Robert: Someone told me last week, "Robert, you gave a great talk on Sunday, and will probably attract millions of people.” They are wrong on both counts. First of all, I do not give talks. You have to get to the point where you are tired of listening to talks. Then you will begin to make headway in spiritual practice. As long as you still want to hear talks you have a long way to go before you wake up. It's not the talk that's going to do it for you. It's a click that takes place inside yourself when you are in the right state of consciousness. Satsang is to bring you to the right state of consciousness, without words, just by being, then everything happens by itself. But if you come to listen to a talk it becomes intellectual, conceptual, ideas, words, and that causes confusion.
So what attitudes should you have? Even when you hear me talk you should not believe I'm talking. You should open your heart and allow your real nature to express itself, and it will, if you allow it to do so.
And as far as crowds are concerned, I'm not interested in having crowds. I'm not ambitious, I have no goals, and I'm not seeking anything. I'm doing what I came here to do. I didn't plan it. I didn't say I want to be a teacher, as compared to a electrician, or compared to a positive thinking teacher, or as a philosopher or a preacher. I’m none of those things. I am nothing. You can perhaps say that I am a mirror for you. What you see in me is what you are. And as you meditate on yourself you'll begin to see me as yourself. For in truth there is only one self. And you are that.
Expect nothing, and you'll have everything. Be spontaneous. Concern yourself only with the present. Forget about the past and do not worry about the future. Be what you are, absolute reality.
Now what is absolute reality? It's really the fourth state of consciousness. There are sleeping, dreaming, and waking states. That is a limitation for us. But there is a fourth state, that is called by many names, absolute reality, pure awareness, nirvana, emptiness and many other names. Most people never get into that state in this life, for no one has told them about it. They are satisfied with dreaming, waking and sleeping. That's like kindergarten. And there are people who are afraid of going into another state because they believe that they’ve got to give up something. They feel they'll lose something if they experience another state of consciousness. In reality, you do not lose anything. The fourth state is simply extended awareness.
It's like this. Imagine you're looking through a keyhole and all you can see through the keyhole is someone being killed by someone else. You see a man killing a woman through the keyhole, and all of your concepts revolve around that. That's how we see the world, through a keyhole. We see a part of the picture. But lets say you open the door instead of looking through the keyhole. You would look to the left, and you would see perhaps in a previous life the woman killed the man. It's in reverse. Now in this life the man is killing the woman, and you would understand what's going on. Then you would go further. You would look to the right and you would see they’re both together again, laughing and having a good time, and you would realize that no one is killed and no one kills. It's all a game. You would see the complete picture. But as long as you only look through the keyhole you're going to see a limited view of things. Then you become judgmental.
This is why we're told not to judge, because we only get a limited picture. Everything that you see in your life is looking through a keyhole. When you awaken the door opens, that's all. You then understand why everything is happening, and where it comes from. This is the reason why sages remain so calm and they never react to anything. Not because they don't care. They see the whole picture. The door has been opened for them. And they see the person who wins the lottery and has fifty million dollars. They earned it, somewhere, somehow. There is no such thing as luck. There is no such thing as chance. And then they see the end picture, when they wake up, they laugh at the whole game. For no one lost anything and no one won anything.
It's like a movie. The movie has a beginning, a middle and an end. And when the movie is over there's the screen. The screen is the reality. The movie is just impressions upon the screen. All impressions have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Most people go through their life as an impression. They react to everything they hear, see, smell, touch and taste. They're always angry, they're always mad because they are not getting what they want. This is looking through the keyhole.
As you begin to go within, as you take time to forget a little bit about the world, and you begin to ask yourself, "From whence cometh the world? Where does the world come from?" and you begin to investigate within yourself. "Where does my world come from? How does it originate?" as you begin to do this every day, every day, every day, as you begin to question yourself, "Why was I born? Who am I? Why am I going through this experience? Who is going through this experience?" the more you do this, and the less you react to your conditioning, the sooner you will awaken.
