The Shape is Always Just a Pretense, It Never Becomes Real
Suffering arises only when consciousness mistakenly identifies with mental shapes, but these shapes are never real - you remain as the unpresentable I beyond all conceptualization.
You showed me how much I am confused about who I am. Whenever I ask a quesHon like, ‘who is seeing?’ you say, ‘only you are there, who else is there?’ and whenever I say, ‘It’s not helping me’ you say, ‘you’re going to go soon.’ [Ananta and Sangha Laugh]
The one that is seeing, in what way can that one be helped? You have to look, don’t think. The one that is seeing, or is aware even of seeing, aware of percepHon, how can that one be helped? But the one that wants or doesn’t want is that the same one?
This what the confusion is about.
That is simple, once we idenHfy the confusion, this is what the confusion is, we just have to look. [Silence] What is there? So who is the one that is aware?
I am Aware.
So this I which is aware, look and see if it wants something. What can be given to it? How can it be helped? [Silence] (Looks around the room) What can be given to this awareness? What material benefit can it have? What change does it want? What is it touched by? [Pause] That which is joy itself, not objecHve joy, not phenomenal joy, what joy can it get from something phenomenal? [Pause] So as long as you confuse yourself to be that which you’re not and who is confusing itself? The same one playing in its manifest aspect, as consciousness, takes itself to be a three dimensional, four dimensional object, that which we call the body-mind. And what is the symptom of that, when Consciousness takes itself to be a limited object? The symptom that starts to arise preZy soon is suffering. Grievances, guilt, pride, resentment, arrogance, remorse, all of this is suffering. To not take yourself to be that which you’re not, tot not pracHce the false is Truth. This Truth that you are can never leave actually. You see the only trouble is trying to capture it in your head. At least that much we should be able to see by now. The Truth which is just here, the river is flowing, we are trying to boZle it up, and that’s the only trouble, ‘When will I get the river in the boZle? When will I get the river in the boZle?’ ‘I almost had it, I’m almost there.’ Never complete. Isn’t it? Because we can never truly decipher this Truth in our heads. And that is the end of spiritual struggle. That is the end of spiritual struggle. You are already bathing in it. But you’re trying to boZle it and take it home. The greatest force in this universe is already si^ng in your living room.
I am full of ‘what’s in it for me’.
But you’re not really full of it, you reinforce it even in that statement. Right now you’re empty of it, right now. But if you think about it that means you take your thoughts to be a valid representaHon of what Is. You play as if you are full of it.
I was thinking it would be a hurdle for me, because someHmes when I’m happy I’m very happy to come to satsang, but when something goes wrong in my personal life I’m thinking, why should I go to satsang, I’m already fed up. A; Yes, so just to remove the connecHon between I am, and what thinking is happening, the minute you say, ‘I’m thinking in that way’ what you are actually saying is I am believing. I am believing that it is pointless to come to satsang, look at my life, same problems, isn’t it? But it’s just a belief. Only a thought. Primarily because it is not represenHng a true I. SHll represenHng an object in Hme and space as if it is you. [Silence] Only your thinking does that. What else is doing that? If you can see these simple simple things, they are actually atomic. They are atomic for our false condiHoning. How you want to represent yourself now? If I tell you all representaHons are false then it can be simply dropped. The mind is the shape maker, actually the mind alone cannot make it, it can present a shape but you have to make it. You as consciousness has to believe that this is what I am. Shape representaHons will come, but you have to dive into the mold. Formlessly present right now, shapes are coming from your mind, ‘Really nice if I had freedom’ and we jump into that shape. What do you become? That’s all that’s happening and it’s really not even happening. Because the shape is always just a pretense, it never becomes real. It’s always just a mask. Any conceptual reference to I, no maZer how great it maybe, just is a representaHon, is a shape. So any, even Brahman, Absolute, any, whatever the broadest shape we can imagine is sHll a shape. The shapeless shape is sHll a shape. So if it is conceptual shapeless-ness then it is sHll a shape. But you remain. The I removes the I and yet remains the I. So without a conceptual shape of I, with no reference to I, I sHll remain. But the minute we say, ‘I sHll remain’ it becomes a shape. You see, it has to be so empty. So I’m not opposed to saying that I has to go but even the going of I ,I will be aware of. That cannot change. How can we claim that the I removes the I, even the first part, ‘the I removes the I’ even if we forget ‘and remains the I’), ‘I removes the I’ and if I were just that I which was removed then how would we know it was removed? You see? I would be gone. So even to see that I got removed, I have to remain. But that “I” is unpresentable in any shape of I. It’s beyond all sense, beyond even the Presence. It is Present without Presence. That which is present independent of the perfume of being, independent of all states, waking, dream and sleep, and where is that to be found? It is already you. It is your reality. [Silence] Unless you buy into some shape. And there is only one voice presenHng these shapes to you, these moulds are coming only through thought. The ‘I thought’ is also just a thought. That’s why Bhagwan (Ramana Maharishi) called it ‘the I thought’. Any reference even the subtlest to the greatest or the smallest is a reference to I and any reference that the Self takes to be true about itself is ‘the I thought’.
Key Teachings
- The one who is aware/seeing cannot be helped or changed - it is already complete; suffering arises only when consciousness identifies with the body-mind object
- All conceptual references to the Self (even 'Brahman' or 'shapelessness') are still shapes/molds. The shape is always just a pretense, it never becomes real
- The 'I thought' is any reference the Self takes to be true about itself. The I removes the I yet remains the I - unpresentable in any shape, beyond all states