Q & A from satang with Nome

[Guest guest]

Questions and Answers from satsang with Nome, True Silence.

 

[Note: The recording of this satsang is rather poor, and so those

portions that are inaudible have been deleted and those portions that

are only partially audible have been summarized using the audible

portion. The reader can, at points, surmise what may have been said

in the audible portions by the context the portion that has been

preserved.]

 

[N. signifies Nome; Q. signifies Questioner; "laughter" means that

everyone was laughing, not just the speaker.]

 

Q.: (First describes how his practice and meditation experiences are

faring) I find that by coming here the meditations are deeper than

they are at other places. Coming here, I see what meditation can be.

 

N.: What actually happens? What is the difference? How do you mark

off when you are here?

 

Q.: Somehow it is different when we are meditating together than when

I meditate alone.

 

N.: How do you know when we are together?

 

Q.: By all this sensory stuff.

 

N.: When you go deep within and find something of a space-like

nature, is it sensory?

 

Q.: Of course not! (laughing)

 

N.: The senses cannot be the cause of a non-sensory state. So, what

happens?

 

Q.: I can only say that something happens with my mind, but this is

why I ask.

 

N.: Your existence is there always.

 

Q.: Yes.

 

N.: It is non-bodily in nature. So, "here" and "there," which relate

to the body and the senses, cannot possibly be relevant to turning

within. You, yourself, have given the answer when you said that it is

when you really want to do it, when you intend to actually turn your

focus within and actually inquire. That is when good experience shows.

 

So, how you approach meditation has everything to do with meditation,

doesn't it?

 

Q.: Yes.

 

N.: It has more to do with the meditation than any of the apparent

content of the meditation. The real nature of meditation for Self-

Knowledge must necessarily be nonobjective. The means and the end

must be of the same nature. Otherwise, there will be no guarantee of

success with it.

 

I do not deny the validity, the importance, and the benefit of the

temple and holy company. If we go to the essence, we find that exists

everywhere.

 

Q.: I have had moments of not being the doer. It is more joyous.

 

N.: That is always the case. Peace and joy, or bliss, are innate. The

moment false definition, or ignorance, is eliminated, proportionate

to the amount that ignorance is eliminated, such bliss and peace

shine. They belong to the substrate. Where Being is, where

Consciousness is, there is Bliss. As Being is always existent, Bliss

is always existent. Joy and peace are not things to be possessed.

They belong to the substrate of your Being, which always is. Remove

the superficial veil, and the substrate is already there without a

moment's delay.

 

It is just as in the analogy of the rope and the snake. The moment

the false, imagined idea of a snake is removed, the rope is there,

for it was already there and now is seen clearly. If you want to say

that the rope has newly arrived, it is all right. Now, the rope is

meditating, (laughter) but the rope is always there and was only

mistaken to be a snake. So it is with ignorance and knowledge and

bondage and liberation. [rest is inaudible]

 

Q.: (about what is to be done regarding suffering)

 

N.: It is Knowledge, and not a doing. This is why Atmabodha by

Sankara begins with, "Action cannot lead to Liberation, and Self-

Knowledge is Liberation." This is very simple, yet very profound,

wisdom. Actions are performed with body, speech, and mind. Something

performed with the body cannot result in bodiless Liberation.

Likewise is it with the activities of the speech and the mind. The

activity of the mind may be a thought, a state of thought content, or

the activity of a state of no-thought content. These pertain entirely

to the activities of the mind. Manipulation of these activities does

not result in Self-Knowledge, or Liberation.

 

Liberation is knowing yourself. It is not a doing. Nevertheless, a

practice of Knowledge is more intense than any practice of activity.

Activities are performed sporadically. Knowledge is continuous.

Activities are relatively exterior and gross. Knowledge is interior

and subtle. That which is subtle is more potent.

 

The fact is that you are never the performer of action. The idea that

you are the doer is just delusion. It is just a wrong idea. You never

become the body. Bodiless you innately are. So, how could you do

anything? You never become the mind, or thinking. No matter what the

pattern of thinking is, there is still one who knows it. It is

evident that one thought does not know another. That knowing,

apparently unknown, can be confused and can never be a thought. If

you have no relation to thought, how can you be a thinker?

 

When you have the image in mind that you are some performer of some

activity of the mind, speech, or body, that image is objective to

you. You know about it. You know about it to such an extent that you

can speak about it. By whose light is that known? That never does

anything.

 

 

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Not two,

Richard