I say loving someone else totally, insanely, leads to recognizing that love is ours, it is inside us. That love grows, and at some point we become love, we identify with it, our own love. With that identity, we invite the the "divine," the Self to reveal itself to us, the fragmented, split off human part we think that we are. His method is nearly the same, but because he was realized at age 14, the method did not eventuate in self-realization for him, yet he recognized the power of the method to reveal all of the Self.
ROBERT ADAMS:
People ask me, "Well, do you love the higher Self? Do you love the lower self? How do you love yourself?"
It's true, if you love yourself there would be no problems for you at all, nothing. There would be total harmony and happiness all the time, if you learn to love yourself. And the self that I'm speaking about is not the higher self, or the lower self, for most of you don't understand what the higher Self is at all. You just read about it. You heard me speak about it. People told you about a higher Self, but you've not had a direct experience of it. So as far as you are concerned, no higher self exists for you. So how can you love it? It's an illusion.
As far as your lower self is concerned, that appears to be your physical material self. That's the self that is a sinner, that makes all kinds of mistakes, does all the wrong things perhaps, has to struggle to survive. That's the lower self. Surely you're not going to love that self?
So what self do you love? You love the self that appears in the moment.
In the moment the self that appears has no problems, has nothing to do with higher selves or lower selves. It just is. As you begin to love the self, without thinking about it, things begin to happen. You're loving the self that is in the now, the self that is in the moment, the self that appears every moment, from moment, from moment. That is the self that you love. It has no past, no future. The self I'm referring to is born every moment, fresh and new.
That is the self that you love, continuously. But when the mind starts playing tricks with you, bringing up the past, or the present, or the future, you can't love it then. Let go. You may look in the mirror, and feel the love for the self that you see in the moment, when there's no past, no background, no future.
The question again arises, how do I make love to this self? You imagine in your mind the most beautiful thing you can ever comprehend. Think of somebody or something that you have fantastic love for. It may be your dog, or your cat, or a person, or a place, or a thing. Something in your life that you love ultimately, with no strings attached. It may be a deity. It may be the Buddha, or the Christ, or Krishna, or a teacher, or something that means something to you, that you have unconditioned love for. You have to have unconditioned love for this, whatever it is, and feel that love, and realize that love that you're feeling is for yourself. You are that yourself. You are the Krishna, you are the God, you are the Buddha, you are the Christ, you are the deity, you are the guru. It is you, yourself, and feel that love. This requires practice. But I can assure you if you practice this, you'll see results very fast.
Loving yourself is one of the oldest spiritual techniques in the world. Yet most people never understood it, because they think they have to love the self they are, that appears. Or they think that they have to love God. You can't love God, you don't know what God is. You can't love Brahman, or the absolute reality, or pure awareness, for you have not experienced these things. You have to love something that you've experienced, and it is yourself. And it expands, it becomes omnipresence, all-pervading. If you're doing this correctly you will then see that you can go out and love everything that you see, everyone, without qualification.
You will not let anyone out of your love, and it will not be an effort for you to do this. It is then that beautiful things happen to you. It is then that you start to feel something that you never felt before, something so grand, so joyous, so wonderful, so beautiful, and it has always been yourself. That's the funny thing about it, it's always been you.
Robert Adams - Love Yourself - Dec 13, '92
Absolutely!
ReplyDeleteThanks for re-posting this, Edji!
:)
Matthew
Here is a question and answer section about diving outside to attain realization
ReplyDeletefrom transcript 104: Silence the spiritual center. Can't fit it here maybe you have to read it in the book for yourself. I'll leave the beginning here.
SJ: Robert, is there some little room at some point, can one dive into and embrace of what's so-called out there and then begin to realize? (R: Embracing what?) You said there was either one or the other, right? Embracing your emotions or diving into yourself? At some point isn't there are some paths involved which transcend an emotion by using it or diving into it, that is poignant to us spiritual awakening.
R: Well all of the paths and really of the practices are a hindrance. They appear to be working for you sometimes. But all they are doing is keeping you on the path. The secret is to wake up and stop thinking you're on a path. In the beginning stages you can say, "I'm on the path." But as you advance, "What path?" There’s no path, there’s only the Self. (SJ: In that vein you’re embracing the Self really, when you embrace anything so-called outside of yourself?) Well you're not really embracing the Self, you become the Self. That's your nature. That's what you really are. Everything else is false.
SJ: What I'm getting at is - if it is appropriate for me at any given time to embrace the Self outside. You know it's like diving into yourself inward but you're diving outward into the Self? (R: How do you do that?) I don't know, maybe it was just a feeling from me about that.
R: If you're diving outward you're diving into illusion because anything outside of yourself is a projection of the mind. Therefore anything that you entertain outside of yourself is a total illusion. It doesn't bring you nearer. The only way to do it is to realize that you are an emanation of your mind as a body. Your body, the universe, everything in it emanates out of your own mind. So you want to get rid of your mind and the illusion will become transmuted. So you investigate what the mind is. You dive deep into the heart and you become free.
SJ: Yeah, I guess I'm talking about something that wasn't used as a practice or anything but that was just have been practiced? (SK: But Jay guru worship is like, you know, if you worship a guru and he's outside of you, so in what you're saying about, if you dive into love or becoming one with your guru and that's an outer practice.) Yeah that is what I'm trying to...
R: Well worshipping your guru is a waste of time. Worshipping the Self as the guru is where it's at. The true sat- guru is really your Self, you're not separate. If you're seeing a guru separate from your Self that's further delusion and you could be sucked back into bondage very fast.
SJ: There seems to be an element that you can transcend whatever one is believing about it and realize the truth just through that. Though it doesn't occur as much. I mean just as much as it can suck you in it can also lead you to realization.
R: There’s only one way to become realized and that is to understand that the world is a movie, the universe is maya, only the Self exists and awaken to the Self by diving deep within. (pause) I understand what you mean, but those paths and those ways are difficult. It takes you years and years when all you have to do is to dive within yourself.