Robert: Hello, welcome to the, what do we call ourselves? the being nobody group, because when you leave here you'll be nobody. If you want to be somebody you came to the wrong place. We are a bunch of nobodies. How many of you are here for the first time? Please do not be dismayed by what you hear. I am not a lecturer. I am not a philosopher. I am not a sermonizer. Is there such a thing as a sermonizer? I've heard of womanizer.
Student: Are you a womanizer?
Robert: I'm not a sermonizer. We're one big happy family here. Some families aren't too happy. So we're one big family, we're one big, we're one.
I want to thank most of you for sharing your Christmas and Chanukah gifts with me. It's very unusual being in Los Angeles. In the past I never used to take anything that was given to me. But since I got to Los Angeles things have changed. Anyway, thanks.
I received a phone call this morning from somebody who isn't here now. They asked me to elaborate on the question that Glen asked last week (Glen's in the corner.) His question was, "Does a realized person, a sage, a jnani become angry?" and I briefly touched on that. I was most succinct, didn't say too much about it. Somebody wanted me to elaborate on that for some reason. It's an interesting question. Humans get angry. Therefore when you've reached self-realization, do you still have feelings of anger, of rage, or outrage? A question like this is usually asked by a seeker or a disciple. A devotee couldn't care less. When you ask a question like this you're asking from the viewpoint of the ajnani, and there are different answers. It's very paradoxical.
It reminds me of the time I was initiated by Paramahansa Yogananda in self-realization when I was 17, prior to going to India to see Ramana Maharshi. And during the initiation I was on my knees and he put his hand on my head and he said, "Robert, do you promise to love me no matter what I do, or no matter what you think you see me do?" I hesitated. I said to myself, "What is he going to do? Is he going to kill somebody, and wants me to love him no matter what he does?" But then I also realized that I didn't have all the answers. So I said, “Yes.”
It's only by being around him two or three months that I realized what he meant. He reacted differently to different people, to different personalities. It was Christmas and he was living with the monks in Encinitas at that time. So I recall one monk came over to him and said, "Master,” they called him Master, "may I go visit my family at Christmas time? I'll be gone two weeks.” He became very sweet and he said, "Of course you can. You should see your family. They miss you. Go and have a good time and come back in two weeks."
Then somebody else came and kneeled before him and he said, "Master, may I go see my family during Christmas?" He became outraged and started screaming at the monk and said, "How dare you ask me a question like this. Why do you want to see your family. They don't want to see you. Of course you can't go. Don't ask stupid questions. Go back to your quarters," This was the dilemma, same question with different answers.
I consequently realized that he was able to read into the person. He knew exactly what was going on with each person. He couldn't possibly give the same answer to two different people. He realized the first person had a loving family, and the first person had high self-esteem, so it wouldn't matter where the person goes. Their heart is always on truth, on reality, on God. But the second person had low self-esteem, and if he left he would be dragged by the powers of maya back into reality, of materiality that is, the reality of materiality, and he probably wouldn't even come back again. That's why he gave that answer.
And so it is with the answer to the question that Glen asked. Sometimes a sage puts on an act, fakes it for the benefit of the devotees or the disciples or the seekers. It's necessary. If you recall the incident with Jesus and the money changers, Jesus supposedly got very angry when he went to the temple and saw all of the merchants selling their wares on the steps of the temple. He overturned the table and said, "How dare you do this in my Father's house?" and chased them all away. It appears he also got angry. But did he? When you speak of a sage, of a jnani, supposedly they are transcendent. They've transcended. They have no ego, no personality left. So what gets angry? It is the ego that gets angry, the mind. If there is no ego mind left how can you possibly become angry? Therefore a true sage, a jnani, can never really become angry for he doesn't have the mechanism to become angry again. It's been transcended.
That's like the story of the Zen monk who came to the Master and said, "Master, I'm always getting angry. I can't help it. What shall I do?" So the Master took out his sword and cut off his head and said, "Let's see you get angry now." And as the story goes, he became enlightened. His head flew back on and he was realized.
There is no one to become angry. Think about yourself. You have emotions, you become angry, you have all kinds of psychological symptoms. Where do they come from? Why are they there? You have to ask yourself, "Why do I become angry? Why do I have these emotions? Why do I allow my mind to think past my nose? I'm responsible for my own life," That's how you should talk to yourself. "If I have all these negative emotions, how can I possibly function in the world? I blame others. I see the faults of others. I'm always judging. I'm always criticizing. Am I right? Even though if I appear to be right, I'm wrong. I'm wrong simply because I do not understand the universe. I usually get angry because things are not going my way. The world is not turning the way I want it to, so I criticize, I judge, for I believe things should be this way instead of that way. I believe people should do this instead of that. I believe this person should be this way instead of that way. Why do I believe this?"
