About Likes and Dislikes - 19th July 2016

The first thing to know is that this body is quite innocent. It's not the body what is doing it. You're sitting over there innocently, poor thing, isn't it? So is the body concerned with relationship? No. Is the body concerned about how much money is in the bank account? No, the body is not concerned. So the body we have seen as just one simple inner person we are looking for is this one who... Ananta is a concept we have. I don't like Ananta, a concept we have. Who is he? So if it is not the body who can like or dislike the appearance of another body, body is not concerned. Who is that one that is concerned? And I'll sweeten the deal for you: if you show me this one, you can win a thousand dollars.

No, I have tried. There's nobody.

You agree? Why? Because you checked. When you check, you find no one. Yes. Okay, so still, why? How is this? This is good. So upon the recognition also, if you find that there is nobody here, then why is it that I still seem to operate in this way? That is the question. Now, what is it that is trying to convince you that there is a person here with likes and dislikes? Huh? That is only one, and it's a voice. It is the voice of the mind. Because every thought is reliant on the presumption that you are separate from the rest of this. You know, thought is speaking to you as if you are this person. Even the thought which says 'I am God' is speaking from a tone of specialness. You see? 'How I have attained God' or something like that. And the same thought will tell you tomorrow that you're worthless, useless. So this one, who is this one representing? It says, 'Oh, this one is not so nice.' So this one is nice, I want to be with him, I want to be with her. You see this voice we can all hear, isn't it? The energy construct called thoughts. Who are they representing? What's our minds? They're coming out of my mind. We already said that this 'me' I cannot find. In this body, I found atoms and molecules. So another form of energy is this thought which is saying, 'This is what you must do. Eventually you have to go back in the real world. See, all these satsangs are fine, but what about the real world?' It says this derivative.

So this one who is the client? It is the lawyer. Same objection, objection, objection to everything that is appearing. But who is the client? The one who's appearing? So this 'me' is which one? We already said it's not the body. So the mind will come and say, 'But see, now you're spending too much money, your bank account will become less.' But the body doesn't know anything about money. Is it happening? Ah, this is good. So to see that this voice is without the client is the first step. I cannot find that one that I am always representing. You see, this is the Leela now. If this world of Maya appears, Leela is the play in this world of Maya, which means that first I have to presume myself to be this person which I cannot find. I look and I look and I look, I can't find this person.

Now what happens? We find that there are these two forces: one is the force of attention and second is the force of belief. How does it work? A thought will come. The thought could say, 'I am really enjoying this satsang,' which is a rare thought, but suppose this was a thought. 'I'm being nice to myself.' So the thought comes, 'I'm really enjoying this satsang.' If your attention then didn't go to it, then it would not even appear. It would just be gone. Something just passed. But attention goes to it. You see, this attention is then... bring your attention to a pink colored elephant. Quickly attention starts going to this visual of it, isn't it? So this attention is a tricky force. The more you try to control it, the more it wants to run. See, I say 'don't think of an orange,' quickly attention goes to an orange. Your attention is like that. But just because attention goes to it doesn't mean you're still identified as a person. The ego is not yet born. In a sense, you also need to give it your belief. You see? So if the thought is saying, 'Oh, I am wearing an orange jacket today,' your attention went to it, but still you have not believed it. You see? So you also have the power of belief. So this is this power of belief which allows you to define yourself in some way. 'I am like this. I am an honest person. I am hardworking.' You see? 'I am straightforward.' This kind of thing we define about ourselves because we have the power to believe our thoughts.

