Nisargadatta's I Am That Session 31 Appearances & Reality II

Chapter 14 Appearances and the Reality Remember this questioner is ignorant,

Okay.

He's just heard few things here and there.

Questioner says,

Repeatedly you have been saying that events are causeless.

A thing just happens and no cause can be assigned to it.

Surely everything has a cause or several causes.

How am I to understand the causelessness of things?

Maharaj says,

From the highest point of view,

The world has no cause.

You are very clear about this,

Yes?

But this is somebody who is a newbie,

Suddenly he's heard a few things here and there and he's asking me,

I heard you that day,

I heard you a few days ago and again and again you say there is no cause.

How should I believe this part?

So Maharaj has told him,

The world has no cause,

From the highest point of view.

So the questioner says,

But what is your own experience?

So he's doubting Maharaj,

Whether the highest point of,

The highest viewpoint is Maharaj's own experience or not.

That is his doubt.

So he says,

What is your own experience?

Maharaj says,

Everything is uncaused.

The world has no cause.

Questioner says,

I'm not inquiring about the causes that led to the creation of the world.

Who has seen the creation of the world?

It may even be without a beginning,

Always existing.

I am talking of the world.

I take the world to exist somehow.

It contains so many things.

Surely each must have a cause or several causes.

So which world is he talking about?

This waking dream world.

His viewpoint is limited.

Where is Maharaj speaking from?

The level of primordial awareness that knows not just the waking dream world,

It knows the sleeping dream world in the dream state and the absence of the world in the deep sleep state,

Means it knows the darkness of deep sleep.

So Maharaj is talking from that viewpoint.

This questioner is talking from the waking dream subjects viewpoint,

Looking only at the waking dream world.

Very clear?

Maharaj says,

Once you create for yourself a world in time and space,

Governed by causality,

You are bound to search for and find causes for everything.

You only put the question and you only impose an answer.

So Maharaj is encouraging him to see that he has projected this world.

He himself creates something,

He sends out the question and he only gives the answer.

But he is not able to see it yet.

So what is the meaning of creating a world in time and space?

You didn't go out there and create the world like Lego world.

It's simply you the awareness have projected this world.

Just like you the awareness project the dream in the night.

The world in the dream is also your only world.

If in the dream,

A dream character is asking a question,

You are asking the question.

In your dream,

If another dream character answers that question,

You are only answering that question.

Is this very clear?

So you are the one throwing out the question.

You are the one providing the answer.

You have created a world in time and space.

My question is very simple.

I see all kinds of things.

And I understand that each must have a cause or a number of causes.

You say they are uncaused from your point of view.

But to you nothing has been.

And therefore the question of causation does not arise.

Yet you seem to admit the existence of things but deny them causation.

That is what I cannot grasp.

Once you accept the existence of things,

Why reject their causes?

He is right.

He is right from his little point of view which is the dream subject.

He is stuck at the dream subject level.

Maharaj is at the level beyond.

At the dream subject level,

He sees that if he puts his hand into the fire,

The hand burns.

So he is saying there is a cause for every little thing.

I do right.

Good happens to me.

I break the signal.

The cop comes running behind me.

There is a cause for everything.

So he is seeing from this point of view.

So his question is absolutely correct.

From the dream character's point of view,

The dream subject's point of view.

Very clear?

So he says from that point of view,

Everything has a cause.

In fact,

Number of causes.

But you are saying that they are uncaused from your point of view.

But for you,

Now he is assumed.

When somebody is not there experientially,

He assumes things.

So he says,

Oh,

According to you,

Everything is just not there.

What?

But to you,

Nothing has been.

Means nothing exists.

Nothing has been.

And therefore,

The question of causation does not arise.

Maharaj never said nothing is.

What does Maharaj say?

It is.

It appears and it disappears.

So it is in between the appearance and disappearance.

But it is illusory.

It is not real.

Maharaj will tell us that ahead.

It is illusory.

It just appears to be something else.

It's like the joker who wears some other mask and comes and takes the bow.

But really,

The credit does not belong to the joker.

So like that,

This dream world is a joker.

Nothing really here can be given the credit that it is real.

So he says,

You seem to admit the existence of things,

But you deny them causation.

For example,

You dreamt last night the tiger was running behind you.

Can you say that the dream did not happen?

No,

The dream happened.

