Satsang Metaphors : Are You Done With Your Cat Business ?

The Self has given to itself the power to pretend as if it is something limited, something objective. And all of life has been a grasping; our human condition has been that. That's why I feel like the cat story that we take is very useful. You were born in a world without any mirrors. You're born and everybody started telling you that you're a cat. Everyone's telling you that you're a cat.

So then, as a cat, what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to open your paws and go to the next bowl of milk. And this bowl of milk is constantly changed. There's been education, relationships, experiences. And one day you got tired of this. You got tired of this and you said, 'Is there any end to this grasping, running after the next bowl of milk? Where does this end? I've tried this. I've tried money, I've tried relationship, I've tried spirituality.' So many are tired spiritual seekers. I was promised Nirvana, I was promised... so this promise was made. You were told that, 'Come to that ultimate bowl of milk, this bowl called Mukti, Nirvana, freedom, liberation.' And you will always be happy with always; you will have a superhuman existence.

So then you go master to master, Satsang to Satsang, hoping as the cat to get something. And many times, because Maya is very potent also, many times you can feel like, 'Oh, this was it. I really got it. I am that super cat now. Yeah, I was a regular cat, now I'm a special cat. I'm a liberated cat, I'm a free cat.' Till you come to a sage who's the only one who has a mirror. He says, 'If you're done with your cat business, are you happy to look at this mirror?'

And this, I'm making this point trivially, I'm making this point trivially, but it's a very important one. If you're done with your cat business, then it is very straightforward. If you still don't have hope for this cat because you carried this identity for so long, and the real intent is to really make this cat a super cat, then this play, this game, can go on for a long time. So I might say spirituality is the end of selfishness, and it can sound like a simple thing to say. But this selfishness is based on the false identity, the notion of separation, the notion of individuality, the notion of ego.

So are you willing to see that you are home for one moment without being so concerned about this cat and this cat's feelings and this cat's thoughts? It never existed anyway; we've been taught to believe in its existence. Now the mirror is here. How are you going to check? You cannot check on this in a worldly way. Cannot check on it based on this coconut body. Do not check on it based on some feeling. Cannot even check on it with some experience. It's many times you say, 'Oh, I have the experience of some stillness.' How can you then check on what is at the core of all of this? What has been here uncaused, even in sleep state? If you are done with your cat business, then it is very straightforward. What is at the core of all of this? What has been here uncaused, even in sleep state?