Author: John Richards

Q: So, if what the ‘I’ is experiencing is inclusive of other “people”, then the question I ask myself is, what is there experience?

There are no others, it is only your own Self. Different points of view from different forms that you believe are separating, but it is all one. There is no other. There is no other experience. The idea is that remaining with your Selfless Self through Mantra, you won’t form an ‘I am somebody else’, therefore if there is not an ‘I am somebody else’ there can’t be other. It is just different forms and there will be an intuitive knowing that as you are speaking, speaker and listener are one and the same. There is no other. There is just a bunch of forms with Selfless Self moving them around and ideas, beliefs and concepts that you the Selfless Self hold. It is again as we spoke about previously, the “one man show”. Here there is speaking and then, swishhhh, over hear there is listening, then again speaking and back to listening. There are no others.

Q: So, you are saying there is nobody else.

No. It is just the one, Selfless Self, there is no you. This you that you believe yourself to be is a concept that Selfless Self is seeing through, using this body instrument in form, to perform activities and such and provide the power for the forms to move around. Remaining with your Self through Mantra erases these concepts, so there won’t be an ‘I am somebody else’. You remain formlessly in your ‘You Are’, the sense of Presence, sense of “I am’ whatever you want to call it. Remain there without labeling it, without an ‘I am somebody else’ being created, due to thoughts that are identified with. No ‘I am somebody else’ these are my thoughts, my mind, my life. There can be no other, because there is not a you. You remain your Self, formlessly, spontaneously, in the formless state before the form of an idea or thought arises. Once you remain with your Selfless Self through Mantra continuously as each moment presents itself, you will observe the arising of a thought, remain with your Self, without an ‘I am somebody else’ identifying with that thought.

You are not the name that your parents gave to you. You have never done anything at all. You have used a form and gone through some things. This mind created sense of self is not true. Remaining with your Selfless Self through Mantra allows you to return to original nature. Maharaj says “refreshing your memories”. Memory is the reverse, you have none. All the memories you are holding about yourself are absolutely false. You just need to discard, discard, discard. When the attention is invited of the invisible listener, that invisible listener will intuitively see. This form on the screen of mind is not needed to perpetuate existence. Just like scenes can come and go. Just like dreams can come and go. Just like people can come and go. Beingness and world can come and go and it has no effect on the one that was there prior to beingness.

That sense of Presence. It is given the example of the musk and the deer. You are the knower of that sense of Presence using body form to know yourself in a real sense. Without this body, using this body as an instrument to know yourself. Your job, family and all these things, these are your duty that’s fine, but that is not your “purpose”. Your purpose for being is to know yourself in a real sense, using body form. Anytime there is something which is adding onto ‘I am somebody else’ remain with your Selfless Self through Mantra. It will be seen that there is no need to create an idea of a ‘somebody’ doing ‘something’. Things are just appearing and disappearing and there is no need to take care of anything with deliberate effort. In the moment, a scene comes, an action is provided spontaneously in the moment and then forgotten instantaneously. There is no one that it can hold on to anything. If there is seen that there is still this idea of a ‘somebody’ than this idea is used to Mantra and erase that idea and concept.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina

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

When you know yourself in a real sense the idea of death is immediately dissolved, it just does not make sense. There is no death for the space inside a box and the space outside the box, space is space. In the destruction of the box the space does not go anywhere, there is nowhere for it to go. This perpetual no knowing where all of these states are appearing on your spontaneous Presence. Your spontaneous Presence is in that no knowingness. As Maharaj says a negative pointing to a positive “I don’t know”. It is not that ‘I don’t know anything’ as an object knowing another object using space and time through the instrument of mind and intellect. Literally there is nothing to be known as there is nothing other created and no point of reference for that sense of existence. The knower with knowingness that knows nothing, because there is nothing than it to know. There is nothing. You don’t know yourself so there is no knower that is formed to know anything. That’s the courage, literally in this body form Be with You Always and not the outside world with all of the things competing for your attention to form a knower to know those things. Things can come and go. Thoughts come and go, scenes come and go, people come and go. There is not a knower being formed to know something other.

Every moment is so very precious because you have been trained, you are using the training wheels of mind. You have been trained to believe that the world exists, and you need to do so many things to make this and that, all of these ideas and concepts.  You need to un-train this, removing the training wheels through Mantra as each moment arises. Beginning with the noticing the sense of Presence, you know that sense of Presence.  The knower of that Presence is formless. There is no need to take a form or any identity. You can remain as the knowingness. If there is some bad thing in your experience, you are the knower of that thing, you are not the things being experienced, you are the knower only. The knower is formless and no harm can come to the formless knower of anything in the experience. In the Bhagavad Gita it mentions that “It cannot be cut or burnt” because you are That.

When there is a situation where the mind begins to form a thinker with the thought ‘this is the end’, Mantra. It becomes a momentary blip. Mind created time, suffering is a slowing down of that time. You can suffer for a thousand years in a minute. Worry about missing a train, what is going to happen, how will I get there, OMG. Then going to someone and explaining the incident you find out all is well, they are still boarding. Yet you have missed the train hundreds of times, have felt the emotions of despair and hopelessness and fear, for that missed train, which is still boarding. Taking the form of the thinker creates a magnet for thoughts, ‘It is the end of the world’. A baby is a perfect example of not knowing formlessly. The blob of ‘I amness’ without the form of the knower. Without knowing themselves you can give them a toy and then take it away, they begin to cry, until that it replaced with another toy, and then they are happy again.  Without knowing themselves there is no anchor for experience, no thinking and no thinking, or repeating the experience through the instruments of mind, ego, intellect. This is proof of the example Maharaj gives “The sage and the baby are the same”. No attachment to anything, no experience, no experiencer, attention moves effortlessly from one thing to another without the need to grasp or hold. Because there is no form taken with which a desire could be projected from. When attention goes out and the ‘me’ is formed with which desires may be projected, you forget that all of this will pass, time is created through the instrument of mind, and the world emerges over the Reality.

Presence does not know, then suddenly there is a knowing, a subtle sense, ‘I am’. You know or experience the feeling of Presence as something other. The desire to be, or the desire to continue is very strong and a natural defense is built to protect the form through which the sense of existence is felt. Remaining with your Selfless Self through Mantra invites the attention and the process of discrimination. When the invisible listener, Selfless Self, that you are, sees through this, that stranglehold on the beingness is released. There is no longer a need to perpetuate in this form as you begin to know yourself in a real sense. Strife and struggle is no more because you have released this concept, the primary concept from which all other concepts are supported. The concept that this body is all you are is released. The invisible listener sees this and burns away this egoistic attachment and in turn any attachments added through the egoistic identification are dissolved. It dawns ‘I no longer have to struggle, I no longer have to worry about dying, I no longer have to worry about or protect this form or what happens when it is no more’. Because you have seen now and begin to live from this point of seeing. When something comes up you know, like Master has said “It is just illusion”. Now the Selfless Self, that you are, through Mantra, through devotion, through remaining with yourself, through allowing things to come and go. This tension free life, this fearless life, this peaceful life, arises spontaneously. That invisible listener when the attention is pulled, releases. The desire to survive through body form is no more. Because it is clearly seen ‘I am not body, I was not body, I am not going to remain the body, body is not my identity, nothing to do with me.’ As Nisargadatta Maharaj says “There is no longer the love to be” that love to be is released. From the position of Selfless Self, the attention is invited, through Mantra, through devotion to your Selfless Self, through devotion to the Master. Until you remain in the natural state free from thoughts, as Nisargadatta Maharaj states “The highest form of worship is to remain thought free in the waking state”, until that time worshipping the Selfless Self through the form of the Master, bowing to the images of the Master, remaining in that bowing position inwardly surrendered, meditation and Mantra are absolutely necessary to invite that attention. Inviting that attention of the invisible listener that has been labeled Brahman, Atman, Paramatman, God, Master, Selfless Self, that you are. When you release the stranglehold on the beingness this desire to be, you use the body, live the life moment to moment. Moving about in the world without difficulty, totally unconcerned because that stranglehold on the beingness has been released and all is just spontaneous action. The spontaneous conviction ‘So That I’. ‘I am not body, I was not body, I am not going to remain the body. I no longer need faith, because now I know.’

Don’t intellectualize just do it. Maharaj says “There will be so many things that will try to distract you from the Reality.” Don’t follow those. Know that they are appearing just to distract you from the Reality and just to basically prove your worthiness to your Selfless Self. Are you truly earnest? Do you truly want to know yourself in a real sense? Or are you just playing? Playing is not an insult, just playing spirituality, enjoying the spiritual self. The egoistic sense of ‘I took Mantra from Maharaj, I am doing so well on this spiritual journey, I am beginning to experience enlightenment, I am a disciple of a real Master.’ That is a distraction from the Reality. Maharaj tells the visitors to the Ashram “Remember the Ashram and all these things, as soon as you go out there will be things trying to distract you from the Reality, remember Nashik Ashram and the pictures of the Master’s.” Remember the feeling evoked by Maharaj’s Presence, remember the knowledge that was conveyed. Have strong faith in your Selfless Self and have strong faith in the Master, you and the Master are one. Continue with the meditation, continue inviting the attention of the invisible listener. Maharaj says “Bhajans set the atmosphere that pleases the Spirit”. The atmosphere through Bhajans, that Bhajans create is pleasing to the Spirit.  Whenever Maharaj says that something is “pleasing to the Spirit” that is probably something that you should be doing. There are no demands ‘You must do this, you must do that, you must not do this.’ all is suggestion only. You came to Maharaj because the desire arose to know your self in a real sense. You are told to help know yourself in a real sense you are to undergo meditation, Bhajan and continuous devotion which is pleasing to the Spirit.

