The Person to You Is What Clark Kent Is to Superman - 7th February 2018

So, when I asked you in satsang to show me your boundary, those who want you to see this often show me the body. But very quickly, as you can look, you find that the body is just another set of perceptions happening in the space of my being, in my consciousness, on my screen, in my light. All this play of appearances is happening. All these sensations already you can see are contained within you; you are not contained within them. And as soon as you start to see this, the concept of limitation starts to fade away. Now, it doesn't seem so far out, does it, what I said? And also, I invite you to look at your being, your existence, and investigate whether that is an object in time. All objects change with time. It could seem like a short time or a very long time, but all objects are subject to time. Is your existence changing? Is your Atma changing? The sense 'I am,' is it changing? Does it have more or less? Does it have only two qualities? And it is not timeless because it is very old—mistaken notion—it is timeless because it is beyond the functioning of time. Time functions in its light.

Often I have said that if you have this much of openness to come to satsang, if this much openness that it is a possibility that I am not an object, it is a possibility, I am open to the possibility that I am not an object—this much is enough for now. But if everything you want is with the object of the basis, the body-mind as the basis, then what I'm sharing can seem like a frontal assault. Many times we move ourselves into an inquiry together and you have come to the recognition that 'I am this awareness,' but the mind makes even that an experience. So, next day when you come, you say, 'Yes, Father, I saw the awareness, but nothing is happening now. Can you help me with the means?' But you are that and that alone. In reality, all the rest is just a shadow, just a fleeting appearance. The Self comes and goes? No. That is why it is a big deal. This is the beauty of satsang, that your greatest discovery will be your simplest one. The greatest discovery will be your simplest one.

What is the simplest thing you can say about yourself? That I am. Changing truth, the source, including the Saguna Brahman, is so available, it's so accessible. It's beautiful, the insight that you are having about yourself. But if you continue to measure it in worldly terms with the weighing scale of phenomenal benefits, I see the Self is naturally present, so how many kilograms of bliss did I get because of that? Did my body pain go away? Did my relationships get better? Did the mind change its quality? Of course, but this is not the measure. We said that the universe can function as the universe is functioning effortlessly. It is happening in you, but you have found something which is beyond this universe, that which is beyond time. Experience is not contained in this phenomenal.

So, first we took a set of sensations amongst many, many, many millions that we're experiencing and we said, 'This set of sensations is me.' This appearance of these hands, these are mine. This sensation of the body, which seems so intimate, this one is mine. We have been taught how to do this. This was not naturally present. A baby does not have a notion of 'me' or 'him.' The appearance of the hand and the appearance of the toy, it seems in one. And then maybe he was taught, 'This is your hand, this is you, this is your head.' So, we learned how to separate some set of sensations and call that 'me.' The minute this 'me' started to get to these, everything else became 'the other.' He said, 'This is me,' and because I'm so limited now, I need other objects to make myself more complete. This again, having a sense of incompletion in the identity. All of us have noticed that's why we are looking for that eternal contentment, trying to fill the bucket of this 'me' which is never satisfied. 'Then if I had this object, if I had the best partner, if I had so much money, then this limited one will be happy.' And we tried that.

So, desire came because I consider myself limited and I desire other objects. If I desire other objects, then I have to come up with a plan. What do I have to do to get them? So, doership came. That's how those three, the power for duality: me and other, desire, and doership. This separation that never happened. You come to satsang and I say, why do you distinguish between one sensation and another sensation and call only some of them 'me' and call out all these others as 'others'? Either you call everything as 'me' or nothing as 'me.' And some of you say, 'Okay, everything is I. I am all there is, all these phenomenal appearances are I.' Then I say, but still you're being unfair. Why do you leave the perceiver out of this? That perceiver is not phenomenal. Include that also. Then you see there is this one which is unchanging. Everything else might come and go, but this is the immaculate, unborn reality.

Then you might report that, 'Oh, in this new discovery, I found my greater reality. I used to consider myself such a tiny object, then I saw that I am all objects, but now I see that I'm something which is way beyond even that.' You are this objective reality beyond this play. How will all of this become apparent? In your motionlessness. It already is. Motionlessness is your natural state. It is here now. You exist effortlessly. This existence is the existence of God. It is the presence of what you have called Brahman. So, for a while, don't identify anything at all and see what happens. If consciousness or God doesn't seem natural yet, just remain as you are. This is all that is happening in satsang. I'm saying this every day in different ways, but the same expression.

Beloved Father, I was having extreme body sensations in the body, panicky. Then mind and body got paralyzed. Attention gets locked to the body. Then what to do? As ground or support is not found.

These kinds of insights, all that we are finding ourselves to be, what are concepts? What are notions about ourselves? This is the beauty of true insight versus just conceptual understanding. Because on a conceptual understanding, it erases when we feel like we need it the most. It erases, it doesn't have its operating power. But our true insight never leaves us, even when the attention is locked. What is aware of this? Is that locked? Is that limited? Is that being crushed by whatever appearance that might be? Is your presence different in quality now? Is your existence not present because this experience might be there? No. It can totally alert your presence. It continues to be the light of even this experience, even of this panic, even this locking up of the attention. Even with this mind and body, we continue to exist. And it only happens because you exist, and your existence is untouched by it.