This is the way you should talk to yourself. "What is it that's in me that makes me this way? Is it a power? Is it a force? Is it some kind of entity? Am I possessed? Actually who am I? Who am I with this great temper, with this anger?" And as you keep inquiring, "Who am I?" you will begin to focus on the I. "Who am I? What is this I? I'm always referring to I. I am angry. I am disillusioned. I have a bad temper. Why if this I weren't here there would be no one to experience these verities I just mentioned."
So what is the source of I? The problem really isn't the temper or the anxiety or the depression. The problem is the I. It is the I who has this problem, not me. Subsequently the secret is to dissolve the I, to annihilate the I. For I reason out that if the I is destroyed there will be no one left to get this problem. So how do I dissolve the I? Simply by inquiring, "Where did the I come from?" I wake up, I say, "I slept." I had a dream, I wake up, I say, "’I dreamt." I am awake, I say, "Now I am awake." I feel depressed, I say, "I am depressed," There is always I. Reasoning will tell you that all of your troubles are attached to I. The troubles have no validity by themselves. The disappointment or the disillusionments, the anger, the temper, they have no validity. It is the I that appears to have validity. So where did the I come from? Who gave it birth? Who feels it? Again, I do. It's always I. Who am I? What is the source of the I? By holding on to the I and following it to the source it will dissolve. It will disappear of its own accord.
So you inquire. Whenever you have a problem you must ask yourself, "To whom does it come?" It makes no difference how many problems you may have. It makes no difference what is disturbing you, how serious your particular problem may loom in your mind. The method is always the same: "To whom does it come? Why it comes to me." Me is the same as I. You hold on to the me or you hold on to the I. You do not concentrate on the I. You concentrate on the source of the I. But you hold on to the I like you're holding on to a rope. You’re climbing down to the end of the rope. And every time you say to yourself, "Who am I?" or "What is this I?" you're going deeper and deeper within yourself, deeper and deeper, into oblivion, into emptiness, into the void. As you repeat, "Who am I?" the space between the thoughts "Who am I?" becomes greater and greater, and you begin to identify with the space between the thoughts of "Who am I?"
All of a sudden you find a profound peace overtaking you, a peace which passeth all understanding. This is not a peace that you've known before. It's different. It's a peace that overtakes you completely, and you lose your body awareness. It has nothing to do with the things of the world. It's a blissful peace. You remain in that state. Included in that peace is a feeling of immortality. Without using words you just know, "I was never born and I can never die." It is as if you just studied a course at the university for five years, you're so sure of these things. You just know that all is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There is nothing wrong anywhere. You feel wonderful. You have become your self. You have not changed into anybody. You have become your natural self. That is your true self.
This feeling never leaves you. It is always with you. Whether you work, or you sleep, or you do nothing, this profound peace, this love, this feeling of immortality never leaves you. The question arises, "Who is born, who dies?" and the answer comes, "No one." There is no cause for existence. Existence is not real. You just know this. Whereas before you were identifying with the material world, the material world was real to you. But now you just know you have just become infinity itself. You become aware of the fact that this universe does not exist.
And something tells you further that the universe exists as if in a dream, that's all. When you're dreaming, you find yourself in the universe. You're flying in a plane, you're cooking, you're eating, you're killing, you're making love, you're doing all kinds of things. It's all happening in your dream. It seems so real. If anyone comes and tells you you're dreaming, you refuse to believe them, because the dream appears very, very real. Then you wake up and you're back to the waking state, which is just another dream.
In any event you are aware of all these things instantaneously, and no one can ever tell you again that the world is real. You are unable to explain it, for there are no words to describe reality. You just know. You also realize that there is nothing in all this dream world that can possibly harm you or cause you unhappiness, and you look at the world as an optical illusion. It appears to be here but it's not. You consequently stop reacting to person, place or thing, for if you react you are identifying with the dream world. You don't actually stop reacting. There's something inside of you that no longer allows you to react. You have separated yourself from the relative universe.
The question is, "Why do you want to become like this?" For it sounds to the average person like you become a babbling idiot. You're no longer part of this world. You have to ask yourself therefore, "What is this world all about? This world is a world of constant change. Look at my body. I am not the same person I was ten years ago or twenty years ago. I've changed completely. And I'm getting older and the body will die sooner or later. What am I working for? Why do I do all these things I do every day? Why am I so concerned with this life and that life, and this person and that person, and the world situation? I do not understand anything."
