectly resolved in the unborn.' You see? So who doesn't want all things to be perfectly resolved? Everyone does. So all of us must have tried to stay in the unborn, isn't it? But then what happens is that we go back into the mind because it seems so tempting, it seems so compelling.

And because it seems so compelling, that is why inquiry, prayer, and the presence of unconditional love are available as God's instruments, as God's tools for us to use so that we can be anchored in His light through the course of the day. And even in spite of that, we may still be tempted from time to time. We will forget, you see. I forget. And it's not necessary that because I forget, all of you will forget, but it's likely that all of us forget, no?

So when that forgetting happens, we are not to then beat ourselves up and say, 'No, no, but why did this happen? I'm not doing it right.' None of that. Just return home. And home is the temple in your heart. So as soon as you notice, come back. Because you don't know the next trick which will come from the mind, which may be spiritual itself. The mind offering spiritual advice will keep you in the head for longer and longer, you see.

So that includes the mind's so-called conundrum of 'Is this heart knowledge or not?' You see? Who wants to know? Does the heart want to know? No. It is the same mind which is posing as wanting to do this on your terms, which is actually the mind's terms. So leave that. Just stay with the presence, that's all.

Stay? Yes, that's all.

That is all. That itself is the most difficult and the most simple endeavor in the human condition. Most simple moment to moment; most difficult over the journey of time. When there is time, it is the most difficult thing. In the moment, it is the simplest thing. It is a pure non-doing, actually. Effortlessness.