WEBVTT 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:45.920 Still in Awareness Compilation of Talks 2004 00:00:48.160 --> 00:01:01.320 The most sublime truth of all has never been stated or sung or written. 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:18.260 Not because it is far away and can't be reached but because it is so intimately close, because it is closer 00:01:18.260 --> 00:01:22.940 than anything that can be spoken. 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:34.120 It is truly alive as the stillness in the core of your being, not my being or her being 00:01:34.130 --> 00:01:43.140 or his being, your being, alive in the stillness that is the core of your being. 00:01:44.220 --> 00:01:56.220 It is too close to be described, too close to be objectified, too close to be known in 00:01:56.229 --> 00:02:02.549 the way that we think of knowing as knowledge, as objects. 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:11.040 But it is yours already. It's already present. 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:19.380 The only reason that I have appeared in your consciousness is to simply confirm that. 00:02:19.700 --> 00:02:27.460 I truly have nothing to teach you. You probably know more than I do anyway. 00:02:27.950 --> 00:02:36.489 There have been plenty of teachers who have taught exquisite and true and useful codes 00:02:36.489 --> 00:02:46.750 of conduct, methods of meditation, ways of living in the world, ways of manifesting in 00:02:46.750 --> 00:02:55.400 the world but what this appearance that is called “Gangaji” is, in your consciousness 00:02:55.400 --> 00:03:06.240 is simply a pointing to the stillness that is alive in the core of your being, 00:03:06.820 --> 00:03:22.380 and an invitation to turn your attention to that, to let that live your life, to give your questions 00:03:22.390 --> 00:03:35.140 to that, to give your answers to that, your failures, your successes, your form, your 00:03:35.140 --> 00:03:44.560 formlessness, your action, your inaction, your choice, your choicelessness, all, 00:03:44.980 --> 00:03:56.160 to give it back where it came from, back before creation. 00:03:56.660 --> 00:04:03.140 This is possible only because you are that stillness. 00:04:03.150 --> 00:04:13.459 It would be impossible regardless of the intention or the effort, if you were who you think you are. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:23.560 Who you think you are is by the very nature of thought limited. 00:04:23.570 --> 00:04:32.100 So however grandiose that thought may be, it's still limited. 00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:43.020 But who you are has never been spoken, is closer than you can know. 00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:55.700 Who you are is where it all is. 00:04:56.260 --> 00:05:00.140 *** 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:03.720 I’m far from being still. 00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:06.130 You’re far from being still. 00:05:06.130 --> 00:05:07.540 How do you know that? 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:08.960 Who told you that? 00:05:08.960 --> 00:05:09.960 I feel that. 00:05:09.960 --> 00:05:15.950 Okay, there is a feeling and the interpretation of that feeling, since a feeling is agitated, 00:05:15.950 --> 00:05:16.950 is that what you mean? 00:05:16.950 --> 00:05:22.640 The feeling is agitated so then there is a conclusion that therefore I am agitated. 00:05:22.640 --> 00:05:27.580 And maybe there is a mental agitation that goes along with that so that’s further proof, 00:05:27.580 --> 00:05:29.750 “I am agitated." 00:05:29.750 --> 00:05:36.480 But I am here to tell you that you are still. 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:43.250 And this agitation is in your body perhaps, in your emotions perhaps, in your mind perhaps, 00:05:43.250 --> 00:05:53.640 in the elements perhaps, but you are the awareness that recognizes the agitation. 00:05:53.640 --> 00:05:56.040 You follow this? 00:05:56.280 --> 00:05:58.440 There’s agitation. 00:05:58.450 --> 00:06:03.700 Can there be recognition of that agitation without some awareness of that agitation? 00:06:03.700 --> 00:06:04.700 No. 00:06:04.700 --> 00:06:07.620 Right, It’s simple isn’t it? 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:12.940 Is the awareness of the agitation agitated? 00:06:13.620 --> 00:06:15.340 (laughter) 00:06:16.580 --> 00:06:18.320 Yes, it bears checking. 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:20.460 Just take a moment to check. 00:06:20.460 --> 00:06:21.460 Is agitation… 00:06:21.460 --> 00:06:24.580 I understand...a lot of agitation. 00:06:24.760 --> 00:06:27.280 And there's awareness of that agitation. 00:06:27.440 --> 00:06:31.200 Is awareness agitated? 00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:32.560 No 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:37.380 That’s right. (laughter) 00:06:37.660 --> 00:06:41.320 Awareness is still, Isn’t it? 00:06:41.320 --> 00:06:42.320 Yes. 00:06:42.320 --> 00:06:46.040 I say to you, you are that awareness. 00:06:46.280 --> 00:06:54.600 Agitation comes and goes, calmness comes and goes, awareness is eternal. 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:56.900 It is eternally still. 00:06:57.140 --> 00:07:02.500 You are that. 00:07:07.460 --> 00:07:10.260 You can’t catch it with your mind. 00:07:10.260 --> 00:07:15.530 Yes, because the mind just gets agitated further in trying to catch it. 00:07:15.530 --> 00:07:18.940 Let the mind do its thing, it doesn’t matter. 00:07:18.940 --> 00:07:22.900 You are the awareness of the mind’s agitation. 00:07:22.900 --> 00:07:27.340 You are what is already still. 00:07:29.940 --> 00:07:31.620 I just don't believe it. 00:07:31.960 --> 00:07:34.220 It’s not a question of believing it. 00:07:34.230 --> 00:07:36.790 Don’t believe it. Don't believe it. 00:07:36.960 --> 00:07:39.160 I don’t want you to believe it. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:46.960 I want you to investigate and see for yourself, is this true or is this just another belief. 00:07:47.200 --> 00:07:52.080 In your life moments of agitation have appeared and disappeared. 00:07:52.080 --> 00:07:53.080 Right? 00:07:53.080 --> 00:07:55.930 You have not been agitated every second of your life. 00:07:55.930 --> 00:07:58.040 Maybe a majority, I don’t know. 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:00.840 But that is the way it is with certain nervous systems. 00:08:00.840 --> 00:08:03.860 They vary like plants vary, you know. 00:08:03.860 --> 00:08:06.780 Patterns of weather vary in human beings. 