So I say,

Yes,

It existed.

The dream happened.

But was the tiger real?

No,

The tiger was not real.

So you cannot ask a question,

Who put the tiger there?

What caused the tiger to come there?

Pointless.

Yet I cannot deny that the dream happened last night.

Is this very clear?

Now apply the same thing to this world,

Your waking world.

Your own wife or husband,

Your children,

Your parents,

Your family members,

Your neighborhood.

Everything is.

Maharaj does not deny their existence.

Everything is.

But it is illusory.

So just like you wouldn't try to find the cause of the illusory tiger in the dream and why was the tiger chasing you?

It's pointless to talk about the illusory things in this waking world and their causes.

Is this very clear?

Did I clear it up?

You seem to admit the existence of things,

But deny them causation.

That is what I cannot grasp.

Once you accept the existence of things,

Why reject their causes?

So he is not getting this yet.

So Maharaj says,

I see only consciousness and know everything to be but consciousness.

As you know the picture on the cinema screen to be but light.

So Maharaj is explaining that I am beyond this dream subject level.

I am at the consciousness level and I see everything as simply the projection of consciousness.

So when consciousness projects something,

That is also consciousness only.

Consciousness projects consciousness.

There is only consciousness.

So I see consciousness just like when I was a baby,

I did not get into Abhaas or appearance or labels.

I saw everything formless,

Nirabhaas,

No appearances.

I simply saw one single screen of light.

Twinkling images maybe,

But there were no labels.

That's how Maharaj sees everything.

I see only consciousness.

So the questioner says,

Still the movements of light have a cause.

Maharaj says,

The light does not move at all.

This is a key for you.

As the dream subject stuck in this dream world,

I think everything moves.

Everything has an individual life.

That's why I say that person is saying this to me,

She is doing this to me.

Why is this person not listening to me?

I am attributing individual movement there,

Attributing individual life there.

I am attributing individual consciousness to them.

Maharaj is saying,

No,

They don't move at all.

Are you seeing the level of difference?

Maharaj is speaking from the consciousness level.

This person is seeing from the body-mind level.

So when you see yourself as the body-mind,

You see others as body-mind.

When you assume I,

The body-mind,

Have an individual consciousness,

Then you assume he or she,

Individual body-minds,

Have individual consciousnesses and they move.

Maharaj says,

No,

They do not move.

This is a key point.

Whenever you take the stand of being the body-mind,

You see others as body-minds.

When you take the stand of being the consciousness or awareness,

You see others as nothing but the projection of me,

The consciousness,

Me,

The awareness.

Everything is consciousness or awareness.

Is this very clear?

Stand,

Only the stand is differing here.

So I will read that again.

I see only consciousness and know everything to be but consciousness.

As you know,

The pictures on the cinema screen to be but light.

Questioner says,

Still the movements of light have a cause.

Maharaj says,

The light does not move at all.

First line is clear.

You know very well that the movement is illusory.

A sequence of interceptions and colorings in the film.

What moves is the film,

Which is the mind.

So in a film,

If you've seen or you've seen that we had ancient cameras,

If you remember.

And then we used to take it to a shop and from the negative,

They used to create actual photographs.

So if you took the negative and looked under light,

You could see different,

Different forms,

Pictures.

Yeah.

So really,

What is a film?

You see a moving hero,

Heroine.

It is the same film moving very fast.

One picture after another picture after another picture.

If you moved,

You would see there.

You've created an illusory movement.

There is no real movement.

Just moving the film faster will make you feel that the hero,

Heroine is moving,

Is moving the hand.

But it is many pictures put together.

Yeah.

So just like the movement in the film is illusory.

It is there.

Actually,

There are interceptions.

Interception means there is a break in the movement,

Really.

And those have been put together.

So similarly,

Is this world.

What is moving?

It's not the family member that is moving.

It is not on the screen.

Not at all.

It is the mind.

Just like there is the universal consciousness.

There is the universal mind.

It is the movement in the universal mind.

That is what appears as the angry spouse or the spoiled brats in the house,

The little kids or the parent who is just not ready to listen,

Very stubborn.

Yeah.

All these are nothing but the universal mind.

The movement is nothing but the mind.

Yeah.

Actually,

There is no real movement.

Questioner,

This does not make the picture causeless.

The film is there.

And the actors with the technicians,

The director,

The producer,

The various manufacturers,

The world is governed by causality.

Everything is interlinked.

You have to keep shuttling between this dream characters,

Body,

Mind position and then Maharaj's answer at the consciousness level.

Then only can you understand this question answer.

So you understood his level?

Yeah.

Everything is interlinked.

Yes.

Yes.

Correct.

Maharaj is going to say yes.

Correct.

But from consciousness is level.

Now Maharaj will explain.

Of course,

Everything is interlinked and therefore everything has numberless causes.

Not one particular cause.

Numberless causes.

The entire universe contributes to the least thing.

A thing is as it is because the world is as it is.

You see,

You deal in gold ornaments and I in gold.

Between the different ornaments,

There is no causal relation.

When you melt down an ornament to make another,

There is no causal relation between the two.

The common factor is the gold.

But you cannot say gold is the cause.

It is reflected in the mind as I am as the ornaments particular name and shape.

Yet all is only gold.

This is so beautifully explained as if this is a gold bangle.

Suppose this gold bangle was really conscious.

Okay.

What would be its consciousness?

The gold.

The gold,

The material that it is made of.

That is its consciousness.

That is its reality.

That gold is reflecting in the mind of this bangle.

Remember,

We are just assuming it is conscious.

That gold is reflecting in the mind of this bangle as a shape,

A circular shape,

A form.

Yeah.

And the name bangle.

So beautifully explained by Maharaj.

Then that is reflecting as I am.

And then the bangle says I am the bangle.

Is it a bangle?

This is gold.

Reality is gold.

Now if I melt this,

What he said in the previous paragraph.

If I melt this bangle and say I make a earring.

Can I say the bangle was the cause of the earring?

No.

It doesn't make sense.

The bangle is not the cause of the earring.

Yeah.

Now can I say gold is the cause of this earring?

No.

No,

Where can you say it's the cause?

Did gold say,

Okay,

I am going to become the earring and make it happen?

Similarly,

Did consciousness say I am going to become Ekta and make this body mind happen?

Do I have any proof?

Did consciousness say I am going to be Veena now?

Did consciousness make a decision like that?

So did gold make the decision I am going to be bangle now?

And become the bangle?

No.

I have no proof of all this.

All this would just be another story if I would create it.

So there is no cause that I can determine.

There is nothing but source.

I just know source.

Gold is the source.

Out of that a bangle is made.

Yet gold is not the cause of the bangle.

Gold is the source.

Do you understand the difference now between source and cause?

Yeah.

So now Maharaj will explain the same thing again.

All is only gold.

In the same way,

Reality makes everything possible.

And yet,

Nothing that makes a thing what it is,

Its name and form comes from reality.

Means the word bangle does not come from gold.

Or the circular shape does not come from gold.

Its name and form does not come from the source gold.

Do you get it?

So whatever we really term as this world,

It simply labels.

It has nothing to do with consciousness.

In fact,

There is only consciousness.

Just like this is only gold.

It's not a bangle.

Bangle is the lie.

Is this becoming very clear?

So just like bangle is the lie,

Ekta is the lie.

Body-mind is the lie.

That separate body-mind is the lie.

Things,

Situations,

People,

World is the lie.

Do you understand?

It's a fake story.

Maybe created for the sake of communication.

It was created for a certain purpose.

For us to use as a tool.

The tool has become the master.

And now it rules us.

Do you get it?

We consider it as reality.

So Maharaj is saying,

Reality makes everything possible and yet nothing that makes a thing what it is.

Its name and form comes from reality.

But why worry so much about causation?

What do causes matter when things themselves are transient?

This is the most important line for you.

Please highlight.

If you ever get stuck,

Little argument in the family or little relationship trouble,

Little problem in office and you forget your stand as the consciousness and you get stuck and you remind yourself what do causes matter when things themselves are transient?

Highlight that line and remind yourself.

Put it as a post-it somewhere.

This little argument,

This little relationship trouble,

This little financial trouble,

This is transient in itself.

It comes and goes.

It comes and goes.

What's the point of looking for the cause?

What's the point?

By looking for the cause,

Can I prevent it from coming and going?

No,

That would be a lie that I tell myself.

Yeah,

That would be another lie.

So go diving deep into things where you get stuck.

I just give you a few examples.

Please relate to your personal examples.

Where do you forget that I am the consciousness and completely get caught up in the drama?

That's where I have to work.

That's where I have to really see what is the point of finding the cause of this?

Have any two situations in life been exactly identical for me?

Look at your life really.

Forget different situations.

Same person also does not behave exactly identical like last time.

I create a story.

You always do the same thing.

Really?

Does he do the same thing?

I have created a story.

I have created one story.

I have convinced myself.

I believe it to be true and I keep lashing it out at the other person.

I don't even know if the other person exists.

I don't even know if that person really exists or does not exist.

I create this whole drama around what he said or she said.

Wake up,

Wake up.

Transient.

Just Abhaas.

Just an appearance.

What's the point of finding the cause of it?

It happened.

It's gone.

Finish.

Let it go.

The situation has actually gone.

You are holding on to its memory.

You are holding on to its story and creating more drama.

And now emphasizing this.

I am the person.

I am the doer.

I am the experiencer.

Even more by trying to look for causes.

Just see reality as it is.

It's transient and it's gone.

Boof.

It's sucked into the black hole.

Does not exist anymore right now.

This is reality.

Let's be with this reality.

What is the point of looking for causes when something is transient?

Very clear?

Transient means temporary which goes away very quickly.

That's the meaning of transient.

Yeah.

What do causes matter when things themselves are transient?

Let come what comes and let go what goes.

Why catch hold of things and inquire about their causes?

Why?

What's the point?

So the questioner says from the relative point of view everything must have a cause.

Maharaj says of what use is the relative view to you?

You are able to look from the absolute point of view.

Why go back to the relative?

Are you afraid of the absolute?

Ask yourself.

Specially all of you have now at least got a glimpse of the absolute.

If you've not got established there you know you are the consciousness awareness that is the absolute view.

The relative view is I am the body-mind.

Why do you want to go back to this view of I am the body-mind?

The relative view when you know that this is who I am.

When you have the absolute view are you afraid of the absolute?

Yes,

Did you understand?

Relative and absolute.

Questioner says I am afraid.

I am afraid of falling asleep over my so-called absolute certainties.

For living a life decently absolutes don't help.

When you need a shirt you buy cloth,

Collar,

Tailor and so on.

Now this is coming from again an ignorant mind who has only intellectually understood I am not the body-mind.

I am the consciousness or awareness.

He's only intellectually got it.

He has not experientially got it.

If he had experientially seen I only project everything in the waking state just like I project the dream in the dream state.

The projections are the same.

So I am here at the back and he's very clear that I am the awareness and in that I can see the projection of this body-mind and I can see my family,

My career,

My work etc.

So he would be very clear but he's not experientially there.

You can understand from his questions.

Yes,

But I'm sure this is not the case with you.

All of you can experientially recognize I am the awareness.

So Maharaj says all this talk shows ignorance.

I need a shirt in the relative world.

I have to go to a tailor.

It's all part of the waking dream world.

All this is ignorance.

Ignorance means what?

Ignorance means I do not have the knowledge true knowledge that I am not this body and mind.

I am the awareness.

That is ignorance.

So questioner says and what is the knower's view?

Knower here in Marathi is gyani.

What is the gyani's view?

Maharaj says there is only light and the light is all.

Everything else is but a picture made of light.

The picture is in the light and the light is in the picture.

Life and death,

Self and non-self abandon all these ideas.

They are of no use to you.

Remember Maharaj,

He's just gone to school till the second grade.

He has no idea what is a hologram and these talks were somewhere in the 70s,

80s.

So that technology was not even there.

So there is no question that Maharaj knows what is a hologram yet he has described it.

So beautifully he has described it that these images that you see of husband,

Wife,

Parent,

Child,

Your friend,

Your enemy,

It's nothing.

It's a picture in light and light in picture that appears to move,

That appears like that to you.

Everything is nothing but light.

Light is all.

Everything is nothing but light.

Light is all.

So all questions of these pictures,

When is this picture going to be born and when is this picture going to die?

It's pointless,

No?

It's light.

Now is it very clear that you have no proof that you were born?

Is it clear that you are never going to die?

How can you die?

You are the light itself.

The picture is born.

The picture dies.

It's nothing but light.

It just transforms from one color to another color,

From one twinkling star to another twinkling star.

The light never dies,

Cannot die.

So he says,

Abandon all these ideas.

They are of no use to you.