श्रीरामSatsang with Ananta
Awareness & Attention

God Is Now

The voice in the mind is not proof of a separate self; the ego is a mythical idea that cannot be found through perception, and the belief it must be destroyed is itself the ego.

Seeker

Father we can find the ego in the form of this voice which keeps saying I am this…?

Ananta

But that is just the lawyer, no? That is just the lawyer of this client. But can you find the client? The voice is speaking, because there is a voice does it prove there is an enHty? Suppose the voice became a frogs voice tomorrow, ‘I want mosquito, I want mosquito’ will you start believing that you are a frog? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe that’s what it's about and I’ve been saying this- Because there is a narraHve, because there is this subHtling voice we believe the idenHty of that one which has never existed. But don’t we want to push the standard a liZle more than just there being a voice now? Because all of the Masters have told us that the voice is a trickster. The mind is not your friend. So, if we keep falling for that voice and we trust the existence of an enHty who is really there, it's saying ‘I want pizza. I want pizza.’ One day we looked, one day some young one was there and he was really frustrated saying ‘But what are we saying! I can’t! What are you trying to say?’ And then what we said is that suppose from the next room you are hearing this voice ‘I want pizza, I want pizza’ and you’ve been supplying this one pizza for the last ten years there comes a point where it is never saHsfied. So, then doesn’t it compel you to go and look? Who is this one who is ge^ng all this pizza from me? And when we go looking we realize there is nobody, it's just been a mythical idea. It was just a voice represenHng nobody. So, who does this voice represent? Haven’t we suffered enough from this voice already to at least make that exploraHon? Make that exploraHon. Whose voice are you? And if I find you then I promise you that I will give you all the pizza you want. We’ve just handed over everything to this voice. If somebody comes at your door and says ‘Who are you? Show me your ID’. First, won’t you say, ‘But who are you to ask for my ID?’ So, the percepHon of this voice is a common human condiHon. But because this voice is heard does it mean that there must be an enHty who it is represenHng? And if the enHty was so apparent then shouldn’t we see its shape, its color, its size, its birth. Whose voice is it? Whose voice is it? So, the spiritual seeker is the most confused one because this one it cannot find and that one it cannot find. It's looking with its eyes and trying to find the ego, never finds it. With its eyes it's trying to find the Self, can never find it. So, it's caught between two mirages. Fully confused. And someHmes it will replace some phenomenal experience of maybe some joy or some chakra or some experience or some astral travel or some past life experience or something like that and we feel like I’m finding the Self. Isn’t it? And then, ‘Okay! Then I was free’. But it was just more phenomena and nothing to do with yourself. So, it cannot find the ego and it cannot find the Self with percepHon. Then? It finds the ego and the Self through concepts. The ego through worldly concepts and the Self through spiritual concepts. And then its life becomes like a tennis ball going from worldly concepts to spiritual concepts. That is no way to live. We’re missing life in this ping-pong game. So, independent of either of them, independent of all noHons. You tried, no? You tried to lose yourself, what happened? Was there an ego si^ng there? Did you come across an ego? Scary looking creature si^ng there which you had to kill and destroy to be free? No such enHty exists. The idea that you have to kill the ego is the ego.

Key Teachings

  • The inner voice is not proof of a separate self—just as a frog's voice wouldn't make you a frog, the voice in your head doesn't prove an entity exists
  • The ego cannot be found through perception or concepts—it is a mythical idea with no actual existence, yet we keep looking for it as if it were real
  • The belief that you must kill the ego is itself the ego—there is no separate entity to destroy for liberation; the seeker's search between ego and Self is a ping-pong game between concepts
egovoiceself-inquiryperceptionliberationmindconcepts

From: God Is Now - 11th April 2019