And that's the beginning of divine ignorance. You realize that you do not know what anything is. As an example, you look at a tree. You do not know what a tree is. You were born into a situation where a tree was evident for you. It's just there. People call it tree. They could have called it dog or cat. They call it tree. Where did it come from? What came first, the seed or the tree? It's a mystery. You don't know. You look at a spider, a dog, a cat. What are they doing here? Where do they come from? What is their purpose? You have no idea what anything is and you have no idea what you are. Therefore you no longer condemn, you no longer hate, you no longer judge, you no longer find fault, you no longer try to change anybody. You leave the world alone. You leave people alone. You leave everything alone. You keep working on yourself.
What are you doing with your life? How did you go through your life today? What kind of thoughts went through your mind? What kind of feelings and emotions did you have? You have to begin somewhere. Instead of identifying with your emotions, your problems, begin gradually to change by asking yourself the question, "Who am I? Who has these problems?" It makes no difference how long it takes. Time and space do not exist. They appear to exist.
We have learned that whatever you say, whatever you do to someone else, however you act, returns to you. Why? Because there's only one I. There is one self. There are not two or three selves. There is only one self. Therefore what I give to you, what I take from you, what I do to you, I am doing to myself. If I hate you, I hate myself. The trouble is we do not see the results immediately so we think we're getting away with something. You can not get away with anything. Everything always comes back to you.
As an example, say you're a pickpocket and you pick a person's pocket, and you find a wallet with $50,000, and you say, "Great. Look what I got," You justify it. You say, "That person is rich, they don't need it. I do," You move to Canada and you buy a house, you get a job. Ten years pass. This is the falsity of time and space. There appears to be time, but there’s not. It's really happening instantaneously, but time appears to be real. So ten years passed, you have a new home, a new job. One day you come home. You find your house on fire. All of your personal belongings that you loved so much, have all burned up. When you take an inventory you see that there was $50,000 worth of damage. It came back to you, but in a different way.
When we understand these things we stop playing games and we get down to spiritual work. We forget about all these human traits, and we begin to realize, "My true nature is consciousness. I am absolute reality. I am pure awareness, ultimate oneness. This is my real nature. And even if I do not feel it right now, I am going to work on myself continuously even if it takes me ten million lifetimes, I will work on myself diligently and do what has to be done, until I become free."
The rest is up to you.
Student: Are you a womanizer?
Robert: I'm not a sermonizer. We're one big happy family here. Some families aren't too happy. So we're one big family, we're one big, we're one.
I want to thank most of you for sharing your Christmas and Chanukah gifts with me. It's very unusual being in Los Angeles. In the past I never used to take anything that was given to me. But since I got to Los Angeles things have changed. Anyway, thanks.
I received a phone call this morning from somebody who isn't here now. They asked me to elaborate on the question that Glen asked last week (Glen's in the corner.) His question was, "Does a realized person, a sage, a jnani become angry?" and I briefly touched on that. I was most succinct, didn't say too much about it. Somebody wanted me to elaborate on that for some reason. It's an interesting question. Humans get angry. Therefore when you've reached self-realization, do you still have feelings of anger, of rage, or outrage? A question like this is usually asked by a seeker or a disciple. A devotee couldn't care less. When you ask a question like this you're asking from the viewpoint of the ajnani, and there are different answers. It's very paradoxical.
It reminds me of the time I was initiated by Paramahansa Yogananda in self-realization when I was 17, prior to going to India to see Ramana Maharshi. And during the initiation I was on my knees and he put his hand on my head and he said, "Robert, do you promise to love me no matter what I do, or no matter what you think you see me do?" I hesitated. I said to myself, "What is he going to do? Is he going to kill somebody, and wants me to love him no matter what he does?" But then I also realized that I didn't have all the answers. So I said, “Yes.”
It's only by being around him two or three months that I realized what he meant. He reacted differently to different people, to different personalities. It was Christmas and he was living with the monks in Encinitas at that time. So I recall one monk came over to him and said, "Master,” they called him Master, "may I go visit my family at Christmas time? I'll be gone two weeks.” He became very sweet and he said, "Of course you can. You should see your family. They miss you. Go and have a good time and come back in two weeks."
Then somebody else came and kneeled before him and he said, "Master, may I go see my family during Christmas?" He became outraged and started screaming at the monk and said, "How dare you ask me a question like this. Why do you want to see your family. They don't want to see you. Of course you can't go. Don't ask stupid questions. Go back to your quarters," This was the dilemma, same question with different answers.
