I AM THAT: 2 Obsession with the body

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2. OBSESSION WITH THE BODY PG3

 

Q: You are sitting in front of me and I am here at your feet. What is

the basic difference between us?

A: There is no basic difference.

 

Q: Still there must be some real difference. I come to you, you do

not come to me.

A: Because you imaging differences, you go here there to search

of `superior' people.

 

Q: You too are a superior person. You claim to know the real while I

do not.

A: Did I ever tell you do not know and, therefore, you are inferior?

Let those who invented such distinctions prove them. I do not claim

to know what you do not. In fact, I know much less than you do.

 

Q: Your words are wise, your behavior noble, your grace all powerful.

A: I know nothing about it all and see no difference between you and

me. My life is a succession of events, just like yours. Only I am

detached and see the passing show as a passing show, while you stick

to things and move along with them.

 

Q: What made you so dispassionate?

A: Nothing in particular. It is so happened that I trusted my Guru.

He told me I am nothing but my self and I believed him. Trusting

him, I believed accordingly and ceased caring for what was not me,

nor mine. 4

 

Q: Why were you lucky to trust your teacher fully, while our trust

is normal and verbal?

A: Who can say? It happened so. Things happen without cause and

reason and , after all, what does it matter, who is who? Your high

opinion of me is your opinion only. Any moment you may change it.

Why attach importance to opinions, even your own? 4

 

Q: Still, you are different. Your mind seems to be always quiet and

happy.

And miracles happen around you.

 

A: I know nothing about miracles, and I wonder whether nature admits

exceptions to her laws, unless we agree that everything is a

miracle. As to my mind, there is no such thing. There is a

consciousness in which everything happens. It is quite obvious and

enough. Look well, and see what I see. 4

 

 

 

Q: What do you see?

A: I see what you too could see, here and now, but for the wrong

focus of your attention. You give no attention to your self. Your

mind is all with things, people, and ideas, never with your self.

 

Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence. See

how you function, watch the motives and the results of your actions.

Study the prison you have built around yourself, by inadvertence. By

knowing what you are not, you come to know yourself. The way back to

your self is through refusal and rejection. One thing is certain:

The real is not imaginary, it is not a product of the mind. Even the

sense of `I am' is not continuous, though it is a useful pointer; it

shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Just have a good look at

it. Once you have convinced that you cannot say truthfully about

your self anything except `I am', and that nothing that can be

pointed at can be your self, the need for the `I am' is over - you

are no longer intent on verbalizing what you are. All you need is to

get rid of the tendency to define your self. All definition applies

to your body only and to its expressions. 5

 

Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your

natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly. The only difference

between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are

bemused. Just like gold made into ornamentals has no advantage over

gold duct, except when the mind makes it so, so are we one in being –

we differ only in appearance. We discover it by being earnest, by

searching, enquiry, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one's

life to this discover. 5