Experiences Do Not Guarantee Freedom - 27th November 2017

Sri Ramana Maharshi said that the discovery of true knowledge is only the letting go of ignorance. Letting go of ignorance is all that is needed. You don't have to find anything because to find would mean that it is not you. So recognition is always apparent. When the false is let go of, the truth is completely apparent to you right now, always. Whether the eyes are closed or open, it is always apparent. But it is the mind's certificate—the mind's certificate doesn't seem to always be available. Right now you exist, and you know of this existence. This is not a mental knowing. It is not even a perception. Your existence is definitely not a motion; it is not false. So it is not mental. You're not thinking 'I exist' and that's why you exist. You don't have to think, you don't have to feel 'I exist' or reinforce it with some emotion. It is not even an object of your perception. Does it have a shape? Does it have a color? Any physical attribute? No.

This knowingness is called pure knowledge itself. Traditionally they used to call it pure knowledge. Just awareness is here. You don't have to remember it; you cannot forget it. It has nothing to do with mind, intellect, emotions, perception, or anything. This truth is completely apparent, but not in the way that you're quite used to thinking about truth. We've been trained like this, unfortunately. 'What is the capital of Namibia?' Because we don't have the concept or the name for it, we feel like 'I don't know it.' And because we don't have the concept for the Self, it can feel like 'I don't know.' That is the struggle of the spiritual seeker. That which is so obvious and apparent, we are waiting for some concept to prove it. We're waiting for some sensation to prove it. We're waiting for some awakening experience to happen. 'Something must happen to prove to me that I have discovered the Self.'

But the Self is not discoverable in that way. It is not something you will learn conceptually. It is not a feeling that you will have, and even the experience will only be a byproduct. The experience itself cannot be the Self. So if you get excited about seeing lights or having visions, and you think 'That is that experience going to happen today? That is when I was seeing clearly,' we know that that experience doesn't mean much. Many have had these experiences also and then completely went back to believing themselves to be people. There is no such thing as a final experience; this is just an idea. Many times it can be that you have various forms of spiritual experience and your mind tells you you are so special, but spiritual ego is impossible—well, not impossible, but difficult to see.

Experiences do not guarantee freedom. Concepts don't guarantee freedom. Your freedom is already guaranteed. You exist; that is your freedom guarantee. That which exists is always free. But that which you consider yourself to be has to be shaken. That's what the Sage meant when he said true knowledge is only the dropping of ignorance. So when you stop considering yourself to be that which you can never be—you can never be limited, you never will be something which has a duration of birth and a death—you are the Atma which is beyond all of this and beyond all perceptions.