You make all kinds of sweets from various ingredients and in various shapes, and they all taste sweet because there is sugar in all of them, and sweetness is the nature of sugar. In the same way, all experiences and the absence of them contain the illumination, which is the nature of the Self. Without the Self they cannot be experienced, just as without sugar not one of the articles you make can taste sweet.
Don’t imagine you will discover the truth by accumulating more knowledge. Knowledge creates doubt and doubt makes you ravenous for more knowledge. You can’t get full eating this way. If you can let go of the Tao with the mind and surround it with your heart, it will live inside you forever.
The answer is in the disappearance of the questioner.
You have to become more interested in the silent background than in the foreground, the phenomena: thoughts, emotions, sounds, smells, etc. Most people are focused on the foreground and what their five senses bring them, but the Self is discovered in the background. The Self is the source from which the phenomena spring and the ground in which this display of phenomena is happening, from the subtlest feelings and experiences to the grossest matter. When you rest in this background, you can taste your Self. You just give yourself to it.
When a wise man has withdrawn his mind
from all things without, and when
his spirit has peacefully left all inner sensations'
let him rest in peace, free from the movement of will and desire. ...
For it has been said:
There is something beyond our mind
which abides in silence within our mind.
It is the supreme mystery beyond thought.
Let one's mind and subtle spirit rest upon that and nothing else.
When the mind is silent, beyond weakness and distraction,
then it can enter into a world which is far beyond the mind:
the supreme Destination. ...
Then one knows the joy of Eternity.
~ Maitri Upanishad, VI.19-23
from all things without, and when
his spirit has peacefully left all inner sensations'
let him rest in peace, free from the movement of will and desire. ...
For it has been said:
There is something beyond our mind
which abides in silence within our mind.
It is the supreme mystery beyond thought.
Let one's mind and subtle spirit rest upon that and nothing else.
When the mind is silent, beyond weakness and distraction,
then it can enter into a world which is far beyond the mind:
the supreme Destination. ...
Then one knows the joy of Eternity.
~ Maitri Upanishad, VI.19-23
Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it can be done.
The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.
The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.
I don't think it can be done.
The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.
The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.
God can be felt and experienced only in the deepest silence. All noise must subside; then, His Voice can be heard clearly.
The guru, the Self are one. There is no difference. A better way to understand this is, the Sage is all-pervading, omnipresent. So in truth there is nothing but the Sage. The Jnani pervades the whole universe. That is how the Jnani or the Sage can pull you in. Because he or she is already within you. They're everywhere, they're everything. In other words there is no personal Sage who does anything. There is only the universal Self that is called the Sage, that is everything.
This is why I tell you so many times, not to read too much.
Not to read too much because when you read too many books on Buddhism and Daoism, on Ramana's books, on Nisargadatta and everybody else in the world, total confusion sets in.
Isn't it better just to sit still at home in the silence and stop the mind from thinking?
That's the easiest way, it's the best way, it's the simplest way.
•~•~•
If you don't believe me, try it.
Try it for a week and see what happens.
For one week I would like you to experiment.
I don't want you to read any book.
Think you can do it?
Don't look at any spiritual literature.
Just sit by yourself as much as you can.
And watch your mind, watch your mind.
Do whatever you have to do to slow down your mind and then you're going to be amazed.
You will laugh at yourself.
For when the mind becomes quiescent, reality will rush in.
And you'll see it's so simple, it's so simple.
Why didn't I know this all the time?
I used to believe by reading volume after volume I'll become enlightened.
But it was so easy, I just had to quiet my mind.
019 Slow Down The Mind And Let Reality Rush In - October 28, 1990
Not to read too much because when you read too many books on Buddhism and Daoism, on Ramana's books, on Nisargadatta and everybody else in the world, total confusion sets in.
Isn't it better just to sit still at home in the silence and stop the mind from thinking?
That's the easiest way, it's the best way, it's the simplest way.
•~•~•
If you don't believe me, try it.
Try it for a week and see what happens.
For one week I would like you to experiment.
I don't want you to read any book.
Think you can do it?
Don't look at any spiritual literature.
Just sit by yourself as much as you can.
And watch your mind, watch your mind.
Do whatever you have to do to slow down your mind and then you're going to be amazed.
You will laugh at yourself.
For when the mind becomes quiescent, reality will rush in.
And you'll see it's so simple, it's so simple.
Why didn't I know this all the time?
I used to believe by reading volume after volume I'll become enlightened.
But it was so easy, I just had to quiet my mind.
019 Slow Down The Mind And Let Reality Rush In - October 28, 1990
Anybody coming here will be liquidated.
Nirvana is the complete silencing of concepts.
