Nature Of The Self Session 16 - Questions And Answers

Salaam.

Salaam.

I have got nothing to do with the words coming out of this body's mouth and this session.

I am not speaking.

I do not do anything.

I do not teach.

You can work from that level.

In fact,

Much better because there is no more attachment.

What is the attachment?

The attachment is I forget I am the background and I become the body-mind.

I get consumed and then I start pulling my hair.

Oh,

I am suffering.

I am experiencing this.

This is happening to me.

Why is this happening?

Because of the dhatma.

I become the body-mind.

When I recognize I am the prime order of awareness,

Then I am not becoming the body-mind.

I am constantly recognizing thoughts arise and fall on their own.

Similarly,

Actions are happening by this body-mind on their own because the body is programmed.

If you have a program of hugging your little kid every two hours,

Notice you are not thinking that I am going to go and hug the kid now.

It automatically happens.

The body gets up,

Goes to the kid,

Hugs the kid,

Comes back and starts doing its work again.

Notice that these things happen automatically.

You never think that I am going to do this.

The same way attending this session,

You feel that you turned on Zoom,

You came online and you did something.

You are sitting and listening.

It was not in your hands.

It is automatically happening.

The body and mind are programmed and they do exactly as the program commands them to do.

I,

The consciousness,

Have only one possibility.

The possibility of knowing that the action is happening.

That's it.

That's it.

So work from there.

Start working from there.

But to work from there,

First you have to recognize it.

First work on recognizing it.

How do you recognize it?

Start recognizing I do not think,

I do not feel,

I didn't even think of doing this action and this action happened through the body.

The only achievement is recognition that this distance was always there.

I was the one assuming that I get consumed by the body-mind and I suffer.

There is only one recognition.

Oh,

There is a distance.

Oh,

I only know that the action is happening through the body.

I only know that the thought is arising and setting.

I only know that there is this feeling.

I only know.

Knowing is the only possibility.

That is why it is called knowingness.

Yes,

Yes,

It is a mental construct.

You have held onto an arising thought and said this is my craving.

Now another thought arises which is similar to this thought.

Again you are saying this is my craving.

You are going on collecting them and making your own bag of craving.

This is an assumption.

I,

The background,

I the consciousness cannot speak,

Cannot act.

I cannot even take anything and say it's mine.

This is all an assumption.

It's a belief.

This itself is a belief that I am the body.

This itself is a belief that I am the mind.

It's a belief.

It is not true.

I have assumed it.

It's a manyata.

It's a belief.

How many of your beliefs have broken in life?

Yes,

Beliefs have no foundation.

This is only a belief.

After the belief breaks,

Can you say something broke?

It was nothing.

It was just a belief.

So you won't lose anything.

A lot of people have a lot of attachment to their own cravings and aversions and whatever you say is mine.

You don't lose anything.

You just recognize,

Oh they are all there.

Nothing has changed but they are not mine.

I,

The background,

I am not the possessor.

I do not possess anything.

Nothing is mine.

So the mineness drops.

Inhini nirapan.

Mineness.

That drops.

That's it.

Nothing else happens.

You're not going to grow wings.

You're not going to have a halo.

No white light coming out of you.

No magical things will happen.

It's very simple,

Straightforward,

Boring recognition of I was always this.

I was just assuming to be something else.

Yes,

Yes.

A zillion times in a day.

Your only problem is you are consumed.

You are consumed by the witnessed object.

You are so consumed that even if these instances of being consumed are just solitary instances,

They are so quickly happening that there's a false continuity created and you feel that oh I'm constantly there.

No,

You're not.

A zillion times in the day you will notice the eye drops.

There is one more thing.

Only when there is something to really experience,

To be conscious of,

To be aware of,

That is the time when the witness consciousness is there.

There's nothing to know.

It rests.

And you recognize this again and again,

Again and again.

Just a little effort.

You have to be more interested in yourself than in the outside world.

And yourself means self-exploration of the inner world.

That doesn't mean making your body beautiful.

That is not yourself.

This is the wrong yourself.

I'm seeing one more step beyond.

Interest in recognizing who am I really.

When that interest becomes 100%,

99% will not do.

100%.

It is your only priority in life.

Then it comes to you like that.

It has to come to you.

There is no other option.

So stop being so busy in the external world.

You've spent,

Most of us have spent half our lives already.

And you know how 2020 was.

You could have kicked the bucket.

Anybody of you could have kicked the bucket.

This is how you want to go.

Without tasting that nectar.

You are so close.

You're just standing outside the door I tell you.

You're so close.

Don't miss this chance.

Don't miss it.

Be more interested in yourself.

Start doing that self-exploration.

Your only goal in this lifetime I've given you today already.

Reach that goal.

Everything else will fall into place.

Family,

Money,

Work,

Everything,

Everything will fall into place.

Don't worry about that part.

Only self-exploration.

Go in.

Turiya is the background.

The background recognizes what arises on it and falls on it.

So we did this background screen.

This is Ramana Maharshi's favourite example.

Imagine Turiya like this screen.

The background is there always.

It has always been there and how does he explain it?

Was the sense of I am there when you were a child?

Yes.

I was there in childhood.

Was the sense of I am there in your teenage?

Yes.

I was there.

So now when you're an adult,

Is the sense of I am there?

When you become a senior,

Is the sense of I am there?

Yes.

It's there.

So it's the background screen.

Means it knew childhood,

It knew teenage,

It knew middle age,

New senior age.

So it knows everything.

It is constantly there.

Along with the thought or the feeling,

The witness arises and it collapses.

Moment to moment it arises,

It collapses.

Arises,

It collapses.

You cannot see it if you are not very deep into your self exploration and into your own self in the beginning but you can get to that point where the mind slows down.

Some of us cannot do it with open eyes.

Some of us have learnt it in the Buddha retreats.

So when we do a 10 day retreat,

The mind slows down to such a level because of no contact with the world that you can actually see thoughts arising slowly and falling and sensations arising slowly and falling.

And some of us become so sharp that we first see the witness consciousness arise,

Then the perception arises and it is noticed that the perception drops,

The witness drops.

It's very very easy to see this.

The only thing you need to have is more interest here and less interest here.

So when you have more interest here,

You start recognising that the turiya arises and falls,

Arises and falls,

Arises and falls with every object that it witnesses.

Turiya theta is a recognition that this arising and falling is actually connected.

It's one.

The wave and the ocean are not two separate things.

They are the water.

That is the recognition that happens at this stage and it is called turiya theta.

Now you've gone beyond calling its separate states.

Now you recognise the oneness.

Have you always seen jnana sangha?

The ultimate goal is recognition of oneness.

You're already one.

You don't have to become one.

It's just recognising it.

So in this turiya,

The thoughts are all like floating images.

They're just floating around.

Beyond a point,

You cannot sit and analyse the thought.

For example,

This dream character,

Beyond a point,

Can he even know that this is the dreamer's dream?

Can he recognise that it is the dreamer's dream?

He can just have this sense of it is a dream.

It's not real.

But that's where it stops.

Do you understand this?

Yes?

So you will only come to a point where you recognise the distance which I tell you like I am not speaking to you.

I am just knowing that his body mind is speaking.

I recognise the distance.

But then to analyse,

Oh this thought is mine or that is hers.

Again,

How did this come?

Why is this like this like that?

It's pointless because it is all a belief.

It is all a dream.

So the analysis of the dream is like analysing garbage.

It is pointless.

Just wake up from the dream.

Entire dream collapses.

The only difference is here,

The collapse does not happen completely while you're still living in the body.

The assumption collapses.

It happens in two stages.

The first stage is the assumption of it being real collapses.

That is called jivan mukti and then when you die,

When this body dies,

The complete dream collapses.

That is called deha mukti.

So it happens in two stages.

First jivan mukti and then deha mukti.

So jivan mukti means liberated while living.

While living you become free of this misery of this dream.

First you thought really the tiger is running behind me and I'm going to die.

Now you realise,

Oh it's a dream.

So then if there are tigers prowling around,

It doesn't matter to you.

It's a dream.

Now you just play.

Now you play with the dream.

In fact you start living life much more than before because it's happier.

It's detached from you as this inner z rinse.

What does that compound of happiness in the spirit this Om.