The Mind Will Not Give You a Certificate of Freedom - 8 Apr 2016
Saar (Essence)
Ananta emphasizes that you are already free in this instant before any thought arises. He guides seekers to recognize themselves as the unchanging witness, rather than the conditioned identity created by the mind.
Right now you're free. You cannot pretend to be bound unless you start thinking about it.
The mind is an 'Anytime Misery Machine'; it only works if you give it your attention and belief.
Who are you in this moment, before you can even remember your own name?
intimate
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
When you persevere to the realization of what you are, there is no greater venture in that. All of the adventures can happen, but there's no greater adventurer than this one. One of the saints said it: you don't actually have to wait for anything to happen. The sense can be that 'I want to be done with this.' Within this also, that 'I want to be done, I want it now,' we are adding some conditioning to ourselves—the conditioning of the 'I' that even wants freedom. We don't need first to ask Guru to show me some bondage this moment. Now. Now, before I give you a chance to think about it, can you find it? If I give you a chance to think about it and go to your world of thoughts about yourself, then you can give me some seeming causes of bondage. Prior to any of that, what is here? No one can take your freedom away. So that which we have been looking for has always been here.
So, I enter into the routine. This recognition of the Self is always available here. So this recognition is available in this instant, and all that is left actually is just the getting rid of prior conditioning. Then there is nothing that the 'I' can do. The 'I' entity, which is the conditioning itself, tries to play the role of 'now I'll go to the help to get rid of the conditioning.' Any story we buy from this 'I' is actually adding to this conditioning. So now let's recap: right now you're free. Before I let you think about it, you're free. You cannot pretend to be bound unless you start thinking about it, start believing your thoughts about that. That's right. Start saying 'now, now, now, now.' It is now, just now. And now you are with me. In this instant, you have this explanation that that which is here cannot be bound, actually.
And yet I say keep coming to Satsang, because I know that the instant recognition which is available right now doesn't automatically imply that all prior conditioning is gone. But again, there is nothing that you can do about it. The feeling that 'I must do something about it' in the simplest way actually is to be. What can we do about it? And we said that I have given you a simple pointing: don't believe your next thought. Sometimes it doesn't seem so simple. If that doesn't seem to work, then there's option two, which is this: inquire into who you are. Who am I really? If that doesn't work, then just keep coming to Satsang. In coming to Satsang, all this prior conditioning will get wiped away.
When you say, 'Even Satsang is not happening, I'm not enjoying, not feeling like being here, some fundamental stuff is coming like that,' then you can take some meditation. Remember the prayer? 'Apply wisdom so easily.' Okay, but 'I don't have the capacity or the inclination, or I've done it, been there, done that, it's not helping me.' Then I say you chant some mantra. Take a favorite form of the formless forms and invoke it through chanting of mantra. Say, 'Not even that, I can't even do that.' Then I say, 'Okay, move your limbs about a little bit, do some Hatha Yoga.' 'Not even that.' Okay, even if that is not happening, then surrender it over to the Power. It is total duality, no ships. Okay, still please, even if prayer is not happening, then surrender.
And yesterday, when I said we will know that, what if someone has a sleep disorder? I said, 'Go experience it.' And I only speak from my experience. I can't help you with that; that you need to go to a sleep expert. But I don't see that it is getting from harder to symptoms. It actually feels like it is adding more and more complexity, which is to do in this effortlessness right now, not by what the mind is saying next. It's the simplest thing. It is the mind which is a burden; it's going to be sticking with the opposite. Everyone, when we come to Satsang, we talk about how to get rid of something positive, how to be rid of misery. So today, let's try the opposite. Let's try to become fully miserable. Let's see if you can become fully miserable. How will you achieve it? Can you achieve it without the thoughts? In your natural state, can you become miserable? In your suffering, you will find no, you need the help of this mind.
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Some of you are here who have not heard my ATM example. It's my all-time favorite. So, we want misery, so we go to the ATM—the Anytime Misery machine. What is the Anytime Misery machine? It is the mind. So how do we access this anytime misery? First, we must draw attention to what the mind is saying. And the mind will come with some thought: 'I am not free yet,' for example. 'I don't deserve to be free. I don't deserve to be through this. I have not given so many Satsangs.' See, some thought. Attention is gone. It seems like it is real at all. But if the thought was that 'I have turned into an alligator,' you won't believe this. See, although attention went to it—'I'm now a pink elephant'—the thought came like that, attention has gone to it.
So, attention to the mind card. You have put in my ATM card, but you also need your PIN number—your Personal Identification—to say that this is true, to say that this is meaningful or this is relevant. And really, after we put the attention to the mind card and the personal identification—believe them—can we get some misery from the mind? But if you keep doing this and then saying 'I want to be free of misery,' then it doesn't work, because you are accessing the ATM, taking out misery with your attention and belief, and then at the same time believing this thought that 'I really want to be free from misery.' You are free right now unless you think about it.
So what happens is that I see you are free right now, and I can see that sometimes your attention is going to the mind saying, 'Is this true?' The mind will not give you the certificate of freedom. It will take over them. It doesn't know what it's talking about. 'He's from some other planet where everyone is very easily free, not here.' One can see this kind of thing. So who do you want to listen to? You want to listen to what is being shared here, or do you want to listen to what the mind is saying? Because both ways is pure turbulence. This thing along gave this seeming spiritual journey.
So I'm saying that, okay, not even you are stuck here now, whether you like it or not, at least for some time you're stuck in this room now. So it is for this time when we say that 'I will hear this one that is speaking from here and not believe anything the mind is saying.' We lose kindness of our whole life because we listen to this. Work a few minutes with this. This is working, at least in Satsang. Because otherwise, we have this three-sided conversation where I am speaking here, you are giving it to the mind, the mind is saying whatever, and you're listening to the mind. This three-sided conversation does no good. In fact, it is more than what am I saying. I am saying you are free now, and you check, you find this to be true. When you check in every moment, do you find this to be true?
But the mind says, 'But my feeling is still my sleeping,' like using the other. 'Mind is still the same. Oh, my thoughts are still in this.' Nothing is happening to you. That which witnesses these feelings and comments—is someone else witnessing these feelings and thoughts for you? Are you not directly the witness of all of this? Whatever is appearing in your outside world and your seeming inside you, who are you? You are the witness. What is happening to this witness? Can something that is seen change anything that is seen in this witness? And is the witness really interested in the life of whatever you suppose it enables? Just listen without any real concern. It is just witnessing without any concern what is appearing. It's just that we have invested too much in the idea that 'this is my life, this is my story.' And because we have invested too much in this idea and I am saying there is no return on this investment, that's where your mind will fight this.
There is no return on this investment of yourself as an ego. There is no need to pick up any thoughts about your individual existence. In fact, it is only asking what 'I' is. It is only an invitation to play more personally. Even the seeker identity—you are not the one that wants freedom. You are not this right now. What is here and who witnesses it? Who are you? Like this moment, before you can remember your own name, who are you? Are you not this unchanging, unmoving witness? Do you have to become the witness, or are you actually here as that? Do you have to even stay as that? Then you leave this.
The Thread Continues
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