Nisargadatta's I Am That Session10-Q&A What Is Born Must Die

Listen to Ektaji talk about Nisargadatta Maharaj's book I Am That. Nisargadatta Maharaj was a teacher who did not propound any ideology or religion, but gently unwrapped the mystery of the self. I Am That preserves his dialogs with the followers who came from around the world seeking guidance in destroying false identities.

Transcript

How can this dream world,

This dream,

Be called life?

Real life is when you wake up.

You have to wake up to actually experience real life.

This is only a dream.

This is not life.

It's your assumption of life.

It is your hope of life.

It is not real life.

When you wake up from the dream,

You really start living life.

You really start enjoying the movie because you no more get one with the movie.

You no more get lost in the movie.

So stop treating this as life.

Right now you are not living yet.

That is why masters say no?

That your real life will start when you wake up from this waking dream,

From this Jagrit Swapna.

When you end your contradictions,

What happens?

When your goal and path are not opposite,

When you're very very clear,

You get your goal very quickly.

In fact,

There is no going anywhere.

This going anywhere,

Getting to a goal is just the language.

To communicate,

A teacher has to say something to you,

To explain it.

It's basically you will wake up.

That's all that is going to happen.

Your eyes are closed right now and the moment these contradictions drop,

Your eyes open.

That's all that happens.

It's that simple.

It's quicker than the opening of the eyes.

You recognize,

Oh this is who I am.

This is what I am.

It is right under my nose.

It is right in front of my face and I cannot see it right now.

Only because my eyes are closed.

That is the problem.

The moment I open my eyes,

I see the truth.

The truth is that I am this consciousness.

There is nothing else other than this consciousness.

When I sleep in the night,

There is no body and mind.

That which I am calling life is equal to this body and mind.

When I am in deep sleep,

There is no body,

There is no mind.

I am the happiest in deep sleep.

And every night,

In every deep sleep,

I am equally happy.

I'm at equal peace.

There is no contradiction there.

Never has there been a contradiction.

That is my true nature.

That becomes evident now during the waking hours.

That becomes evident during the dream time.

So there is not a moment when you cannot recognize that I am the consciousness and right now in the waking state,

I've only taken on this image of the body and mind.

It's just like wearing certain clothes in the morning and in the night getting out of those clothes.

That's all there is.

It is a very clear seeing.

S-E-E-I-N-G.

A clear seeing.

A special seeing.

Vipashyana.

Special seeing.

Seeing things as they are.

Not as I want them to be.

This clarity dawns only when you do self-exploration.

This cannot be expressed in words.

That is why I am insisting that you go into morna and you go into self-exploration and recognize it.

All words are directed only in one direction.

That you go and rest in morna,

In silence.

What is the point?

You want to analyze garbage?

You want me to sit in the garbage field with you and sit and analyze garbage?

What is the point?

Where is my dream coming from?

Dreams are dreams.

They are coming.

They are going.

Drop that which comes and goes.

Look at that which doesn't come and doesn't go.

Drop that that wakes dreams and sleeps.

Go towards that which does not wake,

Does not dream,

Does not sleep.

It's not of any use if you sit and analyze the garbage.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Very important to wake up on the path of Advaita.

The pure consciousness willingly goes to sleep.

Willingly.

Happily says okay I am bored alone and I want to have some fun time.

Willingly,

Voluntarily goes to sleep and willingly,

Voluntarily manifests itself into a dream character which experiences a dream world.

It is doing it willingly,

Voluntarily.

You do it every night.

Consciousness made you in its own image because consciousness goes to sleep and experiences this world through our eyes.

It gave us the exact same ability to go to sleep every night and experience a dream world so that very soon we would find the truth about our own self.

So it's not that consciousness is becoming pure or impure.

Consciousness voluntarily,

Willingly forgets itself,

Goes to sleep and conjures up a dream.

This is experiential huh?

Provided you wake up.

You can experience this.

You can experience this on your own.

When you really start recognizing the truth,

A moment will come when in the morning when you are just arising from your sleep,

You will notice the sense of I am arise first and then you will recognize that the sense of I am the body comes and then you recognize the room,

The ceiling,

The walls.

I am the body in the world.

This recognition also happens step by step.

So this is very experientially recognized that every morning I take on these different roles.

Willingly,

Voluntarily I enjoy this world.

Every night I withdraw from this role as if going off stage and resting.

But for that you will have to work a little more.

You have to go beyond the witness consciousness.

For that you have to do self-exploration in silence.

YouTube videos are not going to help you.

Go to Mauna because YouTube is noise.

Shravana is noise.