Spirit does not desire the activities of money, publicity, sex, power. The Spirit is pleased through meditation Naam Mantra, devotion and Bhajan.  Increasing the activities that are pleasing and decreasing those that are not, using discrimination and the need to know, creates the atmosphere that invites the attention of the invisible listener. When the thought of needing publicity, sex, money or power arises, right away it can be seen as being a desire arising and being presented to that egoistic sense of self. As Maharaj says “Spirit is very sensitive, what you impress is reflected immediately.” In the reflection that invisible listener that is seeing the projection through these eyes and begins to believe more deeply in the Reality and less, and less in the illusion. The more the things that are pleasing to the Spirit are impressed the more attention is invited. The conviction appears ‘I am not body, I was not body, I am not going to remain body, I am totally unconcerned’

Each moment stepping forward with this conviction. The invisible listener releases the stranglehold and the desire to be is no longer a driving force. Nirguna. The three gunas sattva, rajas and tamas. The nullification of all gunas which occurs spontaneously when the stranglehold on the beingness is released. No strife, no struggle the need to perpetuate existence in body form is dissolved. Maharaj says “Master plants the seed of Reality in your Selfless Self”. This has been done. Now it is up to you to water it, tend it, feed and nurture. You must give it the Miracle Grow of Bhajans, water it with Mantra, tend it with the knowledge given by the Master, you must keep a watch on it by remaining with your Selfless Self. It is up to you.  If you don’t feed it, you don’t water it then the seed is not going to sprout and grow into the mighty tree.  It will not become even a sapling without attention, it remains a seed, unfulfilled potentiality. Just a seed in a pot, easily discarded as it is seen ‘Nothing is happening, it is not growing, maybe I did not receive a good seed, maybe I am just not meant to have a plant let alone a tree.’ What a waste.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina

In the thoughtless state, staying with ‘I am’, staying with your Selfless Self through Mantra inviting that attention, that is all that can be ‘done’. Invite the attention of the invisible listener that you are Ultimate truth. Same thing if you are going to a church and there is singing and praising, inviting the attention of the invisible listener. In the Bible, it talks about whenever two or more are gathered in my name ‘I am there’. Because there is devotion to the Selfless Self. Selfless Self is worshiping itself as ‘other’ through form, worshipping itself in a formless state that is sensed and noticed. All you can do is invite the attention, which is the only thing that can be done. Inviting the attention except your Selfless Self there is no God, no Brahman, no Paramatman, no Master, nothing is there. These are just labels and concepts that can take you down rabbit holes. To say ‘I am God’, first you must create a form that can say ‘I am God’, and there are concepts and beliefs of ‘What is God? and How am I God?’ When you know, nothing is there and that these labels are labeling that spontaneous, invisible, anonymous, unidentified identity then no concepts can be formed. How can you be the spontaneous, invisible, anonymous, unidentified identity? These are all in negative terms. Saying ‘I am God, I am Brahman, I am Master’ these are adding concepts in a positive term. As Maharaj says “How were you prior to 100 years? I don’t know, I don’t know is the correct answer, a negative pointing to a positive”. I don’t know how I was 100 years prior to beingness. ‘I’ was in a formless state. ‘I’ was not in this body form. So, I don’t know how ‘I’ was. That is the negative pointing to a positive, rather than ‘I am Brahman’ or ‘I am God’ or something like this. Repeating in the mind ‘I am Brahman, Brahman I am’ that is OK, like Maharaj says “Aham Brahmasmi, Shivoham, Soham” or any of these as Mantra. But this is not a declaration, you are not declaring anything. You are trying to invite the attention of the invisible listener. You are not making a declaration that ‘I am Brahman’. That is the egoistic sense of self claiming that ‘I am Brahman’ it’s not for that. This is only to invite the attention of the invisible listener. Aham Brahmasmi, Shivoham, is not saying ‘I am God’. You are inviting the attention of the invisible listener that has been labeled as God, Brahman, Paramatman, Master. That formless Presence sensed through body, from which body and all of this is appearing. Once you know yourself in a real sense, that formless Presence. Then as Maharaj says “If you see yourself as formless, and the Master as formless, there can be no separation.” When the attention is invited, you the Selfless Self see, just a simple seeing, this that appears on my spontaneous Presence cannot be myself.

When there is, a concept formed of a thinker thinking these thoughts rather than just being with your Selfless Self through Mantra and allowing them to pass. When thoughts are passing and there is, no thinker formed to think those thoughts into action that then creates ‘my thought, my action’ then there is nothing, just thoughts flowing. Then as Maharaj says “Good thoughts or bad thoughts makes no difference.  So, called bad thoughts are neglected or not accepted.” Some bad weather may be going on outside but it is not effecting you. Thoughts are just coming and going. There is not a need to form a psychological thinker or the identity of a thinker ‘How does this affect me? What will happen to me?  What will people think about me? How is this going to affect my life?’ ‘Me’ needs the concept of a thinker to sustain the illusion of ‘My Life’ through identification with thoughts. Remaining with your Selfless Self through Mantra erases all of this and breaks the cycle of illusory thinking, the fire underneath the ash is always there, the ash is removed. You will return to your natural state without thoughts as there will be no thinker formed to think, and without thinking, thoughts lose their form.  The process is interrupted and then removed through Mantra. Remaining with your Selfless Self through Mantra, you will be one with the Mantra, and the Mantra will become the background on which thoughts are appearing without a thinker being formed. Without the concept of the thinker, the original building block is removed, and no further building of concepts can occur. Your Selfless Self becomes the formless foundation where no concepts can rest.  As your attention remains pointed in the direction of your Selfless Self, deeper and deeper, there is nothing else to think about, as ‘otherness’ is erased. Because there is no concept of ‘I am’ and then ‘you’ it is finished.

Life is not this solid, linear thing that you believe, through the perception of being a separate individual. It’s not a constant. You are spontaneously projecting all of this through the lens or filter of ideas and concepts that you happen to be holding about yourself in a particular form. Using this lens or filter of concepts and beliefs, you are projecting this world that you are seeing through mind. The world itself is being projected on your spontaneous Presence and from that position it is nothing but flashing dancing images appearing and disappearing.

There must be a you for time to be created.  Time is because ‘you are’. ‘You are’ can just be the knowing that ‘you are’ without having to form an object in time which then creates the perception of time. When you are in your natural state without any ideas, beliefs or concepts there is no sense of time. It is not even being outside of time as there is no sense of anything. You could say the only way the seer sees the scenes passing that perhaps could be perceived as a concept of time. But there is no you in it. There must be a point, even on a clock the hands have indicators to measure the passing as the hands move in a certain way over them. There is no point, markers or movement only what is seen. Remaining with your Selfless Self through Mantra, you will see that you are totally outside of time. Is there time in a dream? Even the time that is in a dream is only dream time. If in a dream someone asks you to show up to a certain place at 9PM, you’re going to show up at 9PM in that dream. So, that is a sense of time created and perceived from a point of reference of an object appearing in the dream. You are lying in bed and it is probably 1 or 2AM. Where is the time? Time is just the perception of who is perceiving the time, the object in time perceiving and then labeling time. Without an object in time, time is not experienced.

You are all of everything, there is nothing else except your Selfless Self. There is no thinking, there is no thinking about anything, nor an understanding that you even exist or ‘you are’. The only way for you to know yourself is through the idea and belief of ‘other’. Using this body instrument, you get to know yourself in a real sense. You can use this body to know yourself in a real sense. For a time, believing that you are the body you use this body to fulfill desires as they are arising in mind. Using mind, this mind created self wants to follow these desires and creates promises that the next desire will be the one to give complete happiness. You the Selfless Self observe this mind created self and this pursuit of all the desires which turn out useless and empty. Once it is seen that you are not gaining anything from these different desires, then you will stop and look towards yourself. That is when in your experience, you manifest this person labeled guru or teacher whom you will go to see.  In Reality this person has appeared inside the dream to let you know that you are the dreamer, that you and this person appearing before you are one. Then it is finished. You are inviting the attention. This will be noticed and the attention drawn. You are doing the Mantra like your life depended on it. You are behaving fearlessly in every moment, knowing that you are the Selfless Self, Ultimate Truth, Reality. Whether there is a doubt or not. You are continuously putting one foot forward, saying ‘Yes, I am Ultimate Truth, Master has shown the Reality, I am not body, I was not body, I am not going to remain the body. Everything appearing on my Presence is illusion, this is an illusionary world.’ That invites the attention of the Selfless Self, that you are. Yes, So That I. The illusion that was covering the Reality is no more. As Ramana Maharshi states “The ‘I’ removes the ‘I’ yet remains the ‘I’.” Selfless Self experiencing itself through body form and believing that is its existence, going on the imaginary journey and sees.  The invisible listener is constantly recording every moment. You are believing and moving in that fearlessness, even if some identity remains, you are moving through the illusion trusting the Master’s words that it is just illusion. No longer creating identity, no longer taking things personally, no longer worrying, complete trust and faith in the Master. Selfless Self sees this earnestness and attention is drawn to this idea of this ‘I’ appearing on spontaneous Presence and sees that it is not, then only Selfless Self is. For conversation, you can say ‘I am John, hello I am John.’ Inwardly knowing, this ‘I’ is appearing on Presence and is illusion. Whenever there is a thought relating to this ‘John’ that is not, it can be ignored, no attention needed, no significance. ‘John’ is seen as the boil on the butt of Selfless Self that just needs treatment, over and over using Mantra, Bhajans and Devotion to be removed slowly, silently and permanently.

