Whatever the Situation May Be, Heart Knowledge Is Enough

I'm aware of it.

Yeah, how are you aware?

I behave stupidly. The thought processes that come in and all that. You know what I'm asking you is, is it another bondage? Because as it is we're dealing with so much in our lives and we take on one more role.

The root question really... see, the root question really is not whether you are provided a concept of whether it's okay to do this or not, you see, which may be the original intent of asking this question. But I want to take it even deeper than that is to say: so okay, now you have a concept, that's all alright. The action can flow, but don't become that. Yes, we hold that in a mental container somewhere and say, 'Okay, that is the principle with which I'm doing this project,' you see? But we hold on to the ego with the notion of 'I am doing this project.' Then my job is not totally done then.

Yeah, that's there.

Yeah, so I'm going to attempt to go a step deeper than the intent of the original question, I feel, and say: okay, so what can we rely on to make a true report about ourselves? Good one. Not the mind for sure. Who said 'good one'? Everyone else is sort of sad, yeah, because you're relying on the mind and the mind doesn't know you're right. Yes. And I don't know if you were there in the beginning of Satsang—were you there in the beginning? That's why, because it's important. And this will be a good recap, I think, for everyone as well.

So Bhagwan had clearly said that the Self will not be a fresh attainment. It's not something that you're going to get from outside. It will be only in the absence of ignorance that this Self will become apparent, you see? So it is a process of deconstruction or a process of cleaning up of ignorance rather than a process of fresh attainment, you see? That has to become the first thing which is clear. The second thing that should become clear is that when we notice the nature of this ignorance, we notice that it comes from the mind, you see? The mind proposes that you are this body, you are this body-mind, you have this life, you're supposed to do this and not supposed to do that. So duality, desire, doership—all of this is proposed by the mind. So the source of ignorance is the mind.

The third is that when we notice the nature of the mind, it seems to be laden with self-preservation. Otherwise, on hearing Bhagwan's words, we could have said, 'Oh, ignorance is the problem, mind causes ignorance, mind please go, done,' you see? But in the design of this Leela, it does not seem like the mind is designed like that. The more you try to push it away, the more it wants to have its say, you see? So self-preservation and in fact domination seems to be the nature of the mind. So if... let's use the metaphor of the thief then, you see, who doesn't want to be caught, obviously. Now what most of us do as spiritual seekers, we go to this thief itself to say, 'Okay, now how do I get rid of the thief or catch the thief?' And what do you feel the thief is going to say? He's not going to give himself up for sure. He's not going to give himself up.

So that mistake, that quality that we make in terms of trying to catch the thief following the thief's instruction, you see, is predominantly the job of the spiritual seeker. That is all that is mostly what a spiritual seeker is doing. So if you cannot go to the mind for instructions about how to get to manonasa, then where can we go?

To the awareness that's always there.

So that, yes. So that insight, that awareness is always here where you recognize that, you see? Where you recognize that all guidance is available there, where you see that you are awareness itself. It is not empty of... it is not a lost state. It is not that, 'Oh, now there is a practical life.' So like I was joking earlier and saying how can a bird flap its wings and a fish swim and a plant grow without the mind? Because all of these are practical things. But in the human condition, this is where we are stuck. We are stuck with the mind which has the ability to ask these huge questions, you see, but is completely unable to assimilate any true answer about anything valuable—love, truth, joy, music, companionship. It cannot understand in the mind.

So this is the main, main problem where we've taken the source of ignorance to be the source of guidance in spirituality also. They're listening to the thief about how to catch the thief. So the thief will always say, 'But this is your problem, these feelings come, you start thinking you're the doer,' you see? It is never going to say, 'I am the thief, I am causing the problem, this thought is the problem.' It is not going to say, 'Don't believe me, I am the problem.' It is like Donald Trump—every time he had to convince people about what he was saying, he had to say 'Believe me.' So in the same way, the mind also says 'Believe me.' So what are we going to do now?

Good one. Listen to the mind, I guess? You know, where can we go for a report about what my problem is or do I need to fix? Probably just to the heart and to know there's nothing to fix actually. There's no one. You know, it's like if you really trust the awareness then you know that it's like you said, it's in charge of everything, it's the only thing that exists. So there's no... how do we know that we are being intuitive and not mental when we are accepting the acceptance of what is?

Okay, because the moment I'm judging... I have found the only failsafe I've found is that when who you are is apparent to you, yes. So use that as a failsafe mechanism. And in the times where it feels like 'But it's not apparent to me right now, I'm caught up in the world in my thing and things like that,' then you can use a tool like 'Am I aware now?' And you will notice that insight is available without using the mind, without using attention, without all of that. And you can find that although I say 'remain here,' what I mean is don't go to the other source of knowledge which is mental.

So when the doubt comes up which is mental, like 'Am I doing the right thing?', yes, just go into the awareness. Go to that—let's call it space provisionally. You recognize that you are awareness and all guidance, all intelligence, that is the source of it. So you go straight to the source rather than try to grasp at some branches. Eventually then it really doesn't matter what you do or you don't do, right? And then from the physical, from the mental point of view—I don't mean this the wrong way at all—but this is an example of how the mind is. It will ask the big question but it can only receive a concept in return. It's like a bucket of concepts. So I don't want to feed you any more concepts because then that just becomes mental. Let's speak a little more about this, I feel like it's helpful for everyone.

The first question about mattering is trying to presume the sort of meaning or the point of life, you see? Mattering must matter only if there's a meaning or a point. Now in the mind's version of the meaning of life or the purpose of life, that is not the true benchmark at all. So what is our benchmark or gauge going to be? Like if we say something matters or it does not matter, or something is better or it is worse, you see, then what will we benchmark it against? It'll only be against conceptual notions. So it's best to leave the question of the point, you see? The point... sometimes I started joking these days saying life is not a pencil that it has to have a point. What I'm trying to say with that is not that life is pointless; I'm just saying that let's accept that our head is not big enough to fathom the point of life or the meaning of life. And then we stop troubling ourselves in this way trying to figure out whether what I'm doing matters or it doesn't matter, you see, or life matters or it doesn't matter. Because the potential does not exist in the mind to fathom this. It is too broad. It cannot fathom the meaning of one moment, you see? What is this right now? It cannot fathom that. If it becomes that at the end of this conversation you've understood something conceptually, then I've failed. Yeah, I don't want you to leave with a tiny branch.

And I'm giving you the entire question in terms of, you know, when you're on a crossroad or use discrimination. In fact, you know, you have to take a choice and the mind does come in, doesn't it?

It will, but you'll be intuitive. I've given you the tool to distinguish between the mind and intuitive insight or heart knowledge. Whatever the situation may be, heart knowledge is enough. But if you burden your intuitive insight with the operation of the mind saying, 'Okay, now you're gonna go to the heart, just make sure it works, okay?'—you know, this kind of thing—it doesn't work. It's not a cheat code to life. But you will see in the course of time that that's such grace because you followed your heart. But don't expect it to have some immediate... it's not like a manifesting tool or something like that. Good opportunity for us to also recap some of the main messages I was trying to convey today. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.