So awakening isn't something you have to search for. Awakening isn’t something that someone can give you. Awakening is your true nature. It's your real self. You are already awake but you believe you are asleep. You believe you are human, that you are the doer. You believe all of your experiences are real. And then, if you go a little higher, you think all of your experiences are karmic. But I say to you there is no karma, and there are no experiences. You are bright and shining just the way you are. But if you want to play the game of karma, you can. It's a game. Now where did it come from? You created it out of your mind. There are those people who teach courses on karma and reincarnation and they believe that's it. So naturally you are creating your own destiny. And the joke is you keep coming back again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, having all sorts of experiences, until one century from now, or one billion years from now, you get tired of playing the game. And you say, "Wait a minute. I seem to be going around in a circle. Does it never end?" And then you finally ask the question, "For whom is the game? Who believes in their humanity? Who believes in their experiences? Who is it that seems to suffer? or Who is it that seems to be happy?"
Remember that human happiness and human suffering are two sides of the same coin. There is no difference. You get tired of the whole thing. So you pose the question to yourself, "For whom is this karma? For whom is this world? For whom is this game? Who has to go through these things?"
But instead of doing this most people go to a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a preacher, to ministers and so forth. They never get the right answer, because those aforementioned people tell you how to deal with effects.
You go to a doctor and you say, "My arm hurts when I hold it like this." So he says, "Don't hold it like that.” And that's what we all do. We are looking for answers for an external means, and you can never get an answer to your problems or to anything from the world, because the world changes continuously. One time the answer may be this way and another time the answer may be that way, depending on circumstances, depending on the time.
As an example, fifty years ago if you had a cold and you went to a doctor they would draw blood. They would give you all kinds of antibiotics and they would give you everything that was in style in those days. Today if you have a cold they do something else. Everything changes. There are people who are going to do what's in vogue at the time, but the real answer is within yourself. The solution is within you. Yet you go about it in the wrong way when you're looking to solve a problem with another problem, which is your mind. You cannot use your mind to solve a problem, because your mind is the cause of the problem to begin with. And you cannot ask anyone else for the solution, because they are using their minds to give you the solution, which they think is right.
The answer of course is to know yourself. When you focus the attention on your Self with a capital ‘S’ the problem becomes resolved automatically. How do you focus your attention on yourself? By asking, "What am I?" or, "Who am I?" Simply ask, "Who am I?" when anything takes place in your life that you wish to change. Do not try to change the thing that is disturbing you. Even if you do it’ll pop up somewhere else. Go right to the source. "What is the source of my depression? I am. I am depressed. Who is the I that is depressed? Where does it come from?" You never answer. You just have a listening attitude when you ask the question. Then the answer comes back to you saying, "The depression comes to me. I feel it. I have it." Then you have to realize that it is the I that has it, because you just said, "I have it.” So the I has the problem, not you.
It is always your personal I that has the problem. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. Just understanding this, awakens you. I is not the self. The personal I is the ego. So when you say, "I don't feel good, I don't feel happy, I am worried,” or anything else in life, even when you say, "I feel good, I feel wonderful," you're still talking about your personal I. And your personal I is part of the world of duality. Therefore when you say, "I feel good in the morning," the first thing that comes along that you don't like you say, "I feel bad."
You do not want to use that method. What you want to say is to yourself, "This has nothing to do with me. I feels bad. I feels good." That's not bad English, just showing you how to talk to yourself. I is separate from you. You have nothing to do with I. Just being able to see that resolves your problem. If you will try it you will see I'm right. When you get depressed, when you feel out of sorts, when you feel something is wrong, when you feel angry, or whatever, ask yourself, “Who feels this? I do." And then realize, "I have nothing to do with myself."
Your perfection is always shining. You are pure consciousness. You are not the personal I. Let the personal I have all the problems it chooses. It has nothing to do with you. But observe for yourself. Become the witness to the fact that the personal I has the problem, and not you. That's all you have to do. Just watch it and look, intelligently, and see where the problem comes from.
Then you ask, "If the personal I has the problem and not me, where did the personal I come from, to make me feel that I've got a problem?" That's the mystery. Don't try to be smart and answer the question, because it's your ego answering. Ask yourself, "Where does the personal I come from?" Or you can just say, "Who am I?" or "What am I?" You never answer, yet you will notice something very interesting beginning to happen, when you get to that stage. You'll notice that you’re starting to feel better, and better and better. And you even begin to laugh at yourself. Why? Because you're going to the source of your personal I.
