Robert: To know total happiness is to quiet your mind. When your mind becomes quiet, quiescent, happiness ensues all by itself. There are many ways to do this. One of the best ways that I know is chanting. Chanting has a positive effect upon the nervous system. It also has other subtle qualities that cause the mind to become still and quiet. So lets prepare ourselves by doing a little chanting, shall we?
(Chanting)
I'm not really interested in any of your problems because I know that you are absolute reality. You believe that something is wrong with your life, you're not being treated right, you don't understand too much, or whatever it may be. It's a lie. You are absolute reality, perfect intelligence. You are pure awareness. This is your nature and there is nothing else. You allow your mind to dictate to you whether you're sick or well, healthy or poor, richer or not richer. You allow your mind to tell you all these things. Your mind is a liar. Your mind does not understand because you won't give it power, by feeding it more and more problems. When you begin to accept the fact that you are absolute intelligence your mind frees. It dissipates. Your mind is a tool that causes you problems. Stop your mind. Annihilate your mind. Do not allow your mind to tell you anything.
Things appear to happen in the world. You observe certain things and you react. Yet we live in a world of duality. Everything changes. Nothing is ever the same in this world. Therefore how can you believe what the world shows you? What can you believe? You can only believe yourself. You can only know that your self is absolute truth. I'm speaking of your self with a capital S. You are your self. There is not your self and you. There is only the self. There is only absolute awareness, absolute reality. If you would only accept this and not try to analyze, not try to compare. Just accept that “I am absolute reality,” for your self. When I use the words “I am,” I am referring to consciousness. Consciousness is omnipresence. Therefore when I say, “I'm absolute reality,” I include the whole universe. I'm not speaking of myself, Robert. I include you. And if you accept my words there will be a transformation in your consciousness, and your consciousness will melt into absolute consciousness, and you will be free.
All I can really do for you is to confess my own reality, and my own reality is also your reality. I am sat-chit-ananda. I am Parabrahman. I am ultimate oneness. I am divine love, pure consciousness. I am that I am, emptiness, nirvana. There is nothing else. All of your worries, all of your fears, have no foundation. There is only the one and you are that. Why will you not accept it? Think of what you believe is wrong with your life for a moment. Where did this concept come from? Your upbringing? Samskaras from past lives? You begin to believe that you are the body, your mind, and that causes you to have other problems. And you identify with those problems. But I say to you that you are absolutely clean. The past is wiped out. There are no samskaras. There are no past lives. There is no sin. You are pure as the driven snow. Have you ever seen a driven snow? Where did that saying come from? I didn't make it up. But you are pure. There is nothing impure about you. You are divine. You are consciousness.
Why will you not believe me? You believe you are somebody else. You believe you are human, you're the body and your name is Mary, or Jane, or John or Joe. Remember your name was given to you at birth. What if your parents never gave you a name? Who would you be? You probably would pick out your own name. But you are not your name. You are not your body. You are not what appears to be. You are more than that.
The reason that humanity seems to suffer is because it believes it is human. It believes it is separate. And when you believe you're separate you begin to believe somebody is trying to do something to you. You have to compete with life or with other people. So you're trying to do strange things to others, to be above them, to outwit them. But I say to you, you do not have to do any of these things. You simply have to recognize the truth about yourself and you will be free. You simply have to accept that you are absolute intelligence, absolute awareness. That's you. The past no longer exists for you. It never was. It's a dream. The past can no longer hurt you. The future does not exist. Only now exists. Now exists as consciousness, as absolute reality, and as consciousness, self-contained. There is nothing else.
It is the nature of the mind to be restless, to want to find new things all the time, to go to new places, to become bored. It is the nature of the mind to move from place to place, to find new friends, new environments. In reality you can stay where you are forever and be totally happy. In reality you do not have to do anything to be totally happy. I'm speaking of mentally. Your body came to this earth to do what it has to do, but it has nothing to do with you. Watch yourself, be aware, but do not react. Unhappiness comes because you react to person, place or thing. When you no longer react to person, place or thing you’re free. We always want change in our lives. As if we make a change, we'll be free. Some of us get married, and we get tired of marriage after a few years, and we want to change. We think that will make us happy. But we find it doesn't. There is no thing that can make you happy except the experience of knowing the self.
Even at a meeting like this, if you keep coming all the time, the average person becomes bored after a while and they want to find a new teacher, a new environment. Then they get bored where they go. It never ends. People talk at this meeting of finding a house in Phoenix, or New Orleans, or New Mexico or in Seattle, and having an ashram, and then seem to live happily ever after. But if you're not happy now you can never be happy no matter where you go. Wherever you go you’ve got to take yourself with you.
