When it is realized that you live in the present moment, that you are indeed the present moment, (the what-is here and now) and that therefore apart from this there is no past and no future, you cannot but relax and taste to the full, the pleasure or the pain, His will - the present moment. And then everything becomes obvious: why this universe exists, why sentient beings have been produced, why sensitive organs, why space, time and change. The whole problem of analyzing and justifying nature, of trying to make life mean something in terms of words and lateral thinking - all this becomes meaningless. Obviously, it all exists for this moment, this kshana. It is a dance, and when you are dancing, there is only the dance, not any intent of getting somewhere.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar, 'A Living Gem from Ramesh’ - Advaita Fellowship Newsletter, August 2010
We cannot get rid of suffering by saying, "I will not suffer."
We cannot eliminate attachment by saying, "I will not be attached to anything," nor eliminate aggression by saying, "I will never become angry."
Yet, we do want to get rid of suffering and the disturbing emotions that are the immediate cause of suffering. The Buddha taught that to eliminate these states, which are really the results of the primary confusion of our belief in a personal self, we must get rid of the fundamental cause.
But we cannot simply say, "I will not believe in the personal self." The only way to eliminate suffering is to actually recognize the experience of a self as a misconception, which we do by proving directly to ourselves that there is no such personal self. We must actually realize this.
Once we do, then automatically the misconception of a self and our fixation on that "self" will disappear. Only by directly experiencing selflessness can we end the process of confused projection. This is why the Buddha emphasized meditation on selflessness or egolessness.
However, to meditate on egolessness, we must undertake a process that begins with a conceptual understanding of egolessness; then, based on that understanding, there can be meditation, and finally realization.
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, from Pointing Out the Dharmakaya
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The Practice of the Truth
If one always sees
only the good qualities in others
instead of seeing any bad,
one’s life will be very pleasant,
having no room for any disgust.
Unless one follows the principle,
"That which is essential
to be reformed
is only my own mind",
one’s mind will become
more and more impure
by seeing the defects of others.
O mind,
it is not because you have attained
egoless, sweet qualities that
Great Ones are kind towards you;
it is only because of their greatness of forgiving all your accumulated defects without minding them.
Know thus.
- The teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Guru Vachaka Kovai. Verses 787-789
Chapter 68. The Conduct of a Sadhaka.
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'What is the relation between desirelessness and wisdom?'
Desirelessness is wisdom. The two are not different; they are the same. Desirelessness is refraining from turning the mind towards any object. Wisdom means the appearance of no object. In other words, not seeking what is other than the Self is detachment or desirelessness; not leaving the Self is wisdom.
('Who Am I?', Q. 26)
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The nature of Śivam
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70
To call him ‘The Three-Eyed One who bears the three radiant entities [sun, moon and fire]’, is insulting to Śivam, whose nature is pure consciousness.
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71
Only the subtle space of consciousness, existing in the Heart, is the form of Śiva.
Everything else, described by words, is a concept.
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72*
The one who has realised the truth as his own real nature is assuredly of the form of Śivam.
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73
The existing truth of oneself is the great apple of the eye that deserves to be remembered, without forgetfulness, as the auspicious Śivam.
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74
The extremely pure clarity of Śiva-experience exists in the thought-free consciousness that is present in the Heart.
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75
The Realisation of the Self, pure consciousness of being, is the state of Śivahood, free from the mind-impurity.
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76
The state of union with Śivam, which is difficult to reach, is shining alone as being.
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77
There is not the slightest difference between Śiva, his devotees and the Purāṇa-s that describe their greatness.
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dg: This is similar to the popular Vaishnava idea that Bhagavan (God), his bhaktas and the Bhagavatam are all the same. Bhagavan alluded to this when he answered a query about some of his own writings
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Question: I have been reading the Five Hymns. I find that the hymns are addressed to Aruṇācala. You are an advaitin. How do you then address God as a separate being?
Bhagavan: The devotee, God and the hymns are all the Self.
15 Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 273.
Padamalai
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We are always looking for solutions from someone else. We forget that if we turn our mind inward, we can get some ideas, some solutions.
- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar.
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Robert: I want to let you in on a little secret. There are no problems. There are no problems. There never were any problems, there are no problems today, and there will never be any problems. Problems just mean that the world isn't turning the way you want it to. But in truth, there are no problems. Everything is unfolding as it should. Everything is right. You have to forget about yourself and expand your consciousness until you become the whole universe. The reality in back of the universe is pure awareness. It has no problems. And you are that.
