The egoistic sense of self does not like to follow directions. That egoistic sense believes it knows best always. This egoistic filter has always believed that it knows everything that it doesn’t know, reinforced through the habit of creating a next through the instrument of mind, where there absolutely is not one. Giving your attention to this thought stream labeled ‘my mind’ that continuously creates a world built on lies, allows you to feel comfortable and safe rather than fearlessly living the Reality.
This idea of free will and all the concepts that come along with it, give this up. You give this up through intention in your daily living. You can sit around a church or Ashram saying ‘Peace, love your neighbor’ and then when you are cut off in traffic you immediately take offense and desire to retaliate or ‘show them’. You alone are Selfless Self, interacting with your own self and continuously ‘testing’ the ideas or beliefs that you may be holding still. Seeing through action the worthiness in each moment that arises, thoughts projected in the form of others. Inviting attention in each moment it is seen ‘This beingness appeared on spontaneous Presence and without it ‘I am’, with it ‘I am’ it does not matter, ‘I am’. This is a very important distinction. As Maharaj says Nisargadatta Maharaj used to say to him “Listen to me, listen to me” because the invisible listener is constantly recording. Seeing through this form and absorbing what is being learned, what is being grasped, and whether it is being put into action. Letting go and not allowing the body knowledge to accumulate, using, implementing and forgetting. Keeping in touch with your Selfless Self through the scriptures, lectures, readings, Bhajan and Mantra. Constantly inviting the attention of the invisible listener that ‘Yes, my only desire is to know myself in a real sense. If I was given all the gold in the world, if I was given 1 Million virgins, if the whole world applauded and loved me, I choose You Master. You are the only desire I hold’ That last desire also will be dissolved when the attention is invited of the Selfless Self that you are and the stranglehold on this beingness is released. Free, without any concept of freedom.
There is a release. The whole idea is giving up, giving up, giving up.
Q: Does it happen through Grace? Does it happen through earnestness? Does it happen through practice? Does it happen through being quiet?
Yes. Except the being quiet part because there really is no being quiet when you still have ideas about yourself. You can say that you are being quiet but in order for there to be quiet/silence there has to be an absence of you. Otherwise you are taking the form of a person who is being quiet. Quiet/silence occurs spontaneously, automatically once you truly remain with your Selfless Self. You stop thinking about yourself. The main thought of trying to perpetuate your life. Until that time you will truly believe that the things you are doing will benefit you in some way and improve your life. The needs for happiness, peacefulness etc. arise with this belief. ‘Spirituality is nice and good but if the bank account went to zero today that would be such a tragedy in my life that it would be impossible to concentrate on anything else’. Maharaj says always “Spiritual life and routine life are totally different”. So, conviction, earnestness, yes to everything you said. Yes. Keeping quiet is a natural thing it is not anything special. You can be out on the street among all the busyness, talking and interacting with everyone and be quiet or you can be alone in the house and be filled with ‘noise’. The beliefs and ideas that you are holding about yourself, that body knowledge, mind, ego, intellect and the need to perpetuate creates the noise that covers the quiet or silence. Continue with Mantra, continue to remain with your Selfless Self, don’t lie to yourself or fool yourself. As each fresh moment is presented behave as if you are Brahman, Paramatman, God, Master. Maharaj has said “Except your Selfless Self there is no Brahman, Atman, Paramatman, God, Master.” You are to behave like that in every moment, knowing that this world is projected from your spontaneous Presence. So, whatever may seem to be happening is only there for you to remain with your Selfless Self to develop the faith, earnestness and devotion in every moment, the conviction ‘I am not body, I was not body, I am not going to remain as body, body is not my identity, it’s challenges are not mine.’
Concentrate on the seeing without any idea of the seer, no ideas that there is a body, others or world. Just clean seeing without any identification, unidentified identity. Remaining with your Selfless Self through Mantra. Inviting the attention of the invisible listener, Reality is engraved clearing away illusion. Reality is engraved on the screen of your mind and a position of seeing is understood through insight spontaneously.
These various things, money, publicity, sex, power; that you are trying to extract happiness from other than your Selfless Self are as Maharaj says “temporary reliefs”. Temporary relief because they are all temporary and transient so by nature they cannot be lasting. By nature, nothing is lasting except you in which these temporary transient things are appearing. Remaining with your Selfless Self without any material cause, happiness is there. When happiness is attached to a material cause, when by nature that material fades or goes away, the happiness that was attached also vanishes and unhappiness ensues. Happiness is a direct result from remaining with your Selfless Self through Mantra, inviting the attention of the invisible listener thoughtlessly aware. Remaining with your Selfless Self and not having the attention go outward to things that could stir desires there is spontaneous happiness. That happiness does not fade and cannot be taken away. It comes from the fountain that is flowing from within you.
No desires can be presented when you are in your natural formless state. You don’t take a form that a desire or fear could attach to. You remain formless. Desires won’t make sense, they will be seen as fluffy clouds appearing in the sky that you are. Once Maharaj’s words are intuitively recognized “Except your Selfless Self there is no God, no Brahman, no Atman, no Paramatman, no Master.” what is there to desire? In your formless, spontaneous, no-knowingness there is no ‘you’ formed from which a desire could attach, without a ‘you’ there is no landing place. Remaining in the formless Reality in every moment, using form completely detached from the world of form. Knowing body is not my self, it is just an instrument taken to perform various activities. Whenever there is a from taken ‘I am somebody’ the pain and pleasure principle instantly are applied. The desire to increase pleasure and minimize pain and the related fears and expectations that this creates. If there is no ‘I am somebody’ because you are just here formlessly, all actions are spontaneous actions, there are no desires that can stick to anything. Whenever there is a movement to create a something from which a desire could attach, remain with your Selfless Self, nothing cannot desire anything.
You can observe this beingness through direct insight. This seeing is projected on the screen of mind and it will be known, whether this beingness is there or not it makes no difference. That being is that feeling ‘I am’, ‘I exist’ a state other than your Selfless Self and it is perceivable as a sense of Presence. You know that this state other than yourself has arisen on yourself, on your spontaneous Presence. This idea, this root concept, has emerged, and when it dissolves the one that was prior to its emergence will still be here. Witnessing of both the emergence and the dissolution of this body and world from the position where they are both appearing. That conviction will appear to your Selfless Self, Invisible, Anonymous, Unidentified, Identity which is labeled Brahman, Atman, Paramatman, God, Master. No need for concepts, no need for body, no need for world, no need for beingness, because except your Selfless Self nothing is there.
Everything came out of nothing and everything dissolves within nothing, in between there appears to be something. There appears to be a John, Andrew and Kathleen etc. There appears to be this appearance, but all of this is just in between. Just like going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning, in between there appeared a whole dream world with all the people and all of these things. When waking up on the other side it is all finished. In the same terms this is a long dream.
John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina