The Three Conditions to Self-Realisation - 2nd September 2019

So, before the pointer comes, there are some conditions that apply. Like he said, what is the condition that applies? Most of you know this. So, what is it? One: do not bother with any thought or conclusion that the mind is forming for you. You must allow them to come and go. You must not be concerned. I'm not saying that you must have control over your mind, or your mind should stop—none of that. But at least when the mind is offering you its same old junk, you must allow it to come and go. Second: any perception. Any perception or experience also, you can allow it to come and go. You will not get attached to it or hanker for it. This chasing after any experience is the second. And the third one: so, you must not expect that in the discovery of the Self, in self-realization, in the realization or the recognition of the Self, it must do something for me. It must help me.

So, this is the first part of what we spoke about. These are the three conditions, and you will discover yourself. That is my guarantee. If you are not bothered with what thoughts are coming and going, if you are not hankering or getting attached to any experience, and you have no expectations from what this must do for you—what the Self must do for the ego—then I promise you that you will recognize yourself. So, the question is, the pointer is: who is aware of my being? And if the being is not clear, then you can stop me. I can elaborate on that. You just have to inquire into who is aware of my being. And if any reports or questions about this, these three or four things that are said, I'm open to hearing if something is not clear or some other doubt is there about this. Let's not make it domestic at the moment.

See, are you aware of your very existence, your presence? This 'I' which is aware, is it perceptible? Is it perceivable? Is it seen? It is not seen. Is it just a thought? That 'I' which is aware, is it a thought? Zero perception. Then what is it? Everything else is a thought or a perception. You see, you are aware of your being. This 'you,' this 'I' that is aware, you also say is not perceived. It is not conceptualized. And at this point, remember the three conditions. You might be saying, 'Am I getting it?' That's an expectation; keep it aside. You might be saying, 'But I'm not seeing anything. Nothing is happening to me.' That's a hankering for perception; keep it aside. And 'I am not getting the Eureka thought, Aham Brahmasmi.' That's just an expectation of the thought; keep it aside.

If you keep these aside, this truth is so simple. This reality, this Self, this Brahman, the Absolute, is ever-present. Beyond even presence, it is always apparent. The only trouble is our egotism, is our selfishness. And in saying that, I'm not being harsh because there is no such actual thing called the ego. So, I'm being harsh to nobody. If you believe yourself to be your imaginary friend, and if I told you that there is no such imaginary friend, would that be being harsh? So, who's available for being? I don't want to know really what the mind is saying, because it must be saying plenty. That's fine, just let it come and go. I don't even want to know what feelings are being experienced, whether it is joy, bliss, resistance, or frustration. All of that can also come and go. It is fine. I don't want to know anything from the level of perception, whatever the experience might be. I just want to hear the report on who is aware of their being.

Yes.

Yes. So, this awareness of the being—so let's not be concerned about the attributes of the being—this awareness, what can we say about that? Explain that.

It's also...

Yes, but who is aware of all of this? Is that you?

Oh, no, it is you.

Now, this 'you,' nothing can be said about it. Nothing can be said about it, but the mind has a lot to say about you. So, which version is correct? From your inner insight, you are finding that this 'I' realizes, is aware of my existence, my being, this 'I am.' But I can't find any quality, any attribute, anything that changes for this 'I.' I can have no story. I can have no time, I can have no space, no past, no present, no future for this one. So, what is missing? The only thing missing is: how does this help me, or what does this change for me? Nothing. Because that other one, the 'me' that we claim to be, cannot be found. It is not even the body. Do you see? I can find it, here it is. But the body does not want anything to do with self-realization. Then why are you here? If you are the body, the body knows nothing of the Self, has no desire to recognize yourself. If you took yourself to be just the body, you would not come to satsang. Nothing here for the body except uncomfortable sitting, cold temperature—we can turn it off. So, that also you don't consider yourself to be.

So, this mythical 'me,' which is just a collection of beliefs, a set of conditions, vasanas, is non-existent. It is a product of ignorance or avidya, which itself is non-existent. And yet, the report on who is aware of my being? Three conditions. Lost. So, who can remind us of the three conditions? The three conditions to self-realization.

No thoughts, no experience, no expectation of what you would get.

So, with no expectations of what the non-existent 'me' will get, then following these three conditions and inquiring into the single question: who is aware of my being? After that, we have a full guarantee that you will discover the Self. Anything unclear? Except this, except that. Are you aware of your being? That which is aware, being is clear to you? Be fortunate to be, because you can stop me. Initially, when you're here in satsang, I'm all happy to answer every question that you may have. Make your very presence, your being, your sense of existence, 'I am'—this sense, you are aware of it. But this 'you' that is aware of it, is it a thought? Is it like just a conclusion, like the earth is moving around the sun? We have no experience of that. In our experience, actually, the sun seems to come and go, isn't it? Or the earth is moving at rapid speeds, but our experience shows that it's perfectly still.

So, we have a thought now, we have a conclusion, because it came from credible sources that it is actually moving at great speeds. So, if somebody says, 'Is it still or is it moving?' we say it is moving because we have that thought, we have that conclusion. You see, a child does not have it. But we have that thought. The second is in experience, like: what color is this sofa? This blue, because you have a perception of it. If I told you it's transparent, you'd say, 'Of course not, Ananta, what are you saying? It is blue. It is perceived.' Now, this 'I' that is aware of your existence, is it just a thought, a conclusion that you heard from somewhere? 'I must be.' I want to tell you, you are aware that it's not a conclusion. So, if you lost your memory and all the conclusions were gone, this would still be clear, isn't it?

Now I say to you, but how can you say it is you that is aware of your being? Did you see? What is the color of it? You say it has no color, it has no shape, has no size. And yet, it is obvious to you that you, this 'I,' is aware. It is not third-party information, not somebody else's, that you, your being, is there. You are aware directly. So, this 'I' that is awareness, it is neither qualitative nor is it conceptual, and yet it is completely known, but not in the usual way of knowing. This knowing, this knowledge, is called self-knowledge. And it is always present. Everybody always has it. But because we have mistaken knowledge to be these conditions, these concepts, and these perceptions and experiences, therefore we feel like, 'But what did I get? I didn't get anything. Is this the Self? This can't be it.' The mind will come and say, 'But this can't be it.' And this one is the trickster. This one is the voice of the ego, the separation: 'But there's nothing in this for you.' Yes, but what are you taking 'you' to be? Who are you taking yourself to be? For the one that considers itself to be an object which is born and will die, for that one, this Self means nothing. But if you really look without any condition, you will find that this awareness, this Self, is empty of all of these considerations of birth, death, and suffering.

And the mind will come and say, 'But this can't be it.' And this one is the trickster. This one is the worries of the ego, the separation. 'But there's nothing in this for you.' Yes, but what are you taking you to be? Who are you taking yourself to be? For the one that considers itself to be an object which is born and will die, for that one, this Self means nothing. But if you really look without any condition, you will find that this awareness, this Self, is empty of all of these considerations of births, deaths, suffering, all of the afflictions, all that seems to bother us. Everything that happened in time and space, it is way beyond that. It is not created, it is not destroyed, it is not hurt by anything. It cannot be harmed in any way. Like they say in the Shastras, it cannot be burnt, it cannot be cut; it just is. That is your Self which is shining at the heart of your very existence. Even your existence is made up of this Self. So don't let the mind come and devalue this pristine discovery. Beyond anything that will come and go, beyond the most sublime experience, your real Self, ever-present, ever-pure, empty of all afflictions, is here. You may change this for something that is going to die. Don't allow your mind to make this exchange for you. All that the mind will offer is something that is going to die, that will come and go.

