Please note: the exact date of this recording is unknown. The date given here (19th January, 1992) 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/

This is Robert’s shock treatment. It’s a Zen technique to awaken those who are ready to be awakened. It shocks you into awakening. Some of you refuse to awaken. You want to live the mortal dream. You wish to continue being unhappy, being happy, reacting to the world’s conditions,

Going along with the belief of the world, and so forth. You do not wish to know or understand that you are effortless, choiceless, pure awareness.

This is foreign to some of you. You all know about it intellectually. You have read about it. but you refuse to awaken to it. Why? You are afraid of the unknown. You have no idea where you will go when you awaken or what you will become. So you’d rather take your chances and remain the way you are. But what are you? Of course you realize you’re nothing, absolute nothing, good for nothing. But do you act the part?

So you act as if you’re good for nothing. Many of you act as if you’re wise, as if you have knowledge, as if you know something.

Yet do you really know what anything is? If you think of it, you know nothing about anything. You have no idea why a tree is a tree.

You just see it and you call it a tree because you’ve been given that name since you were a little boy or a girl.

You have no idea what a dog is. You were born into a world where a dog exists. and they told you when you were little this is a dog but you have no idea what a dog is you have no idea what the sky is what a body is what anything is you have a name for these things but you have no idea what they are and most of all you have no idea what you are when you are conceived you are no bigger than the size of a pinhead and look at you now you have turned into nothing after all the years of going to school learning trying to understand and you become nothing you should be proud of yourself I want to share with you a telephone conversation I had this morning a fellow called me very upset he was dying of AIDS he has called me before but things have apparently gotten worse for him and he told me Robert I’m afraid to die I don’t want to die I have a tremendous fear I’m becoming worse is there anything you can do to help me please do not tell me about Atnur vichara, self and glory do not tell me about being a witness do not talk to me about those things because I’m at a stage where I am dying and I can’t practice these things, I cannot get into these things at all at this time what can I do?

I pause for a few moments and the answer I gave concerns us all. This will be the topic of today’s talk. I asked him,

Do you know who you were before you were born? And he said, from the teachings, I would say consciousness. I said, that’s good. Before you were born, you existed.

As you said, consciousness. Consciousness existed. Somewhere along the line, you took on the appearance of a body. You can say if you like, God gave you this body why would God want to do such a thing?

Because you believe in bodies you believe in God therefore you have a body that has attached itself through you, through consciousness this body has gone through many experiences in this earth and as you know bodies have a tendency to die in the end they go through experiences good and bad, up and down round and round and then they disappear as fast as they came.

A disease was acquired by your body called AIDS. Who asked the AIDS? You or your body? He said, my body. Exactly. You were never born.

You were never sick. And you can never die. What you are doing is you are identifying with this thing, this phantom, disillusion call their body.

As long as you believe you are the body and you do, you wouldn’t have told me those things you told me. You have to suffer because it is the body’s nature to go through experiences. Good experiences, suffering experiences. You’ve had your good experiences, you’ve had your suffering experiences and now you have aims.

Look at it this way. imagine if you will that you had a favorite overcoat and you’ve had this overcoat for 25-30 years the threads are coming apart it’s full of holes would you cry over your overcoat would you make a ritual about your overcoat or would you just dump it and forget it and get yourself a new overcoat your body is the overcoat as long as you keep identifying with this body the only thing you’re going to do when it comes time to drop the body you will attach yourself to another body for you are so identified with this body that the mental identification will give you a new one and this will go on and on and on forever, it will never end until the day comes when you’re able to observe your body what it’s going through what’s happening to it you will just watch it and allow it to do what it wants for you have absolutely nothing to do with this body think of all the experiences you’ve had in your life the reason you are happy sometimes or sad sometimes angry sometimes is because you have always identified with body your true nature is bliss consciousness.

You came from this and you’re going to this. It has absolutely nothing to do with this body. I know perhaps you have not experienced this.

But since I have, I ask you to trust me. Realize there’s absolutely nothing to fear. The universe, the world, and everything in it is a domination of your mind.

