The One That You Are Trying to Help Is Not You - 17th December 2019

Is it that upon hearing that everything comes and goes, we are dropped into this pool of meaningless, pointless existence? We feel like that's not what we want. We feel like when we let go of all our attachments—whatever fancy word we may have—as you start to let go of all these different mental attachments, all our experiences, all our good times and bad times, and stories, history, and geography, then it may feel like you're being dipped into a pool of meaninglessness. But that is not what Vedanta is about, because there is also a promise of the discovery of reality, of Brahman, of the absolute Self. And it is not just a promise. But if we continue to value that which comes and goes, that which is false, the promise of reality will only be conceptual. Of course, actually, we want to have both. 'Can I have a bit of my story and also realize that I am the Absolute?' So nice! 'We have a little of my personal story and all of the Absolute.' You can't have it. It is not to say that the apparent play of human existence has to go, but if you value it, then what is the story of 'me'? If you value that, then this seems like it is just nice concepts to play with.

How can I balance out my spiritual concepts and my worldly attempts? It is not possible, because true spirituality is not about making a beautiful story where you want to improve the protagonist. And what is especially upsetting is that you had great expectations about the end of the story. 'What is the way it should end?' If I give all of the books, what are the ways to do it? You want the story to end as 'I have this project, I will leave my mark.' What if the autobiography just stopped? The pen dropped and that was it. Like one of those art-house movies that just ends abruptly. It's very amusing. What happened? You used to go to satsang; did you get what you wanted? 'I don't know.' We still want something to play out in this phenomenal game. And the whole starting point was that all this realm of the phenomena is an illusion, Maya. Are you not entertained enough? What is that movie? Gladiator? 'Are you not entertained?' That's right, but more entertainment again tomorrow. What can be? Have you not stayed? If this world were to dissolve away like every phenomenon, every perception, would there be anything left to tell you?

If all that comes and goes is not real, and clearly never happened—the appearance was never here, just appearance—everything that comes and goes is not real, then what are you now? What will you give meaning to? In fact, only what you give meaning to shows up in your life. What would you want to find out? Only what you give meaning to shows up in your life. What do you want to find out? If it shows up, then it's a coming and going, and that which is coming is part of the delusion, the illusion. If nothing showed up, what remains? To listen to the previous question: if only that showed up which you give meaning to, what would you want to find out? In what perception? Please never heart, please. Is this like a feeling which is the love of God or beingness? To be this, to be that, could even be visible. People that you look at, it's able to move. Like, 'I just want to spend the rest of my life in deep devotion.' We can have this kind of intention, but even this, after there is nothing, acceptance to reason moves. Nothing that can hold the attention of consciousness except in my ecology.

Whatever image-making we want to save until the end, pull out that. Because if we think that can give the solution, then only temporary change happens. All the templates are just temporary templates because the nature of Brahman is such that anything that becomes restrictive—that 'only this should be,' including 'only to be'—it doesn't last. There are many who go to ashrams and places like that, full of devotion. After a week, it's the same: 'Oh, the food is not good,' or 'The master didn't even look at me.' You know this kind of stuff. So all that the mind uses... we want this. They leave the destiny of corporate factories and they want to go live in ashrams, then they actually get into a physical rat race because for the first week it's all nice, and then the 'me' starts showing up. If the resolution possible in a way will be in the realm of emotion or sensation or perception, then this entire Vedanta would be of no value.

There are various types of stories: there's a victim story, there's a meaningful or meaningless story, there's a spiritual fantasy story, there's the oppressed and free story. All the varieties of templates and stories are there, but none of these stories have anything to do with the truth. And maybe this sounds like harsh medicine, especially for the religious, because the protagonist who is the 'best religious person' doesn't exist. If we don't jump these stories, that which is the most obvious is still hidden. And you do value it even when it's empty. So clear, yet it seems to be a bit blurred up again. It's just like the ego is about the truth; it's all just one refusal of the truth to conform to your idea of what it should be. You never start to get a handle on it. You try to, then you call it 'the truth.' And that's all that you will want, that you will get. So no matter how compelling you may feel like my story is, it is only relatively a bit. It is never going to be reality. Every construct of history, every outcome of your story, every character of your story—especially the main protagonist—it's just magical. The problem is all experiences or lack of them, the doing and the happening, the pride and the guilt, all are ideas.

We are interested in a certain type of template. This also is not in our control. Whose control? Not even 'who' is not the doer or choice maker; it's not in his control. So that template 'I am not the doer,' 'I see now that I'm not the doer'—whose recognition is that? 'I am not the doer, I am not in control.' And we could give meaning to different things. One could mean that the concept of control is mythical, or it could mean that there is a greater power that has control over me that is doing all of this. So this lamentation of the non-existent one saying 'I can't do anything about that'—whose lament is that? Who is the puppet in this show? Who is pulling the strings? Who's up and who's down?

What you're saying is the truth, which is our essence, yes. And it is the background cooking. But when we go in the world, then we sing a different raga.

