In the vast ocean of cause and effect, actions happen and impermanent results follow. If one takes them as ‘my’ actions the idea of having a free will gets stronger. This sense of personal doership gives rise to a feeling of guilt or pride and effectively blocks the spiritual understanding that everything happens according to the will of God.
After all, you are what you are every moment of your life, but you are never conscious of it, except, maybe, at the point of awakening from sleep. All you need is to be aware of being, not as a verbal statement, but as an ever-present fact. The awareness that you are will open your eyes to what you are. It is all very simple. First of all, establish a constant contact with your self, be with yourself all the time. Into self-awareness all blessings flow. Begin as a center of observation, deliberate cognizance, and grow into a center of love in action. ‘I am’ is a tiny seed which will grow into a mighty tree—quite naturally, without a trace of effort.
Every place is a place of arrival,
every place is true home for the practitioner.
There is nothing that is not deep and wonderful,
there is nothing that is not liberated.
The most noble person is the person who has nothing to do.
The only thing you should avoid is thinking
about what you are going to do.
All you need to do is be an ordinary person,
be sovereign wherever you are and
use that place as your seat of awakening.
You should live your lives in a very natural way.
Do not put on airs.
When it is necessary to walk, walk.
When it is necessary to sit, sit.
every place is true home for the practitioner.
There is nothing that is not deep and wonderful,
there is nothing that is not liberated.
The most noble person is the person who has nothing to do.
The only thing you should avoid is thinking
about what you are going to do.
All you need to do is be an ordinary person,
be sovereign wherever you are and
use that place as your seat of awakening.
You should live your lives in a very natural way.
Do not put on airs.
When it is necessary to walk, walk.
When it is necessary to sit, sit.
What chance is there to discover the final Truth?
Here, with me, every chance, because I don’t accept you in the way you present yourself. This self-portrait I disregard. It is a poor work of art or heart.
You want to be here as Miss and Mr Sannyasin, Miss and Mr Hormone, Miss and Mr Spiritual, Miss and Mr Special, Miss and Mr Chosen, Miss and Mr Yogi…
I am sorry… not here. I have no space for you.
Try again another time.
When you run out of titles, come back.
But who will take this risk?
Here, with me, every chance, because I don’t accept you in the way you present yourself. This self-portrait I disregard. It is a poor work of art or heart.
You want to be here as Miss and Mr Sannyasin, Miss and Mr Hormone, Miss and Mr Spiritual, Miss and Mr Special, Miss and Mr Chosen, Miss and Mr Yogi…
I am sorry… not here. I have no space for you.
Try again another time.
When you run out of titles, come back.
But who will take this risk?
The Self is like a powerful magnet within us. It draws us gradually to Itself, though we imagine we are going to It of our own accord: when we are near enough, It puts an end to our activities, makes us still, and then swallows up our personal current, thus killing our wrong personality. It overwhelms the intellect and overfloods the whole being. We think we are meditating upon It and developing towards It, whereas the truth is that we are iron filings and It is the Atman-magnet that is pulling us towards Itself. Thus the process of finding the Self is a form of Divine magnetism.
All of the things that you are interested in, all of your fears, all of your frustrations, goods and bads, all of your happy and sads, it’s all a dream. And the more you get attached to it, the more human you become. It’s like getting attached to a dream and never waking up and you keep living the dream.
Who is the mind actually speaking to?...you assume it is to you, the Self...but is it only to your self-image, the ego which you imagine is your true self....but are you ready and willing to look at this?...There is a reluctance to question this, because it feels like gambling with everything you believe you have and are....we want to feel ok, but not k.o....you want to feel ‘okay’ with your projections rather than having them ‘knocked out!’...My encouragement to you is to stop protecting that which is suffocating your true freedom...
You are perfect and complete, so abandon the idea of incompleteness. There is nothing to be destroyed. Ahankara, the individual 'I', is not a real thing. It is the mind that makes the effort and the mind is not real. Just as it is not necessary to kill a rope that one imagines to be a snake, so also there is no need to kill the mind. Knowing the form of the mind makes the mind disappear. That which is forever non-existent is already removed.
Let yourself become that space that welcomes any experience without judgment.
All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.
From where have you emerged and where are you proceeding to?
D.: But the mind slips away from our control.
M.: Be it so. Do not think of it. When you recollect yourself bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough.
No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one’s birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance.
A passenger in a train keeps his load on the head by his own folly. Let him put it down: he will find the load reaches the destination all the same. Similarly, let us not pose as the doers, but resign ourselves to the guiding Power.
M.: Be it so. Do not think of it. When you recollect yourself bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough.
No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one’s birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance.
A passenger in a train keeps his load on the head by his own folly. Let him put it down: he will find the load reaches the destination all the same. Similarly, let us not pose as the doers, but resign ourselves to the guiding Power.
The idea of time is only in your mind. It is not in the Self. There is no time for the Self. Time arises as an idea after the ego arises. But you are the Self beyond time and space. You exist even in the absence of time and space.
Who suffers?
I know some will say the ego suffers.
But that is not true.
What is the ego?
The ego is the I-thought.
This 'I' is only a thought.
The 'I' does not exist.
Therefore the ego does not exist.
So who suffers?
I know some will say the ego suffers.
But that is not true.
What is the ego?
The ego is the I-thought.
This 'I' is only a thought.
The 'I' does not exist.
Therefore the ego does not exist.
So who suffers?
There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness. Until it is realised effort is necessary. After tasting such Bliss, even once, one will repeatedly try to regain it. It is as difficult for a jnani to engage in thoughts as it is for an ajnani to be free from thoughts.
