Robert Adams
Robert: I always take my dog for a walk in the morning and I go to the park, where I meet interesting people. There's a little old lady who walks in the park with me every once in a while. She is very spiritually inclined, and we have discussions. This morning she asked me a very interesting question; we will focus on that.
She asked me, "Robert, you say that the world is phenomena and in continuous change, change, change. And you also say that Consciousness is Reality, the substratum of existence. Now, we can confirm that the world is changing because we can see it, but how can we confirm Consciousness? How do we know that it is not changing?"
And I thought it was a very interesting question.: Now you know that you exist, don't you? Everyone is aware of their own existence. When you go to sleep, and you are in the state of deep sleep, you still exist, but the world does not. And as far as you are concerned, the world only exists when you are awake. But once you go to sleep, the world no longer exists for you, and you are in a state of dreamless sleep. The state of dreamless sleep is like Jnana, self realization, except you have consciousness. But there is no denying that you exist, for when you wake up you say “I slept well."
The state of dreamless sleep is like a person who died. It gives you an idea of what happens to you when you die, so to speak. You are in a state of dreamless sleep, and you usually stay like that for about two to four hundred years, earth time, before you do anything else. So the first state of consciousness is dreamless sleep, and you exist in dreamless sleep.
And you also exist when you dream. Take a look a your dreams. A person dream he is married, and his wife has cancer. She is dying of cancer. And they both come to see me. He says, "What should we do? My wife has had ten operations, and is dying of cancer.
And l say, "The only proper thing to do is turn within, and not react to it, because everything is determined before birth."
They look at me and say, "That's not a practical answer; we want something practical."
And l say, "That's the best l can do. It's a dream. Hold on. You will awaken soon." But that's not good enough for them. They are caught up in a dream.
Now remember, you are dreaming the dream, everything is going on in the dream. In your dream there is a sky, there are flowers, there is a moon, there are people. Just like the world. And the dream seems to be external from you, but if you investigate, you see the dream is all taking place in your mind. While you are dreaming you still exist as the dreamer.
And in the dream somebody comes to you and tells you, "Look, there is going to be a recession. There is going to be a failure of the banks." And you've got money tied up in stocks and bonds, IRA accounts and everything else. Everything is going down. You ask, "What should I do?"
You both decide, "Lets go see Robert." So you come to see me, and I say, “Well, you can do two things. You can take your money and we'll build a large ashram and help others see the truth that it's only a dream. Or give everything away to the poor, to the homeless, and you won't have any problems." So they both say, "What? Are you crazy?."
That is reminiscent of a story about Jesus. If you recall the story of when Nicodemus came to him. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and very wealthy. He was embarrassed to go listen to Jesus because his kind never heard anything like that. They never went out; they were snobs. He sneaked out one dark night, and he came to Jesus and said "Master what should I do to enter the kingdom of heaven?" (Entering the kingdom of heaven simply means, to be Self realized.) And if you recall, Jesus said "Give all your worldly goods to the poor, and follow me." Nicodemus couldst' handle that and left. And that was the end of that.
So we go back to the dream, and we say to both people, "This is only a dream, can't you see? Do not take it so seriously." They both leave.
Then somebody else comes to me in a dream, and he says, "Robert, I've got a lot of anger in me. I do not trust anybody. I have no friends. I feel inferior and have low self esteem. What should I do?"
And I say, "Turn within, and you will become free and liberated, because it's all a dream." And he says, "I can't do that, I want a practical answer." And he goes away.
So you're here having a dream all this time, but then you wake up, and it's all gone. It never happened. Your wife never had cancer. There never was a recession. And you were never angry. But you still existed while you were having a dream.
So now you existed during dreamless deep, and you existed during the dream, and now you are awake, and you still exist. So you see the part of you that exists is permanent. It is the "I Am", the Self. It is Consciousness. Everything else is illusion; it comes and goes. It is always changing, changing, changing. You are real, what you appear to be is false. Identify with the real, not with the false. Do not accept anything you see as reality. The only freedom you've got is to turn within, and not react to any condition, and you will be safe. One day you will awaken from this dream, for this is also a dream, and you will be free.
