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/

Shavayam, Om shanti shanti. Good evening. It’s a pleasure to be with you again. We have a nice small crowd here, that’s good. If you really examine life, you will find it to be very interesting. Nothing is ever the same in this world. All things are subject to the law of change. Therefore, if you depend on anything, you will eventually become disappointed.

You must therefore turn to yourself. And when you turn to yourself, yourself ultimately becomes a whole universe. You no longer become a body. You become the body, the entire universe. And then things no longer affect you. Things only affect you in this world as long as you believe you’re the body or the mind.

As long as you believe you’re personal, you will be affected by the world. But as soon as you give up your personality, the I, then you become the world.

When you become the world, you become one-pointed. The world and universe is simply a superimposition upon yourself. Everything becomes clear. Everything becomes explainable. Yet there are no words to explain it.

You just know that all is well. You actually have become a body of bliss. and the body of bliss is divine harmony. You have become what you already are.

Peace, happiness, consciousness, love. That is your real nature. What you’ve really been doing in your search is uncovering those things that have been hiding your light as clouds before the sun. The clouds dissipate and the sun shines once again.

So when the illusion dissipates. The illusion is that you are a body, a personal body, and a personal mind. I is the name of your body.

As I becomes dissolved, to that extent you feel total happiness. It makes no difference what’s going on in the world. The world can never again be your master when you’ve seen the light. After all, the world, the universe is nothing but the reflected light of consciousness.

And since you are consciousness, you are reflecting the world by your light. It’s really interesting if a surgeon takes a scalpel and inserts the scalpel in the flesh and then inserts the scalpel in the molecule and into an atom and into energy. After that, you will get nothing.

Everything leads to no thing. Therefore, your body is composed of nothing. Your body that appears so real and appears to have problems sometimes and puts you through all the vicissitudes of life doesn’t even exist as a reality. And I think that’s funny.

To think that you’ve been taking serious all of your life, to think all their body, science can now prove it doesn’t exist. All these years you’ve been taking such good care of it.

You’ve baited regularly, you wash it, you perfume it. you stink it up with everything as if it’s you put the jokes on you you’ve been playing with nothing you’ve been wasting all of your energy taking care of something that doesn’t exist you may say well Robert you take care of yourself you eat certain foods you do certain exercises you do this and you do that the only difference is I know I’m not doing anything I’m going through the motions, but I do it for others that don’t even exist. I’m playing a game. I can waste away the nothing, but the powers that be are at work. So they’re doing the exercise, they’re doing the eating, they’re doing all the things that you attribute to yourself. Never believe that anything in this world is of the utmost importance. No thing is important. Not even your spiritual practice.

Why are you doing spiritual practice? Why do you do sadhana? You want to become enlightened. Who wants to become enlightened? Your ego. The I.

But if you think deep enough, intelligently, creatively, you will see that there’s nothing about you that needs to become enlightened. The word is a misnomer.

You are already yourself. And you cannot add one iota into it. So spiritual practice is a waste of time. I know it sounds contradictory, yet in the ultimate reality, spiritual practice is a waste of time.

If you can only blink and understand I am that, that’s all there is. I am that. I am being. Absolute reality. And mess there. No thoughts. No added words. nothing to think about, nothing to say just I am why would you need spiritual practice?

People spend all their lives doing spiritual practice what can I say? if I tell them for a stop to go crazy I suppose it’s necessary for some people who refuse to acknowledge I am all you have to do is know I am that’s it

There’s no other thing you have to do. But people are not satisfied. It’s too easy. They think they have to suffer and go through all kinds of suddenness.

So they practice this and they practice that and they read thousands of books. And they visit thousands of teachers. And they learn all kinds of routines and all kinds of practices. It becomes confusing. But if you would truly go into yourself, if you would only see yourself, you would be liberated.

It’s that simple. You just have to see yourself. There’s nothing else to do. There’s nothing to become. This means a letting go of everything else. And I know for some of you it’s difficult because you say to yourself, If I let go of everything, who will take care of my needs?

