#1659
- Saturday, December 27, 2003 - Editor: michael
I AM THAT
"Spiritual maturity is being ready to let go
everything. Giving up is a first step, but real giving-up is the
insight that there's nothing to be given up, since nothing is
your property."
Nisargadatta
A very nice page of Nisargadatta information:
(has links to quotes, information etc.)
"Because
of your existence, because you know that you are, you know also
that the world is. So this consciousness, because of which you
experience the world, is not unimportant; in fact, it is very
important.
So why not
stabilize there? Meditate on that consciousness itself, and find
out how this "I-am-ness" has appeared. What was its
cause? And from what did this consciousness develop? Try to find
out, go right to the source!"
Questioner: Why
is it that we naturally seem to think of ourselves as separate
individuals?
Maharaj: Your
thoughts about individuality are really not you own thoughts;
they are all collective thoughts; they are all collective
thoughts. You think that you are the one who has the thoughts; in
fact thoughts arise in consciousness.
As our
spiritual knowledge grows, our identification with an individual
body-mind diminishes, and our consciousness expands into
universal consciousness. The life force continues to act, but its
thought and actions are no longer limited to an individual. They
become the total manifestation. It is like the action of the wind
-- the wind doesn't blow for any particular individual, but for
the total manifestation.
Q: As
an individual can we go back to the source?
M: Not
as an individual; the knowledge "I Am" must go back to
its own source.
Now,
consciousness has identified with a form. Later, it understands
that it is not that form and goes further. In a few cases it may
reach the space, and very often, there it stops. In a very few
cases, it reaches its real source, beyond all conditioning.
It is difficult
to give up that inclination of identifying the body as the self.
I am not talking to an individual, I am talking to the
consciousness. It is consciousness which must seek its source.
Out of that
no-being state comes the beingness. It comes as quietly as
twilight, with just a feel of "I Am" and then suddenly
the space is there. In the space, movement starts with the air,
the fire, the water, and the earth. All these five elements are
you only. Out of your consciousness all this has happened. There
is no individual. There is only you, the total functioning is
you, the consciousness is you.
You are the
consciousness, all the titles of the Gods are you names, but by
clinging to the body you hand yourself over to time and death --
you are imposing it on yourself.
I am the total
universe. When I am the total universe I am in need of nothing
because I am everything. But I cramped myself into a small thing,
a body; I made myself a fragment and became needful. I need so
many things as a body.
In the absence
of a body, do you, and did you, exist? Are you, and were you,
there or not? Attain that state which is and was prior to the
body. Your true nature is open and free, but you cover it up, you
give it various designs.
Ramesh S.
Balsekar "There was tremendous sense of Oneness, not only
between Maharaj and myself, but a oneness with the whole
existence, with Totality.
There was a tremendous sense of oneness which, quite
frankly, made words seem so unnecessary. That's why there
was certain amount of impatience to get done with the
talk. Words seemed so unnecessary.
It is there!
At the same time, I had the reluctant wish that someone
else was translating. For then I wouldn't have needed to
do the translations, and I could have been exclusively in
the experience, without doing a job at the same
time."
Henry
Swift "I intended to stand up from my seat. At this
moment, something happened which I can only describe with
a smile. I felt as if an avalanche was coming down over
me and was about to bury me.
Then, I felt myself drowning, as if I was drowning. I
couldn't breathe anymore. I was just paning. It happened
at a time when there were no expectations anymore."
Marc Beuret "I was filled and over come by the feeling of a
very intense or dense presence. Along with that presence,
the deepest possible intuitive knowing came into
existence that there is nothing but That.
At the same time, it was known that all phenomena, all
things perceived, are just an illusion, and nothing other
than That.
I don't know what happened, or how the occurrence came
about, or what his presence was. I don't even want to
know.
And I don't care. It was so simple and natural. There was
no exalted feeling of ecstasy or joy. There were no
tears, no thunder and lightning; there was just awareness
and certitude, and the feeling of peace and love."
Margarete Beuret "It was the moment in which the disciple came to
the Master without any expectation or imagination. The
mind was totally empty, and the heart was full of love.
In this moment it happened that the Satguru showered his
love on the disciple. And that was the extinction of the
last minute tinge, the unveiling was complete."
Elke von der Osten "All there is, is God! It doesn't matter! It
really doesn't matter! There is no better and there is no
worse, it just is! There is just nothing, it just is!
I was always seeking for something better! I can't
believe it! Oh, God! There is no such thing as
enlightenment! Oh, God! There is so much energy, and
freedom! And relief, and and absolute love, just love.
Not directed to anyone, it is just there. It is so
simple! It is so simple!"
Wayne Liquorman
"My body was convulsing in horrendous waves of
sadness. I felt myself drowned into this huge, immense
pit of suffering. I was falling into a abyss of
horrendous pain. Yet there was no resistance to it.
Something had let go. The suffering and pain could not
hurt me because its reality was not connected to who I
truly was."
Q: But you already told me
that I am the Supreme Reality. Is it not self-knowledge?
M: Of course you are the
Supreme Reality!
But what of it? Every grain of sand is God; to know it is
important, but that is only the beginning.
-------------------------
M: It is your fixed idea that
you must be something or other that blinds you.
-------------------------
Q: What am I if not human?
M: That which makes you think
you are human is not human. IT is but a dimensionless
point of conciousness, a concious nothing; all you can
say about yourself is: 'I am.' You are pure being
-awareness- bliss. To realize that is the end of all
seeking. (full quote on
pp 316)
-------------------------
M: Nothing can make you
happier than you are. All search for happiness is misery
and leads to more misery. The only happiness woth the
name is the natural happiness of concious being.
-------------------------
Q: Then why are we not free
here and now?
M: But we are free 'here and
now.' It is onlly the mind that imagines bondage.
"We do not need to search in order to
find our true Being. We already are it, and the mind
which searches for it is the very reason why we cannot
find it."
