The 'Bane' of a Spiritual Seeker

Independent of all perceptions, everything, I remain, I'm not subject to my perceptions. This ‘I’ - what effort is needed to know it? You just have to check. What needs to be seen to confirm your Self? The bane of the spiritual seeker is that they may spend years and maybe lifetimes looking for an experience of the Self which is like a fantastic perception. And I call it the Arjuna conundrum. What is Arjuna conundrum? The Lord has been gracious enough to show himself to Arjuna as form, as his best friend actually. He's standing there. He's also first, most importantly pointing him to the formless, deathless nature of the Self, Reality. So he is pointing Arjuna to his reality, which is beyond time and space beyond birth and death, very clearly. So how lucky is Arjuna? The beautiful form that anybody could ask for if you want to meet God in form is already there with him. So that form (which is the Master’s job) is pointing him to the formless, the same that is beyond birth and death, beyond coming and going, beyond all your senses, beyond body, emotion, sensation, intellect. Beyond…he saying beyond all of this. He's pointing him like that. But what did Arjuna say? Show me some fantastic form of you. This is the bane of the spiritual seeker. The Master is already there in front of them. He is pointing to the Absolute constantly. But most spiritual seekers are still waiting for something to happen and anything that can ‘happen’ means that it comes, therefore is a perception. Listen to what the Masters are saying. They are pointing you to that changeless Reality which is not a ‘happening’. So, what is then the recognition? The recognition is that which always Is. And yet in that which ‘is’, that which ‘is’ has given to itself the ability to take itself to be something that it is not. That is called delusion - Avidya [ignorance]. That which is, whether you call it a play, whether you call it evolution, whatever intellectual reasoning you may want to put around that, the fact is that that which ‘is’, is all there is and 'all there is’ includes the ability to take itself to be something that it is not. Let’s say that which it still is but is not it’s actual fundamental reality, it is just a temporal play. So the Self takes itself to be something manifest, something limited, something contained as a body-mind and the Self recognises that it is not its fundamental original true nature and sees that it is That. It is pure Awareness untouched by any of its own manifest play. The primal witnessing - that which is the un-born deathless Reality. And the good news is that this cannot be forgotten. It is not a function of remembering or forgetting. It is the original knowledge, Self-knowledge, independent of perception and notion. Cannot be lost but like I said, on top of this Truth, the Truth has given to itself the ability to take the false to be true. That’s why ‘I’ am. ‘I am’ itself is the first original untruth - Am-ness. And then, but even with that, there is no trouble yet. The trouble only starts when it plays as ‘I am something’ and the minute ‘I am’ is taken to be something, which means that in time and space… What is Maya? Name and form, so when you give yourself a name and form, that is Self playing as a deluded expression of itself. Playing as a deluded expression of itself and dropping that false belief, the Self is apparent to itself. So when I say remain open and empty, then you're not taking yourself to be something. So it is not that you as something are remaining open and empty, then that can become a problem. You already taken the poison and saying ‘Okay, my antidote is (being) open and empty’. For example, if I was to speak of this one [pointing to himself] I would say: Oh, I, Ananta always remains open and empty’. Already taken the poison and then talking of nonsense. Ananta itself is a limitation, closeness. So first we close ourselves and then pretend as if I'm so open and empty. So it is empty even of Ananta, especially of Ananta. Open to everything that comes and goes but nothing is claimed by the false, non-existent Ananta. So maybe it is sounding complicated but it isn’t. Just remain open and empty. Which means in a simple allowing, everything can come and go and not grasping into anything that comes, not collecting anything. So, all that we said about what is irrelevant, independent of all of this perception is covered in the simple words: open and empty. So you don't have to remember ‘I have to be independent of this , I have to be independent of that (and) then I can look’. You don't have to do that. Even that has been made very simple. Just remain open and remain empty of any grasping. Let all things come and go - don’t collect.