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#2884 - Friday, July 27, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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One: Essential Writings on Nonduality: http://nonduality.com/one.htm
Today's issue is from a fine collection of writings found at http://www.scribd.com/people/view/72593. There's a lot on Robert Adams there.
Satsang with ROBERT ADAMS
March 7,1993
“THE CHOICE IS YOURS
Transcript # 144
Robert:
People
still inquire and they ask me, very often, "Robert, is the
world really real or is it an illusion?" Now the answer I
give is dependent on who is asking the question. It isn't an easy
answer to give. Those of us who are well read in Advaita Vedanta
can give these flip answers that the world is an illusion, only
BRAHMAN IS
Everything
else doesn't exist. This may be true in an Ultimate Reality, but
as far as we're concerned in our every day experiences, the world
is as real as you MAKE it. Always remember, YOU
So,
if you feel your attachments, if you feel the world pressing down
on you, if you feel something is wrong some place, then the world
is
The world becomes illusory only to the person who has transcended the self, the personal self, the ego self. Then the world is only images, like the images on the screen. People are not involved in the screen, they're involved in the images. They know nothing about the screen They see the images on the screen. Without the screen, the images would be destroyed. The images would be bent out of shape. But with the screen you've got a perfect image. So it is with the world unconsciousness.
Your
True SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS but you don't KNOW it. The whole
UNIVERSE IS CONSCIOUSNESS, but you don't KNOW it. You identify
with the IMAGES. Your body appears to be an image also. But you
think it's real. Your thoughts appear good and real to you. The
thoughts appear very VALID. Your reasoning is very VALID.
Therefore, the world is real to you. And you have to go through
experiences in this world, good experiences, bad experiences, as
long as you think it's real. Now I'm not speaking of belief. You
can believe one thing and feel another thing. For instance, you
can believe the world is real and you can believe the world is
illusory. It doesn't make any difference what you believe. What
matters is what you
This
is an important point to ponder. WHAT YOU
Not
the world as the world, but the WORLD AS BRAHMAN. Everything will
become HOLY to you, sacred. And nothing will ever annoy you or
bother you or disturb you. For you will understand this world to
be only of images and BRAHMAN is the Reality or Consciousness.
Therefore, it's up to you. It's always up to you. No one is to blame but you. No one can ever do anything for you except yourself. You have the freedom to see what you like. But what you see determines what HAPPENS to you.
Therefore,
the WISE person does not judge by appearances, but OBSERVES the
appearances without reacting and realizes that everything is for
a time. This too shall pass Everything happens in time and space,
in the worldly sense. But in REALITY there's no time and space.
There's no world. There's no Universe. There's no God. There's no
Self-Realization. There's no illusion. THERE'S ONLY BRAHMAN,
CONSCIOUSNESS.
But
you can't go around speaking this way if you're not EXPERIENCING
it! This is a mistake many aspiring Jnanis make. They have ideas
about what the world is through reading books. Reading sacred
literature. And they go on exclaiming their beliefs. Remember,
again, your belief system has nothing to do with this. It is only
your experiences that determine what happens to you. What you're
experiencing. Are you experiencing Peace and Harmony? Are you
experiencing Compassion and Love? Joy and Happiness. If you're
not experiencing any of these things, then the world is real.
I'm
not speaking of fleeting happiness, temporary peace, being quiet
for a time. I'm speaking of eternal Happiness, eternal Peace,
eternal Joy, eternal Bliss. This is YOUR DIVINE BIRTHRIGHT. This
is the only REALITY this Perfect Self that is Bliss that is
REALLY You. At that time the world becomes null and void. When
the whole world becomes YOU, your REALIZATION becomes the whole
world.
Right
now most of us are bound by the body. We only expand ourselves as
far as our circumference. When you break the binds that have been
holding you for so many years, you become All-Pervading
Omnipresent. You see yourself as a whole Universe, as everything.
And you FEEL it. You feel this place that passes all
understanding. You're not hurtable any longer. Nothing can turn
you on and off like a faucet. You see conditions happening, you
watch and observe, and SMILE within. For you know deep inside
that this is not the Truth. This is only changing images, like
movies. It looks like the images on the screen in the movies and
you try to grab them. You grab the screen not the images. Because
the images don't really exist! Yet it appears to exist on the
screen. It's a film. Yet it looks very real. But try to grab it
and you can't.
And
so it is with your life. Your life appears to be so real.
Situations appear to be so true. Yet if you see it in the right
light, you do not exist at all. They're a dream Nothing is the
way it appears.
There
should be a little longing in all of us for total Freedom. And a
little longing for total Peace and Harmony. And a little longing
to realize and experience Perfect Harmony in all conditions. But
what you're really experiencing right now is your programming
Time passes by, before you know it, you're gone.
What
have you ACCOMPLISHED? Be HONEST with yourself. What have you
accomplished in this life? I'm not speaking of material things,
material possessions. You've got to leave those BEHIND. You
cannot take those with you. I'm speaking of your SPIRITUAL life.
Have you learned and practiced some kind of sadhana to release
you from the bondage of humanhood? Or have you just been running
along with the tide, waiting for something to happen to you? This
is your
Not
in situations, experiences, what happens to the world but only
interested in the Truth. The Truth being the Self, the Pure
Awareness. And if you're really interested in the Truth, you
would not carry any burdens in your mind, of any kind. You learn
to let go of them as fast as they come. For instance, you see an
accident. Your job is to help as much as you can, but not to
carry it. To let go of it and continue your life. Let us think
what's right is wrong, what's good is bad. It goes through until
you transcend that.
You
do service to the world, but you do not act in the world. Again,
this is your
Consider
the progress you're making.
There's
nothing in this world that's worth your becoming angry, upset or
disillusioned. Remember
Learn
to go within. That's where
YOU
are the
Yesterday
morning I was in the park walking my dog and I usually let the
dog pull me wherever he wants to go. So he pulled me over to the
bench 'cause he wanted to sit down and he wanted me to sit down
also. I sat down on the bench and there was a little girl playing
nearby. She came over to me and she said, "Mister, can you
make my wish come true?" And I said, "Maybe, what is
your wish?" She was about four years old. And she said,
"I want to be big like you. My brother's bigger than I am.
My sister's bigger than I am. My mommy and daddy are bigger than
I am. Will I ever become big?" So I laughed and explained to
her that she'll be big one day also, to have patience. Then her
mother called out.
The
point I'm trying to make is the INNOCENCE that was in the child,
the PURENESS Total Awareness Her only problem was to be big. This
was the whole world to her, to become a big person. Then I said
to myself, we grow up and look at us then. When we become big,
what HAPPENS to us? We've been so programmed, so brainwashed The
innocence of childhood is gone. The purity of childhood has
vanished someplace and we've taken on the BURDENS of this world.
This is Maya. This is the grand illusion that most of us are
STUCK in. And we REFUSE to let go.
We
get involved in everybody's business. We have a television we
watch daily. The newspapers we read every day. We’re living
for the soap operas. Metaphysical things mean NOTHING to us
really. And yet we become INVOLVED in these things. The first
step we have to take is to be totally honest with ourselves
totally and completely honest with ourselves and see where we're
really coming from.
The
realization will come to YOU when you empty yourself out of all
these burdens that you've carried so long. It will come by
itself. But in the meantime, don't walk around saying the world
is an illusion or the world doesn't exist, when you're feeling
the world. You're talking NONSENSE. When you discover the world
is an illusion, you will have nothing to say about it. There will
be absolutely nothing to say!! For you will become THAT.
In
the meantime, practice loving kindness, compassion. Help your
fellow man all you can. Do good deeds. And work on yourself
continuously, 24 hours a day. By working on yourself I mean, know
the Truth about yourself. Say to yourself something like this,
"The world I see seems real. My body appears to be real. My
thoughts have hold of me. My body has a hold of me and tells me
I'm this and that. But I know there's something else. Something
more profound. Something more beautiful than I can ever imagine.
There is something BEYOND my thoughts. BEYOND my feelings. BEYOND
my body. Perhaps I have not discovered what it is as yet, but I
KNOW it exists."