You have created all these things. As you said, you are consciousness. Consciousness is not an aim for bliss, for pure awareness, for absolute reality. You are that. That is you. Why do you keep worrying about the body? The body is going to go sooner or later. you have AIDS if you’re supposed to go the body’s supposed to leave you’re supposed to drop the mortal coil through the experience of AIDS it will be done this way but say you cured yourself of AIDS you’re going to go some other way the body’s not going to live forever and as long as you believe you are a body and a mind you will suffer accordingly you will always be upset You’ll say I’m getting old, my bones are cold, I feel my age, I’ve got rheumatism, bursitis, all these things that you get when you appear to get older. It happens to all bodies. Why should you be different? Forget this foolishness. Forget it. Let go. Let go completely. And you ask me, how do I do that?

Simply by understanding the truth. Simply by listening to what I’m talking to you about. Simply by seeing your body as a non-entity. And not identifying with it.

You do not wish to practice Aparam Chara this time? Good. Therefore realize that the body is like an overcome. It’s become very decrepit and very old. realize that if you keep thinking about the body you’re going to take on a new one.

But if you start thinking about yourself as consciousness as pure awareness you will walk right into yourself. Before yourself has never gone anywhere. Your self is all pervading.

You’re not going to make a change. Only those people who believe they are a body make a change. And take on another body. But you are the same today as you were before you were born.

The body has never prevailed. You are omnipresence. You are infinite like the sky. Be free. Laugh at yourself. Forget about the situation. Whereas I explained to you, you’re only going to turn into bliss consciousness,

Which you already are. Work on this. He said, thank you. I feel much better. I received another phone call this morning from a lady in Tucson.

She asked me, Robert, do you read the National Enquirer? I said, I don’t read it. I know about it. Have you seen the front page?

Elvis that slept with his mother. I have been a fan of Elvis Presley since I was a little girl. This is terrible. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I need your advice.

I believe in your intuition. Does the intuition say that he slept with his mother or he didn’t? So I took a pause. I usually hang up when I didn’t. Of course, she’d called me before. I’d spoken to this lady before. I explained this to her, which is noteworthy of our message today also.

Observe the sun, I said. Let the sun scandal shoot. The sun in the sky. The sun sends its warmth on the just and the unjust.

The sun does not choose who is good and who is bad, who is right and who is wrong. It gives warmth to all, to the mass murderer and to the saints. All are warmed by the sun.

As a matter of fact, if there were no sun, there would be no creation. The earth wouldn’t exist. The intuition you’re talking about has left me years ago. I have no opinion on the questions such as you just asked.

I see these things the same as you, but there’s nothing within me that comes to any conclusion. What difference does it make? Why are you spending your time becoming emotional over things like this?

Take a look at yourself. You’re concerned with things that will not even matter 50 years from now, things that are pulling you into a Maya, deeper and deeper causing problems for yourself? I can’t give you an answer.

The only thing I can tell you to do is to rise above this. Understand the truth about yourself. You have nothing to do with the Enquirer or Elvis Presley or his mother or anyone else.

What you should do is to ask yourself the question to whom do these things come? Who’s so concerned about this? Who feels emotional about these things?

And you will realize it is your ego. It is the I-thought that wants to know. Inquiring minds want to know. The inquiring mind is the I-thought.

The I-thought wants to know everything. It never gets enough knowledge. It wants to know continuously about this and about that. It reads all kinds of books.

It reads everything in sight. Spiritual books, comic books, everything. And it gets nowhere. Always confused. read and read the Enquirer, why don’t you learn to sit in the silence? And I explained to her the hours we sit together,

From 6 to 9 in the morning, and from 12 to 3 in the morning. At that time I sit in the silence, and all the devotees sit with me.

You can start doing this. You can start by looking at this world and realizing you are not of this world. Do not keep reading those newspapers.

Do not watch too much television. Try to understand who you are. Who are you? What are you? Why are you here? Find out. Inquire within yourself.

Spend your time doing these things. She sounds disappointed. I believe she still wanted to know the truth about all this new mother. Now let’s talk about you.

