To Be Rid of The 'Me' is Not for Any 'Me' to Enjoy.

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 goes - 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.