Questioning Your Conclusions - 22nd Dec 2018

There are two quotes from the Master that seem to signify the spiritual struggle, and if you can assimilate them, you can transcend. In a way, today it could be the end of the spiritual struggle. What are these two quotes? First is that till you know yourself, you will not come to the end of suffering. Till you know yourself, you will not come to the end of suffering. And second is that you cannot know yourself. You cannot know yourself. Now we are stuck. It can seem like this gap is too much. I cannot know myself, and yet until I know myself, I come to this self-knowledge, self-realization, I cannot be free. I cannot be free from my bondage. Have you all contemplated this? And this is what we've been doing in one way or the other.

So when you ask yourself 'Who am I?' and you ask yourself 'Who am I?', what happens? You either start looking at the state which is occurring as a result of starting the inquiry. 'I am feeling some things, this is so quiet, this is very nice.' Or 'My mind is resisting so much, it is not letting me ask the question and it is keeping me confused.' All of this is it. But rarely are you really seeing who you are. And even when you would, if you were to draw that conclusion, I will ask you: How do you know that? If you were to say 'I am the Self' or 'I am awareness,' it must be asked whether this is a mental conclusion or is it something that you see, or what is it?

So if all of this seeming journey is about self-realization, then the question 'Who am I?' is in the center of it. You are here to realize yourself. Who are you? But you must question the conclusions that you may be settling for and question the source of those conclusions. So like the other day, you were doing this exercise where I was asking you: Who perceives this hand? Who perceives this hand? And even if like a great meditative state is coming over you in a sort of avoidance of this question for some time, my advice would be not to fall for it. If you are saying 'I am that,' don't wander off or something. It's an actual question: Who perceives this hand? You do. How do you know? Is it a false claim you're making? It's true. So what certifies this is true? Who perceives this? How do we conclude this 'I' so naturally? And this is like a one-two punch, this pair of questions is all that you need today. Who will seize this opportunity? And your conclusion can be questioned with: How do you know that?