Who will take care of myself? When I say to let go, I don’t mean to quit your job or to go live in an ashram. I mean to let go mentally. It all begins in your mind.

You let go of all of your preconceived ideas. All of your concepts. You let go of all of your hurts. You let go of all the good things, the bad things. You let go of everything. Mentally.

It’s the same as total surrender. You don’t want to have any desires or goals or ambitions. And again, you say, well, how will I function? You will function. you have to function there never will be a time when you stop functioning you worry too much you think too much you’ve been programmed since you were born remember you came into this life with some scars from past spirits so it appears and then you’ve been accumulating some scars, karma and everything else as you were growing up you’re really not as free as you think.

You’re totally conditioned. That’s why you each react a certain way when a certain situation comes into your life. You react from your conditioning, and that’s what you have to let go of.

Not my will but thine. When I quote these beautiful little clichés, not my will but thine, I’m not referring to a natural thermorphic deity who looks down upon you and throws thunderbolts. I’m referring to yourself, your real self, not my will, not the ego’s will, but thine, the reality, consciousness.

Consciousness only begins to function when you let go of everything else. Of course, consciousness is all there is. It always functions. But as far as your dream is concerned, you appear to block it out because you want to identify with a personal I, body, mind. when you identify with that that’s all that functions and you find yourself in all sorts of situations you think you’ve got to find solutions you call them problems where do you have the word problem? what does it mean?

Doesn’t the problem really mean that life is not going your way? the way that you believe or think it should go? isn’t that what the problem is?

If you realize all is well and everything is unfolding as it should. How can there be a problem? It appears to be a problem to you because of your conditioning,

Because of your samskaras from past lives, because of your conceptual thinking. You have a list in your subconscious. These things are good and these things are bad. And you’re not aware of it because it’s deep in your subconscious.

What should be good and what should be bad. And as you go through the world, you react. You say, this is bad and this is good.

But to whom is it bad or good? Only to your ego, to the I. If you were able to forget about your body, slow down your thoughts, you would be the happiest person on earth. Just by doing that alone. We’re not even talking about complete transcendence.

We’re just talking about slowing down your thoughts. and some of you here know what I mean because you’ve done that you know there have been days in your life when you think less and haven’t those days been the happiest days for you it’s like when you first wake up before you start thinking you’re in total bliss yet once the mind gets going the bliss appears to disappear and you’re back in your worldly state to the extent you’re going to slow your thoughts down to that extent does the happiness and joy come back automatically because the substratum of life, of existence is joy joy and bliss are what you really are it is pure existence it’s your real nature you do not have to do anything to attain it you just have to let go you’re willing to do that You still believe that if you let go completely, your life may be in ruins.

Yet your life is in ruins now, and you don’t know it. It’s in ruins because you’re living the mortal dream. You’re taking the experiences of your life seriously.

You believe that something evil can overtake you. The devil is going to get you. Or something to that effect. you can call the devil other people or karma that comes back to you. You can call the devil by many names.

But you have invented the devil. It all comes out of you. That’s why you have to inquire where did my ideas come from about life? How did I come to believe this? How did I come to fear that? Where does it come? And again, you’re practicing a form of sadhana called self-inquiry. You’re only doing that because you can’t do anything else.

Your thoughts have got a hold on you. So you practice some form of sudden and cold self-inquiry. Which, by the way, is the highest sudden of them all.

If you have to practice anything, do that. But why can’t you just sit in the silence? Why can’t you just sit down at home and be in the silence?

Without thoughts. Without practice. It’s not hard. You just have to sit. That’s it. Your breath will regulate itself. Your mind will slow down by itself. Time will go past, fast, or by itself. But you can’t think of those things. Because when you think of what I just said, you spoil it.

For your mind waves are moving. Even when you think I’m sitting to be silent, you spoil it. Because your mind is moved by that very thought. and it’s a contradiction because there’s nobody who has to be silent silence already exists by itself and that’s another name for you so can’t you see everything you say spoils it when you say I’m going to practice this side and then to be enlightened it spoils it when you say I’m standing here to keep silent it spoils it when you say I’m going to surrender totally you spoil it again the reason you spoil it is because

Silence is your very nature. Silence is consciousness. Consciousness is pure awareness. Absolute bliss. And if your voice, if you’re going to become that, then you have to do something to become that.