00:08:06.780 --> 00:08:12.640 Certain nervous systems experience or generate more agitations than others. 00:08:12.640 --> 00:08:18.950 The awareness of that agitation that has never come and gone. 00:08:18.950 --> 00:08:20.870 That's always been present. 00:08:20.870 --> 00:08:24.040 And it has always been still. 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:33.370 The dilemma and the suffering comes out of misidentification of your Self as your body 00:08:33.370 --> 00:08:40.320 which can be agitated or sick or in pain, or your mind which can be spinning or calm 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:47.520 or confused rather than the awareness of all of that. 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:53.200 Okay. What happens when I get almost overwhelmed with feelings? 00:08:53.490 --> 00:08:54.490 Aha. 00:08:54.490 --> 00:08:55.700 What gets almost overwhelmed with feelings? 00:08:55.700 --> 00:08:56.700 My body 00:08:56.700 --> 00:09:02.360 Your body, now, does the awareness of that get overwhelmed? 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:05.459 Check it out be sure 00:09:05.459 --> 00:09:06.970 Okay 00:09:06.970 --> 00:09:14.250 I’m willing to go on but I want us to stop along the way because if we can nip the misidentification 00:09:14.250 --> 00:09:15.250 in the bud. 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:26.329 I get a feeling that it happens in my body and then I go Okay, I’m angry or upset and 00:09:26.329 --> 00:09:30.649 it’s so overwhelming that I think my mind will just go… 00:09:30.649 --> 00:09:33.639 Yes it’s overwhelming to the nervous system, right? 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:40.910 The awareness, just for now, just for checking it out- Has the awareness of that gone anywhere 00:09:41.180 --> 00:09:52.200 or gotten agitated or been diminished or overwhelmed in the slightest? (pause) 00:09:56.980 --> 00:09:59.780 It is very good you’re taking time to look. 00:09:59.790 --> 00:10:01.590 Yes.Take time to see this. 00:10:02.130 --> 00:10:10.850 Î don’t want you to accept it because I say so, don’t do that. 00:10:12.680 --> 00:10:18.880 I feel like there is a little fight that goes on in my head... 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:20.819 A little fight, there is a big fight. 00:10:20.819 --> 00:10:24.189 Yes there is a fight. 00:10:24.189 --> 00:10:26.070 The mind is fragmented isn’t it? 00:10:26.070 --> 00:10:31.379 Into the good guys and the bad guys and the mediators (laughs) 00:10:31.379 --> 00:10:38.529 But the awareness of all that, is there any split there? 00:10:38.529 --> 00:10:41.411 No 00:10:41.420 --> 00:10:45.440 You are doing very very well, your are telling the truth. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:50.069 So the very fact that you are willing to tell the truth even though you are experiencing 00:10:50.069 --> 00:10:56.709 the suffering of this situation means that your interest is more in truth than in this 00:10:56.709 --> 00:10:59.959 identification of yourself as this body. 00:10:59.960 --> 00:11:05.960 This is excellent, excellent sign, you can believe that. 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:16.620 Now throughout time, conditioned existence has been taught, so you have to learn that 00:11:16.629 --> 00:11:19.180 you are your body. 00:11:19.180 --> 00:11:25.051 And that learning gets translated into thoughts and then you have to learn you are being a 00:11:25.051 --> 00:11:32.331 bad body because you are in pain or you're agitated, “and stop that you bad girl, slap, slap”. 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:38.079 And then another part fragments off and says “I’ll stop it when I feel like stopping it. 00:11:38.079 --> 00:11:44.120 Leave me alone bam, bam” And this is what goes on in your mind, right. 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:46.809 I am not a mind reader This is what goes on. 00:11:46.809 --> 00:11:55.290 This is what goes on in individual minds and goes on in the collective mind. 00:11:55.290 --> 00:12:02.190 In the collective mind we witness it as wars, religious wars, or political wars or genocidal 00:12:02.190 --> 00:12:06.910 wars but it is the same mind at war with itself. 00:12:06.910 --> 00:12:12.620 One side of the fragmentation of mind deciding the other side has to go. 00:12:12.620 --> 00:12:16.060 No room for it here. 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:22.720 And the identification and the suffering in that or the self-righteousness in that. 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:31.460 But the point here is there is an awareness of this war that is not at war. 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:37.000 That is peace itself. 00:12:37.220 --> 00:12:42.120 And that is your soul. 00:12:42.540 --> 00:12:50.140 There is an opportunity at this moment in your lifetime to align yourself with your 00:12:50.149 --> 00:12:54.559 soul rather than these warring factions of your mind. 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:57.959 I'm not saying the war will immediately end. 00:12:57.959 --> 00:13:04.319 I'm saying if you align yourself with your soul, the war won’t be empowered. 00:13:04.319 --> 00:13:07.919 They'll run out of provisions. 00:13:08.100 --> 00:13:20.360 There may be clashes but the war’s steam will have finished because your central attention 00:13:20.369 --> 00:13:27.790 has shifted to its source, which is awareness itself, vast limitless awareness. 00:13:27.790 --> 00:13:35.290 Peace, stillness has shifted to who you are, not who you thought you were. 00:13:35.560 --> 00:13:42.759 Who you thought or think you are is only a thought in your mind. 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.179 It comes and it goes. 00:13:45.340 --> 00:13:51.620 It changes, it mutates, it likes, it says that you are a good one day and bad the next day. 00:13:52.440 --> 00:14:02.629 The awareness doesn’t change, doesn’t move, radiates the presence of love, regardless 00:14:02.629 --> 00:14:20.849 of the thought ” I am bad or I am good' irrelevant in the face of this awareness. 00:14:20.980 --> 00:14:26.759 And somehow you know it. 00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:30.119 Now, I understand the suffering. 00:14:30.119 --> 00:14:36.009 And I don’t want to trivialize the suffering or dismiss the suffering as nonexistent. 00:14:36.009 --> 00:14:48.309 I mean, it is but I don’t want to dismiss it as that. (laughter) 00:14:48.580 --> 00:14:53.100 Yes, I want to wait until you do that. 00:14:53.110 --> 00:14:56.530 Then we will laugh together. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:03.020 Because there's a weight there and an identification there and am not asking that you now layer 00:15:03.029 --> 00:15:08.440 on top of that identification another identification called “ I am awareness”. 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:13.700 'Cause then they are just stacked, you know, and you can walk around saying “I am awareness”, 00:15:13.700 --> 00:15:22.380 and smiling and laughing and then four o’clock in the morning “oh yeah” comes up (laughter) 00:15:22.560 --> 00:15:25.280 because it's just another belief. 00:15:25.290 --> 00:15:33.170 But if it’s not a belief but in fact a direct experience then what ever arises in whatever 00:15:33.170 --> 00:15:41.730 time of day or night, you can investigate the truth, “Has awareness been diminished by this? 00:15:42.249 --> 00:15:50.060 What is the separation between me and awareness? 00:15:50.060 --> 00:15:54.850 Do you find one, a separation between you and awareness.? 00:15:54.850 --> 00:15:56.449 I do now 00:15:56.449 --> 00:16:03.190 At the moment because you identify yourself as a body separate form awareness but awareness 00:16:03.190 --> 00:16:07.310 is here always and this body comes and goes. 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:12.779 Even in a day, I’m not even speaking about deep sleep now, but in a day aren’t there moments 00:16:12.779 --> 00:16:14.649 when you are not aware if your body? 00:16:14.649 --> 00:16:22.269 Yeah, you're aware of other things, yes, or you're aware of spacing out, yes, aware of daydreaming, 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:29.279 aware of working intently focused, aware of dancing, aware of liking something, aware of not liking 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:35.779 Oh, then aware of the body, aware of the heartbeat, aware of the breath- back and forth- the constant 00:16:35.779 --> 00:16:38.359 in that is awareness. 00:16:38.520 --> 00:16:46.180 Yes, yes, this is it. You've caught it. 00:16:46.380 --> 00:16:54.139 When you recognize this, then you can explore awareness with awareness, and then you see, 00:16:55.560 --> 00:16:59.780 “does it have a boundary? Is it a thing? 00:16:59.880 --> 00:17:02.200 Is it limited?” 00:17:02.209 --> 00:17:10.549 Then you recognize “we’ what we call ourselves are all in awareness. 00:17:10.580 --> 00:17:18.980 There is awareness here, aware of awareness here and differences in the form “here and here” 00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:27.390 but the same radiant, simply, absolute awareness. 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:33.700 Yes, I see you catch it. 00:17:36.260 --> 00:17:44.400 Its beautiful, your willingness to tell the truth, your willingness to be exposed, to 00:17:44.410 --> 00:17:51.670 investigate, to be free. 00:17:58.500 --> 00:18:10.680 Yes, and amazingly awareness, even though it doesn’t have attributes of beauty, is beauty. 00:18:11.140 --> 00:18:18.420 Even though it's untouched by good or bad, it is radiantly good. 00:18:18.420 --> 00:18:22.040 Is God itself. 00:18:22.300 --> 00:18:28.320 Because in truth, God has never left the soul. 00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:42.220 I'm very happy to see you see your Self. 00:18:42.230 --> 00:18:45.510 There may be moments… 00:18:45.700 --> 00:18:52.500 Expect moments to come where self-doubt or agitation will once more say, “No you're mine. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:54.500 This life is mine. 00:18:54.510 --> 00:18:59.330 That's all right, you just stop and tell the truth. 00:18:59.330 --> 00:19:03.310 “Has awareness left? 00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:05.980 Has awareness changed? 00:19:05.980 --> 00:19:07.429 Is awareness at peace? 00:19:07.429 --> 00:19:12.900 It's not forcing your mind to be at peace or forcing your body to stop suffering. 00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:14.780 It is just telling the truth. 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:17.880 And then the mind naturally unwinds. 00:19:18.100 --> 00:19:24.080 The body naturally comes to a place of equilibrium or not. 00:19:24.300 --> 00:19:27.640 It doesn’t matter because the truth is being told. 00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:32.400 and the truth is primary. 00:19:33.080 --> 00:19:40.800 (instrumental music playing) 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:45.480 So there is a certain point where you tell the truth. 00:19:45.490 --> 00:19:49.450 And this point is now, obviously. 00:19:50.180 --> 00:19:54.360 And that’s why we meet. 00:19:54.370 --> 00:19:58.289 We meet in the spirit of truth. 00:19:58.289 --> 00:20:01.889 We meet to surrender to truth. 00:20:02.180 --> 00:20:10.660 The mysterious force that has already appeared in your life and said, 00:20:10.669 --> 00:20:19.059 “Come here, come home, rest, be still”. 00:20:19.059 --> 00:20:22.539 That is what meditation is. 00:20:22.539 --> 00:20:25.970 That's what practices are, what prayer is. 00:20:25.970 --> 00:20:28.029 That is what rituals are. 00:20:28.029 --> 00:20:37.299 But Papaji’s invitation is, not really a prayer, it is certainly not a ritual. 00:20:37.299 --> 00:20:39.320 It is not a meditation. 00:20:39.320 --> 00:20:41.500 It is not a practice. 00:20:42.040 --> 00:20:52.180 It's the immediacy of right here, right now, stopping, looking for anything. 00:20:53.300 --> 00:21:06.620 Being still, not working on being still, or working to keep stillness (soft laugh). 00:21:06.820 --> 00:21:18.039 Being still is being who you are, not cultivating stillness or being bigger in your stillness. 00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:23.679 Being who you are is being still. 00:21:24.620 --> 00:21:31.799 Being who you think you are is your lack of surrender to being who you are. 00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:34.409 “Well, this is just who I am. 00:21:34.409 --> 00:21:38.190 You just have to love me as I am”. 00:21:38.190 --> 00:21:43.149 That’s who you think you are and it is not lovable (laughter). 00:21:43.169 --> 00:21:45.659 You have to face it. 00:21:45.659 --> 00:21:48.149 And it never will be. 00:21:48.149 --> 00:21:51.330 It may be cute or not cute but it is not lovable. 00:21:51.330 --> 00:21:53.260 Who you are is lovable. 00:21:53.260 --> 00:21:55.840 'Cause who you are is love. 00:21:55.840 --> 00:21:59.370 Plain and simple, That's the truth. 