Most people make the mistake of thinking about the future. They say, "In the future I'll be happy, when I get married, when I get divorced, when I find a new job, when I quit my job and do nothing." But I say to you, unless you are happy now there will be no happiness in the future. Every ideal condition you're looking for, you have to acquire it now. If you want peace of mind you can't run to another country or to another city to try to find it. Peace of mind exists exactly where you are. Peace of mind is you. But you think it's something on the outside. There is a person who hates their job, and they say, "I'm going to move to Seattle. The people are nicer there. I do not seem to get along with anyone at my job. I'm unhappy here in Los Angeles." So you move to Seattle. The environment is new, everything seems to be all right. Within six months Seattle becomes Los Angeles. Same problem, different people. You've got to take yourself with you wherever you go. You can't escape from yourself. Do not believe that others will make you happy, that a new environment will make you happy. It may appear to do so in the beginning. Sure there are people who never stay in one place long. They get bored and go somewhere else. They get bored and go somewhere else. How long can they keep it up? In the last analyses you have to confront yourself. No one can bring you happiness. No one can bring you peace except yourself. You have to stay where you are, even though the environment or your circumstances may seem unpleasant in the beginning.
The wise person remains where they are and begins to work on themselves. They begin to transcend the body-mind . To the extent you begin to transcend the body-mind , to that extent you find happiness and peace. How do you do this? It has been shown to us by great sages. The secret again is to quiet the mind by any means you can. You see, your real nature, remember, is pure happiness, absolute reality. It is only the mental impressions that make you believe otherwise. Therefore get rid of the mental impressions.
How do you do this? It begins by taking control of the mind. That's the beginning stage, of observing your fears, observing all of the thoughts that come to you. Realizing who thinks, and watching, becoming the witness to whatever goes on in your mind. I'm not speaking of taking a negative thought and changing it to a positive thought. Negative and positive are both sides of the same coin. It's all part of duality. For every negative there is a positive. And for every positive there is a negative. For every up there is a down. For every front there is a back. You want to transcend this. And you do this not by playing with your mind but by becoming still and watching your mind, witnessing your mind, observing your mind, in a gentle relaxed way.
It makes no difference how terrible the mental impressions may come to you. It makes no difference how deep your fears are. It makes no difference how justified you feel for being sorry for yourself because things are not the way you'd like them to be. That's the whole secret. Do not allow your mind to tell you anything else. For the mind will always tell you, "Look at you, you have a right to feel bad. You have a right to fear. Look at the kind of world in which we live, man's inhumanity to man, the precarious condition of today's world." Then it will tell you about your own life. "Something bad may happen to you tomorrow. You may go bankrupt. Your husband or wife may leave you. You may lose your job." All these thoughts come to everyone. You are not alone.
But I say to you there's a way to transcend this and become the self that you are, if only you would do it. You watch your mind, you observe your mind. You look intelligently at what your mind is. You do not listen to it. Remember also, we're not trying to exchange bad thoughts for good thoughts. Your mind will try to please you and once in a while give you what you want. Then you will start to believe in it again and believe it's your friend. But then all of a sudden the carpet will be pulled from under you, and you will feel disillusioned again, discouraged. Do not allow your mind to control you. Realizing that as you observe the mind, as you watch, as you stop reacting to what your mind tells you, your mind becomes weaker and weaker and weaker, and the thoughts come less and less and less. To the extent your mind becomes weaker, the happier you become. That'll be proof to you.
Then you can say to yourself, "Imagine if I annihilate my mind completely, I will have total happiness." And that's true. You begin to work on yourself. Makes no difference what anyone else is doing. Leave everyone else alone. Do not compare yourself with anyone. Be gentle with yourself. Be at peace with the whole universe. Reconcile yourself with the whole universe, with the mineral kingdom, with the vegetable kingdom, with the animal kingdom, and with the human kingdom. Have no enemies. Allow yourself to love everything.
As you begin to work on yourself this way you will find all the old mental impressions breaking down. Your true nature will begin to shine forth. As you continue on this path, watching, observing, the day will come when you can ask yourself, "Who am I?" It will come by itself. It's nothing you read in a book. It's nothing anyone tells you. It comes by itself. It's a natural consequence of observing your mind and watching your mind. If you do this long enough the question will come by itself. One day, as you are observing your mind, something will say from deep within yourself, "Who am I? Who am I? Am I my body? If I were my body I would always be the same. But I am not the same body I was 10 years ago. When I was a baby I was a different body. When I was a teenager I was a different body. Now I'm an adult. I'm still different. And I'm getting older. Who will I be then? When I'm feeble and cannot walk anymore and my days are limited, who will I be then?" You think deeply about these things. It comes by itself.
