Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

I have been accused of being a grudge, of having no compassion, because I speak of the mathematical odds of ever becoming enlightened as 10 or hundred million to one.  This is what Robert told me.  This is what Nisargadatta says.

Therefore, is it really compassionate to lead people on with endless encouragement when I know how few will ever come to any real understanding of who and what they are and the nature of world and consciousness?  Or is it more compassionate to dissuade people from this onerous task, and have them do something else with their life, something which will give some satisfaction and meaning?

I am not alone regarding this.  People are all screwed up with infinite numbers of concepts about themselves, the world, consciousness, and the accumulated knowledge that they have read from 100 different sources.  All of these ideas lie side-by-side in a humongous mess all of which is contradictory to other concepts within this mess.  How can anyone find truth in this maze of confusion?

Finding truth, one’s elemental being, and prior to being-Ness, requires a very subtle mind and a clear grasp that all concepts are misleading.  As Huang Po said, “The only truth is that there is no truth; beware even of this truth.”  If you follow the mind and where it leads after reading books, or even after deep meditations, the mind will always lead you to untruth.  Truth cannot be found in mind and mentation or analysis.  Truth is found by going to the root of one’s own being, into that inner space existing prior to one’s own being this, prior to the mind, prior to consciousness.  And how easy is that?

Listen to what Nisargadatta Maharaj says about entering the spiritual path, or pursuing self-realization:

“If you think you are interested in spirituality, I am dissuading you.  If you follow any other vocation except spirituality, you will have some hope that you will succeed sometime.  But if you enter spirituality, all your hopes will ultimately be shattered.  You will be left with no hope nor expectations.  So I again advise you, do not jump into the spiritual thing.  If you do that, you will be licking without a tongue; you will be left with nothing.  You might even invite your own death; death will be there, death will meet you, you will be shivering in your shoes.

“Two college students had come here.  I told them: forget spirituality, follow your normal inclinations, tendencies, do your normal duties, just give up spirituality.  Why did I talk to them like this?  I got involved in spirituality, in the business of spirituality; and finally I lost that love of the self also thereby.  I have no more love for the self.  That is the reason I told them to not follow their spiritual inclinations.

“A chief anchor for anybody is the love for self, consciousness, the “I-love” state, the main bonding.  I started spirituality in the name of self-knowing only, because I love myself, I love to be.  And I wanted to know what is God.  And to know that means spirituality.  So in this bargain, I lost that; I am no longer fascinated by that love to be.  Because that is the main bondage, the main condition, the “I-love.”  So long as the vital breath operates, so long as the pulse will be beating, until then there is this love to be, until then there is the consciousness.  When the vital breath quits the body, the pulse will stop and “I-am-Ness” is no more.  Since my love to be is now completely finished, exhausted, I have no more fascination for that state of “I-love.”  Therefore I have no more love for anybody.  We normally involve ourselves in loving somebody else from the main standpoint that I love to be.

“I call this, our skull, and earthen pot.  So long as this earthen pot is not properly baked, you have to collect knowledge from elsewhere.  When it is properly baked then you will be in a position to understand of what I am talking.  But what will happen to you after you listen to my talks?  The shell will burst; it will crack.

“When you come here, you will be cremated yourself.  Whatever identity you will have, whatever idea you will have about your own self will be cremated.  Would you like this type of knowledge, which I am exposing here?  This love to be, this consciousness, unsolicited, spontaneously, it has come—for no reason.

“And since then it occupies itself with all activities.  These worldly activities are only due to that, self love, love to be.  But self-love is not real.  It cannot be eternal; is a passing phase.  All this knowledge, in final analysis, is of no use.  Since you will liquidate that very consciousness, finally whatever you have heard here is of no use.  Only within the realm of consciousness is knowledge innocent.  But having heard whatever I have said, if you retain it in your memory and because of your association with that knowledge, some new knowledge will also sprout in you.  All of this is no use really.  But it has one use: you will be able to parade your knowledge before the ignorant masses, you will have a chance to become a guru.

"Whatever knowledge you originally had plus the knowledge you have heard, and the knowledge which is sprouted you, when you finally understand or realize all that, you definitely will come to the conclusion that is all unreal, of no use.”

What Nisargadatta is saying, is that coursing along a path of spirituality, of self-knowledge, means your utter destruction as an individual, as a human being, as a person in this world.  And not 1/10,000,000 people will attain even this.  Most get lost in concepts and words, and become knowledgeable and spout that knowledge to other people which helps them not because they can not come to any conclusion because of the morass of conflicting concepts.  And at the end of that path, even a successful path, you become nothingness itself and have lost all love for life and existence.  Are you sure you want that?