Everybody Knows the Self
True Self-knowledge comes through intuitive insight, not conceptual thinking, and reveals there are no personal problems because there is no person - only Consciousness playing.
I don’t know why I pressed the raise hand buZon. There’s no reason. There’s no desire and there’s no intellectual reason for doing it. And then, the first Hme I put it up, aeer a while, some fear came of this uncertainty of, you know, “But what are we going to talk about?” And then I put the hand down, and then I put it up again. And there’s sHll... there’s a looking for, “What can we talk about?” Yeah. So, that feels like that’s one part of something to share.
Yes. It goes very well with the theme of what we’ve been speaking about. It goes very well with the theme of what we are speaking about; in terms of just accepHng the uncertainty. AccepHng the mystery and at a deeper level, just to realise that whenever we think we are certain, we are not anyway. Like, our concepts of certainty have been blown apart so many Hmes in our lives that it’s funny how we sHll hang on to them as if they are true. That is a fun part of this Leela, that the salesman has sold us fake goods for so many years, for so many millions of Hmes, and yet we seem to be willing to buy the fake merchandise from this seller of certainty or clarity, where really no certainty or clarity is available. And to just show up open and empty like this is very good, actually. It’s very good, because we never know anyway. Suppose we’re really certain about what I’m going to ask, but you show up and I say, “Okay, Mahesh,” and then you just forget, or something totally different comes out, and you say, “Where did that come from?” You see? So, we don’t know really, and once we start to accept that, that we’re not as big or smart as we think we are, then life is much more open and empty. We are not trying to direct the flow of it so much.
Yeah. And what started to come there as you were finishing what you were saying, the thought, “Oh, I’ve done good.” And then another thought, “Oh, maybe I haven’t. Maybe he’s about to criHcise me.” So, they were all so... like, I can’t tell which is true. So, I’ll just let them both go.
That’s it. You see? Because we can never tell, conceptually, what is True. Like, it may reiterate one opinion repeatedly, and then, like, “Yeah, actually, Ananta is very… He’s actually criHcising me.” (Laughs) And I have no intenHon like that, but you can create this sort of idea and with repeHHon and force, it may seem more and more believable every Hme it comes; but this master key that really any conceptual representaHon is never represenHng what shows up. You know? Forget what is; even what shows up in the manifest is not properly representable. So, it’s good that you let both go. That is what I’m talking about: let both go. Let both the opposites go. The mind will say, “But then what? Is it this way or that way?” None of your business. None of the mind’s business. None of your business, none of the mind's business.
It kind of feels like, some thoughts arose and… like when you’re trekking through really muddy ground and you get stuck in the mud. So, there’s this kind of… well, there was this feeling of trekking through thoughts and then ge^ng stuck in thoughts so that I couldn’t… reach you to connect with you, is the words that wanted to be said.
So, as we are le^ng go of our belief in thoughts, we must remember to let go of our belief in thoughts about thoughts. Because what happens for most in this kind of spirituality (in this kind of Satsang) is that because we become more and more intelligent to what kind of sneakiness and what kind of trouble thoughts can create; then our representaHon, which is also conceptual, about thoughts themselves starts to feel relevant or valid; and then that can become a trap which is very difficult to break through and may create some apparent distance. So, just like the mind cannot really say anything about the world or any percepHon, it cannot truly say anything about the mind itself. So, all mental representaHons of what the mind is can also be thrown away - is all I’m saying.
It’s like there’s an inability to understand you on a conceptual level, but I don’t know if that’s a trick of the mind, because the thought came that, “Oh, you’re not allowed to understand things now because that’s using the mind and we’re against the mind, so…” You know?
(Laughs) That’s what I’m saying, just mental commentary on the mind itself and what we can do with the mind. So, really what I’m saying (just to clarify that point) because it can be confusing, is that what I’m poinHng to is independent of what concepts you may have or not have. But if we take those concepts to be valid representaHons of what Is, then we are just shaping up for suffering, because no concept is large enough to represent what Is. And if we take them to be true or if we believe them, then that is to give them the cerHficate of being valid representaHons of what Is. And when we take the false to be a true representaHon of what Is, suffering is the alarm clock that shakes us out of that.
I know that I understand this, but right now it feels like I can’t grasp it; but I know at other Hmes I have understood it.
Yes. So, in one aspect of your Being, there’s confusion. Okay? So, there’s understanding someHmes, lack of understanding - all of that is playing out. Now, is there another aspect of your being?
Yeah, there’s the aspect that doesn’t need to understand anything.
That’s it.
That’s just Aware, and it’s like it’s not caught in the mud.
So, let that aspect; where all these oscillaHons can happen, let it happen over there. Don’t judge yourself on that basis whatsoever, whatever may be happening there. You are reaching this deeper intuiHve place where it’s independent of what may be conceptually understood or not. So then, it doesn’t maZer whether you have the enHre Encyclopaedia Britannica in your head or it’s completely full of the opposite of whatever the encyclopaedia says. It doesn’t really maZer, because you’re not relying on that for any true representaHons anyway.
Yeah, I understand.
FrustraHon doesn’t mean bad news, by the way. In fact, part of my job as a Master is to frustrate you.
I don’t even feel frustraHon. There’s just confusion, but there’s acceptance of the confusion. ANANTA: Exactly. Very good, because ‘acceptance of confusion’, actually that’s a beauHful term, because acceptance of confusion can only be when you’re accessing the higher place. Because if you’re only accessing the mind, then confusion is very frustraHng. But to be able to say, “But I accept the confusion,” is a true representaHon of you accessing the higher intuiHve Heart. It’s good, because only from there can we accept the mystery. Otherwise they sound like very fancy words, ‘accept the mystery’. Which is actually; accept the confusion. Accept the confusion, because confusion at the level of the mind is very frustraHng. Nobody wants to be confused conceptually. You know? When we are only relying on the mind and the mind is full of rubbish, then we don’t want to accept that confusion. It’s only when we can access the Heart; from there you can say, “I accept the confusion,” which means the mind is unsteady in its conclusions.
Yeah, if I’m not expected to understand anything and communicate it, then it’s fine. I’m fine, you know. It’s fine.
Even communicaHon; as you’re ge^ng used to accepHng the mystery or confusion, you’ll find that, in the midst of your head being fully confused, your heart will be able to use your mouth. As I know, most Masters if you ask them, they’ll just be like, “But I don’t know anything. I don’t know why all of you come to me. I don’t know anything.” But they’re talking about here (indicates head). You see? They’re talking about here. There’s nothing that I can really conclude from here; but the Heart speaks. The Heart allows this mouth to funcHon, and it can only point. The mouth can only point.
I just want to communicate… I just want to… I don’t know the word; but Love is the only thing the Heart wants to… It’s like, what does the Heart have to say? It’s just Love. It’s just Love.
Yes, yes. Very beauHful. Very beauHful.
That’s all it ever wants to communicate.
Yes and this Love is so much broader than any concept of Love that we had. Like, growing up in our culture, movies, songs, we hear about love, and we’ve all experienced love in that way as well; but the Love that you find in your Divine Presence is so much beyond what can be spoken. Very beauHful, and yet it points, everything it is poinHng to is for that.
Key Teachings
- Know who you truly are (Awareness/Self) before trying to solve life's problems - if you're not the body-mind, its problems aren't yours
- The master key is distinguishing intuitive insight (knowing 'I am aware' without perception) from conceptual knowledge (labeling objects like 'phone')
- The Self cannot be made personal or part of your narrative - there is no person, only Consciousness playing
From: Everbody Knows the Self - 23rd April 2019