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Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don’t think you’ve lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time.
You will recognize that you have returned to your natural state by a complete absence of all desire and fear.
All that you are attached to, all that you Love,
all that you know, someday will be gone.
Knowing this, and that the world is your mind
which you create, play in, and suffer from,
is known as discrimination.
Discriminate between the real and the unreal.
The known is unreal and will come and go
so stay with the Unknown, the Unchanging Truth.
All which appears and disappears is not real,
and no nectar will come from it so don't cling to it,
and once you let go do not turn back to it.
Stay as Eternity in your own Being.
all that you know, someday will be gone.
Knowing this, and that the world is your mind
which you create, play in, and suffer from,
is known as discrimination.
Discriminate between the real and the unreal.
The known is unreal and will come and go
so stay with the Unknown, the Unchanging Truth.
All which appears and disappears is not real,
and no nectar will come from it so don't cling to it,
and once you let go do not turn back to it.
Stay as Eternity in your own Being.
Words can never convey the beauty of a tree; to understand it, you
must see it with your own eyes. Language cannot capture the melody of a song; to understand it, you must hear it with your own ears. So it is with the Tao: the only way to understand it is to directly experience it.
The subtle truth of the universe is unsayable and unthinkable. Therefore the highest teachings are wordless. My own words are not the medicine, but a prescription; not the destination, but a map to help you reach it. When you get there, quiet your mind and close your mouth.
Don't analyze the Tao. Strive instead to live it: silently, undividedly, with your whole harmonious being.
must see it with your own eyes. Language cannot capture the melody of a song; to understand it, you must hear it with your own ears. So it is with the Tao: the only way to understand it is to directly experience it.
The subtle truth of the universe is unsayable and unthinkable. Therefore the highest teachings are wordless. My own words are not the medicine, but a prescription; not the destination, but a map to help you reach it. When you get there, quiet your mind and close your mouth.
Don't analyze the Tao. Strive instead to live it: silently, undividedly, with your whole harmonious being.
UPADESA SARAM
The Essence of Instruction
7. Better than spells of meditation
Is one continuous current,
Steady as a stream,
Or downward flow of oil.
8. Better than viewing Him as Other,
Indeed the noblest attitude of all,
Is to hold Him as the ‘I’ within,
The very ‘I’.
9. Abidance in pure being
Transcending thought through love intense
Is the very essence
Of supreme devotion.
The Essence of Instruction
7. Better than spells of meditation
Is one continuous current,
Steady as a stream,
Or downward flow of oil.
8. Better than viewing Him as Other,
Indeed the noblest attitude of all,
Is to hold Him as the ‘I’ within,
The very ‘I’.
9. Abidance in pure being
Transcending thought through love intense
Is the very essence
Of supreme devotion.
Renounce and enjoy. The real fruit, the real happiness, lies within. Learn to be content with that inner experience of happiness. When you eat a banana, you eat only the fruit. You don't eat the peel because it will give you a stomach-ache. Similarly, don't allow your wealth, status and reputation to be the very core of your existence. They may seem to provide happiness, but such happiness is transient and riddled with pain. But remember, your real existence lies within.
- The three types of people are equivalent to the three Guna’s -
There are three types of people who are ready to practice Advaita Vedanta, or atma-vichara or self-realization.
The three types of people are the seekers, disciples and the devotees.
We have discussed this before but this is a little different.
The three types of people are equivalent to the three Guna’s.
Tamas, Rajas and Sattvic.
----------
Tamas means dullness, inertia and this refers to the seeker.
Rajas is action and this refers to the disciple.
Sattvic means purity and this refers to the devotee.
----------
Guna tamas/Seeker
Now when I say a seeker is dull and that’s the tamas quality, this is from the standpoint of Advaita Vedanta.
But a seeker is a very advanced soul compared to the billions of people on this earth who are wandering around in total delusion and they have not as yet become seekers.
So a seeker is really an advanced stage.
Yet a seeker has a tremendous ego.
They run around from teacher to teacher, read tons of books, always looking to find something for themselves.
Their concern is only me, me and mine.
I want to become enlightened, what can I get in this class, what’s in it for me.
----------
Their attention is on the personal self.
They go to one teacher, they hear about another teacher they go to that teacher, they hear about somebody else they go there, but at least they’re seeking.
They don’t really go anywhere.