We don't need more Hindus, more Christians or more Muslims - we need more Buddhas, more Jesuses, and more Krishnas - then there will be true change. Every human being has that inner potential.
Whatever it is that is still commenting about things, forget that. Become completely empty and silent and remain as silent emptiness itself.
Self-enquiry is certainly not an empty formula and it is more than the repetition of any mantra. If the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ were a mere mental questioning, it would not be of much value. The very purpose of self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at its source. It is not, therefore, a case of one ‘I’ searching for another ‘I’. Much less is self-enquiry an empty formula, for it involves an intense activity of the entire mind to keep it steadily poised in pure Self-awareness.
To live with your forehead at the master’s feet is to live on top of the world. The real master is the sat guru who is inside your Heart as pure Truth. My blessing for you is that you attain a mind that quickly forgets the time-bound and so is always empty; so much so that an entire universe fits, plays and merges into it without causing a single blemish to it.
You may experience anything, but you should never rest content with that. Whether you feel pleasure or fear, ask yourself who feels the pleasure or the fear and so carry on the sadhana until pleasure and fear are both transcended, till all duality ceases and till the reality alone remains.
Let everything happen but there is no need to identify so strong with it. Even while resting in the space "I am", in that perfect place, anger may arise when something happen. But you know what? In the next minute you kind of forget it because it is nothing. It expresses itself, because it is just to be expressed. Then also it comes back into quietude very quickly. But you know a sort of like unexpressed anger then becomes routine anger, and routine anger is very unpleasant thing. That's why I say, "Don't try to be so good, more be true."
Never give anything preference before God! His love is the greatest love there is. So long as you let other things come first, He will wait. But your delay may be too long, and your suffering may be great. Don't procrastinate. Be certain in the sincerity of your conscience that you have made the effort to commune with Him. Don't rest, don't give up until you can see Him with your own eyes, or feel Him in your heart.
There is only one state, that of consciousness or awareness or existence. The three states of waking, dream and sleep cannot be real. They simply come and go. The real will always exist.
If the mind falls asleep, awaken it. Then if it starts wandering, make it quiet. If you reach the state where there is neither sleep nor movement of mind, stay still in that, the natural (real) state.
The state in which the mind is bereft of any support to cling to, ever faultless and pure, and devoid of worldly attachments, is the nature of liberation attained through knowledge. Keep this firmly in mind.
Dispelling all attachments completely, and fixing that mind in the Heart firmly, persist in your practice always in order to strengthen the awareness, which then shines forth with great effulgence and clarity.
Know that whoever meditates on that supreme void, and becomes established in it by virtue of constant practice, will definitely attain the great state which is beyond birth and death.
The state in which the mind is bereft of any support to cling to, ever faultless and pure, and devoid of worldly attachments, is the nature of liberation attained through knowledge. Keep this firmly in mind.
Dispelling all attachments completely, and fixing that mind in the Heart firmly, persist in your practice always in order to strengthen the awareness, which then shines forth with great effulgence and clarity.
Know that whoever meditates on that supreme void, and becomes established in it by virtue of constant practice, will definitely attain the great state which is beyond birth and death.
The experience of not forgetting consciousness alone is the state of devotion which is the relationship of unfading real love, because the real knowledge of Self, which shines as the undivided supreme bliss itself, surges up as the nature of love. Love itself is the actual form of God. That is pure bliss. Call it pure bliss, God, Self, or what you will. That is devotion, that is realization and that is everything.
You and Yours’ comes from spiritual knowledge; the feeling of ‘I and mine’ is ignorance. Oh Lord, You are the doer, I am a non-doer – this is Knowledge. Oh Lord, all belongs to You – body, mind, home, family, the universe and its living beings – they are all Yours, nothing belongs to me. This feeling is Knowledge.
Just as a moth never touches the flame it seeks but rather dies in it, so the apparently separate self never finds the peace or happiness for which it longs, but rather dissolves in it.
May all beings awaken swiftly to the single Truth from which all emanate. May all be happy in the knowing that we are one family of being with one common Heart, a Heart of imageless perfection.
What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to something that already is?
Only the Truth is and you are That! You are the unchanging Awareness in which all activity takes place. To deny this is to suffer, to know this is Freedom. It is not difficult to realize this because it is your True Nature. Simply inquire ‘Who am I?’ and watch carefully. Do not make effort and do not stir a thought. Look within, approach with all-devotion and stay as Heart. Keep vigilant and you will see that nothing will arise. This is the trick of how to keep the mind quiet and how to win Freedom. This doesn’t take time because Freedom is always Here. You simply have to watch: where does mind arise from? Where does thought come from? What is the source of this thought? Then you will see that you have always been Free and that everything has been a dream.