What Is Suffering?

So, really - open and empty. Now, what is the gie that it gives to you? What is the gie? Right now? [clicks fingers] Everything that any sage has ever said is fully apparent to you. Everything that the sage has not just said but pointed to. Beyond the ability to say – is apparent to you. Meet this without any grasping. Right now. That divinity…that divinity which can peer into the non-phenomenal Reality of what you are and allow words to spring from that, although unable to truly convey anything tangibly about that. And yet it seems like the most divine meeHng ever possible. Higher than anything that you could grasp at in the world. In one moment of being open – Papaji said, “Don’t think for a second…for a millisecond…don’t think.” Same thing, same thing. What happened? What happened? You meet that which is so beyond this play of this Universe and all our life stories and all of these nonsensical narraHves that we give so much value to. [clicks fingers] You step out of all of that. You realize instantly that you’re not in Hme or space. We checked: I said, “Where are you? Where are you?”. You cannot find the ‘where’. You cannot find the ‘where’ for this. And yet, you are. Edward said beauHfully: “What I Am in Reality - that is undoubtable that I Am.” Even prior to I-Am-ness. It is undoubtable. But where? I can’t find.

Yes, yes, I’m coming to that. So, this…first, first gather the gie which is being made available. The mind will rush in and say, “Yes, I [inaudible], but how to run my real life?” No? So, if it’s apparent that it’s false, then you won’t be bothered with that quesHon. So, somewhere we must be taking it as if: “Okay, now I’ve come to Satsang.” So, now, if you come to Satsang and you realize that the rest of life or even this apparent play of phenomenon is all coming and going and, therefore, unreal, then this quesHon of how to live or how to funcHon will not have so much power. So, what makes it relevant? It’s the fact that somewhere you will give it belief. But I’m going to tell you anyway. [smiles]. I’m going to answer the quesHon anyway. But first assimilate the gie which is here because you’re being pointed to the gie of all the Vedas, all the Upanishads, all the scriptures, everything, all that has been pointed to by the sages. In this instant of open and empty. Don’t run away from that. Don’t rush to tacHcs and plans. Now you can spend – I’m saying it carefully – most of your life here. You can spend most of your life here. How do you know you’re in your Heart? How do you know you’re with your Presence, with your Heart? When the Reality of what you are is apparent to you. You can spend most of your lives here. I should say all of your life here, but I’m purposefully saying most of your lives. Yes? Now, in this waking state, in this world, for all, all of us, there will come – because this Maya is that strong, this Leela is that strong – there will come some moments where we’ll take ourselves to be what our mind is telling us. And in those moments, we’ll be forced to take ourselves to be this and…not forced to, but in the play, it will seem like: “I’m forced to”. So, what to do in those moments? What to do in those moments? That’s the only trouble. So, now it feels like in those moments we need some guidance. So, some of you of devoHonal temperament will say, “okay, just be with me, Father, all the Hme”. No? So, what is that? That’s the anHdote for the fear about what happens when I go outside. So then in those moments there will also be some moments where you become mental, and you will then idenHfy for a few moments. Accept it. It’s going to happen in every life. You may become the greatest sage that has ever walked on this planet, and yet that will happen in this life from moment. Accept that first. Then, when you’re not in those moments, then you feel like: “but I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go. But I must make a decision.” All this nonsense, of course, but in those moments, it will seem real: “I don’t know. What am I meant to do?” And you’re not so fully caught up in the mind where it seems like: “I have to be right about this. I have to go to my mind.” Those moments are write-offs, just write them off. Nothing is going to happen. For those moments, when you feel confused, you don’t know where to go. For those moments you can wait for your intuiHon to guide. And again, remember – how do you know you’re being intuiHve? When what you are is apparent to you. It’s not a trick. Like some of you feel like: “Oh, Ananta is tricking us because he’s saying that the instant you know what you really are, then all that will go away anyway”. No, no, no. Even then, if there is guidance needed, then that guidance will come. It will come. All you have to do is trust. And trust, including trusHng the silence to be the guidance that is needed at that point. You will have access to the greatest intelligence in this Universe - which is running this Universe – in your Heart. And you’ll have access to the lowest intelligence which divides and separates everything – in the form of your mind. You as Consciousness have the choice which one to go to.

You as Consciousness have these instruments and you can use whichever instrument that you want.

Yes, you do. You as Consciousness. You as Consciousness, not you personally. The non- existent can’t have access. So, this is the game called Life. This is it. When you’re open and empty, whichever way you got there – through a hundred thousand chants of a chant your master has given you – you became for one instant open. Through doing hatha yoga for ten lifeHmes, through inquiring, through surrendering everything…whatever your path may be…through devoHon – ulHmately, your discovery is always going to be this because there are not two ways to make a non-phenomenal discovery. [smiles] Can you make a non- phenomenal discovery in two different ways? If they were different, they would have a qualitaHve difference, isn’t it? But non-phenomenal means there’s no quality, it’s nirguna. So, you cannot have difference in your Self-discovery either in the way of making it or what you discover. In that so-called ‘process’ before that, you may be hatha yogi or karma yogi or a bhakta yogi or a jnani yogi – it doesn’t maZer. But your discovery has to be this one. Cannot be two discoveries of that which doesn’t have any phenomenon. So that is why it is not to us to judge anybody’s path. As long as they come to this discovery…as long as they come to this discovery which is beyond all…beyond all phenomena, beyond all percepHons, beyond all Hme, beyond all space. So, this is the point behind this simple ‘open and empty’. This is the point. There are hundreds of Hps, there are hundreds of mind tricks that will come up. You may start to visualize yourselves as some dark empty space. Find out who is aware even of that. You may start…it may become convoluted where things are happening in life, but you’re just imagining dark empty space: “Oh, I’m just that – done!” So, what would that dark empty space do? Like the Advaita version of what would Jesus do? [laughs] So you could become convoluted in that way. But you’re not that. Even that is a percepHon. Darkness is an opposiHon to light. Anything that has an opposite is not your Reality. So, find out what is aware even of that dark. You may feel like you’re just vastness [raises arms wide], space and space and space. But that is the opposite of constricted and constricted [fists together] So that also – who is aware of that? You may feel like you’re si^ng inside the body somewhere. You’re si^ng inside the heart physically. Not true. What is aware of those sensaHons that you’re calling yourself? So many many more of these things will come, but they will…the openness will take care of all of this.

Yes, yes, all these will be – through belief in the concept called thoughts. Yes, all thoughts are perceived. You’re aware of the percepHon of these thoughts. So, it is…so so prisHne this discovery that you’re making. So, don’t ever let the mind tell you: “what’s the point”? Just because there’s no point for the mind doesn't mean there’s no point for you. Otherwise, the minute you buy into noHons like that, then you will start looking for a point about everything in life. And I have some good slash bad news for you which is that nothing in life has a point. A point is too small an instrument to contain life. So, this nonsensical search for meaning is the most glorified thing in human existence, but actually is the worst way to live.