The Destination In All Journeys Is One: Self

Hello everybody and welcome to another one of my talks.

I'm really happy to have you here.

I'm a traditional self-knowledge teacher,

It's called Atma Vidya.

It's the core teaching of Vedanta and what we're doing,

We're going to do a mantra which is traditional in the beginning of each class where the teacher and students we ask for absolute understanding so there's never any misunderstanding between us and that we can understand one thing,

Understand the knowledge of ourselves.

So this talk is called The Destination in All Journeys Self.

So please just close your eyes and I'll just repeat this mantra.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti So the topic for today,

The Destination in All Journeys.

What is the destination in all journeys?

When you analyze it,

What do you realize?

You are the destination in every journey.

So more to the point is,

Not only the destination but who is the traveler in all the journeys?

So traveling in all the journeys is one thing,

Self.

Self is the origination of the journey,

It begins in yourself and then you are the journey actually and then when you get to the destination,

You are the destination as well.

So now when you expand that out and you take that into this journey of life,

What is the journey that we're on and what is the destination?

So now we all can get into all these practices like yoga and spirituality etc.

But is anybody telling us the destination of yoga?

And what is the destination of meditation,

Spirituality,

Philosophy?

Self is the end of philosophy because everybody is philosophizing about self,

About one thing.

I'm interested in only one thing.

We are all interested in only one thing.

Sounds very selfish.

All we are interested in is I.

And what is the destination of this I?

So let's look at this.

Who is the traveler traveling through all our journeys?

I.

And if you think about this,

I is the original time traveler traveling through all the different ages of human beings and time is one thing.

I.

Who is this I?

And this is what the Upanishadic teachings have always unraveled and unfolded,

The meaning of the word I.

And so when you look at it,

Of course,

When we look at ourselves,

We think I means something separate to us,

But when you analyze it,

We are the meaning of this word I.

There is no other meaning.

So what are we talking about?

We are talking about the meaning of ourselves.

Subtler than any destination or any journey is the traveler.

The traveler is the destination.

Is there any other destination to any journey?

No.

On the journey we are the journey and at the destination we are the destination.

So it becomes actually kind of catch 22.

It's a destinationless destination.

The traveler is the destination and in fact the only destination.

Because at the end of the day,

Who cares where we're going?

We want to be with ourselves.

This is the whole thing.

I mean,

It's so crazy when you get everyone going on retreats to like Costa Rica or some exotic location.

At the end of the day,

All you want to go there for and everybody says,

Come and be with yourself.

Huh?

If I'm not with myself already,

Then how does self get there without me?

If I'm traveling to some exotic island,

How did self get there without my permission?

What happened?

That I have to go there to kind of connect with myself or I have to do something to connect with myself.

And what you really realize when you get into self-knowledge,

Atma Vidya,

Which is what I teach,

You realize the destination is already reached.

We are the destination.

So the question really is,

What is separating us?

Why do I feel separate from myself that I have to now connect with myself?

And so this is what it's all about.

This teaching has traveled through the oceans of time,

Survived the ocean of time,

This teaching called Atma Vidya.

It gets named under different things,

Sri Vidya,

Brahma Vidya,

Ishwara Vidya,

Para Vidya,

It's all.

But Vidya just means knowledge.

The Vedas carry all the wisdom and at the end of the Vedas comes the teaching called Vedanta.

Vedanta,

The word just means the end of knowledge.

And where does all journeys end?

Where does knowledge end?

It ends in you.

I mean,

I can't carry the knowledge for somebody else.

I can't resolve the knowledge of this I for any of you guys.

It has to resolve in every one of us.

So the teaching has always been there to just help us resolve one thought that separates us from ourselves.

Really?

One thought just separates us.

I,

The thought of myself,

Just keeps on separating me from myself.

How does this work?

Because,

And we've all gone through this,

If you've studied any sort of spirituality,

Anything,

People tell us,

Oh,

The only thing that's separating is conditioning and names and all these kind of things,

You know.

So now what happens?

We get locked off in our name as kids.

We've got no option but to take our name and our body and everything to be who we are.

And wow,

It's just so beautiful,

Because as a child you just want to get lost in all the joy and the journey.

But then somewhere along in the journey we start to question.