If you identify with your body, then there's a problem, because your body always gets into trouble of some kind. But if you learn to forget about your body and your mind, where is there a problem? In other words, leave your body alone. Take just enough care of it. Exercise it a little, feed it right foods, but don't think about it too much. Keep your mind on reality. Merge your mind with reality, and you will experience reality. You will live in a world without problems. The world may appear to have problems to others, but not to you. You will see things differently, from a higher point of view.
I had an interesting phone call this week. Someone asked me, "Do self-realized people dream, or have visions?" Now, in order to have a dream or a vision, there has to be somebody left to have it, and yet, if you're self-realized, there's nobody home. There's nobody left. So it's a contradiction, as truth is. All truth is a contradiction. It's a paradox. The answer is, sages do dream sometimes, and have visions. But they're aware of the dreamer. In other words they realize that they are not the person dreaming or having the vision. But as long as there's a body there someplace, there will be dreams and visions. Even though there's no one home, there will still, once in a while, be a dream or a vision.
As an example, Ramana Maharshi often dreamt and had visions. Nisargadatta dreamt and had visions. And they were both self-realized. But again, the question is, who dreams, who has the vision? There's no ego left. As long as the dreamer is separate from the I. I can only speak from my own experience. There's no difference, to me, in the waking state, the dreaming state, the sleeping state, or the vision state. They're all the same. I'm aware of all of them, but I am not them. I observe them. I see them happening. As a matter of fact, sometimes I can not tell the difference. Sometimes I don't know whether I'm dreaming, or awake, or having a vision, or I'm asleep. It's all the same, because I take a step backward, and I watch myself going through all these things.
So, for some reason, lately, I've been dreaming about the queen of England. She was coming to satsang. I don't know why... for about three nights in a row. But I did have an interesting vision this morning, about four o'clock, and we'll spend the rest of the time discussing it, because I found it very interesting.
As many of you know, I have had a constant vision, periodically, of myself going to Arunachala, the sacred mountain where Ramana Maharshi lived. And the mountain is hollow, in the vision. And I go through the mountain, to the center, where there's a bright light, a thousand times brighter than the sun, but yet it's pleasing and calm, and there's no heat. And then I meet Ramana, Jesus, Rama Krishna, Nisargadatta, Lao Tse, and others. And we smile at each other, we walk toward each other, and melt into one light, and become one. Then there's a blinding light and an explosion. And then I open my eyes. I've shared that with you before.
But this morning, for the first time, I had a very interesting vision, which I'll share with you again. I dreamt I was somewhere in an open field, a beautiful field. There was a lake nearby, trees, a forest. And I was sitting under a tree, in this open field. And I had on the orange garb of a renunciate. I must have been a Buddhist. All of a sudden hundreds of bodhisattvas and mahasattvas come from the forest and start walking toward me.
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And they all sit down in a semi-circle around me, in meditation. And I wondered what I was doing. Then I realized that I had become the Buddha. And we all sat in silence for about three hours.
Then one of the bodhisattvas got up and asked a question. He said, "Master, what is your teaching"? It was not in English. I don't know what language he spoke. But I understood it quite clearly. And without hesitation I said, "I teach Self Realization of Noble Wisdom.” And he sat down.
We sat for about another three hours in silence, and then another bodhisattva got up and asked a question. "Master, how can you tell when one is close to self-realization? How can you tell one is about to become self-realized? How does one tell?"
And this is what I'd like to discuss today. How can we tell if we're on the path correctly? I gave four principles, which I really never do in the waking state. I never have a teaching. But I was giving a teaching, so I'll share it with you. I explained four principles, where you know that you're close to self-realization. Of course, we're all self-realized already.
Principle number 1: You have a feeling, complete understanding that everything you see, everything in the universe, in the world, emanates from your mind. In other words, you feel this. You do not have to think about it, or try to bring it on. It comes by itself. It becomes a part of you. The realization that everything that you see, the universe, people, worms, insects, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, your body, your mind, everything that appears, is a manifestation of your mind. You have to have that feeling, that deep understanding, without trying to.
So you ask yourself, "What do I think about all day long?" Of course, if you fear something, if you worry, if you believe something is wrong somewhere, if you think you're suffering from lack, or limitation, or sickness, anything, then you're out of it completely, because you're not understanding that all these things are simply a manifestation of your own mind. And if you worry about these things you become attached to false imagination. That's called false imagination. You've been attached to habit energy for many years, and all these attachments and beliefs come from habit energy.
