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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4345, Saturday, August 20, 2011
There are no "masters." All of us--Buddha, Ramana,
Nisargadatta, Dalai Lama, are just ordinary human beings. We tell
you that explicitly, but you refuse to believe it. Ask yourself
why you refuse to believe it.
A guru is just a human being like yourself. "Guru"
simply means teacher. There is a time in life to have a teacher,
perhaps, but that person should never be worshiped. Listen to the
message-but kill the messenger.
Reincarnation is nonsense. You are having enough trouble and
suffering right now in this life. Why would you ever want
another. If you will simply awaken to this very moment, you will
not even want another moment, much less another life. You will
not want anything.
There is no path, and no one to walk it. Gradual awakening is a
fantasy which imagines time and space which do not exist. One
awakens to truth now. Only now.
You are standing in a river dying of thirst. All you desire is
here now. You are that. Stop riding a donkey looking for a
donkey.
Scripture is dead. Only you are alive. Forget words, and find out
what you are. Everything you need to know will be apparent to you
if you simply become silent. Don't listen to what others believe,
just be yourself.
- Robert Saltzman, posted to NondualitySalon
Kiran Bhagat:
I really like this.. May I ask. How does one awaken to truth?
Robert Saltzman:
Hello, Kiran,
As Krishnamurti once said, "There is no how to be
free."
When views, opinions, and other such thoughts arise, just let
them go. They don't mean anything important. Find the silence
within, and you will instantly know everything you need to know
in that moment. Each moment is a new moment. Just be quiet, and
you will understand.
Kiran Bhagat:
Sir. I am very keen to understand this. However, I am truly a
novice. I simply feel that when I try this, it is just another
part of me pretending to be the silence. How does 'one' know the
difference?
Robert Saltzman:
Very good question, Kiran. I was interviewed about this kind of
thing at length in Nonduality Magazine, and instead of trying to
reply here, I will refer you to that interview. Perhaps there
will be something in it for you. I admire your honesty and desire
to be free. That desire is the only real desire--the only one
worth pursuing.
http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine.4.robertsaltzman.interview\.htm
Kiran Bhagat:
Thank you Sir.I shall read this. May I ask another question
please. It is about the human condition. I am a Clinician. In my
daily practice, I see a great deal of human pain and suffering. I
work in Africa. We see the effects of famine, drought,
malnutrition and frank destitution. I have asked this questions
many a time to others on this site and elsewhere. But I am not
quenched by their explanations. How is there is such pain? What
deserves a child to go through severe hunger and gut wrenching
suffering?
Robert Saltzman:
Yes, I am a clinician too--a psychotherapist--and also have to
witness much suffering, including suicide, intense hatred, total
confusion, and other such mental illnesses. We human beings
suffer a lot in this life due to the animal bodies and animal
brains which constitute our ordinary presences. No one
"deserves" to suffer. Suffering is the price we pay for
embodiment. We clinicians are those who attempt to alleviate this
suffering by means of helping techniques which we have studied
and learned. That is our work, and we must suffer to perform it.
Embrace that kind of suffering, Kiran, it is a gift.
Kiran Bhagat:
Sir, in the greater scheme, with the awareness you speak of that
comes about, how does one attempt to understand why there is such
dis-ease. I read from these and other sites - the use of words
such as destiny and fate/karma etc. As a physician, this is a
difficult pill to swallow in the midst of dis-ease. Take for
example, child euthanasia, in the context of pain and suffering
bound contextually with lack of financial resources in a setting
of a developing world. Whilst one attempts to dissect out the
awareness that you speak of that transcends all activites - it
seems difficult to practice at such a relative world of daily
clinical activity. Am I mistaken?
Robert Saltzman:
No, you are not mistaken. We must live ordinary lives, and,
within those lives, we must continue to suffer what we suffer,
including the sadness you feel when witnessing the suffering of
others.
Words like "destiny" or "karma" do not
explain anything. They are just words. Words like that are like
giving candy to a baby to stop here from crying. Foolish people
imagine that "awakening" means the end of suffering,
and imagine that there are so-called "masters" who have
somehow "transcended" being human beings with human
lives. This is nonsense. Anyone who tries to "awaken"
while holding on to a selfish motive ("I don't want to
suffer") will never awaken. When one of us is suffering, we
are all suffering. When someone thinks "I am this, but you
are that," he or she splits the universe in two.
I see that you are a person of great heart and a love of
humanity. Those are beautiful attributes. Stay with them. While
you are staying with them, learn to be silent inside. I mean
silence in the midst of suffering. If you will do that, Kiran,
you will come to understand everything you need to understand. I
promise you this.
Kiran Bhagat:
Sir your words strike a deep chord.Almost axiomatic. It would
seem from your comments that most of what has been written is in
vain? I am sure you will agree how difficult it is to seek that
silence when seeing the pain. May I ask - this is not the same as
seeing life as deterministic/fatalistic? That what one sees is
part of a greater scheme of things?
Robert Saltzman:
Don't get lost in logic. Let the mystery remain.
Kiran Bhagat:
Sir, perhaps it is being too left brained. But is it not logic
and reason that has prevailed over much else that shrouded
humanities development in the sciences?
Robert Saltzman
Yes, Kiran. Logic is important, and science has done wonderful
things. I appreciate that level of understanding, and even spend
time working on that level. But there are other levels of
being--countless ones. For some of them, the price of admission
is leaving logical mind at the door, and participating in wonder,
mystery, and not-knowing.
- posted to NondualitySalon