Q: I noticed recently that there are recurring thoughts saying ‘This is not going to work’ and these thoughts emit feelings which feel kind of insane.

Right away this leads to Maharaj saying that “good thoughts or bad thoughts are appearing on your Presence” Presence is not having any good thoughts or bad thoughts. Through Mantra various thoughts and experiences will appear to distract you from your Selfless Self, especially as you get closer to the Reality.  Maharaj talks about “Positive spiritual experience and negative spiritual experience arising through Mantra meditation”. Good experiences and bad experiences are not Ultimate truth because there is still an experiencer that is being formed to experience these things. Relating the experience in India right after taking Mantra I went to get a haircut, shaved off the beard and took off the Rudraksha Mala.  Just two days before that I had gone with several other devotees to eat at a restaurant in Nashik. Right after the Mantra and taking off the Rudraksha mala one devotee was leaving the Ashram and we all went back to the restaurant again to wish him well. About an hour after returning I got incredibly sick, throwing up, diarrhea just horribly sick and it began to worsen. During this I went to Maharaj because a doubt had come in the form of a thought that I had offended God by removing the Rudraksha Mala.  I had created the Rudraksha Mala through devotion, had found just the right mukhi’s etc. and now God was punishing me for the arrogance of taking it off.  When I had gone to the restaurant the first time I had been protected by the Mala, now that protection had been replaced by punishment for the offense. At the same time, there was an inward knowing that if I put the Rudraksha Mala back on that I had lost and would always use this as a crutch and reliance. The intensity of the thoughts, aggravated by my deteriorating physical condition further created fear and distress as it pointed to the fact that the Presence, which had been increasing in strength of feeling was going to leave as it was the Rudraksha mala that was providing the channel for the Presence to be felt so strongly. These doubts were presented to Maharaj. Strong faith in the Master, going through this experience fearlessly with the words of the Master, the Guru Mantra, without putting the mala back on, relying only on Selfess Self. Whatever is happening is going to happen, Mantra through the experience, remain with Selfless Self, complete faith and trust. As the body was deteriorating and I was taken to the hospital, Mantra. As I was admitted to the emergency room at the hospital, Mantra. As fluids through IV were administered and the several hours until Maharaj arrived again, Mantra. Returning the Ashram later that evening, Mantra. Complete trust and faith. Observing the activities as if they were occurring to someone else through Mantra and remaining with Selfless Self. Eventually the physical condition improved, but even more importantly all of those fears had been cleared. Never again to look at the mala and believe that it was needed to please Presence.  They were not put back on.  The progressive step of faith and trust in the Master and not some other thing, and the reliance and fear about mala was snapped. Had I put that mala back on driven by fear, they would always be a crutch. Then even knowing through Mantra that the sense of Presence is there, reliance on the mala would always draw the attention towards the body and all of the concepts that come with it. ‘The mala is holding the energy of the Presence, magnifying the Presence, even Rudraksha beads can be googled and the evidence would be there to support these concepts. Down the rabbit hole of concepts and body based knowledge, as of course the Rudraksh mala has to go on the body. No amount of Bhajan, Mantra, Devotion would be able to release that body sense and body knowledge if I believed I had to hold on to that mala.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina

Q: Isn’t there the danger of boredom? My mind does not like being bored.

Keep it busy with Mantra. All the time in every moment. Every time the mind says ‘I am a little bit bored’ Mantra. Mantra and observe what happens, that will be good for mind. Mantra and see what happens. Mantra through every single experience, in every single moment. Every time that you are thinking and not doing Mantra, Mantra. You Mantra through the experience without separating yourself because the Mantra and you are one. You are one with your Selfless Self, you are inviting the attention of the invisible listener. Something comes into your experience and you may separate, because you are not one with the Mantra. Notice that you are not one with the Mantra, become one with the Mantra and Mantra through the experience. Then you are not separating yourself, there is no perceived separation because you are one with the Mantra.  No experiencer is formed because mind is busy with Mantra.

Everything that appears is transient, except your Selfless Self that is witnessing all of these transient things. Don’t give yourself away. Like the game show ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ what is behind door number two, or staying with your Selfless Self. What is behind door number three, or staying with your Selfless Self. In the show they give someone a thousand dollars and ask ‘Are you willing to risk this thousand dollars for what is behind door number two?’. The decision is made in that moment. Are you willing to give away your  Selfless Self the fountain of happiness, the all that is there, the only constant, the Reality, for what is behind door number two?

Once you know yourself in a real sense without concepts, ideas or beliefs, then all of this is the magic show. You went back stage and you saw that ‘my family’ is a body factory, each mom and dad having another body and another body, and you are identifying with a body in that moment and believing that body to be ‘me’. Creating a new person who is relying on this mind, giving power to this mind, to tell you how the past, present and future is going to be. This mind is happy to step up and guess your life. Here you are your Selfless Self where everything is arising from, you give all the power to this guy over here that you label mind, putting all your faith and trust into this mind, that is basically guessing your life. Sometimes it works the way he says it is going to and sometimes it doesn’t, but he always has an excuse as to why it is not working the way he says it is. The reality is if you stay with your Selfless Self without the desire to know, then this same mind is seen as a useless thing. You can plan ‘ok, next Thursday I am going to this event. I am going to buy tickets for this event.’ But you are not planning like ‘How is the event going to be? Is it going to be cold in the theater? Are the seats good seats?’ You are not doing any of that. You are simply saying ‘I am going to see an event next Thursday, and I need to buy tickets.’ Whereas mind will play that scene whatever it is you are going to go see, over and over, comparing this performance to past performances, judging the quality of the performance on Thursday unseen based on previously registered experiences. You just don’t need this. You just don’t need this at all and Mantra, when you are one with your Selfless Self through Mantra, you will absolutely see this. Mantra is the gate to go behind the scenes to all of the magic shows that used to totally mesmerize you and allow you to see they were absolutely an illusion. They could not be anything else, because there never was anything else.

When you are one with your Selfless Self through Mantra there can not be anyone else, because you are one, one with your Selfless Self. No other arises. You will see this and start living your life without this idea of ‘you’. Then you won’t even think it is a life. Like Maharaj told about Bhausaheb  Maharaj, clapping, clapping, clapping, dropped the body. Was he fearing death? Did he think ‘oh my God I am dying’? He did not even know. One minute it is this experience, the appearance of something went back to nothing. It arose from nothing and appeared as something, and went back to nothing, with no ideas or beliefs about itself. It just was. When the dreamer awakes where did all the dream people go? Maharaj gives this pointer all the time. You as the dreamer, if you were able to dream the same dream every night and all of the people were growing up  having children that were going to school. Just before you woke up, “Jim” was going off to college to become a doctor, and you wake up. Never to have that dream again. Where did all those dream people go? Did Jim ever get to be a doctor? Was it fair that Jim did not get to fulfill his purpose of being a doctor? And what about all of the people that where rooting for Jim to become a doctor? When you woke up were they sad or happy? Were they missed by their loved ones? Was Jim’s life a failure because he never became a doctor? Before the dream ended. And was it really Jim that was putting forth the effort studying to get good grades and get into a good college? Was it Jim’s good upbringing that gave him the drive to give 100%. This something appearing in the nothing is a long dream.

There is a no-knowingness. It is not a forgetfulness, it is a total disassociation with the body, and an absolute knowing of yourself in a real sense. A formless sense, this sense of Presence. As Maharaj says “You compare yourself with sky, not body.” Body may be going through something, knowingness arises of formless ‘sky’ sky is not affected by this. This is seen through Mantra.  Slowly, Silently, Permanently all of the concepts, these sticky concepts are erased. Then you exist without a desire to label that existence as something. As soon as a label is placed on existence, ‘I exist’, “I exist as what?’ The belief of body, this body has a family, and the tree of concepts grows and branches out. All needs all requirements came along with the body, and all sticky concepts stick to this body idea. You can use the body for all the activities. Remaining unconcerned. Unconcerned does not mean ‘I don’t care what is going on’. Unconcerned means there is no form being created, that is in this, that has a stake in this, that could possibly be concerned. It could be compared with playing poker with someone else’s money, who is not going to ask to be payed back. You are going to thoroughly enjoy your game, you will probably make bets that you would not have made before, a little more high stakes and risk. You just have this game and you are there to play. No win, no loss, no worry.

