Let Yourself Be Found

Since 1990, Gangaji has shared Papaji’s invitation to call off the search. This essential teaching serves our conscious discovery of who we truly are and is profoundly relevant to living our daily lives. In this recording, Gangaji shares a teaching story, written by a sangha member, that is relatable and true. What is discovered when we are willing to completely call off the search and simply let ourselves be found?
Produced by Barbara Denempont

Transcript

I received a beautiful letter just the other day from someone in Brazil.

Beautiful letter of self-confirmation,

Recognizing the flowering of this revelation of truth,

Seeing it in everyone.

And she also had a wonderful story that seems to me to be a very good teaching story.

Hello and welcome to Being Yourself,

Self-Inquiry with Gangaji.

My name is Barbara Denempont.

Over the last couple of months,

We've been sharing some material from the archives that focus on turbulent times.

And today I wanted to share Gangaji's core invitation,

The invitation that came to her through her teacher Papaji,

Which is Call Off the Search.

This recording is actually from a retreat at Snow Mountain in 1998.

And in it,

Gangaji shares this beautiful teaching story that I think everyone can relate to.

And it really supports us all in simply stopping.

So I invite you to just take the next fifteen minutes and retreat.

Good morning.

Namaste.

You know,

With all of these people in this room,

All of these individual lifestreams,

We have to recognize that there is a huge accumulation of knowledge in this very room.

From all different directions,

East,

West,

Center,

Periphery,

Outer space.

From Vedic knowledge,

Christian knowledge,

Sufi knowledge,

Pagan knowledge,

Goddess knowledge,

Scientific knowledge,

Ignorant knowledge.

It's a huge accumulation in this room.

And there are also some in this room who haven't studied any particular path consciously,

With a spiritual outcome as the goal.

I believe it's crucial that we realize that regardless of the accumulation of knowledge,

Or the lack of accumulation of knowledge,

We are all in the same place.

We are exactly in the same place.

And that notions of accumulation,

Or notions of lack of accumulation,

Are simply brought to this place,

Where we all are.

And the opportunity in retreat is to recognize what is this place,

Where am I?

And has this place,

Where I am,

Changed according to the latest evaluation,

That I have some knowledge or I don't have any knowledge?

So I am suggesting that you look for who you are and where you are,

Not in what you know or even in what you don't know.

Then there is the revelation of what is called yana,

Which is true knowledge.

And this has nothing to do with accumulation.

And different religious groups all over the world have been founded on that revelation.

And then culturally or whatever the propensity was have taken that founding into institutionalization.

And then this that is institutionalized,

The knowledge that arose from the divine revelation,

Gets worshiped,

Gets accumulated,

Gets squeezed.

And all the time we are in the same place.

I received a beautiful letter just the other day from someone in Brazil,

Beautiful letter of self-confirmation,

Recognizing the flowering of this revelation of truth,

Seeing it in everyone.

And she also had a wonderful story that seems to me to be a very good teaching story.

So there was all of that recognition,

That beauty,

That strength,

And seeing it in others' eyes.

And then she says,

There was an interesting experience of fear two days ago when I came here.

She is visiting a friend of hers who lives outside Rio.

I had been here twice before and I knew how to get to my friend's house.

In the neighborhood there are only dirt roads and pastures on the hills,

No signpost,

No street lights,

Etc.

At night you can't see anything but what your cars,

Lights can reach,

And that's very little.

I got very close to the house,

Well let's say I got very close to home,

But somehow I could not find it.

I drove for one and a half hours in circles and I recognized some places.

And after a lot of circling I started to feel exhausted and fear began to crawl in.

At first I kept telling myself that there was no reason to be afraid,

I was very close,

I would find it sooner or later.

But then I saw that I was just avoiding the fear and I stopped.

I let myself be taken by the fear of being lost,

Of being abandoned.

I was shaken by it,

I cried and cried,

I yelled in the car.

After some minutes I realized that I was extremely tired and that it was not worth fighting,

That I wanted to stop searching.

There was this thought,

Why should I keep on struggling to find it?

I'd better stop,

Rest,

And let myself be found.

I thought,

I'll look for a payphone and call my friend,

He'll come to rescue me.

I don't need to prove anything.

After some driving around in the middle of nowhere,

I found a payphone outside a closed grocery store.

It was already 11 p.

M.

And it was completely dark.

The sky was clouded,

The moon was hidden.

I called my friend and he came to get me.

I was so close to his house that he came walking.

I had passed in front of his gate many times.

I had even noticed the beautiful flowers growing on each side of it.

But for some mysterious reason I did not recognize it.

I was expecting a different gate,

A green gate instead of a brown gate.

What a trick of the mind.

And I got so entangled in that search,

In my attempts to find it by myself,

That I overlooked it.

And all the time it was right there in front of my eyes.

Thinking about this experience later,

I saw in it the same pattern of looking for what we desire most everywhere,

Except where it is.