Many of you here today believe there’s a recession. believe there’s something wrong in this world in your life, in your experience and if you’re living a happy life you’re still fighting to keep it so that it will not change yet it is virtually impossible for something in this world not to change awaken you’re all going to awaken whether you like it or not or whether you care enough you will awaken there are no exceptions this will only happen when you give up the idea that you are the doer,

When you begin to reflect on your divinity, when you begin to wake up in the morning and immediately understand, I am not the body and mind phenomena.

My true nature is absolute reality. My true nature is Parabrahman. I am that I am. Nirvana. Effortless, choiceless, pure awareness. You simply have to just say these words. You don’t even have to say, I am that.

Just by feeling those words, by assimilating and digesting those words, something happens within you. You begin to feel the ultimate oneness. You begin to feel the joy.

When thoughts of the world and your body and the things you have to do for the day come to you, simply shrug them off and catch yourself.

Feel that you are bliss consciousness. leave the world alone do not try to change anyone or anything do not stick up for your rights you have no rights do not compare yourself with anyone realize that you are all pervading if you are all pervading there is no room for anything else how can you be all pervading and then have something else outside of that you are the one and there is no other feel this, know that it is true stop feeling sorry for yourself stop trying to become something there is absolutely nothing to become for you are already that therefore again you simply have to wake up to that fact that you are that wake up do not think about it wake up now be free be yourself do not get caught up in so many teachings you are the teachings you are the ancient one that has always existed,

Was never born, does not prevail, can never disappear. That is you. You are no mine. You are the silence, the profound silence where there are no words, no thoughts.

You are that. I wanted to pray, say once a day for a month, to prayer, not my will but thine. would be all right and effective to ask a friend also to pray for me once a day for a month that my will should be replaced by God’s will.

You’re speaking of total surrender. And this is very good. When we first become aware of total surrender, we believe there’s a God somewhere up in the sky to whom we surrender.

Then as we practice, The so-called God is within ourselves. As we evolve, we see this God within us. As we keep on surrendering, giving up, we finally realize that we are the God that we’ve been praying to. By all means, if two or three people pray for you, it will help.

For you are invoking universal power. And even if you believe there’s a God up in the sky, that’s okay in the beginning. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. When two or three or four people pray for you, there’s more energy that goes out. that energy helps you to evolve. It helps you to surrender deeper.

Have the whole world praying for you. Of course it helps. But the day will come when you realize that you had absolutely nothing to surrender.

For you, by nature, are nothing. You are no thing. Therefore, who surrenders to whom? There’s only one. When you say, not my world, but thine, you have to really know what you’re talking about. It means from this moment on you have no life of your own.

Everything is God’s will. Your body doesn’t exist any longer as far as you’re concerned. You have no opinions of your own. You have no judgments. You have no prejudices. You have no… nothing.

It’s all gone. You’ve given it all up. Not my will but thine. That is true surrender. but if you think you’re surrendering and you’re living the same old life you’ve made a mistake or you are surrendering your ego your pride, your ambitions your value system everything and you become empty that is true surrender you cannot put new wine in old flasks the old flask has to be empty then the new wine or new realization comes by itself but keep this up it’s good for all means have your friends praying for you also everything helps how to stop thinking question inquire within yourself who thinks inquire who is the thinker I think what is the source of the I that thinks who is this I that keeps them thinking follow the I into the heart center, abide in the I. The I is always the thinker. The I is always the subject, the observer. As you abide in the I, and the I goes into the heart center, you begin to feel that the I never really existed, and there’s no one left to think. The thinker is the I. Are you this I? You have absolutely nothing to do with the I. We’re talking about the I thought. It is not you. Therefore, there is nobody to think, since you are not the I. But if you believe you are the I, which is the same thing as believing you are the body, the body has to think. I take care of itself, what to do with its life. Therefore, investigate. Investigate from which you came. Therefore, investigate who you are. Find out, investigate. Who thinks? And your thoughts will slow down. The day will come when you stop thinking completely. And you will be that something, which is pure awareness, which you’ve always been. Robert, do you have any psychic powers? What would I do with them?