This voice that is speaking these words is your memory. Some call it perfect, so divine presence has always had this from time immemorial, reminding you about your nature. It was checking that, but you are still in water. There is no... it was trying to say that, 'Please disappear.' Yes, this is one of the tricks of the mind because it will come and tell you, especially on certain days, 'Oh, but all this talk of Self and reality and Brahman is all okay, but let's get real. You are human after all. You will have problems.' But it is not that it is you. Let's not go too far with this talk of Self. This kind of mind will tell you these stories and convince you that you are the water. You come to satsang, you say, 'And what about the real world? How do I live in the real world?' But what have we heard from the sages? That which is not real, that which is ever-present, is the only reality. You see, but in the world, everything comes and goes, you see? So which one is the real world? So we have got used to calling this ephemeral Maya, the coming and going, as the real one. We have considered that to be the real one. And in fact, if that is the real one, then in that, what are we? Just a tiny object, smaller than a grain of sand.

Because the mind is going to attack. It's not just going to give this up. It might do like this full-on attack, or it might do a 'good love affair' as I call it. Wait for the opportunity when something, you know, something is happening—your partner is upset with you or something. It literally looks for opportunities like that and says, 'Come, come, let's get serious. You are this body-mind. Let's not go too far, you know. Let's figure out how to live this life.' This kind of thing. So, or if you try to understand or hold on, you don't realize that trying to mentally capture the Self or intellectually capture the Self is also a mind attack. To try and understand our Self intellectually is another form of distraction or mind attack. And this is the confusion about Atma Gyan. You feel that to come to Jnana Yoga means that we will have the greatest intellectual understanding. But if this Gyan is not intellect, it is beyond that. They say it is beyond intellectual inference, beyond experiential perception.

The mind is that aspect of the design of consciousness which is designed to convince consciousness that it is limited, it is personal, you see? So that one will do its job very well because consciousness itself has designed it so. The condition to just not be swayed by it that much is enough. Again, I'm saying we don't have to try and control the mind or say, 'My thoughts must stop' or something like that, you see? It is just it comes with all these offers, attacks in the form of offers. You just have to let them go. Another mind trick will be, it will try to change the quest. I'm saying, 'Who is aware of your being?' You will say, 'No, no, but what works better for me is to ask...' trying to say, 'I know better what the question should be. This works for me better.' Just confirm to yourself what 'me' you're talking about. There is I, sitting here, saying that this question is guaranteed to reveal yourself to you, I'm promising. But why the 'for me'? So notice which 'me' we're talking about. They're all tricks of the mind which just try to distract you away from that which is so direct. Suddenly, like old habits, you will not want to inquire 'Who am I?' None of this. Then you will ask, 'Who's aware of your being?' 'It's for me, inquiry will be better.' So let me ask, 'Who am I?' Now inquiry becomes your escape when you talk too much. There's no time. You don't fix escapes.

Which is a good question: who is aware of being? Yes, who's aware of that? Yes, who is aware of the quality? Yes, who is it? That's me. I mean, good, good. Oh, it is you and it has no quality, even no presence or absence.

Yeah. So if I say to you, so if it does not have the quality of presence, is it then absent? So this is the amazing quality of the quality-lessness. You can neither say presence nor absence, not being nor non-being or not being. So pristine. But none of these attributes really apply. If you want to infer, then we can say it because just by virtue of its 'is-ness', you see that it is, implies automatically that it is being. But that's just language, you see? That's just language. So don't get confused by language. There is a quality of presence to your beingness, your Atma. This is also you. You are aware of it. This presence, this you that is aware of it, who is that one?

Must be the body a little more than usual because it has been a bit tiring. So, thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Satguru Mooji Baba Ki Jai. Yes, also best wishes for Ganesh Chaturthi. May the sweet Lord Ganesha remove all obstacles, all conditions, all things that get in your way. We bow down to this beautiful expression of consciousness today. Wishing you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi.