Transcript:
Robert: Peace. Good evening. It’s good to see you again and be with you. Try to remember that I’m not a speechmaker or a minister or a philosopher. It’s not words you want to hear. Many words can be spoken and nothing said. The answer you are looking for is within yourself. Everything you are looking for is within yourself. When I say within yourself I don’t mean your physical self. I mean within the Self. The Self is not within you. You are in the Self. So when I say everything you’re looking for is in the Self it includes your physical body and everything else. Everything is the Self, and you are that. All is well. From your upbringing you’ve probably heard of the word blasphemy. The only blasphemy that exists is the fact that you believe that you are human. That’s blasphemy, to believe that you are a human being. It’s the ultimate lie. You are not what appears to be. No thing is what it appears to be. Then who are you? You have to find for yourself. Is there really a you? Are you really an individual? Are you separate from a tree, an animal, the world, the universe? Is there any separation? Find out. Do you really exist? Find out. Do you have a purpose in life? Find out. Again, it’s blasphemous to believe that you were born as a human, and you prevail and you dissolve. That’s true blasphemy. It all begins when you awaken in the morning. That’s the time that you should work on yourself. As soon as you open your eyes you should make a statement such as, “I am pure awareness.” But never believe that your personal self is pure awareness. You’re saying I am is pure awareness. Your personal self, your ego, the personal I, can never be I am. That doesn’t even exist. Therefore think what you’re saying when you say, “I am pure awareness.” You’re not speaking about your little self. That doesn’t count because that doesn’t even exist. You’re speaking of I am, pure awareness. Awareness of what? You’re aware of something, for you claim, “I am pure awareness.” You are aware of the fact that I am is consciousness. Pure awareness is consciousness and I am is that. Do you realize the revelation when you really know what you are saying, and you announce it with feeling, where you disregard the body-mind phenomena and you simply state the truth about yourself? I am pure awareness. Awareness of I am is consciousness. When you make such a statement, you will notice that you become blissful. You just begin to feel wonderful all over, due to the fact that pure awareness, I am, consciousness, expresses itself as bliss. They all really mean ultimate oneness. But as you express yourself this way, as soon as you open your eyes, something profound happens to you. You begin to feel the joy of your Self. You begin to feel total happiness, goodness, and then you can state, “All is well,” and you will know and feel that you are the beginning and the end. You will understand what sat-chit-ananda means. You will know Parabrahman. You will feel a divine emptiness, nirvana. You will be at peace, for you will understand that you are the universe, and no thing exists but yourself. You are the Self of the universe. Just to hear this, doesn’t it make you feel good, when you realize your divinity, that you are not a man or a woman, that you are not reincarnation or karma? There never was a time when you are not. That you, are all-pervading, transcendental bliss. Abide in your true nature. Stop believing that you are a sniveling human with problems. For whom are there problems? How can you, pure consciousness, absolute reality, think about a problem? Even if you say, “Well, life still goes on. I’ve got to meet my bills. I’ve got to go to the doctor. I’ve got to do this and I’ve got to do that.” That’s blasphemy, that’s what you call blasphemy. Not that you’re not going to do it, but your body has nothing to do with you. Your body-mind and all of its affiliations, does not even exist. Even Jay who thinks he’s blowing his nose, that’s an illusion. You think, “I’ve got a cold. I’ve got an allergy, I’ve got to go to work tomorrow morning, I’ve got to wear my clothes. It is this, that keeps you from realization. You’ll wear your clothes. You’ll go to work. You will do whatever your body came here to do, but don’t worry about those things. Do not concern yourself about those things. The more human you are, the more you will say, “If I don’t take care of these things, who will?” What are you talking about? There is only one I, and that is consciousness. Try to get it through your thick skull that the powers that be, know how to take care of all your needs and meet them most abundantly. There is something that cares about you, the great mystery. Something loves you, when you get your bloated nothingness out of the way. As long as you believe that you’ve got to solve a problem, then you will have to solve a problem. Something will take care of you. Put first things first. And the first thing you have to remember is that you are pure awareness. You can tell yourself that. “I am pure awareness.” Sure it’s the mind that does this, but there is something that grabs hold of the mind and annihilates it as you turn into I am. These are the things that you should think about. I know it sounds strange when I say this, but do not concern yourself with the world. The world was here, with all of its destructive mechanisms, before