Then something else will happen to you. You will begin to notice every time you refer to yourself as a baby, as a teenager, as an adult, as an old person, you're saying I. And that's a clue. I always seems to be there. I was a baby. I was a teenager. I am an adult. I am going to grow old. I'm going to die one day. I'm always referring to I. When you go to sleep, you say, "I am going to sleep." When you dream you say, "I dreamt." When you're awake, you say, "I am awake." You begin to wonder to yourself, "Who is this I? Who am I really?" Just by asking those questions phenomenal results will ensue in your life, for there is an answer deep within the recesses of your heart. The answer will come one day as a flash of light and then quietness. At that time you'll realize that you are the universe. You are the self. You are not yourself as a separate entity. You’re the omnipresent self. You will feel It without words. You will know that you are the absolute reality, that you are no thing that can be explained. You are pure love, happiness. It will happen of its own accord.
What I'm giving you is not a teaching. It is not a philosophy. It is a way of life. You cannot force it to happen. People have been trying to force it to happen for years, to become self-realized, to become free, free of bondage. People have been searching for years. What they are doing unfortunately is that they are searching outside of themselves. They are looking to the world for assistance. The world cannot give you assistance because it does not exist. It is a dream. How can a dream help you? It just plays games with you. You achieve a certain profession and you believe you've made it in this life. You're making 500 million dollars a year. You have a house, you have property, you have land, and you think you’ve made it. All of a sudden you develop cancer and all your money, all your friends, cannot help you. Those are the tricks life plays on you.
So I say to you, do not go after things. Whatever you are supposed to have in this life, whatever you are supposed to do, will happen of its own accord. I know that's a little difficult to understand, but it's the truth. There is a divine plan for everything on this earth, for every leaf, for every bug, for every animal, for every mineral, for every human. Everything is preordained. It's been planned for you. Therefore you do not have to worry what will happen to your life. Do not waste your time pursuing things of this world, for you will have to leave them one day. Spend your time trying to discover who you are by inquiring, "Who am I?" And when you find out, not only will you find eternal peace and infinite happiness, but you will also have a feeling of immortality. You will know, "I was never born and I can never die.” You will realize "I am. I have always been. There never was a time when I was not."
You will try to explain this to your family, to your friends, but you'll not be able to, for there are no words to describe the infinite. Therefore you will be an example in the world, an example of love, an example of peace, an example of harmony. Everything will take care of itself. Your body will go where it's supposed to go and it will do the job it came here to do. Yet remember that it has nothing to do with you. Why? Because you're not your body. Leave your body alone. The same power that causes mangos to grow on mango trees, that cause apples to grow on apple trees, that makes the sun rise and the sun set, that gives just enough warmth to the earth to sustain human life, that power knows how to take care of you. You have nothing to do with it. Your job is to leave yourself alone and ask the question, "Who am I?"
We're going to do an experiment this week and the results of the experiment will be discussed next week. What I would like for you to do is keep asking yourself, "Who am I?" all week long, under all conditions, under all circumstances. In other words, no matter what happens to you, what you go through during the week, instead of looking for answers, instead of looking for solutions to the problem, simply ask yourself, "Who am I?"
It sounds strange, but if you do what I say you're going to find something amazing happens to you. We will discuss it next week. Remember, as soon as you get up in the morning, the first thing you say is, "Who am I?" You do not attempt to analyze it, think about it, or wonder what's going to happen. You simply ask yourself the first thing upon waking up, "Who am I?" As you go about your business you ask yourself, "Who am I?" The phone rings and your employer says, "You've just been terminated. Don't bother to come to work today." Instead of responding you say, "Who am I?" to yourself. You won the state lottery and you acquire 50 million dollars. Instead of reacting you say, "Who am I?" You trip down the stairs and you cut your leg, instead of feeling sorry for yourself you simply bandage up your leg, but you ask, "Who am I?" In other words, what I am saying is you are not to think of any condition, no matter whether it's good or bad. You are merely to ask the question, "Who am I?" under all circumstances, no matter what happens.
I'll tell you what you're doing. You're causing the mind to become confused. Your mind is used to you reacting. Now you're not going to react. You're going to ask the question, "Who am I?" Your mind will not know what to do. It will be in a state of confusion, for it seems you're doing something, taking some sort of action, either crying or becoming hilariously happy, or getting angry, or wanting to curse the world. That's what your mind knows you always do. But you're going to fool it because you're not going to do that. You're going to ask, "Who am I?" and keep still. If your mind troubles you again you say, "Who am I?" again. No matter what your mind brings up, you will ask the question, "Who am I?" It can bring up anything. It can tell you, "You better look about your business fast or something bad is going to happen.” Simply say, "Who am I?"
