Now It Is Time to Come Home - 22nd May 2018
Saar (Essence)
Ananta describes the mind's narrative as 'subtitles' that falsely convince the Self it is a limited character in a movie. He guides seekers to ignore these interpretations and recognize their true nature as the unchanging, formless witness.
The mind is designed to convince you that you are a limited entity in this play.
You are not a character in the movie; you are the very ocean of existence.
Choose your heart over your head; choose the divine light over limitation.
intimate
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
Welcome to Satsang today. Guru Sri Mooji Baba Jai. The only thing that happened is that we went into the world and thought this is a foreign language and you need subtitles. This movie that is going on, you've been led to believe that we need the subtitles—which I mean from this mind—to make sense of this. So in some way, we feel life without this has no sense. 'I don't know anything here unless I have the subtitles for this one.' Now, these subtitles have been designed so that you can take yourself to be one of the characters in the movie. That is the ultimate fantasy. The mind is designed to convince you that you are an entity in this play, that you are a limited self, that you are an object.
And yet, one moment of checking, of being quiet together, you see that nothing can happen here that can hurt me in any way, that can even make a dent on me or a scratch on me. All of us who come to Satsang, we have had these moments where it's been completely apparent. Now, both these things are not possible. If you are an object in this world, then the world could hurt you, then it could affect you. If you are untouched by this world in reality, then you cannot be an object. Now, there is only one voice which is convincing you that you are limited, that you are an object. This is what I have been calling the subtitles. This is the voice of the mind. What does it have? It has duality, and it has desire. It's a strategy of separation, wanting to strategy, to plan what should be done and what not.
Now, my greatest request is: just see how it goes. Don't bother with these mental tools for a few minutes. Don't go to the subtitles even about this. Because if I say 'don't bother with the subtitles,' immediately you are going to the mind to say, 'Hey, what is he talking about? Is this right or wrong?' Nothing in this movie in itself has to be avoided. So spirituality is not some great avoidance. It is, in fact, an opening. These subtitles would say, 'This should not be.' Your only discovery is to see: why am I buying into these subtitles? Because they are constantly referring to you as a limited character within this movie.
The value of the self-inquiry is to check: Am I really this? Am I just this bucket of flesh and blood, this body? Am I this coming and going energy construct that we are taught? Or is there something else that I am? Is there something greater which is not coming and going? Then you discover that you are not a character in this. You find that you are not the character; you are the ocean. The very ocean of existence is just an aspect of you. The light of the movie, the screen of the movie—both are you. But even beyond that, you are that which is the eternal witness. Many, many, many movies you have seen like this.
How is life without the subtitles? And I'm not saying that the subtitles should not appear anymore or that you must avoid looking at them. They can come and go. I jokingly say, imagine if your mind started to speak in a language which you did not understand. It would stop existing for you. Even when the mind said, 'Oh, I don't know what's going on,' if you did not understand it because it was in a different language, what would be your position? You could not even make the statement 'I am lost.' So trust the movie for what it is. Allow the movie to be what it is. The movie is not in a foreign language; you don't need an interpreter. It is actually the subtitles which are foreign to you.
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The benefit of having a living Master is that you see that it is possible to live without these attachments. Otherwise, we just keep feeling, 'Oh, I can't live like that. How is it possible? I need the mind. But what about the practical things?' And then you see that oh, this movie does nothing on its own. No individual has been running this life; no individual has been sitting here. We've all had a fun weekend. With the family, we went to this Avengers movie. Now, it's fully immersive because it's called IMAX, you know? So they give you these specs and then you're fully engrossed in the movie; you feel like you're part of it.
Suppose I came back from that movie believing that I'm Spider-Man. The narrative of Spider-Man stayed here with me and kept saying, 'Spidey, this one is in trouble.' I would just look at you and say, 'Look at who you are. You are not one bit like Spider-Man.' You'd say that, and I would say, 'But this mind... my mind says so.' Then you will say, 'But who are you going to believe?' And then you would say, 'You don't even have to believe me, just check. Check what is it that you really are.' Now, to the mind, this is ridiculous. That Spider-Man which you consider yourself to be—would you actually find him when you look?
Welcome to the car park. And then he gets stuck here. This is too much for the mind already. I'm making the disclaimer because you will struggle if you try to understand this with your mind. Now, this is the fun part. When you start looking, then you say, 'Okay, I'm not Spider-Man. Then who am I? Am I Superman? Am I Batman?' You start looking to find the real object which you could be. You expect to find the Self or God as if it will have some objective quality. But what you find about yourself is that you are beyond time and space, that you are not an object, that you have no shape, size, or color. You are not somebody either. You are a 'nobody' in the sense that these qualitative things do not apply to you. They will not obtain. You are beyond all description, beyond all sensation, beyond all perception.
You are the ultimate unchanging reality. But you know what the funny thing is? All of this to the mind means nothing. So it will tell you—the subtitles will become like this—it will say, 'You haven't found anything. All of this is nothing. I found nothing.' The emptiness of your pristine Self to the mind seems like the emptiness of an empty glass or something. It doesn't seem like it is conscious. It is meaningless to the mind. That is why you inquire into yourself. That's your own discovery, your own recognition. Know that this mind, which is the cradle of phenomenal things, has nothing real to say about you.
So this mind will either take an attacking position, which is: 'But this is nothing. I still haven't found it. What is all this? I practiced a long time, so frustrating, all this nonsense.' It keeps the picture for you like a big, black, dark, empty space, puts itself like the watchman for the picture, and says, 'This is what I am.' And it defends that little pocket. If you have applied all these Advaita concepts to this visual, which is its idea of nothingness, you are not adding anything to this instrument called the mind. But it could not know the source of your very presence. What is the basis of your existence? Don't think about it. Only inquire. Look: Where do I come from?
Don't judge. Don't control. All these emotions will come; don't lose your position. Recognize the variations. I am blossom beyond all conditions. Do not play with your identity. The ego has played long enough. Now it is time to come home. It is because your manifest aspect as consciousness, as God itself, wanted to get a taste of limitation. It bought into this idea of separation and suffering. It created a private hell for itself. If you can give up this one idea of separation, you will see that this is God's house because it is His living residence.
Now, this is the only seeming choice: resting in existence, in God's presence, or the worries of the mind. And ultimately, even this is not a choice to the player of consciousness itself. But I remember the time when it feels like one. Although I mean your person can still feel like there is a choice to make. In this laboratory, make it. Choose your heart over your head. Choose the divine light over limitation. Thank you all so much for being in Satsang today. Guru Sri Mooji Baba Jai.