nd

When we say, ‘Please rid me of the ‘me’’ we must say that and get out of the way. If we say, ‘Rid me of the ‘me’ and still worry about what’s in it for me to be rid of the me, then it cannot be done. It is so, but you cannot bother with any implications of this. To be rid of the me cannot be for any me to enjoy. To be rid of the me is not for any me to enjoy. ‘Ah this is so good for me now… I’m rid of the me, I’m at peace’; ‘Now that I’m rid of the me, my life is full of…’ something - it cannot be like that. So in one way it is the simplest prayer and in another way it is the most difficult. How is it the simplest? Because it is already so. There is no such ‘me’. This separation never really happened. And in another way it is the most difficult because if the me now feels like ‘It is the final thing for me to get now is ‘to be rid of the ‘me’ you see... then it is a circular loop. It is like what I keep saying, taking the poison and then wanting the antidote. Now, I say it to you all, that it is so… how will you check on this? You see, does the way your life go - does that become an indication of this? No it doesn’t. Does which thought now comes to your mind, does that become an indication? No it doesn’t. (Smiles) Nothing! The one who wants to confirm this, does that really want to be rid of the ‘me’ because that is the me, no? How will you confirm now? So, I have said that you are rid of the ‘me’. What must that mean to you? And the expectations that we may have from such a discovery of dropping of the ego, that just becomes a part of the ego itself. That is why the spiritual journey can seem so circular. Round and round this merry go round. (Smiles) What’s in it for me to be rid of the ‘me’ and why do I really want it? Why do we want to be rid of the ‘me’? Huh? Why do we want it so much? We come to a point actually when you say ‘That’s all I want, to be rid of the ‘me’…’ because… Why? [Ananta rephrases an answer from the Sangha] He says, some part of these behaviors which seem to be exhibited, that will go away.

And replaced with… better behavior? Something, some change - and who wants this change? It’s just a thought! Just a thought or that which we imagine ourselves to be, this bundle of thoughts. So the furthest that the intellect can go with this is to say that ‘I just want it for Truths sake because it is true’ - Truth for Truth’s sake itself. But even that ultimately is not true of course. Nothing we can say is. But what we are conveying in that ‘Truth for Truth’s sake’ is that empty of any selfish interest, empty of any selfish interest, not about what will I get or not about something that will happen to me now that I’m rid of the ‘me’. That is what this prayer is or request is. [Smiles] What does the ‘me’ feel about it? It might be sitting there and saying, ‘But what about me!’ So what is the way out of this seeming confusion and circular sort of situation? It is just to come to your Notionless-ness. Come to your unborn nature. [Silence] Then no problem, no solution. [Silence] the problem that we are trying to solve is a nonexistent one. So look at it this way no, what can happen is many times we feel like, ‘Yes, I solved it!’ But what did you solve? There was no problem. Or sometimes, most of the times we feel, ‘No I haven’t solved it.’ But there is nothing to solve. You are it. All that you are looking for is already you. All that seems to cause you trouble doesn’t exist. [Pause] Don’t go to the Unborn or don’t go to your NoHon-less-ness, thinking that, that must mean something to ‘me’. Not even… ‘Okay if I go to my NoHon-less-ness, then I will be finally free from the me’ [Chuckles] So, these quesHons we can ask: How will you confirm this, that you are free form this ‘me’? How will you confirm? We seem to be preZy certain of it. But right now, what is its Reality?

[Smiles] Where does it appear?

[Smiles] We talked about this the other day, it doesn’t appear? Where is it? Where is ‘me’? What are you calling ‘me’ that appears? I have never met this ‘me’ that appears.

Well, you first said like this [Makes gesture of something in front] because this is phenomenal-objecHve. Okay, then what other way it appears?

So, who is the voice represenHng, that’s the one I am taking about. Who is the mind represenHng? If you hear a voice… we took this example many years ago [Chuckles] Suddenly you start hearing a voice ‘I want pizza with black olives’ [Chuckles] this voice is coming and you just start running to get pizza or make pizza in the kitchen? Will you not want to follow and want to see whose voice it is? Who wants pizza? [Smiles] So, this is the quesHon: just in the appearance of this voice, the one that the voice is claiming to be, is that automaHcally confirmed? ‘I want pizza with black olives and definitely no pineapples’? What you going to do? [Smiles]

[Smiles] Start making it? Because the voice is coming so it must be true, like that?

Yes ‘I am really hungry; I am really hungry. Get me the pizza! Get me the pizza!’

[Cuts the quesHoner] ‘So what’s the point in asking, I am really hungry, get me the pizza!’ This is how the mind plays ‘Don’t ask who, just get me the pizza. You know it’s you, you want it, you’ [Laughs] ‘Come on! Don’t you know it, get out of this hocus focus business. Everybody knows it’s you’. Then why do we need a voice to communicate with ourselves. [Laughs] Why is this phone call required? Hello! [Laughter] ‘Yes, who’s calling?’ ‘It’s me calling’. Why we need to make this phone call? This is the simplicity of it. So, you idenHfied it ‘Yes it’s a voice’. But does the presence of voice confirm the existence of this me?

Yes. That’s why I say, this is the final thing that you can say. If you really mean it, then get out of the way then.

[Laughs] That is for you to say. If the prayer sounds real to you ‘Rid me of the me’. So, how to rid the non-existent one of the non-existent one? It is so. So, just the belief in the ‘me’ is being dissolved, the belief that ‘It is so, that it exists as a separate enHty’ is giving way now to this simple recogniHon that there is no such me. That’s why I clarified so much about: Who does it mean something for? What should happen because of it? [Smiles] S1: It sells doubt.

It sells doubt, yes. It is a doubt about who you are. All confusion is just a doubt about what you are.