Important Points - 23th November 2016

Right now, if you don't pick up any, then nothing needs to be dropped because first you need to pick it up. So the idea of separation, if it is not picked up, then nothing at all. If the idea, any conclusion, any concept is picked up about yourself, you see, who does the picking up? Yes, but this is the dichotomy that the mind creates. It is that the picking up is the getting of picking up, but the dropping is not the getting of the dropping. So if I say touch your nose, you did that, or it happened? Because that is the conclusion your mind is painting for you. You don't know how to do it; the mind doesn't know how to touch your nose also, you see.

So what happens is that we say, yes, the belief actually gets picked up, but the dropping... so when we say, 'Okay, drop it,' then, 'No, no, but that must happen on its own.' Why? Why that cannot happen as spontaneously as you touch your nose? So if this is a very, very important point, because this is the strongest source of Advaita resistance, so to speak, in a way. Because the dropping is as much a doing as the picking up is. Picking up and dropping must be at the same level of doership. But when it comes to picking up, we say, 'Okay, but that just happened,' isn't it? So if there is a sense that Consciousness can pick up the concept, then there must also be this sense that Consciousness can drop it. Who else but Consciousness is here?

So when we are talking about abiding in the Self, then we don't pick up the idea itself of doership. But when we do pick up the idea with the sense that 'I'm the doer,' then already the sense of separation is here, that I am a separate entity. As long as that sense is there, the sages advise us that: drop it, don't pick it up. If it is true that your sense is that Consciousness will do everything, there is no separate Shiv to do anything at all, you see, then the picking up of anything will also not cause any suffering, you see, because you see that I am not experiencing anything, it is only Consciousness. See, so that's what I've been saying last few days. It is only the half-and-half which gets us in trouble. 'I'm not the doer, Consciousness is the doer, but I'm still the experiencer.' And as the experiencer, I'm waiting for Consciousness to drop it. Well, that is not true. If you are not the doer, then you're also not the experiencer, you see.

All of this is being experienced within the space of Consciousness itself. There is no individual 'me' to do anything. If that is true, then it must also be seen that there is no individual 'me' that is suffering from something. Then no pointing is needed. When we continue to carry the sense that 'I am the experiencer but not the doer,' then that can be this sort of the victim mindset, sort of the 'me versus God' or 'God is doing this to me' type of mindset. So that is why it is said to, as long as there's a sense of separation, then we can do things, inquiry. There is no sense of separation if you're abiding in the Self, then nothing to be done at all. That's why when you look at the book 'Be As You Are,' the first chapter is just the Self. Is there an instruction? Nothing. It's just the spontaneous revolution: I am the Self, there is no doership, there is no separate experiencer, nothing to be done, no practice, nothing, you see.

But if it still feels like it is not true, 'I'm still suffering in this life,' you see, 'I'm still suffering in this life,' and this is very, very important because a sage does not say, 'I'm suffering in this life,' you see. Why is it that he does not say? Why is it that he doesn't say, 'Okay, suffering has to come, then I'm this kind of stuff'? He doesn't speak in Advaita like that. He is very conclusive that there is no real suffering. Whatever suffering comes is only momentary. Why? Because the sense of doer and experiencer have both dissolved. So if it is apparent that I am the Self, then there is no doer, there is no experiencer, nothing to be done. Everything is seen to be within the space of being. It doesn't affect or touch the reality of what I am.