So let's talk about you. Look at all the problems you think you have. Where do they come from? How do they get there? Why do you become upset over them? Think of all the possessions you are afraid to loose. Think of all the sicknesses you think you are going to catch, or that you think you have. You look at the world and you become sick because you don't like what you see. You have to ask yourself, "For whom is the world?, For whom are these problems?, For whom is the anger? Am I really the doer? Am I the body? Am I the mind?. What am I?" Ask yourself.
Now how does a Jnani think? I can tell you. Say there is a man; he's a Jnani; he's the manager of a bank. He's got two sons that he loves dearly. One day the two sons are going to New York by plane, and the plane crashes. Both sons die. He takes care of the funeral arrangements, goes to the burial, and when its all over goes back to work like nothing happened. His wife and his friends and relatives approach him, and they look at him and say, "You heartless bastard, how can you treat your children like that? They loved you so much, and you loved them! You don't seem to care that they died. You never shed a tear. You were not upset at the funeral. How can you be like that?
And he smiled and said "Sit down with me. Let me explain:"
A day prior to this I had a dream, and in that dream, I was a king, and married a beautiful princess. We had six lovely sons. I used to go hunting with them, and fishing, and we truly loved each other. Then one day there was a hurricane, and all six of my sons got killed. But then I woke up! So my question is to you "For whom shall l mourn? For the two children who were killed in this dream, or for the six sons that were killed in the last dream?" This is how a jnani sees things.
What do you think of that? It had nothing to do with being heartless. It had nothing to do with not having compassion. There is a great compassion, but there is a deeper wisdom, a deeper knowledge. There is no such thing as birth, and there is no such thing as death. Nobody is born, no one dies, and no one prevails in between. Nothing that appears, exists. Only the Self exists. And all this is the Self, and l am That.
Pause...
You are absolute reality, ultimate oneness. You are consciousness, emptiness, satchitananda. That is your true nature. Why not abide in it, and be free. Why think about other things? Even while I am talking to you, some of you are thinking of other things; you can't help it; it's force of habit.
Empty your minds. Become still, and everything will happen of it's own accord. There is really nothing you have to do, just be still. Be still and know that I am God. I am as the Self. The Self is omnipresence. This means that everyone, everything, both sentient and insentient, is God, or consciousness. Accept that and be flee.
Why do you think of other things? Why concern yourself with your body, or your mind, or the world?. Why bother with yourself? Quit trying to solve problems. This doesn't mean that you are going to do nothing, for as I have told you so often, your body is going to perform the acts it came here to do. If you are meant to be an accountant, you are going to be an accountant. If you are meant to be a preacher, you'll be a preacher. If you are meant to be a homeless person, you will be a homeless person. But you have absolute nothing to do with it. For you are Para Brahman, Absolute Reality, and you have absolutely nothing to do with the workings of your body or your mind.
Allow your mind to say and think the way it will, only don't identify with it. Allow your body to do what it must, but do not react to it. Everything will happen of its own accord. When you allow your mind to think of its own accord, the thoughts begin to dissipate, and soon you have empty mind. Empty mind is Consciousness, Realization. That's all you have to do -- have an empty mind. But as long as you believe, "I am the doer", and you force yourself to have an empty mind, you never will, because the forcing makes the mind stronger. Rather, observe your thoughts, watch the mind thinking, and leave it alone. Do not identify with your thoughts, or with your body. For in realty there is no body and there are no thoughts, for there is only the Self, and you are That.
Pause...
All is well, and everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes. None have ever been made, none are being made, and none will ever be made. Its all perception. It's how you perceive things. For instance, when you look at me what do you see? If I ask each one of you I get seven, eight, nine different answers, but the truth is you are seeing yourself. I am simply a mirror for your own reflection, but I am a self-contained mirror. So all this is taking place as an image on myself. All of life experiences are images on the screen of eternity. The screen is real. The images change. Consciousness is the screen. When you identify with consciousness you become consciousness. When you identify with the image you enhance the image, and you worry and fret and fear and you have all sorts of experiences.
As soon as you begin to identify with reality, with consciousness, all fear leaves you, all doubt leaves you, all false thinking leaves you, and you become free. But that's the only free choice you get. Everything else has been preordained.
The free choice again is: with what are you going to identify, with the image or the screen? If you identify with consciousness you are no longer reacting to conditions, because you understand that all things are for a short time only, then they disappear. Consequently nothing will irritate you, nothing will upset you, nothing will bother you for you are now appearing as only an image and will soon disappear.
