Robert: Yes, I realized I was doing all these things. It was like I was watching everything taking place. But there was never a time when I actually became the dream or the vision.
Student: Or felt totally caught up in it? You were always observing.
Robert: Right. I was always observing. But it was like an omnipresent observer. So that's the teaching. That's how you tell when you're getting close to self-realization. So, do you remember the four principles? Why don't you repeat them for those who came late?
Student: I don't think I remember the four.
Robert: I think they're very important to remember. Which ones do you remember?
(The students struggle with trying to remember the principles).
See how easy we forget?
(More struggle, and something close to the first one).
That's right. The whole universe is a manifestation of the mind. Everything. You've got to feel that and know it's true.
Student: As long as we're identified with the body or the mind, then we're not very far off.
Robert: Exactly. You're part of the world.
Student: Then how do you say the first one?
Robert: The first one is that everything, and I mean everything, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, everything your senses show you, is an emanation of the mind. You're projecting a picture, just like you project a moving picture, and everything you see right now, in this room, comes from your mind. You may say, "How can we collectively see the same thing?” That's because of the habit energy that we're brought up in. So collectively we seem to be seeing the same thing, the same picture. That's number one. What's number two? Who can tell me?
(Students try to remember).
Robert: That's right. We're not born. We have no existence. In between the time we're born and when we die we really have no existence. And we do not die. There's no disappearance.
Student: So how would you summarize it? That we are non-existent, or that we have no beginning and no end?
Robert: Both are right. We have no cause.
Student: So you're saying that existence implies a relative cause, and existence only takes place in a relative world, and we're not really a part of that.
Robert: Yes, exactly.
Student: And non-existence?
Robert: Non-existence also does not exist.
Student: But then couldn't you say the mind doesn't exist. I mean you say that everything that exists...
Robert: Nothing that you can explain exists.
Student: But earlier you said that everything emanates from the mind.
Robert: Yes. You're projecting the picture.
Student: But then you have a mind.
Robert: You don't have a mind.
Student: I think he means everything in the earth plane world.
Robert: In the relative world. In reality there's no mind. That's how the picture appears. The mind projects the whole universe. So if you get rid of the mind, there's no universe. We have to kill the mind. And the whole universe is annihilated, because it's the mind that projects the universe, and tells us all these stories. Think, for a moment, of all the problems that you believe you have. Think of what's bothering you. You can tell me your story for four hours. This is wrong and that's wrong. It's all a projection of the mind. So by getting rid of the mind, everything stops, and beauty, and joy and bliss ensue. But you're covering the beauty, and joy and bliss when you worry, when you fear, when you think something is wrong someplace. So that's precept number 2. What's number 3?
Student: Egoless.
Robert: Right. Everything is egoless. Not only human beings, but everything. Mountains, trees, the sun, nothing has an ego. That means it has no existence. So where did it come from? When you have a dream, where does the dream come from? Same place. From nowhere. From false imagination.
Student: I don't understand the expression "false imagination,” because the word imagination implies a certain falsity.
Robert: You're imagining a false world and a false ego.
Student: That's sort of a paradoxical saying.
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Robert: Sure. It's all paradoxical. Because it doesn't exist. But that's how we imagine it. This is the reason I always go back to the sky is blue. Somebody takes me outside and says, "Look at the beautiful blue sky.” And I agree with them, but I know deep inside that that's not true. There's no sky and there's no blue. It doesn't exist. Or the oasis in the desert. The water. It doesn't exist. It's a mirage. The world's the same thing. The universe only exists in the dream state. It's like a dream. Now what's the fourth precept? What's number four?
Student: It has something to do with we are nothing.
Robert: (laughs) Everything has to do with that. But it's actually to have an understanding, and a deep realization, of what Self Realization of Noble Wisdom is.
Student: And how is noble wisdom defined from regular wisdom?
Robert: It's the same thing, just more wordy. It's a Buddhist expression.
Student: They have all these real long expressions. And then they always say what it is.
Robert: The eight-fold path. And then they take years explaining it. But when you get into the highest teaching there's nothing. So the fourth one is, the only way to know what self-realization is, is by knowing what it is not. And whatever is left, that's what it is. So you say it's not the body, it's not the mind, it's not my organs, it's not my thoughts, it's not the world, it's not the sun, it's not the universe, it's not God, it's not creation, and you go on, and on and on. When you get out of breath and out of words, that's it.
Student: Is that what the expression, "neti, neti" means?
Robert: Yes.
Student: Is it boring? If all that goes away and there is nothing...
Robert: (laughs) No! See, that's what people think. That's why I explained before, the mind will make you say that because it doesn't want to be annihilated. It wants to rule you and control you completely, because that's its nature. That's the nature of the mind that doesn't exist.
Student: When you're meditating, are you totally separate from this physical world?
Robert: When who's meditating? When I'm meditating personally? Well, I don't usually meditate. I sit sometimes with my eyes closed but I just rest my eyelids.
Student: Because there's no one there, right? There's no one to meditate.
Robert: There has to be someone to meditate. That doesn't mean you should stop meditating. It means you should look at these four principles and compare them to where you are yourself, and work on yourself so that you can apply these principles to yourself everyday, until the day comes when you don't have to talk about it any longer. You just become a total manifestation of those principles.
…
Robert: There are three methods we use to help us on the path, so we can realize what we were talking about before. Number one is self-surrender, where we surrender completely to God, or to yourself. But that's hard to do for most people. It sounds easy, but it's not. It means that you have no life of your own. You surrender completely and totally everything to God. Totally. Every part of your life goes to God. "Not my will, but thine.” That's devotion, bhakti. Again, it sounds easy to some people, but it's not when you get into it, because it means every decision that you have to make is left up to God. You give your mind to God, totally, completely, absolutely. And that leads you to self-realization.
Number two is mindfulness, which we were talking about. Becoming the witness. Watching yourself continuously. Watching your thoughts. Watching your actions. Sitting in meditation and watching what goes on in your mind. Not trying to change anything or correct anything. Just observing. Becoming the witness to your thoughts in meditation, and to your actions in the waking state.
And number three is the one that I advocate, self-inquiry. Asking yourself, "To whom do these troubles come? To whom does this karma come? To whom does this suffering come? It comes to me? Well, what is me? I am me. Who am I? From where did the I come from?" And following the I to its source.
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You can use any of those three methods, the one that suits you best. But by all means do something. Don't waste your life with frivolities. Work on yourself, if you want to become free.
It doesn't mean you have to give up going to the movies, or going to work, or anything. You give nothing up. You just become aware of what you're doing. You become a conscious being. You become conscious of your actions. You become loving, compassionate, gentle to all people. You stop watching out for number one. Most of us say, "Number one. I'm number one.” Forget it. That's how you suffer. That's ego. It's hard to understand, when you give up your ego, how you can have a better life, but you do. Try it and you'll see.
When you stop thinking of yourself, and you start thinking on yourself, but yourself becomes omnipresence, that means you're thinking of everybody else as yourself. So if any human being suffers, you suffer too. But, in a way we differ from Buddhism. Not much, but a little. Because the bodhisattva says he will not be realized until everybody else is realized. But then they have a higher bodhisattva called the Arhat. It's like the Avadhut in Hinduism, who becomes self-realized, by himself, because he understands that his self is the self of all. And that's what we accept. In other words, if you want to help your fellow man, if you want to make this world a better world in which to live, find yourself first, and everything else will take care of itself.
🍁 Robert Adams
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remain with your facts, try to know them.
Don’t allow society to force its ideology on you.
Don’t look at yourself through others' eyes.
You have eyes; you are not blind.
0sho
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It is the human mind that creates its own difficulties and then cries for help .
#ramanamaharshi
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