How does devotion to the truth develop in everyday life?
As we grow up, we look for happiness in different kinds of objects and it takes different people varying amounts of time to come to the deep understanding that what we truly want is not contained in any object, gross or subtle. As a result of this understanding we begin to search for that which is not an object, not realizing at first that seeking is always directed towards some kind of goal, some kind of subtle object. However, sooner or later, often after an encounter with a teacher, this search will end in a glimpse of truth, a glimpse of our true nature. Once this has happened we begin to fall in love with that which is behind and beyond the mind. We become more and more interested in it and attracted by it. As this love and attraction deepen, so our attraction for objects diminishes correspondingly. However, there is no rejection of anything in this path. Our interests in life are gradually consumed in this great fire of interest in our true nature and, as a result, our previous interests fall away. They are outshone. Seeking comes to an end and true devotion takes birth.
To whom should we pray?
It is for the one who is praying to know, but a true prayer always originates from the deep feeling that there is some reality that encompasses all things, a feeling that there is a hidden harmony behind and within everything. Any prayer that originates from this deep feeling, no matter how misguided it may be, will always receive a response that will enable us to grow spiritually, in understanding, love, truth, and beauty. So when we pray, we pray to that which is. Ultimately, we pray to that which we are.
There seems to be a basic duality in the universe between myself and others. Do I discover unity by looking inward or outward?
You could go either way but the easiest way is to go inwards. When you say “myself” as opposed to “others,” you superimpose a gross object, your body, or a subtle object, your mind, onto what you actually are. This shows that you have not discriminated between that which is objective, that is, the body and the mind, and that which is subjective, that which truly deserves to be called “I.” In fact, even as body-minds we are not really separate. For instance, we share the air we breathe, we constantly exchange substances with the environment, and we interchange ideas with one another. However, this does not imply that there is no distinction between us. There is diversity in the gross and subtle realms. Once we have understood that the true “I” is that in which the body, the mind, and the world appear, we can then question the true nature of this “I,” the subject. For instance ask yourself, “Are there two subjects?” If the answer is, “Yes,” then we have to ask ourselves what is the foundation for such a claim. We experience ourselves as one single subject, not two. What is the reality of the experience? We have a concept that there are as many subjects as there are bodies but this is simply a belief. There is nothing to substantiate it. We have inherited this belief from our conditioning. Why create many subjects if we actually only ever experience one?
This does not prove or establish the fact that there is only one subject. However, why believe that there are several subjects, if this claim is without foundation? If we take the understanding that is closest to our actual experience, that there is only one subject, everything suddenly falls into place. Life itself becomes miraculous. It becomes the living proof of that understanding. However, in order for this to happen we have to be open to the possibility that there is only one subject.
This involves a two-step process. To begin with, we inquire in this way so as to open ourselves to the possibility that there is only one subject. It is not enough to believe that this possibility is true, simply because we have been told it by our teacher or read it in a book. We have to investigate for ourselves and come to the deep understanding that there is nothing to substantiate the belief that there is more than one subject. By doing so we eliminate the obstacles in the mind, the belief systems that prevent us from even visualizing that possibility.
Once we are open to this possibility we can then take the second step, which is to begin to live our life from this point of view. In other words we begin to test it out in practice. Very soon we start to experience that it is so and our life now becomes a celebration of this understanding.
Is it simply enough to open up the mind?
That is all we can do from the vantage point of the mind. The mind cannot see consciousness.
So we shouldn’t take up any position.
It is important not to take up any position, because an alternative position is simply another object, another attachment. We use this inquiry to undermine all belief systems, all attachment to concepts of any kind, and this leaves us in the absence of any position, in “not knowing.” In this “not knowing” everything changes and everything becomes possible. We take a new direction that cannot be formulated but which expresses itself as a living experience of freedom and happiness. The place of “not knowing” is the experience of the now. However, it requires understanding, not effort, to drop belief systems to which we are attached. In order to drop the belief that there are many selves, many consciousnesses, we have to start by going through the reasoning process that leads to the understanding that there is no valid argument, based on our actual experience, to suggest that consciousness is limited or personal, despite the fact that what appears in it may be so.
Subsequently, when such a belief occurs, we can either develop this reasoning again so as to remind ourselves of the understanding, or we can go directly to the center using our previous understanding, without going through the reasoning process. We have the choice. The moment we are fully convinced that the belief has no value, we drop it. At some point, this tool of reasoning has done its job. It cannot go any further. In India, it is compared to a stick that is used to stir the fire. In the end, it is thrown into the fire. It also has to burn away.
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There is a constant movement between happiness and sadness. Is it possible to just rest with the feeling of freedom and existence without having the sense “I am happy” or “I am sad”?