And the source of your personal I is absolute reality, consciousness. Which means, of course, that your personal I does not exist. It never existed. It's an optical illusion. You don't have a personal I. And if you don't have a personal I you do not have any of the problems that come with it. This means that you are not the body-mind phenomena. You are not the doer. You are not the sufferer. You are not the person that you think you are. For all these things are attached to the personal I, and if that goes away everything goes away with it, and you become totally free. Then you begin to feel omnipresence, for your real self is not personal. Your real self is the self as the universe. Your real self is everything. Everything is the self. Your real I is that your body is sort of an impression on the self, but it has no power of its own. It doesn't even exist. The self exists. Consciousness exists as itself and not as the body. Where does the body come from? If the body doesn't exist, why do I see it? Ask yourself, "Who sees it?" and we get right back to the personal I. For the answer is, "I see it. Who am I?" You're back to the personal I again.
Don't you see? If the personal I is gone there is no body, there's no mind, there's only consciousness. But as long as you believe there's a body, there's a personal I. Therefore you cannot say, "I am consciousness appearing as a body." That's wrong. Consciousness does not appear as any body. It doesn't have to. Consciousness is always self-contained pure awareness. It is something we cannot even discuss, for there are no words to describe it. It's something you have to find out for yourself. But I can tell you for sure, it has nothing to do with your body. It has nothing to do with your experiences. It has nothing to do with karma. It has nothing to do with your god. It has nothing to do with the universe. It has nothing to do with self-realization or liberation. It just is. And it is beyond our finite thinking. There are no words to describe the infinite.
It's enough that you do away with all your concepts of body, mind and I. Everything will come by itself. Your job is to get rid of the concept of I. Your job is to get rid of the idea that you are a body, and that you are a mind, and that you are a doer. Always remember, what appears to be a body will do whatever it's supposed to do by itself, but it has nothing to do with you. If you can only see it like that for one day, you'll be amazed at what happens to you.
Try this experiment tomorrow. When you get up and you just open your eyes and get out of bed, do not pay any attention to yourself as a body. In other words, just become mindful, like they teach you in Buddhism. Watch yourself getting out of bed. Watch yourself going to the bathroom. Watch yourself brushing your teeth. What I'm trying to tell you is that your body will do everything without your help. It's only when you identify yourself with the body, or as the body, that the problems begin. But if you do not identify yourself with the body you'll be happy. For happiness is your true nature. Really happy. Not happy because something came your way that you like. You'll be happy, happy for no reason. You'll just be happy. You will not go about laughing all the time, or getting hysterical about it. You will just feel an innate joy. Yet your body will appear to go about its business.
It's like the example I gave you of an electric fan. You pull out the plug but the blades are still turning. So when you practice that experiment, and you don't pay any attention to your body, you'll pull out the plug and you’re watching your body going about its business. It will go about its business as long as it has to, until the allotted time comes when it falls and drops and you're rid of it.
Or the blades may stop turning before the body falls, and you become totally immersed in the self. Then it's a completely different ball game. It becomes sort of difficult to explain, because you are no longer the body, yet the body appears there for people to look at. It seems to be real. But you know beyond a shadow of doubt that there is nobody, nobody is home. There is no mind and there is no doer. And people talk to you and say, "But I see you doing. I see you thinking. I see your body." So the example you give them is the electric fan. You pull out the plug, but the blades are still turning. So you see the body is still functioning. What has happened to you is you have entered the fourth state of consciousness, beyond waking, beyond sleeping, beyond dreaming. You have expanded your awareness.
So the point I'm trying to make is this. You do not have to be afraid that you’ll lose something if you go to the fourth state of consciousness. Some people say they have a family. They may think, "Well I'll lose interest in my family, I'll lose interest in my work, I'll lose interest in my children, I'll lose interest." But it doesn't work that way. Your body will still be the same as it was before, as far as appearances go. You will do a better job than you ever did in your life. You will be more loving. You'll be kinder. You'll have a great compassion as far as your body is concerned. Yet you will realize, "I am the self. I am as the self," same thing. "I am that I am." It will be very clear to you and you will make your life simple. You will not find fault. You will not react. You will simply be yourself, and you'll be happier than you've ever been in your life.
But again, there is nothing you have to give up. There is nothing you have to lose. Some people think you become disgusted with the world, and you become a hermit. That's not true. Can't you see, to become disgusted with the world, there has to be someone left to become disgusted. And if there is nobody home you can not be disgusted with anything. So anyone who comes to you and tells you, "I’m enlightened. I hate the world. I have nothing to do with people any longer. I have to live by myself now,” smile at them, and realize they are worse off than they were before, because there is an I left who is personal. They're telling you, "I have to be alone. I have to get away from the world and I have to live on a mountain top." A self-realized being can be anywhere. They don't care where they live. They can be in the market place and be just as happy as they are if they are living in an ashram. It doesn't make any difference. They're home wherever they are, and they are always filled with joy. They can be in Iraq and get bombed. It wouldn't matter to them. They get bombed, they get bombed. They don't, they don't. There are no preferences. All is well and everything is unfolding as it should.
