Can You Remain Without Your Conclusions? - 28th November 2017
Saar (Essence)
Ananta highlights the absurdity of the self seeking the Self, guiding seekers to transcend the limited idea of 'I'. He reveals that our true reality is the unchanging consciousness beyond the transitory world.
The self is the unchanging you; all these states—waking, dream, sleep—cannot continue without you.
You are like a bird with perfectly functioning wings believing that you need crutches to walk.
All suffering is just a confusion about 'I'. If you are all there is, what is your trouble?
intimate
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
If they made a movie and they made a movie called Finding Nemo, but suppose the premise of the movie was that Nemo was looking for Nemo. If you say it's an absurd movie, it starts with the character named Nemo and he says, "Go and find Nemo." It's a crazy movie, this. But when we say, "I'm looking for the Self, I want to find the Self," why is that not observed? It should be easily seen. What must you be to go finding the Self? And the word Self itself signifies self. "I'm going to find myself, myself." This is the funny secret identity. And we have always been seeking. Humanity, you've been seeking different things, but we come to this seeking which is now looking for the Self because it got tired of finding these transitory things—things that come and go.
And somewhere all of us know that the death of the body is approaching. That is inescapable. But there are two things which are inevitable: death and taxes. So death is coming, and as we know this, you want to go beyond. See what is beyond death. It doesn't matter how old we are. In the Indian scriptures, there is a young boy, Nachiketa, who also had the same conversation with the Lord of Death, who offers him all kinds of worldly pleasure. He says, "Don't ask me for this knowledge. You're just a young boy. You have your whole life to entertain yourself with all kinds of pleasures." But this young boy says, "Will any of that outlast my death? Will it outlast you?" And the God of Death says, "No." This boy says, "Oh, then I don't want that because it is another coming and going."
So all of us somewhere or the other, if you're in Satsang, are like that young boy, truly asking myself: What is it that is beyond death? Who am I? Am I something that will die? Am I something that was born? And then we go on this adventure of trying to find the Self. And it's a beautiful adventure actually, with all the dramas of the ups and downs, all transitory ideas of getting it and losing it, of being a worthy seeker and being an unworthy seeker. But ultimately we come to see that I cannot find it like I find other objects. I cannot find it like a feeling. I will not find it like an inference. It will not be the same quality as Archimedes, who discovered a scientific principle and shouted in the bathtub, "Eureka!" because he saw something. So you will not resolve it or solve it in this way.
It is independent of whatever you might be perceiving. You don't need to have a fully yoga body, a healthy body; either way has nothing to do with the Self. It doesn't matter how much money is in your bank account or not. It doesn't matter whether we have wonderful personal relationships or not. None of this matters. What is it that you are independent of all of these things? Our worldly situation, a mental situation, our psychological situation, our intellectual situation—all these toys are there. Consciousness is playing with all of these, but you are beyond all of this. Oh no, we use these benchmarks to signify ourselves. What is the 'I' represents? The cities are built, as many trees they've said that that will change. It's not the Self. That which comes and goes is not your reality. That which cannot be perceived through worldly eyes and yet is that which moves itself. Why are you? What knows your existence?
You see, this is so primal to us that the mind can come and say, "It can't be this because this is too obvious." How many of you ever heard this one? Is that it? So simple as to be forward. But actually now we are tired of that which is complex. As Ashtavakra said, the mind is complex; let it go. The world is like a coloring book of consciousness. It discovered all these colors, but within this coloring book, it has taken one object and said, "This is me." The entire book, the entire universe, is nothing but a giant coloring book. The page that it is visiting, the dream that it is visiting, the attention that seems to create time and space—all of these are nothing but aspects of consciousness itself.
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Time is only so that it doesn't taste every color all at one go. If you want to savor every bite, space is only so that everything doesn't continue to appear as one, which is its actual reality. But it wants to savor itself in all its flavor. That's why time and space. In reality, you are beyond this. You are not contained in any space. And all of these are not fancy things; they are not esoteric. And the best, best news is that as you are empty of notions, this truth is complete. Yet apparently the mind will protest and say, "It is not apparent to me." Truth is not apparent to the mind, and it will really never be to the mind. All of this would only seem like a concept. But what is your insight about yourself right now? Not reportedly. Did your heart? You know that this body boundary is not my reality.
Where are you now? Do you have a location? Do you have a shape? The sensations that you are experiencing, do they continue or do you contain them? What perceives all things? You. And what is aware of this perceiving? You. Can you remain without your conclusions? Can you remain without your interpretations? You have polluted yourself to believe that they are helpful to you. They are completely meaningless. You could find yourself in any corner of the world, travel ten thousand miles in every direction looking for the Self, and you will not find it. You will not find it in any corner of the body. All your chakras might be open, all of this energy might be flowing—that is not the Self. You will not find it in any emotional feeling, sorry or happy, or find it in any thought because all these are changing. The Self is the unchanging you.
All these states—the waking state, the dream state, sleep state, Turiya state—none of these things can continue. If you have believed yourself to be an object in this waking state, how could that be? Because you were prior to this. Even if there is a world and time, without you there is no time. All of this is abstract. In none of these things can you be contained. You don't even have to transcend them; just transcend your ideas of them. You don't even have to transcend the ideas of them; just transcend the idea of yourself. Just this one idea. The idea of 'I' is not the idea of 'I'. Can you transcend this? The truth of the real 'I' is completely apart. Most of what is being needed are all the stored images, the withdrawal symptoms of the idea of 'you'. It's a funny story, like the fish who is completely in water but dreaming that it is thirsting for water.
This beautiful amusement park is here for your joy, and yet you've got so caught up in the ride that you forgot its playfulness. It's the fact that nothing here can hurt you. It's safer than Disneyland. And through the ages, you have heard so many reassurances that your reality is that which cannot be cut, it cannot be burned, cannot be scratched. And nobody has said that you will become that immortal one; everyone has said that you are. So just transcend this idea of 'I'. Let's be wobbly for a bit. If it has... it's like we've had these mental crutches. You are absolutely fine, but we had these crutches because we believed we needed them. And if we throw away these mental crutches for a while, it can play as if it is a bit wobbly. "Without my crutch, what am I doing? I'm going to fall."
But you are like a bird with perfectly functioning wings believing that you need crutches to walk. Actually, you fly. You can fly. So the wobbliness is your takeoff. You might feel like it is a fall. Don't let the concept rest behind any phenomenal thing. Don't let the concept of 'I' rest behind relationships. Don't let it rest behind money. Don't let it rest behind health of the body. And don't let it rest behind the seeker identity. You are none of these. Allow them to be present, but none of these are you. That's where the question is: What does 'I' represent? All confusion is only about this. All confusion, no matter what it might seem like, is about 'who am I'. All regret, all guilt, all pride, everything that you can call suffering is just a confusion about 'I'. If you are all there is—in fact, beyond even all there is is also you—now tell me, what is your suffering? What's your trouble? First you have to invent the individual.
The Thread Continues
These satsangs touch the same silence.
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