They can go through thousands of incarnations.
Thousands upon thousands of incarnations as a seeker always looking to themselves.
Involved only with themselves.
They cannot keep the mind off themselves.
They find fault.
They always find something wrong with the class.
They compare one class to the next class.
One teacher to the next teacher, trying to pull out all of the information they can get from the teacher and couldn’t care less about anything else.
Yet if the seeker becomes sincere they evolve to the point where they become a disciple.
----------
Guna Rajas/Disciple
A disciple begins to settle down and this is the rajas quality, action.
They begin to act upon what they see.
They have an infinity for one teacher and they go to that teacher more than anybody else.
They act upon what the teacher says but they’re still external.
They read certain books pertaining to the teachers direction but they’re still not true to the teacher, they’re still interested in themselves but they stay mostly with one teacher.
Then if someone real good comes along and they hear the word they go to listen to this other person yet they always come back to the one teacher.
----------
They’re still concerned of themselves.
They also become sometimes trouble makers, they gossip a lot, they’re craving excitement.
So when things are smooth in the class they look for a way to make a little problem through gossip but they really mean well.
If they keep on being sincere they will evolve into a devotee.
----------
Guna Sattva/Devotee
Now the devotee has come a long way.
The devotee no longer thinks about themselves, they have forgotten about themselves.
They don’t even care about becoming self-realized.
They have no desire to become liberated.
They have no desires whatsoever.
They act spontaneously and take one day at a time.
They surrender completely to the Sage.
They have no life of their own.
They think of the Sage day and night.
There is no room in their minds for anything negative.
----------
A devotee never judges.
A devotee understands that the Sage is coming from a different consciousness from theirs.
So what the Sage does they may not understand too well but they don’t care.
The devotees are the people who maintain and sustain the Sage.
They look at the Sage as themselves.
What they do for themselves they do for the Sage.
The devotees are the life blood of the Sage and it’s the devotees that become liberated.
----------
In every movement of a high nature.
Ramana Maharshi, Rama Krishna, Shankara, many others too numerous to mention, it is only the devotees who become liberated because they don’t care about it.
Their personal-’I’ is gone.
They have surrendered the personal-’I’ to the Sage.
There is no-one left to quarrel.
There is no-one left to think something is wrong.
There is no-one left to judge.
----------
Why do I share this with you?
Because it’s time that most of you understood this truth and remember it.
What are you really here for?
You’re here to realize that you are not the body or mind.
That you’re absolute reality, that you are pure awareness.
----------
How can you realize this if you have other things in your mind?
If you’re thinking about the world and worldly conditions.
The world has always been here and the things that the world is going through, it has gone through again and again and again in previous ages.
T. 091 - The Three Guna’s
There are three types of people who are ready to practice Advaita Vedanta, or atma-vichara or self-realization.
The three types of people are the seekers, disciples and the devotees.
We have discussed this before but this is a little different.
The three types of people are equivalent to the three Guna’s.
Tamas, Rajas and Sattvic.
----------
Tamas means dullness, inertia and this refers to the seeker.
Rajas is action and this refers to the disciple.
Sattvic means purity and this refers to the devotee.
----------
Guna tamas/Seeker
Now when I say a seeker is dull and that’s the tamas quality, this is from the standpoint of Advaita Vedanta.
But a seeker is a very advanced soul compared to the billions of people on this earth who are wandering around in total delusion and they have not as yet become seekers.
So a seeker is really an advanced stage.
Yet a seeker has a tremendous ego.
They run around from teacher to teacher, read tons of books, always looking to find something for themselves.
Their concern is only me, me and mine.
I want to become enlightened, what can I get in this class, what’s in it for me.
----------
Their attention is on the personal self.
They go to one teacher, they hear about another teacher they go to that teacher, they hear about somebody else they go there, but at least they’re seeking.
They don’t really go anywhere.
They can go through thousands of incarnations.
Thousands upon thousands of incarnations as a seeker always looking to themselves.
Involved only with themselves.
They cannot keep the mind off themselves.
They find fault.
They always find something wrong with the class.
They compare one class to the next class.
One teacher to the next teacher, trying to pull out all of the information they can get from the teacher and couldn’t care less about anything else.
Yet if the seeker becomes sincere they evolve to the point where they become a disciple.
----------
Guna Rajas/Disciple
A disciple begins to settle down and this is the rajas quality, action.