I consequently realized that he was able to read into the person. He knew exactly what was going on with each person. He couldn't possibly give the same answer to two different people. He realized the first person had a loving family, and the first person had high self-esteem, so it wouldn't matter where the person goes. Their heart is always on truth, on reality, on God. But the second person had low self-esteem, and if he left he would be dragged by the powers of maya back into reality, of materiality that is, the reality of materiality, and he probably wouldn't even come back again. That's why he gave that answer.
And so it is with the answer to the question that Glen asked. Sometimes a sage puts on an act, fakes it for the benefit of the devotees or the disciples or the seekers. It's necessary. If you recall the incident with Jesus and the money changers, Jesus supposedly got very angry when he went to the temple and saw all of the merchants selling their wares on the steps of the temple. He overturned the table and said, "How dare you do this in my Father's house?" and chased them all away. It appears he also got angry. But did he? When you speak of a sage, of a jnani, supposedly they are transcendent. They've transcended. They have no ego, no personality left. So what gets angry? It is the ego that gets angry, the mind. If there is no ego mind left how can you possibly become angry? Therefore a true sage, a jnani, can never really become angry for he doesn't have the mechanism to become angry again. It's been transcended.
That's like the story of the Zen monk who came to the Master and said, "Master, I'm always getting angry. I can't help it. What shall I do?" So the Master took out his sword and cut off his head and said, "Let's see you get angry now." And as the story goes, he became enlightened. His head flew back on and he was realized.
There is no one to become angry. Think about yourself. You have emotions, you become angry, you have all kinds of psychological symptoms. Where do they come from? Why are they there? You have to ask yourself, "Why do I become angry? Why do I have these emotions? Why do I allow my mind to think past my nose? I'm responsible for my own life," That's how you should talk to yourself. "If I have all these negative emotions, how can I possibly function in the world? I blame others. I see the faults of others. I'm always judging. I'm always criticizing. Am I right? Even though if I appear to be right, I'm wrong. I'm wrong simply because I do not understand the universe. I usually get angry because things are not going my way. The world is not turning the way I want it to, so I criticize, I judge, for I believe things should be this way instead of that way. I believe people should do this instead of that. I believe this person should be this way instead of that way. Why do I believe this?"
This is the way you should talk to yourself. "What is it that's in me that makes me this way? Is it a power? Is it a force? Is it some kind of entity? Am I possessed? Actually who am I? Who am I with this great temper, with this anger?" And as you keep inquiring, "Who am I?" you will begin to focus on the I. "Who am I? What is this I? I'm always referring to I. I am angry. I am disillusioned. I have a bad temper. Why if this I weren't here there would be no one to experience these verities I just mentioned."
So what is the source of I? The problem really isn't the temper or the anxiety or the depression. The problem is the I. It is the I who has this problem, not me. Subsequently the secret is to dissolve the I, to annihilate the I. For I reason out that if the I is destroyed there will be no one left to get this problem. So how do I dissolve the I? Simply by inquiring, "Where did the I come from?" I wake up, I say, "I slept." I had a dream, I wake up, I say, "’I dreamt." I am awake, I say, "Now I am awake." I feel depressed, I say, "I am depressed," There is always I. Reasoning will tell you that all of your troubles are attached to I. The troubles have no validity by themselves. The disappointment or the disillusionments, the anger, the temper, they have no validity. It is the I that appears to have validity. So where did the I come from? Who gave it birth? Who feels it? Again, I do. It's always I. Who am I? What is the source of the I? By holding on to the I and following it to the source it will dissolve. It will disappear of its own accord.
So you inquire. Whenever you have a problem you must ask yourself, "To whom does it come?" It makes no difference how many problems you may have. It makes no difference what is disturbing you, how serious your particular problem may loom in your mind. The method is always the same: "To whom does it come? Why it comes to me." Me is the same as I. You hold on to the me or you hold on to the I. You do not concentrate on the I. You concentrate on the source of the I. But you hold on to the I like you're holding on to a rope. You’re climbing down to the end of the rope. And every time you say to yourself, "Who am I?" or "What is this I?" you're going deeper and deeper within yourself, deeper and deeper, into oblivion, into emptiness, into the void. As you repeat, "Who am I?" the space between the thoughts "Who am I?" becomes greater and greater, and you begin to identify with the space between the thoughts of "Who am I?"