Turn your vision inwards and the whole world will be full of the Supreme Spirit. The world is said to be illusion. Illusion is really Truth. Even the material sciences trace the origin of the universe to some primordial matter... subtle, exceedingly subtle.
Turn your vision inwards and the whole world will be full of the Supreme Spirit. The world is said to be illusion. Illusion is really Truth. Even the material sciences trace the origin of the universe to some primordial matter... subtle, exceedingly subtle.
When all distinctions and reactions are no more, what remains is reality, simple and solid.
Meditation has no direction, goals, or method. All methods aim at achieving a certain state of mind. All states are limited, impermanent and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True meditation is abidance as primordial consciousness.
If you want to remember this visit, if you have love for me,
remember this ‘I am’ principle and without the command or
direction of this principle, do nothing.
remember this ‘I am’ principle and without the command or
direction of this principle, do nothing.
Everything happens in the grand scheme of things, but the individual says, 'I have done everything.' Although he is the Self, he says that he is the body, and bears the burden of merit and sins. This is the disease of the body identification called the ego.
A man who has no concept in the mind is the sure winner of Enlightenment.
You have learnt so much
And read a thousand books.
Have you ever read your Self?
You have gone to mosque and temple.
Have you ever visited your soul?
You are busy fighting Satan.
Have you ever fought your
Ill intentions?
You have reached into the skies,
But have you reached
What's in your heart?
And read a thousand books.
Have you ever read your Self?
You have gone to mosque and temple.
Have you ever visited your soul?
You are busy fighting Satan.
Have you ever fought your
Ill intentions?
You have reached into the skies,
But have you reached
What's in your heart?
Relinquish all of the things that the 'I' desires,
and then the mind is automatically slain.
and then the mind is automatically slain.
Even as fire finds peace
in its resting place without fuel,
when thoughts become silent,
the soul finds peace in its own source.
When the mind is silent,
then it can enter into a world
which is far beyond the mind.
in its resting place without fuel,
when thoughts become silent,
the soul finds peace in its own source.
When the mind is silent,
then it can enter into a world
which is far beyond the mind.
ANALYZING THOUGHT
A visitor said: Maharaj has often said that anyone wanting to be 'awakened' must eschew thought. And yet all thought cannot surely mean conceptualizing, which, one supposes, is what is to be avoided. For instance, Maharaj's answers to questions are generally so appropriate and yet so spontaneous that it might seem that there is no thought behind them, yet some thought must surely be the basis of those answers.
Maharaj said: There is indeed a great difference between thoughts and thoughts. Thoughts which form day-dreaming, or thoughts of regret about the events in the past, or thoughts of fear and worry and anticipation regarding the future are surely very much different from the thoughts which spring up spontaneously from the depth of one's psyche, what one might call thoughts that do not need any argument and interpretation by the mind.
The former are to be ignored and avoided; the latter are incapable of being ignored or avoided, because they are essentially spontaneous and immediate and basically non-conceptual.
Maharaj then continued: The very first thought 'I am' is surely a thought, but one that does not need any argument or confirmation from the mind. Indeed, as the basis of all further thought, it is the pre-conceptual thought — very source of the mind. Living according to indirect or mediate thought, in a divided, dualistic mind is what most people do because they have identified themselves with a pseudo-entity that considers itself as the subject of all action. But direct or absolute thought is the process by which the Absolute non-manifest manifests itself. Such thought is spontaneous and instantaneous and therefore, without the element of duration which is an aspect of the split mind. Whenever there is duration the thought must necessarily be an after-thought, interpreted phenomenally and dualistically.
No spontaneous, non-dual, intuitive thought can arise unless the storm of conceptual thinking has subsided and the mind rests in a 'fasting' state; and such thought obviously cannot know bondage. Instantaneous, pure thought results in pure action without any tinge of bondage, because no entity is involved.
A visitor said: Maharaj has often said that anyone wanting to be 'awakened' must eschew thought. And yet all thought cannot surely mean conceptualizing, which, one supposes, is what is to be avoided. For instance, Maharaj's answers to questions are generally so appropriate and yet so spontaneous that it might seem that there is no thought behind them, yet some thought must surely be the basis of those answers.
Maharaj said: There is indeed a great difference between thoughts and thoughts. Thoughts which form day-dreaming, or thoughts of regret about the events in the past, or thoughts of fear and worry and anticipation regarding the future are surely very much different from the thoughts which spring up spontaneously from the depth of one's psyche, what one might call thoughts that do not need any argument and interpretation by the mind.
The former are to be ignored and avoided; the latter are incapable of being ignored or avoided, because they are essentially spontaneous and immediate and basically non-conceptual.
Maharaj then continued: The very first thought 'I am' is surely a thought, but one that does not need any argument or confirmation from the mind. Indeed, as the basis of all further thought, it is the pre-conceptual thought — very source of the mind. Living according to indirect or mediate thought, in a divided, dualistic mind is what most people do because they have identified themselves with a pseudo-entity that considers itself as the subject of all action. But direct or absolute thought is the process by which the Absolute non-manifest manifests itself. Such thought is spontaneous and instantaneous and therefore, without the element of duration which is an aspect of the split mind. Whenever there is duration the thought must necessarily be an after-thought, interpreted phenomenally and dualistically.
No spontaneous, non-dual, intuitive thought can arise unless the storm of conceptual thinking has subsided and the mind rests in a 'fasting' state; and such thought obviously cannot know bondage. Instantaneous, pure thought results in pure action without any tinge of bondage, because no entity is involved.