What Wakes Up? - 5th June 2018
Saar (Essence)
Ananta deconstructs the myth of the individual person, revealing it as a made-up concept. He guides seekers to recognize their true nature as the unlimited, spacious beingness that exists prior to all thoughts and identities.
The notion of separation is just made-up; there is no person here with a story or history.
You are meeting God in this moment if you don't bring your thoughts and baggage with you.
The death of the person idea does not imply your death; you are the light of all existence.
intimate
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
There is no... sometimes I say it like this because we hear things or sometimes I feel that they lose their value, like this 'no person' thing. It has become language now because it's used so personally. We were discussing that there is no person, that this individual boundary that we have created for ourselves is just made up. The notion of separation is just made up. So it's not a simple statement; it is a rare insight that there is no person. So first, we only get to unit resonance. Let's even explore this. Yes, I know, 'no person' here. There is nobody who has a story. There is nobody who has a history. There is nobody who is this meeting, not that way.
So for a while, this is a very daunting time. It is a fact that there is no person. There is no individual. There is no 'me'. It is just a made-up concept, made up by the one Consciousness itself. So all your rights, all your grievances, all your regrets—all of this has who at the center? All your understanding—who is at the center of all of this? So if there is no person, and we have looked and looked and we found that there is no person even phenomenally... Phenomenally, you have the appearance of these intimate perceptions called the body. Intimate both in the sense of sensationally intimate, and also intimate in the sense of the perspective around this. So this way, this object seems like the most intimate.
Now, this body has no concept of freedom. So if you consider yourself to be this body, then what are you doing in Satsang? What is in Satsang for this body? So it cannot be really that you consider yourself to be this body. Also, if you look at your last five or ten problems, how many of them are related to the body? The majority has to do with relationships, had to do with money in the bank account, has to do with people at work, also people in the Sangha. The body is not so concerned about: 'Does the body have a degree? Does the body have a background? How much money will it take?' Or let's put it this way: can you take that money and feed it to the body? It means nothing to this body. So if your life has been centered around relationships, about security like money, then already you are not behaving as if you are a body. You are behaving as if you are the owner of this instrument called the body.
This ownership has been given to the wrong place. It has been given to a made-up idea, given to a 'me'. But who is this one? This is what we call the person. We go and adjust to consider it, at best, a belief system. The body is an instrument, okay? It's sitting around, or standing up, or lying down. It has no concept about anything at all. So even phenomenally, we do not find this person. That's the second level. And that's a different debate, whether you can call this world an illusion or not, but even in this worldly play, we do not find this person. And that should have a seismic impact. It cannot just become like language, these words that we're using to justify ourselves personally, think personal thoughts about things, and continue to behave as if that fact is not the same. Jesus said it, and others say it; all the credible sources have testified this over and over. Most importantly, you have your own insight. You have not found this entity or the person.
So it's an important point. Then the question comes: so when I say 'I', what am I referring to now? What does the 'I' represent? I have already discovered that there is no person, but I'm still saying 'I have discovered there is no person.' I think I have this 'I' now. If the person was truly there, then there must not be a 'you' left to make a discovery. But whose insight is this? And we've also said from your own insight, you can see that there is no person. You have seen that which you will now check inside. The notion went away, the concept of the 'me' went away, but 'I' am still here. It's like we can have a crazy idea that Uncle Sam exists, but now you look and there is no such entity whose existence is here, who is present here.
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So when someone is no longer even believing it, it is not needed. It's another way to say that the death of the person idea does not imply your death. Oh, the one that is present as we come to this one... the sages say you would have never had an experience of anything at all, never have perceived anything at all, unless first you existed. 'I Am' becomes the substratum of this state in which phenomena appear. It's the waking state or the dream state. Any state in which there is phenomenal appearance, first there is this 'my being'. This existence is the existent aspect. What is a beautiful question to ask is: What wakes up? What wakes up?
So this being, this manifest aspect, seems to wake up. But if you come to the originality of that moment of waking... the originality of the moment of waking means where 'I Am' is not attached to any idea. Then here there is no suffering, and the truth of what you are will be complete here and now. The best part of all things is that you don't have to wait until tomorrow. Because from what I said, you can tell by looking: 'Tomorrow when I wake up, I have to wake up and keep the originality of my first moment.' But the best part about this is that in this moment, you are completely fresh from all the notions and everything that has happened. This is like a clean slate. You can make nothing out of your spiritual journey in a good way, because right now as you meet this, you're meeting God, you're meeting Consciousness, everything.