All of a sudden you find a profound peace overtaking you, a peace which passeth all understanding. This is not a peace that you've known before. It's different. It's a peace that overtakes you completely, and you lose your body awareness. It has nothing to do with the things of the world. It's a blissful peace. You remain in that state. Included in that peace is a feeling of immortality. Without using words you just know, "I was never born and I can never die." It is as if you just studied a course at the university for five years, you're so sure of these things. You just know that all is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There is nothing wrong anywhere. You feel wonderful. You have become your self. You have not changed into anybody. You have become your natural self. That is your true self.
This feeling never leaves you. It is always with you. Whether you work, or you sleep, or you do nothing, this profound peace, this love, this feeling of immortality never leaves you. The question arises, "Who is born, who dies?" and the answer comes, "No one." There is no cause for existence. Existence is not real. You just know this. Whereas before you were identifying with the material world, the material world was real to you. But now you just know you have just become infinity itself. You become aware of the fact that this universe does not exist.
And something tells you further that the universe exists as if in a dream, that's all. When you're dreaming, you find yourself in the universe. You're flying in a plane, you're cooking, you're eating, you're killing, you're making love, you're doing all kinds of things. It's all happening in your dream. It seems so real. If anyone comes and tells you you're dreaming, you refuse to believe them, because the dream appears very, very real. Then you wake up and you're back to the waking state, which is just another dream.
In any event you are aware of all these things instantaneously, and no one can ever tell you again that the world is real. You are unable to explain it, for there are no words to describe reality. You just know. You also realize that there is nothing in all this dream world that can possibly harm you or cause you unhappiness, and you look at the world as an optical illusion. It appears to be here but it's not. You consequently stop reacting to person, place or thing, for if you react you are identifying with the dream world. You don't actually stop reacting. There's something inside of you that no longer allows you to react. You have separated yourself from the relative universe.
The question is, "Why do you want to become like this?" For it sounds to the average person like you become a babbling idiot. You're no longer part of this world. You have to ask yourself therefore, "What is this world all about? This world is a world of constant change. Look at my body. I am not the same person I was ten years ago or twenty years ago. I've changed completely. And I'm getting older and the body will die sooner or later. What am I working for? Why do I do all these things I do every day? Why am I so concerned with this life and that life, and this person and that person, and the world situation? I do not understand anything."
And that's the beginning of divine ignorance. You realize that you do not know what anything is. As an example, you look at a tree. You do not know what a tree is. You were born into a situation where a tree was evident for you. It's just there. People call it tree. They could have called it dog or cat. They call it tree. Where did it come from? What came first, the seed or the tree? It's a mystery. You don't know. You look at a spider, a dog, a cat. What are they doing here? Where do they come from? What is their purpose? You have no idea what anything is and you have no idea what you are. Therefore you no longer condemn, you no longer hate, you no longer judge, you no longer find fault, you no longer try to change anybody. You leave the world alone. You leave people alone. You leave everything alone. You keep working on yourself.
What are you doing with your life? How did you go through your life today? What kind of thoughts went through your mind? What kind of feelings and emotions did you have? You have to begin somewhere. Instead of identifying with your emotions, your problems, begin gradually to change by asking yourself the question, "Who am I? Who has these problems?" It makes no difference how long it takes. Time and space do not exist. They appear to exist.
We have learned that whatever you say, whatever you do to someone else, however you act, returns to you. Why? Because there's only one I. There is one self. There are not two or three selves. There is only one self. Therefore what I give to you, what I take from you, what I do to you, I am doing to myself. If I hate you, I hate myself. The trouble is we do not see the results immediately so we think we're getting away with something. You can not get away with anything. Everything always comes back to you.
As an example, say you're a pickpocket and you pick a person's pocket, and you find a wallet with $50,000, and you say, "Great. Look what I got," You justify it. You say, "That person is rich, they don't need it. I do," You move to Canada and you buy a house, you get a job. Ten years pass. This is the falsity of time and space. There appears to be time, but there’s not. It's really happening instantaneously, but time appears to be real. So ten years passed, you have a new home, a new job. One day you come home. You find your house on fire. All of your personal belongings that you loved so much, have all burned up. When you take an inventory you see that there was $50,000 worth of damage. It came back to you, but in a different way.
When we understand these things we stop playing games and we get down to spiritual work. We forget about all these human traits, and we begin to realize, "My true nature is consciousness. I am absolute reality. I am pure awareness, ultimate oneness. This is my real nature. And even if I do not feel it right now, I am going to work on myself continuously even if it takes me ten million lifetimes, I will work on myself diligently and do what has to be done, until I become free."
The rest is up to you.