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