you came upon the scene. It will be here after you leave. People who do not understand Jnana Marga, Advaita Vedanta. They say it’s your duty to help others, to make this a better world in which to live. But they do not understand that if you awaken and you become liberated, you become others. You are others. There’s no one to help. This doesn’t mean again that you will do nothing. Your body will appear to be helping, to do all kinds of things. But the truth is, when you help yourself, you help others. And when you help others, you help yourself. It’s all one. You wonder what to do with the rest of your life. Should I work? Should I sit home? Should I join the army? Shall I become a dictator of a country? All these great thoughts go through your mind. Do not allow that to happen. Catch your mind. Catch your mind thinking and stop it. The mind is necessary as long as you are a human being. You make decisions. You know what’s wrong or right, good and bad. Your mind creates the world of duality. But as you progress in the spiritual life you begin to realize that the mind is a hindrance, not a friend, for it brings up all the things of the past, and worries about the things of the future. Who needs a mind like that? Therefore take control. And again, the best time to do this is early in the morning, as soon as you wake up, for the first thoughts that you think about will carry you through the day. And before you fall asleep, the thoughts that you think about before you go to sleep will continue when you wake up. So fall asleep understanding that I am pure awareness. And you’ll have a tendency to think, when you say, “I am,” you’re referring to your physical self. Catch yourself when that happens. Your physical self can never become enlightened. The finite can never know the infinite. The personal I can never become the universal I. I am is pure consciousness. So you’re consciousness. Conscious, not personal, not “I am this,” or “I am that,” but pure consciousness, existing as I am. I am that I am, absolute reality, beingness, nirvana, sat-chit-ananda, emptiness. I Am that. If you focus on those things during the day, before you fall asleep, when you wake up, most of the time you will discover an amazing secret. You will discover that your work is being done better than when you were thinking about it. Everything will unfold the way it’s supposed to. Yet you have to, sort of, in a way, feel that in the beginning. Make yourself feel it and put it first in your life, before anything else. Think, if you will, of what comes first in your life now. It may be your husband, your wife, your job, your house, your car, your friend, your ambitions, your desires. This is what is keeping you back. You have to desire to rid yourself of past mistakes, past experiences. Stop thinking of the future. And this is hard for most people to do, for they are always anticipating the future and worrying about the past. Yet this is exactly what they have to do to let go, of past and future problems. Your physical life is already planned, and all you have to do is to unfold beautifully into it. Everything will happen the way it is supposed to. You have to remember there is no evil in the universal, so nothing evil can ever happen to you. If you think it can, it’s because of your imagination. You have a certain concept, a preconceived idea, of how you think things should be. And of course you’re always disappointed because things are never the way you think they should be. Yet everything works out for your benefit, due to the fact that there’s nothing in the universe that can or wants to hurt you. Everything is on your side, from the minutest blade of grass to the giant cosmos. Everything is on your side, due to the fact that you are that. Everything is on your side because there is only one. There is ultimate oneness, and that ultimate oneness is perfection, absolute reality, consciousness. That is omnipresence, all-pervading. So where is there room for evil? Where is there room for anything wrong? Why do you worry? Why do you fear? Why do you become upset? The power that brought you to this class, knows what to do to continue your spiritual growth. But you have to put it first. It’s like the story of the student who was in a class like this, and he kept asking his teacher, “Teacher, explain it more. I don’t understand, tell me more.” And this went on and on. And at the end of the class, when all the students left, the teacher told that particular student to stay here, and then he told him, “Follow me,” and he took him to the edge of a river. And he said, “Look into the river.” The student did, and he pushed him into the water and held his head underneath the water until he nearly drowned. Then he pulled him up by the hair. And he looked in his face and he said, “What is it you wanted more than anything else in the world, while you were under the water?” And all the student was able to do was to gasp for air. And he said, “Air, air, air.” And the wise teacher said, “When you want to awaken as much as you wanted air, you will.” This is true of all of us. Just take a look at your personal life. Just for today, what did you want more than to awaken today? If you were angry, then you wanted that, more than awakening. You see, whatever you put your feelings into, that’s what comes first in your life. If something upset