Silence is Another Name For God

Robert Adams

Good evening.  It's good to be with you again , and I know some of you can't wait until I start talking, but I tell you in truth it is in silence when you receive the best message.   Silence is another name for God.   Quietness is a name for consciousness.   Peace.   Everything is found in the Silence and not too much in the words.   In quietness.   You should try to be quiet for as long as you can,  e specially when you are at home.   Try to sit in the Silence and quietness for as long as you can.   It's in the Silence where you will receive the message.   It's in the Silence where pure awareness reveals itself freely.   Never be afraid to sit in the Silence.   It's your greatest asset.
I get many phone calls.   One of the most frequent requests I get is how to resolve personal problems.   I had one this morning, a phone call.   And this person had so many problems, yet she has been meditating for 25 years.   And she still has problems.   There is only one way in which to remove all problems.   I don't care how great the problem may be.   It makes no difference how serious you think it is.   There is one way to eliminate everything.   And that way is to realize "I am not the doer."   In other words, the problem has absolutely nothing to do with you, even though it appears to.   It's only an appearance.   What is a problem really?   A problem is something that is not going your way.   The world is not spinning the way you want it to.   That's a problem.   Things are not going the way you'd like them to.   When things are happening that you have no control   over, you believe therefore you have got a problem.   But if you look at everybody on this earth, when one person has a problem it is not another person's problem usually.   
Where do these problems come from?   We have been told what is good and what is bad, so if we don⁴t have the good that we think we should have, we've got a problem.   But really, nothing is good and nothing is bad.   The thinking makes it so.   If you therefore get rid of your mind, you will not have any problems.
The main aspect of our teaching is to annihilate the mind and the ego.   When the mind and ego are transcended some mysterious power takes over and takes better care of you than you could ever do yourself.   But first the mind and ego have to go.   It's difficult for most Americans to do things like this because we've been taught to use your mind.   Mind is everything and most of you believe if you don't use your mind you will vegetate.  
On the contrary.   What is your mind?     It is only a conglomeration of thoughts of the past and of the future.   And you usually worry about the past and dread the future.   For your mind brings up all sorts of things not only from this life but from past life experiences, samskaras, tendencies that you have.   If you begin to realize "I am not the doer" where is the problem? To begin with, the Universe is your friend and can never hurt you.   The substratum of all existence is love.   Consequently, if you develop a consciousness of love there will be no problems, for   love will take care of everything.   Love is   the same as absolute awareness,   pure intelligence.   Love is the same as power of Brahman.   Again, it is the substratum of all existence, so if you have enough love there is no problem.   The problem only arises when you think that you are human and you think you're the doer, in other words, when you believe that unless I do this something terrible will happen.   And again, something terrible is only a preconceived idea.   It is not the truth.   Something terrible is something you've been brainwashed to believe.   Again, you believe you have to live a certain way and if you can't live this way, it's terrible.   You have to have certain possessions, certain things in life.   If you do not do this it's terrible.   When you start to understand what "I am not the doer" means, you become free of all problems.
What does it mean when you say "I am not the doer?" (a nd this is what you should do whenever you think you've got a problem).   To begin with, you first realize that everything, and I mean everything, was determined before you came to this earth.   Everything has been planned for you, even the day you're going to give up the body.   Everything is preordained.   If you accept this and feel this, where is the problem?   What's the worst thing that could ever happen to you?   If you really analyze it, it's not that bad.   It appears bad but it is not.   And remember how the appearance works.   It's like the snake and the rope.   A man gets out of his bathtub in the dark and steps on a rope and thinks it's a snake.   And he has a tremendous fear.   When he finds out it is only a rope the fear dissipates and he is never afraid again about that problem.
So, in the same instance, when you believe and believe and think and think that you have a problem, it's like the snake and the rope.   It's not really a problem , it's just a preconceived idea of what's going to happen if you don't get what you want.   Because you have been brought up, again, to believe that your life has to be a certain way,   where in truth and reality it does not have to be anyway.   