Nothing is there. You know this. You know that all of the people doing all of these things are illusionary and transient like a dream. It does not mean that you are not showing compassion in the moment.  There is just not the formation of a compassionate person, being compassionate. Nor is there the idea that there is some other person that is needing compassion. It is your own Self, and you know you have no control over what seems to be going on in the illusion appearing on Presence. Especially trying to sway an outcome of another body, powered by your own Selfless Self, but deeply believing itself to be that form. That is why if you were to go to someone right now and say ‘You know you are the Selfless Self’ even though that is the Selfless Self behind those eyes and ears, it is rooted in that body knowledge belief. The Selfless Self is pretending that it is that body, and will defend that idea it is holding about itself in that form because it truly believes it. The only acknowledgement is the subtle recognition in the projection. Presence to Presence.

Suffering is a mind created thing where you go over and over in your mind and you create and then tend a garden. You create a garden of suffering and you water it with more ideas and you are in the suffering as a sufferer. Suffering is an illusion. There has to be the creation of a sufferer in order for their to be the perpetuating of suffering. Someone in this suffering, and there is not. If you remain with your Selfless Self through Mantra the next time you are experiencing suffering or even if you see someone else is suffering, you will see there is no suffering. There is just action and movement with no egoistic self formed to take credit for anything. Suffering is mind created and absolutely an illusion. You must have a belief in yourself as a sufferer, creating a sufferer in order to suffer. Then you have to direct your attention to the train of thoughts through identification and form the concepts of why ‘I am suffering’. Suffering is not an emotion or a feeling. Suffering is a state of mind.

The Mantra is in a way like sending out an S.O.S., please save me from this world. The attention of the invisible listener is what this is trying to gain. That’s all that a little ‘you’ can do. Invite the attention of the invisible listener. Nisargadatta Maharaj says “Stay with the ‘I am’ the rest will happen by itself” Remain with your Selfless Self through Mantra and the rest will happen by itself. You in the form of Sri Ramakant Maharaj, gave yourself this Mantra, so that you could spontaneously be with yourself. Inviting the attention of the invisible listener, concentrating on the concentrator, remaining with the ‘I am’, and all else happens by itself, spontaneously. And it will. That must be the conviction that Maharaj gave this Mantra of a shining lineage, the Inchegiri Navnath Sampradaya. In a worldly sense that is extremely powerful. The trust the faith in the Master, not Master in body form.  The same Master, the same Selfless Self that appeared in form as these lineage masters. That Sadguru who is moving in and as this form. Through the line now with Sri Ramakant Maharaj who is telling you, remain with your Selfless Self through Mantra, invite the attention of the invisible listener that you are Ultimate Truth. Listen to the bhajans, bhajans though the vibrations they create, help to shake loose the body identity, the holding on of the body. The vibration is like shattering an ice sculpture, bhajans are like that. The bhajans give such a vibration and allow you to perceive without the idea of this form encasing you, they shake up this body projection. With any vibration if you allow and intensify a vibration into this computer screen, it will crack. Similarly, this body identity this pressure of body impression is felt much less. Vibration from Mantra, vibration from bhajan absorbing the knowledge from the Master’s talks and reading the books slowly, silently and permanently is erasing body identity. This recognition in the projection will continue until there is not a you to do anything, spontaneous action arises, without an actor. The identifier has been identified and the identifier has disappeared, was found to not be there. The idea was needed as a concept for a time, just as Maharaj says, “Taking one thorn to remove another thorn and then throwing both away”. Mantra is a concept; the concept is there to invite the attention of the invisible listener that you are Ultimate Truth except your Selfless Self nothing is there.

When you are not knowing yourself, you are one with your Selfless Self and therefore there is no other. When you are one with your Selfless Self no ideas of a ‘yourself’ or ‘other’ arise. All ‘other’ is illusion it is just you. When you know, it is just you working through this body, to experience this sense of ‘otherness’ just to know yourself in a real sense, the world loses its bite. The only reason you have this body is to know yourself in a real sense. That’s it. There is no reason, no cause for creation, nothing to gain from this. This body was formed and the Selfless Self feeling existence or ‘I am’ said ‘This is me’. That’s it. Once you the Selfless Self know yourself in a real sense then you look back at the illusion that you created to know yourself and realize absolutely that is just illusion. You are here as the holder of this body which has a time limit, you are prior to the concept of time. Time is a concept appearing upon your spontaneous Presence. You are the Selfless Self which you always are and always will be whether holding a body or not, body appeared upon your spontaneous Presence. You have to tell this mind created self “I am not body, I was not body, and I am not going to remain body, body is not my identity”. Then using this instrument of mind, you begin to detach from the things that the body wants. You the Selfless Self whose attention has been invited and is focused on this mind created self erases this idea slowly, silently and permanently.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina

Inviting the attention of the invisible listener, that must be done. Just as Nisargadatta Maharaj says when the ‘I am’ is please it reveals the open secret. That open secret is releasing the stranglehold on the beingness. The stranglehold on the beingness is Selfless Self truly believing that I must have this beingness to continue. That stranglehold has to be released. It has to be seen that this beingness can come and go, just like sleep coming and going, just like dream coming and going, just like thoughts coming and going. Beingness can come and go it makes no difference. That has to be seen. That stranglehold on the beingness has to be released, the Selfless Self, that you are, has to release. Then the secret is open, ‘Oh, oh, yes’. The body is an instrument, but I am not body. Again the example of sleeping. Going into sleep, deep sleep, coming to the waking state, you did not disappear or cease to exist throughout the process. There was one continuous you that all of these states appeared upon. This birth, this life, this so called death, all of those states appear upon your spontaneous Presence. You the Selfless Self, when that Selfless Self worship invites the attention of the invisible listener through strong faith in the Master, strong faith in the lineage, strong faith in your Selfless Self, then you will release all of these concepts, ideas and beliefs. The Mantra is a tool that slowly, silently and permanently erases these ideas and concepts so that you can see cleanly. You can be without quality, you can see I do not need this body. That conviction is strong, releasing the stranglehold on the beingness. You no longer have that burning desire to be. Because the knowledge, the knower, you know yourself in a real sense. This illusory world can come and go, this beingness can come and go, that conviction is there.

Don’t intellectualize just do it! Maharaj says “There will be so many things that will try and distract you from the Reality.” Don’t follow those. Know that they are there just to distract you from the Reality to basically prove your worthiness to yourself. Are you truly earnest? Do you truly want to know yourself in a real sense? Or are you just playing? Just playing is not an insult, just playing spirituality, that egoistic sense that wants to be spiritual. ‘Oh. I took Mantra from Maharaj. I am on this spiritual journey and I am so close now because I have met a real Master and I have been initiated into a powerful lineage, visited a Realized Master, so I am so close to fully Realizing the Self.’ That is a distraction from the Reality. Maharaj always gives the warning to ‘be alert, after leaving the Ashram so many things will try and distract you from the Reality’ Remember the Ashram, this atmosphere, remember the moment with Maharaj, remember the knowledge, impress this. Have strong faith in yourself and strong faith in the Master, continue to invite the attention of your Selfless Self with Mantra. The invisible listener is also ‘pleased’ as Maharaj states ‘you are setting the atmosphere’. The atmosphere through Bhajan’s that pleases the spirit. Whenever Maharaj says that something you are doing is pleasing the spirit, perhaps that is something that you should do. Master does not demand anything, everything is basically suggestion. You came here because there was a fire to know yourself in a real sense. To know yourself in a real sense, Bhajan’s create the atmosphere that is very pleasing to the spirit. The spirit does not desire money, publicity, sex, power etc. The spirit does not desire these things, so if there is a desire for these things arising, that is the egoistic sense of self that is not your Selfless Self. So all of these Bhajans, devotion, knowledge, Mantra is showing how the spirit is. Maharaj says the “spirit is very, very sensitive”. Sensitive. That spirit is there waiting, whatever is impressed upon it is reflected back. The reflection back, that invisible listener seeing through these eyes, sees the reflection and the attention is drawn more deeply in the Reality and less deeply in the illusion.

When the attention is continuously invited that invisible listener notices. The Selfless Self releases the stranglehold, that desire to be. When the attention is invited and there is a seeing, there is nothing in back. In that moment you release the stranglehold or the clinging to this beingness this ‘I am’. The desire to perpetuate in this form is snapped. There is no longer the idea that if this form expires that’s it, I am finished, done. You know this. With this seeing the idea of struggle or strife ends. Maharaj talks about the ants and when water is poured there is an immediate running away as the desire to live or to be is so strong and Selfless Self in the form of the ant wants to continue experiencing. There is a detachment that if this water is poured on these ants it makes no difference, that stranglehold has been released. The strife, the struggle, this fear of death and everything that goes along with it, snapped. You can then use this body, totally unconcerned with the world. The attention is invited through Mantra, through devotion to your Selfless Self, devotion to the Master. Bowing to the Master, being with your Selfless Self, Mantra, Meditation. In every moment remaining with your Selfless Self and not wandering. The Selfless Self, the invisible listener, sees this and knows this attention. Nisargadatta Maharaj speaks about the “I am is pleased, it reveals all of it’s secrets”. The secret being that ‘I don’t need this beingness, this beingness has appeared upon my spontaneous Presence’. This is not needed, it is not needed for your perpetuation. At first the belief is that in order for you to survive after knowing yourself in whatever form you are using to feel that existence or ‘I am’ you want and need to keep that. There is the deep belief that when the form goes, you go. In this seeing that is released, your Selfless Self is no longer believing that you are finished at the dissolution or death of the form. The seeing is complete. The dream is seen as dream and when this body drops it makes no difference to the dreamer.