The feeling “I am happy” or “I am sad” perpetuates the notion of a person who is happy or sad, and this very notion is the seed of misery. To be happy as a person, as a separate entity, is a total impossibility. If we claim that we are happy, then happiness has apparently already left. When we are happy, we don’t know that we are happy, because happiness requires childlike innocence. When a child is happy, he doesn’t know that he is happy. He doesn’t formulate it, he simply enjoys it. This is a very different situation from one in which we create an enjoyer, who we then claim is happy or unhappy. In freedom from concepts we are this happiness. The troublemaker is the belief that we are separate. The understanding that we are the witness, consciousness, and not the body-mind, reinstates freedom. First we understand this conceptually. This intellectual understanding goes very deep and is of great value because it already contains within itself a glimpse of truth.
However, later on we go deeper than intellectual understanding and then we don’t even need to think of it, we just are it. We become accustomed again to being that which we have always been.
Does the happiness of which you are speaking have an opposite?
The happiness that seems like the opposite of the feeling of misery is the very happiness that we call “happiness.” There are not two happinesses! Happiness is our true nature. We all know happiness. When we talk about happiness, we all know what we are talking about, because we all have the experience of happiness. Similarly, we all know what the word “consciousness” or “I” refers to. The problem is that we make happiness an object that comes and goes and then create its counterpart, a personal entity, which owns and loses this happiness. We make this happiness, which is our permanent nature, into an intermittent object. It is just a misunderstanding, a false perspective. All that needs to be done is to restore the correct perspective and then gradually everything else is corrected. When we say, “I am this” or “I am that,” it is always a mistake. We are no
t “this” or “that.” We are both nothing and everything. It is not true to say, “I am sad.” We should say instead, “At this moment a feeling of sadness is flowing through me.” If we just let the feeling of sadness flow, we automatically and unknowingly take our stand in that which is not flowing. In order to be aware of the movement of whatever is flowing, we take our stand unknowingly, naturally, and spontaneously as the presence in which it appears. In fact that is the only way to take our stand as this presence. This presence is not an object, so any effort towards this presence would make us take our stand in an artificial place, as an object. However, by letting everything flow we simply find ourselves as that which we truly are.
The thought, “I am sad” creates the false “I,” and the false “I,” at that moment, has no existence apart from this thought. This thought is itself witnessed by the true “I” who is enjoying the show. All we can say from the vantage point of the mind is that “I” is never experienced as being limited. All we can say is that there is consciousness and nothing else. Only consciousness is certain. The witness that we are talking about is the ultimate witness. It is not an object. An objective witness is a creation of the mind. It is simply a concept. When we talk about the witness we are talking of this “I,”’ consciousness, understanding these words right now. It is immediate. Truth is one hundred percent certain.
What do you mean by an objective witness?
In the Advaita or non-dual tradition one of the tools that is used is the discrimination between the perceiver and the perceived. We take our stand as that which sees, the witness, not that which is seen. However, this understanding is incomplete. It is useful because it enables us to take a step back from our objective experience towards the source, to release our firm hold on objects. However, in this case there is still the possibility that this witness may be personal. We therefore have to go further back and understand that the true witness is that which can never be described or experienced as an object, in which all objects, including the objective witness, the apparently personal witness, appear.
What is self-confidence and how does it develop?
Self-confidence is trust in the Self. The more we test the truth of what is being spoken about here, the more our trust in it develops. If we simply keep this understanding at the conceptual level it will remain merely an interesting notion. It has no practical impact unless we apply it in our daily lives. That is how we become more and more convinced about truth. We test it out in our lives. The more we do this, the more we find that this conviction is confirmed in all realms of our lives by love, justice, and beauty. It is not just confirmed in the rational realm by intelligence.
Does this understanding imply a life without pain or tragedy?
This understanding implies a life without psychological suffering. There is no tragedy, really. There may be tragedy in the “story” of our lives, but in truth, there is no tragedy happening to us. Ultimately, the story is only there to teach us this distinction. The moment we take the lesson, even the story changes to reveal itself as beauty, love, and intelligence. Do not be attached to the concept that misery is unavoidable. As long as we are attached to this concept, there will be misery. However, pain is physical and unavoidable. Nor indeed is it desirable to avoid all pain. Pain triggers all sorts of bodily mechanisms that protect the body from injury.
It may take an unknown amount of time to dispel ignorance.