Look at this planet which has been here for billions of years. There have been civilizations on this planet for billions of years, and they come and go. We had civilizations on this planet that surpassed our existence today. They are all gone. No trace. As a matter of fact, a couple of years ago there were some excavations in Egypt of a city that was buried about 5,000 years ago. The only thing left is a sign. They deciphered the sign and it said "My name is King so-and-so, and this is my city that will last forever."
So today we think we are going to make this a better world in which to live, and we are going to save the world, and so on. The world has it's own collective karma. It's going through a phase. Your job is to save yourself. If you find yourself in a burning building, you do not stop to admire the pictures on the wall, you get out of the building as fast as you can. So, when you know you have a short time in this existence you do not stop to play the games of life, you try to find yourself and become flee as fast as you can.
R: Any questions?
Q: Perhaps you could say something about compassion Over at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital there is a dear friend who is suffering, and I would like to see him soon. I feel a natural concern and compassion for his suffering, and I don’t know what to say or do, other than to be with him.
R: You automatically have compassion. That's very good. By all means you should help each other, out of great compassion. And you should also be aware of the truth, that there is no suffering and there is no death, but of course you can't tell him that because he is really suffering. Therefore you should do your best to help him while you can, and have great compassion for him.. Remember again, that what you are, what you do, is all preordained anyway. If you are going to have compassion, you will. What l am saying is don't worry about it. Jus t do what you have to do.
Hold on to the truth. Realize the truth. I am not the body. This is a dream, but it appears real. But again don't tell him that. He is suffering and you have to help him. By all means you should have compassion. Before you become self realized the greater the compassion you have, the better. But you don't shout it from the roof tops, "I'm compassionate. I'm a loving person." You keep quite most of the time. By your actions people know what you are.
Q: You see all see all things as your self, and therefore you are compassionate for yourself.
R: There is only one self, and what you feel toward somebody else, you are feeling toward yourself. It becomes automatic. What you do to anybody else you are doing to yourself. If you help somebody else, you are helping yourself, and if you hurt somebody else you are hurting yourself. What your body does is karmic. It has nothing to do with you.
There are many ways to look at this. When you realize, "I am not the body, I am not the mind, and I am not the doer", then you are safe. But as long as you think you are doing something kind for somebody, then you want a reward, you want recognition. But when you know there is only one Self, you are automatically kind to everybody. And virtue has it's own reward. So by being kind, compassionate, even though you may not become self-realized in this life, you will he born to better parents, and you will be a step ahead of the game of life next time around, if there is such a thing.
Q: So actually the belief in the area of reincarnation isn't too much different from the theories of other beliefs, say evolution?
R: They are all false.
Q: Then one could say, "Well if I don't make it in this lifetime, I’ll make it in the next lifetime." But what if you don't subscribe to that belief?
R: You have no choice. What's supposed to happen is going to happen. The only choice you have is not to react, and to turn within and become free. Everything else will take care of itself.
Q: Does the ego have that choice, to turn within?
R: No, you do. You voluntarily turn within. Ask your self, "To whom comes the ego?" And you will find out the ego has never existed. It is nonexistence.
Q: But it’s an appearance. It appears as though it were there.
R: The sky appears blue, but upon investigation you will find there is no sky and no blue. Upon investigation you will realize, "I am not the body, I am not the ego." And you'll just disappear.
Q: The choice is only apparent too. By looking back we say, "I made a choice.” There’s really no one who made a choice; it just occurred.
R: It seems to occur, but nothing is happening at all. It appears to occur, and you appear to become self-realized but there is no one to become self-realized, and self-realization doesn't exist, just words.
Q: So self-realization is the erasing of me as a separate entity.
R: Yes, exactly. It's also the erasing of the idea, "I'm self-realized." There is only silence. It's beyond explanation. It's a mystery. The finite can never comprehend the infinite. There are no words to explain.
All is well. Consciousness is bliss, love -- not as we know it, but a million times stronger. And that's our real nature. Be your Self.
You see, this is why I usually have nothing to say. What can I say? New people come here and they expect a profound lecture. Some people will let me talk hour after hour, yet when they walk out the door they forget everything. So it's not really a lecture you wanted to hear. You just want to be your Self and I simply mirror."
Q: Why do we forget, Robert? Why do we need to use you as a mirror? Why don 't we use ourselves as a mirror?.