And that's the whole point of this whole journey,

Is that you question the destination of where this is taking you.

We arrive and find ourselves in creation,

In this whole vastness,

And what happens?

We get in a body,

We don't know what we're doing here,

Where are we going,

And what's happening,

Or where the journey is taking us.

And then somewhere along the line we start questioning.

But before we do that,

We come into this body and we're existing in this body.

We say,

I exist.

All right?

I exist.

We all exist.

And there's one thing that we can't deny,

And that is our existence.

Everybody can deny God,

We can deny creation,

We can go and deny all the stuff around us and say it's all maya and illusion and everything.

But one thing you can't deny is the one saying it's all an illusion.

One thing you can't deny is your own self,

Your own existence.

And so the journey of life is the journey of self towards the destination.

And what is the destination?

Can the destination be anything but self?

The journey begins in self,

And where is it going to end?

Can it end anywhere else other than self?

So what is the whole point of this journey?

To know oneself.

And that's why the teachings come right at the end of the Vedas,

The oldest books of mankind.

The teachings come that are to do with the traveler.

Subtler than all the destinations is the traveler.

So who is the traveler in this journey?

That's the question.

Who is the traveler in the journey?

I am.

So then the next question comes is who is I?

And when you analyze it,

And I mean everybody in the world is very interested today in consciousness,

Everybody's talking about corporations want to know what consciousness is,

Everybody's trying to own consciousness.

You can never own consciousness because consciousness owns everything already.

It already owns the travel and the destination and the traveler.

It is nothing but consciousness traveling in itself.

The question is,

Like space,

Do we go to some destination to,

You know,

Exotic destination,

We're talking about,

You know,

Exotic islands earlier,

Do we go to some exotic island to enjoy space?

Do we go to festivals that are celebrating silence?

No,

We go to celebrate sounds and forms and we enjoy all the forms that are happening in space,

But no one goes to go and say,

No,

I'm going to go and enjoy space,

Or I'm going to go and enjoy silence.

So the same thing with consciousness.

Right now we are already conscious.

Try to stop being conscious,

Please.

Please stop having a thought right now.

Already conscious.

Can consciousness travel anywhere?

Like space.

So that's why I used space as an example.

Space is a metaphor of consciousness.

So now,

Where do you have to travel to be in space?

Do you have to go to Mars,

Go to the sun?

Wherever you travel to the edge of time,

You are in space.

So too consciousness.

Where can consciousness travel?

Nowhere.

Everywhere is just consciousness.

The same consciousness here,

Same consciousness everywhere.

Same space here,

Same space everywhere.

Silence here,

Same silence everywhere.

And the beauty is that,

As I said just now,

Already we are conscious.

There's nothing you need to do to be conscious.

There's no way you can make yourself more or less conscious than you already are.

Something Leonard Cohen wrote in a song of his,

Which is very beautiful actually,

And he says in his really beautiful voice,

You know,

The fact that after years of spiritual rigor you did not manage to enlighten yourself.

That's Leonard Cohen talking,

Okay?

And the question is,

Why?

You know,

He's talking about himself probably.

You did not even manage to enlighten yourself.

Why?

Because we're already enlightened.

We're really,

Yeah,

Just sitting here,

Thinking our thoughts,

Being,

Existing already is consciousness,

Already enlightened.

You can't enlighten self,

Because self is already the light,

The brightest light shining in everything.

Enlightening everything is nothing but consciousness,

But consciousness.

Self,

You are already enlightening everything in your universe,

All your thoughts,

Your inner universe,

In your mind,

Your thoughts,

Memories,

Associations,

Relationships.

Who's enlightening all of that?

You are.

And also,

Most importantly,

You are enlightening this relationship with this word and thought called I,

The I-thought.

So,

Because self is already the brightest,

Self is enlightening everything.

You cannot enlighten the brightest.

Try.

It's like trying to wash the sun or polish the sun.

Do you have to polish the sun and wash the sun?

No,

Suns are shining all the time,

And self,

And this is the beauty of this,

Self is the sun,

Right?

The sun is just a metaphor of self.

So,

You don't need to polish or wash yourself.

It's already the absolute,

Already the brightest is shining in all of us.