It's like watching a TV show and becoming one of the characters, when you know that you're not even in the TV. But you believe you're one of the characters in the TV show. So it is with the world. Do not get involved. I don't mean you become passive. I mean your body does what it's supposed to do. Remember, your body came to this earth to do something. It will do something without your knowledge. It'll take care of itself. Don't worry. But do not identify your body with yourself. They're different. Your body is not yourself. And I'll prove this.
When you refer to your body what do you say? Don't you say "my body?" Who is this "my" you're referring to? You say "my finger,” "my eye.” Who are you referring to? You couldn't be talking about your body, because you’re saying it's my body, like you own it. Who owns it? This proves to yourself that you're not your body. So do not identify yourself with the body and the world.
Therefore the first principle, to see how close you are to self-realization is: You are not feeling that you are identified with the world. You're separate. And you're feeling happiness, because your natural state is pure happiness. Once you identify with worldly things, you spoil it. The happiness disappears, it dissipates. But when you're separate from worldly things happiness is automatic. Beautiful, pure happiness. It comes by itself. So that's the first principle.
Principle number 2: I explained to the bodhisattvas was this: You have to have a strong feeling, a deep realization, that you are unborn. You are not born, you do not experience a life, and you do not disappear, you do not die. You are not born, you have no life, and you do not die. You have to feel this, that you are of the unborn. Do you realize what this means? There is no cause for your existence.
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There is no cause for your suffering. There is no cause for your problems.
Some of you still believe in cause and effect. This is true in the relative world, but in the world of reality there is no cause. Nothing has ever been made. Nothing has ever been created. There is no creation. I know it's hard to comprehend. How do I exist if I was not born, I have no life and I do not disappear in old age? You exist as I am. You have always existed and you will always exist. You exist as pure intelligence, as absolute reality. That is your true nature. You exist as sat-chit-ananda. You exist as bliss consciousness, but you do exist. You exist as emptiness, as nirvana, but you do exist. So don't worry about being nonexistent. But you do not exist as the body. You do not exist as person, place or thing. Do you feel that? If you have a strong feeling about that, then you're close to self-realization.
Principle number 3: You are aware and you have a deep understanding of the egolessness of all things; that everything has no ego. I'm not only speaking of sentient beings. I'm speaking of the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom. Nothing has an ego. There is no ego. And do you realize what this means? It means that everything is sacred. Everything is God. Only when the ego comes, does God disappear, what we call "God.” Everything becomes God. You have reverence for everything. When there is no ego, you have reverence for everybody and everything.
So you have to be aware of the egolessness of all things. Animals have no ego, minerals have no ego, vegetables have no ego, and humans have no ego. There is no cause, so there cannot be an effect. There is only divine consciousness, and everything becomes divine consciousness. So if you look at your fellow man and animals and everything else as being egolessness, you will see them as yourself. Can't you see that?
It's the ego that causes separation. When I am full of ego, I become strong within myself. I become totally separate. So the more you like yourself as a person, the bigger your ego is. You say, "Well, I'm not supposed to like myself?” You're supposed to love yourself, but what self are we talking about? We're not talking about your body self, because that comes and goes. We're talking about your permanent self that has always been here. And your permanent self is me, is you, is the world, is the universe, is everything. That's your permanent self.
Egolessness. That's the only time that you can love your fellow human beings, when you have no ego. That's how you can tell where you're at, if you're close to self-realization. That's principle number three.
Principle number 4: You understand the Self Realization of Noble Wisdom. You have a deep conviction, a deep understanding, a deep feeling of what self-realization of noble wisdom really is. What is Self Realization of Noble Wisdom to you? You can never know by trying to find out what it is, because it's absolute reality. You can only know by finding out what it is not.
So you say, “It is not my body, it is not my mind, it is not my organs, it is not my thoughts, it is not my world, it is not my universe, it is not the animals, or the trees, or the moon, or the sun, or the stars, it is not any of those things.” When you've gone through everything and there's nothing left, that's what it is. Nothing. Emptiness. Nirvana. Ultimate oneness.
Anyway, I explained these four principles to all the bodhisattvas and all the mahasattvas. Then we sat three hours in meditation and they got up and walked back into the forest. Then there was a flash of light, and I opened my eyes. What do you think of that? Any questions?
Student: Was it a dream or a vision, and how do you distinguish between the two?
Robert: Well, I don't really know, to tell you the truth. I'm usually aware of what's going on, so all the time I was aware of the vision/dream's taking place.
Student: Including this time.
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