Words are noise.

Beyond this it is a personal journey.

Personal doesn't mean I will do it my way or highway.

Personal means alone,

Not with others.

Personal means I go in alone and recognize the truth.

I explore my own reality.

You have to keep going with the flow of life.

You don't have an option anyways but you don't understand the flow of life yet.

You think you have a craving and you want to go behind that craving and that is the flow of my life.

It's an absolute wrong understanding of the term flow of life.

First practice the sense of I am.

Recognize that I am the witness.

Rest there.

You will start recognizing what is the flow of life.

What is the meaning of that term.

That term came from ancient India.

It's just adopted into English.

It means something else.

It means that thoughts,

Perceptions,

Feelings and sensations arise and fall on their own.

I have got nothing to do with it.

I am the silent soft background.

I let this flow come and go.

I do not need to act or react to any of these.

This is the meaning of going with the flow of life.

It's another level of understanding of the flow of life.

It's not the English flow of life.

It is actually Sanskrit.

Recognizing that I am the background and I have no other option other than simply knowing thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations and perceptions.

That's it.

I'm not the doer.

I'm not the experiencer.

I am simply the knower of what is happening.

That is the meaning of the flow of life.

To get to this understanding experientially,

One must again and again rest in the sense of I am.

So go back to your practice.

Go back to again and again the sense of I am and stay there.

The more self-exploration you do in silence,

The quicker you will get to your goal.

And this week's main practice.

Recognize oh I have contradictions and write them down.

These are the specific contradictions that I have.

I notice that my goal and my way are conflicting.

My behavior and my conviction are conflicting.

Oh because of this conflict I will not be able to get there.

First resolve these contradictions.

If you need help,

Write to me because it's obviously going to be personal.

So you write to me.

I'll help you get over these contradictions.

Get your doubts clear.

Become very clear about your goal and then you can move forward very easily.

Super clear?

That's your biggest homework for the week.

What are the contradictions in my own mind?

So now we'll do a contemplation.

15-20 minutes.

Write down your notes.

Go through your notes.

Write down any questions that have come up which didn't get answered today.

You can email your questions to me and do the self-explorations on every chapter of Nisargadatta Maharaj.

People asked me questions and just because they've asked me a question I created an audio self-exploration center to them and that's how self-exploration videos came up.

So do every self-exploration.

See if I really get it.

Experientially is what I need to get it.

Not intellectually.

Intellectually means I'm using my mind and intellect to understand.

Experientially means I'm staying away from thoughts and ideas and concepts and just observing my inner environment.

How a scientist would use a magnifying glass to observe something quietly.

He's not thinking first only what is there.

He's just observing.

Yes that is the meaning of self-exploration.

Become a scientist for your own self and this is the specimen.

Your own inner environment.

Most important see that you become very clear.

Am I honest in my pursuit?

If you're dishonest,

If your tenacity is not there in purpose you will not get there.

You're wasting time.

Stop,

Stop doing that.

It's better go these two hours go watch some film.

At least you will entertain yourself.

But if you're very clear no that is not my way.

My way is really to know myself.

Then become very very tenacious about it.

Tenacity is very important going forward and honesty and honesty is with yourself.

It's not about it.

It's not about others.

Honesty with your own self.

Be honest in your pursuit of this path.

Be tenacious and you will get to your goal instantly.

Don't worry I'm there to help you.

But you become clear first.

Very very clear.

Drop all contradictions and one-pointed.

You have to become one-pointedness towards your goal.

How horses walk.

You know horses have blinders right?

If you've not seen a domesticated horse go see one this week.

They have blinders so they don't look here and there.

They have that single focus ahead only.

Like that you have to have tenacity of your purpose.

My goal and my way are one.

So become very clear this week.

This way or that way no problem.

Doesn't matter.

If it doesn't work that way that doesn't work for you find another way.

But if this is what works for you,

If you want to go with Nisargadatta Maharaj,

He is very strict.

Be tenacious,

One-pointed.

Super clear?

So examine this week.

Complete all the self-explorations on all the five chapters if you've not completed yet.

I'm not talking about contemplations.

I'm talking about self-explorations.

These are different.

Contemplation is just the reading of the same chapter.

Self-exploration,

A specific sticky points in that chapter which were addressed and helps you go in and recognize whether I understand that point experientially or not.

All of them have been uploaded already to the website as well as YouTube.

Okay so complete the five self-explorations this week.

Complete the contradictions in your mind homework and become very clear this is my path.

Then start doing the sense of I am exploration.

So I'll see you next week.

Until then be in the sense of I am.

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