And how we can become attached to the search,

To the excitement of it,

Trying to prove something,

Like how powerful,

Independent,

Or clever we are.

So much energy and time unnecessarily spent.

And all that is needed is to give up the search,

To surrender everything,

And recognize there is nothing I can do anymore.

Just stop and let myself be found.

You recognize the story?

In this time we live in,

It's a wondrous time,

Both in its horrors and in its beauties.

And in our privilege we have been given many signposts,

Many directions,

Many instructions,

Many gates that say,

Here it is,

Go this way.

You know,

Some of them say,

Express yourself.

And then you will see another signpost that says,

No,

No,

Suppress yourself.

You know,

Like these cartoons you see where there's sign,

There's one long post and then there are all these errors and signposts.

You mustn't know this,

You just look in your life and you see how many different directions you have followed,

Looking for this ultimate recognition of,

Oh,

I am home.

If you are Christian,

You have followed the Christian dictates,

Love your neighbor as yourself.

And when you are not loving your neighbor as yourself,

You are miserable.

You are separate from Christ.

If you are Buddhist,

You have followed the Eightfold Path.

And if you are not following it,

You are miserable.

You have lost Buddha nature.

And if you are a Sufi,

You are dancing in the ecstasy of the overflowing heart.

And if you aren't dancing in ecstasy,

Oh my God,

The beloved friend has left you.

Should I go on and on?

There are special diets and then there is a change of this diet.

You must wear white,

No,

No,

You must wear all black.

You must dance,

No,

No,

You must sit still.

You must sing,

No,

You must take a vow of silence.

All these signs going this way,

This way.

And if you have had occasion to taste the sweetness of the nectar and you desire to return there,

Then you look for it like it was before,

Green Gate.

This way,

That way.

And in that looking for it,

You overlook that it is here.

And this is where we are,

In this place.

The friend in this instance,

In this lineage,

Ramana,

Has found you.

Papaji once said to me,

You go door to door,

You knock on the door,

And then you see,

If they let you in,

Give them everything.

If they don't let you in,

You say,

Good luck.

Wish that they open the door for the next friend that walks in,

Or knocks to be let in.

You know your story may be even funnier than this story.

I know people where the friend walked,

To where the seeker was,

And chased the car even,

Saying,

I'm here,

I'm here.

No,

No,

No,

I have to find it.

I have to find it,

Don't bother me.

I have to find it myself.

No,

No,

No,

You didn't have a beard the last time I saw you,

It couldn't be you.

No,

No,

I was looking for a woman.

No,

I was looking for a man.

And in this overlooking,

There is this continuation of following the signpost,

Like this,

And even tacking up a new one.

So if you take what I say to you,

And you tack it up as another signpost,

Then you haven't heard what I'm saying.

For this time together,

In this place,

Where we are,

Just ignore the signpost.

As an experiment,

Stop the vehicle.

In the dead of night,

In the dark of night,

No light shining.

Stop the vehicle.

Open your mind to be found.

My heart really fills up with gratitude,

Listening to this recording,

Just knowing the people that were recording the event that saved the recordings,

Archived the recordings,

The volunteers that hosted the event,

Everything that went into this one recording being possible.

And that includes our donors,

The staff,

Gangaji,

And now,

Of course,

You.

And here you are listening.

I'm grateful that you are participating in this podcast.

And I always truly hope that it supports you in discovering the depths of who you are.

And finally,

Before I go,

Let me just remind you that you can visit gangaji.

Org.

That's G-A-N-G-A-J-I dot O-R-G to learn more about Gangaji and all of her programs.

Thank you for listening today.

Until next time.

Reviews

A lovely teaching. Open the door and br present with where you are.

🙏

There are not enough stars on Insight Timer for the depth of this wisdom. Thank you.

This is great food for contemplation and a beautiful invitation to Peace. Blessings of gratitude 🙏

I am deeply grateful🙏🏻🕊

Excellent teaching, grateful for you sharing this powerful lesson!

Thank you🙏💕heartfelt with appreciation for the story. 🙏💕

Bright, real, true, awakening, grounding. Being, in this moment.

Amazing! A new door has been opened in my mind and heart. Thank you!

Heart warming. Wise words so wonderfully put. Thank you. 🙏💓💓

Yes, give me everything

Absolutely inspirational- thank you for preserving and sharing this talk 💛🙏🦋

Absolutely beautiful. 🙏🏼

Brilliant. Spot on. A perfect msg for our goings and comings: Call off the search! Thank You, Gangaji, for giving us a sign. 😁 Namaste.

Just I what I needed to hear in this moment thank you 🙏🏼

So much resonates with this offering - from my heart yours

Namaste 🙏

🙏

Such a simple but beautiful message. Thank you 🙏

Wonderful talk. Trusting oneself to trust in now, not the familiar.
Thank you so much 💓

Thank you for sharing Gangaji's humor and wisdoms.