I really love the beautiful story that Maharaj tells about the goat and the lion. That and Eklava are probably my favorites. The young lion cub was raised with sheep and goats. It was afraid of dogs and foxes. That belief in being a sheep was so ingrained it truly believed it was a sheep. One day a lion (Master), entered the jungle (dream), sees this lion pretending to be a sheep and goes to speak with the sheep.  The lion believing it is a sheep and in danger beings to cry and squeal. The lion (Master) sees how this lion truly believes it is a sheep (devotee) and states clearly ‘You are not a sheep (devotee), you are a lion (Master) like me’. The lion begins to show him (devotee) his true nature  by comparing their bodies. The lion says look here at my shoulder and yours, look at my paw and yours.’ Then the lion takes the other lion to the pond to see his reflection for the first time. (Master takes you to your Selfless Self and you ‘see’ the reflection) ‘You are like me, you are not like that’. The lion who had long believed he was a sheep looks at his reflection, then at the lions, instantly he accepts the truth. (So That I, I Am That) ‘I am a lion like you, I am not what I thought myself to be, I lived among the goats and sheep for so long that I thought I was a sheep, I am not a sheep, I am a lion, you have shown me the truth about myself!’. That reflection, that recognition in the projection, and you know. You are a lion not a sheep. You never again have the idea that you are a sheep, or form thoughts through the idea you are a sheep. You see the Reality that was always there. You are Brahman, You are Atman, You are God, You are Master, Except Your Selfless Self Nothing Is There.

You don’t pass through, you are always here, you are there and there only, everything else appears on your spontaneous Presence. That’s why it is spontaneous, because as soon as you start to say Presence then again you have opened the door for concepts in mind. The virus gets into the computer and bang! Like that it races through all of the programs and infects everything. Trying to identify what Presence is. What has been heard about Presence. The body knowledge machine is activated and does a Google search on Presence. ‘I read this, I read that, Ramana Maharashi says like this, Nisargadatta Maharaj says like this, Siddharameshwar Mahraaj says like this’. The body knowledge machine is just Google searching everything it has ever known. Be with you through Mantra, the super eraser, the anti-virus software that erases and then protects the computer from attack from virus’. Everytime you want to think ‘What is this?’ Mantra, Mantra, because you are one with the Mantra. As long as you are one, you can’t be two. When you are one with the Mantra, you can not even have an idea or belief arise, you are just one with your Selfless Self through Mantra. Nothing. Also don’t let subtle ego take possession by the idea ‘I know this, yah, I know what Selfless Self is, yes, I do’. Now you have created an ‘I am somebody else’, that knows something, inviting viruses. Not just inviting viruses, but an entire world of viruses has been created. Now their is a somebody formed who will start to judge the world as the ‘Knower of Reality, I Know!’. But now the form of the knower needs protection to maintain it’s perceived position as a ‘knower’ and similarly wants to gain more knowledge, to know more. Forming and protecting in every moment causing thought train storm of identification, pain and suffering. Now the idea of spontaniety has replaced has replaced your natural spontaneous nature. Knowing has replaced or covered no-knowing. Thoughtless Reality has been covered by the thought storm of identification with thought.

There is nothing to protect, no stance or position is needed. Positionless position, “Spontaneous, Invisible, Anonymous, Unidentified, Identity. If at all you want to compare, compare yourself with sky”. as Maharaj repeatedly says.

Be with yourself. Be with the illusion. The illusion is very enticing it really appears to be real! It looks like ‘I could really get this if I just do that.’ It’s not true. Remain with your Selfless Self. Allow the scenes to pass, arising in the moment doing what needs to be done, and leaving it. No next. That is the courage really, not to know. Because you can’t really know, anything that you know is created through mind and is illusion. Just here. What is coming next? Nope, no next. Here. But there is the desire to know what is next. You are never going to know what is next. You are going to create a mind created next. When next is actually here, you will have already experienced that next in your mind. You will judge that moment positive or negative based on your imaginary idea of what next was going to be, rather than just being here. Every next is illusion.

In the Bible they talk about the things that rust being of no value.  Everything that appears upon your spontaneous Presence is of absolutely no value. The desire comes in ‘I want this, or I want to do this, or I never experience that, or I have experienced that and loved it and wish to re-experience that again’. No. That is the time for Mantra, to be with you, to be one with the Mantra. Then Selfless Self that you are will witness the scene pass and that knowingness knows that desire came but was not acted upon and that is good. ‘I remained with myself’. Even that ‘I’ that remained with myself, will be one of those things that is dissolved slowly, silently and permanently with Mantra. You and the Mantra are one. No the sticky concepts of desire and fear. Who’s desiring? Who’s fearing? The question won’t even arise.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina

Absolutely time is a body based concept, measuring yourself in body form, time and all these concepts appear on your Presence. There is no time. “you are realized in this moment” as Maharaj says. The conviction is just ‘I am here’. Time the concept of time first comes ‘I am’, ‘I exist’, how do I exist, and all the concepts build on that. The truth is you are able to Mantra through these experiences, now.  Maharaj says repeatedly “every moment is so very, very important, a golden opportunity to know yourself”. Don’t wait. Now in this moment introduce yourself to yourself by inviting the attention of the invisible listener right now. Just be here. Maharaj says “Be With You”. Body will go through what it is going to go through, nothing to do with you. Unless your measuring yourself in body form, then of course many problems will occur for this body, so many problems, financial problems, relationship problems, physical problems, their is no end to the types of body related problems that may occur. You are not body. When these experiences begin to stir, Mantra “Be With You” before they build up to ‘I am on my death bed, there is no time left’. You can’t be sitting on your death bed with books by Ramana Maharshi, or Selfless Self or I Am That, feeling peaceful and such. It is not possible, if you have not identified yourself in a real sense, this mind is going to be going crazy. The idea is to continue to “Be with You Always” as Maharaj says, discover yourself, then you know, ‘I am not body, I was not body, I am not going to remain body, body is not my identity, I have nothing to do with all these things”. Invite the attention of the invisible listener that is there always. It is not like it needs to be found, it is there always, it just has to be discovered. Their won’t be a worrier to worry about anything. Thoughts will be coming and going and no attention will be paid. There will be spontaneous conviction ‘Whatever is happening to the body let it happen, I am not the body at all’.

As Maharaj has stated “There are very many sages who will enjoy entertaining questions about body based concepts”. Who will get into speaking about as there main “thing” is to please the Selfless Self while it is still believing it is a body. This is a directness. This is an absolute directness, it is not to please you in body form, or somehow make your body existence more pleasurable. This invites the attention of the invisible listener to see clearly ‘you are not body’. The body appeared upon your spontaneous Presence, all these concepts came once you thought ‘I exist’. The Mantra allows you to stay in your natural, perpetual no-knowingness, the spontaneous conviction, no ideas, no beliefs about yourself. No man, no woman. Prior to beingness were you a man or a woman? Prior to beingness did you have any ideas about the social structure of men or women? Prior to beingness did you have any idea about intelligence? or body? or job? or world? So anything that appeared after your spontaneous Presence is all illusion. Maharaj says “Everything came out of nothing and everything dissolves within nothing and in between there appears to be something”. We are speaking about that unborn child that appearance of something, in nothing, that will return to nothing. How can the unborn child lead a more peaceful life? How can the unborn child get to know the Selfless Self? The unborn child is the only one that can be spoken about. All of this talk is for the unborn child. There are many “sages, gurus, teachers” as Maharaj says “merchants” willing to take your money to make your body based knowledge comfortable or peaceful, temporarily. To provide an awesome peaceful state for the unborn child to go in when it’s body knowledge is intolerable. The unborn child can be trained to sit in the middle of some occurrence and just ‘Om, so much peace, Om’ Without ever reaching the understanding that this unborn child appeared upon your spontaneous Presence. Once you know yourself in a real sense, you will not want to go to meditation retreats for the unborn child, you will no longer desire peacefulness and happiness for the unborn child. You being with your Selfless Self is automatic peace, automatic joy, automatic happiness. The idea of a tension free life, a fearless life, a happy life is you without you without all the concepts, ideas and beliefs.

Any of these “religious texts” are to identify yourself in the moment, that recognition in the projection, it’s my story. Just to know, it is inviting the attention of the invisible listener, that sense of Presence that you sense when you are reading spiritual books, when your doing this practice, or keeping quiet. Through Mantra that invisible listener, comes forward. You are inviting attention of the invisible listener, you are Ultimate Truth, except your Self nothing is there. “Yourself is not an egoistic statement”, like Maharaj says. It’s not ‘Mary’, ‘Mary’ is kind of a figment or imaginary character. When you wake up from a dream all of those people are gone, when you the Selfless Self ‘wake up’ all of this is gone. Only you remain. Minus all of the concepts, ideas and beliefs about yourself. The thought creation ‘Mary’, the thought creation ‘John’, all of these thought creations that you have thought up or formed and moved around, that power that energy that you are is providing movement to all of this. All of this is appearing on your spontaneous Presence. Everything you are seeing using these eyes is illusion. There is not one single thing, including the reflection of your own self in the mirror, that is not illusion. That sense of Presence that is known through body form, that knowing of yourself in a real sense, is the closest thing to being not illusion. Even that, because you are all there is, is illusion.

Maharaj says in Selfless Self, if you have ever tried this, you can see yourself in the mirror. That recognition in the projection. You can see yourself. When you look in the mirror, that is a beautiful thing, in dream you know you are not male or female you can be either one or nothing. You could be a bird, a squirrel, and can be totally non-existent. In dream you are a formlessness that is taking form, in various forms. It’s just one dreamer, taking all these forms, all of these forms are arising from that dreamer that is dreaming. That one dreamer that is dreaming and bringing all these forms to light, there is only you. Like Maharaj says “You are sleeping, you see sun, moon, birds, you see people, everything.” How are you even seeing? You might go to dream school, who knows. How? You don’t have eyes in dream. Even if you have eyes in dream they are seeing through the dream form and can not be real. In the body that is sleeping the eyes are closed, in this body form the eyes are closed and the experience is that of sleeping. Like that, this entire world is projected out of your spontaneous Presence. The invisible listener, Selfless Self, Ultimate Truth, that you are. Nothing behind or in back of you. “You are Ultimate Truth, last destination” as Maharaj says.

There is no footprint, no you, the world will end fo r you. The scenes keep going, but the world, the world is a mind creation. You look at other bodies, and you are the one that pours information into the other bodies in the various scenes, based on the ideas and beliefs you are holding about yourself in any given moment. That is not reality. Things will just be seen as they are you will no longer be imagining. There will no longer be an imagination, just an interacting. Without knowing yourself, there is no other. So it becomes just a speaking and listening. If you were to go into a bathroom and have 12 different mirrors and just start talking, of course you would still look the same, so you would have to make yourself man and woman, different nationality etc., but you are just in a house of mirrors. The illusion is seen through. You are no longer in competition, no longer trying to be the best of this, or comparing as the worst. You are doing your job, taking care of the responsibilities as they arise, but you are leaving it. You are taking it, then dropping it. Taking and dropping. Scenes are passing. Empty forms. You are the animator of all of these different forms. You just know. The tricky part is if you begin to think something about “somebody else” your creating this in your experience, you are the projector of the world. No one, nothing. Absolutely nothing. As Maharaj continues to repeat “Except your Selfless Self, there is no God, no Brahman, no Atman, no Paramatman, no Master, no disciple, nothing is there.” All of these forms appear upon your spontaneous Presence. The scene is absolutely illusion. Stay with the seer, not the seen. Don’t identify or label that seer. Other than as Maharaj says “Selfless Self, Spontaneous, Invisible, Anonymous, Unidentified, Identity” that you are. So that you are not giving the “seer” to mind to interpret as Brahman, or God, or Master. The seer is Spontaneous, Invisible, Anonymous, Unidentified, Identity, Selfless Self, That You Are.

Q: A monk once told me that I could not have the blissful sense all of the time. Although Nisargadatta Maharaj says he is bliss. Bliss may simply mean free in the eternal?

Yes, when there is no disturbance of the peace, no you. Like Maharaj says “You are disturbing the peace.” The ideas, beliefs and concepts you are holding about yourself as the label of the form that you are thinking you are in this moment, is the disturbance. So get rid of that. Mantra helps erase that disturbance, that virus. The Mantra is the anti-virus software, for the virus, which you are labeling as ‘John, and Steve and Mary’. These are the viruses, the anti-virus software is the Mantra. The eternal bliss is beyond description because there is no fear, there is nothing to worry, no tension, you are not trying to grab anything or take anything, no struggle, you are just interacting with yourself all the time. There is no other to fear, no other to worry about, no other to defend against, just your Selfless Self, interacting with yourself, through form, in the moment.

If there is no ‘I am somebody’ then there can’t be ‘other’. First existence, ‘I am’. Sri Ramakant Maharaj states “Why think about the ‘I am’ 24 hours a day you are ‘I am’.” The spontaneous Presence from where this ‘I am’ arises. You are the knower of that spontaneous Presence from where this ‘I am” arises. Where the entire world is projected upon your spontaneous Presence. ‘I am’ is the root concept. No other concepts can be formed unless that root concept ‘I am’ is there. That is the seed from which the whole tree grows from. Without this concept ‘I am’, no tree grows. If this concept ‘I am’ arises, then ‘I am what’? follows. ‘I am somebody’ this body is closest to you and has a label of ‘Steve’. OK, ‘I am Steve’ Steve is a man, Steve has a family, all needs all requirements came along with this body on which that label Steve has been accepted. ‘I am’ was the spontaneous Presence that was noticed through body form and immediately identified with body, and that is the case of mis-identification. You have been identifying yourself in body form for a very long time. That is illusion. Through Mantra, you will invite the attention of the invisible listener that you are Ultimate Truth. Maharaj says “You are Brahman, you are Atman, you are Paramatman, you are God, you are Master. Except your Selfless Self nothing is there”. You will see this. Every moment is very, very precious. Be With You Always.

Without a concept forming there can be no experience of separation or oneness. The only thing that appears to separate us is concepts. When we start speaking about concepts we immediately begin separating ourself from the Selfless Self. Beliefs of man and woman, you and me, do you know more or less, who are you and why is this, I believe this and you believe that, further and further away from your Selfless Self with each concept, belief and idea. You appear to be separated by body and when the concepts and identification with the flowing thoughts forms a mind, you appear more and more separate. Add to this emotions and it is just separating, separating, separating. The further away from yourself your attention goes, the concepts multiply exponentially. When you are here with yourself, there is no other. Only a concept believed in can create other, this body is different from that body, other is created in mind. Other is created in mind using the building blocks of concepts.

Mind created moments create expectation and disappointment as you have already ‘experienced’ the moment hundreds of times through mind.  The perfection of Reality is judged rather than enjoyed.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramkant Maharaj Dakshina

In an effort to gain a continuation you need to have an identification with mind, so that the flowing thoughts will be held in attention and you will grab them. You are no longer using thoughts, thoughts are using you. They are creating a ‘me’ and causing the attention to be directed at the thoughts, rather than just let them pass. Maya as Maharaj says ‘Is very, very, tricky, always pricking from backside’ If you are truly holding on to beliefs or ideas about yourself. The actions, through these thoughts, through this form you are taking as yourself as who you believe yourself to be this person, are going to reflect that. They will naturally be selfish instead of the Selfless Self. Every time there is an idea of a person forming, that is a time to be with you through Mantra. Mantra through the experience without an experiencer being created. Seeing there is no deed there is no doer, there is no experience, there is no experiencer. You Mantra’d through that experience remaining with yourself, without taking form. Automatically there is no fear as no form was taken with which a fear could attach. Without taking a form there is nothing that can attach to you. Not taking a form, you remain as you are formless. Don’t give formless to mind to try and imagine what formless is. You don’t allow any ideas or beliefs to take form, or any concepts to form. The primary form or concept ‘I exist’ or ‘I am’ all of the other concepts arise or are birthed on that. Rather than just remaining, and knowing without knowing anything. Nothing needed to know. No next. Any time a form is trying to be created using mind to know about a next, Mantra. A pull is there, gone. Any thoughts that were flowing through designed for that thought creation, this person you believed yourself to be, if you remain with yourself through Mantra in the experience and no thought form, or personality was created and identified with, than the thought just flows. The more personal the thoughts are, or the more personal your attention is, remain with yourself through Mantra. If you continue to remain with yourself you are going to see. You are going to see clearly the Reality through the illusion. I remained with myself through that experience and no experiencer was created, no doer was created, no sense of doer-ship, therefore no karma. Moving, passing through. No blockage, no sense of time, no sense of a linear time line or cause and effect. No ‘my life’ or anything related. Just here. Fully! Absolutely fully here. Tension free because there is not a you experiencing a sense of what you need to do or how am I to survive, nothing.