The light of self is shining in all of us,

As Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita,

The light of a thousand exploding suns.

But now,

All that Krishna is talking about is this self that we already all are,

That is brighter than the light of a thousand exploding suns.

Now,

How bright is that?

So,

Brighter than the sun,

In other words,

Is the seer of the sun.

So,

On this journey that we're on,

Where are we going and what is enlightening everything?

One thought is traveling in its own imagination and getting lost in the travel,

Lost in the thought,

Is nothing but consciousness,

Going,

Traveling in time,

Space,

And then getting to the journey and finding the end of the journey,

When you start questioning who is on this journey and where is this journey taking me,

You'll find that it's only consciousness.

So,

You don't need to polish or wash yourself.

All we need to do and can do is recognize the brightness,

The blemish-less that's already ourselves.

So,

Subtler than any journey and any destination is yourself,

The destination-less destination,

Because it's already reached,

We are already conscious,

We are already the self.

Can consciousness travel anywhere?

The same consciousness here,

The same consciousness everywhere.

All travel is happening in consciousness.

All we are doing is getting lost in one tiny little thought,

I,

And so the destination in all journeys is I.

Where the journey originates is ourselves,

We are the journey,

We are the destination.

So,

How do I get to know this?

Because if I get into crisis and I want to know what the destination of the whole thing is,

How do I get to know this?

Trying to look at the sun,

Can anybody look at the sun?

It's like looking at self,

It's like trying to look into the sun,

You can't,

It's impossible.

And it's impossible for us to see ourselves.

Look into yourself,

See where you can look.

The one looking is the destination and the answer,

But we cannot see that without somebody who has already reached the destination being there to point it out.

And so,

I was very lucky and I met the tradition that's been going on,

Timelessly pointing out the destination.

And this is the journey of yoga,

The journey of meditation,

The journey of all of us,

Never mind yoga,

Meditation,

The journey of our lives is to ourselves,

Not to be separate,

Not to connect,

Not to just sit and connect with ourselves,

Because that connection doesn't last,

It's momentary.

As you've probably all seen,

I've been doing yoga for 50 years until I came across the tradition of teaching Atma Vidya.

You do the practices,

You're all beautiful and happy and everything,

And then you go off and get in the world and what's happening right now with us,

You know,

And it all kind of crumbles and crashes down,

You get kind of like freaked out,

It doesn't last.

But once you understand whose journey it is,

And who and what consciousness is,

Because it's no good just talking,

I'm conscious,

We don't know what is consciousness,

And I'm the universe,

We don't know what is the universe,

What is universe?

I know that I exist,

But I don't know what that existence means,

Or what existence is,

And what is existing.

So,

Like,

This is where the teaching comes in,

And answers the question of one thing,

I.

So,

All the Vedas,

At the end,

The Paravidya,

Atma Vidya,

The knowledge,

Vedanta,

That comes at the end,

Answers one question,

The question of the questioner,

Who is on this journey?

There's only one person on this journey,

And that's yourself,

And there's only one person who can answer this question of the questioner,

And that is ourselves.

And what we discover in this beautiful tradition of teaching,

Is that we,

The questioner,

Are not only the destination,

We are the answer to the question of who is I.

So,

Now the meaning of the word I just needs to be pointed out,

And that's always been the case with this tradition,

It always points out the meaning of the questioner.

The answer and meaning of this word I is already imminent in the one questioning.

The course that I'm doing on Insight Time,

Which I really encourage you to look at,

Is the Gift in Crisis.

Our lives are just built on swinging from crisis to crisis to crisis,

And there's only one thing going through crisis,

And that's a thought,

I.

Conflicted and getting conflicted in everyone and conflicting everyone is the same I.

So,

One thing just needs to be resolved,

And it turns out to just be one thought just needs resolving.

The thought of ourselves,

I.

Individuality.

So,

The thought of I is the ego,

Obviously,

In the tradition we call it Ahamkara,

The I-maker,

I do.

So,

This ego is not the problem.

Ignorance is the problem.

Having never thought about ourselves,

We suddenly start thinking about ourselves,

And then when we get into crisis,

The whole thing starts challenging one thing,

The ego,

And the ego's job is to just resolve itself for us,

And what it's doing all the time is resolving all our thoughts.

