More from satsang with Nome

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

 

Here is more from the transcript of a satsang with Nome. I thought

that it may be of interest to this group.

 

No Differentiation

Satsang

September 21, 2003

 

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

everyone was laughing, not just the speaker.]

 

Om Om Om

 

(Silence)

 

N.: Undifferentiated is the nature of Reality. It is one indivisible,

solitary Existence, without beginning and without end. Timeless,

boundary-less, and utterly indivisible is the nature of true Being.

Being is, simultaneously, Consciousness. It is indivisible,

nonobjective, unformed Consciousness. This Being-Consciousness is,

simultaneously, Bliss. It is the natural state of all beings.

Abidance in this, as this, is known as Self-Realization, or Self-

Knowledge. Some regard it as the highest state of love. The

indivisibility and undifferentiated nature of Being is that. That is

birthless, deathless, absolute Being. This infinite and eternal,

absolute Being is what you are. That is all that you are. It is not

something removed from you. You are not removed from it. If this is

your direct experience continuously, yours is real Knowledge. You

know your Self.

 

If, listening to this kind of instruction, reading this ancient text,

or studying the Maharshi's teaching, there seems to be some

differentiation, what is the cause of it? If there seems to be some

differentiation between you, your identity, and that Absolute Self,

why is it so? What marks you off as anything other than the absolute,

real Existence-Consciousness-Bliss? Whatever it is that marks you off

as such makes boundless Being appears as if bound, makes infinite

Consciousness appears as if finite thought, and makes unconditioned

Bliss appear as suffering or an absent of happiness. It makes that

which is undifferentiated appears as if two or a plurality. What

marks you off? What defines you? Inquire into this for yourself.

 

If, upon such inquiry, you find that there is no valid definition

that so marks you off as some separate individual, the so-called

experience of individuality, which is but a product of illusion, will

vanish, because it is not real. Herein lies the efficacy of the

Maharshi's inquiry, "Who Am I?"

 

How do you define yourself? As a body or within the confines of a

body or with the attributes of a body? If such is what seems to make

a difference between you and that Absolute Self, inquire into that

very "you." Find out if that "you" is a body, is defined in bodily

terms, or is defined by bodily attributes. Inquiring in this

way, "Are you the body?", know your Self as bodiless and undefined by

the body. Then, where is differentiation? If you are the body, there

is birth and death, which contradicts the birthless and the

deathless. If you are a body, you are finite form, which seems to be

in contradiction to the infinite and the formless. If you are a body,

you have activity for a limited time. The absolute, real Being is

forever unmoving, actionless, and eternal. Are you the body? Plunge

into your own existence with an inward-turned mind. Find out if you

are the body or if all of the connection with the body is merely a

product of ignorance. If you remove from yourself the

misidentification with the body, what happens to your experience?

What remains? What remains of you?

 

What makes the differentiation between you and absolute Being, the

infinite Consciousness? Is it the thoughts, that is, the ideas about

you? One of those ideas is a connection with the body. Question

within yourself. Inquire: can you be what you think? If you are not

one thought, can you be a group of them or all of them put together?

If you misidentify with the mind, which is thought, you will seem to

have beginning and end, and this is in contradiction to beginningless

endless Being. As every thought has a form to it, however subtle, you

will seem to be in contradiction to the formless, pure Consciousness.

No thought lasts forever. Misidentification with thought contradicts

eternal Consciousness, timeless Being. If forever wise sages have

declared that your nature is that absolute Being, Brahman or God, and

the present state, which apparently exists for you, runs contrary to

it in your mind, you are left with the choice of either all of those

sages were wrong or you need to change your state of mind. By

changing your state of mind, I mean cease to misidentify with

whatever is the content of thought, whatever is merely a mode of

mind, or a way of thinking.

 

Inquire within yourself: who is this differentiated "I"? If the

differentiation marked off by the body is not true, can it be true in

terms of what is thought? A thought comes, and a thought goes. It is

not actually existing when it appears, but, starting at the level of

observation, it comes and it goes. Whoever knows about its coming and

going inside you, whoever knows about all those thoughts or ideas,

can that one be an idea?

 

Making your vision non-objective, seek to know yourself. If the body

doesn't really mark you off, does not give you individuality, because

you are not the body' if thinking itself does not make for an

individual because your identity is not thought, what differentiates

you? There is the Self and yourself. What is this "yourself"? The

more you question in this way, the less you will find of yourself.

You will find that the notion, the assumption --- for that is all it

is the barest assumption---of being a differentiated, individual,

separated being is entirely false. It seems to exist as such only due

to non-inquiry. Upon inquiry it disappears. Make your inquiry so

thorough into yourself that its disappearance is forever.

 

What is it that disappears? That which really has no existence. What

remains, knowing itself? That which you have been the entire time.

In Absolute Being, there is no such thing as ignorance. There are not

two states of knowing and not knowing, or bound and liberated. If you

appear as bound, gain release by inquiring into yourself. You will

find only the Self. There is only one of you, which is why, I

suppose, that you call yourself "I" rather than "we".

 

If there be only the Self, and there is really not a trace of an

individual self, only Brahman and no jiva, there is no multiplicity

of beings here. We stop counting on account of disidentification from

the body. There are no higher and lower beings. We stop

differentiating based on the content of unreal thought. Just as there

is no multiplicity of beings, there is no multiplicity of things; nor

is there any other kind of plurality.

 

There is just one unborn, imperishable, real Being. This alone regard

as "I". Examine yourself again and again, until you are quite sure of

what really is "I" in you. Not knowing what that "I" is, not knowing

oneself, is the cause of all kinds of trouble. All that trouble

evaporates by knowing who you are. Absolute Being, the infinite

Consciousness, has no trouble, ever. The undifferentiated state is

alone the real state. Do not regard differentiation as real. There is

only one of you. Do not regard a second as real. You need not, in

your mind, declare to yourself the second is not real. All you need

merely do is to inquire to see if it is real. In the light of

inquiry, Reality will stand, and the unreal will vanish.

 

------------------------

Not two,

Richard