For a while, it can seem like, 'I have to hold on to this existence. It's all that I have got because that is the only thing stable in my life. Everything else is changing, everything else is coming and going.' I am my very existence, that which I do not want to lose. So, hold my Father's feet. You can only hold on. Then you will see that no experience can overpower you. Nothing is greater than your existence. So, if this was true, what we had to do is hold Guruji in your heart, hold his divine presence, which is your very presence. It has not deserted you. Like Jesus on the cross, I was saying the other day, the worst things imaginable in this human existence were happening to him through a distant friend that betrayed him. His body was experiencing the most pain, and in that moment, the same question: 'Father, have you forsaken me?' It moved for a moment, and then quickly that prayer came up there for forgiveness and said, 'Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.'

Your heart holds His divine presence, which is your very presence. It has not deserted you. Like Jesus on the cross, I was saying the other day, he holds things unimaginable in this human existence, but happening to him through a distant friend that betrayed him. His body was experiencing the most pain, and in that moment, the same question: 'Father, have you forsaken me?' It moved for a moment, and then quickly that prayer for forgiveness came up and he said, 'Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.' It can seem like in the world that these experiences happen and we are left without a name or a place to return to, but the divine presence of the Satguru is always available to us. It is more intimate, very near the experience.

So, we're going to be more simple than Superman. How are we going to pick up the glasses of Clark Kent? The glasses of Clark Kent lead to a next notion. The next concept about yourself is the mask, and usually after that, some of the emotion will come. Usually, we start with 'but'. She took Merrick's here; she asks, 'Namaste, Ananta Ji. Surrendering—is surrender nothing but refusing attention and presence?' Yes, so that's a wonderful way to say it. It's a beautiful way to say it because so much attention has been invested in this objective 'this was going to happen to me, this...' and as we let go of all things, we find that attention is in your presence, in your being. That is why I have said that actually surrender and inquiry are the same. You see, the so-called two paths which the Bhagavan used to advise us on actually are the same because both are the stopping of the 'something' notion and the remaining with 'I am'. You see, the notion is 'I am something', and as we surrender all 'only somethingness', then 'I am' remains. And as we inquire through the validity of the 'something'—who is this something for?—you find that there is nobody like that. I am.

So whether it is just the invitation to allow all visitors to come and go, 'Bhooma' as the ancient masters used to say, or the 'something' notion is to surrender or to inquire, all of it is meant for us to come to this motionless presence. So one thing that I also want to add to that is that you don't have to be very forceful with your attention. Your attention will naturally rest in your being in a very open, global, universal way as it is getting divested from limited concepts about yourself. As belief in the false is being withdrawn, attention also naturally comes to rest, you know, in the spaciousness of being, not in the limited aspects of you. Whoever once said to come to true knowledge in just the dropping of the forms. Is the presence including body sensation as well? Yes, it includes all sensations and perceptions, but it is not contained by any of them. It contains all, but it is uncontained. Like Shankara said, that the space in the pot and the space outside the pot are just space. It is the appearance of the pot which comes and goes. So your being includes all things, whether the objective appearances are there or no. And as you start to realize your unlimitedness, then you will not shy away from any sensations. You will not try to run from anything that is appearing. Your body might seem to be running like the Shankara story, but you are so resting in your being that even when the body is running, it doesn't seem that you are running.

Okay, very good. Let's start again with this one. First is a question. If this is you had remarked once that there is only one thought in any instant of time. Not clear to me, but please elaborate on that. Yes, I said often that the mouth of this mind is also like this physical mouth. It seems to be speaking very fast, but it speaks only one thing at a time. It can seem like, 'Oh, my mind is full of so much,' but if I tell you, 'Look, what is there now?' for a while you will be quiet. 'Oh, now that I'm looking, nothing is there.' And then something pops up. But as it comes, you will find that it's only speaking one word. It could be fast, so it's thinking like it's saying a lot. It's never speaking two things at the same time because we don't have that kind of attention to spare. Attention is not capable of handling two messages at the same time. That would seem very distracting. That's why satsang sometimes can be very clear and attention is in the words of the master; sometimes it's very seemingly distracted because the mind is also trying to come to you at the same time. We do not have the attention for two messages at the same time. This is what I mean, that in this moment of time, at best we will be able to entertain one thought which the mind is saying now.

Usually when you look, Adi Shankara is a great addition. Shankara, who is the one responsible for bringing this entire teaching of Advaita Vedanta out into the light. Before that, it was very obscure. He was one born with a missionary zeal for spreading this knowledge. It's very deservedly well-known. So here is the story about him which explains the breaking of this level of confusion which I talked about. So one time Shankara was sitting and they were, I think, people sitting around him. They were in a local forest. So he was sharing that how this entire world is just changing appearance and nothing of it is you; it is just illusion, all these objects. Then a tiger comes. Shankara is the first to run. He runs and he climbs up a tree, and the others also run behind him and find hiding places. The tiger looks around there a bit and then after a while it goes away. Shankara comes down, they also come down. They gather around him and he notices that they are laughing. So he said, 'Oh, what's happening? Why are you laughing?' They said, 'You were just saying that all of this world appearance is illusion, and when the tiger came, you were the first to run.' Then he said, 'Yes, the running was also an illusion.' You see, it doesn't move anyone. But I don't give reality to these appearances. I knew the tiger was an illusion, but I didn't know that the running was also an illusion.

So no matter what is happening, the running is also part of the illusion. Whatever you are experiencing, even if it is the most sublime, see what is aware of even that. And just when I say 'see what you are aware of', ask yourself this question: 'What is aware of even this?' Or just ask yourself, 'Who am I?' and then leave the question unmolested with any answer. You don't have to double it with anything at all. It is potent enough to direct your attention on its own. It's one way; it doesn't need any other further dimension. That is the beauty of it. Thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Satguru Sri Mooji Baba Ki Jai. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.