So the question arises, "Why do I have to go through all this trouble so I can become self-realized?" That's really an ignorant question. Remember your real nature is light, consciousness, sat-chit-ananda. You're not trying to be self-realized. You simply want to get rid of the stuff that tells you you're not. For someone has told you, or you have read it in a book, or because of previous sadhana that you have practiced, that to be liberated means an end to the dream of maya. And your state with maya is you realize it's all illusion, you want it to come to an end. So you put the practice first in your life. Whatever is first in your life right now is what you are. Think what's important to you, and that's your life, for you have chosen.
But if you want to become liberated and awaken to yourself then you'll deny everything that has to do with the personal I, mentally. It begins in your mind. Do not attempt to change things physically. Remember that if you try to change things physically, you have to suffer the consequences. Everything begins and ends in your mind. You begin by wondering or looking for the I, where it goes every night when you go to sleep. Where do I go? And from where does it arise? When you first awaken, in that instant, there is no I. But as you keep waking up all of your problems, all of your troubles, all of your worldly things, become aware to you. The I is awake. I feel this, I feel that, I feel everything. Where was the I prior to that? Where did it go before I woke up? And as you are falling asleep, the same thing. As you know before you fall asleep, the I leaves you. Where did it go? And you're sound asleep without the I. As you think about these things, as you ponder on the I, this is pure meditation. This is the highest meditation, following the I to its source.
Who needs these worldly things? Who feels hurt when they are gone? And who feels happy when they have them? Watch your attachments. Become aware of what you really are. See what bothers you the most, what annoys you, what makes you angry, what makes you upset. Watch yourself. And always realize, and I'll reiterate this over and over again, I’ll tell you about this all the time, always be aware that what is happening to the I is not you. You are not the I. You are consciousness. You are sat-chit-ananda. You are absolute reality. Pure awareness. That is your real nature and that is who you are. You are not the I. And the way you find out your real nature is by following the personal I to its source. Finding the source from where the I arises, and finding the source where the I sets. As you practice these things you're practicing pure meditation, and you'll be free.
So what attitudes should you have? Even when you hear me talk you should not believe I'm talking. You should open your heart and allow your real nature to express itself, and it will, if you allow it to do so.
And as far as crowds are concerned, I'm not interested in having crowds. I'm not ambitious, I have no goals, and I'm not seeking anything. I'm doing what I came here to do. I didn't plan it. I didn't say I want to be a teacher, as compared to a electrician, or compared to a positive thinking teacher, or as a philosopher or a preacher. I’m none of those things. I am nothing. You can perhaps say that I am a mirror for you. What you see in me is what you are. And as you meditate on yourself you'll begin to see me as yourself. For in truth there is only one self. And you are that.
Expect nothing, and you'll have everything. Be spontaneous. Concern yourself only with the present. Forget about the past and do not worry about the future. Be what you are, absolute reality.
Now what is absolute reality? It's really the fourth state of consciousness. There are sleeping, dreaming, and waking states. That is a limitation for us. But there is a fourth state, that is called by many names, absolute reality, pure awareness, nirvana, emptiness and many other names. Most people never get into that state in this life, for no one has told them about it. They are satisfied with dreaming, waking and sleeping. That's like kindergarten. And there are people who are afraid of going into another state because they believe that they’ve got to give up something. They feel they'll lose something if they experience another state of consciousness. In reality, you do not lose anything. The fourth state is simply extended awareness.
It's like this. Imagine you're looking through a keyhole and all you can see through the keyhole is someone being killed by someone else. You see a man killing a woman through the keyhole, and all of your concepts revolve around that. That's how we see the world, through a keyhole. We see a part of the picture. But lets say you open the door instead of looking through the keyhole. You would look to the left, and you would see perhaps in a previous life the woman killed the man. It's in reverse. Now in this life the man is killing the woman, and you would understand what's going on. Then you would go further. You would look to the right and you would see they’re both together again, laughing and having a good time, and you would realize that no one is killed and no one kills. It's all a game. You would see the complete picture. But as long as you only look through the keyhole you're going to see a limited view of things. Then you become judgmental.
This is why we're told not to judge, because we only get a limited picture. Everything that you see in your life is looking through a keyhole. When you awaken the door opens, that's all. You then understand why everything is happening, and where it comes from. This is the reason why sages remain so calm and they never react to anything. Not because they don't care. They see the whole picture. The door has been opened for them. And they see the person who wins the lottery and has fifty million dollars. They earned it, somewhere, somehow. There is no such thing as luck. There is no such thing as chance. And then they see the end picture, when they wake up, they laugh at the whole game. For no one lost anything and no one won anything.
It's like a movie. The movie has a beginning, a middle and an end. And when the movie is over there's the screen. The screen is the reality. The movie is just impressions upon the screen. All impressions have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Most people go through their life as an impression. They react to everything they hear, see, smell, touch and taste. They're always angry, they're always mad because they are not getting what they want. This is looking through the keyhole.
As you begin to go within, as you take time to forget a little bit about the world, and you begin to ask yourself, "From whence cometh the world? Where does the world come from?" and you begin to investigate within yourself. "Where does my world come from? How does it originate?" as you begin to do this every day, every day, every day, as you begin to question yourself, "Why was I born? Who am I? Why am I going through this experience? Who is going through this experience?" the more you do this, and the less you react to your conditioning, the sooner you will awaken.
So awakening isn't something you have to search for. Awakening isn’t something that someone can give you. Awakening is your true nature. It's your real self. You are already awake but you believe you are asleep. You believe you are human, that you are the doer. You believe all of your experiences are real. And then, if you go a little higher, you think all of your experiences are karmic. But I say to you there is no karma, and there are no experiences. You are bright and shining just the way you are. But if you want to play the game of karma, you can. It's a game. Now where did it come from? You created it out of your mind. There are those people who teach courses on karma and reincarnation and they believe that's it. So naturally you are creating your own destiny. And the joke is you keep coming back again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, having all sorts of experiences, until one century from now, or one billion years from now, you get tired of playing the game. And you say, "Wait a minute. I seem to be going around in a circle. Does it never end?" And then you finally ask the question, "For whom is the game? Who believes in their humanity? Who believes in their experiences? Who is it that seems to suffer? or Who is it that seems to be happy?"
Remember that human happiness and human suffering are two sides of the same coin. There is no difference. You get tired of the whole thing. So you pose the question to yourself, "For whom is this karma? For whom is this world? For whom is this game? Who has to go through these things?"
But instead of doing this most people go to a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a preacher, to ministers and so forth. They never get the right answer, because those aforementioned people tell you how to deal with effects.
You go to a doctor and you say, "My arm hurts when I hold it like this." So he says, "Don't hold it like that.” And that's what we all do. We are looking for answers for an external means, and you can never get an answer to your problems or to anything from the world, because the world changes continuously. One time the answer may be this way and another time the answer may be that way, depending on circumstances, depending on the time.
As an example, fifty years ago if you had a cold and you went to a doctor they would draw blood. They would give you all kinds of antibiotics and they would give you everything that was in style in those days. Today if you have a cold they do something else. Everything changes. There are people who are going to do what's in vogue at the time, but the real answer is within yourself. The solution is within you. Yet you go about it in the wrong way when you're looking to solve a problem with another problem, which is your mind. You cannot use your mind to solve a problem, because your mind is the cause of the problem to begin with. And you cannot ask anyone else for the solution, because they are using their minds to give you the solution, which they think is right.
The answer of course is to know yourself. When you focus the attention on your Self with a capital ‘S’ the problem becomes resolved automatically. How do you focus your attention on yourself? By asking, "What am I?" or, "Who am I?" Simply ask, "Who am I?" when anything takes place in your life that you wish to change. Do not try to change the thing that is disturbing you. Even if you do it’ll pop up somewhere else. Go right to the source. "What is the source of my depression? I am. I am depressed. Who is the I that is depressed? Where does it come from?" You never answer. You just have a listening attitude when you ask the question. Then the answer comes back to you saying, "The depression comes to me. I feel it. I have it." Then you have to realize that it is the I that has it, because you just said, "I have it.” So the I has the problem, not you.
It is always your personal I that has the problem. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. Just understanding this, awakens you. I is not the self. The personal I is the ego. So when you say, "I don't feel good, I don't feel happy, I am worried,” or anything else in life, even when you say, "I feel good, I feel wonderful," you're still talking about your personal I. And your personal I is part of the world of duality. Therefore when you say, "I feel good in the morning," the first thing that comes along that you don't like you say, "I feel bad."
You do not want to use that method. What you want to say is to yourself, "This has nothing to do with me. I feels bad. I feels good." That's not bad English, just showing you how to talk to yourself. I is separate from you. You have nothing to do with I. Just being able to see that resolves your problem. If you will try it you will see I'm right. When you get depressed, when you feel out of sorts, when you feel something is wrong, when you feel angry, or whatever, ask yourself, “Who feels this? I do." And then realize, "I have nothing to do with myself."
Your perfection is always shining. You are pure consciousness. You are not the personal I. Let the personal I have all the problems it chooses. It has nothing to do with you. But observe for yourself. Become the witness to the fact that the personal I has the problem, and not you. That's all you have to do. Just watch it and look, intelligently, and see where the problem comes from.
Then you ask, "If the personal I has the problem and not me, where did the personal I come from, to make me feel that I've got a problem?" That's the mystery. Don't try to be smart and answer the question, because it's your ego answering. Ask yourself, "Where does the personal I come from?" Or you can just say, "Who am I?" or "What am I?" You never answer, yet you will notice something very interesting beginning to happen, when you get to that stage. You'll notice that you’re starting to feel better, and better and better. And you even begin to laugh at yourself. Why? Because you're going to the source of your personal I.
And the source of your personal I is absolute reality, consciousness. Which means, of course, that your personal I does not exist. It never existed. It's an optical illusion. You don't have a personal I. And if you don't have a personal I you do not have any of the problems that come with it. This means that you are not the body-mind phenomena. You are not the doer. You are not the sufferer. You are not the person that you think you are. For all these things are attached to the personal I, and if that goes away everything goes away with it, and you become totally free. Then you begin to feel omnipresence, for your real self is not personal. Your real self is the self as the universe. Your real self is everything. Everything is the self. Your real I is that your body is sort of an impression on the self, but it has no power of its own. It doesn't even exist. The self exists. Consciousness exists as itself and not as the body. Where does the body come from? If the body doesn't exist, why do I see it? Ask yourself, "Who sees it?" and we get right back to the personal I. For the answer is, "I see it. Who am I?" You're back to the personal I again.
Don't you see? If the personal I is gone there is no body, there's no mind, there's only consciousness. But as long as you believe there's a body, there's a personal I. Therefore you cannot say, "I am consciousness appearing as a body." That's wrong. Consciousness does not appear as any body. It doesn't have to. Consciousness is always self-contained pure awareness. It is something we cannot even discuss, for there are no words to describe it. It's something you have to find out for yourself. But I can tell you for sure, it has nothing to do with your body. It has nothing to do with your experiences. It has nothing to do with karma. It has nothing to do with your god. It has nothing to do with the universe. It has nothing to do with self-realization or liberation. It just is. And it is beyond our finite thinking. There are no words to describe the infinite.
It's enough that you do away with all your concepts of body, mind and I. Everything will come by itself. Your job is to get rid of the concept of I. Your job is to get rid of the idea that you are a body, and that you are a mind, and that you are a doer. Always remember, what appears to be a body will do whatever it's supposed to do by itself, but it has nothing to do with you. If you can only see it like that for one day, you'll be amazed at what happens to you.
Try this experiment tomorrow. When you get up and you just open your eyes and get out of bed, do not pay any attention to yourself as a body. In other words, just become mindful, like they teach you in Buddhism. Watch yourself getting out of bed. Watch yourself going to the bathroom. Watch yourself brushing your teeth. What I'm trying to tell you is that your body will do everything without your help. It's only when you identify yourself with the body, or as the body, that the problems begin. But if you do not identify yourself with the body you'll be happy. For happiness is your true nature. Really happy. Not happy because something came your way that you like. You'll be happy, happy for no reason. You'll just be happy. You will not go about laughing all the time, or getting hysterical about it. You will just feel an innate joy. Yet your body will appear to go about its business.
It's like the example I gave you of an electric fan. You pull out the plug but the blades are still turning. So when you practice that experiment, and you don't pay any attention to your body, you'll pull out the plug and you’re watching your body going about its business. It will go about its business as long as it has to, until the allotted time comes when it falls and drops and you're rid of it.
Or the blades may stop turning before the body falls, and you become totally immersed in the self. Then it's a completely different ball game. It becomes sort of difficult to explain, because you are no longer the body, yet the body appears there for people to look at. It seems to be real. But you know beyond a shadow of doubt that there is nobody, nobody is home. There is no mind and there is no doer. And people talk to you and say, "But I see you doing. I see you thinking. I see your body." So the example you give them is the electric fan. You pull out the plug, but the blades are still turning. So you see the body is still functioning. What has happened to you is you have entered the fourth state of consciousness, beyond waking, beyond sleeping, beyond dreaming. You have expanded your awareness.
So the point I'm trying to make is this. You do not have to be afraid that you’ll lose something if you go to the fourth state of consciousness. Some people say they have a family. They may think, "Well I'll lose interest in my family, I'll lose interest in my work, I'll lose interest in my children, I'll lose interest." But it doesn't work that way. Your body will still be the same as it was before, as far as appearances go. You will do a better job than you ever did in your life. You will be more loving. You'll be kinder. You'll have a great compassion as far as your body is concerned. Yet you will realize, "I am the self. I am as the self," same thing. "I am that I am." It will be very clear to you and you will make your life simple. You will not find fault. You will not react. You will simply be yourself, and you'll be happier than you've ever been in your life.
But again, there is nothing you have to give up. There is nothing you have to lose. Some people think you become disgusted with the world, and you become a hermit. That's not true. Can't you see, to become disgusted with the world, there has to be someone left to become disgusted. And if there is nobody home you can not be disgusted with anything. So anyone who comes to you and tells you, "I’m enlightened. I hate the world. I have nothing to do with people any longer. I have to live by myself now,” smile at them, and realize they are worse off than they were before, because there is an I left who is personal. They're telling you, "I have to be alone. I have to get away from the world and I have to live on a mountain top." A self-realized being can be anywhere. They don't care where they live. They can be in the market place and be just as happy as they are if they are living in an ashram. It doesn't make any difference. They're home wherever they are, and they are always filled with joy. They can be in Iraq and get bombed. It wouldn't matter to them. They get bombed, they get bombed. They don't, they don't. There are no preferences. All is well and everything is unfolding as it should.
So the question arises, "Why do I have to go through all this trouble so I can become self-realized?" That's really an ignorant question. Remember your real nature is light, consciousness, sat-chit-ananda. You're not trying to be self-realized. You simply want to get rid of the stuff that tells you you're not. For someone has told you, or you have read it in a book, or because of previous sadhana that you have practiced, that to be liberated means an end to the dream of maya. And your state with maya is you realize it's all illusion, you want it to come to an end. So you put the practice first in your life. Whatever is first in your life right now is what you are. Think what's important to you, and that's your life, for you have chosen.
But if you want to become liberated and awaken to yourself then you'll deny everything that has to do with the personal I, mentally. It begins in your mind. Do not attempt to change things physically. Remember that if you try to change things physically, you have to suffer the consequences. Everything begins and ends in your mind. You begin by wondering or looking for the I, where it goes every night when you go to sleep. Where do I go? And from where does it arise? When you first awaken, in that instant, there is no I. But as you keep waking up all of your problems, all of your troubles, all of your worldly things, become aware to you. The I is awake. I feel this, I feel that, I feel everything. Where was the I prior to that? Where did it go before I woke up? And as you are falling asleep, the same thing. As you know before you fall asleep, the I leaves you. Where did it go? And you're sound asleep without the I. As you think about these things, as you ponder on the I, this is pure meditation. This is the highest meditation, following the I to its source.
Who needs these worldly things? Who feels hurt when they are gone? And who feels happy when they have them? Watch your attachments. Become aware of what you really are. See what bothers you the most, what annoys you, what makes you angry, what makes you upset. Watch yourself. And always realize, and I'll reiterate this over and over again, I’ll tell you about this all the time, always be aware that what is happening to the I is not you. You are not the I. You are consciousness. You are sat-chit-ananda. You are absolute reality. Pure awareness. That is your real nature and that is who you are. You are not the I. And the way you find out your real nature is by following the personal I to its source. Finding the source from where the I arises, and finding the source where the I sets. As you practice these things you're practicing pure meditation, and you'll be free.