They begin to act upon what they see.
They have an infinity for one teacher and they go to that teacher more than anybody else.
They act upon what the teacher says but they’re still external.
They read certain books pertaining to the teachers direction but they’re still not true to the teacher, they’re still interested in themselves but they stay mostly with one teacher.
Then if someone real good comes along and they hear the word they go to listen to this other person yet they always come back to the one teacher.
----------
They’re still concerned of themselves.
They also become sometimes trouble makers, they gossip a lot, they’re craving excitement.
So when things are smooth in the class they look for a way to make a little problem through gossip but they really mean well.
If they keep on being sincere they will evolve into a devotee.
----------
Guna Sattva/Devotee
Now the devotee has come a long way.
The devotee no longer thinks about themselves, they have forgotten about themselves.
They don’t even care about becoming self-realized.
They have no desire to become liberated.
They have no desires whatsoever.
They act spontaneously and take one day at a time.
They surrender completely to the Sage.
They have no life of their own.
They think of the Sage day and night.
There is no room in their minds for anything negative.
----------
A devotee never judges.
A devotee understands that the Sage is coming from a different consciousness from theirs.
So what the Sage does they may not understand too well but they don’t care.
The devotees are the people who maintain and sustain the Sage.
They look at the Sage as themselves.
What they do for themselves they do for the Sage.
The devotees are the life blood of the Sage and it’s the devotees that become liberated.
----------
In every movement of a high nature.
Ramana Maharshi, Rama Krishna, Shankara, many others too numerous to mention, it is only the devotees who become liberated because they don’t care about it.
Their personal-’I’ is gone.
They have surrendered the personal-’I’ to the Sage.
There is no-one left to quarrel.
There is no-one left to think something is wrong.
There is no-one left to judge.
----------
Why do I share this with you?
Because it’s time that most of you understood this truth and remember it.
What are you really here for?
You’re here to realize that you are not the body or mind.
That you’re absolute reality, that you are pure awareness.
----------
How can you realize this if you have other things in your mind?
If you’re thinking about the world and worldly conditions.
The world has always been here and the things that the world is going through, it has gone through again and again and again in previous ages.
T. 091 - The Three Guna’s
The Truth is one.
The rest is illusion.
States of realization are also an illusion.
Truth is betrayed by the first attempt at articulation.
What else can one say. One may discuss the rains and the harvest and so on...
You must realize It yourself.
It is wrong even to put it that way.
How does one express something changeless and beyond the mind?
The whole is the Truth.
There is order in the universe.
The thief and the trouble-maker are part of this order.
God is with all of us. We are all God. Our normal life is a dream state.
You cannot put off meditation till all the noise ceases. In meditation the noise may be heard and yet not heard. Some people go deep into meditation and are unable to come out of it.
This is a beautiful world. Everything is so ordered to suit the needs of the past and the future of everyone.
The rest is illusion.
States of realization are also an illusion.
Truth is betrayed by the first attempt at articulation.
What else can one say. One may discuss the rains and the harvest and so on...
You must realize It yourself.
It is wrong even to put it that way.
How does one express something changeless and beyond the mind?
The whole is the Truth.
There is order in the universe.
The thief and the trouble-maker are part of this order.
God is with all of us. We are all God. Our normal life is a dream state.
You cannot put off meditation till all the noise ceases. In meditation the noise may be heard and yet not heard. Some people go deep into meditation and are unable to come out of it.
This is a beautiful world. Everything is so ordered to suit the needs of the past and the future of everyone.
Why not [realize the Self] NOW? Everything you have built belongs to time. Everything you have studied belongs to time. What is it that does not belong to time? Dont postpone. Postponing is very easy; when you postpone you choose your mind.
When we concentrate our attention on the origin of thought, the thought process itself comes to an end; there is a hiatus, which is pleasant, and again the process starts.
Turning from the external world and enjoying the objectless bliss, the mind feels that the world of objects is not for it.
Prior to this experience the unsatiating sense enjoyments constantly challenged the mind to satisfy them, but from the inward turn onwards its interest in them begins to fade.
Once the internal bliss is enjoyed, the external happiness loses its charm.
One who has tasted the inward bliss is naturally loving and free from envy, contented and happy with others’ prosperity, friendly and innocent and free from deceit.
