Advaita Vedanta - I Am That 0140

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:02]All right. So, we're on chapter 66 of I Am That.

[00:00:07]Chapter titled All Search for Happiness is Misery.

[00:00:12]And I'm just going to make sure that I'm on the right page here.

[00:00:18]We're down on the question the questioner is saying what is the source of earnestness?

[00:00:23]Right, and this is a fundamental importance of fundamental importance to our spiritual life.

[00:00:30]To the degree of your earnestness, to that degree you you you you advance. You you you move forward in your spiritual life.

[00:00:39]You know, and that Ramakrishna even says that it's it is the one it's the fundamental need that longing that earnestness, that sincerity.

[00:00:48]You know, our practice.

[00:00:49]And so, this is a great question. It says, "What is the source of earnestness?"

[00:00:54]And Maharaj says, "It is the homing instinct which makes the bird return to its nest and the fish to the mountain stream where it was born. The seed returns to the earth when the fruit is ripe. Ripeness is all."

[00:01:09]Right?

[00:01:11]And the questioner says, "Well, what will ripen me?"

[00:01:14]Right? And it's like has there any way like if I'm not earnest in this, how do I become earnest in it? If I don't really care about it, right? If it's if I'm not sincere.

[00:01:24]Uh, you know, which which is what keeps us having a bifurcated mind.

[00:01:29]You know, I've really watched that myself over the years. The thing that slows us down is our lack of of single-mindedness, which is a lack of of sincerity and earnestness.

[00:01:40]You know, yes, we want spiritual life.

[00:01:42]Certainly, we do. But, we also want this, you know, and we also want that.

[00:01:47]And even the things even even we try and hold two things in our mind that are destructive of one another.

[00:01:53]You know, we try to hold the idea of spiritual life and the idea of worldly life in our mind and we try to serve two masters. And you know, like Jesus said, you can't serve two masters. Ultimately, you're going to love one and hate the other.

[00:02:06]And so, you know, that's a warning to us that if you try and manage both in your in your life, if you try and keep them both alive because there's this wrong thinking in us that somehow we can manage yoga and boga together, you know, pleasure and and and spiritual life. Or ple the pleasure pleasure in the sense it's not >> [laughter] >> That's not really a fair thing to say cuz spiritual life is pleasant.

[00:02:31]It is it is pleasure. It's beautiful.

[00:02:34]And it's actually the only real fulfilling pleasure because it doesn't evaporate when the activity is over.

[00:02:40]You know, it stays with us.

[00:02:42]And so, yes, this ripening this is this earnestness is our homing instinct. To the degree that we're earnest, to that degree we're on target.

[00:02:51]Right? To that degree we're able to renounce the things that are troublesome to us and the the lies of the mind and the tricks of the mind and you know, which which all have to be undone. That's where our discernment has to come in. But you have to want to discern and you have to want to to know what the discernment is telling you.

[00:03:09]Right? It's it's a lot of time there's so many levels at which the mind can play with us. Um or that we play with ourselves with the mind really. It's not the mind's fault.

[00:03:19]It's It's our own fault of trying to juggle different things that are distracting our attention from that one main thing, what we are, who we are.

[00:03:30]And so, he says, "What is the source of earnestness?" So, it's the homing instinct which makes the bird return to its nest and the fish to the mountain stream where it was born.

[00:03:40]The seed returns to the earth when the fruit is ripe. Ripeness is all.

[00:03:45]And what will ripen me? Do I need experience?

[00:03:49]You all And Maharaj says, "You already have all the experience you need.

[00:03:55]Otherwise, you would not have come here, right? So, that's the That's true for all of us. The fact that we've come come here uh is is evidence that we have all the experience that we need. You don't have to run out there and test and try anything else.

[00:04:11]You know, you've you've you've got all of it that you need.

[00:04:14]You need not gather any more. Rather, you must now go beyond experience.

[00:04:20]Whatever effort you make, whatever method or sadhana you follow, will merely generate more experience, but will not take you beyond. Nor will reading books help you. They will enrich your mind, but the person you are you are will remain intact. If you expect any benefits from your search, material, mental, or spiritual, you have missed the point. Truth gives no advantage. It gives you no higher status, no power over others. All you get is truth and the freedom from the false.

[00:04:54]Right? And so, there's this there This is a very important part. We do have to make this transition, and this is something that I've only >> [laughter] >> became aware of or begin became to suspect, you know, probably in the last 3 to 5 years, I would say, in my practice.

[00:05:10]It's like there's only so much you can do up here.

[00:05:14]There's only only so many things that you can understand up here.

[00:05:18]And then you start thinking that you understand things that can't be understood.

[00:05:23]Right? And we Unless you sit and contemplate, you know, unless you sit in your meditation in that silent space in there, you don't become aware of of the fact that this is its own limitation.

[00:05:37]That as long as you stay within the mind, as long as you stay within thought and the world of philosophy and dogmas and creeds and practices and meditations and whatnot that as long as you stay in this space there's a there's a there's a top to it.

[00:05:57]All right, there's a top to it.

[00:05:59]Inner peace doesn't develop until you move yourself here.

[00:06:04]All right, into the heart.

[00:06:06]And begin to silence the mind. All of the stuff that you've learned has only been there to let you know what you are.

[00:06:15]All right, that you are spirit.

[00:06:18]All right, and if you're spirit nothing material is of any use to you as spirit, as soul, as self.

[00:06:29]All right, and so all of this stuff has been preliminary for us.

[00:06:33]All right, it's it's the it's that proverbial a grocery list that Ramakrishna talks about. All of our sadhanas, all of our learnings and practices and classes and stuff. Not that next week nobody should be here.

[00:06:46]>> [laughter] >> But the fact that this is not where it is.

[00:06:51]All right, that that everything in this universe including the scriptures, including anything that we've read, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled is pointing actively at the reality but is not the reality.

[00:07:05]And so at some point when we know that I'm spirit, right, when we begin to suspect that even even a little bit within it's time then to move your meditation out of mind and off of a timeline and away from the sense of result of time, space, and causation.

[00:07:25]And to move into a space of not no time, a space outside of time, to move into a space of no thought.

[00:07:31]Move into a space of of real of actual freedom.

[00:07:35]You know, where you're not you you you you come to know very clearly that you're not your mind and you're not the thoughts of your mind, which is to say you're not the thoughts about you that enter into the mind.

[00:07:48]Right? Which is a really big deal. And if you understand how stuck we are in the mind, that that our moods have nothing to do with us.

[00:07:58]It's our identity with mind that makes us suffer through our moods.

[00:08:03]Right? That that when our mind says there's a desire or a will or you know, a discontent, that has nothing to do with us.

[00:08:13]Because we are not the mind. We are not the thoughts in the mind about ourself.

[00:08:19]Right? And that is a huge trap and a very difficult one to break. I find in in my meditations, you know, you'll be sitting there in a wonderful state of bliss, and all of a sudden it goes because a thought passes through the mind with the word I in it. You know, I'm having a great meditation.

[00:08:37]You know, or or the awareness of body, like what time is it? How long have I been meditating?

[00:08:42]Right? And we take those to be ourself.

[00:08:45]Myself asking me how long what time it is. No, that is not the self. That's an old samskara that that's concerned about time and how long you're sitting in the shrine. It's not you wanting to know what time it is.

[00:09:00]It is a condition of mind that you've identified with and have enslaved yourself to.

[00:09:06]The mind tells you, "Oh, it's time.

[00:09:08]Stop meditating. Oh, boom, boom, boom.

[00:09:10]Get up. I go to my thing." Right?

[00:09:14]But it's not. And so we we have to come to an understanding that we keep these things in ourselves because they help to purify the idea of me and mind. They help us They help us to remember, you know, to to when we do get caught in the mind, to train the mind to tell us, "Hey, you're caught here."

[00:09:31]>> [laughter] >> Right? Cuz the mind doesn't have any sentience. It doesn't care. It It also will will work to end itself.

[00:09:38]You know, it it it also will will help you transcend. That's using the thorn to get rid of the thorn.

[00:09:44]Right? You're using your mind to withdraw from mind.

[00:09:49]You're using the mind to let go of identity with mind.

[00:09:54]Right? And so this is what he's saying here. He says, you know that that you don't need any more experience. You don't need to know anything more.

[00:10:01]You know, at this point we study and and and do our practices because we've got to do something with our time.

[00:10:09]>> [laughter] >> And those things are vidya. Those things are things that will lead us out of our bondage, right? Um but but if we don't understand that they're just there to point the way and to lead us beyond themselves, then we get stuck in them.

[00:10:23]You know, we we we become great pundits but still controlled by our desires.

[00:10:31]Right?

[00:10:32]Whatever effort you make, whatever method of sadhana you follow, you will merely generate more experience, but you will not it will not take you beyond.

[00:10:41]Nor will reading books help you. They'll enrich your mind, but the person you are will remain intact. If you expect right?

[00:10:49]And the problem with that is that we're not a person, you see. He just he told us that about two days two weeks ago.

[00:10:55]There's no such thing as a person, right? And so he's telling you he says you'll your mind will be enriched, but the person you are will remain intact.

[00:11:04]You know, your your your your wrong thinking about what you are, who you are, will remain intact. If you expect any benefits from your search, material, mental, or spiritual, you have missed the point.

[00:11:17]Truth gives no advantage. It gives you no higher status, no power over others.

[00:11:22]All you get is truth and the freedom from the false.

[00:11:25]Right?

[00:11:27]Then questioner says, "Well, surely truth gives you the power to help others."

[00:11:31]Maharaj, this is mere imagination, however noble. In truth, you do not help others because there is no others.

[00:11:41]There are no others.

[00:11:42]You divide people into noble and ignoble, and you ask the noble to help the ignoble. You separate, you evaluate, you judge, you condemn. In the name of truth, you destroy it. Your very desire to formulate truth denies it because it cannot be contained in words. Truth can be expressed only by the denial of the false in action.

[00:12:06]For this, you must see the false as false, viveka, and reject it, vairagya.

[00:12:13]Renunciation of the false is liberating and energizing. It lays open the road to perfection.

[00:12:22]Right?

[00:12:24]You get that?

[00:12:26]Do I get that? Do you understand that?

[00:12:29]Right? So, understand that all you read and all that's not the thing. It's not the thing itself. Even talk or not the thing itself.

[00:12:37]Right? Talk or talk or whenever you went to him and tried to make him the thing himself, there I read a wonderful little exchange in the in the gospel where you know between Girish and and Ramakrishna.

[00:12:52]And Girish is wanting to put his faith in Ramakrishna, right? And Ramakrishna says, "There's nothing here. I'm I'm less than the dust of the dust of the dust of the devotees' feet." It's like go to mother for your faith.

[00:13:06]And Girish Girish is is quite something cuz Girish says, "You are the mother.

[00:13:13]You cannot fool me."

[00:13:15]And then Ramakrishna smiles and says, "Very well then, you may have faith."

[00:13:21]And on the spot gives him faith.

[00:13:23]And it's an amazing interchange I couldn't I was stunned when I read that in the class this Saturday. I was like, "Wow, I that's that's amazing."

[00:13:31]Right? So, even even to the I to the particular Ramakrishna, even that is delusion.

[00:13:38]Ramakrishna himself is standing there what? Pointing. Right? We see him in that one picture. He's literally pointing.

[00:13:45]He's a pointer to the truth.

[00:13:47]He's a hole, he says. I'm a hole through which God can be seen.

[00:13:51]You don't want a hole.

[00:13:53]>> [laughter] >> That's not what you're looking for.

[00:13:56]Go beyond. Go beyond all of this. You stand on all of this and look at the sky for the first time.

[00:14:02]Right? Stand on all of this and and see the vista. That's what we want to do.

[00:14:07]Right?

[00:14:09]This idea of helping others, he says, "It's your imagination."

[00:14:12]Right? We create a world in which somebody needs help.

[00:14:16]Right? We create a world in which we think that we have to do something uh for someone else. But, it's not. It's all expression.

[00:14:26]This world is expression. Expression of what? Of the divine principle.

[00:14:31]Right? That pure love.

[00:14:33]Uh it's like everything everything in in all these plants out here.

[00:14:38]Right? We do make distinguishing We distinguish all of them and we have lots of thoughts about all of them.

[00:14:44]All of them are doing one thing constantly.

[00:14:47]Reaching for light.

[00:14:50]Right? Reaching for the light. It's written in their bones. When a tree dies, you can see every vein, every twist. Does what? It's all pointing.

[00:14:58]It's all reaching for that light.

[00:15:01]Right? So, so it's the whole it's the whole nature of this universe to point at light, to point at at the divine.

[00:15:12]Right? To bring the mind to a sense of awe, to bring a mind to its very limit of its ability to comprehend or understand.

[00:15:20]Right? So, that you can stand on it.

[00:15:23]Be free of it.

[00:15:25]And not be trapped in it.

[00:15:27]Right? And so, we walk in this planet.

[00:15:29]We see in Rama Krishna him constantly going into ecstasy. Sees a flower, goes into ecstasy. Sees a young boy leaning on a tree, goes into ecstasy. Sees an old man's cane, goes into ecstasy. Why?

[00:15:40]Because he sees the pointers.

[00:15:42]He sees that everything in the material world is only pointing.

[00:15:47]You know? And if And if you can't see it pointing, it's a symbol of that which is real. That which is beyond.

[00:15:54]That which is not limited by attribute of any kind.

[00:15:58]Right? That true freedom there.

[00:16:02]So, I'm just going to read this whole paragraph cuz so beautifully it says, The questioner surely truth gives you the power to help others. Maharaj, this is mere imagination.

[00:16:11]However noble.

[00:16:13]In truth, you do not help others because there are no others.

[00:16:18]You divide people into noble and ignoble. You ask the noble to help the ignoble. You separate. You evaluate. You judge. You condemn. In the name of truth, you destroy it.

[00:16:29]Your very desire to formulate truth denies it because it cannot be contained in words.

[00:16:37]Right? It cannot be contained in this manifested world. Because that is what word is. This is all word.

[00:16:46]All of this.

[00:16:47]And it cannot be trapped in word.

[00:16:50]It cannot be contained. That's why this is a continual unrepeating flow of change. Because it's an expression of that which cannot be expressed.

[00:16:59]So, it's constantly making the effort.

[00:17:03]Starting over, making the effort, starting over, making the effort. But never arriving. Because attribute is a is a prison.

[00:17:12]Right? And until we transcend that notion, we can't find it.

[00:17:15]It cannot be contained in words. Truth can be expressed by the denial of the false in action. For this, you must see the false as false, right? You have to see that that these commandments that seem to come from God about how we should act as a human being are not at all uh commandments from God about anything.

[00:17:38]They are the truth of you.

[00:17:40]Right? And you have placed yourself outside of yourself to tell you this and called it called it God in that sense, not knowing that you and God are inseparable.

[00:17:51]And that pain you feel when you know that you've done something wrong, right?

[00:17:55]You don't have to apologize to that to God because you and God are experiencing that pain.

[00:18:02]You and God are both experiencing the pain of your ignorance.

[00:18:08]You don't have to go beg God for forgiveness so that you could fig- and figure it out. When you do that, you think that you've done something you liked and now you have to apologize for it.

[00:18:18]But that's not at all what has happened.

[00:18:20]You have purposely hurt yourself.

[00:18:24]You've purposely hurt yourself and the guilt and the shame that you feel here is not because God is out there free and and and of all of that and doing this. It's It's because you have hurt yourself.

[00:18:38]And the guilt of that is your own.

[00:18:43]It's guilt toward yourself. Like, "Wow, look what I've done to myself."

[00:18:48]Right?

[00:18:49]But it's you and the beloved together within. You're inseparable.

[00:18:55]And and and to know that is to know longing.

[00:18:59]To know that is is is is is to tr- is to be able to transcend because all of the scriptures then are written here, simply in the experience of being.

[00:19:10]All of them.

[00:19:12]Right? And so, following the following the commandments is not obeying God.

[00:19:17]Following the commandments is being true to you.

[00:19:21]Being true to your own nature. In the end, you will see that you wrote the commandments.

[00:19:28]In the end, you see that you positioned yourself as divine in order to help yourself out of this game that you you jumped into for whatever reason. Who knows what this toy is about. Right? This play of the beloved of our own nature.

[00:19:44]We jumped in and we gave ourselves the scriptures and we gave ourselves traditions and we gave ourselves practices so that we would be able to dig ourselves out as in a sense.

[00:19:54]Right?

[00:19:55]But, we have to understand at some point that we're not doing this for God anymore.

[00:20:01]Right? That we're doing it because it is truly the very best that can be done for the self.

[00:20:08]Right? The self that is one in everyone.

[00:20:11]So, it's not a selfish notion like I'm doing this for myself.

[00:20:14]You're doing this for the self.

[00:20:17]>> [laughter] >> Right? Which seems like myself in the moment.

[00:20:23]Renunciation of the false is liberating and energizing. Right? So, that's our true view. Renunciation is liberating and energizing.

[00:20:32]It's not hard and painful.

[00:20:35]It's not a thing to be avoided.

[00:20:37]It's not even a thing to be worshipped.

[00:20:38]It's simply something that that's your liberation. You're breaking free.

[00:20:44]And it's energizing because it brings that bliss. It brings that awareness of bliss, that awareness of light within you. It lays open the road to perfection.

[00:20:55]The questioner, "Well, when do I know that I have discovered truth?"

[00:20:59]Maharaj, when the idea this is true, that is true, does not arise.

[00:21:06]Truth does not assert itself. It is in the seeing of the false as false and rejecting it.

[00:21:14]It is useless to search for truth. When the mind is blind to the false, it must be purged of the false completely before truth can dawn in it.

[00:21:27]Right, and what is this? What is this mysterious truth that will dawn in it?

[00:21:32]That I'm not separate.

[00:21:35]That I cannot lose myself.

[00:21:38]That I can that that that that there is no death or attribute here.

[00:21:44]Right?

[00:21:45]That this world is within me.

[00:21:47]These are the truths that you come to know when you start letting go of the false.

[00:21:52]When you start hearing and seeing the way that that the mind collaborates with body and how ego forms and then takes your takes your essence, takes your suchit the nanda and imprisons you in it by making it chase the false.

[00:22:11]Right? By making you think that you are the mind, to make you think that the thoughts that you're having are about you.

[00:22:17]That the thoughts of your desires are your desires and that the thoughts about your dislikes are your dislikes.

[00:22:24]Right?

[00:22:26]>> [laughter] >> Not understanding you're in this you're in this cage free.

[00:22:31]Right? But you can you can walk through the bars. The the bars have no meaning to you.

[00:22:36]But it's only through that discernment that that we come to understand that the mind was depressed. I was never depressed.

[00:22:45]I've always been a love a lover of life, a lover of love.

[00:22:50]>> [laughter] >> A lover of wisdom.

[00:22:52]Right?

[00:22:54]And when I added body and mind to that list of things I love then we got ourselves into trouble cuz we identified with them.

[00:23:03]Right?

[00:23:05]So, when do I know I've discovered the truth? When the idea that this is true or that is true does not arise.

[00:23:13]Right? Because truth is isness.

[00:23:17]Truth is moment with pure awareness where you're not in any form of distraction.

[00:23:25]It's being present in the moment with no direction indicated for a future.

[00:23:30]No push indicated by a past.

[00:23:33]Where you are simply fully present.

[00:23:37]Right here in the scripture of moment.

[00:23:40]Right?

[00:23:41]In the presence of moment.

[00:23:44]Realizing that you are moment.

[00:23:49]It is useless to search for truth when the mind is blind to the false.

[00:23:54]It must be purged of the false completely before truth can dawn on it.

[00:24:00]Questioner, but what is false, Maharaj?

[00:24:04]Surely what has no being is false.

[00:24:09]What do you mean by having no being? The false is there, hard as a nail.

[00:24:15]Maharaj, what contradicts itself has no being.

[00:24:21]Or it has only a momentary being which comes to the same.

[00:24:25]For what has a beginning and an end has no middle. It is hollow.

[00:24:30]It has only the name and shape given to it by the mind, but it has neither substance nor essence.

[00:24:38]Right? So, what contradicts itself has no being. And what contradicts itself constantly?

[00:24:44]The ego.

[00:24:45]Right?

[00:24:46]The ego. Always taking you into things that you regret when they're over.

[00:24:52]Always taking you to things that leave you empty when they're finished.

[00:24:56]Always convincing you that that the desires are are are not present.

[00:25:02]That you have to go and do and have and chase and work to find them.

[00:25:07]Right?

[00:25:08]So, what contradicts itself has no being or it has only a momentary being which comes to the same. For what has a beginning and an end has no middle. It is hollow.

[00:25:19]Wow, right?

[00:25:21]This is that statement. Remember we said at one point that you can't you can't believe in past you can't believe in past and future if you believe in present and you can't believe in present if you believe in a past and a future. And it's for this exact reason that he's talking here. That which has a beginning and end has no middle, right? At what point at some point this is the beginning and then boom suddenly the break the breakdown, you know, so like we we're in our beginning up until like we're 27 or 29 somewhere in there and then the body begins its decay.

[00:25:56]Right? Begins moving toward death.

[00:25:58]Begins start begins to break down. Cells are no longer regenerating at the same rate that they're deteriorating.

[00:26:06]And so he's telling us the same thing.

[00:26:07]If you if anything that has a beginning and end, there's no middle to it.

[00:26:12]Right? Because you can't find the spot where the beginning ends and the end starts.

[00:26:17]>> [laughter] >> As it were. Or it's much easier to say that you can't find a present moment.

[00:26:23]When is the present? If you believe in the future, at what point does future become present? And if you believe in the past, at what point does that present that now has come out of the future is going to be past, right? You find that that it becomes infinitely smaller and smaller and smaller. There's no way that it can have an existence.

[00:26:45]Right? And so that that is the false. To believe that we have a beginning and an end is the false that we have to deny.

[00:26:52]And only through the denial of the faults, the forgetting of the past, and the denial of the future, the ignorance of the ignoring the future, we come to be present in the moment.

[00:27:02]And we can see the moment as it is. It's complete. All of the past is contained in it.

[00:27:07]And all of the future is indicated from it.

[00:27:10]So, no matter what your gyrations of doership may be, you're never going to add a single thing to the moment.

[00:27:18]Because everything you could ever hope for and dream for in your future only comes out of this moment.

[00:27:26]So, what is it that you're chasing?

[00:27:29]And all that you have ever done, no need to long for it, because it is indicated in this moment.

[00:27:38]So, everything you've ever done is now.

[00:27:41]And everything you've ever will do is now.

[00:27:44]And so, be here, now.

[00:27:47]Without beginning, without end, without time, without result, you know, expressing what? This divine beauty of being, such a tananda, this divine wisdom, this divine love.

[00:28:03]And that is life.

[00:28:05]Right?

[00:28:06]This moment is your whole life.

[00:28:10]This moment, the sum total of your desires, this moment.

[00:28:17]Let go of it and be here.

[00:28:21]What contradicts itself has no being, or it has only a momentary being, which comes to the same. For what has a beginning and an end has no middle. It is hollow.

[00:28:32]Isn't that the feeling when we get caught up in a life of of, you know, our past and our present, our future, when we when we organize it that way, we always come to the sense of hollowness.

[00:28:45]We always come to the sense of like, what am I? I'm just a fish with a hook in my mouth.

[00:28:51]Always chasing a desire, always following the suggestions of my mind, always following the needs of this body.

[00:28:58]Always looking and grabbing for something, anything that will take away this hollowness of being by living in past, present, future.

[00:29:09]Right? So, we return to the present.

[00:29:13]It is hollow. It has only the name and shape given to it by the mind. Right?

[00:29:19]Because all of that all of that planning, chasing, remembering, hoping, wanting, desiring, those are all just conditions, conditions of mind.

[00:29:29]Summaries of restlessness.

[00:29:32]Right? There's there there is nothing there to be had.

[00:29:37]It has neither substance nor essence.

[00:29:40]Questioner, well, if all that passes has no being, then the universe has no being, either.

[00:29:47]Maharaj, whoever denies it. Of course, the universe has no being.

[00:29:53]Right? Of course, it has no being.

[00:29:56]Questioner, well, what has?

[00:29:59]Maharaj, that which does not depend for its existence, which does not arise with the universe arising, nor set with the universe setting, which does not need any proof, but imparts reality to all that it touches.

[00:30:15]It is the nature of the false that appears real for a moment. One could say that the true becomes the father of the false, but the false is limited in time and space and is produced by circumstance.

[00:30:29]Right?

[00:30:30]So, that which does not depend for its existence, right? What does that mean? That that which is not being maintained by something else.

[00:30:40]Right? This is this is Satchidananda.

[00:30:44]Right? The The only thing in you, all right? And this is an exercise you can do. I I did this once, I don't know, gosh, about 20 years ago now.

[00:30:52]Sitting in the shrine, trying to think of a single thought that didn't depend on another thought for a single thing that I knew that didn't depend on something else that I knew.

[00:31:02]And I sat there for like 3 hours that day, just look trying to bring up anything that I knew that didn't depend on another thing that I knew.

[00:31:10]And you know what the only thing is that I know that depends on nothing else that I know?

[00:31:15]The thought I am.

[00:31:18]I exist.

[00:31:20]My existence is the only thing that I know that doesn't depend on anything else.

[00:31:26]Right? This sense of being.

[00:31:29]Inner self. And that is the divine. That is God.

[00:31:33]That unchanging absolute.

[00:31:36]Then the noun of perfect love. The noun of all ideal.

[00:31:40]Actually.

[00:31:46]So that which does not depend for its existence, that which is not does not need anything else for its existence, which does not arise with the universe arising nor set with the universe setting, right? That that you within yourself that has not grown up, that is not growing old, that sense of I am which has been with you your entire life. You have always known what you were talking about when you said I am, even though your body had nothing to do uh that was the same with what it has been or what it will be.

[00:32:24]Right? Even when your body is is is uh you know, wasting away, your hair is all fallen out, you've got bizarre marks and growths everywhere all over you, your muscles are are completely just laying at the backside of your bones.

[00:32:41]Your whole your whole physique melted, you know.

[00:32:45]When you say I am, you will still know who you're talking about, even though that body is nothing like the body that you've got right now.

[00:32:52]Which was nothing like the body you had seemingly 40 years ago, 50 years ago.

[00:32:59]Right? That That is it. That which is That is what does not arise with the universe arising, nor set with the universe setting, which does not need any proof.

[00:33:10]Right? You never need any evidence that you are.

[00:33:14]It's just simply what being.

[00:33:18]It imparts reality to all that it touches. It's because of you that everything exists.

[00:33:24]Right? Without you, it doesn't exist.

[00:33:27]You hold up the entire universe.

[00:33:30]The awareness.

[00:33:32]Right? That we are. Everything our awareness touches comes into existence.

[00:33:38]It is the nature of the faults that appears real for a moment.

[00:33:42]Right? That's why Ram Thakur tells us anything that is changing is unreal.

[00:33:48]Because it isn't what it seems.

[00:33:50]Right now, I've got this little wooden table right here. Well, this wooden table used to be a tree.

[00:33:55]And before all of the elements that created the tree came together through the through the processes of sunlight, eating, and whatnot, this table which was a tree, and a tree which was water and sunlight and and earth.

[00:34:10]Before it was a tree, and that water, sunlight, and earth, who knows what light was before it was light. Oh, it was an explosion, right?

[00:34:20]It was fire. Fire gives forth the light, and so that same tree can then be burned, and then becomes light.

[00:34:27]And then that light, you know, lands on another branch or another tree >> [laughter] >> and becomes part of that tree.

[00:34:37]Right? And so that that substance, which is Brahman, that dream substance that can that can build an entire universe in your mind at night when you're sleeping, that mind substance, that dream substance, aka Brahman, is that which has become all things.

[00:34:57]Right? In an isness, and it is the thing that is unchanging.

[00:35:02]Only manifesting itself through constant change because it is in unlimited.

[00:35:07]It cannot It cannot express just once and get this whole story told.

[00:35:12]For it to express itself is an eternal undertaking because it is an infinite expression of an infinite love and an infinite wisdom.

[00:35:24]It is the nature of the false that appears real for a moment.

[00:35:28]One could say that the true becomes the father of the false.

[00:35:32]Right? This this Brahman, this isness, this unchanging absolute is what is manifesting. So yes, that's why we call the Lord father or call the Lord mother.

[00:35:42]Right?

[00:35:43]Because it is that which has given rise to the expression.

[00:35:49]It is that which the the expression is dependent upon.

[00:35:54]But the false is limited in time and space and is produced by circumstance.

[00:36:01]Right? It's a thought.

[00:36:05]It's a thought.

[00:36:07]Everything experienced is only a thought in the universal mind.

[00:36:16]Questioner, how am I to get rid of the false and to secure the real?

[00:36:22]Maharaj, to what purpose?

[00:36:24]Why do you need to secure the secure the the what is his question here? How do I get rid of the false and secure the real?

[00:36:32]>> [laughter] >> Right?

[00:36:36]How do I See, he's still talking about both of them as separate from himself.

[00:36:41]Right? Still talking about how am I to get rid of the false and secure the real? Well, he says, "To what end?

[00:36:48]What's your purpose?

[00:36:49]Why do you want to get rid of the false and secure the real?"

[00:36:54]Questioner, "Well, in order to live to live a better, more satisfactory life, integrated and happy."

[00:37:01]Maharaj, "Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false.

[00:37:07]Right?

[00:37:09]So, what what is it that that that is conceived by the mind? Well, narratives.

[00:37:15]You know, the mind is constantly creating narratives for everything.

[00:37:19]This to that.

[00:37:20]This goes there. This means this.

[00:37:23]Uh I am this. You're that. You need this. Get that. You don't have this. You want this.

[00:37:30]I'm healthy. I'm unhealthy. Right? All these constant changes.

[00:37:34]He says, "Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it's bound to be relative and limited. Right? Bound to be relative means that it doesn't have any truth until it's compared to something else.

[00:37:46]Something is not big until you something else is small.

[00:37:51]Right? Something is not hot until something else is cool.

[00:37:56]It's all relative. It doesn't have a value that's inherent in it. In this universe, anything that's manifested is only what it is because of everything else being what it is.

[00:38:08]Right?

[00:38:09]If I only know wood, then I wouldn't even have a name for it.

[00:38:15]But I know that this is wood because I know that that's plastic. I know that that's glass.

[00:38:21]So, this is wood.

[00:38:23]Right? So all all of this knowledge of this phenomenal world is relative.

[00:38:28]We can't say anything true about the thing itself.

[00:38:32]Because the thing itself cannot be known.

[00:38:35]Right? The thing itself cannot fit in a mind.

[00:38:39]It cannot fit in a description. It cannot fit in the in the paradigm of past, present, future.

[00:38:44]It cannot fit in the paradigm of time, space, causation.

[00:38:49]It cannot fit in the paradigm of subject, object, verb.

[00:38:53]It cannot be trapped in an attribute.

[00:39:06]Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false for it is bound to be relative and limited.

[00:39:12]The real is inconceivable. Okay? That means cannot be placed in the mind.

[00:39:17]Cannot be expressed by an idea.

[00:39:20]The real is inconceivable and cannot be harnessed to a purpose.

[00:39:25]Right? It cannot be forced into time, space, causation.

[00:39:29]It can't be done. It must be wanted for its own sake.

[00:39:35]Must be wanted for its own sake. This this this There's something in my mind that that wanted to come out with this inconceivable and cannot be harnessed to a purpose.

[00:39:47]Yeah, it's it's the fact that God that this reality cannot be forced into the paradigms that we have right now, which is why in order to exist in this universe, God had to create an ego.

[00:40:03]Right?

[00:40:03]God had to create an ego to enter into this universe because he cannot enter into the universe, right? As such.

[00:40:12]It's the exact same way that it's it's such a beautiful paradigm. It makes Dreams teach us all of this. If we paid attention and and and and understood the nature of dreaming, we would understand everything the Vedanta teaches us.

[00:40:26]When you when you dream at night, you cannot enter into your dream.

[00:40:31]Your body remains in the bed.

[00:40:34]So, what does what how do we enter into the dream then? Well, we create a thought of ourself in the dream.

[00:40:41]And we inhabit that thought as ourself. We identify with it as ourself.

[00:40:46]And then we can navigate the dream world.

[00:40:49]Then we can experience the dream.

[00:40:52]But the body cannot be brought into the dream.

[00:40:56]And so it's the same that's that's an indication that that our divine self, our natural self, our real self cannot enter into this world, the universe.

[00:41:07]It can't come here. Why? Because the universe is inside of it.

[00:41:11]Right? Just like the dream is inside of the body.

[00:41:15]So, the body cannot enter inside that which is inside of itself.

[00:41:19]And so God cannot enter into this universe because this universe is inside of that.

[00:41:27]Right? And so it can't come in.

[00:41:29]And so to come in, it has to create a thought of itself and enter into this world of thought.

[00:41:35]And then it can dream the dream.

[00:41:37]Right? Then it can then it can force itself into purpose.

[00:41:41]Then it can become all of the it can be something only for a moment.

[00:41:45]Right? Because the nature of all of this is is transitory.

[00:41:53]It must be wanted for its own sake.

[00:41:55]Right? Wanted for its own sake is the same thing as simply being in the moment.

[00:42:02]Because the moment can only be uh satisfying as itself if it's accepted as itself for its own sake.

[00:42:11]This moment is always perfect because it is.

[00:42:16]And and it's up for me to discover what I am that can always accept this moment as perfect.

[00:42:24]And that's what teaches us we're not a body mind because the moment is never perfect for a body.

[00:42:30]Right? It's always a little bit too hot, little bit too cold. I don't want to be here, I want to be there.

[00:42:35]So, the moment is never perfect for a body.

[00:42:39]And so, as long as we think that we're a body, we cannot want the moment for its own sake.

[00:42:45]The moment is always something for the sake of the body.

[00:42:48]Right? If we think of ourself as a mind, the moment's never perfect for a mind.

[00:42:54]Right? And so, we have to understand we're not the mind.

[00:42:59]Because the mind if as long as we think we're the mind, then the moment does not exist for itself.

[00:43:06]It exists for the sake of the mind.

[00:43:10]And if that's true, then we can never find happiness. As soon as we know ourselves to be the moment and that we exist for for our own sake as the moment then we're free.

[00:43:24]We're not We're not beholden to anything else.

[00:43:29]It must be wanted for its own sake.

[00:43:32]Questioner, well, how can I want the inconceivable?

[00:43:36]Maharaj What else is there worth wanting?

[00:43:42]Right? Anything conceived has an unreality to it. Anything conceived requires that which conceived it.

[00:43:49]It's dependent on something for its existence, for its for its value, for its importance.

[00:43:55]It immediately becomes relative if it's conceived.

[00:43:59]So, the that which is not conceivable is the only thing worth wanting. It's the only thing that will always be.

[00:44:07]Granted, the real cannot be wanted as a thing is wanted, but you can see the unreal as unreal and discard it. It is the discarding the false that opens the way to truth.

[00:44:20]Right? Because the false is what is blinding us, what is not allowing us to see that which has become all of this.

[00:44:27]We're we're we're enticed by the story, by the narrative, by the colors, by the attributes, by the passing and the and the presenting.

[00:44:37]Right? We're we're enthralled by all of it. And as long as that has our attention, we will not be aware of ourself as the attention itself, as the awareness itself.

[00:44:49]Because we'll just be running after the things of change.

[00:44:56]So, Questioner, I understand, but how does it look in actual daily life?

[00:45:05]That guy's got to be an American.

[00:45:08]>> [laughter] >> How does it look in actual daily life?

[00:45:11]Honoraz, self-interest and self-concern are the focal points of the false.

[00:45:18]Yet, uh your daily life vibrates between desire and fear.

[00:45:23]Watch it intently and you will see how the mind assumes innumerable names and shapes like a river foaming between the boulders.

[00:45:32]Trace every action to its selfish motive and look at the motive intently until it dissolves.

[00:45:39]This is discernment.

[00:45:41]Right? This this is a very high level of discernment right here.

[00:45:47]Right? Self-interest and self-concern are the focal points of the false.

[00:45:51]That's how you will know that you're in an ego state if you have self-interest and self-concern.

[00:45:57]Right?

[00:45:58]That's why the two questions of Vivekananda, you see the two questions are inverse to this.

[00:46:04]The two questions that Rob Vivekananda says are the only two questions by which you can determine whether you're spiritual or not.

[00:46:10]Right? Self-interest and self-concern.

[00:46:12]Are you loving? Are you unselfish?

[00:46:15]The two questions are the inverse of this reality, self-interest and self-concern.

[00:46:21]Right? That's how we know that we're that we're following light.

[00:46:24]If we are working toward unselfishness and working toward loving.

[00:46:35]Self-interest and self-concern are the focal points of the faults. Your daily life vibrates between desire and fear.

[00:46:42]Right? Because if you identify because of what we just finished saying, if you identify with mind, the moment's never perfect. If you identify with body, the moment's never perfect. Right?

[00:46:53]And so the the the desires are formed in mind and the fears come from the limitation of body.

[00:47:01]Right?

[00:47:02]So those two identities are our biggest mistake.

[00:47:06]Watch it intently and you will see how the mind assumes innumerable names and shapes.

[00:47:11]Right? Like a river foaming between the boulders. You can see this best in a dream again. Going back to that dream is my favorite thing I've learned I continue to learn so much by contemplating the nature of dream.

[00:47:24]Right? Because it's indistinguishable from the experience of reality during the day.

[00:47:30]So they're not different.

[00:47:31]But in the dream somehow because because the body becomes God, the body mind becomes God.

[00:47:38]I it gives me an egoistic understanding of my nature by understanding the nature of dreaming.

[00:47:45]And then that can be interpolated to break free.

[00:47:50]To break the ego self.

[00:47:55]Right? So you assume innumerable names and shapes like a river flowing between the boulders. What I wanted to say is that's like the dream.

[00:48:02]Look how easily you can become a butterfly. Look how easily you can become invisible. Look at how easily you can become you can fly or whatever. In a dream, it's amazing to me that in when I go into a dream at night, that I can so effectively and utterly renounce the world.

[00:48:22]You know, I leave I leave everyone behind. I leave everything behind and enter into the dream. And I don't even have a single thought about that loss.

[00:48:32]There's not a single moment, right?

[00:48:35]In that.

[00:48:37]Uh which is >> [laughter] >> Not a single loss in that renunciation.

[00:48:44]Not a single Oh, I wish I hadn't fallen asleep so that I could still be me.

[00:48:49]>> [laughter] >> Not at all.

[00:48:51]Right? You completely accept the new body, no matter what body it is.

[00:48:54]Sometimes you're barely even aware of one.

[00:48:57]In a dream.

[00:48:58]In a dream, you might be a man. You might be a woman. You might be a caterpillar.

[00:49:03]You might be something in between all of them.

[00:49:07]And you accept it. Yeah.

[00:49:09]This is why I am.

[00:49:12]No thought at all. No memory at all. You don't look down at your body in the dream and say, "Hey, those aren't my feet.

[00:49:20]Where are my feet?"

[00:49:21]>> [laughter] >> Right? You don't do it.

[00:49:27]All right. Oh, it's after 9:00. I'm sorry.

[00:49:31]All right, let's stop there for the day.

[00:49:35]I wondered