00:21:59.370 --> 00:22:10.419 All the rest is some resistance to that or denial of that or searching for that. It's all the same. 00:22:10.860 --> 00:22:19.940 (instrumental music) 00:22:21.020 --> 00:22:33.340 And where I’m at now is, there's been kind of awareness of the story. 00:22:33.350 --> 00:22:39.820 And then going back into the story and the awareness of the story and then going back 00:22:39.820 --> 00:22:40.830 into the story. 00:22:40.830 --> 00:22:43.769 Does the awareness go back into the story? 00:22:43.769 --> 00:22:44.769 No 00:22:44.769 --> 00:22:48.059 What goes in and out of the story? 00:22:48.059 --> 00:22:52.019 'Cause it's so great you can say “no” immediately.You know it is not the awareness. 00:22:52.179 --> 00:22:55.179 You are aware of something. Yes. 00:22:55.260 --> 00:22:57.260 Going in the story and going out of the story. 00:22:57.260 --> 00:22:59.610 This is excellent, excellent. 00:22:59.610 --> 00:23:03.070 What is it that goes in and out? 00:23:03.260 --> 00:23:08.240 The awareness becomes aware of itself and I’m aware of the awareness 00:23:08.250 --> 00:23:10.250 As awareness 00:23:10.250 --> 00:23:14.059 And then I’m me again. 00:23:14.060 --> 00:23:18.620 And where is awareness in that moment of “meness”? 00:23:18.820 --> 00:23:20.460 Forgetting itself? 00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:24.139 What’s aware of forgetting? 00:23:26.100 --> 00:23:27.900 Oh yes. 00:23:28.040 --> 00:23:35.260 Yes. You see what happens, is because the mind, as we have been speaking here in the last 00:23:35.269 --> 00:23:41.829 few days, is so brilliant, so awesome, awareness itself becomes an object. 00:23:42.100 --> 00:23:52.180 So I was speaking no form but you can then kind of have this amorphous “oh awareness” 00:23:52.380 --> 00:23:56.340 and so of course that's subject to appearance and disappearance. 00:23:56.520 --> 00:24:05.440 But the awareness of that awareness that comes and goes does not disappear. 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:13.269 “Me” appears in it, the sense of “meness”, the physical, emotional, mental sense of individual 00:24:13.269 --> 00:24:20.109 nervous system taking in individual processing of information. 00:24:20.380 --> 00:24:28.120 That appears and disappears as does that notion of awareness appear and disappear. 00:24:28.340 --> 00:24:36.660 But there is pure awareness that cannot be notioned. 00:24:38.860 --> 00:24:44.920 When you say forgetting, you are forgetting some 'thing'. 00:24:45.140 --> 00:24:52.679 You know there's a problem with this phrase about self-remembering, as there's a problem 00:24:52.679 --> 00:24:58.170 with any phrase that is spoken and then gets taken out of context and gets worshipped and then 00:24:58.170 --> 00:25:00.470 people have to "self-remember”. 00:25:00.540 --> 00:25:02.840 But you cannot remember your Self. 00:25:02.840 --> 00:25:11.340 It is impossible, because you're not a thing that is an object that can be stored in a memory bank. 00:25:11.880 --> 00:25:21.140 You can remember a notion of your self or an experience of your self or an idea of your self. 00:25:21.140 --> 00:25:22.940 Just like you remember your name. 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:27.059 Every morning when you wake up, you have to remember your name again. 00:25:27.059 --> 00:25:30.119 It’s quick because you’ve practiced it. 00:25:30.300 --> 00:25:37.280 But there is an instant where you have no name and you remember it. 00:25:37.289 --> 00:25:40.790 And so we assume we can do that with the truth of who we are. 00:25:40.790 --> 00:25:42.830 You cannot. 00:25:43.140 --> 00:25:50.660 If you recognize and are willing to recognize that you cannot remember your self, the truth of your self, 00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:56.940 Then immediately you will see that you also can’t forget it. 00:25:56.950 --> 00:26:06.100 It’s not subject to being remembered or forgotten, because it is not an object. 00:26:06.100 --> 00:26:11.460 Did everybody here that? 00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:17.360 Who you are is not subject to being remembered or forgotten. 00:26:17.370 --> 00:26:22.120 So give up remembering your self. 00:26:22.120 --> 00:26:25.490 This is worse than a useless activity. 00:26:25.490 --> 00:26:31.760 It's the carrot again. It's an image of yourself. 00:26:31.760 --> 00:26:37.720 It's like awareness, or bliss or emptiness. 00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:45.419 But now this bliss, and awareness and emptiness has a boundary had a birth, subject to change 00:26:45.419 --> 00:26:47.309 and a death. 00:26:47.309 --> 00:26:48.990 Forget it. 00:26:48.990 --> 00:26:50.779 Save yourself some trouble. 00:26:50.779 --> 00:26:59.519 Forget it, then you can see what is out of the bounds of memory, what cannot be forgotten, 00:26:59.519 --> 00:27:03.819 cannot be remembered, cannot be denied. 00:27:04.060 --> 00:27:11.180 Cannot be found and cannot be escaped. 00:27:11.380 --> 00:27:16.580 This idea “I will find it or I will remember it or I will keep it” 00:27:16.700 --> 00:27:26.240 This is an idea of you as a thing, walking around like a little stick figure, going after "It". 00:27:26.420 --> 00:27:27.940 This is all in your mind. 00:27:27.940 --> 00:27:29.290 Forget it. 00:27:29.290 --> 00:27:30.630 Forget it. 00:27:30.630 --> 00:27:34.509 This is what Papaji means when he says, “Give up the search." 00:27:34.509 --> 00:27:39.880 And we think, "Oh, he couldn't really mean 'give up the search'. 00:27:39.880 --> 00:27:44.000 He means that metaphorically or poetically, not really give up the search “. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.571 Yes, give it up. 00:27:45.571 --> 00:27:48.000 Give up the search. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.840 You give up the search, you give up the seeker. 00:27:52.840 --> 00:28:03.180 You give up this little stick figure in your mind or this fleshy wonderful, godlike creature. 00:28:03.380 --> 00:28:06.460 And see what is here. 00:28:06.460 --> 00:28:09.259 It’s the same as dying. 00:28:09.259 --> 00:28:15.799 Only it's dying consciously before the body dies. 00:28:15.940 --> 00:28:26.040 (instrumental music) 00:28:26.300 --> 00:28:37.340 A word that I hear often, when I suggest or demand that someone stop or be still or tell 00:28:37.350 --> 00:28:43.929 the truth is “trying”, “I’m trying to. I’m trying to”. 00:28:43.929 --> 00:28:44.940 Do you know this word? 00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:46.679 Do you use this word sometimes? 