How Would the Self Leave the Self? - 21st June 2016

Who is this one? If we stay with this looking without clutching for any concept at all, even if the concepts from the mind are coming and going, allow them to just come and go. The recognition is here now. The Self that you are looking for never left, cannot leave this. How would the Self leave the Self? How would the Self leave the Self? Then, like I was saying on Facebook the other day, then who got left behind to go and look for it? Who is looking for the Self? 'The Self left me, the Self has to be found.' Who is to do this finding? That's why the term 'Self-recognition' is a better one. To recognize what is here now without any crutches, without the support of mind, without being together with any energetic movement. Don't sell yourself short or presume it is about anything else except the question: Who am I?

All that we say in Satsang is just to get you to this moment of checking, of looking, and of recognizing who you are. The only seeming distraction is our own thoughts. No circumstances, no emotion, no sensation, not even the appearance of thoughts can distract us. It is only our identification with them, our belief in them. Maybe one day there will come a time where everyone will wonder, 'How was it in this world in 2016? Everyone used to believe themselves to be that which never existed.' Every day, try to see that everything I can believe is not me. Anything that I can believe is not the reality of 'I'. This 'I' doesn't need any concept. You, with an idea about this, are playing as a vagabond of the truth. To make a conclusion about this would be a bit premature.

There are some thoughts that seem to get you over and over again, then you don't need them. I suggested to all of you in Satsang: make a notebook. Write down your top three, top ten, top three, whatever the number is. Write them down because sometimes I see some of you, for years you carried the same beliefs. Know that whatever you are believing is not true. Not necessarily because it is not appearing like that, but because that which you're presuming yourself to be when you believe it all does not exist. I have to go, my dear. So, I feel like becoming a bit of a school principal. I mean, I just make this point: I want all of you to do this. Write down the top three. Really get into it. Inquire into these. Whose is this? If it's about relationships, if it's about freedom, if it's about money, if it's about the body, it might be about anything.

Do you also know the seemingly most popular affliction now in the Satsang is the report of the interpreter? Because it has been inquired into about the body, it has been inquired into about relationships and money and freedom, then the mind has followed with a constant commentary: 'This is happening, this is happening, this is not happening, it's happening like this, I am going to do some things, why is this happening?' You see, if it is happening to you, you don't need the mind to report it. It's already happening. You know it, isn't it? So, what I've been calling 'the checker guy' has become a bit of an infection. It's contagious. Just let it go. You don't need this checker to check. The same checker then plays the role of the reporter. Who is this one? You're checking who is the one that is reporting on how everything is going.

Neither the progress we are making for freedom, nor the state of relationships in this life, nor the concerns about financial security and the state of the body—none of these need the input of this mind. Neither the practical nor the truth needs this mind for anything. As long as you keep using this mind, you keep pretending to be this mere packet of flesh and bones. What moves you? Thoughts. This reporter, this checker, needs nobody. And the mind, you know, it hides. It hides behind a special mask of arrogance. So, shine your light on the full integrity. Be exposed to yourself, at least. Out of the ideas that you still believe about yourself, as you keep looking at these, as you keep inquiring into them—and the idea was not to do psychotherapy with them—the idea is to expose them to the light. If you expose them to the light, if you do that long enough, you will just see them. Then you will find that this idea of 'person' seems to get more and more transparent.

There is a point, very fast, that you will not be able to find any attributes which you can say truly about yourself. Especially, remember: throw away all your spiritual concepts. They are also a burden. And then, when all spiritual concepts are also thrown, there is naturally spirit itself. Use your body, the mouth, your hands as an instrument. If it's an expression, it is not in the spiritual concepts which will make you spiritual. It'll only make you the 'spiritually good'. As you allow them to go, you'll find that any presence is functioning through you. So, through self-exploration, let it just be a bomb exploding that which is false and throwing it away. The finding of the Self, therefore, must only be the dropping off of belief from the false. Because the truth, by definition, is not coming and going. It would be a completely worthless truth if it were to come and go.

Have no patience with the mind now. We've listened to enough stories. Five years, don't pick it up. Even if an angel from heaven comes and tells you, 'Pick up your next thought,' don't pick it up. No matter what that thought might be saying, don't pick it up. That's it. Right now, don't even pick up the thought, 'I am going to do this.' You are not going to make any spiritual progress. This is not about progress. If you keep going like this, off Satsang, for ten years, what would you say? 'Oh, Ananta was such a useless teacher. I've been going for ten years and I'm still where I was.' Then I'll wake you out of some level that you seem to get into. The mind will continue to pretend it is you. Let it go about doing whatever it wants. If you find that you picked up something, then throw it away. If you say, 'I can't throw it away,' then you write it down. Don't let it linger like this file which is just waiting for the right opportunity to come up and get you. See it at least to be able to say, 'I see you trying to play this trick with me.'

It was a long way, the dropping of this conditioning. And the trick will be about one of these four or five topics. It doesn't have anything fresh. I feel that most of you who have been in Satsang for long, if you are coming with a question, if you're coming with a report, I also want to hear from you first: what did you find in your own contemplation about it? Because we must come to a point where we are breaking out of this Arjuna mindset, the seeker mindset, and seeing myself to be Brahman. The Satguru alone is not enough. You say that 'I am the Satguru,' then let's see what still gets your belief. After carrying the intention to let everything come and go, after exposing it to your own light, then inquiring into it—if something still gets you, then burn it here in Satsang. What is he believing about himself?