Satsang with Nome - The Self alone is - Question 3

[Guest guest]

Another Q.: I understood that the ego is nonexistent, but what the

ego did is to give itself a form that was obnoxious. My mistake is

that I still hold on to form. What a relief it is to penetrate and

see that. A friend of mine that I brought to satsang, seeing you for

the first time, proceeded to get sick to her stomach, had to leave,

and was nauseated on the way home. I gave her some books, but she

read them as if they were novels and did not get anything from them.

Yet, every time she visited us, she was interested in the energy we

(ed. note: her husband and her) have. Now, while she is convalescing

in our home, I told her she is welcome to join us or not as we read

spiritual texts together, and she has chosen to join us. The

teachings have made her problems fall away. What a blessing. Some are

open and some are dull. I was not open for a long time. Grace had a

way of making itself known. My cup of thoughts became emptier, and

the Heart shone.

 

Our " stories " of our problems are just not true and are not who we

are. I see her pick up your book and contemplate upon it. How

wonderful.

 

N.: (silent for a while)

 

Observe for yourself what it is that actually brings about depth of

Knowledge, or experience? Is it the lapse of time?

 

Q.: No.

 

N.: What are the factors that cause you to dive deep?

 

Q.: Self-inquiry. Everything becomes quiet. From that depth, Self-

inquiry has a way of erasing everything the mind, the ego, may think

that it is. The body goes away. The ego goes away. The daily life

goes away. There is nothing left, and, in the beginning of that I was

completely scared.

 

N.: Something is left.

 

Q.: There is not even a happy feeling left. Even that is not there in

the present state.

 

N.: If, as you say, it no longer scares you, there must be a " you "

that is left.

 

Q.: I got it. (laughing)

 

N.: The discrimination involved in inquiry is propelled by the

intensity of one's desire for Liberation. The purpose that one has,

the earnestness with which one pursues, naturally manifests as the

perseverance and intensity with which one practices.

 

Discrimination manifests as detachment from the unreal. You are no

longer drawn out.

 

Q.: By practice.

 

N.: All of these fuse together in practice.

 

Q.: The desire for Liberation, to know who I am, is of such

importance. I become upset over not remembering to practice Self-

inquiry. There was always one who was upset about this.

 

N.: It would be better to just inquire. The measurements, the

distinctions, and the adventures of the person have the same degree

of reality, of unreality, as the person herself. The adventures of a

dream character have the same degree of reality as the dream

character. When you wake up, how do you regard the dream character

that you thought that you were, the dream activities, and the dream

time? All of it becomes insignificant because it has no reality. The

one thing that was invisible in the dream was the one thing that

composed the entire dream, but it was not involved in that. That is

your own Consciousness. It is the same now.

 

Q.: I listen to the recordings of satsangs over and over again. I

always find that there was a point that I thought that I understood

but which I really did not.

 

N.: This is the reason why the customary advice is to engage in

ongoing listening, reflection, and to deeply meditate and thus be

absorbed.

 

(silence)

 

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Not two

Richard