Now the person that we are presuming ourselves to be is nothing but a bundle of these concepts. And this 'I am this,' it is only a power of belief which allows us to append attributes to the pure presence, I Am, and make it 'I am this' or 'I am that.' So as we find that we look for the one that the thoughts are representing, we find that there is nobody here. More and more our beliefs in these thoughts start to reduce. As you hear this, the thought will come and say, 'But what will happen to your life? It will become a mess. Who will do your work? Who will pay your bills?' You don't like this, isn't it? Now this is reliant on the presumption, this is dependent on the idea that this one who I cannot even find has been running my life so far. Instead of the simple seeing: the one that is moving the planets, that is beating this heart, that is pumping the blood, that is breathing this breath, that one must be doing all of this anyway. See, you can do all of this, she can move millions of planets, but my bills he cannot pick up? This is the idea. But who is doing all this? No, that's fine. You look, isn't it?

So as we are coming more and more to the seeing of what we are, our reliance on this non-existing ego is dropping. Our belief in this is dropping. So to come to the end of suffering is this simple pointing: don't believe your next thought. You cannot suffer unless you believe a thought. Yeah, you cannot even report something that is happening to you unless you buy a thought about it. So belief has been invested a lot in our favorite juicy attributes. We have been very focused on our relationship. In a relationship, a thought comes and that will still get our belief. If I say that you are terrible at ice skating—these old examples are coming back—if I say you're terrible at ice skating, does it hurt you? It doesn't hurt you. What if I say you're a terrible wife? Ouch. Okay. If I say you're a terrible writer, yes, something will get you. You see? So why? Why not terrible ice skating? Because there is no identity invested with that. Now, if you had invested your identity in being an Olympic level ice skater and somebody came and told you that you're a terrible ice skater, then it could hurt. So it is that which we have believed so much in the past, it is that which we have attachment to, the concepts, and those are accountable. Then it can seem like something is hurt. You see? But we also have said, 'I don't find the person here.' So who is the mother? Who is the... it exists as an idea that has been given belief and therefore it becomes the sense of identity around this concept.

So then what is this that we call liberation? That is the root of the question. I feel when I ask you, 'Who are you?', I feel that very simply now you can come to the recognition of who you are. So does that mean that in this simple recognition I can say all of you are liberated? I can, actually. But in the appearance of this play, there is also this sense that the appearance of those which we call the sages are not believing what the thoughts are saying about themselves. It doesn't change anything fundamental about what you are because you are Atma only. But in this worldly appearance of the play, different sort of traits are being exhibited. And in the sages, the trait of laughing at every thought is being exhibited. It just becomes as if the comedian is sitting inside the head. That which you are taking so seriously now starts sounding like a joke. This voice which is convincing you that you're a person, it's a joke.

There are... what happened? Something happens. You can see. I've heard everything was there, but... but or something. So then we are so much into, you know, getting connected, I mean, to the existence and everything. Why can't we just stay in there?

So the question is, in a different way, we ask this question often in such terms that Bhagwan said 'abide in that' or 'stay as that.' For example, you see, now the flip side to it is that: can you leave that and show me? You cannot leave it. So if you cannot leave it, then what effort can we make to connect to it? You see? So therefore the sense of 'abiding in it' or when it is pointed 'stay as the Self,' it only means in a very natural way: stop pretending to be something you're not. There is no staying. Awareness doesn't have to stay as awareness; it is just awareness. I ask you, can you stop being? You can't stop being. You see? Then do you have to make an effort to be? So if being is coming, so what is there to abide? It is just effortless. You see? So it is the... I would like to say that it is the dropping of the pretense which is the abiding.

So we need to find the pretense. You don't have to find it; the mind will offer you pretense every moment. It will give you something. More and more you come to the recognition of who you are, you will find that even this urge to believe the mind will reduce. Just like once you find that it is cholesterol which led to the second heart attack for the body—I'm not saying addictions are the same, for example—then the plate of mithai on the conveyor belt or the buffet table will not seem that attractive. So the more we have come to the recognition of who we are, and when the mind is saying, 'But she was so mean to you' or 'He is behaving like this with me,' we are talking about you don't believe them naturally. So naturally the sense of belief in the thought is dropping at the recognition of the true as it's arising. Then you find that there is no effort needed to stay as the truth. The truth is always staying. It is the power of pretending to be the false which is dropping.