But you’re already that. You therefore cause problems for yourself. For your thoughts will continue and they’ll say, well, do this and do that. Let’s try this method and let’s try that method. and you go through the whole period of sitting by answering questions about yourself and trying various methods of sadhana.

It may make you feel better than you felt before, but it will not bring you home. I’m used by most people who practice spirituality.

They’re always looking for a new method. They’re looking for that special method that will do it. But there’s no such thing. No method that will do anything. All methods are to bring you to the silence.

Where there are no words and no thoughts. Then you’re safe. Even if you can start by being silent for 10 seconds, that’s the beginning. And the next time you do it, you’re silent for 15 seconds.

By silence, I mean the mind waves are… Cut short. The mind waves are not moving. Things become still. Nothing is happening. That silence is total bliss. Therefore, you know… when you experience it because you feel blissful. If there’s any question in your mind, it’s not that.

If you have to ask yourself, I wonder if I’ve experienced it, then you haven’t. Because when you do, there will be no one to ask the question, what is the purpose of this?

Why do we need to do this? We find ourselves in a state of mesmerism. we’ve all been hypnotized to believe the world is as it appears you have to do is to turn on the TV and you’ll see what kind of world you’re living in total chaos total confusion the world is either worried about recessions or depressions or wars there’s always something going on in the world so you’re born into a time when things that are going on appear new to you and you try to resolve them what a waste of time or if you look back in history these things have always been going on I’ve had TV before to bring it so close so you can see it now you know what’s going on all over the world in the old days people just know what’s going on in their town and had enough problems with that but now in an instant you know what’s going on everywhere in the world and you must wonder what’s going on What’s all this about?

This is why it’s important to wake up. If you were having a dream, and in that dream there was famine and earthquakes and managing humanity to man and recessions and depressions, wars, you would try to resolve it, which is very commendable. But if someone came and told you, hey, there’s nothing to resolve.

This doesn’t even exist. You wouldn’t believe him, would you? Because you would say, I’m experiencing these things. And then they’ve told you, your father experienced these things, and your grandfather, and your great-great-grandfather, and all of humanity since the beginning of time has gone through these things in one way or another.

It’s not new. Why don’t you try to wake up? And they would say, okay, what do I have to do? Open your eyes. Awaken. And you would think that’s too easy. And you would say, I cannot do that. My eyes are open and I still see the world.

So then you have to start a procedure. So you would say, go within. Dive deep within. That’s where the answers are. And you would say, how do I do that?

So you’d be given different sadhanes and different spiritual practices to wake up. But blessed is the person who can just open their eyes and wake up. without having to go through everything else.

There is no need for anything else. You are already that. You are living the mortal dream. It’s like a bubble. Break the bubble and become free.

This is what Satsang is all about. Don’t worry if you think you are not making progress. I can assure you it is virtually impossible to be in a place like this and not make progress. It is your ego that tries to fool you.

Remember, your mind does not wish to be destroyed. Therefore, it will fight you with every breath and tell you you’re wasting your time. If it were true, you would have already been enlightened. Your mind will tell you, go somewhere else. Go through this and go through that.

Keep searching, keep looking. It will never tell you there’s nothing to look for. It will never tell you there’s nothing to do. It will never tell you, just be yourself. awaken. It will put you through all kinds of trials and tribulations. It will make you believe that the more you suffer, the greater the value. But if you are wise, you will simply observe and watch your mind telling you all of these things. You will not fight, because your mind will always win. You will simply dissolve your mind through observation, through becoming a witness, or by asking, to whom do these thoughts come? Your mind will grow weaker. It will really fight you.

It will cause you to observe many tasks and things in the world. And perhaps some upheavals in your life also. To make you believe in your mind and its power.