Body form is just to know yourself. All of this is arising on your Presence. You get to know yourself. You are everything in all things, there is no way for you to know, you don’t know ‘you are’ or ‘I am’ until spirit clicks with the body and you say ‘I’. Then like Maharaj says “all the concepts come along with, appear with that I” So many concepts appear with that ‘I’. I is identified like a stamp on this body, this is ‘I’. Looking around from the point of this ‘I’ you see parents, you see brother and sister, need of education, need of food, need of water. Body is like a plant, if you don’t give it food and water it will die. Presence needs this body in order to continue knowing itself. It uses this body and becomes attached with this body wishing to perpetuate existence. Maharaj uses the example of the ants. Presence once it knows itself in form and believes this form as itself wants to keep this.  Even Presence as an ant, if you pour water the ant is running here and there for self-preservation. Presence knows itself, it does not know what it is, yet there is a desire to continue the knowing this sense of existence. Fear arises in the form of the thought ‘I could die’. Looking around other forms they can die, you go to funerals of others who have died. The belief settles in that ‘I am this form and I am going to die’. Prior to beingness, prior to this sense of Presence, prior to one hundred years, I don’t know myself. You get to see that in every moment with Mantra, you can start to see the “living” without myself. Spontaneous existence without any story, without any person in it, this spontaneous no-knowing. You show this sense of self, this mind sense this ego sense, you kind of rock it to sleep by showing in every moment.  Like Maharaj says “have courage to step forward” continue to step forward. In the stepping forward you start to catch this process as it is taking form. That it is not true. There is no need to think and worry about what to do. You don’t get caught up in all these thoughts and labeling depressive thoughts, there is no getting caught up in the illusion anymore.  You can’t, because there is no ‘me’. That ‘I’ has to come first and then everything appears upon that spontaneous Presence. But if that ‘I’ is formless, meaning you have not taken the form in thought, or body form, continuously just here spontaneously in the moment, there is nothing to land on, there are no ideas or beliefs that i can hold about myself. When they do start to form, Mantra. All ideas or beliefs have to do with this illusory unborn child. Who you are not.

Your formless nature provides the energy and the power for the flow of thoughts, for the body movement, to move all these things. It is in everything. There is no real character because there is no you. That spontaneous existence, like Maharaj says “is automatic fearless life, tension free life, peaceful life, happy life”. It will also be seen that these things that you are clinging onto that you believe are you, your personality, memories and all that, when these are cleaned and cleared you will be responding in a more universal response not a selfish sense a Selfless Self response. That automatically erases any of these ‘character defects’ or whatever your saying ‘personality flaws’. Through Mantra and knowing yourself in a real sense it will be seen that all of these were added on. Much of these ‘character flaws’ or ‘vasanas’ were there for you to see and give up, discard as not you. Everything is about giving up. Like pebbles on the road, pebble in the shoe is for you to notice that there is a pebble in the shoe and then you toss it. Selfless Self is doing this automatically as you remain with yourself through Mantra all of the illusory thoughts are cleared.

Yes we are speaking about Mantra. Truly as Maharaj says “Mantra are the words”. Shivoham, Soham, Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman, etc. The Mantra given in our lineage goes back to Dattatreya and are very powerful words. But any Mantra, if you have not actually taken formal Mantra initiation, you can use any of these as Mantra to invite the attention of the invisible listener, even Thy Will Be Done. Just to allow the flow of thoughts, you experiencing yourself without any ideas or beliefs about yourself in the moment. Thy Will Be Done, that works, Aham Bramasmi, Soham, Shivoham, I am sky. Anything just to keep the mind busy, and you being able to see from behind. Your always there, but all this mind activity is blocking. So if you can keep the mind busy saying ‘I am sky, sky I am’ repeatedly. Once the invisible listener is contacted, so to speak, you invite the attention of the invisible listener seeing behind the clouds of ideas, beliefs and concepts. Knowing yourself in a real sense through body form, and then observing, without an idea of an observer. Even no idea arises that the observed and the observer are one and the same. Without a form of an observer and observed there is just the observing, with no ideas or beliefs behind that observing. Nisargadatta Maharaj states it beautifully “All the people are in the room and I see them, when they leave I don’t see them”. There is no train of thought, just come into the room, just like now, you look to the right of the monitor and you see the people, and when the session is over, you won’t see the people. Every moment, Mantra be with you, invite the attention of the invisible listener, concentrate. You are given so many opportunities. This life, this spontaneous arising in each moment. Like Maharaj says “Every moment is so very, very important” Instead of sharing about how you went through something and should have done Mantra, Mantra. Then you will see, ‘I went through this thing and there was no me going through it, everything just kind of, I could not really describe it, it was almost as though I was interacting with my own reflection in a mirror, and somehow I knew that everything was arising on my spontaneous Presence, and there was just a two-way communication with myself, recognition in the projection constantly, but everything is arising from me, including this body, which I am currently using, yet I am no longer identified with’.

‘I exist’, ‘I am’, how I exist I do not know, but I am here. Because you are closest to body, and after long association with the body, you automatically believe and accept ‘I am this body’. This body comes with a label or name, and relations, and a chain of concepts acquired through body knowledge. But you are not body at all.

Q: I have heard that some people recognize Self in deep sleep, but there is no body there? I am a little confused.

The only recognition in deep sleep is that something, you, enters the sleep state, go into deep sleep, dreaming and then come out the other side, so something was absolutely continuous that all these states appeared on. Just one continuous process. You did not just ‘go away’ and then come out the other side. It was a continuous process and all of these states arose on your Presence. Going to sleep, dreaming, deep sleep and waking up, it is just continuous. Just like ‘birth’ and ‘death’ same sort of idea. What was there before ‘birth’ will be there after ‘death’. These are states that arise on that spontaneous Presence. Presence identifies with the body and the thought comes ‘I feel that I exist, and I believe that I am this body “somebody”. After long association with the body and all of the body knowledge that I have acquired, all the things I have seen this body has needed, and the things which I worked to acquire for this body, all the actions that I believe are being done by this body, because this body is labeled ‘John’, people said ‘Good job John, or bad job John’. So I took these as my own. When this thought train is in motion it is moving automatically towards the idea ‘people die and so can I, things can die, and I am a thing’. That is terrifying. When the belief sets in that ‘I am this body, that everything I am is this body, and naturally this body will die’, the struggle to maintain the existence as long as possible commences through thought. ‘What happens to John? Who is John? Like Maharaj says show me ‘John’. Show me a sample of yourself. Is this body yourself? no. Siddharameshwar Maharaj goes through the whole gambit of the ‘subtle body, the physical body and all these bodies’ and finding the ‘I’. Where is this ‘I’ here? It is not here, it can not be found, or presented as something. There is a belief and an attachment with the body. Keeping with your Selfless Self through Mantra, these beliefs will slowly, silently and permanently be erased. Beliefs and ideas, concepts and all of this body knowledge will be erased, you will know yourself in a real sense. You will instantly know as Maharaj states ‘I am not body, I was not body, I am not going to remain body, body is not my identity’. These illusory thoughts about the body are not for me, just discard the layers that appear on Presence. No confusion.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina

Illusory thoughts. Don’t get caught up in illusory thoughts. Every thought about ‘me’ myself’ or ‘I’ or ‘my story’ is an illusory thought. As Maharaj says “clouds coming and going, don’t accept these illusory thoughts”. Any thought that is flowing through that has to do with a ‘me’ or my circumstance, my job etc. that is an illusory thought, because it is based on illusion. Someone that is not existing, so that thought should be discarded immediately. When the thought comes in and it is discarded immediately, it does not get to germinate, antivirus software. In keeping with your Selfless Self through Mantra, a thought comes in ‘oh, I wonder how my boss thinks I am doing, or I am so busy at work, etc.’ No, no, no, Mantra, this is an illusory thought, I know it is an illusory thought because it is about ‘me’. Keeping with your Selfless Self through Mantra and you will see that it was not as your mind was presenting it. It never is. Keeping with your Selfless Self through Mantra allows you to see things as they are, observing this body moving around, and your reactions coming universally, rather than through the lens of individuality. ‘My boss might fire me’; that is a thought about the illusion. It is appearing on Presence, everything that appears on Presence is an illusion, this ‘me’ that I am worried is getting fired, is illusion, this job is illusion, so this is an illusory egoistic thought. Right away you discard it with Mantra and remain with your Selfless Self. There is no getting caught up in the thinking process. The mind wants to say ‘If we don’t think about this something bad is going to happen to you, we need to try and fix this’ but in reality there is no fixer. It is all occurring in mind, through belief. And you are believing, these thoughts that are put together using mind in sequence, ‘this is going to happen’. Before you know it you have lost your house and you are homeless living under a bridge. In reality nothing has happened. You are experiencing all of this through the instrument of mind, feeling emotion and ‘living’ the moment that is not. It is not the reality. It is going to be what it is anyway. It was Ramana Maharshi who says “If something is meant to be, it is going to happen no matter how much you try to avoid it. If it is not meant to be, it is not going to happen no matter how hard you tru to make it so. Best just to keep quiet.” Keeping quiet through Mantra and remaining with your Selfless Self knowing any thought about a ‘me’ is illusory and nothing is required.