you? Then that became your God. You wanted that more than anything else. If you were in doubt that became your God. Whatever turns you on, whatever turns you off, became your God for that time. And that’s what you give your energy to, so you increase that condition. As an example, if you are having problems with somebody, the more you think about it, the more you fuel it. The more you try to take any kind of an action to stop it, or to prevent it, or to change it, the more you are saying, “This is the truth about me.” How should you react to something like that? You should not react. Something within you will do what it has to do, and you will be at peace if you will allow it to do so, first things first. “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all of it’s righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you,” which means first things first. Focus your attention on the Self. Realize that you are pure awareness, that you are aware that I am consciousness, resulting in bliss. Therefore you are a body of bliss. Not as a human body, when I use the term body, I mean the body of the universe. You are a body of bliss. Bliss is your nature, and in that bliss there is nothing wrong. Calm down, mellow out, relax. You are the body of bliss, and your divine nature is consciousness. You can never have anything wrong in your life unless you put your mind on it and make it so. This is why you have to control your thinking. Do not allow your mind to tell you what’s going on. If you learn to live in the moment, if you learn to center yourself and stay only in that moment, then you will be expressing consciousness, for consciousness is a moment thing. Consciousness is not yesterday or tomorrow. Consciousness is this moment. It’s the gap between yesterday and tomorrow, the fourth stage of life. After waking, dreaming and sleeping, then there is consciousness. So putting first things first will alleviate all of the negative conditions of your life, if you have any. It will awaken you. And as you work on yourself, and your mind brings up all kinds of things, as it will sometimes. In a very gentle way ask yourself, “To whom does this come?” and keep still. And of course the answer will be, “It comes to me. I feel out of sorts, I feel depressed, I feel as if I’m not getting what I want, I feel that somebody is taking advantage of me.” Further questioning, “Who is this I? What is its source? Who gave the I birth? Where did it originate from? Who am I?” There is never an answer to the question of, “Who am I?” By doing this process you will immediately feel better. And every time the mind brings up something else, you use the same procedure. “To whom does this come? Who is feeling this? I am?” Just by saying, “I am,” it will immediately take you out of your personal thoughts about yourself and lift you higher to what “I am” really is. Yet if you don’t feel that, you can ask again, “Then who am I?” And you keep doing this over and over and over. Someone called me the other day and told me, “Robert, I’ve been practicing for twelve years, and I feel despondent and I feel depressed.” So I said, “Why?” And he said, “Because all my friends are enlightened except me.” I had to laugh. “How do you know?” “They told me.” How can you explain that there are no others? It makes no difference what anyone else is doing. Let them all do what they will do. What does this have to do with you? When you try to straighten things out, when you try to change other people, when you try to make other people do what you want, you’re holding up your spiritual progress. Bless everyone and let them go. Leave the world alone. The world doesn’t need your help, thank you. This world, remember, is an emanation of your own mind. Therefore you are seeing yourself when you look at the world. As you begin to go within, you will realize that you’ve always been within. There’s nowhere to go. The within and without is the same, pure consciousness. It begins with you. I can sit here and talk all night, but what are you doing about your life? How do you see yourself? Forget about time. Even though you say, “I’m getting older, I haven’t awakened yet. I hope I awaken before I die,” this is all false thinking. No one is getting older, and no one has to awaken before they die, because no one dies. Get rid of that type of thinking. Forget about your age. Forget about your body and identify with consciousness. Identify with your Self. If you can just do that, everything else will take care of itself. I can promise you that. Be happy. Be radiant. Have a good word for everyone. Stop thinking of your needs. They will be met if you stop thinking about them. How will they be met? Remember there is only ultimate oneness. And the ultimate oneness has never needed anything. It is self-fulfilling, self-contained, all-pervading. So the one who thinks they need something is the deluded self, the personal ego, the I. But reality is present here and now. This means that you are fulfilled here and now. There is no thing you need and there is nothing that has to change. I’m not saying you’re going to keep on suffering if you think you’re suffering. What I’m saying is simply that the one who thinks they’re suffering is deluded. No one suffers. Take your mind off the pettiness and begin to realize that your mind is causing you to feel these things, the