01 May 2012


Robert on having many teachers, many books, much travel, little depth

You and I know many people who have been searching for many, many years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years, for the answers to life, for reality, yet they're still in the same place they started twenty years ago. They have gone through all kinds of things. They've been to many places. They met certain teacher, but they're still the same.

For they've never really investigated themselves. They say they do. They say they've been working on themselves for years, nothing has happened. But have they really been working on themselves? What they've been doing is sort of just thinking about it a little bit, reading books. But they've never dived deep enough in the Self to find the answers. And this is exactly what you have to do.

You have to dive deep, deep, deep within yourself, deeper than you can ever imagine. And the only way you can do this is by giving up the external world, mentally, not physically. In other words, by not reacting to things. To observe things, watch the world go by, leave it alone. It's neither good nor bad. It has nothing to offer you.

Yet at the same time you'll be doing what you have to do, what you came here to do. If you're supposed to work, you will work. If you're not supposed to work, you'll not work. If you're supposed to be married, you'll be married. If you're supposed not to be married, you'll not be married. Everything will happen by itself. Yet you will know within yourself, that this is not you. The situation is not you. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. You are beyond conditioning, beyond situations, beyond experience, beyond everything. Yet you are everything also.

        As you become a little more serious about this work, you will stop taking things so seriously in this world. You will begin to know how to leave things alone. You'll be more interested in diving within yourself, to find yourself, to understand yourself, who you are, what you are. But then the mind comes to play again, and the mind grabs you, makes you give this up for a while, makes you start enjoying life, so called, makes you be a part of life again, hands you things, gives you things, you go through many experiences good and bad.

Again you forget about the Self, who you are. And most people stay like this until they get old and die.

But there are a few people who will not take no for an answer. There are a few people on this earth, who are only after one thing, and that's liberation. This is foremost in their mind. This is the only thing they think about, day and night, to become free. And what you think about, thinks about you.

So first you use your mind to desire total liberation. When you have a strong desire for liberation, something will tell you the mind has to be destroyed, the mind has to go. What I mean when I say, "The mind has to be destroyed, the mind has to go", I'm referring to the mind has to be left alone, without interference, to observe the mind, to watch the mind, without watching, without observing.

This can be done. For when you say, I am observing the mind, I am watching the mind, the 'I' that you're speaking of is the mind also. So what you're really saying is the mind watching the mind and you get nowhere. Yet there's a way to watch the thoughts and to not watch the thoughts at the same time, to observe the thoughts and not to observe the thoughts at the same time. Just be.

You will find out as you keep doing this, everything begins to change all around you. Yet everything is the same all around you. You see things that other people do not see. You become things that other people can never become. For instance, you become all-pervading. You begin to feel your presence, your essence in the leaves, in the trees, in the sky, in the animals, in the insects. You begin to see that all this is the Self, and I am that. This is when you have total reverence for all of life. Everything becomes God.
Everything becomes consciousness. You're no longer saying, "I, I, me, me, I need this, I want that, I feel this way, I feel that way". You have grown out of this. When you use the term 'I', only speak with the people. They do not understand what you are talking about, so you use the term I with them. But you yourself know that I does not exist. There is no longer an I to keep you in bondage. The 'I' has given way to omnipresence.

The good thing about all this, is that anybody can become liberated, at any moment. But this is because you are already liberated. If you were not liberated, you would never be able to become liberated. But because you're already liberated, all you're really doing is taking off the stuff that makes you think you're not liberated, dark clouds, the layers and layers of nonsense, garbage, that you covered yourself with all of these years. The thought, "I am important, I am somebody". This is what keeps you in bondage.

Robert Adams: Who Are You? - 15th November, 1992

8 comments:

  1. aaaaaaaaah...(silence)...

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  2. Most of you are aware that in the greater L. A. area, most spiritual people are burnt out, so-to-speak. They've been to so many movements, so many teachers, so many so called gurus. They don't know what to believe, what to accept. Always remember, the true teacher is in your heart. The real teacher is within you. A person who has gone within for many years, has become silent within, will be attracted to the same silence in the without. In other words, they will come to the place that agrees with the within. When you have attained a degree of spiritual knowledge, truth, realization from within, you will meet the Sage or the teacher without. It's the same difference. There's no difference whatsoever. But those of you who shop for teachers, who shop for gurus, who go shopping for spiritual life, will always be disappointed, for you will find some fault wherever you go. And again, the fault that you find, is also within yourself. Everything is within yourself. You've got all the answers. Don't look to me for answers. You've got all the answers yourself, they're within you. I'm only here to advise you that you are free and liberated. That's all I'm doing. I'm here to tell you don't need anything. Whatever you're looking for, you already are, you already have. You are that.
    It's amusing and funny to me that so many of us are looking for enlightenment, looking for realization, looking for liberation, looking for peace, when we're already immersed in that. Consciousness is our very nature. We are that. And the interesting thing is, you cannot put down consciousness in any way. There's nothing you can do to it. You cannot taint it. You cannot dishevel it. You cannot burn it. You cannot kill it. It is all-pervading. If it is all-pervading, and you are that, how can you think there's something that's keeping you back from realization? How can you believe there's something somewhere else that's got hold of you, that's keeping you back from seeing yourself, knowing yourself and being yourself?
    Robert Adams Leave the World Alone - 19th November, 1992

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  3. Interesting exchange i just found in Talks with Ramana Maharshi related to recent discussions and an interesting truth on its own:

    D.: Samskaras are said to persist
    even in a Jnani.
    M.: Yes. They are bhoga hetu (leading to enjoyment only)

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  4. "I'm referring to the mind has to be left alone, without interference, to observe the mind, to watch the mind, without watching, without observing."

    If there should be any book on spirituality, it should consist of such contradictory sayings, for it kills the movement of mind instantly.

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  5. Very timely, Edji. Thank you. My mind was going on and on and on with work-related complaints this morning, and I felt a bit dismayed at how tenacious it was. Then I got to work and found Robert's words, via you. Because I've allowed myself to think "I am important, I am somebody," the mind has been going bananas. Now I will feed it the banana of Self-bliss. Bless you.
    Matthew

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  6. Can someone email me the satsang link so that i can be in satsang with edji and the others? EMail me the information that i need to know to connect and participate. I've taken a break from everything spiritual related for a good while to see what happened. Of course the thoughts came back and got their vice grip back on, so hook me up.

    isaac.mouser@topper.wku.edu

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  7. Same talk as by Eckhart Tolle :)

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  8. It is so important to have faith in the teacher and the teaching, which ultimately becomes faith in one's own self.

    Without it so much energy is spent doubting, second guessing and running to and fro.

    Thanks for the post Ed.

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