Satsang with Nome - The Self alone is - Question 7

[Guest guest]

Another Q.: In discriminating the real and the unreal and from where

happiness derives, I often find myself leaving one corner exempt. For

example, I can still feel disappointed if the body is unwell or if

the job does not go well. Janaka was disappointed that the teaching

from Astavakra did not take explicit verbal form as he had expected.

It is Grace when the inquiry addresses that, too, and applies " neti,

neti " to it, and that, too, is not exempt. It is not that there is no

individual but there is a pain in the body, a job to do, an adventure

that is taking a disappointing course. If I have given it all to the

Guru, given it all to the Self, and want only the Self, that goes,

too. Nothing is exempt.

 

N.: What would you want to exempt?

 

Q.: (laughing) I don't think that I would want to exempt anything,

but I find myself exempting things.

 

N.: Why? If you choose not to examine and negate something as being

real when you have some intuition or knowledge that Truth is

otherwise, why?

 

Q.: In some strange way, I had not wanted to do so until the point I

let it go. I must still think that I was enjoying some sense of

identity, reality, or happiness in the exempted area.

 

N.: Will you negate something as being unreal if you think that your

happiness is connected with it?

 

Q.: That would cause some kind of conflict.

 

N.: You would have a conflict of interests. (laughter)

 

Q.: Yes, my interest would be in the happiness.

 

N.: So, there is not much mystery to this exemption.

 

Q.: It is not a mystery, but that is the way it seems to appear

sometimes. The inquiry can put it all before the Absolute to see what

stands the test of reality.

 

N.: Yes, whatever you say that you are bound by, that is what you

appear to be bound by. That of which you wish to become free, that

you, indeed, become free of. See with whom the determination rests.

There is nothing obstructing the Realization of the Absolute.

Obstacles or delays appear according to what you hold fast as being

your happiness, being real, and being your identity.

 

If you are convinced, due to some bizarre idea, that your happiness

depends on a certain idea or object, you won't examine it, will you?

 

Q.: I will protect it from that examination.

 

N.: Because you know how fragile it is. You know that, by merely

looking at it, it will be destroyed. Who is it that by his mere

glance can destroy things? (laughter) That Siva is indwelling. That

indwelling Siva is the highest Bliss. It is the Good.

 

Q.: As in the story about Astavakra, whenever it works correctly, the

shift in knowledge is as quick as placing the other foot in the

stirrup. It takes no time.

 

N.: It requires no time because the Knowledge, just as Existence,

itself, is already existent. Hence, the Maharshi says that which is

not eternal is not worth seeking. We are not looking for an Existence

or Knowledge that is not yet, or which needs to ripen or such. What

you are seeking to know or to realize, as if it were unreal to be

made more real, is actually the Reality, itself.

 

You know how fragile the false is. If you see the false as false, the

ignorance as ignorance, it is destroyed then and there. Only the

destructible is destroyed. The indestructible, which is the

immutable, is never destroyed. In the indestructible lies your

immortality. In the immutable lies your peace. Within lies your

happiness. What is within is your Self. There is your happiness, the

peace of the unchanging Absolute.

 

If you really know this, the " neti, neti " mentioned earlier by you

applies to everything else. Then, you don't hesitate to examine and

inquire, because you know that, in doing so, you will always realize

that which is happiest. Then, there are no exceptions.

 

Q.: Noticing the transience of things helps by taking some of the

attractiveness out of it.

 

N.: Yes, because it is an intuition of your own nature. You yearn for

that which endures because of your own everlasting nature. You attach

yourself to something in the name of happiness because you know that

happiness is your nature, but that happiness is realized by

nonattachment and by the absence of ignorance. It is a simple thing.

 

(silence)

 

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Not two,

Richard