Are You Dependent on Any Story?

The project was how to suffer. We found inherently in the right here and now — we can’t even say fine or something, but let’s say fine — no suffering. Then there were all these ideas, that some ideas, some thoughts, have to be taken to be real — that is what is called a belief: that some idea is real, it has truth value. Now, we said: What are those ideas that we can take as real and what is their basis and how can we consider them to be true? Then, we also checked and saw that ‘true’ itself is just a term that has been given various meanings by various people in the past. And, if you look at it as Vedanta, then Vedantins have said: Anything that comes and goes, that is not eternal, that is ephemeral, is not true, is Maya. So, that standard then applies to almost everything the mind says and therefore none of it is true. Of course, like Bhagwan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] said, the truth cannot be spoken, cannot be put in any words. Then, that would include everything the mind says. Now, we are saying that okay, let’s not apply such a big standard. Then, we looked at an inter-mediatory standard, then said, Okay, can you describe this room — in how many concepts? We said, ‘unlimited’. We said ‘unlimited’ even for a description of a simple phenomenal appearance like this room. Then, we said that if we take a limited set of perceptions and use that definition of truth — in this case, the example that he was talking about — we can’t even be certain that that experience is there. It is a pure presumption. So, maybe we bring it closer to home. Like, I saw a tiger and I was fearful. So, at least then you can say, okay, now this is undeniable. Then, when we started checking, saying okay how do we define ‘I’, already there was like a thing like ‘gone’. Then we said, okay, fearful. Have we actually experienced the same sensation? Can we really confirm that this is fear, that this is pain, this is pleasure? What are the defining, drawing lines? Even those, we can’t really actually come to conclusions about. But we have to suspend all of this, in a way, and say: Okay, okay okay, whatever; I don’t know what I is, I don’t really know what fear is, but something. I have to just admit that this is. I have to have some term to describe this and I feel like this. So would you say that all our beliefs are like that? Just very …[gestures throwing something away].

Like very, very broad approximation and very limited approximations, especially in terms of the definition of the ‘I’, the perceiver, the experiencer of all of this. And that’s why Guruji’s [Sri Mooji] question cuts very deep when he says, ‘Can the perceiver be perceived?’ So, as long as we are willing to rely on this, saying, ‘Yes, it must be true, I am unwilling to investigate further, I am just going to go with that presumption that it must be true’, then we have not started the enquiry. Bhagwan’s method of enquiry is: Okay what is true, who are you? This, basically, is the same question. So, those who are willing to undertake this enquiry — even the emergence of this question will irritate most people, actually — like, what is true, but somehow rarely they feel like they want to embrace it. You will find that it is no different from ‘Who am I?’ Or, actually, no different from ‘What do I really know’. But the good thing is — well, not a good thing if you are trying to suffer, but if you are trying to come to the end of your suffering — the good thing is that you notice that at the root of any suffering is the notion, a very, very limited idea, an un-investigated idea, of yourself. Not only of yourself, but whatever it is conveying about yourself also. And, if you were to investigate that notion, you will find that actually it is not talking about anything or anybody substantive. It is not talking about any tangible one. It is talking about an imagined one or a presumed one — not even imagined. We don’t even have a good imagination about the ego. It is like: Does the ego have a beard? [Chuckles]. We don’t have a good imagination. Just imagine, the owner of this body, the owner of our bank account, the owner of our job, the owner of our relationships — we don’t even have a good illustration of that one. So, not even imagination. It is just like a presumption, just an idea that is at the centre of you. That is why it is said that at the centre of all suffering is the ego, or the false, or ignorance. And that is why Bhagwan said that to come to the Truth, you don’t have to practice anything, all you have to do is to stop practicing the false. But even if the first part of what I have said is clear to some of you or all of you, then you have saved yourselves a lot of time and trouble. If it is clear to you that inherently, here and now, in your notion- less unborn Self, nothing needs to be resolved, nothing needs to be changed, nothing is needed. Then it may save you a lot of time because the seeker identity is still trying to fix something, is trying to change something, is trying to become something, is trying to become enlightened. But enlightenment is not a becoming. It is a recognition of what is. The light is already present. The enlightenment is not the switching-on of a light. It is the recognition of the light which already is.