00:28:46.679 --> 00:28:55.319 “I’m trying to." And this is a big trap. 00:28:55.320 --> 00:29:04.740 In using this word “trying”, what it usually means is “I’m trying to do that”. 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:10.419 And so the trying is the effort around doing. 00:29:10.419 --> 00:29:18.879 But really telling the truth or being still or stopping is much simpler than doing anything. 00:29:19.080 --> 00:29:29.500 And so once there's a trying involved there's tension, different from focus is tension. 00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:38.539 Because you can’t quite find how to do it and many people ask me, “But how, but how?" 00:29:38.539 --> 00:29:45.639 That’s really looking for some model, or some picture, or some image and it is much simpler, 00:29:45.820 --> 00:29:48.920 It's much closer to home. 00:29:49.140 --> 00:29:54.000 You may ask “how to be” 00:29:55.280 --> 00:29:58.600 but you already are. 00:29:58.610 --> 00:30:10.289 So if you'll stop trying to be, there's an expanse that opens up of beingness, or rather there 00:30:10.289 --> 00:30:13.669 is an expanse of recognition of beingness. 00:30:13.669 --> 00:30:19.389 But the trying is covering because of the tension and contraction of energy. 00:30:19.389 --> 00:30:22.849 “I want it." I have to get it. "How do I do it?”” 00:30:23.070 --> 00:30:26.670 I’m trying to do it." Just stop. “Okay, how do I stop?' 00:30:26.840 --> 00:30:35.680 So you can see the dilemma in speaking about this because language itself is already one 00:30:35.690 --> 00:30:42.590 step out from what is closest in. 00:30:42.780 --> 00:30:50.720 The simple fact of being, it takes no trying. 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:58.639 So I really want you to understand that I am not talking about changing your behavior. 00:30:58.639 --> 00:31:05.439 There is a natural appropriateness of behavior that there is nothing wrong with. 00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:09.900 The way you speak to your parents, the way you speak to your children, the way you speak 00:31:09.909 --> 00:31:12.950 to your friends, the way you speak to the desk clerk, the way you drive your car. 00:31:12.950 --> 00:31:16.870 This is just appropriate behavior that gets learned. 00:31:16.870 --> 00:31:26.710 But deeper inside, there is often a tension in trying to be something that that behavior says you are. 00:31:27.660 --> 00:31:39.200 Trying to be a good person, trying to be brilliant and the fear is if I don’t’ try to be I will be the reverse of that. 00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:48.560 I will be a bad person. I will be a stupid person, trying to be of worth or I'll be a worthless person, 00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:54.500 trying to be enlightened or I will live in hell and ignorance. 00:31:54.509 --> 00:32:02.409 And so, of course, what has to be faced sooner or later and the suggestion of this message 00:32:02.580 --> 00:32:12.260 from Ramana and from Papaji is that sooner is right now, is that which is being avoided. 00:32:12.500 --> 00:32:16.800 Ramana gives us the example with facing death. 00:32:16.809 --> 00:32:20.830 It’s all about facing death, all of it. 00:32:20.830 --> 00:32:26.770 But our mind fragments death into lots of little mini deaths like being worthless or being 00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:34.660 no good or being condemned to ignorance or hell. 00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:48.160 So in this moment, if you aren't trying to be any thing or any body or any where or any way 00:32:49.920 --> 00:32:58.660 Who are you? What are you? What is here? 00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:06.740 If you aren't trying to be some place, where are you? 00:33:09.020 --> 00:33:15.380 If you aren't trying to be, are you? 00:33:20.260 --> 00:33:33.020 It's possible you can at least glimpse the extraneous energy and unnecessary suffering 00:33:33.029 --> 00:33:42.139 which is the attention of your lifespan which may be over today or tomorrow or in a year 00:33:42.140 --> 00:33:52.920 or ten years, who knows? But the attention of your lifespan is spent unnecessarily, extraneously. 00:33:58.600 --> 00:34:09.440 So the question, “Where is your attention?” is the same as “What are you trying to be?” 00:34:09.450 --> 00:34:10.940 "Who are you trying to be?” 00:34:10.940 --> 00:34:15.980 "What are you trying to escape?” 00:34:18.160 --> 00:34:25.640 Which is the same as, "Who are you, really?" 00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:33.500 (instrumental music) 00:34:33.500 --> 00:34:36.240 How do I stop the obsession? 00:34:36.429 --> 00:34:44.209 Oh, this is beautiful, this is the question "How do I stop the obsession? Yes, this is a true question. 00:34:49.920 --> 00:35:00.040 The real question behind that, the question, “How do I obsess?’ can be seen. 00:35:00.080 --> 00:35:11.200 The how to stop the obsessing cannot be seen because stopping…Do you get this? 00:35:11.200 --> 00:35:17.770 But what can be seen is how the refusal to stop and its justifications and it’s tangents 00:35:17.770 --> 00:35:25.950 and it’s sophistication, and it’s cynicism, how it plays itself based on desires and hopes 00:35:25.950 --> 00:35:41.270 and fears but what is already stopped within you? 00:35:45.020 --> 00:35:49.920 Everything, it's...I don’t know. I don't know. 00:35:50.200 --> 00:36:00.940 So when you make that statement, “I don’t know," there's awareness of that statement. 00:36:01.260 --> 00:36:05.080 Is that awareness moving in any direction? 00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:07.160 No.That’s right. 00:36:10.440 --> 00:36:17.760 So the secret really is that when you stop, you stop identifying with the 00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:21.910 movement and you identify with awareness. 00:36:21.910 --> 00:36:25.790 I'm not speaking of observer and observed. 00:36:25.980 --> 00:36:32.559 I’m speaking of the awareness of the observer and the observed, in which both the observer 00:36:32.559 --> 00:36:37.680 and the observed appear. 00:36:38.160 --> 00:36:43.980 So already you are stopped. 00:36:43.990 --> 00:36:49.470 And so when I say “stop” you are already stopped. 00:36:49.470 --> 00:36:54.330 You are already awareness. 00:36:54.480 --> 00:37:01.760 Attention is gathered, stop to what already is at peace, 00:37:03.220 --> 00:37:07.800 where fulfillment is already. 