If you believe this, it will postpone the dissolution of ignorance. Be happy now. Be free now. Don’t postpone anything. reality appears in accordance with your desire. We become whatever we think about. Allow yourself to be happy in all realms of your existence. There is nothing to be gained by being a starving artist. Allow yourself to be in celebration. Do not restrict yourself. If you find that you do, then be aware that you are not allowing yourself to be happy. The Self, that which you are, is pure happiness, and it is infinite, without boundaries. Don’t put any restrictions on it. Don’t think, “I want to be happy in this particular way.” Just be completely open to the possibility of being happy in all realms of your life and leave it up to God to choose how. Just say “Yes” inside. That’s all it takes.
What is the content of mind and the function of thought?
When we say the “content of mind,” we mean thoughts and images. The mind is a bag full of thoughts and images. However, on closer scrutiny, it turns out there is no bag. The bag itself is just one more thought. There is no mind other than the concept of mind. There is thinking and imagining but nobody has ever experienced the mind in the way that it is normally conceived of, as a container of thoughts and images, so why claim that there is such a mind? However, we are certain that there is consciousness, presence, and that all thoughts and images appear within it. When we use the term mind therefore, we usually refer to this thinking and imagining process. The function of mind is to create. It is a tool to survive. It is also a tool to find happiness and to celebrate it. For a certain period of time, its purpose is to approach the truth, to think about the truth, to explore and investigate.
Higher reasoning uses the mind as a tool to clear up the confusion. However, at a certain point there is no more need of this type of reasoning. Only celebration remains, and it is expressed according to one’s skills, tendencies, and God-given talents. That is the proper use of the mind.
Improper use of the mind is to dwell in misery, in negative thinking. Negative thinking always originates from the position, “I am a person,” “I am a body-mind.” This type of thinking has to be uprooted through understanding. The understanding process is very easy. When you think, “I am a person,” ask yourself, “Is it really true? What am I? Am I the body, am I the mind, or am I consciousness in which they appear?”
We cannot understand merely by thinking but that doesn’t imply that we have to stop thinking. Thinking is not a problem the moment we welcome it, the moment we just allow the flow of thoughts without any interference.
We are not the I-thought or the I-feeling. We are that in which the I-thought, the I-feeling, and all the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of all sentient beings, past, present, and future, in this universe and all universes, in all dimensions, appear. When we understand that thoughts are not a problem, then the confusion is already being cleaned up.
Why was the confusion made in the first place?
For animation purposes. Diversity is beautiful. Consciousness likes to live at the extreme of all its possibilities. However, that answer is only partially true. It is a concession to the mind that is trying to understand something it can never understand. When this is understood, we no longer ask the question. The reason that the question “Why?” cannot be satisfactorily answered by the mind is that inherent in the question is the idea of cause and effect. “Why this?” “Because of that.” The idea of cause and effect is itself a creation of the mind and cannot therefore be used to investigate the nature of the mind’s confusion. It would be like a thief investigating a robbery. We would not be able to rely on the outcome!
The Mother of All Problems
If I put my foot on the floor, there is a sensation of resistance. Does this create the sense of separation?
It is not the experience of resistance that creates the sense of separation. It is our interpretation of the experience. The interpretation of the experience is responsible for the creation of the apparently external objects, that is, our foot and the floor. However, our actual experience is simply a sensation of resistance. In fact it is not even an experience of resistance. It is simply a sensation, a neutral, nameless sensation. This experience itself is felt inside us. However, our interpretation creates the apparent “outside.” The outside is always a concept. The experience is always inside. Therefore, at the level of experience there is no outside. There is no separation at the level of experience. Separation is always a concept that appears after the experience. We have created feelings, contractions, and localizations in the body that make us feel we are separate. They seem to m
ake separation an actual experience. If we take a closer look and fully welcome this feeling of separation, we see that it doesn’t actually separate anything from anything. Separation has no reality. It is never actually experienced. It has an apparent reality as long as it remains in a twilight zone, which means when it is only partially seen.
When there is no sense of separation, there is still a sense of “I am” as a perception.
This sense of “I am” that you refer to is located in the body as a sensation. It is a bodily sensation that appears to you, consciousness. The small “I” is that which appears. The real “I” is that in which it appears. That which appears is limited in time and space; it has some sort of contour. That in which it appears is limitless. The small “I” and the real “I” coexist, but not at the same level. The small “I” cannot exist independently of the real “I,” but the real “I” exists independently of the small “I.” Their natures are different, although ultimately the real nature of the small “I,” whether it is a thought or a feeling, is nothing other than consciousness, the real “I.” The small “I” is perceived, the real “I” perceives. Whatever is being experienced is not you. It is enough to simply see whatever is being experienced clearly and impartially. By seeing in this way we are already taking our stand in our true nature. For example, we don’t have to formulate, “I am not this perception.” To fully perceive our body liberates us from being the body.
The Perfume of Silence Page 5