I guess that’s what Jesus meant when he said, Get thee behind me, Satan. In other words, his mind was trying to tell him things are wrong.

You’re wasting your time. So he named his mind Satan. He told him, Don’t bother me. Don’t come up with all these things. I don’t believe in you, you’re a liar.

That’s exactly what we must do. Let the mind show us the worst. Allow the ego to do what it wants. But you be the observer, the witness.

Hold on tight to the eye, and follow the eye thread to the heart. And you will start laughing. You will come to the conclusion, there never was a mind. There never was an eye.

There never was an ego. There never were problems. There never was a world. There never was a personal God. There never was karma. There’s no such thing as enlightenment.

There’s no such thing as awakening. You are already that. So be it. Nice small group tonight. So let’s get into some nice juicy questions.

Robin, in the beginning you said that there’s really no need for sadhana, but actually that’s the highest truth, right? Yes. In reality, who needs sadhana? sadhana is the ego who performs sadhana the self doesn’t perform sadhana the self is the self all pervasive that’s all there is therefore who performs sadhana the illusory self the mind and the ego but if you can just come to the conclusion that they don’t exist then who’s left to do sadhana knowing and you’re home free.

But if you say that and you still feel fearful or your mind is still attacking you, then you’ve got to do sadhana until that stops.

But if you can just see what I’m saying, you will become still, silent, and you’ll be free. But again, if you’ve got doubts or if you’ve got fears and you’ve got all kinds of nonsense going on in your mind, then you should do sadhana.

But always remember when you’re doing it that it’s your ego that’s doing it and you are not your ego. That understanding alone will cause you to stop doing sadhana. Realize there’s no one left to do it.

He said that it was erroneous to think, to do sadhana, to become realized, to add realization to yourself because you cannot add anything. But to take away the clouds the samskaras.

You don’t do it to add anything but to take away. Again, who needs to take away? To whom does it come? Samskaras come to the mind and to the ego. We therefore do sadhana to remove it. But that’s a joke, because the one who needs to remove it doesn’t exist. Never has it. There’s no one who needs to remove anything.

So as long as you believe there are samaskaras, then again, you have to do sadhana. But if you look at the whole picture, it’s really funny.

Because who does the sadhana? Does God have to do sadhana to know himself? Does consciousness have to do sadhana? Does absolute reality have to do sadhana? You are that already.

Therefore, all you have to do is blank and wake up. Lives never existed for the self, but they appear to exist to the ego. And if you’re strongly embellished in the ego, you have to do sadhana to remove it.

All that sadhana really does is wake you up and make you see that there’s no sadhana to be done. Don’t fool yourselves. Find this with yourself.

You know where you’re coming from or where you think you’re coming from. And you have to do what you have to do. until the time comes where you don’t have to do it again anymore. And is the whole thing just a big hoax, the big put-on? It’s a big lie. It’s a big hoax. Sure, of course. You’re being taken for a ride. But who’s taking you for a ride? You got me. I don’t know. Who? Nobody.

What’s the police? How about the… It seems pretty monstrous. It’s like the water in the mirage like the snake in the rope that’s how it appears but don’t believe that too strongly because there’s no mind that doesn’t want to give up it doesn’t really exist that way But if you think that the rope is a snake, and you refuse to see it otherwise, then you have to really work on yourself diligently to remove that optical illusion. It’s nothing but an optical illusion. There also seems like what really is proof of this. I mean, it occurs to me that I’m not always thinking. But, I mean, the mind is telling me sometimes that it’s always in particular. that’s right there are times when you see clearly hold on to those times try to expand them I’m usually unaware of it though and maybe I’m just doing my work or something I’m not be aware of those times of the reality and sometimes you look out the window and you begin to daydream and you forget all about your body and the world you just daydream and you feel good hold on to that try to bring it back after talking about the neurons and the problems and the matters and all finally at the end he said it really isn’t yeah I mean it’s just a new so what Johnny Carson said he I understand that’s interesting coming from the sciences yeah sure science is beginning to see that but they can’t explain it They just know itself.