There has to be a being to have psychic powers. You have to be a person. You have to be an entity to have psychic powers. Psychic powers get you in trouble. They cause your ego to inflate. They make you believe you are something of importance, whereas you know that we’re all nothing. We don’t want to be something. Take a look at the psychics. Many of you are familiar with many of these psychics around town. They can’t even get along with each other. They all say something else. As I told you many times before, as you evolve, psychic powers come to you automatically. But do not get caught up in them. Go beyond them. Go right to the source. Become free. I get confused when you say you. I identify with the personality thing, which I know is not, I am stuck. Please clarify. I am stuck also because I know what What confusing is that when you or other people in books talk about you, I know that you mean consciousness. Yes, my mind keeps going to the personality ego.

Oh, that’s what you mean. That’s what I meant, and as much as I want to be aware of the consciousness, it seems that the body consciousness takes over and it’s almost like a loss because I’m not in the awareness that you’re talking about. Of course. This is what happens to everyone. one. We always begin with a very powerful mind and a very powerful ego. The eye thought has all of these feelings that something is wrong, that I can’t find myself, that it’s difficult. These are all attached to the eye thought. So, as you know by now, the idea is to get rid of the eye thought. When you get rid of the eye thought, all the attachments will go with it. You therefore not try to remove a problem from your mind by itself or another one will pop up. You simply realize again that the I thought is attached to every emotion, to every fear, to every idea. Where did this I thought come from? How did it arise? Follow it back to the and eventually the eyesight will disappear completely, and so will your mind, and all the things that have been discovered in all these years. Mind seems to take over, and you are the ego of the personality which you know you’re not talking about. You and other people are talking about that, and they say it’s you of consciousness. If people, myself, they’re caught up in the view of ego, not the view of the Supreme Consciousness.

When we talk like that, the mind, instead of staying with the consciousness, comes back to itself, which I see even as I say it. I’m still stuck in that. You know what I’m saying? Of course, when you learn the multiplication table, some people were able to get it right away, some people took a week, some people took a month, some people took a year, but eventually most everybody got the multiplication table. This is the same thing. You have to work with yourself like you did with the multiplication table until something gives. You told me before that you’ve been making good progress and good things are happening to you. This is very good. This is excellent. You have to keep this up. Keep working on yourself.

Keep practicing to practice it. Keep doing the thing that you’ve been doing. And the day will finally come when you become free. It’s just a question of practice. Keep practicing. You’re doing fine. You’re doing very well. Is this one of those Thumb the Google questions? No, I guess not. So here’s the question. Between the end of any one thought and the beginning of the next thought, there is a sort of lost and found department because there’s nothing there. What is the difference between such a nothing and samadhi? In samadhi there is an awareness that there is an awareness, and in the before unmentionable nothing, there ain’t no such awareness, as far as most people are concerned. Freaked out, Fred.

Samadhi is when you go into a state of consciousness, and as long as you remain in samadhi, you will experience this consciousness. And as soon as you awaken or open your eyes, you are back in this world with all its problems and all its trials and tribulations. Sahatsamadi is when you remain in the awakened state of enlightenment 24 hours a day. You’re always in that state, yet your body goes about its business, and you do all the things you came here to do, and everything continues. Therefore, you don’t want to attain the state of samadhi when you come out of it. You want to attain the state of sahaj,

Where you are as if in sleep or awake, where you’re aware of this world as an illusion, and you see everything as a screen, with the images being the world on the screen, that you realize that you are that screen. So the nothing you speak about is sahaj samadhi. The nothing is sahaj. In between the words there’s that absolute awareness state of consciousness. That’s where you are really. This is your true state. Nothingness. This is where you are. you are. But when you talk about it, when you try to discuss it or explain it, you become as a human being, and you’re not getting anywhere. Therefore, stay between the words. Stay as nothing. Make your life simple. Let us now practice the I Am meditation. Many of you enjoy this meditation. You’ll get something out of it. So by all means, practice this at home. Even when we’re together, we practice this. We seem to make great results. Make yourself comfortable. Relax. Close your eyes to remove obstructions. Focus your attention on your breath. Become aware of your breathing. Become the witness to your feelings and to your breath. Observe yourself. Watch yourself. Now ask yourself the question, who observes?

