The Truth Cannot Be Known in the Worldly Way - 1st May 2018
Saar (Essence)
Ananta challenges the reliability of sensory and conceptual knowledge, urging seekers to drop the 'arrogance of knowing.' He points toward a motionless existence where the unchanging reality of one's own being is revealed.
The truth cannot be known, yet until you know yourself, you will not come to the end of suffering.
Everything in this world is changing; to be attached is like tying your boat to a crazy donkey.
Meet yourself now, unmolested by anything that you think you know.
contemplative
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
Welcome to satsang today. Sri Mooji Baba ki Jai. I mean, that to know itself is a very strange concept. Now, there's a match. One day we were just sitting with Mooji and the creative team came. Honest, the creative team came with two options for this visiting card. Simply, she asked, it would mean someone and you're just welcoming them to stay in character or, you know, for them to find out about satsang. And we'll get these nice visiting cards that you would give to some of them. So the creative team came with two options. The first card, behind there was a photo, and the two options: first option said, 'The truth cannot be known. The truth cannot be known.' The second option said, 'Until you know yourself, you will not come to the end of suffering.' And Father was just looking at the options and the fonts and what looks nice. Then it occurred to me that if by chance the same one gets both the cards, where one says 'The truth cannot be known' and the second says 'Until you know yourself you will not come to the end of suffering,' if this one is in big trouble, you know? So he said we should put clearly: 'The truth cannot be known in the worldly way.'
What is this world? Now, a lot of things that we think we know, it could be things that you think we perceptually know through our senses. But the other day we were seeing this video about the McGurk effect where, even though the sound which is coming from the computer is 'bah-bah-bah,' you think you are hearing 'fah-fah-fah.' And even when you know it, it doesn't change it. So you cannot rely on that, what you hear. Similarly, many, many things like mirages you see, optical illusions. So famous examples from Shankara: rope-snake and mother-of-pearl. And see, all these examples are there to tell you that what you see also you cannot trust. So this perceptual knowing can also become very false. The mental knowing, of course, conceptual knowing, all of us know. We believed many things in the past which now we see that we were wrong about. And yet we hold on to many things that we think we know now.
Do you want to look at both of these together and hop into one by one? This visual stimulus is very, very compelling in a way, but on top of this visual stimulus, we put a lot of concepts. Because if you're not perception, you don't need them alone. We model them with our ideas of them. What is the first thing, the most common things that we superimpose on this? It's time and space. Something is being perceived, and we tell you that there is distance, that there is place. This is conceptual. And I am including this body also, but just to illustrate the point, I could have something like a film on my eyes and everything could be on that film, that there is no distance, it's just moving images. But the idea that there is distance is just conceptual. All of this also, the idea of duration or time, where does it come from? Because we have certain visuals, then we have certain other visuals, and we make a link between them. I think that happened. So even our perceptions, we mix them up with concepts about what they are.
And what are the other common ideas of knowing that you put on this? Even appearance, put this idea of causation, cause and effect. This causes this set of perceptions to appear and disappear. What makes the link between them? So I thought this, that's why I did this. This happened and that's why that happened. And so many of our agencies are in play. But one of the most fundamental concepts that we put on these perceptions are the concepts of 'me' and 'other.' It is conceptual. Looking at some perceptions, I'm calling it 'me,' and then looking at some others and calling it 'other.' Nothing naturally forces this distinction. And then what happens is that what is also not enough for us, then what happens is there are some other perceptions that come and those we call 'mine.' So note that not only is there a 'me' and 'other,' there is also 'me' and 'mine,' you see? Not only is there a separate self 'me,' it also owns some other things which it calls 'mine' and forms a special relationship with this.
Now, this is exactly like to be attached to, exactly like tying a crazy donkey and then expecting stability. Talking and saying, 'Oh well, I should be stable.' Why am I saying this? Because everything in this world perceptible is changing. So that which you call 'mine' now will not be the same. Everything is changing. And the worst part is that even if that thing is not changing, in your mind, ideas themselves about them change. 'Yeah, this is what I really liked about you, you see? They're so different, that's why it's so complementary.' The opposites. Afterwards, after it, I thought, 'You changed yourself a little bit. If you were a little bit more like me, we'll get along better.' So then this 'my' idea to all of us.