I'm not saying to become apathetic and stay in bed all day. I'm saying to go about your business without thinking about it. As I have explained before, your body will know what to do. Your body will do what it is supposed to do. Only you are not supposed to identify with your body for one week. You're supposed to separate yourself from your body by asking, "Who am I?" If you try this this week you will become the happiest being that you ever imagined. I can guarantee that. Only you have to do that. I know that some of you will drop out and you will not experiment this way for you will think that your mind overwhelms you, yet this is exactly what you have to do if you want to find eternal peace, infinite joy and total freedom. We will discuss the results next week.
Those of you who have been practicing “I am” for many years, or "Who am I?" and you're saying to yourself, "I've been doing this," but you haven't done it this way, have you? Forget about the past. This is a new day. You are to go back to, "Who am I?" And you are to remember to say this every moment of the day. If you do this you'll have some good reports to tell me next week if you will say, "Who am I?" only for one week. I know some of you will drop out in one day. Some in one hour. This will show you the control that your mind has on you. It will prove to you that you have been under the control of your mind all your life. Catch yourself and say, "Who am I?"
Student: "Who am I?" will avert any idle thought?
Robert: Yes. “Who am I?” will transcend every thought and every feeling that comes to you.
Student: Patriots missiles and scuds coming in?
Robert: "Who am I?" will knock them down.
Student: So it's in the mental activity. So whatever it is is the cue to ask who am I?
Robert: Exactly. But you have to do it. When you're by yourself and you leave the meeting today you'll forget about it for a little bit, then you'll remind yourself. But you have to be strong. You have to say to yourself something like this, "I want to be finally free. I want to find total release from attachment to the world, and this is going to do this for me. So I will continue the experiment.” And again I can guarantee you, you're going to be the happiest individual who ever lived, if you follow it through.
Student: I made a cassette at home that says, "Who am I? Who am I?" and I listen to it, not as an automatic noise, but in a questioning mode every time. Will that be all right to use that?
Robert: You can't have the cassette with you all day long.
Student: But when I can?
Robert: Say you're going to a grocery and somebody bumps you with their shopping cart and you get angry. Immediately catch yourself and say, "Who am I?" You can't carry the cassette with you all the time. You can use the cassette when you're going to sleep or getting up. Again the cassette tape can become a crutch. You don't want a crutch. You want to take control.
Student: It's my own voice, it's not somebody else's. I don't listen like automatic noises. I listen in a questioning.
Robert: I know, but still it's something outside of you even though it's your voice is helping you along.
Student: Yes.
Robert: You want to be able to say it spontaneously, whenever you need to. It's better if you don't use the tape.
Student: Even if I don't use it. In the evening it's all right.
Robert: Yes.
Student: Okay. Got it.
Robert: Your body will do whatever it has to. You will do whatever you're going to do. If you go to work, you go to work. If you have to take a flight, you'll take a flight. You're simply saying, "Who am I?" But something in you has taken care of your life. Your life will go on. You will do whatever you're supposed to do. Everything will take care of itself. Wait and see. You simply say, "Who am I?" and you will make your reservation. You will go wherever you have to go but you will say, "Who am I?" It will not interfere with your everyday activities.
We are under the impression that if we do not take care of our lives nobody else will. But I say to you again, the same power that makes the sun shine and gives life so abundantly to the earth knows how to take care of your measly body. It knows how to take care of you. And you don't have to worry about those things. You just say, "Who am I?" to whatever comes up, and you will see. You will prove it the first day. For the first day you will go about your business and you will do what you always do, but you will be happier because you're not thinking about it. Instead you're saying, "Who am I"
Student: My wife will think she has a sick husband, because I'm going to be quiet all week.
Robert: You don't have to be quiet. You can be spontaneous. You can answer your wife. You can talk to your wife. But all the while to yourself you are saying, "Who am I?" You're not to stop your activities. You are to continue your activities like you always do. You're just replacing your thinking about your activities with "Who am I?" Do you follow?
Student: Yes, I think so.
Robert: The functioning mind will go on. Nothing stops. This is an analogy. Imagine that you have a pail of filthy dirty water that's been standing in one place for years and years, and it's filthy. There is a little hole in the roof and every time it rains drops of pure water come into the dirty water. The drops of pure water are "Who am I?" And as time goes by the dirty water dissipates and you have a pail of clean water. So it is your mind is becoming clear. All the dirt, all the thoughts, all the nonsense, is beginning to dissipate. You become quieter and quieter. Every time you say, "Who am I?" it's like a drop of pure water, but has to replace something. It replaces your thinking mind. Try it.
Student: Does the need for "Who am I?" eventually drop away?
Robert: Not for the experiment.
Student: No, I meant later.