belief that you are a body and a mind. Begin to dwell on, “Who am I? Who is going through these experiences? Who thinks they’re getting old? Who thinks they will not make it in this life? Who? I. I do. Who am I?” Continue the work. Do not worry about the world or other people. Work on yourself, diligently, constantly. Never let up, and you’ll find that you become happier and happier. The old you is fading away. And you will awaken to yourself. Any questions? (tape break) SK: (tape starts abruptly) …So this person is saying deal with the contents. Look at what is. Now what I just got from you what I just flashed on, what he is saying is dealing with what is, is keeping me in the now, I think? R: You’re right, if you are thinking about your problems and dealing with what is, then you are stuck in that place. You have to let go of what appears to be and identify with your real nature which is God or consciousness. And to the extent that you can identify with your real nature, to that extent will you find that everything is resolved in your life. It’s not the other way around. If you are dealing with psychology it is. For all psychologists and psychiatrists and mental people will tell you to deal with the problem. But you realize that even if you deal with the problem and even if you seem to resolve it a new one pops up again. (SK: I don’t understand that?) And another one pops up and it never ends. (SK: What I’m saying, it’s duality I guess. Instead of looking for peace in the world, there isn’t any peace in the world there is violence in the world. So if I look…) No, no, no, no, no. There is no violence in the world and there is no peace in the world. Do not say one is different than the other. They are two sides of the same coin. But rather ask yourself, “Who sees the violence? For whom is there violence? For whom is there peace?” It is the ego that is part of those things. (SK: Yeah I understand, I understand.) Get rid of both. (Robert continues) We have a tendency to look at what is going on in the world. We see the Iraqi situation, there was a war, there is man’s inhumanity to man and we tend to say, “I see violence.” Violence is for the ego. Violence is for the personal I. Therefore, “Who am I? Am I the personal I? Am I the ego? If I am then there will be violence and I will have to help to alleviate it. But if I am consciousness that is completely transcendental.” It is like you are a chalkboard and the violence are images that you draw on the chalkboard. They come and they go, the images, but the chalkboard always remains the same. So the world comes and goes but consciousness always remains the same. It never fluctuates. Identify with consciousness and become that. And you will be free of all these concepts. SV: Robert I have a question. If one is serious about realization, can one do it by himself in solitude by practice alone or is it necessary to be a devotee to a teacher or guru? R: It depends on the person. It is very difficult to go all of the way by yourself. There are very few people who have done this. For it’s difficult to transcend the mind. Being in the presence of a teacher who has transcended will cause you also to transcend. Being by yourself with the world pushing in on you from all directions makes it more difficult but it’s possible. (SV: By being in the presence do you mean by just attending satsang?) Yes, just being in satsang is sufficient. (Robert continues) Most of you think that you came here because you wanted to. But that is not true. You’re being here tonight and being at satsang most of the time, there is something within you fulfilling itself. You have earned it there are no accidents. If you took the average person walking in the street tonight and brought him or her to satsang. They would be filled with fear and run out of the room because their evolution has not come to that place as yet. This is why I say, do not concern yourself with others. Rather look to yourself. If you have been devoted to yourself at home, understanding that you are the Self that you are consciousness and you’ve been pure to yourself, something will guide you to your next step of spiritual unfoldment. Everything takes care of itself. But you have to take the first steps. This is why there is no one here tonight that has not been in spiritual life for quite a while. Otherwise Jnana Marga will be foolishness to you. So you are where you are supposed to be. The universe never makes mistakes. SK: Robert… (R: Umm.) …You said a part of reasoning, I’m telling myself that I have a pure consciousness. I do that, how do I get myself to that place where I believe that or am I just in another delusion? R: See you already made a mistake because when you said, “I am,” you are thinking of your physical self aren’t you? (SK: But that’s what I heard you say.) I am… did you come late? (SK: Pardon.) Did you come late? (SK: No.) Were you here from the beginning? (SK: You spoke of pure consciousness.) When you say when you wake up, “I am pure consciousness” or “pure awakening, pure reality,” you are referring to I am. You are not referring to your physical self or to what you think you are. I am is consciousness, I am is pure awareness, I am is not your body it has nothing to do with you. That is why I repeat this so much. When you say, “I Am,” you are not referring to your body or to