Read more (14 more paragraphs) ↓Show less ↑
When I first moved into this house, it was the first time we had a small garden outside. So then, because for the first time there was a practical seed, just see how. So then, gardening started happening and I noticed as I wake up first thing in the morning, I'll go to the door, I would not see anything else. The rest of the garden vanished. First was my seeds. 'What happened to my seeds?' This is the thing with 'my.' This is the mixture of attachment. The rest of the plants are no longer gone, so just my seeds, which is important. This is the thing with 'me' and 'mine.' And so we take some things which are just appearances, constantly changing, and we say 'mine.' And there also are ideas about something which should not come. It should never be mine. This should never be my experience. We decide daily, 'This should not come.' So the opposite of desire, which is aversion, which is also a desire itself, saying 'I desire this should never come in the content of my perception.' Well, with anything, nothing has been able to, nobody has ever been able to control the content of their experience as hard as they might have tried. Nobody has been able to make the eternal 'mine' eternal, and nobody's been able to say, 'I have decided this is never going to be experienced.' Nothing like that is possible. Everything kept coming. This life is completely unpredictable.
So there are no perceptions. Also, as unreliable as it might be, we have made a lot of ideas about it. We think that we know a lot about this world. We don't know anything at all. This is the best news because it has been this kind of knowing which is the imputation. Result of already saying the truth cannot be known. The invitation is to drop this sort of conceptual asking. The other day, so much of the people, their postings in a slab on top. Where is it? It's just an idea. I'll do everything young and this is completely recursive. Even what we call sticks, what we call slab, where is it? You know all these labels. Is it possible to live but have to continue unlabeled as the life of a machine? There's no aversion to live, but the labels are not held on to. The arrogance of the idea that I know what something is, and most importantly, the arrogance of the idea that I know who I am. 'I am this me, and this me has now understood that it is God.' But it is also true that I cannot know that I know nothing except that I know I exist. You cannot know even that. Cannot know even that. 'I know nothing, I just know that I know nothing.' I see it. We love in this. Socrates was called the wisest man who ever lived because he said, 'All I know is that I know nothing.' Even this, so I'm going to come to that which is the cappuccino. But even this 'I know I exist,' many times I can feel like I know I exist, but we don't know. We don't know.
So here is another knowing which is unchanging. Unchanging knowingness itself, which is aware existence. But for it, there is no news of the existence. It is the reality. The point is that this very important aspect of satsang is not to mean a spectacle. And I was saying the other day that it's important. It seemed easier to drop everything that you have been wrong about. But how did anyone come to satsang and say, 'Father, I feel like I'm so right about this, can you please, can I surrender this to you?' We hold on to this righteousness as if we know something. We study. Unfortunately, we couldn't have the broadcast because there was no electricity here, because yesterday I gave a loose satsang and I disagreed with everything that anyone said, even to the extent of contradicting myself a moment ago. That didn't matter. The point is that anything that we can hold on to can be shaken up. Even the highest spiritual concept. Now saying, 'Forget about awareness, it's a made-up thing. You're just a concept. Forget about this.' It's my own insight and the fear of dropping it has nothing to do with your true insight. It is the crutches that you have now. 'Oh, you're saying it's really helping, Father. It is really helping to drop.' I am just when so Louise's thoughts come, I take the position of dropping them and I feel like there's so much spaciousness. So what are you saying now? Saying that, 'What I feel like, finally I am getting somewhere out of the stickiness into some spaciousness.' Now you saying, and I was saying that at the root of all of this also, what he might end up reinforced is the notion of the separate self who is now getting somewhere, who is now doing something which helps him.
So the mind is actually nothing but an invitation to know something. An invitation. And that thing is because of time and space itself, gorgeous concepts, they don't apply to you. All of this 'me' and 'mine,' they will get any moment true and false. So one of our favorite ones is basically because you come to search for truth. How do you have a big argument? 'I'm coming from truth, you are coming from false. I'm not seeing any duality, you are.' 'I don't see duality, you are.' Not one thing we know which is true. You don't actually know in the first place what existence is, with the existence of all of this. So this in the motionless existence, all notions of what we thought you knew or what you think you know are meaningless. But it is not just that, because if it was just that, then it would be, it could mean like a nihilistic meaninglessness, a pointless meaninglessness. The best part about the motionless existence is that in this, the truth which is the unchanging reality is completely apparent. This is where the second visiting card, which is 'Until you know yourself,' becomes completely apparent. Because without a notion of myself, for that we have this knowingness with a capital K, this awareness is absolute. It's completely known, but not known in the worldly way, in the mental way.