Robert: It will drop away, yes. But for a week practice "Who am I?" When you become totally realized there is no need for anything. We're doing this to see the way the mind works and to cause the mind to become weak and the thoughts to stop. Everything that comes from the mind can be met with "Who am I?"
(Chanting)
I'm not really interested in any of your problems because I know that you are absolute reality. You believe that something is wrong with your life, you're not being treated right, you don't understand too much, or whatever it may be. It's a lie. You are absolute reality, perfect intelligence. You are pure awareness. This is your nature and there is nothing else. You allow your mind to dictate to you whether you're sick or well, healthy or poor, richer or not richer. You allow your mind to tell you all these things. Your mind is a liar. Your mind does not understand because you won't give it power, by feeding it more and more problems. When you begin to accept the fact that you are absolute intelligence your mind frees. It dissipates. Your mind is a tool that causes you problems. Stop your mind. Annihilate your mind. Do not allow your mind to tell you anything.
Things appear to happen in the world. You observe certain things and you react. Yet we live in a world of duality. Everything changes. Nothing is ever the same in this world. Therefore how can you believe what the world shows you? What can you believe? You can only believe yourself. You can only know that your self is absolute truth. I'm speaking of your self with a capital S. You are your self. There is not your self and you. There is only the self. There is only absolute awareness, absolute reality. If you would only accept this and not try to analyze, not try to compare. Just accept that “I am absolute reality,” for your self. When I use the words “I am,” I am referring to consciousness. Consciousness is omnipresence. Therefore when I say, “I'm absolute reality,” I include the whole universe. I'm not speaking of myself, Robert. I include you. And if you accept my words there will be a transformation in your consciousness, and your consciousness will melt into absolute consciousness, and you will be free.
All I can really do for you is to confess my own reality, and my own reality is also your reality. I am sat-chit-ananda. I am Parabrahman. I am ultimate oneness. I am divine love, pure consciousness. I am that I am, emptiness, nirvana. There is nothing else. All of your worries, all of your fears, have no foundation. There is only the one and you are that. Why will you not accept it? Think of what you believe is wrong with your life for a moment. Where did this concept come from? Your upbringing? Samskaras from past lives? You begin to believe that you are the body, your mind, and that causes you to have other problems. And you identify with those problems. But I say to you that you are absolutely clean. The past is wiped out. There are no samskaras. There are no past lives. There is no sin. You are pure as the driven snow. Have you ever seen a driven snow? Where did that saying come from? I didn't make it up. But you are pure. There is nothing impure about you. You are divine. You are consciousness.
Why will you not believe me? You believe you are somebody else. You believe you are human, you're the body and your name is Mary, or Jane, or John or Joe. Remember your name was given to you at birth. What if your parents never gave you a name? Who would you be? You probably would pick out your own name. But you are not your name. You are not your body. You are not what appears to be. You are more than that.
The reason that humanity seems to suffer is because it believes it is human. It believes it is separate. And when you believe you're separate you begin to believe somebody is trying to do something to you. You have to compete with life or with other people. So you're trying to do strange things to others, to be above them, to outwit them. But I say to you, you do not have to do any of these things. You simply have to recognize the truth about yourself and you will be free. You simply have to accept that you are absolute intelligence, absolute awareness. That's you. The past no longer exists for you. It never was. It's a dream. The past can no longer hurt you. The future does not exist. Only now exists. Now exists as consciousness, as absolute reality, and as consciousness, self-contained. There is nothing else.
It is the nature of the mind to be restless, to want to find new things all the time, to go to new places, to become bored. It is the nature of the mind to move from place to place, to find new friends, new environments. In reality you can stay where you are forever and be totally happy. In reality you do not have to do anything to be totally happy. I'm speaking of mentally. Your body came to this earth to do what it has to do, but it has nothing to do with you. Watch yourself, be aware, but do not react. Unhappiness comes because you react to person, place or thing. When you no longer react to person, place or thing you’re free. We always want change in our lives. As if we make a change, we'll be free. Some of us get married, and we get tired of marriage after a few years, and we want to change. We think that will make us happy. But we find it doesn't. There is no thing that can make you happy except the experience of knowing the self.
Even at a meeting like this, if you keep coming all the time, the average person becomes bored after a while and they want to find a new teacher, a new environment. Then they get bored where they go. It never ends. People talk at this meeting of finding a house in Phoenix, or New Orleans, or New Mexico or in Seattle, and having an ashram, and then seem to live happily ever after. But if you're not happy now you can never be happy no matter where you go. Wherever you go you’ve got to take yourself with you.
Most people make the mistake of thinking about the future. They say, "In the future I'll be happy, when I get married, when I get divorced, when I find a new job, when I quit my job and do nothing." But I say to you, unless you are happy now there will be no happiness in the future. Every ideal condition you're looking for, you have to acquire it now. If you want peace of mind you can't run to another country or to another city to try to find it. Peace of mind exists exactly where you are. Peace of mind is you. But you think it's something on the outside. There is a person who hates their job, and they say, "I'm going to move to Seattle. The people are nicer there. I do not seem to get along with anyone at my job. I'm unhappy here in Los Angeles." So you move to Seattle. The environment is new, everything seems to be all right. Within six months Seattle becomes Los Angeles. Same problem, different people. You've got to take yourself with you wherever you go. You can't escape from yourself. Do not believe that others will make you happy, that a new environment will make you happy. It may appear to do so in the beginning. Sure there are people who never stay in one place long. They get bored and go somewhere else. They get bored and go somewhere else. How long can they keep it up? In the last analyses you have to confront yourself. No one can bring you happiness. No one can bring you peace except yourself. You have to stay where you are, even though the environment or your circumstances may seem unpleasant in the beginning.
The wise person remains where they are and begins to work on themselves. They begin to transcend the body-mind . To the extent you begin to transcend the body-mind , to that extent you find happiness and peace. How do you do this? It has been shown to us by great sages. The secret again is to quiet the mind by any means you can. You see, your real nature, remember, is pure happiness, absolute reality. It is only the mental impressions that make you believe otherwise. Therefore get rid of the mental impressions.
How do you do this? It begins by taking control of the mind. That's the beginning stage, of observing your fears, observing all of the thoughts that come to you. Realizing who thinks, and watching, becoming the witness to whatever goes on in your mind. I'm not speaking of taking a negative thought and changing it to a positive thought. Negative and positive are both sides of the same coin. It's all part of duality. For every negative there is a positive. And for every positive there is a negative. For every up there is a down. For every front there is a back. You want to transcend this. And you do this not by playing with your mind but by becoming still and watching your mind, witnessing your mind, observing your mind, in a gentle relaxed way.
It makes no difference how terrible the mental impressions may come to you. It makes no difference how deep your fears are. It makes no difference how justified you feel for being sorry for yourself because things are not the way you'd like them to be. That's the whole secret. Do not allow your mind to tell you anything else. For the mind will always tell you, "Look at you, you have a right to feel bad. You have a right to fear. Look at the kind of world in which we live, man's inhumanity to man, the precarious condition of today's world." Then it will tell you about your own life. "Something bad may happen to you tomorrow. You may go bankrupt. Your husband or wife may leave you. You may lose your job." All these thoughts come to everyone. You are not alone.
But I say to you there's a way to transcend this and become the self that you are, if only you would do it. You watch your mind, you observe your mind. You look intelligently at what your mind is. You do not listen to it. Remember also, we're not trying to exchange bad thoughts for good thoughts. Your mind will try to please you and once in a while give you what you want. Then you will start to believe in it again and believe it's your friend. But then all of a sudden the carpet will be pulled from under you, and you will feel disillusioned again, discouraged. Do not allow your mind to control you. Realizing that as you observe the mind, as you watch, as you stop reacting to what your mind tells you, your mind becomes weaker and weaker and weaker, and the thoughts come less and less and less. To the extent your mind becomes weaker, the happier you become. That'll be proof to you.
Then you can say to yourself, "Imagine if I annihilate my mind completely, I will have total happiness." And that's true. You begin to work on yourself. Makes no difference what anyone else is doing. Leave everyone else alone. Do not compare yourself with anyone. Be gentle with yourself. Be at peace with the whole universe. Reconcile yourself with the whole universe, with the mineral kingdom, with the vegetable kingdom, with the animal kingdom, and with the human kingdom. Have no enemies. Allow yourself to love everything.
As you begin to work on yourself this way you will find all the old mental impressions breaking down. Your true nature will begin to shine forth. As you continue on this path, watching, observing, the day will come when you can ask yourself, "Who am I?" It will come by itself. It's nothing you read in a book. It's nothing anyone tells you. It comes by itself. It's a natural consequence of observing your mind and watching your mind. If you do this long enough the question will come by itself. One day, as you are observing your mind, something will say from deep within yourself, "Who am I? Who am I? Am I my body? If I were my body I would always be the same. But I am not the same body I was 10 years ago. When I was a baby I was a different body. When I was a teenager I was a different body. Now I'm an adult. I'm still different. And I'm getting older. Who will I be then? When I'm feeble and cannot walk anymore and my days are limited, who will I be then?" You think deeply about these things. It comes by itself.
Then something else will happen to you. You will begin to notice every time you refer to yourself as a baby, as a teenager, as an adult, as an old person, you're saying I. And that's a clue. I always seems to be there. I was a baby. I was a teenager. I am an adult. I am going to grow old. I'm going to die one day. I'm always referring to I. When you go to sleep, you say, "I am going to sleep." When you dream you say, "I dreamt." When you're awake, you say, "I am awake." You begin to wonder to yourself, "Who is this I? Who am I really?" Just by asking those questions phenomenal results will ensue in your life, for there is an answer deep within the recesses of your heart. The answer will come one day as a flash of light and then quietness. At that time you'll realize that you are the universe. You are the self. You are not yourself as a separate entity. You’re the omnipresent self. You will feel It without words. You will know that you are the absolute reality, that you are no thing that can be explained. You are pure love, happiness. It will happen of its own accord.
What I'm giving you is not a teaching. It is not a philosophy. It is a way of life. You cannot force it to happen. People have been trying to force it to happen for years, to become self-realized, to become free, free of bondage. People have been searching for years. What they are doing unfortunately is that they are searching outside of themselves. They are looking to the world for assistance. The world cannot give you assistance because it does not exist. It is a dream. How can a dream help you? It just plays games with you. You achieve a certain profession and you believe you've made it in this life. You're making 500 million dollars a year. You have a house, you have property, you have land, and you think you’ve made it. All of a sudden you develop cancer and all your money, all your friends, cannot help you. Those are the tricks life plays on you.
So I say to you, do not go after things. Whatever you are supposed to have in this life, whatever you are supposed to do, will happen of its own accord. I know that's a little difficult to understand, but it's the truth. There is a divine plan for everything on this earth, for every leaf, for every bug, for every animal, for every mineral, for every human. Everything is preordained. It's been planned for you. Therefore you do not have to worry what will happen to your life. Do not waste your time pursuing things of this world, for you will have to leave them one day. Spend your time trying to discover who you are by inquiring, "Who am I?" And when you find out, not only will you find eternal peace and infinite happiness, but you will also have a feeling of immortality. You will know, "I was never born and I can never die.” You will realize "I am. I have always been. There never was a time when I was not."
You will try to explain this to your family, to your friends, but you'll not be able to, for there are no words to describe the infinite. Therefore you will be an example in the world, an example of love, an example of peace, an example of harmony. Everything will take care of itself. Your body will go where it's supposed to go and it will do the job it came here to do. Yet remember that it has nothing to do with you. Why? Because you're not your body. Leave your body alone. The same power that causes mangos to grow on mango trees, that cause apples to grow on apple trees, that makes the sun rise and the sun set, that gives just enough warmth to the earth to sustain human life, that power knows how to take care of you. You have nothing to do with it. Your job is to leave yourself alone and ask the question, "Who am I?"
We're going to do an experiment this week and the results of the experiment will be discussed next week. What I would like for you to do is keep asking yourself, "Who am I?" all week long, under all conditions, under all circumstances. In other words, no matter what happens to you, what you go through during the week, instead of looking for answers, instead of looking for solutions to the problem, simply ask yourself, "Who am I?"
It sounds strange, but if you do what I say you're going to find something amazing happens to you. We will discuss it next week. Remember, as soon as you get up in the morning, the first thing you say is, "Who am I?" You do not attempt to analyze it, think about it, or wonder what's going to happen. You simply ask yourself the first thing upon waking up, "Who am I?" As you go about your business you ask yourself, "Who am I?" The phone rings and your employer says, "You've just been terminated. Don't bother to come to work today." Instead of responding you say, "Who am I?" to yourself. You won the state lottery and you acquire 50 million dollars. Instead of reacting you say, "Who am I?" You trip down the stairs and you cut your leg, instead of feeling sorry for yourself you simply bandage up your leg, but you ask, "Who am I?" In other words, what I am saying is you are not to think of any condition, no matter whether it's good or bad. You are merely to ask the question, "Who am I?" under all circumstances, no matter what happens.
I'll tell you what you're doing. You're causing the mind to become confused. Your mind is used to you reacting. Now you're not going to react. You're going to ask the question, "Who am I?" Your mind will not know what to do. It will be in a state of confusion, for it seems you're doing something, taking some sort of action, either crying or becoming hilariously happy, or getting angry, or wanting to curse the world. That's what your mind knows you always do. But you're going to fool it because you're not going to do that. You're going to ask, "Who am I?" and keep still. If your mind troubles you again you say, "Who am I?" again. No matter what your mind brings up, you will ask the question, "Who am I?" It can bring up anything. It can tell you, "You better look about your business fast or something bad is going to happen.” Simply say, "Who am I?"
I'm not saying to become apathetic and stay in bed all day. I'm saying to go about your business without thinking about it. As I have explained before, your body will know what to do. Your body will do what it is supposed to do. Only you are not supposed to identify with your body for one week. You're supposed to separate yourself from your body by asking, "Who am I?" If you try this this week you will become the happiest being that you ever imagined. I can guarantee that. Only you have to do that. I know that some of you will drop out and you will not experiment this way for you will think that your mind overwhelms you, yet this is exactly what you have to do if you want to find eternal peace, infinite joy and total freedom. We will discuss the results next week.
Those of you who have been practicing “I am” for many years, or "Who am I?" and you're saying to yourself, "I've been doing this," but you haven't done it this way, have you? Forget about the past. This is a new day. You are to go back to, "Who am I?" And you are to remember to say this every moment of the day. If you do this you'll have some good reports to tell me next week if you will say, "Who am I?" only for one week. I know some of you will drop out in one day. Some in one hour. This will show you the control that your mind has on you. It will prove to you that you have been under the control of your mind all your life. Catch yourself and say, "Who am I?"
Student: "Who am I?" will avert any idle thought?
Robert: Yes. “Who am I?” will transcend every thought and every feeling that comes to you.
Student: Patriots missiles and scuds coming in?
Robert: "Who am I?" will knock them down.
Student: So it's in the mental activity. So whatever it is is the cue to ask who am I?
Robert: Exactly. But you have to do it. When you're by yourself and you leave the meeting today you'll forget about it for a little bit, then you'll remind yourself. But you have to be strong. You have to say to yourself something like this, "I want to be finally free. I want to find total release from attachment to the world, and this is going to do this for me. So I will continue the experiment.” And again I can guarantee you, you're going to be the happiest individual who ever lived, if you follow it through.
Student: I made a cassette at home that says, "Who am I? Who am I?" and I listen to it, not as an automatic noise, but in a questioning mode every time. Will that be all right to use that?
Robert: You can't have the cassette with you all day long.
Student: But when I can?
Robert: Say you're going to a grocery and somebody bumps you with their shopping cart and you get angry. Immediately catch yourself and say, "Who am I?" You can't carry the cassette with you all the time. You can use the cassette when you're going to sleep or getting up. Again the cassette tape can become a crutch. You don't want a crutch. You want to take control.
Student: It's my own voice, it's not somebody else's. I don't listen like automatic noises. I listen in a questioning.
Robert: I know, but still it's something outside of you even though it's your voice is helping you along.
Student: Yes.
Robert: You want to be able to say it spontaneously, whenever you need to. It's better if you don't use the tape.
Student: Even if I don't use it. In the evening it's all right.
Robert: Yes.
Student: Okay. Got it.
Robert: Your body will do whatever it has to. You will do whatever you're going to do. If you go to work, you go to work. If you have to take a flight, you'll take a flight. You're simply saying, "Who am I?" But something in you has taken care of your life. Your life will go on. You will do whatever you're supposed to do. Everything will take care of itself. Wait and see. You simply say, "Who am I?" and you will make your reservation. You will go wherever you have to go but you will say, "Who am I?" It will not interfere with your everyday activities.
We are under the impression that if we do not take care of our lives nobody else will. But I say to you again, the same power that makes the sun shine and gives life so abundantly to the earth knows how to take care of your measly body. It knows how to take care of you. And you don't have to worry about those things. You just say, "Who am I?" to whatever comes up, and you will see. You will prove it the first day. For the first day you will go about your business and you will do what you always do, but you will be happier because you're not thinking about it. Instead you're saying, "Who am I"
Student: My wife will think she has a sick husband, because I'm going to be quiet all week.
Robert: You don't have to be quiet. You can be spontaneous. You can answer your wife. You can talk to your wife. But all the while to yourself you are saying, "Who am I?" You're not to stop your activities. You are to continue your activities like you always do. You're just replacing your thinking about your activities with "Who am I?" Do you follow?
Student: Yes, I think so.
Robert: The functioning mind will go on. Nothing stops. This is an analogy. Imagine that you have a pail of filthy dirty water that's been standing in one place for years and years, and it's filthy. There is a little hole in the roof and every time it rains drops of pure water come into the dirty water. The drops of pure water are "Who am I?" And as time goes by the dirty water dissipates and you have a pail of clean water. So it is your mind is becoming clear. All the dirt, all the thoughts, all the nonsense, is beginning to dissipate. You become quieter and quieter. Every time you say, "Who am I?" it's like a drop of pure water, but has to replace something. It replaces your thinking mind. Try it.
Student: Does the need for "Who am I?" eventually drop away?
Robert: Not for the experiment.
Student: No, I meant later.
Robert: It will drop away, yes. But for a week practice "Who am I?" When you become totally realized there is no need for anything. We're doing this to see the way the mind works and to cause the mind to become weak and the thoughts to stop. Everything that comes from the mind can be met with "Who am I?"