The concept of control is mythical, or it could mean that there is a greater power that has control over me that is doing all of this. So, this look—the lamentation of the non-existent one saying 'I can't do anything about that'—whose lament is that? Who is the puppet in this show? Who is pulling the strings? Who's up and who's down?

But what you're saying is the truth, which is our essence, yes, and is the background cooking. But when we go in the world, then we sing the different raga. And the mind will scream in, 'But then what should I do? What should I do?' What it is really saying is, 'What should I do to give this life some meaning?' But what it's really saying is, 'How can we make the false true and the true false?' But the basic is, since you stilled the mind—the mind also, I mean, until the time it becomes probably educated or some kind of with the language or stops there, then it gets those questions that aren't right. But in its purest essence, probably it won't question its own. The pure self is what is called the no-mind because it's terminology, right?

So, why not? First means just a bundle of thoughts. Before language, there is no bundle of thoughts, so that is called the no-mind. But the good news is that irrespective of mind or no-mind, consciousness has to take itself to be what its own child, which is the mind, is representing it to be. Like sometimes I take this analogy: a five-year-old child says, 'Come yourself, go from Timbuktu. I saw you in Timbuktu.' You see? Now, because it is your child, it is seemingly innocent, it is sweet. Will you take it to be true that you are from Timbuktu? And yet, in a way, because this is the mind and consciousness's beautiful design, you see, it seems to be saying something and it speaks with so much authority that we take it to be true.

So, nobody is proposing that mind is not made up of God, and that way, the mind also is not called—nobody is proposing that this is not God. But it is that aspect of God which is presenting and making a representation to God that it is something other than Ram. Now, because that representation has been made, does it make it true? Because it is made with authority, does it make it true? Just because it has been heard for so long and you've invested so much into these ideas, does that make it true? If you were for like 100 million more lives listening to the mind, will that make it true? You will never be from Timbuktu, no matter how many times you take it to be true. So, the limitations and the objectivity in time and space that the mind is proposing to you will never be your reality, even if you take it to be true constantly and you forever continue on this identification. It is still never going to be true, only taken to be true.

Obviously, many times with all that might, because I feel like the story's come to a beautiful point, I just have to push it a little more and we come to this glorious ending. But let me know it was fully mind-key predictions of myself.

So, just because the child is making up stories about you doesn't make it not your child. It is still a child of consciousness. But because it is the child of consciousness doesn't automatically give it the truth value that it is speaking the truth. Everything is a child of consciousness. If you try to fit the truth into your linear world, it will be a disappointment. And actually, let me say it differently: if there is something in this ephemeral play that you find meaningful, yes, I make no difference. You live it as long as you like. Use all the juice out of this fruit, enjoy. But just don't say that 'I only want the truth.' You want to say that was easy. I think like this: don't hang on to perception for dear life while saying 'I only want the absolute truth.' It's okay. Give meaning to everybody you come across till you get really tired. 'How to treat? Be little, cool, okay. Don't leave me, stay with me forever.' Everything is working towards the graveyard. Everything is looking toward the video here. Just please, sorry if it sounds a bit strong.

How much will this detachment come by itself and how much are we just trying to—

Well, as much as we think we can strive, as much as we think we can survive, we must strive. What is detachment? That is to recognize, to separate out what we really value other than all of this. Discernment will never be a thing.

I still find myself as—and I once was doing the discernment and I just need to clarify. At some point, it feels that if I just pick this whole thing up and just put it aside, it's fine. Nor do I want to discern it. Knowing it just means just leave the whole thing like that. But sometimes it feels like we don't have the spiritual muscles to pick the whole thing up and throw it all away.

So, discernment is like weight training. Okay, so do it now and tell me what happened. Let's not feel like this is better words. Do it now. Is it willing to use? Hello? Have to be here. My offer to offer to you today, special offer for those who are—I mean, everlasting peace. What do you buy? Unless discernment helps, because all its offers are in the realm of the changing. 'I'll give you a good life.' All the stuff that is produced.

Because this offer came here like before I met you, I accepted it, or at least the mind itself came outside games.

So, to be able to discern between the real and unreal is what is deciding what we give value to. Maybe when you go back home, quiet this for yourself in terms of what you actually value. Because to expose the contradiction to yourself itself may be quite helpful. Because on one hand, you are studying that everything coming and going is not real, therefore is Maya, is meaningless, is untrue. But you still feel like there is still some value to something perceivable here. Then at least expose that to yourself. So, point a gritty images on that, ready to see that, I got that. Why do you like this? Only what you give meaning to shows up in your life. I'm not talking about the secret tag stuff. Without that, there is nothing. You are the projector and the light of the projection. You are not just the projected. You are never the victim of somebody else's projection.

So, when the one that the world is just a thought, and everything that appears or seems to appear in it is just a thought, it's a product of us giving it value, giving it meaning. What is here unless you've given meaning to something? Tell me what is good. And we may feel that what happened is just a translation. What happened is just a translation in languages, a representation in conceptual terms. But it is only what you conceive that you perceive, and those two are not different. You want to know what you're conceiving? It is just what you perceive. Like if sometimes it can sound like it is cause and effect when it is—what you conceive is what you perceive was actually saying the same thing twice. And without our habit of trying to make meaning out of it, without our notions, nothing has ever happened.

