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