your state of being. You are referring to absolute reality, to parabrahman. So when you first wake up and you say, “I am pure awareness,” immediately you will get a feeling of joy and bliss. (SK: How do I differentiate? Do I know that is the truth or a delusion or am I in another fantasy with that?) Do not try at all to know. Simply make the statement and leave it at that. Now when questions come up like you just asked, “I wonder if I am saying the truth or am I in illusion?” ask yourself the question, “To whom comes those thoughts?” That’s how you follow it up. “Who thinks they are in an illusion,” or “Are they fooling themselves. To whom do these thoughts come?” And follow it through. If you do that, you will wake up one morning and you will state, “I am is pure consciousness,” and you will be in bliss. (SK: Just by saying the words?) Just by saying that and identifying with them in their reality, but again if anything else pops up in your mind ask yourself, “To whom does this come?” And follow it through. You’re killing two birds with one stone. That’s a terrible expression isn’t it? (laughter) Who wants to kill two birds with one stone? That’s a terrible expression isn’t it? Who wants to kill two birds with one stone? Who came up with all these expressions? (SK: Nobody.) (students laugh) R: If you think about that you’ll see you’re getting double credit because you are saying, “I am is pure awareness,” and when the other thoughts pop up in your mind you’re asking, “To whom do they come?” So you are attacking yourself from all directions. Something has got to give sooner or later. But put it to practice make it work for you. (SK: So by doing that it creates a surrendering, a giving up, a letting go?) You can say that, yes. But if those words come to you as you are doing that again, ask yourself, “Who has to surrender? Who is there to let go?” SU: So Robert is it that which recognizes itself? R: That which you speak of is self-contained consciousness. It only knows itself and you are that Self. SK: What happens when ego intercedes? R: Ask yourself, “To whom does it come?” Whatever pops up you do the same thing, “To whom does this come?” SI: Robert, asking, “Who is aware of this?” be equivalent? R: Who is aware of this? (SI: Yeah who is aware of whatever comes up? Is that the equivalent question?) Well that is not too clear. It’s better to ask, “To whom does this come?” For all different thoughts arise. You have to take them one at a time. If you say, “Who is aware of this?” it’s sort of ambiguous. But if you’re feeling some kind of fear or you think you are wasting your time, you merely ask, “To whom does this come? Who feels this? I do. Who am I?” SG: Robert I almost feel like I’ve been hearing this and it’s just occurring to me that I’m missing something very basic, I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s who is asking this question? R: Ask yourself, ask yourself, “Who is asking the question?” Whatever comes up go right back to self-inquiry until you get rid of everything. (SG: In this life is there an entity other than the mind that is operating?) There is no entity at all. Nothing is operating. What is operating are your thoughts that appear to be operating. So you must keep asking yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come?” SK: When I said it’s trying to be an empty vessel. It’s identifying with an empty vessel? R: No, again, you have a concept of an empty vessel that has got to go. All concepts, all ideas, all preconceived ideas have to go. If you think you’re an empty vessel then you keep seeing yourself as an empty vessel and that keeps you back. It’s all got to go. SG: Then the one that asks the question must go also? R: Of course, the one who asks the question is like the stick that stirs the fire. You throw in all the twigs and you keep stirring. In the end you throw in the stick also. It all has to be burnt up in consciousness. SJ: After you throw in that stick it takes a while for that stick to burn though? Is that like the aftermath or…? R: Says who? (SJ: I’m asking?) If you believe it takes a while it takes a while. (laughter) But why should it take a while? Your real nature is here now. (SJ: Speaking to us.) (laughter) SL: Robert in the silence which doesn’t seem to last very long before thoughts come up. Also I’m aware of this physical grip. Something like when I’m aware of the thought I’m also aware that with this thought has come this tension. And when I can really release the tension I can stay in the moment. Can you help me with that? R: Yes you are making it complicated for yourself. As soon as you feel tension ask yourself, “To whom does it come?” (SL: Yeah, I realize that.) And then keep going down further. (SL: Is that related to the thought at all or is it just…?) Of course it is. Tension is related to all thoughts. Thoughts bring tension and tension brings thoughts. (SL: I’m not aware that the thought is a tension provoking thought. They just seem to be just arrive to me.) Then no matter how they come, ask yourself, “To whom do they come?” No matter what it is use the same procedure until you get rid of everything. SK: Can I use the same procedure when I experience physical pain? R: Yes, sure, you may ask yourself, “To whom does this pain come?” And you will realize that it’s your ego that feels it. So when the realization