R: You can if you try hard enough, but sometimes karmicly, we are drawn to a book, a tree, or a teacher or a lake, or something that can open your heart so you can see yourself for real, who you really are. So I’1m like a catalyst for you to open your heart and jump inside, and become free.
Q: Why is it that as soon as we walk out the door we forget?
R: Samskaras, past tendencies from many lifetimes. They are very strong, very powerful, very realistic. And it grabs us, some worse than others. But if you keep coming to satsang, if you keep asking yourself the question, "Where does the I come from?", by abiding in the I, your samskaras become weaker and weaker, and the I becomes stronger and stronger, until one day you will disappear, and you will be your Self.
Long pause...
Q: It sure is hard to get there.
R: To whom? When I say "This is my finger, this is my nose," who is the "my"?. To whom am I referring? It’s like there are two of us. "This is my foot". Who is the "my"? Find out! Ask yourself and you will realize there have been two of you. There is your self and your body to whom you are referring. But when you realize "I slept, I dreamt, and I am awake," it will give you a clue to your existence, and will give you silence.
And then you begin to search, "What is the source of I? where did it come from?" You never answer those questions. You just ask. Because if you answer, its from the view point of the ego. Therefore you never answer the question, you simply abide in the I. You follow the I to its source. All of your problems are attached to the I, and when the I disappears in the source, so do all your problems. They go with it, and so will your question.
Q: Robert, when we are here in satsang and you give examples like this, it seems so clear to see who is involved in waking up, who woke up. "This is my finger, this is my foot!" It seems so, so clear. But when I am alone, in my own awareness it seems fuzzy.
R: This is true for most people. Then, again it is because of past samskaras, past tendencies from previous lives. They pull you back into Maya. But you have to keep turning around, and keep practicing. The more you practice the less fuzzy it will become, until you become free. Convert yourself to a spiritual life, think about it all day long, before you go to sleep, and when you wake up.
Q: Is practice then mainly a matter of paying attention?
R: Paying attention to yourself, your inquiry. For instance, when you wake up in the morning and you are filled with fears, collective fears, about the world situation, about what's going on in Iraq, don't follow the train of thought, but rather ask yourself, "To whom does this fear come?" and it will go away. When you follow through, the answer will be "It comes to me; I feel it." Then you further inquire, who is the source of I? Where did the I come from?" and you will feel better right away.
Q: What if you are in a position where the spirit is willing, but the flesh is week. You say to yourself, "I will practice this discipline, 1 will simplify my life." Yet when the situations come up in your life, you forget. Is that karmic? 'S it just a mailer of time?
R: Its all karmic.
Q: So even if you have a longing within and you've simplified your life, still things come up?
R: Things can always come up. They are like posts. Do not react to them. Turn away from them. Simply abide in the truth. Ask yourself, "To whom is the flesh weak? Who made that thought?" Keep coming back again and again to the I. Keep abiding in the I, and you will become stronger and stronger. All you have to do is keep coming back again and again. Have patience. It took you thousands of incarnations to be the way you are, so have patience Continue to practice. Something has to give, sooner or later. How are you feeling since the first day I met you until now? Is there any difference in you?
Q: Oh, I'm reborn!
R: So what are you complaining about?
Laughter…
Continue what you are doing. Have patience.
I'll tell you the story of a Zen Buddhist monk, if you haven't heard it:
There was once this Zen Buddhist monk sitting on the side of the road meditating. He apparently had been meditating for years and years, because his hair had grown down to the ground, and birds had made a nest in his hair.
Intuitively he felt somebody walking by, a self-realized being. So he opened one eye to look. And he saw this old wise man walking by. He said "Holy Father, where are you going?" And the old man said "I'm going to see God."
The Buddhist Monk said "Please, intervene for me and ask God how much longer I've got to sit this way, meditating, before I become liberated?."
So the old man said "I will my son."
The old man continued walking. A mile down the path there was another Zen Buddhist Monk. Same story. He had apparently had been sitting here for many years, because his hair had grown down to the ground, and birds had made a nests in hair also. And he, too, felt somebody coming and knew it was a realized being. He opened his eyes and said "Where are you going, Father?"
And the old man said "I'm going to see God." So this monk asked the same question, "Would you please ask God for me how much longer I have to sit like this and meditate before I become liberated?" And the old man said "I will my son", and he continued walking.