As an example, if I go home this evening and I find out somebody has robbed my house, and they have cleaned everything out of my house, is that a problem?    It has all been preordained.   This was determined before I came to this earth in my body.   I will not react negatively.   I will not react at all.   Because I feel that I am the universe and all is well.   There are no mistakes.   Therefore I will bless the thief.   No problem what-so-ever.   If I'm walking across the street and a car passes through a red light and hits me, it isn't the driver's fault.   It has all been preordained.   So why should I get angry?   The point is that everything, everything that's happened to you has been preordained.   There is nothing wrong.
Now how should you handle things? The first concept is to realize that "I am not the doer."   When you realize you are not the doer it means that your body is going through the experience but not you.   The next thing you do is you ask yourself, “Who is having this experience?   To whom does it come?   It comes to me.   I'm feeling depression.   I feel hurt.   I feel out of sort.   I feel that I've been robbed or hit by a car.   I'm angry.   I'm mad.”   Who is this I?  How can the I be so many things,   angry, mad, depressed, hurt,   out of sort.   You therefore hold onto the feeling of I.   You hold onto that feeling and you follow it through to its source.  Tthe source of I is always consciousness or absolute awareness, when you follow it to its source.   But now, the only way you can follow it to its source is to forget about your problem , for y ou can't do both at once.   So, you have to turn resolutely away from your problem, totally away from your problem, as if it doesn't exist, and hold on to the "me".   Hold onto the "me" who thinks it has a problem.   As soon as you begin to hold onto "me" or "I" the problem will begin to dissipate all by itself.   And, you'll start to laugh.   You will.   For it is virtually impossible for your real Self to have a problem.   For your real Self is omnipresent, absolute.   Your real Self is emptiness, nirvana, pure intelligence.   Your real Self is omnipresent.   As if two of you were present at the same time.   When you understand who you are nothing will ever disturb you again.
New people ask me ,  "If I develop a sense of ‘I’ and I follow it to its culmination, does that mean I will never have a problem again?”  and I have to laugh when people ask me that , for as long as you identify with "I", it is the "I" that has the problem.   So when you say, “Will I never have a problem again, you're defeating your own purpose.   For "I" is filled with problems, not only from this life but from previous existences.   The trick is to follow the "I" to the source, and then the "I" will disappear, totally, completely, absolutely.   And when the "I" disappears, so does your problem.   In other words, the world doesn't change but you do.   Your reaction changes.   Just like the screen and it's images.   When the time comes when you have transcended "I" you become like the screen and like the images shown on the screen.   Which means the world does not change.   Everything in the world will present itself to you like it always does, but it will be like water off a duck's back.   It will not be attached to you anymore.   You will now have identification with the screen or with the Self.   Am I clear in this?   In other words, the screen and the images are the same, but the screen is aware of itself and also of it's images, and it's not affected by the kinds of images you show.
You can show a bank robbery taking place on the screen, a murder being committed, people making love, houses burning down, wars ensuing.   How does that affect the screen?   It does not.   The screen is never affected.   New images change, one after the other.   In the same way, your Self is like the screen.   It is never affected by problems of any kind or any sort.   The problems come upon the screen.   They come and they go, but you remain the Self forever.   You never change.
How do you begin to become this way?   Every time you think you have a problem you must ask yourself,    "To whom does the problem come? After all, I am not the doer.   I am not the body.   I am not the mind.   So to whom does the problem come?"   And of course the answer will be, “To me.   I feel this problem.   The problem comes to me.”   You hold onto the me.   You abide in the me.   And you go deeper and deeper and deeper within yourself, abiding in the I consciousness.   As you keep doing this everyday, every time a problem appears, the day will finally come soon when you transcend your sense of I.   You totally transcend it.   The sense of I   disappears   and   you   will   become   pure consciousness.   That's it.