He is full of the mystery and wonder of the bliss.
One who has realized the Self can never inflict pain on other.
Turning from the external world and enjoying the objectless bliss, the mind feels that the world of objects is not for it.
Prior to this experience the unsatiating sense enjoyments constantly challenged the mind to satisfy them, but from the inward turn onwards its interest in them begins to fade.
Once the internal bliss is enjoyed, the external happiness loses its charm.
One who has tasted the inward bliss is naturally loving and free from envy, contented and happy with others’ prosperity, friendly and innocent and free from deceit.
He is full of the mystery and wonder of the bliss.
One who has realized the Self can never inflict pain on other.
Q: Is there anything unnecessary in the scheme of things?
M: Nothing is necessary, nothing is inevitable. Habit and passion blind and mislead. Compassionate awareness heals and redeems. There is nothing we can do, we can only let things happen according to their nature.
Q: Do you advocate complete passivity?
M: Clarity and charity is action. Love is not lazy and clarity directs. You need not worry about action, look after your mind and heart. Stupidity and selfishness are the only evil.
Q: What is better -- repetition of God's name, or meditation?
M: Repetition will stabilise your breath. With deep and quiet breathing vitality will improve, which will influence the brain and help the mind to grow pure and stable and fit for meditation.
Without vitality little can be done, hence the importance of its protection and increase. Posture and breathing are a part of Yoga, for the body must be healthy and well under control, but too much concentration on the body defeats its own purpose, for it is the mind that is primary in the beginning.
When the mind has been put to rest and disturbs no longer the inner space (chidakash), the body acquires a new meaning and its transformation becomes both necessary and possible.
M: Nothing is necessary, nothing is inevitable. Habit and passion blind and mislead. Compassionate awareness heals and redeems. There is nothing we can do, we can only let things happen according to their nature.
Q: Do you advocate complete passivity?
M: Clarity and charity is action. Love is not lazy and clarity directs. You need not worry about action, look after your mind and heart. Stupidity and selfishness are the only evil.
Q: What is better -- repetition of God's name, or meditation?
M: Repetition will stabilise your breath. With deep and quiet breathing vitality will improve, which will influence the brain and help the mind to grow pure and stable and fit for meditation.
Without vitality little can be done, hence the importance of its protection and increase. Posture and breathing are a part of Yoga, for the body must be healthy and well under control, but too much concentration on the body defeats its own purpose, for it is the mind that is primary in the beginning.
When the mind has been put to rest and disturbs no longer the inner space (chidakash), the body acquires a new meaning and its transformation becomes both necessary and possible.
It is for the Guru to point out the method; he will show you the way to understanding and instruct you in your sadhana. It is for you to keep on practiCing it faithfully. But the fruit comes spontaneously in the form of Self-revelation.
The power to make you grasp the Ungraspable duly manifests itself through the Guru. Where the question "How am I to proceed?" arises, fulfillment has obviously not yet been reached.
Therefore, never relax your efforts until there is Enlightenment. Let no gaps interrupt your attempt, for a gap will produce an eddy, whereas your striving must be continuous like the flowing of oil, it must be sustained, constant, an unbroken stream.
The power to make you grasp the Ungraspable duly manifests itself through the Guru. Where the question "How am I to proceed?" arises, fulfillment has obviously not yet been reached.
Therefore, never relax your efforts until there is Enlightenment. Let no gaps interrupt your attempt, for a gap will produce an eddy, whereas your striving must be continuous like the flowing of oil, it must be sustained, constant, an unbroken stream.
The picture I call the world. The painter I call God. I am neither. I do not create, nor am I created. I contain all, nothing contains me.
You believe that your happiness depends on things and people, this is due to your ignorance of your true nature. Wisdom is knowing that you do not need anything to be happy unless you know yourself.
---------- Getting Rid Of Negative Habits ----------
There is a way to get rid of your nasty habits, bad tempers, emotions, whatever, depressions, all those things, and this way is not hard.
What you do is you become the witness to your nasty temper, to your obnoxious ways, to your greed, to your selfishness, to your lust and whatever.
You observe yourself going through this.
In the beginning, I admit, it’ll be a little difficult, because when you become violent, when your temper arises, it’s difficult for you to observe yourself at that time.
But as you begin to observe yourself when you become a little angry, then the observance becomes much greater than your temper, and here is how it works.
