The Self Is Never Disconnected from the Self - 6th November 2017

Ellen says: This year my father died, my husband died, my good son, our friend Dan. In this moment I feel disconnected from the Self. Please help.

So this year these strong events have happened. As far as the phenomenal world is concerned, maybe the strongest things that we can call in this realm have happened. And yet this last part of what you see: 'In this moment I feel disconnected from the Self.' So are the two of you? One is the 'I' and the other is the Self? Can we locate this 'I' that is disconnected from the Self? Now a feeling can be there and the feeling can be strong. An interpretation can be there and the interpretation can seem true. But for a moment, if you are not to be concerned about what the feeling is or the quality of the feeling is or what the thought is saying, what is it that you are?

The Self is never disconnected from the Self. The 'I' that could be connected or disconnected is never true. This is really important. The Self can never be disconnected from the Self. It is the Self. And the 'I' that could be connected or disconnected is never here. That has just been an idea. That which you are right now is beyond all connections and disconnections. It is only when you consider yourself to be something limited—if you consider yourself to be something who is specific to the name Helen, something limited to this body—then you will feel like 'I am a limited entity and I need to connect it back to the source.' But now you're realizing that the true connecting back is actually a recognition that I can never be disconnected.

Are you aware of the body or is the body aware of you? In your experience, are you aware of your thoughts or are these thoughts the greater? The other unchanging witness and this awareness is coming and going? What is your truest position? The one that does not come and go? Without the idea that you are a limited entity, without the idea that you are something, what real disconnection is there? That is the simplicity of Advaita Vedanta. You don't consider you... and it is not just a logical position, it is an experiential truth that I do not consider you to be a separate entity at all. So that you don't consider yourself to be a separate entity. Because once this idea of separation is given belief, then it seems like to come to the realization of the Self it's a long journey.

If the separation has never really happened, why must we pick it up? And if we have picked it up, we can see now that it is gone. But if we start from the perspective that 'I am something,' that there is an individual jivatma, then it seems like a long difficult process to bring this 'I am something' back home. What is your truth right now? Is it true that you are something? This is for all of you: Is it true that 'I am something'? What is that something that you attach to 'I am'? What is the basis of that? Just another thought. It is just a notion, a concept. It has no validity, no reality.