Six months passed. The old wise man was walking down the road again. The first Zen Buddhist Monk intuitively felt him coming, and he opened his eyes and said "Father, have you seen God?"
The wise man said "Yes."
"And did you ask him for me how much longer l have to sit like this and meditate before l become free?"
The old man said "Yes I did my son." The old man pointed to a tree, and he said, "Do you see all the leaves on the tree? God told me you have to incarnate as many times as there leaves on this tree before you can become fee."
And the Monk got furious and said "What? After all the years I've spent meditating? What nonsense! This is all a waste of time! I'm through with this!" And he got up and headed toward town to get drunk.
Later the old man passed the second monk, who also felt him coming, and opened his eyes and said "Father, did you intervene for me? Did you ask God how much longer I have to sit like this before I become free?"
The old man said, "Yes my son, I did." The old man pointed to a tree and said, "God told me that you have to reincarnate as many times as there are leaves on that tree."
And the Monk became happy, and sang for joy, and he said, "Thank you, thank you! It could have been two trees or three trees or five trees, the whole forest! But its only one! Thank God!" And he walked away happy.
So that's the difference between people. We have to have patience. We are all hell-bound for heaven. Have no fear, we will get there.
Long pause...
R: Try to remember the main points: Birth and death are like going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. When you go to sleep at night, you die. When you dream, it’s like being on the astral plane. And when you wake up in the morning, its like being born. Through those slates of consciousness somebody exists, and that somebody is none other than you. In other words you are aware of dreaming. You are aware of sleeping. You are aware of waking up. You are aware of dying, and you are aware of being reborn.
Somebody is watching all this. That's you. You exist through all those states. Abide in your existence, not in the states. Ignore the fake consciousness. Abide in the reality, which is called absolute awareness, consciousness. Abide in that and be free.
Is there anything you would like to talk about? Feel free at this time to ask anything you would like. I'm not different from anyone else. Never look at me as anybody special.
Q: Robert, have you always had this realization?
R: I guess. There is no telling. People have asked me about this so I will tell you a little bit about it:
When l was a small child in a crib, a little man used to be on the other side, about this big. For a long period l would lie there and he would be talking to me from the edge of the crib. And of course being a baby, I didn't know what he was talking about. As far as I know he was talking to me ever since I was born. I couldn't understand what he was saying.
I used to believe everybody had that experience, and when I was about 5 or 6 years old, I told my parents about it, and they thought I was playing games. I told my friends, and they laughed at me. So I stopped saying anything about it. The visitations stopped when I was about seven. My father died. And all of a sudden, the little man stopped coming to me.
Then I asked my mother, "What am I doing here?, I don't belong here." I didn't understand what I was saying but I felt that I was out of place. My mother thought I was crazy, and so did a lot of other people. She took me to the doctor, and the doctor told her it would go away.
When I was going to school I never really fit in because I was always daydreaming. I had strange experiences. I used to sit in the class and become swallowed up in consciousness. I became omnipresent. I had out of body experiences. I just merged with consciousness. I couldn't understand what was happening.
Then when l was about l4 years old, I went to the library to do a book report. I passed the philosophy section and saw a book on yoga masters. I didn't even know what that meant at the time. I opened the book to a page, and there was a picture of Ramana Maharshi. My hair stood on end, because it was the same person who appeared to me when I was a baby in my crib! Since then I have never been the same.
Q: That is what led you to Ramana Maharshi?
R: Later on, yes. I actually went to the Self Realization Fellowship in Encinitas. I went to see Yogananda. I was initiated and was going to become a monk, but after Yogananda talked to me, he said "Robert you don't belong here, you've got your own path. Go to India."
So I did. I went to the Ramana Ashram. That was l947 or '48. I confirmed my feelings. Ever since l was born l had never believed I was a body.
I went back to school and made believe I was normal, whatever that is.
Q: When you first saw Ramana Maharshi, did he remind you of the person you had communication with as a baby?.
R: Definitely yes.
Q: Did you speak of this later with him?
R: No, I never did. We just smiled at each other. I had some personal conversation with him, but even at the end of 1947 he was sick. He couldn't walk very well and had to be assisted by his devotees. He had a cane. He could hardly walk.
I usually never go into these things, because, number one, it can't really help you, and
No comments:
Post a Comment