----------
You watch yourself going into a rage.
You observe yourself going into a rage.
You identify with the rage you’re going into.
You totally identify with your rage.
I know you’re saying «But Robert, if I identify with my rage, it’ll become greater».
On the contrary, when you totally identify with your rage, you will see that the rage belongs to the ‘I-thought’.
You will find that you realize that I am in a rage.
I and the rage are the same.
But ‘I’ is not me.
‘I’ is totally separate than me.
And this will make you laugh, for you will realize that you are not the one with the bad temper.
‘I’ is.
Blame it all on ‘I’, and observe the ‘I’ having that attack, that rage attack.
As you observe the ‘I’, the ‘I’ also being your bad temper, will begin to diminish.
It will become weaker and weaker.
There is a way to get rid of your nasty habits, bad tempers, emotions, whatever, depressions, all those things, and this way is not hard.
What you do is you become the witness to your nasty temper, to your obnoxious ways, to your greed, to your selfishness, to your lust and whatever.
You observe yourself going through this.
In the beginning, I admit, it’ll be a little difficult, because when you become violent, when your temper arises, it’s difficult for you to observe yourself at that time.
But as you begin to observe yourself when you become a little angry, then the observance becomes much greater than your temper, and here is how it works.
----------
You watch yourself going into a rage.
You observe yourself going into a rage.
You identify with the rage you’re going into.
You totally identify with your rage.
I know you’re saying «But Robert, if I identify with my rage, it’ll become greater».
On the contrary, when you totally identify with your rage, you will see that the rage belongs to the ‘I-thought’.
You will find that you realize that I am in a rage.
I and the rage are the same.
But ‘I’ is not me.
‘I’ is totally separate than me.
And this will make you laugh, for you will realize that you are not the one with the bad temper.
‘I’ is.
Blame it all on ‘I’, and observe the ‘I’ having that attack, that rage attack.
As you observe the ‘I’, the ‘I’ also being your bad temper, will begin to diminish.
It will become weaker and weaker.
You do not have to go through any rituals.
You simply have to make the mind quiescent.
‘Quiet the mind’ totally and completely.
This should be your goal.
You should remember this always.
By saying,
'All I have to do to awaken is to quiet my mind.
That’s it!'
There is nothing else you have to do.
You simply have to make the mind quiescent.
‘Quiet the mind’ totally and completely.
This should be your goal.
You should remember this always.
By saying,
'All I have to do to awaken is to quiet my mind.
That’s it!'
There is nothing else you have to do.
The Heavens and the Earth will be rolled up in your presence, and he who lives in the Living One will not see death.
You need not chase the 'I am' to kill it. You cannot. All you need is a sincere longing for reality. We call it atma-bhakti, the love of the Supreme: or moksha-sankalpa, the determination to be free from the false. Without love, and will inspired by love, nothing can be done. Merely talking about Reality without doing anything about it is self-defeating. There must be love in the relation between the person who says 'I am' and the observer of that 'I am'. As long as the observer, the inner self, the 'higher' self, considers himself apart from the observed, the 'lower' self, despises it and condemns it, the situation is hopeless. It is only when the observer (vyakta) accepts the person (vyakti) as a projection or manifestation of himself, and, so to say, takes the self into the Self, the duality of 'I' and 'this' goes and in the identity of the outer and the inner the Supreme Reality manifests itself.
Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine. Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery.
Once you realize that the world is your own projection, you are free of it. You need not free yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your own imagination! However is the picture, beautiful or ugly, you are painting it and you are not bound by it. Realize that there is nobody to force it on you, that it is due to the habit of taking the imaginary to be real. See the imaginary as imaginary and be free of fear.
A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It’s not our thoughts, but our attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.
We just sit. It is like something happening in the great sky. Whatever kind of bird flies through it, the sky doesn’t care. That is the mind transmitted from Buddha to us.
You are not your body.
Your body is not you.
You are not the doer.
You are not the enjoyer.
You are pure awareness,
The witness of all things.
Your body is not you.
You are not the doer.
You are not the enjoyer.
You are pure awareness,
The witness of all things.
God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand, you have failed.
Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge, which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought is ever limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution. When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts, he will see the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience. He will discover that this division is an illusion. Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past or of time. This timeless insight brings about a deep, radical mutation in the mind.
Beings
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