All Effort Is Imagined - 9th November 2017

You just I hear you are here. All effort is imagined. Therefore, effort to want to get somewhere, you have to take a position. The concept has to come, the idea has to come: 'I must find freedom, I must do something, I must become a better person.' I must be what if? But without that, what are you now? That is why this is like the pathless path, and this is where it is frustrating for some but joyous for others. Because when you are looking for a path, like some way to get there, what this is, is to show you that there is no way to get. If your presence, if your existence, if your being needed some getting to—if we had to walk 100 miles for God to be here—then we would say, 'Yes, we need a path.' But if God is here, and like I say, if the God is a God where you need to walk a hundred miles to get to it, then it's a pointless God. If God cannot be here all the time effortlessly, then what kind of God would that mean?

We are finding that which is effortlessly present. What is here without judgment, without interpretation, without any knowledge or understanding? If you need a concept to become that, let's take an example. Suppose I say there is only the Self. Forget about all of the concepts. Some can come, so I know something into the Son and the Father. You said there is only the Self; forget about everything else. And I say okay, forget about that concept also, that there is only the Self. So, we taking—I need something—I am going to. So that's why these very simple concepts have been given, that 'Tat Tvam Asi,' you are that, I am that, only Brahman is, only the Self is. So these very simple concepts have been given and you can hang everything else on this because everything else is subservient to this. What does it matter what do I have to do next if only God is, if only the Self? What does it matter what my bank account is if only the Self? The Self will take care of itself in whatever way it wants.

So in Satsang, we find some pointers like this, some direction like this or instruction like this. But ultimately, even that is to be burned. Bhagavan had this beautiful example of using a stick to burn the film in fire. The stick is not left outside; it is also thrown into them. Everything is burned. This is what I've been calling recently your motionless existence. And this can feel a bit naked, if you like. I have no defenses. And some fear can come from here also. They know mind will offer you, 'No, no, no, this is too much, too much for me. But give me something that I can hold on to.' Now, we can hold on to the Satguru's feet. We don't hold on to any concept. Ultimately, even the Satguru's feet is a concept, but for a while you will find some peace if there is fear in these forms. Sometimes there is joy in response. Just there is no separation.

All this which is being perceived within me, a notion can come: 'See, this joy is the proof of your freedom.' No, it's another byproduct. So proof of the freedom is actually needed? Whether it is fear or it is joy, at least this kind of the joy of presence almost, it's not—it's incomparable to the usual objective joy and the joy of having a very nice thing, taste in the sweet water, a dream. But the joy of your being presence, it's a beautiful joy. But there is even deeper joy because even if you are experiencing this joy all the time, there comes the time where you're done with it. You see, I want to go to sleep. The way experience being this most beautiful joy is enough. No matter what you're tasting in this world is the most beautiful music, the objective joy is the taste, it could be sound, it could be visual sight. Then real joy, which is just within arising with your own presence. But even that, when you're done with the experience of all perception, there comes this way.

Now, the joy there is not a tangible. You cannot see. Go to sleep. That itself convinced, 'I had a very nice sleep last night.' Is it can be that it was a suffering experience or a joyful experience? Joy, and yet can you see or you describe joy? This is beyond the concept of perceptual joy. This is joy, yet this is the Brahman-ness. The joy of the Self isn't this joy is not a tangible, not a held-onto joy. Yes, your very originality to the frequency of your truth. It's awareness. You can never see there it is suffering.