So, what is here without us, without our trying to make meaning or give something meaning? Or for that matter, even meaninglessness is also to give meaning. 'I know the meaning of it all now; it is all meaningless.' It is not that I do mean no meaningless. You don't have to represent life in those terms. Oh, please clean these things. It's like I say, how much chlorine is there in the Ganga? Some are saying, 'But there's so much chlorine.' No, do nothing. There's no chlorine in the Ganga. But why does the Ganga have to be represented in those chlorine terms? Maybe if they see him be lies and whether to determine whether it has meaning or meaninglessness. Some will say it has this meaning, this meaning. Some will say it has no meaning, no meaning. You see? Like that. But why does life have to be represented in terms of our intellect at all?

And if you hear what I'm saying really, then this whole idea of the seeking cannot survive. Let's just—is the dance of Shiva oppressive or joyful? It depends what you're taking yourself to be. If you're taking yourself to be getting pounded, that is beating into the beds with it. If you're taking yourself to be the dancer with him, then I take you are full, or the witness of the dancing. But no, possible, possible meaningful. How many lives Shiva is dancing? He's not the dancing to a person or to give joy. But to represent it in the terms of our intellect is the human condition called suffering. As they often say, pain is natural, but suffering is an intellectual exercise. To represent the world is to represent yourself as something that you are not. To represent anything is to represent yourself as something that you are not. You will never grab life this way in any representation, in any mental understanding.

So, throw everything out except the sword. Take the sword which chops everything. My chosen, but please, please accept me. I'm here to help you. Yeah, usually when it's like, 'But that's all me, that's what the enlightened ultimately come out.' What, what, what? Yes, I'm not buying this big stillness anymore. All that we're going to, this all of stillness which you call still is equally high that lose. You're not meditating. Don't go into the hypnosis of the mind. Whatever it is often, why you value? What does the mind sing? Value, mean value. Just trust real meaning is coming. Then are you just going to lead a meaningless life? But then this nothing but I had glorious plastic, all these masks and pieces, all experiences. I'm only trying to help you. But this is if you, the Satguru, the holy face, and he'll cookies and all price subsidies and all these big jobs. So for some time, just keep the sword with you. That's all. Cools on its own.

We saw the last countries to cut the ego. Like, without—oh boy, don't you think how can we cover finally go which is trying to cut other? Because even if we are cutting things with this one, still it's like taking a defensive stand or something like this. We are defending.

So, when the notion comes, you're still taking presence. The notion that, 'Yeah, but this is related to,' because in the context, all thoughts are just thoughts. It sounds like very obvious. Whatever you can think is just a thought. So then they can be like these sort of meta-thoughts and just keep the sword which chops every notion. Just be empty. And then it will have these meta-thoughts about the process itself—the sword and cutting and what's happening. That's how you could—that's what is preventing us to see it clearly. Okay, expose whatever you don't feel like you are able to cut between it since the back bit still feels rings brilliant or has meaning that it still has meaning or rings true. That concept, that notion which the mind is presenting to you, which you still take to be a true representative of you.

I wish to be that state where it's like no, not taken by the mind document because we are on following up a single sake pattern. So let's look at this. So I wish to be in that state where I'm not taking any pattern from the mind or something.

So the 'I' that is being taken to be true in this case is which one? So in these even like humble and true-sounding, even spiritual requests, the representation that we are buying into, what we are, is still the limited one. Like that. To see that is actually the truth. I told discernment is to just see that the 'me' that is being represented in these notions is not you. This chip is the shortcut version of it, literally the revision of it. Because you've seen this often enough that in all these presentations of the mind, it is painting a picture of 'me' which is just not real, which is not true. You clear this game? It's a very helpful—it's yes. Allow all thoughts to come and go till we find something that we take to be true, and then it is exposed to everyone. And then I have a simple rule in this game, which is to the mind: 'You are just a thought.' And initially it can hurt because some of these things like usually holding on to as if they're the possible truth are just a thought. Tell me something true. I don't know. Schools, hey, all the candles are coming out. That which is fighting the words of the—

Play this game. It's very helpful. Yes, allow all thoughts to come and go till we find something that we take to be true, and then it is exposed to everyone. And then I have a simple rule in this game, which is to the mind: use that it resists at all. And initially it can hurt because some of these things you are usually holding on to as if they're the possible truth. Resist at all. Tell me something true. I don't know. Schools? Hey, all the candles are coming out. That which is fighting the words of the master constantly will start quoting the words of the master to become very schoolchildren-ish when it's in trouble. All the spiritual knowledge starts.

The one that you are trying to help is not you. The one that you're trying to help is not you. The truth never needed any help from anyone. Thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Satguru Sri Mooji Baba Ki Jai. Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu.