Cleaning up some Myths in Advaita

All of these qualities, all of these perceptions, we can say something has a quality only because it is perceived, isn’t it? Yes, it has a quality but it is unperceivable! - Then it has no quality. To say it has a quality means it is a perception. Now this quality-less Reality [Silence] does it even have the quality of, or the perfume of Presence? [Silence] Is the perfume of Presence or quality of Being-ness inherent in it or is this even beyond Being and non-Being? [Pause] And if Being has the quality of Presence, then this Presence must be (as subtle as it may be) perceived. And all perceptions, they come and go. But in the coming and going even of Presence or absence of Presence, you are Aware, quality-less-ly. [Pause] And the best news is that you don't have to work at all to recognize everything that I am saying. If you are working towards it then you are digging for tomatoes, if some of you don't know that reference, if you go digging will you find tomatoes? You will only find potatoes. So if you are working towards this, if you think that it is so that your attention will ever get directed towards this Self or on this Self then you are mistaken. What you may find is that attention is divested from the perception but attention can never be on the Self. Because attention goes to perception. Self is unperceivable. So if your attention is going to some empty space, don’t confuse that to be the Self, if it is going to some darkness, don't confuse that to be Self. Who is aware of even that? [Silence] Let it go there, you don't have to fight with attention. Let it go wherever it wants to go. But if you are concluding that once your attention is on some dark empty space then you are being the Self or something like this, then this is a false conclusion. Or if there is an idea that you are abiding in this way, like keeping your attention fixated on something then it is not true abidance. You could be deeply identified as a seeker, Consciousness taking itself deeply to be a seeker wanting to find the Truth and trying to force attention on to something and keep it there that is not abiding in the Truth. Because our identification could be very strong, maybe even stronger. So to abide is only to not take yourself to be anything at all. Do not take yourself to be anything at all including ‘nothing’. When you include, don't forget to include ‘nothing.’ Don't take yourself to be anything at all and don't forget to include ‘nothing’. Like I was saying other day if you are taking yourself to be ‘nothing’ you are still taking yourself to be ‘something.’ We were just looking to some myths in spirituality especially in Advaita and hopefully just cleaning them up because there can be this idea is that ‘I must now take myself to be nothing.’ Who are you? 'Oh I am just Mr. Nothing or Ms. Nothing, I am nothing’, which is still taking yourself to be something when taking yourself to be ‘nothing’. If your intellect struggles with this let it struggle a bit with it, it's okay. You don't have to, in fact you will not come to a comprehensible or comprehendible version of Reality. But in your intuitive insight, the words will ring true because the words are from there itself. So to abide is to not take yourself as anything at all including ‘nothing.’ [Silence] To be egotistical is to take yourself to be something. To be empty of delusion, to be empty of this egotism, ignorance, is to not to take yourself to be anything at all including ‘nothing.’ If your mind is shouting 'But who is this instruction for?' It's for You. [The mind’s voice] ‘But isn't it for ego?' No, it's for You. [The mind’s voice] 'Can I do it?' Yes, You can. You can. What you think about yourself can't. You use the same power to give yourself trouble. Isn’t it? [Chuckles] You use the same power to give yourself trouble, when I say use the same power to get out of trouble, ‘But I’m not the doer.’ [Raises his hands up, Chuckling] So that brings us to the second most important theme which is this idea of ‘I am not the doer’ has to be investigated because that which was provisionally spoken can then become a maha mantra for many Advaita especially the new type of Advaita. So we must investigate ‘you’ who is not the doer? When we say I am not the doer, who are we talking about? (Looks at a sangha member and says, ‘Why do you look so sheepish?’ [Paraphrasing on behalf of Sangha] ‘I’ve been doing this all weekend’.) [Laughter in the room] So ‘you’ who is not the doer? The same idea that you took yourself to be and then gave it the attribute of doer-ship. Now you disinvested that idea of yourself from the idea of doer-ship, but still taking the false one to be yourself. So when we say, I am not the doer, we are really saying that, ‘I, that I thought myself to be but never was, doesn’t have any attribute, including doer-ship’. The pointing that ‘you are not the doer’ is not to make you into some perennial victim of God. ‘I’m not even the doer, why you do this to me!’ or ‘Oh thank you, thank you, you did very nice things’ - It’s not to make you a slave. Surrendering is not to be a slave or a servant in that way, at the mercy of a higher power. Surrendering is the letting go of any distinction. Letting go of any duality, separation. It is deeper than the usual concept of love even. [Silence] So at best our provisional prayers of, (bows down, hands folded) ‘Yes, yes. Whatever is your will Master or God’ is provisional.’ But to see, what I thought of myself is not the doer, is at best a step, is at best a step. But to see that you were never that, you are that from which all this drama arises, in which these notions of agency, volition, will, all these play out, is what is more important. Otherwise very quickly you can take on this idea which is meant to get rid of your individuality and become a super champion victim. You can take yourself to be a champion victim of a higher force. But there is nothing higher in phenomena than your Being, your very Presence. And even your Being comes from You. So if you take yourself to be an object in the perceptual play, in the Light of your Being, but now this object has been divested of all its power, then provisionally that maybe helpful because you may run out of moves and look at that which is greater than this objective idea. But if you get stuck in that and take yourself to be perennially to be this tiny object who is now no longer even the doer, [Chuckles] then it is not the Truth which you are relying on. It is still identification.