comes that you are not the ego, the pain will disappear. SK: Pain disappears? R: Why not? Where does it come from? It’s part of the body. The belief that you are the body. When that belief is eliminated, everything that goes with it is also eliminated. SK: What are useful way or ways to work on for disbelieving we are the body? R: What are useful ways…? (SH: How do you get rid of the body idea?) That’s what we’ve been talking about all night. (laughter) Ask yourself, “To whom does the body come?” SK: Robert is this not – all these thoughts — is this not a manifestation of ego? So what would the process – I can’t kill the ego, that’s my belief maybe I can – What is a process to go beyond that? Does the ego reconstruct itself through a series of spiritual growth or do I have to watch for that constantly? R: As you continue to work on yourself the ego like a balloon begins to become deflated and it bothers you less and less. As you keep inquiring, “Who am I? Who am I? To whom does this come?” Your ego becomes smaller and smaller until it finally disappears. SF: Robert when I’m inquiring, in the process of inquiry when I seem to face silence, I should ask, “To whom does this silence comes to?” R: If you are thinking about silence you ask. The real silence is not a thought. (SF: Right.) So if you are thinking about silence, ask, “Who is thinking about silence? To whom does the thought come?” (SF: Yeah, if I’m aware or I believe that I’m aware of certain silence for it’s erroneous thinking about it?) The real silence comes when there is nobody to be aware. The one who is aware has been transcended. (SF: So in that position there is no need for any…) No. (SF: …”To whom this comes to?”) No, in that position there is only silence. (SF: Right.) It doesn’t come and it doesn’t go. It just is. SG: What relationship should we have to the body, body-mind phenomena, the personal I? R: You shouldn’t have any relationship because it doesn’t exist in reality. This is what I meant before, that your personal I and your body will always take care of itself. It has nothing to do with you. Your job is to identify with consciousness and your body will take care of itself. SK: If a person was born in the jungle or something, lived their life according to the natural way of life, no concepts, no ideas. Would that person be in the silence atmosphere? R: It all has to do with karma. It depends on your karma. (SK: I thought you said there wasn’t any karma.) There isn’t. But you are speaking of a person being born in a jungle.(laughter) So as long as somebody is born there is karma. (SK: Well unconditioned then.) Well if you understood that there is no karma, there wouldn’t be any jungle and there wouldn’t be anybody being born. But as long as you feel there is then there is karma. (SK: And you are caught up in it.) Sure and all kinds of stories, you have analogies, stories, predicaments, it’s all karmic. It doesn’t exist. SL: So it’s all just to stop the thinking. (R: You’ve got it, that’s it.) (laughter) SL: You said that when you had your realization that you haven’t learned anything since? (R: Okay?) Did you go to school then after that? (R: Nope.) Nope? (R: Nope.) SJ: Actually noone went to school. (SL: Oh, okay we’re back to that.) (laughs) R: What would I do in school after that? (SL: Well you became a psychologist, am I correct?) Nah (laughter) (SL: Then you were a fake psychologist?) I faked it. (SL: Faked it. But you’ve read things, you’ve read…) I still read things. (SL: Umm-hmm, but as you said justifying what they were about rather than – like you’ve never read all the works of Shakespeare?) Not really, I’ve been through it, I know about it and I have read lots of books, but it’s meaningless. (SL: But not to learn but just to see what they are about?) Just to see what’s going on. SK: Robert can I ask you what your relationship was with Krishnamurti… he deals with I guess he deals with more of looking at the contents… R: Well what can I say? (SK: I don’t know?) I didn’t have any personal relationship with Krishnamurti. He had a message. SV: Robert in inquiring doesn’t there come a time like you just have to stay silent and you feel yourself just being drawn in. Do you still look at it, as long as you are aware of it, do you keep still questioning it? R: As you keep asking yourself, “Who am I?” You become quieter and quieter until the day comes when you stop asking and you remain in silence. (SV: But I’m talking about during the inquiry, like you have an experience of like, almost like your awareness is going somewhere, is to keep questioning continuously?) You automatically do what you have to do. As you keep questioning you will find that you are becoming calmer and quieter and more blissful and you will question less and less. (SV: But as long as you are aware you question?) As long as you’re physical you question. Okay, let’s close our eyes for a few moments. Pay attention to your respiration. Become the witness to your respiration. Realize that the breath is part of the bodily procedure, but yet you are able to watch it, to observe it. You become the witness to your breathing. If thoughts come to you simply observe them also and go back to watching your breath. Now ask yourself, “Who is the witness?” Who watches? “I am.” With your breathing, inhale and say “I,” exhale and say, “am.” (tape ends)