In these meetings we are talking about Real and True Freedom, which implies not upholding anything. If you uphold a feeling, a thought, and find a basis where you protect yourself, this escapes you once again.
This is like trying to hold a piece of furniture inside a space, forgetting the reality of the space itself, in which this piece of furniture appears. You get lost when you uphold a feeling, a thought, a belief, an ideal, a certainty, a set of ideas. You lost this space and end up upholding an appearance. When the space is occupied and you look at it, your eyes are stuck to the objects present in this space, and the space itself is forgotten. As long as your attention is on the objects you observe in this space, you forget the space itself, you lose the space and you fail to recognize it.
Likewise, it happens when you lose yourself on a thought, an emotion, a feeling, a story, a remembrance, a memory, a provocation. When someone approaches you and says you are stupid – if you uphold that idea, then, in fact, you are stupid. Identified with an idea you lose yourself, you stuck yourself to a belief and a thought. You are the space, but you lose that space when you are attached to any form of thought, any belief, concept, ideology and imagination.
When we talk about the sense of "me," of being "someone," we are talking exactly about that: to lose yourself on emotion, sensation, to mistake yourself for a thought, an idea of being "someone." For example, someone who gets lost in the idea of "being smart," which is not real intelligence. The belief of "being smart" is not smart. You never get offended by others when they think you're a smart person, but you get offended when one thinks you are stupid. You mistake yourself for the thought, for the belief you are a stupid being, a stupid person, and you get offended, angry, upset, but not when someone says you are smart. You are indeed a belief, and when you are a belief, you are under a limitation. That is the limitation of the ego. So to be smart or to be stupid is to be in a belief. Right now you are this space, this empty space. In this empty space, the furniture appears – thoughts, emotions and feelings appear. The idea "I am smart" or "I am stupid" also appears.
When the Grace places you before this Presence, this empty space is called Consciousness! That Grace, that Consciousness is exactly what we are talking about: an empty space. Mind and body appear in this space, as well as beliefs and disbeliefs, opinions, judgments and everything else. The Freedom of Being is that Consciousness, the Consciousness aware of appearances. You are completely conscious.
When someone approaches you and calls you stupid, you are aware that you were not the one who was called that. If you do not attach yourself to that idea, you remain in that Empty Space, the Real Consciousness, the Consciousness aware of that belief. However, when you mistake yourself for this belief, you place yourself within time and space as a separate entity, someone who believes "to be something." There is a huge limitation, which I now call mediocrity: to place yourself in the mind, to place yourself in being "someone," in the belief of "being someone." You are intelligent, I enjoy your intelligence, and at that moment you feel happy since someone has appreciated your competence, your skill, your dexterity, your ability to understand, comprehend, to reason. When you do this, you place yourself within time as someone who believes to be what others say that "you are." Ego loves this – to have its beliefs confirmed! This only strengthens the sense of "being someone" in you. It is what I have just called as upholding a thought, a conviction, a belief, an idea.
I sometimes provoke this in these meetings. I say: you are arrogant – and you believe it. By believing in this, you abandon this Space that has no name and cannot be named, classified, judged and evaluated. You leave this Space and place yourself in the belief of "being someone" and "someone" arrogant. However, ego does not consider itself arrogant, but rather wise, intelligent, and that hurts this self-image you have of yourself.
Do you see that?
All of this is just a belief, and you have just placed yourself in an idea – the idea of being arrogant. So, in the ego, in that belief, in that habit, addiction of upholding ideas about yourself, you are not real, but rather an easily manipulated plaything. You easily believe anything, but who does it? That person you believe to be is the ego.
I am challenging you to remain untouched by any opinion, judgment, appreciation, thought – your thoughts or the thoughts of others about you. I am saying this is possible. I am not saying this is easy, but I am saying it is possible.
Your work in Satsang is to recognize the Truth about yourself, and I am pointing this out to you! When I point it out to you, I say: You are real. But I am not talking about the "you" you believe to be. I am talking about the Void, the Space – this immeasurable Space! I am talking about this nameless, formless Thing that is not arrogant, stupid, nor smart. I am talking about What remains as pure Consciousness, Presence, Reality.
How does that sound to you?
There is nothing mysterious about this... It is just the acknowledgment of What You Are! An acknowledgment that cannot be captured by the intellect, since the intellect has nothing to do with this! You may capture this, but not as an intellect acquirement.
You are Buddha, Christ, Consciousness, you are the Truth! When I point at you, I say: You Are! I am not stating anything. I am saying: You Are this Void. Forget the words Buddha, Christ, God. Remain without ideas about this. Remain present, here, now, only conscious of being captured once again by the same old pattern of "being someone," who depends on others' opinion, judgement, appreciation, who depends on the idea others have about you.
You ask: Am I the space where every experience takes place?" I am saying you are exactly the whole Space, not only the space where every experience takes place. You are the whole Space… just Space. Body and mind are appearances, just like the ideas, the beliefs like "intelligent," "arrogant" and "stupid" are appearances, and you remain therein.
When you come to these meetings, you think you are going to discover something magical. However, if you discover something magical, it will be a trick since what you call as magic is just another illusion. That Space is just space. It is interesting to talk a little about this. People take this thing called Awakening, God's realization, Enlightenment, as something that is going to make them special; some people believe it. You are not special in Realization! In this Realization, "you are not"! When that Realization is present, you are not! You are no longer there to be praised or defamed. You are no longer there to be offended when they call you arrogant or stupid, nor to brag or feel special when they say you are smart, intelligent, for that does not make the slightest difference.
I have been told I am a fraud, some people say that. Some people have already said to me, "you are the Guruji." Some have said to me, "I do not believe you," and others have said, "You are my Master." I tell them, okay! It has to do with them, not with me. I Am What I Am and this will remain like this. Is it clear that these are just ideas, beliefs? Never be offended, hurt, or saddened by what others think or say about you. Any and every thought is just a thought. And it is only the reality that thought has, nothing else. But when you uphold this, this assumes a reality for that "you" you believe to be.
Participant: Does being Enlightened, or Awakened, have to do with the inner joy that flows from the heart, with no external need or external means for it?
Master: Let me put it in another way – answering your question, of course. The nature of that Consciousness, that Void, that Presence, is the nature of Being, What we can call as joy. But, see this – it is a joy of an entirely different quality than the joy the mind knows. The mind knows joy when it wins a prize, a gift, or passes an examination, a test. However, this joy of conquest, of achieving something, is a circumstantial, momentary joy – it has a cause. The joy of Being, of Consciousness, of Presence, of your True Nature, is joy without a cause.
In India, they call it Ananda, which is a Sanskrit word for Happiness – a causeless, non-dependent, non-circumstantial joy. It is a joy that cannot be stolen or taken from you since you are that joy. It is not something you feel. It is what you Are. The nature of this Joy is Ananda, Happiness, Bliss.
When you are before a living Master, it is clear what we are talking about – there is something that emanates from His Presence, from His Silence. There is something present in His eyes and behind His voice. Something that silences and quiets you, that also allows you to enjoy that same joy of your Real Nature, your True Nature, Something that IS you. All you are for, in this life, is to enjoy this Joy, the Joy of your Real Nature.
Another word for this Joy is Love, which is not motivated by forms or connected to them. It has absolutely nothing to do with the male, female or animal form. It is not the love for people, animals or plants... It is something beyond the form... It is the fragrance present in all directions, which goes in all directions. So, just like this causeless Joy, it is this causeless Love – something that has no contrary, opposite, which cannot change. You cannot turn this Joy into something else.
The Sage is pure Joy, pure Love, and you cannot sadden Him, you cannot do that. He will not love you because you love Him. He will love you because He cannot stop loving you. Your love is conditional, the Sage's Love is unconditional! Your joy is conditional, His is unconditional!
That's it. Let us stop here. Good night!
No comments:
Post a Comment