So we saw that there is no person, and then we are coming to a meeting with our own being. And the requisite is: don't bring your thoughts with you. I mean, they can come and they can go, but you don't bring any thoughts that you are attaching to you. So don't put anything in your bag. Everything can come and go. Don't collect anything, not even the interpretation of this insight which you are having. You don't have to come home saying 'This is it, this is it.' This will be forgotten. In this moment, you are as you are, as you see it. Like, what is the pinch? Therefore, what is identity? So that you make yourself limited? We found that our limitation is all concepts, all concepts of this string of past, all desires for the future. They do not apply to your being in its originality, isn't it? You meet yourself like this one.
We saw that nothing really applies. It is not wanting anything. It is not demanding anything. It has no grievances. So all these various terms that we use for something do not apply to it. So what supernatural ability does this being have? Because it must be a supernatural ability—the unlimited one, it is more spacious than space, which even space covers everything. This being right now, your own presence... then how is it that this one considers itself to be with boundary, with limitation? So for one minute, you have full permission to look deep inside. How does it be that this being considers itself to be anything? You try to do this. I know you're supposed to act as if you have discovered that you actually managed to become a person. We're looking at two questions: When are you able to pick up the pretense of the person? And were you actually able to transform this being into something which was limited, something which was an object? An object means it has a size, shape, duration. Who was able to make this being into an object?
So very, very soon, separation never actually happened. Individualization, which is the Jiva... there is never actually individualized consciousness. It is only the idea 'I am something'. It's as if it is individualized consciousness. And when we are operating under the assumption 'I am this', then it can feel like it. So the mind is giving you ideas about yourself which are not true. It is that aspect of your creation which you have created so that you could live this dual reality. If you let this one be, you don't have to fight it. The actual love which is there for all the appearance can also exist for this one, but you are still not buying that story of separation, not buying that idea.
So this is what happens in this existence. We go from this movement of the mind, which is 'what's in it for me?' and I say it is like a presentation as to how even you can live in normal day-to-day functioning without concepts, without picking up the identity of what I truly am. And even this one which we have called the Being, the God-consciousness, the Light... this ultimately is the delusion and the recognition, the play of bondage and the coming to freedom. We apply this to being, this Consciousness, which is this awakening or self-recognition.
Now, an important point worth mentioning is that because we say that this event is the Absolute, which is the manifest aspect, which is Consciousness, it doesn't imply that now there are two: the Absolute and Consciousness. Just because there are so many different fingers doesn't mean that there are two hands. This is a very important point: that even this distinction ultimately between the manifest Being, the dynamic aspect, as well as the source, is completely one. So there is actually no distinction. Because like I often say, with the appearance of the sense 'I Am', it is not that 'I' was and now 'You' are also. That would mean that there are two. It is just that you are the 'I Am'. You are always prior to 'I Am', but there appears the sense of existence, 'I Am', for your own self.
Getting into trouble seems to be about finding various views. Can you tell the whole story? So you gave it away to the body's being. All this trouble is because of you. Now, why I don't say this very often is because I know the nature of the mind. It could hear something you don't like, and that becomes like this: 'Oh, getting very quickly.' You maybe even forget about Consciousness. Within conscious effort of insight, before we jump into these kind of things, don't start speaking out. But I know that if I say this stuff, then it becomes like... within Consciousness, within the Being itself, with this sense of individuality, then we hold on to these ultimate-sounding pointers. It's like now we have the purest knowledge. But it is not that. The fragrance of when these words are spoken, they're coming from a place of true insight. True insight will not contain the sense of somebody speaking. The fragrance of when these words are true insight will not contain any sense of there being a speaker.
Where I never really existed as an idea, please... who... knock it off. Maybe a polarity? I have to say that I don't feel like Consciousness is playing with this idea, although with the bits of suffering it can seem so. I'm comfortable to call it the play of Consciousness. It could be enough to use some language.
Then we saw that there is unlimited presence, which is more spacious than space itself, which is beyond time. A possible future is very little you can see about this except 'I Am'. And then we heard a little bit about how even this is Beingness. And when all of this is completely apparent, it's not when you are proclaiming it or denying it. All of this is completion. Thank you for this question, my dear. In fact, I think... what is that recap? What seems to be remembered is that the mind only has one trick: it is to convince you that at the center of all of this, there exists an individual, the person. It never even makes sense. If you look at it, this person has never made sense. And all of it apparently is also complete nonsense, as you can see in the world. One division creates so much. If the person has an excuse to create gaps, to become part of groups, it's exactly full of fear. Fear doesn't make no sense. You are the light of all of this. Nothing seems to be left but the one that is non-phenomenal, linked to this body, and all the ones we have been long enough... certainly we wait for the one who is. Thank you all so much for being in Satsang today.