The ego's job is just there to resolve all our questions,

Our quandaries,

Our conflicts for us,

Ending in the final conflict which is the conflict of ourselves,

The crisis of ourselves,

And that's the job of the ego,

And once that job is done,

No more crisis,

Because if the I can no longer get in crisis,

Then where's the crisis?

Is the universe,

Creation,

World ever in a crisis?

Where?

There is no crisis,

There is no conflict anywhere,

There's never been any conflict anywhere in the world,

In creation,

Nature.

Is there any conflict?

Where?

Clouds fighting with the sky,

Fighting with each other,

Lightning fighting with everything,

No,

It's just nature,

Being nature.

Only one thing is getting conflicted and getting us in conflict,

And that's ourselves,

Human beings,

And only one thing in the human being is getting conflicted and conflicting everybody and fighting with each other.

Is there,

I thought,

Individuality.

Flags don't fight,

Nationalities don't fight,

Countries don't fight.

You know,

We set up these borders and then we take them to be real and take them to be the truth,

And then who's fighting?

Countrymen are fighting,

Nationalists are fighting.

Once you resolve the thought of yourself for yourself,

The fight is over.

So,

The battleground in all of us is one thing,

I.

So,

Traveling to this destination,

You cannot escape the truth,

You can't.

And so,

The Vedas and the teaching of self-knowledge has always answered the truth.

This I already is the truth,

Before we can even think about it.

Where do we pick up this I?

How long has I been existing?

Before we came into this existence,

The word I has been existing for how long?

We just pick it up and say I exist,

And I am I,

And all these things,

And we superimpose all our own ideas on our little word,

Taking the word then to be the truth of who we are,

Until it gets challenged,

Until our ideas get challenged.

And then,

Where do we go?

So,

No longer recognizing ourselves,

We start looking for answers.

But what we all do is ignore the one looking who is already the answer,

Already the seeker of the truth,

Already brings the truth and carries the truth with them,

Which has always been in this tradition of teaching.

Already coming as a student to this knowledge,

The teacher's job is easy,

Because the person themselves brings that solution with them.

You already are the answer to the question.

We carry the truth with us,

And then all the teacher does is point it out.

So,

On this gift in crisis,

All I'm doing is pointing out that already we are the solution to all our problems.

Before we even question or think of questioning ourselves,

Of thinking of some destination,

We already are the destination.

As I said in the beginning,

Subtler than any destination is the traveler.

The traveler is the destination and brings the destination with us.

Because traveling to some exotic island,

When we get there,

We've already there.

Self is already arrived.

If you're looking for silence,

Silence is everywhere,

Wherever you go.

The same with consciousness.

Consciousness,

Wherever we go,

There is nothing but consciousness,

Self-awareness.

So,

There,

The nameless is as though traveling in itself.

Therefore,

There is nowhere for this I to go but itself.

I is the universe.

The universal traveler is nothing but I.

You are nothing but the meaning of this journey.

Please close your eyes.

Notice how closing the eyes doesn't mark the beginning of consciousness.

Already conscious,

Already present is the destination.

In all destinations,

You've got no choice but to be present.

Already present is the choiceless choice oneself.

So,

Just listening now to the sounds around you,

Wherever you are,

Notice how sounds come and go,

Whatever sounds they might be,

Car and distance,

Voices.

The sounds have got no choice but to reach their destination.

Silence.

And silence here,

Silence everywhere.

The same silence in and through everything.

Silence itself never changes.

Always present.

The same silence now is the same silence that's ever been.

No matter what age,

Whether it was dinosaurs or human beings,

Silence remains the same,

Complete already.

Nothing can ever alter,

Disturb or change the silence.

In the same way,

Like silence,

Consciousness never changes.

In other words,

The destination never disappears nor changes.

Ever present,

Ever oneself,

Unchallengeable,

Forever the same,

Unthreatenable is oneself.

Timeless,

Ageless,

Ever fresh,

Effortlessly,

You are the gift,

The traveller is the journey.

In every journey,

Knowing that,

Knowing oneself as the changeless,

Enjoy all the changes.

Effortlessly.

There is nothing but peace,

Nothing but peace,

Nothing but changeless peace.