Stay with God
The game of life is won by staying with God (the Self) and not taking yourself to be something separate - see pride granularly as thought, not as an abstraction to fix.
These past few weeks, it's seen more and more that what's coming up, before which was unwilling to trade for God, has been coming up and has been more clear. And, you said to really fight for God, to just, if there is effort, to make the effort to stay with God, to literally make the effort. And, making the effort those past few weeks to really stay with God it's that these things that were unwilling to trade for God come up on their own, like without trying they just...
Okay, we'll go there just in a moment. Right now, you're making an effort to stay with whom?
God.
God! It's God! So, are we awestruck by that or no?
More and more, yes.
Because, who are we staying with? We can stay with God! And you're right, I have said it's worth fighHng for, it's worth fighHng with all our might to stay with this. But, I'm just pausing here for a moment, because it's very difficult to gloss over this and then say „But then this (whatever) happens“. We'll go there, don't worry. I realize that you may be feeling like „But, I want to talk about that what happens“. But, who are we staying with? What are we talking about? How can we make it, like, part of a sentence „Uh, you know, I'm staying with God, and, you know, I'm able to, but you know, what also happened...“ What? [chuckles] Staying with God. Be God!
Yes.
Yes. Yes. Be God, the One. So, I'm staying with God. Now? [Pauses] Now? You know, one of my concerns is that I'll just spend this enHre life talking about God, and my children actually don't meet God the way I meet God. I don't want that to happen. I'm going to fight for that with all my might. I'm saying, stay with God. And because the mind can also own that, in Satsang we hear it so oeen, „Stay with God, the Self“, and the mind can also go very quickly to „But, I'm the Self, no? Beyond even God“. Hello, wait, wait [laughs]. So, this God, it's where?
Here.
It's here. God that is here, do we recognize It as It? Do we recognize God as God? All the markeHng about God is actually underselling it. All that we've heard about God and all that everyone has ever spoken, because that which is spoken and wriZen and understood can never come close to that which really is. Now, the God that we find, is it That or no?
I don't know if I see God in a way that you do yet.
That God that we find, what can you say about That?
It's not thought, and it's not sensaHons. And it's not a concept.
Is it existent?
It seems to be so, existent, because I know it.
Is there another existence?
No.
Is it, that at this point the staying „with“ becomes irrelevant, because the only existent is found to be This? [Silence] Is there another existent?
There isn't. Just when concepts come, it seems to be someHmes, when thoughts arise or something is believed in.
So, this is what the fight is, this is what the game is. Whether you call it Leela, which is basically like a play, a game. It doesn't have a direct definiHon into English, but basically like a gameplay sort of combinaHon, a simulaHon, if you will. So, this is the Leela. In this Leela, the way to, provisionally speaking, win is to stay with God and not take yourself to be separate, you see. There is not a moment in the waking state where this game is not being played. Not a moment in the waking state where this game is not being played. So, we will never be able to fix that which is post This. The minute you go from I Am to „I am something“ and then say, „Uhh, now when I am something, how do I fix things“, not possible. The only way to stop it is to not pick up the somethingness. 13:33
That is what I was starHng to share at the beginning. This staying with God, even when it's an effort. That these things arise on their own without even having to look for them.
What do you mean by „things“?
What's been coming up the past weeks for me I can share. The sense of specialness or pride or spiritual ego.
Let's boil it down. So, let's say „pride“. That's an abstracHon to encapsulate some smaller elements under that. So, let's talk about the granularity for a moment. What's under this? What makes up pride, like, „I'm feeling very proud“? It's not something I can feel like there is a pride and that's why I'm feeling proud. So, what is it?
A belief in, like, a spiritual person progressing.
So, a thought which poses as something special. The power of belief exercised on that parHcular thought, and then that becomes something that is part of our pool of condiHoning, Vasana tendencies. And then that is what we call „I became proud“. Is that what you're saying?
Yes.
But you noHce that, when we go over it just like „There is pride“, then actually it sort of hides what that mechanics of that is. And in the mechanics of that ge^ng hidden, it can feel like I can work on it at a layer of abstracHon which is not that granular. But nobody can succeed like that. So, if you say „Get rid of pride. Whoever is suffering is suffering because you have pride“, and I say „Get rid of pride“. Okay, how will you do it? You can't do it unless you look at it in a granular way and say „What makes me proud? What makes me special?“. And that is only a proposal from a thought. And it seems to get nurtured and therefore becomes something that we gravitate towards, the more we believe, the more we gravitate towards it, and you may call that, the more interested we are in that which amplifies that same idea. 16:11
Key Teachings
- The only way to end suffering is to not pick up 'somethingness' - stay as I Am, don't go from 'I Am' to 'I am something'
- Pride and specialness are just thought proposals - see them granularly rather than as abstractions you must 'get rid of'
- Stay with God (the Self) as the only existent; recognize God here, not as concept but as the actual existence you know
From: What Do You Find Without the Mind? - 21st August 2020