And
you give yourself examples. Say to yourself something like this,
"The water in the mirage seems real enough but upon close
investigation you realize that it's a mirage. It's not real at
all. The snake and the rope seems real enough but upon close
investigation I find out it's only a rope. It's not a snake at
all. That the sky is blue seems real enough. But upon
investigation there is NO sky and it's not
Then you can ask yourself, "Then who am I? If nothing is real and everything is an optical illusion, am I also an optical illusion? I can think. I can reason Where do these thoughts come from? To whom do they come? Who thinks them? Where's their source?" As you keep prodding this way day after day, as you keep pondering these things day after day, the day is going to come when you finally RELEASE from all this. It will!!! You'll find total RELEASE, total FREEDOM.
And
you will laugh at yourself so much....For you'll understand what
this world is A DREAM. Nothing but a dream. But again, if you're
feeling the world you cannot say it's a dream. It's not a dream
to you if you're feeling it and it upsets you. Its real. How can
anyone convince you it's not? I will not tell you it's an
ILLUSION at all because you're FEELING it! I can only tell you to
go within yourself and find out for yourself.
What
is the truth about yourself? Find out. The answers are all WITHIN
you. Yet the day will come when you realize there's no body But
until it does practice your sadhana. We have our Spiritual games
and Spiritual entertainment. This is your
God'll
chew it up and spit it out and be free of it. Try to remember
that your life is MORE than the body that appears to you right
now. We forget about who we were before we were born. We've had
many experiences but have forgotten all these things. We're so
wrapped up with our life right now that we think it's so
important. We're forgetting there was a BEFORE and there will be
an AFTER. It's up to YOU what happens. You have been around for
millions of years.
You'll
be around FOREVER! You've had many experiences as other people
You've had many experiences. So why should this one worry you and
bother you? This is only another EXPERIENCE, that's all it is. In
Universal time you're here today and gone tomorrow. You're only
here for a few seconds in Universal time.!! You did not come here
to get involved in circumstances and predicaments. You came here
to FIND yourself, discover your
I can also assure you and tell you that no matter what experiences you're going through right now, what is worrying you or disturbing you, if anything, this too SHALL PASS. Therefore, cut through the jungle of Maya. Remove all the fears from yourself. There is absolutely nothing to fear. Nothing to change. Nothing to fix. Nothing to straighten out This whole world is preordained predestined. Everything that happens is supposed to happen. But you're not supposed to REACT to it.
It
is true that you're Absolute Reality. It is true that you are
Sat-Chit Ananda BRAHMAN. lt is true that you are Pure Awareness.
But you have to have the experience. And again, you cannot have
the experience if your mind is filled with all the garbage of
this world. If you think about it, it makes sense. How can you
entertain the soap operas of the world and expect to have
REALIZATION! You can have one or the other! THE CHOICE IS YOURS!!
You've
got to vehemently make up your mind that from this day on you're
not going to judge by appearances with your life or somebody
else's life. That you will watch, to be aware, look and let go.
Or you can stay the way you are and keep worrying and keep
fretting. THE CHOICE IS YOURS, AGAIN!! It's always Your choice.
Yet if you will find out who you Are
and let go of this world awhile, you will be surprised what
happens. Find out who you
Who
So
in conclusion, the world is both real and unreal, depending on
where you're coming from. It makes no difference what I tell you
or what anybody else tells you. You're the one who needs to have
the experience for yourself. You can run all over the world,
visit many gurus, sages, teachers, read many books, yet until
you're ready to give all this up and do some serious work WITHIN
YOURSELF, you will only build up your intelligence, that's all.
So what do you want to do? You know about the different
traditions, spiritual traditions. You know all about spiritual
life and yet you have not experienced it or seen many people do
that. They've read so much, seen so many teachers...... they went
mad. The spiritual life is the easiest thing you could ever do.
All you have to do is sit by yourself IN THE SILENCE keep still
and watch your thoughts. That's all you have to do.
Observe
your thoughts. What could be easier than THAT? As you continue to
observe your thoughts, you will automatically go deeper and
deeper and deeper within yourself until you begin to question,
"WHO AM I? Where is this I? Who does this I belong to? Where
is the source of it? It's not me. It never was me." And
everything will take care of itself. Everything will happen by
itself.
BECOME
© Robert Adams 1993