A program about a black hole or a program that’s looking at, because I didn’t pay that much attention, but when he was talking about the black hole in outer space, I’ve heard this expression before, too. Everything that’s happening in the universe is happening within yourself. You are a replica of the universe. So if you want to look for black holes, look within yourself. I’m not interested. My daily life, a majority of it, I find watching myself, observing myself, what I do, what I do, my ego is doing, and even defending myself, my ego is defending itself, and once I, it’s an attack, you defend, basically that’s what I do. And what are you doing about it? Well, seeing it certainly helps me, it just sort of dissolves when I see it, or I ask myself the question, who is, who is having this, who needs to attack, who isn’t, who’s being attacked.

Does that help you? Yeah. It’s like then all of a sudden that thing that thinks it’s being attacked doesn’t even exist. It’s to be attacked. Exactly. It’s a scene. When you really have a feeling of that truth,

What can anyone ever do to you? You just realize and you know you will never go on, you can never die. You are forever. Yeah, but what… not to mind, I shouldn’t say when, I find that the next day, uh, the game starts all over. I’m caught, you know, the wrong thing, someone says the wrong thing, or you’re frightened, and I have a gun attacked. And how easy it is to be hurt. Of course. Well, that’s good, you’re observing yourself. That’s a good start. Ask yourself, when do these things come, who feels attacked? Who feels offensive? I do, or am I? Where did the I go from? Remember, all of these outside things, all of these external things, are attached to the I, and when the I goes, everything else goes with it. Therefore, you should never try to remove the object, because if you do, a new object will come, and there’s no end to it. But when you remove the I, everything disappears with it. So if you see things wrong with your life, do not dwell on them at all. When you realize, I see these things, I feel these things, work on getting rid of that I that sees these things and feels these things. The I am, this emphasizes the I.

It doesn’t emphasize the ego I. It emphasizes consciousness. because you’re saying I am you’re not saying I am this no it doesn’t specify what you are exactly that’s why you become yourself when you say I am but the I is still maintained it isn’t done away with but it’s meant to small I we’re confusing some terms well yes Romano spoke of I-I yeah as making differentiation the I-I being the true I Yes. Or in your ego eye. Yes. It’s like our eye. It’s unconsciousness. So and so. I’m more confused than before or after this last exchange. Let me just speak my confusion. For example, if there’s thinking going on and you phrase it like, Who’s thinking I? That’s, that I is, you call it a little thing. You categorize it as a lie. If you’re saying who’s thinking I am, it’s a lie. Right. And then, so then when you say, who am I, it’s sort of maybe, sometimes it seems like it’s kind of a chasing an eye feeling inward, which feels, has a different quality than that eye that’s angry or thinking or so forth, but it’s still sort of like a self or something, some kind of a subtler person’s eye.

What you’re doing is you’re giving too much thought to the procedure. rather what you should do is ask who am I now whatever answer comes to you it’s not the right answer whatever answer whatever feeling it’s not right go right back to whom does it come so as long as you can experience anything there has to be a subject and an object exactly because there’s a subject and an object and they both got to go. When you voice I am, the real I am there’s nothing after it, nothing before it it’s just being it’s the self. But if you have any thoughts about it it’s not the pure I am. Nothing like this transitional I that I’ve seen in the literature and a quiet kind of an I am that doesn’t have adjuncts When you’re practicing I am will come by itself and you don’t mean really necessarily it has to be those words?

No, it doesn’t have to be those words. But the real I am comes by itself. Would you call that being or has that been another word? Being, consciousness, absolute reality, pure awareness, it’s all the same.