00:37:10.640 --> 00:37:22.720 Yes, you see that. This is the beauty, how simply and really easily it can be seen. 00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:33.400 With that beauty there is a tragedy, how easily it is turned from, how easily it is trivialized, 00:37:33.410 --> 00:37:50.270 given up, dismissed, denied, ignored but the ease is not diminished by the turning. 00:37:50.270 --> 00:38:00.450 So still within you, however many times your mind has turned from this, simple and radiant truth, 00:38:00.450 --> 00:38:23.090 there is the welcome, there is the invitation, home, right now. 00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:34.800 Thank you 00:38:34.920 --> 00:38:37.480 You are very welcome. 00:38:37.490 --> 00:38:43.750 You are very welcome. 00:38:45.540 --> 00:38:59.260 This is an essential experience that is available to anyone who is even curious enough to investigate. 00:39:00.120 --> 00:39:07.180 From this essential experience, there is choice. 00:39:07.460 --> 00:39:18.580 There may appear to be lack of choice but you have an experience now of what is already at peace, 00:39:18.860 --> 00:39:30.800 already stopped, already free, already who you are. 00:39:32.460 --> 00:39:53.000 That's the gift my teacher sends to you, from me, via me. This is Papaji’s gift. 00:40:07.540 --> 00:40:11.340 Did you have anything else you wanted to say? 00:40:11.340 --> 00:40:17.100 No, I’m just enjoying this. (laughter) 00:40:18.640 --> 00:40:23.140 That's the opening, that's the beginning. 00:40:26.080 --> 00:40:38.240 There may come, expect, many, many challenges, but always there is this very simple truth: 00:40:38.240 --> 00:40:50.620 what is free, what is conscience, what is at peace is the awareness that is present every moment. 00:40:52.100 --> 00:40:56.280 That's who you are. 00:40:56.460 --> 00:41:02.460 Who you think you are gets its power from that awareness. 00:41:02.900 --> 00:41:08.240 Awareness has no problem with any thought. 00:41:08.420 --> 00:41:11.880 Only thoughts battle each other. 00:41:14.580 --> 00:41:25.600 That's why you can have a horrible history as a thought form acting it’s way out in the collective mind 00:41:26.360 --> 00:41:35.640 and you can still return home, as a prodigal son. 00:41:35.640 --> 00:41:40.560 (instrumental music) 00:41:40.780 --> 00:41:48.180 The question is, is there ever a time when awareness is no longer overshadowed by emotion? 00:41:48.180 --> 00:41:54.520 Actually all the time, all the time. 00:41:54.940 --> 00:42:06.040 What happens is the mind, the individual awareness, the ray of universal awareness gets fixated in a loop of 00:42:06.120 --> 00:42:17.700 emotional drama. But if at any moment in that loop, at any point that loop, the individual mind stops and 00:42:17.710 --> 00:42:26.079 examines that moment, investigates that moment, all the way, whatever the emotion, instantly 00:42:26.079 --> 00:42:29.079 there is full clarity in awareness. 00:42:29.079 --> 00:42:37.159 So then every emotion is a vehicle, every moment of every emotion is a vehicle. 00:42:37.260 --> 00:42:44.900 Awareness is not overshadowed by anything ever, ever. 00:42:45.140 --> 00:42:51.960 You see, we use this word “awareness” but often what we're talking about is an 00:42:51.960 --> 00:42:59.530 individual state of awareness that gets called mindfulness, or equanimity, or oceanic or Samadhi, 00:42:59.530 --> 00:43:04.890 or clarity. Those are states of awareness. 00:43:06.140 --> 00:43:12.880 And then we also have what we call the negative states, which you know, “lack of equanimity, confusion, 00:43:12.890 --> 00:43:17.390 anger, negativity, fear. 00:43:17.620 --> 00:43:21.000 Those are also states of awareness. 00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:26.630 But you cannot have any of those states without awareness. 00:43:26.630 --> 00:43:28.290 This is not illogical. 00:43:28.290 --> 00:43:33.290 This is very logical. 00:43:33.290 --> 00:43:36.960 You can have awareness without any state. 00:43:37.240 --> 00:43:42.200 You don’t need any state for awareness as some people in here have discovered. 00:43:42.200 --> 00:43:47.320 There can be a moment, an instant of nothing happening. 00:43:47.540 --> 00:43:53.600 Just awareness as you just spoke of, no trees, no me, just awareness. 00:43:53.600 --> 00:43:57.060 Then trees reappear. Does awareness disappear? 00:43:57.280 --> 00:44:02.860 Well how would you know there are trees, if awareness disappeared? 00:44:03.020 --> 00:44:08.500 How did you know there were no trees if awareness disappeared when there were no trees? 00:44:08.500 --> 00:44:16.340 So what happens in certain spiritual conditioning is we start to elevate certain states that are elevated. 00:44:16.580 --> 00:44:19.860 We don’t start to elevate them.They are elevated states 00:44:20.040 --> 00:44:25.579 but we start to assign the elevated state as the truth of awareness, 00:44:25.579 --> 00:44:30.490 rather than recognizing awareness is present in any state. 00:44:30.490 --> 00:44:33.330 Awareness is omnipresent. 00:44:33.360 --> 00:44:37.320 Awareness is God. 00:44:38.220 --> 00:44:44.420 It is always here, omnipresent, omniscient, knows everything, is aware of everything. 00:44:44.430 --> 00:44:49.109 That doesn’t mean some like powerful thing knowing what you're thinking, you're thinking 00:44:49.109 --> 00:44:51.099 knowing that you blinked, you didn’t blink. 00:44:51.099 --> 00:44:59.919 It means, in your mind, everything that occurs or doesn’t occur, occurs in the presence of awareness. 00:45:00.180 --> 00:45:07.420 The shift, the break happens when you recognize, as was spoken of 00:45:07.620 --> 00:45:15.960 here so beautifully this morning about the cars passing on the road but here you are. 00:45:16.120 --> 00:45:20.540 Emotion as weather, so the winds came up this morning. 00:45:20.540 --> 00:45:25.869 There were whitecaps on the lake, and rain came but here you are. 00:45:25.869 --> 00:45:27.690 You didn’t change. 00:45:27.690 --> 00:45:30.000 Life didn’t change. 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:39.600 So it’s dropping the individual awareness, deeper and deeper back into it’s source. 00:45:39.600 --> 00:45:46.099 Not so you have to stay in the source, because you can’t be separate from the source. 00:45:46.099 --> 00:45:52.760 If you stay in the source there's still some latent thought, 'If I don’t stay here 00:45:52.760 --> 00:46:03.720 than I won’t be awareness." This is fluid, effortless being. Awareness is effortless. 00:46:03.900 --> 00:46:10.580 Identification with particular states of awareness is perhaps part of the organism, perhaps part 00:46:10.580 --> 00:46:20.460 of the evolution and is a source of suffering, because then there is identification with a sufferer. 