There is nothing that needs to be protected. Someone can say something, whatever, there is not that self-consciousness because there is not a little me that is created through mind identifying with the thought flow and bringing attention towards ‘this is me’. When that idea takes shape than ‘I’ have to protect this idea. I am supposed to know something and I don’t. I either lie, or become aggressive, try to deflect or something. Remaining with myself through Mantra, slowly, silently, permanently, all the ash is removed exposing the fire that was always there. Lighting the Arati that fire is there, it is pure, there are no qualities and nothing is covering it. It burns bright, and the light, You Selfless Self are the light, the spontaneous Presence on which everything appears. Everything that you are seeing is just an illusion. All the thoughts about what is seen are illusion. The ideas that there is a seer, who that seer is, if there is an idea formed about that seer, that is also illusion. There is just the seeing. No experience, everything is just moving about in front of the seeing, images flowing. Everybody is experiencing this in various different stages in different ways. You ‘see’ sometimes, like an athlete being ‘In the zone’ taking the basketball effortlessly to the hoop and slam dunk. He is ‘In the zone’ it is just flowing. That is that Selfless Self type state. After the shot I might think about it. I might analyze the shot and try to bring up thoughts about it, or that I needed to change something. Even though this nice shot was made, I may analyze the action and then start believing ‘Oh, I was a little too much on my left foot, maybe I should have taken off on my right foot’. That is the after effect, the commenting after the fact of the action, in essence creating the doer, because I am sitting there thinking about what has been done.

Take one step forward, Maharaj takes the other step. Not Maharaj in body form where you need to talk to him, or do anything. Maharaj, the Maharaj, Selfless Self. Act as if. In that moment know, it is an illusory world, and I am just moving forward. Without saying it. Mantra allows you to do that. You will see your body moving, remaining with yourself through Mantra, you see you are making a sandwich, your doing this thing, every thing is getting done smoothly and not a single thought has come. Mind has been kept busy with Mantra. As the challenges seem to progress it will be automatic, remaining with yourself through Mantra, until there is no arising of anything. No matter what may be happening outside, there is no experience, no experiencer, because there is nothing here anymore. Every moment is a test and you just have to stick with it. Stay with yourself whatever challenge, of course because we are human beings in these bodies, there are going to be challenges. These challenges, turn up the heat, so that you the Selfless Self can see. Using Mantra I remain with my Selfless Self through this, and there will be amazing peace that can not be described. You start to see that the whole world is projected from me. Not me in body form, this Selfless Self is continuously projecting, there is a recognition in the projection through the eyes, of the person that you believed yourself to be at one time, and now you are aware that you are using this body as an instrument. Moving about in this world, but there is not someone in this instrument. This body is just an instrument. An instrument with no need to give it any identity, no need to fill it, not to worry.

Of course what needs to be done is done, no need to form a doer. There is no deed there is no doer. There is no need to form a doer, no need to form an experiencer, you are formless, remain as you are. Without form, without identity, no next. In the next moment, no next. Mind wants to go to a next, no next, just here. What am I going to do, nope, no next, here. Like Nisargadatta Maharaj says “when there are no customers for thought, thought vanishes”. If you think about any economy if the factory of thoughts are making thoughts and no thoughts are being purchased, they lay off the factory workers, they close the factory, because no one is buying the thoughts. If no one is buying the thoughts, than you are no longer creating a you. Thoughts are flowing to poke and prick a you. Do you believe in this thing? Do you believe you are this? Because if you have this idea about yourself and whatever form you have taken, the thoughts will come in and prick that form, that’s what identification with thoughts does. You create this ‘my mind’ and as soon as ‘my mind’ is created, it starts to buy thoughts under the table. Black market thoughts. All because of a belief. Thoughts that are flowing and they are not used to create or form a ‘my mind’ are just thoughts flowing. Like Maharaj says “clouds, coming and going”. The only time the clouds appear to not come and go is when there is a form that is created, a mind that is created, and then ‘This is happening to me’. I take form as person, that person has this and that, these are my possessions, this is what I do, this is how I feel, my friends and family etc. This is who I am. Thoughts then will be given attention if they have anything to do with any of those ideas being held I am believing about myself in any moment. Remaining with yourself through Mantra allows you to see this process, thoughts can come and go and cease, as there is no attention paid to them. They may still be flowing, I don’t know because there is nothing here that has attraction to any passing thought. No interest of thoughts of what needs to be done, or taking a position as a man or a woman, these just are not there. You are just here, with no next, no nothing. Fully here. Using this body in the moment and dropping, something. nothing, another scene arises, 100% in to this, and then dropping. Knowing inwardly that it is just scenes passing. Nothing is sticking. There is not even an idea that you are continuous in all of these scenes it’s just here is the scene now, then finished, not taking anything with you.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina

In everyday experience, through Mantra, through staying in touch with your Selfless Self, you experience many periods of your Self without yourself. But, then your attention is drawn back in to something and instead of staying with yourself through Mantra you allow the thought process to begin. An identity is created, you form this form and instantly believe in what is going on and how it relates to this form you have taken. These are opportunities, turning up the heat, the more the heat is turned up that is beautiful, that is the time to stay with yourself in a real sense. As you start to see your attention move towards something and notice, ‘Oh, I am kind of involved in this’ before you become involved in what is going on, Mantra. When the Mantra is running the mind is busy, and without the mind you can’t be involved. The mind is an instrument that creates a form, this thought train that is identified with and labeled as ‘my mind, my thoughts, my actions, my body’. The more the heat get’s turned up that is the time. That is when progressive steps come in as a use to you the Selfless Self using this instrument to know yourself, without identifying. You have processed all of these different times where there could be a pull to form an individuality, to say ‘oh this individual, this is happening to me’. Then every moment is just passing, up to and including there will not be any concept of ‘I am dying’, the scene, the scene, passing no identification with what is going on, that’s it.

Knowing yourself in a real sense you don’t need all this knowledge, this body knowledge. You are no longer holding onto that as something that is needed, something that needs protection. At the time of leaving the body if you truly believe that ‘I’ have this knowledge and that everything is going to be OK for this, that I am going to leave the body very smoothly, because of all my knowledge I know I am Brahman. This is not good, because you knowing yourself in a real sense know that all of that was just for a time, and now it’s not. But there is no idea that I am dying or that I am losing this knowledge that I have collected. Especially on the spiritual journey, like Maharaj says “If you have been on the spiritual journey for 20 or 30 years, you are not going to want to give that up.” That is something, that is this body who has knowledge and has gone to this temple, seen this master and that master, taken this mantra, and practiced all these things for so long. Your not going to want to give that up. That is the body knowledge. Selfless Self through Mantra erases all of this, this you, this virus, this body knowledge and all the things that you believe you have acquired are erased slowly, silently and permanently. Then you know yourself in a real sense without any ideas, beliefs or concepts about yourself. You can “live” by using this body, doing your job and all the activities as they arise, take care of your responsibilities. Knowing fully, ‘I know myself in a real sense, everything is OK, All of this is appearing on my spontaneous Presence’

Space can appear to be divided, but it can’t actually be divided, a box that has space both inside and outside is actually appearing in the space, rather than containing any space. Even if the box is closed, it is a form that is appearing in the space, it is appearing in the space and your attention is being drawn to the box as an object in space, but space is space. Maharaj uses the example of the Ashram sky and the toilet sky. If the building collapses does the space in the Ashram go to heaven and the toilet sky go to hell? Is the Ashram space more holy? Space is space. What is happening inside the space? Anything can happen inside the space, the space is provided for whatever the elemental objects may do inside the space without the space doing anything. The Space is provided, and there are objects that are appearing in the space. For a time you believe yourself as one of those objects. Until the objects that you are observing as the observer, believing that it is observing as this body form, start to observe that observer and sees that there is nothing there. Ultimate Truth, there is nothing else. Recede, recede, recede, Selfless Self, except your Selfless Self nothing is there. Everything came out of nothing, everything dissolves back into nothing, in between there appears to be something, but that something dissolves back into nothing. It was always nothing, there was just an appearance of something.

You recognize yourself through body form. That sense of Presence is felt through body form, that is the purpose of the body instrument. That is not an experience, that is a knowing of yourself in a real sense. The conviction is as I know myself more and more through this body form, I must not be this body. ‘I am not body’ will arise and this will be known. You are using this body as an instrument to feel this sense of Presence. That is not an experience. Bowing to the masters and having the recognition in the projection. Even going to McDonalds and looking at the fry lady and their is a recognition in the projection. In every being my Presence is there. That spontaneous conviction is ‘I absolutely can not be body’. Because how could this body also be in that body, no it is not possible, yet the recognition is there. So this formless Presence is in each form, recognizing itself, using body forms. You sense yourself through this body, and you are reflecting the recognition in the projection through all of the other bodies, because all of it is inside yourself and everything is arising on your spontaneous Presence. That spontaneous Presence is felt through body. That sense of Presence, the knower of the sense of Presence is who I am. I am not the presence, the Presence is kind of an indicator and I am knowing this sense of Presence using body form. You are the knower of that sense of Presence. There is constant conveyance, when Presence is speaking and flowing, the recognition arises, the speaker and the listener are one and the same. That presence is conveyed, it is conveyed in every moment. The more you continue in the mantra and keep with your Selfless Self you will see. Absolutely so that I! My Presence is in each and every being. The squirrel, the dog, the ducks, the birds. An experience may be the birds flying and you somehow feel them flying through you, that is an experience that you would not want to continue in the line of oh, this is happening. Recognizing the sense of Presence is the purpose of the Mantra to invite the attention of the invisible listener, so your intention goes in there, you concentrate, you feel that sense of Presence. This automatically gives great happiness, without any material cause.

John Richards
Sadguru Shri Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina