Please note: the exact date of this recording is unknown. The date given here (24th January, 1991) is only an estimate.

Transcript:

This transcript was created automatically from the audio recording and has not been proofread yet. It may contain errors, especially with Sanskrit terms and with questions from the audience. Please get in touch if you would like to help improve it! https://robert-adams.de/contact/

Om shanti shanti shanti om. Good evening. I welcome you with all my heart. It is good to be with you again. I love you all unconditionally. If you’re here for the first time and you came to hear a lecture, forget it. If you came to hear philosophy, forget it. If you came to hear anything, forget it. There’s no such thing as a teacher and a student. It’s an appearance. I’m sitting here, God knows why, and you’re sitting where you are, God knows why. But here we are, we’re here together. Let’s make the most of it.

One thing’s for sure, one day you’re going to die. You can’t get away from that. It depends on the law of karma, where this will be.

It could be in the next five minutes, tomorrow, the next month, next year. But you’re going to die. You have to face up to it. Most people do not want to discuss these things. They’re afraid. You are having fun every day. They want to have fun, fun, fun. But you are going to die, so to speak. What do you take with you when you do? Your possessions, your friends, your relations, your house, your car. You will take with you what you took when you came here. Nothing. Then the intelligent person is going to question this. What was I’m going to die. What is the purpose of my life? What am I here to begin with? Whatever I do, whatever I accumulate, however famous I become, how successful I become, I have to leave it all behind. There’s nothing I can take with me. It’s time to go. So the intelligent person begins to think about this and wonders, who am I? Who am I really? What is this all about. If I ask you the question, what is the most important thing of your life? Many of you would say to become self-realized, to become liberated. This may be true, but my question to you is what are you doing about it? Are you doing the things necessary to become liberated? In your everyday reactions, those of a person who wants to become liberated, become free? Think. Do you still get angry over nonsense? Do you become depressed when things don’t go your way? Are there people that you don’t like or you hate in this life?

Do you react to the world with deathly conditions that’s going on day after day? Do you identify with external things? Do people have the capacity to make you fearful, upset? When you say something to you that you don’t like to hear? If your answer is yes to any one of these questions,

Then you can never become liberated. Never. Liberation comes to the person who has given up his or her identification with the world. I’m not saying to the person who has to live in a cave or give up your family or your work. I’m saying to mentally, give everything up mentally.

Everything happens in the mind. First you mentally begin to give up to the stuff that’s been carrying around all your life, your preconceived ideas, your dogmas, your concepts, then you give up your idea of giving up.

That is, you’re giving up your mind in the end. In other words, first you have to give up mentally your reaction to life, your reaction to a person, place, or thing.

Then you have to give up that as gave it up. It’s like when you have a fire and you throw sticks into the fire to make the fire greener and brighter. You keep throwing in sticks. And when there are no more sticks left, you throw in the stick that you’ve been stirring the fire with. The stick that you’ve been holding in your hand and stirring the fire has to go also. And so does it with your reactions, with your thoughts, with your feelings, with your emotions. You surrender all of your emotions, your feelings, your thoughts, your beliefs, your concepts, and then you surrender that which believed these things, that which gave these things credence, that mind where all these things came from. And in the end, it has to go too. has to go. Everything. When everything goes, you have no reason to be any longer. And you become an eternal being. At that time, it makes no difference whether you have a body or you don’t have a body. You will be eternal. You’re never changing. It’s blissful. You have become pure awareness. sat-chit-ananda. Raman. You didn’t become this because you wanted to become this. You became this because you’re no longer attached to anything on this earth. You’ve given up all of your attachments, your fear, your frustrations, everything that’s been given up. When there’s nothing left, you become the substratum of all existence,

Like the screen and its images. When all the images are shown, there’s no more images left, the movie’s over, only the screen is left. And so there’s been all the superimposition of your body, mind, experiences, are given up. When only you’re left, your true self, the reality. Most people are not interested in these things. They don’t want to think about these things. They just want to play games every day, acquire possessions, be happy, so to speak, by doing what you want to do. But how long does this last? How long does these things last before we become disappointed again? I tell you, you’re living in a universal duality. Nothing ever remains the same. One thing leads to another. There’s not a lot of smith to fool you any longer. You were all here this evening because there’s something about you that’s special. Most of you have been through this world time and time again. You’ve traveled. You’ve seen things all over the world. You see the conditioning of this world. Managing humanity has been married and everywhere. Wars, crimes, going on everywhere. What is the reason for this? Why are these things happening? You can only know this answer When you become liberated, then you will see who suffers.

You will understand why there are strong people in the world, why there’s man to humanity to man. As a human being, you can never understand this.

It’s impossible. For the finite, you can never understand the infinite. Your so-called mind is given to you to be on this earth so you can function on this planet as a human being.

But to go further than that, you have to give up the mind. not expand the mind, but give up the mind in its entirety. I know that all the metaphysical organizations teach you how to use the mind to create things, to get things, to do things. You’re just floating around with energy. You’re playing with energy. Energy goes in all directions, good and bad, up and down, right and wrong. It’s all a play of energy. So when you become spiritual enough and you begin to work on yourself, you realize that you’ve got to go beyond the energy. You have to go to the source of the energy. Where is the source of all the energy? And it’s called creation. Where is its source? Where did it come from? You can’t think this way as long as you’re worried about something. And as long as the world gets to you, you can’t think this way. You can only think of these things when you become calm and peaceful and relaxed mentally. Then you can think about these higher things. Where am I? Where’s the source of life? Where’s reality? But when you’re trying to live a human life and you’re worried about your life by gaining things, by the things you watch on TV, you can never think of these higher things. In other words, you’ve got to decide to say, with whom shall I join forces? With God or mammon? And it’s up to you to make up your mind, and we should follow the self or the I, the reality of the ignorance. Only you can make up your mind, because it’s your mind that will tell what happens to you. Therefore, if you’re really serious and you really want to become free, I will share the message of freedom with you. I will become totally free in this particular teaching. When you first get up in the morning, sit in a chair where you’ll be peaceful and quiet for about an Now, seek out your heart center, which is on the right side of your chest, your spiritual center, your heart center, on the right side of your chest, and see the form of the deity that you love daily, the form of Krishna, of Jesus, of Moses, Muhammad, or a guru, as we discussed last week, only from a living guru, a living sage, can you receive grace.

A dead sage, a sage that has gone on. It can only give you a peaceful mind and good concentration. But you can’t get grace from a guru who is dead and is gone. Nevertheless, think of the image that you want. What I’m teaching you today is a combination of bhakti and jnana. Bhakti and jnana, devotion and wisdom. They both combine. If you practice what I’m going to share with you, you’ll make very fast progress, but you have to do it. So again, focus your attention on your heart center, which is your chest on the right side. Think of the image that you want, that you desire, that you care about, and repeat your name. For instance, if you say on the right side of your chest, in your heart center, Ramana Maharshi,

You can start trying to yourself, Hari Ramana, Hari Ramana, over and over again, with your breathing. Then you’ll say, Hari, excelsiori Ramana. At the same time, you have a mental picture of Ramana in your heart center. if it’s Jesus that you want see the image of Christ in the heart center and chant to yourself Lord Jesus with your breath and then you’ll say Lord if it’s Krishna that you desire do the same thing say Hare Krishna Hare Krishna this is called using name and form it’s an ancient tradition if you’re an atheist you don’t want to see anybody’s form you can see light pure light in your heart. And you can chant to yourself something like this. I am an open channel for the manifestation of all good.

In other words, whatever your preference is, there’s something you can do. And you’ve got to do this. You’ve got to follow this. Make it happen.

Do this for about 20 minutes. And at the end of 20 minutes, you’ll feel very calm, very relaxed, very peaceful. reading this method has made you very peaceful when pointed and you’ll feel good at this time you become still and you ask yourself a question who am I?

In other words you’re saying now who is the eye beyond this image who is the eye that’s seeing Christ seeing your mother who is the eye that’s observing all these things that’s what it means when you say who am I take a pause and say it again Who am I?

Because it’s a beginning practice it made your mind steady and so it’s another shin as it usually does in other words if you decided to do who am I without the first part you would have all kinds of stuff bombarding you but you’ve calmed yourself made yourself very peaceful very calm Who am I? never answer that question just pose the question to yourself who am I? you will know that the thoughts will not come to you again the thoughts will stop you are no longer bombarded by thoughts like you were before thinking of the state within yourself has calmed you down tremendously this is an important part to remember who am I?

If thoughts do happen to come you can inquire further to whom do these thoughts come? And you’re going to think of the picture of the deity in your heart center. We’ll use Ramana Maharshi as an example. You see, to whom are these thoughts coming from Ramana Maharshi in your heart center? And you’ll start laughing because you’ll realize Ramana Maharshi is thoughtless. There’s no thoughts in the mind of Ramana Maharshi. Mindless, universal, all-pervading, consciousness. This will come through by itself. and then the source will disappear.

Then you inquire again, Who am I? And just sit still. If some source will invade you again, go back to Ramana Maharshi in your heart or Christ or whomever.

See the image. Repeat the name. Hari Ramana. You will find something wonderful has happened. Your mind has become so still you have never experienced a stillness like this before. Then go back again to who am I? Who am I? When approximately an hour has passed, get up and go about your business. You will find that during the day something very interesting has happened to you. You will find that you’re filled with peace. Problems are no longer disturbing you. You’ve entered a different dimension. Things that used to make you angry will stop. Things that made you depressed, lonely, upset have gone away. You will feel complete fulfillment. Do the same thing before you go to sleep. to sleep. My friends, I tell you the truth. If you will practice what I just shared with you, you will find liberation very soon. You become a nation of bhakti and jnana. It can only free you.

Do it. Don’t let tomorrow come without you doing this. You want to make progress. You want to become free. Do it. Now we’re all practicing. Once we do it together, close your eyes, make yourself comfortable, and the back comfortable. Begin by focusing your attention on your breath.

Listen to your breath, your respiration, inhaling, exhaling. Now slowly move your attention into the right side of your chest, two fingers away from the center, on the right side. This is your spiritual heart. It has nothing to do with your heart on the left side, on the physical heart. It has nothing to do with that. This is your spiritual heart. It is bright and shining. It is the self. It is the absolute reality. Think of the deity, the sage, the master. See this in her form. See the entire form of the person you’re thinking of. Now begin to chant the name to yourself with your breathing. It’s important that you visualize the form while you’re turning the name. Ask yourself the question, who am I? If the source that comes to you is too powerful, an insensical source, it’s also about the world, your body. Go back to the heart center and practice the name and form again. If not, continue asking the question, who am I, but make the space between the questions bigger and bigger, between each who am I, but more time you last before you say it again. But if thoughts come, go back to the heart. Only allow the space to expand when there are no questions, no thoughts, no fear to ask questions. There are distinctions in your mind. It doesn’t really matter, but in Ramana Maharshi’s position, it’s on the right side.