Basically, anything more dualistic than that you’re dealing with some level of it. And even with that, you’re dealing with words. It will come to you not as words, but there’s an experience when you try to voice it you will say consciousness I am the experience comes by itself when you say who am I and you get an answer it’s the wrong answer because there’s no answer for that if the answer is negative even if the answer is negative the nady nady approach is not valid the nady nady approach is good for a beginner to make them see that nothing exists with the self but it doesn’t actually bring it to reality it just makes you intellectually see that nothing exists with the soul then you have to dive deep in the side and finally it likes to have a stomach rub like the nature are there worlds it almost seems like I already got the answer but I’ll ask this are there worlds or experiences once one is in that state or beyond that state is there something else or is that’s it where would they come from yes it’s duality of course if there are other worlds then there has to be somebody else experiencing the worlds so you definitely cannot be enlightened if you’re experiencing other worlds for whom are the worlds dimensions be the same as worlds can what dimensions dimensions whatever there’s nothing beyond the self doing the sounds then it’s not your sounds because there’s no one to experience it.

As long as Mary says she’s experiencing the silence, then it’s unreal. Mary has to go. You have to get Mary out of the way.

There’s only silence. There’s no one to experience it. And the way she’s expressing it, is it just the way she’s saying it? I mean, like I might express the same thing if I felt I had some glimpse into that or something. That was just like, I just felt absent. I didn’t feel like… I know what you mean. I know what you’re going for. But I have a memory of the experience. I hear you. But always remember, in the true absolute, I’m left to experience it, and there’s nothing to say.

As long as there’s an explanation, it’s not that. it’s a glimpse of that it’s closer than anything else deep sleep dreamless sleep that’s the closest you can get to it you simply ask to whom has the silence come and go past the ego that made you experience the silence or go beyond the ego and you will experience the true silence when you are not the experiencer whatever comes and whatever you are aware of you have to go further as long as you are aware of it you have to go beyond it and you do that by asking to whom does it come you will go further say if the body were reality then there would be someone to experience silence but since the body doesn’t exist when the true silence comes the body is transcended and there’s nobody to experience it It’s transcendent, or the notion that I am the body? The notion. The notion of audienism. The notion that you’re a body.

It’s totally transcendent. That’s the true silence. There’s no one to tell. Correct. If you’re not experiencing it, it’s not true. It’s absolutely no thing. It’s not, not true. That’s true.

But to a certain degree. Death and all of it is a big nothing. It’s a big nothing is right. You might not enjoy it while you make the most of it. And know that it’s a joke. And don’t get caught up in the everyday nonsense of the game. You have to not allow yourself to become cold and calculating. Have compassion and love. Self-improvement becomes very intellectually, very dry. When I’m in a very emotional experience, and I ask myself, I don’t notice any change. And then sometimes when I do a lot of self-enquiry, I just sort of become numb. I don’t really feel like I’m experiencing a few doubts. Then what you have to do is try another practice.

You can try using a mantra with your breath. In between you say to yourself, I am, and before you breathe out you say, Brahman or consciousness, whatever you like, and as you breathe out you say, I am not the body. When you say, I am, in between you say, Brahman or consciousness, and you accidentally say, I am not the body, this will lead you upward and make you one point. So self-inquiry will become easier. Here is, I mean, a lot of experiences of silence. In my practice often, it seems like it’s easy to be silent when everything is fine and the surroundings are pleasant. Then, you know, I remember being once in the silence and my ex-wife made a rude comment and I was yelling at her, you know, and it just seemed like a false sense of silence. Of course, you were never in the true silence. You were just quiet.

There’s a difference. When you’re in the deep silence, just like bliss, it is bliss, and your ego has disappeared, and your body has disappeared, and you become universal,

And you will not be disturbed by anything. So the silence can fool you, as you say. The mind can make you believe you’re silent, and you can tell and as long as you still believe you exist and you experience silence then you haven’t but when you experience the true silence your existence is wiped out it doesn’t come back I think I’ve really experienced much real silence because you say that if I experience the true silence once I’ll know who I am and my whole life I go in and out and I doubt all my silences well it’s good to doubt them because you’ve never had a real silence but do not feel left out or sighted realize that it’s taking you so many incarnations and so many years to be where you are now so be thankful for that and simply continue the inquiry to whom has this come who’s been having all these strange experiences who am I and try to surrender totally and completely to God or yourself surrender your life you have no life of your own surrender your ego surrender your sadhana give up everything and be at peace in my life I just have great appetite and I really just don’t care anymore it seems like the events become so strong that