So this is the invitation or provocation: leave yourself concept-less. In yourself motionlessly. And you don't have to proclaim anything, but I can proclaim on your behalf that this will be the meeting of the most enlightened being that you will be around. Like, who goes as far as to say that all the other enlightened beings that we have met even point to this one, which is your own presence, your own being, which is ever present. Meet yourself now, unmolested by anything that you know. Meet yourself as you are. Yesterday was good, good morning on freedom is the end of all. Forget about all these concepts: past and future, time and space, here and there, me and other, this and that. All of these concepts that I've tried to grab pieces of, and you have a library of these or two rooms full of empty space which is the labels. All our conceptual frame considers its library full of these bottles and these future. 'Father, I feel I am drowning in not knowing and not grasping. I feel disconnected in my heart.' Do you know this? I have done out of moves, but this is also a move, that 'I am disconnected' or 'my heart.' Forget it. Then what is to connect or disconnect? What is not your heart? Show me that which is not your heart. What is outside your heart? If there is something outside.
Two loops full of empty space, which is the label. Our conceptual frame considers its library full of these bottles and these labels.
Father, I feel I am drowning in not moving and not conceptualizing. I feel disconnected in my heart. Do you know this? I have done all the moves, but maybe also this is a move, that I am disconnected from my heart.
Forget it then. What is to connect or disconnect? What is not your heart? Show me that which is not your heart. What is outside your heart? If there is something outside your heart, that is not heart for it. And if you're talking about the heart, it cannot disconnect. Everything I tell you, you want to say it is too simple, because even that can become an invitation to know.
Okay, I see the mind trick. Thank you.
Anything which invites you to take a position about anything at all is just a trick of the mind. Tomorrow you are all there is, all there is, but the mind will go, 'Really? What does that mean?' It wants a distinction. Also remember that when we live in that which is very fearful, it will clear itself. I know it's the common cold, but let go of this fear. We don't even know what is here. Calm is coming inside when actually this was a tunnel with a radius because it can feel like it's a tunnel and I've finally come to the point where I was avoiding this. I was coming to always see that. And this now, we've been told to get rid of even your most secret concepts, so these perceptions and emotions that we've taken over there...
Oh yes, a very beautiful way of explaining this. He says if you feel like you have stage fright or something and you're supposed to take a public talk, and that's transition, know that the emotion that you're experiencing, which we use a title 'anxiety,' but energetically the same thing is happening before you're looking forward to a holiday: 'excitement.' Energetically they could be the same, and yet it is again this idea that 'I know what it is.' And by the way, when I say not moving, for some of you it might sound like I'm saying, 'Oh, then I have to be in denial.' I'm not saying that at all. Full acceptance can only come when we leave it unmolested with concepts. It is our label itself which is the resistance. Denial is a label. So I'm not saying if something is being experienced that means, 'Oh, this should not be there. No, I'm not experiencing anything.' I'm not saying that. I'm saying allow that experience to continue when we are not moving in conceptualizing. Otherwise, we don't meet it. Make it your own, make it free. Meet it as a photocopy. Everything in the world we meet as a photocopy. Meeting the mental impression of it is you don't meet transition as it is. You don't meet a person as they are. We meet labels. The motionless existence is not the denial, but the balance is the acceptance of everything as it is.
Are all appearances the mind?
The mind needs to look at this question. One is whether you're asking that you know the mind is an appearance. Yes. The other way that you could be asking this question is whether you ask if all of this is just the mind. Well, that depends on which definition of mind you are using. Actually, there is no such thing as mind. Maybe think of this: we have these favorite concepts and we use them also in satsang. There are these favorite concepts called world, body, mind. Now suppose that this distinction goes out. What are the distinctions? We have a set of perceptions we call thoughts, and we've clumped similar energies like these thoughts. We've said, 'Okay, let's also include this imagery which I call imagination. Also let's include memory images that come seemingly from the past.' And we said, 'Okay, let's group these perceptions, this quality of perception, and give it a label: mind.' In the same way, we have taken these body sensations, pain or pleasure, the sensations which are appearing—a very different set of them really. It's a hand sensation, a leg sensation, excitation, pleasure sensation, heart sensation. All these sensations, and we looked at all these perceptions, and it's convenient to call all of this 'body.' And then to distinguish between these sensations and everything else that is perceived that doesn't have the same quality of these, and we said, 'Okay, let's call them outside' or 'let's call it the world' or something like this. But all of these distinctions are actually mental.
So this fits in very well with what we are talking about today. Anything—body, mind, being, consciousness, awareness, nothing—and what is left? Only that truth which has no opposite to enforce. That truth comes and goes, but this truth which is being pointed at, which is apparent in your motionless existence, it does not have an opposite. This one cannot be falsified. It never is not. It is. This isness is completely apparent, and the falseness is what we cannot know. Is it not? This is what we cannot know. All that you know is wrong. What we know is this. This knowing is the move of this isness. The mind is too blunt an instrument to understand this. It's actually like you can't do a root canal with a hammer. This is what you're getting into with some conceptual thing. Thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Mooji Baba Ki Jai.