Who is the observer? And the answer is I am. I am is the first name of God. When you invoke I am, you become one-pointed until the mind totally is disintegrated and you become the one-self. With your respiration, as you inhale, you say I. As you exhale, you say I am. If thoughts come to you while you’re doing this, does that become upset? But when you catch yourself go right back to i am awareness set your body aside sit in your own awareness you will at once be happy forever still forever free you have no cast no duties behind you formless and free beyond the reach of the senses the witness of all things so be happy right or wrong joy and sorrow these are of the mind only they are not yours but it’s not really you who acts or enjoys you are everywhere forever free forever and truly free the single witness of all things but if you see yourself as separate then you are bound I do this, I do that the big black snake of selfishness has bitten you I do nothing this is the nectar of faith so drink and be happy know you are one pure awareness with the fire of this conviction burn down the forest of ignorance free yourself from sorrow and be happy be happy for you are joy unbounded joy you are awareness itself this is a coil of rope is mistaken for a snake so you are mistaken for the world if you think you are free you are free if you think you are bound you are bound for the saying is true you are what you think the self looks like the world but this is just an illusion the self is everywhere one still free and perfect the witness of all things awareness without action clinging or desire meditate on the self one without two exalted awareness give up the illusion of the separate self give up the feeling within or without that you are this or that my child because you think you are the body for a long time you have been bound know you are pure awareness without this knowledge as your sword cut through your chains and be happy for you are already free without action of law luminous and bright you are bound only by the habit of meditation your nature is pure awareness you are flowing in all things and all things are flowing in you but beware the narrowness of the mind you are always the same unfathomable unfathomable awareness limitless and free serene and unperturbed desire only your own awareness whatever takes form is false only the formless endures when When you understand the truth of this teaching, you will not be born again.

For God is infinite, within the body and without, like a mirror and an image in a mirror. As the air is everywhere, flowing around a pot and filling it, so God is everywhere, filling all things and flowing through them forever. Thank you, Glenn. I’d like to read the Jnani. For a Jnani who has realized the identity of his inner being with the infinite Brahman, there is no rebirth, no migration, not even liberation, for he is already liberated. He has firmly established in an experience of the absolute existence, knowledge, bliss, the sat-chit-ananda Atman. the continued existence of the world and of his own body appears to the Jnani only as an illusion the appearance of which he cannot remove but which cannot further deceive him till the time when after the cease of the body he wanders not forth but remains where he is and what he is and eternally was the first principle of all beings and things the original, eternal, pure, free brahman.

While living and even when the body falls dead, the Jnani rests in his own essential nature, his own svārūpa that is all full, all pure, timeless consciousness and bliss. The following assertions made by a Jnani constitute his own deepest convictions and experience. I am infinite, imperishable, self-luminous, self-existent. I am beginningless, endless, decayless, birthless, deathless. Never was I born. I am ever free, perfect, independent. I alone am. I pervade the entire universe. I am all-permeating and interpenetrating. I am supreme peace and freedom absolute a Jnani lives forever He has attained life everlasting Cravings torture him not Sins stain him not Birth and death touch him not He is free from all cravings and longings He ever rests in his own sat-chit-ananda Svarupa he sees the one infinite self in all and all in the infinite self which is his being he remains forever as the infinite self of consciousness and delight thank you Mary thank you any announcements we have transcripts on the table I have a song oh right we have a song by Karima which you would like to share with us so sincere the melody is clear it’s simple and the sounds are sweet to hear oh chant. You call and I respond. It takes us far beyond our fantasy. It’s simple and the sounds are sweet to hear. Oh, Jesus, far beyond our balance. Talented people here like to do something. Remember to love yourself, to pray to yourself, to bow to yourself, to worship yourself, for you are the self.

Peace. I love you all as well. We’ve got Prasad. Figs.