00:46:20.560 --> 00:46:28.880 And a sufferer is an image or a sensation that appears in suffering that is identified as me, 00:46:29.100 --> 00:46:35.420 associated with the body and the sensory nerve endings of that body. 00:46:35.420 --> 00:46:45.520 But deeper than that, there's awareness, aware of the suffering, aware of me, aware of identification and free. 00:46:45.680 --> 00:46:51.320 It is already present. 00:46:51.320 --> 00:46:54.589 The mystery is how it got overlooked. 00:46:54.589 --> 00:46:56.869 But let’s leave that as a mystery. 00:46:56.869 --> 00:47:00.660 We don’t have to solve that mystery. 00:47:00.660 --> 00:47:05.520 Just stop overlooking it. 00:47:05.780 --> 00:47:19.180 (instrumental music) 00:47:19.240 --> 00:47:28.839 I have moments that I would say of stopping and waking up and then I have moments where 00:47:28.839 --> 00:47:34.379 I would say I’m aware that I’m not awake. 00:47:34.560 --> 00:47:41.720 So there’s kind of that being awake and being aware that I’m not awake. 00:47:41.880 --> 00:47:45.060 And I don’t really know what the question is, just looking at that. 00:47:45.340 --> 00:47:48.180 So let me ask you a question. 00:47:48.190 --> 00:47:55.880 So when you say (this is so rich because everyone can relate to this, surely). 00:47:55.880 --> 00:48:05.609 So I want to know what you mean by “I am awake or I am not awake. 00:48:05.609 --> 00:48:15.429 What “I” is awake? 00:48:15.600 --> 00:48:29.280 There is a moment of seeing like how I usually see myself then seeing it likes it’s 00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:31.740 a horse, you know like a horse that I have. 00:48:31.740 --> 00:48:37.110 That that personality is just this horse that I have but it’s not me, you know 00:48:37.110 --> 00:48:43.329 Excellent, beautiful and then in the other moment? 00:48:43.329 --> 00:48:52.170 Then I am the horse and it’s very real and sometimes it's like “oh, I'm being the 00:48:52.170 --> 00:48:58.579 horse” and I remember that I’m not the horse but is seems really real right now. 00:48:58.579 --> 00:49:05.759 So what is exactly the same in both of those experiences? 00:49:06.160 --> 00:49:08.320 We understand what’s different 00:49:08.589 --> 00:49:09.589 Yeah 00:49:09.589 --> 00:49:17.969 One's light and one's dark or one is identified and one is free of identification. 00:49:18.120 --> 00:49:22.180 But what’s the same? 00:49:22.920 --> 00:49:31.520 What aspect of both of those experiences is unchangeable? 00:49:35.260 --> 00:49:37.240 I don’t know. 00:49:37.360 --> 00:49:42.320 I know it is so close, it is so close that it goes overlooked. 00:49:42.320 --> 00:49:47.190 When you said, initially you said “and then I am aware. 00:49:47.190 --> 00:49:53.220 I am aware that I’m awake and then I am aware that I’m identified as a horse.” 00:49:53.220 --> 00:50:00.040 Are you aware that you are awareness? 00:50:03.220 --> 00:50:06.940 I get the idea, you know 00:50:06.950 --> 00:50:13.750 Impossible, you can't get the idea because it doesn’t make sense but you can, 00:50:13.960 --> 00:50:17.640 you can catch the reverberation of it. 00:50:17.650 --> 00:50:24.250 It’s like tuning, you know, (mmmm) and then we are on the same wavelength. 00:50:24.250 --> 00:50:29.040 And then what happens is you try to get it as an idea and its flat. 00:50:29.040 --> 00:50:30.800 You lose the tune. 00:50:31.060 --> 00:50:32.180 Right? 00:50:32.380 --> 00:50:33.280 Yeah 00:50:33.440 --> 00:50:43.520 So in the experience of “I am aware, I am awake and I am aware I am not awake”. 00:50:43.530 --> 00:50:50.470 What is unchanging is that “I am aware”. 00:50:50.470 --> 00:51:00.730 The truth is I am awareness. 00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:12.140 What happens is we identify with the experience of awakeness and we hate the experience of ignorance. 00:51:12.539 --> 00:51:19.829 And that’s then this spiritual dharmic wheel 'I’m awake, I’m asleep, I’m awake, 00:51:19.829 --> 00:51:24.880 I’m asleep, I’m awake, I’m asleep,' which is the same wheel as the worldly wheel, 00:51:24.880 --> 00:51:30.000 “I’m good, I’m bad, I’m rich, I’m poor, I’m happy, I’m sad, I’m beautiful, 00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:32.570 I’m ugly, I’m stupid, I’m brilliant” Familiar? 00:51:32.570 --> 00:51:36.300 I mean I must of gotten your version in. 00:51:36.300 --> 00:51:41.970 We all have all parts of it, many spokes on this wheel. 00:51:41.970 --> 00:51:46.200 But the spiritual one and that's what I’m speaking to many people is, 'I’m awake, 00:51:46.200 --> 00:51:49.869 I’m asleep, I’m awake, I’m asleep, I’m awake, I'm asleep. 00:51:49.869 --> 00:51:53.769 I want be awake all the time; I don’t want to be asleep anymore.' 00:51:53.940 --> 00:52:01.960 All the time overlooking what is closer than awake or asleep. 00:52:01.970 --> 00:52:06.190 What is free of both awake and asleep. 00:52:06.460 --> 00:52:12.760 Now I believe it to be so, I am not sure about this, but I believe it to be so, 00:52:12.960 --> 00:52:21.299 that in order to discover what's closer than awake or asleep, you have to first to have an experience of 00:52:21.299 --> 00:52:23.500 “I am awake”. 00:52:23.500 --> 00:52:30.099 Because there's this tilt to our experience of ignorance, sleep, sleep. 00:52:30.099 --> 00:52:36.130 and then 'poof,' there's an essential experience, of awakeness, where you recognize, 00:52:36.130 --> 00:52:38.089 I am not this personality. 00:52:38.089 --> 00:52:40.220 I am not this set of this story. 00:52:40.220 --> 00:52:42.240 I am not this story. 00:52:42.240 --> 00:52:45.770 There is a recognition there and it is a beautiful recognition. 00:52:45.770 --> 00:52:51.910 And it is filled with light and freedom and joy and laughter. 00:52:52.240 --> 00:52:59.539 It's an essential experience because it's the counter point to the normal experience. 00:52:59.539 --> 00:53:03.510 But it is not the final experience. 00:53:03.510 --> 00:53:07.039 It’s the opening of the final experience. 00:53:07.049 --> 00:53:10.949 It’s what Papaji would call “half-baked”. 00:53:11.240 --> 00:53:15.140 Half-baked but half-baked is half-baked. Right? 00:53:15.150 --> 00:53:28.020 Half baked, good, so back in the oven is to discover, 'Okay if I’m aware when I’m 00:53:28.020 --> 00:53:37.780 awake and I’m aware when I’m asleep, who or what is it that is aware? 00:53:37.980 --> 00:53:45.040 So when you say, “I am aware,” Who is aware? 00:53:49.040 --> 00:53:54.580 Is it not awareness itself that is aware? 00:53:54.589 --> 00:53:59.630 Let’s see, like right now. 00:53:59.630 --> 00:54:05.059 Isn’t there an awareness of this exchange, an awareness of whatever maybe happening or 00:54:05.059 --> 00:54:08.609 awareness of no awareness of what's happening. 00:54:08.609 --> 00:54:18.119 But awareness is here so close- closer than any thought- closer than any heartbeat. 00:54:18.119 --> 00:54:24.789 Closer than any awakening and closer than any sleep, closer than any identification. 00:54:24.789 --> 00:54:33.200 And present in every identification as well as every awakening. 00:54:38.260 --> 00:54:43.040 Now when I feel into it, it doesn’t fit, you know words. 00:54:43.049 --> 00:54:45.710 It doesn’t fit a word, that’s right. 00:54:45.710 --> 00:54:47.760 But a word fits into it. 00:54:47.760 --> 00:54:48.859 Every word is in it. 00:54:48.859 --> 00:54:54.539 You see, do you catch it, what I'm talking about here. 00:54:54.539 --> 00:54:58.039 This is not just giving you another spiritual search. 00:54:58.039 --> 00:55:01.270 It’s not giving you a religion or a set of beliefs. 00:55:01.270 --> 00:55:08.270 It is first of all acknowledging that you have had an essential experience. 00:55:08.270 --> 00:55:11.640 If you haven’t, you don’t know what I am talking about. 00:55:11.640 --> 00:55:12.920 And you will have one. 00:55:12.920 --> 00:55:18.849 You will get one because they are contagious. 00:55:18.849 --> 00:55:19.849 And it’s what you want. 00:55:19.849 --> 00:55:20.849 So you’ll have it. 00:55:20.849 --> 00:55:23.980 You are mind is turned in that direction. 00:55:23.980 --> 00:55:30.670 I would say that 90 to 99% of the people in here have had an essential experience. 00:55:30.670 --> 00:55:36.750 Even if you don’t remember the exact experience, you have an echo of that experience resonating 00:55:36.750 --> 00:55:38.220 in your being. 00:55:38.220 --> 00:55:45.680 Even if that experience happened with some substance, even if that experience happened 00:55:45.680 --> 00:55:51.040 in your sleep, it’s there. That's great. 00:55:51.340 --> 00:55:59.600 Now, what was unchanged even by that experience, by that blessed, hoped for, prayed for 00:55:59.609 --> 00:56:06.059 searched for, worshipped for, worked for experienced, experience. 00:56:06.059 --> 00:56:10.930 What is unchanged by that? 00:56:11.900 --> 00:56:19.080 When you find your Self, you find what is unchanged by any experience. 00:56:19.089 --> 00:56:26.609 Blessedly delivered from hell but unchanged by that delivery. 00:56:26.880 --> 00:56:29.500 You understand this? 00:56:29.500 --> 00:56:36.940 Because otherwise, you will fear hell and you will resist hell and you will hate hell 00:56:36.940 --> 00:56:46.340 and you will spend the rest of your attention in this life story avoiding hell. 00:56:46.500 --> 00:56:51.060 And then that becomes the religion, the avoidance of hell, the avoidance of pain, the avoidance of 00:56:51.180 --> 00:56:58.589 suffering and then the life once again, very superficial only now it is a spiritual superficial life. 00:56:58.589 --> 00:57:03.539 Don’t settle for that. 00:57:03.539 --> 00:57:09.900 The essential experience is the counter balance to the normal experience of plodding through 00:57:09.900 --> 00:57:20.120 life miserably, neurotically, there is an essential experience that penetrates and cuts through. 00:57:20.540 --> 00:57:28.099 How it came to you, I don’t know and I suggest, you don’t know. 00:57:28.099 --> 00:57:31.710 It is very skillful to not know how it came to you. 00:57:31.710 --> 00:57:41.230 By Grace, by luck, some mystery, there is an opening and there is a direct knowing 00:57:41.230 --> 00:57:54.990 of oneself as free- free of the personality or free of the identification or freedom itself. 00:57:55.260 --> 00:58:04.940 (Instrumental music) 00:58:05.040 --> 00:58:17.100 This is the profound teaching of Ramana when he says to Be Still, to be the stillness that you are. 00:58:20.060 --> 00:58:25.700 And this stillness is eternal. 00:58:25.760 --> 00:58:30.059 And it is the sublime nectar of being. 00:58:30.059 --> 00:58:32.359 It’s not a magic potion. 00:58:32.359 --> 00:58:44.639 It won’t keep bad experiences away but it will keep the truth shining regardless of experience. 00:58:44.960 --> 00:58:53.300 It won’t keep your body from aging or keep your body in perfect health always but it 00:58:53.310 --> 00:59:05.859 will keep the radiance and the innocence and the purity of your own nature obvious regardless 00:59:05.860 --> 00:59:10.100 of the state of the body or age. 00:59:11.880 --> 00:59:15.580 It won’t bring you great riches. 00:59:15.589 --> 00:59:20.109 It won’t help you win wars. 00:59:20.260 --> 00:59:30.079 It won’t make you the queen of the world or the king of the universe but it will reveal 00:59:30.079 --> 00:59:41.679 the source of power, which is the resting place, which no war can disrupt, 00:59:41.900 --> 00:59:51.580 which no individual power can touch. 00:59:51.720 --> 01:00:02.600 (instrumental music) 01:00:03.400 --> 01:00:11.599 So in this moment, as we are gathered here with our attention on this if just in this 01:00:11.599 --> 01:00:19.990 moment for just five seconds, thirty seconds you just put aside the whole story of who you 01:00:19.990 --> 01:00:28.430 think you are, the story of your unenlightenment, the story of your enlightenment, the story 01:00:28.430 --> 01:00:33.730 of you don’t have it, the story that somebody else has it, the story that you had a horrible 01:00:33.730 --> 01:00:38.789 childhood, the story that you had a good childhood, the story that you’re beautiful, the story 01:00:38.789 --> 01:00:47.119 that you’re ugly, the story that your superior, the story that you’re inferior, the story 01:00:47.119 --> 01:00:55.079 that you’re brilliant, the story that you’re stupid, just this moment just put it aside. 01:00:55.400 --> 01:00:59.600 Then where does you’re attention go? 01:01:01.100 --> 01:01:06.560 If it doesn’t go anywhere, where does it go? 01:01:07.140 --> 01:01:13.240 Where does it rest? 01:01:15.700 --> 01:01:23.099 This is present always in everybody, in every moment. 01:01:23.099 --> 01:01:27.099 That’s the glorious good news. 01:01:27.099 --> 01:01:42.299 Let your attention rest in itself, in awareness and experience your Self. 01:01:42.520 --> 01:01:46.859 Not to get something, because that is another story. 01:01:46.859 --> 01:01:52.079 Not to keep it because that is a story, not to wake up because that's a story. 01:01:52.280 --> 01:01:57.460 Awareness is awake, it's awake. 01:01:57.470 --> 01:02:08.290 How else would you know you’re asleep if you weren’t awake? 01:02:08.290 --> 01:02:26.230 (instrumental music)