something within behind the mind

[Guest guest]

Ramana Maharshi>

You have to ask yourself the question , Who Am I?

This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery

of something within you which is behind the mind.

Solve that great problem, and you will solve all

other problems thereby.

Further words from Jean Klein:

"The ego fears insecurity, the absence of happiness and peace, and it

looks from left to right in its search for happiness and peace. It

explores many directions. Sometimes it meets situations where there

was happiness, for example, when a desired object has been attained.

But the ego did not notice that, at the moment of the attainment, it

was absent and there was happiness. It was an absolutely causeless

moment. Because ego was ignorant of this, it later said, "I had a

beautiful moment because I met this or that person," or, "I had a

beautiful moment because I received that object." So look in all

directions, and you will see that you will never find happiness in

any direction or experience. In looking so, in all directions, there

is a maturity that comes into your life, a faculty of higher

reasoning, or of higher understanding. You will stop looking in the

objective world for happiness. When you look in all directions and

you can't find what you are looking for, there's a stop. This moment

when you say, " I don't know" is crucial. In this moment, the energy

which was projected in an eccentric direction comes back in a

concentric way, and then comes to a full stop. In this total stop

theres the "I am," but before the "I am " there must first be the "I

don't know," the absence of all projection; for this "I don't know ",

the "me", the "I" has no existence. But it is very important that you

live with the "I don't know." It is the real LIVING "I don't know

that you know. When you say, "I don't know," you are completely

open, free from all projections, free from all possible knowing.

A free mind is not "my" mind, and in this total absence you will feel

your presence. AsSri Atmananda Krishna Menon said: "You will feel it

without feeling it."

Student: So I have to be absolutely desperate before I am able to

know "I don't know"?

Jean Klein: Yes, you must come to a state of complete bankruptcy. Or

more than bankruptcy, because often when there is bankruptcy there is

still the idea that I could build up new business! All possibilities

must be completely abolished!

Student: Is consciousness the only reality?

Jean Klein: Consciousness is the only reality.

Student: But in psychology they divide consciousness into

subconsciousness and superconsciousness; is that just a trick of the

mind?

Jean Klein: Yes, a trick of the mind. There is only consciousness.

Consciousness expresses itself in objects. When you see that every

object flows out from consciousness, then there are no more

"objects," there is only consciousness. The object loses its

objectivity the moment it refers to consciousness. There are no

distinctions. Looking for distinctions is only trade by the mind.

Looking for all this division is only survival for the "me," the "I".

When you discover that the "me" is an illusion, all psychology goes in

the lake."

Student: Who is the "you" that takes itself for a person?

Jean Klein: It is an identification with the personality.

Consciousness identifies itself with an object. It is a forgetting."

Student: You said that the ultimate question is: Who Am I? To me that

prompts the question: is there such a thing as a creator? On your

path, have you found a creator?

Jean Klein: When you ask yourself, "What is life? Who am I?" what

happens at this moment? You are free from any representation, you

live in a state of total "I don't know", you are living in complete

not-knowing where there is no reference to anything, because you have

understood that you can never find yourself as an object, that you are

the ultimate subject. So you live completely in the not-knowing."

Joyce