Instant Freedom: How To Remove The Distance Of Separation

What is the difference between presence and absence. How far do we have to travel and what do we have to do to get to self? Already present any action takes us further away from the truth. Find out more in this transformative talk.

Transcript

Welcome to our weekly talk on self,

Atma Vidya,

Which is actually a talk on knowledge of self,

Because we all have PhDs in knowing ourselves as,

This is a very subtle thing,

Knowing ourselves as,

We take ourselves to be name,

Ideas,

Beliefs,

Concept,

You know,

Whatever we take ourselves to be.

And of course we know exactly everything about that,

And we are PhDs in that,

We know how much money we've got in the bank,

We know how properties we own or don't own,

How many degrees we've got,

How qualified we are or not,

We know all about,

This is the point,

The word about,

We know all about ourselves,

But that doesn't mean we have knowledge of self,

It doesn't mean anything,

We know all about something.

There's a huge difference between knowing all about something and actually knowing that,

You know,

We can know all about the Himalayas or we can know all about London or New York,

But if we've never actually been to the Himalayas or been to London,

It's all just still information,

We still have to turn that into knowledge.

So when it comes to ourselves,

We've gathered a lot of information about ourselves,

But we have yet to turn that information into knowledge.

Self-knowledge,

Atma Vidya,

It's the oldest teaching on earth,

It's called Atma Vidya or Atma Gyan,

Adhyatma Vidya,

Brahma Vidya,

The self,

How many names the self got.

If you put the word cat equals picture of a cat,

If you put the word I equals what,

You can put the whole human race here.

So who is I?

Going online for a retreat online,

Because that's become quite popular,

Or going to an exotic island,

The copy in advertising says come and connect with your higher self.

This is what is separating us,

The idea that I need to connect with my higher self.

How does that work?

Where did the disconnect come in?

So that I need to go to some exotic island and connect to myself or some exotic retreat online and connect with myself.

Where did the separation come in?

What creates the distance?

And how do I know that if I go to the island I'm actually gonna find myself or connect with myself online?

I might be given to some practice or something just to connect to something and then I get all blissed out and exotic food and everything and I'll come back and say oh yeah I was with myself,

But I still don't know who that self is.

So all I've done is pick up some more information in yoga,

Meditation,

Doing meditation,

Self is the peace itself,

The completeness itself,

Or self is the bliss itself.

It's just more information about the same thing,

The self,

This bliss itself.

What is it?

Picking up more ideas about myself doesn't tell me who I am.

Knowing that I am the peace itself doesn't tell me what peace is.

What is peace?

Bliss,

What is bliss?

We know all about things and now it gets attributed to self,

That beautiful exotic island or exotic practices of tantra and yoga and all these things connect you to a higher self.

So now is this not the biggest controversy on earth that we are separate to ourselves?

How did we get separate?

It's impossible to be separate from oneself and if I do go to the exotic retreat online or whatever,

What guarantee is there that I'm going to be connecting to myself?

Because if there's still a connection,

That connection can be taken away.

Everything that I depend on to be myself can get taken away.

What we are interested in,

Atma vidya,

Self-knowledge,

Is that knowledge which can never be taken away.

That understanding which is complete,

Not just a little temporary moment on a retreat,

Whether it's a desert island or online in your own home on a computer.

We want that knowledge which is ever complete.

Nothing can ever disturb it and so that knowledge is what we are talking about here.

And what you find out is,

When you come to know yourself and understand what we are talking about when we talk about self,

Capital S,

We make that all capitals,

Capital S-E-L-F,

We find out that that can never be disturbed and is never disturbed by anything.

All that is getting disturbed,

If at all,

Anything is getting disturbed when it comes to ourselves,

Is the thought about ourselves.

That word about comes up again.

The thought of ourselves creates all the distance between us and ourselves.

What is this distance between us?

There is no distance.

Even looking for myself,

I deny my existence,

Obviously.

But this is the question,

Can I deny my existence?

How?

So all that's coming in the way is this thought,

I need to be complete.

And what we don't realize is this thought of incompleteness or completeness.

Seeing completeness in something or incompleteness in ourselves,

This thought of incompleteness or completeness is happening in the presence of what we find out is completeness itself.

Self is already complete.

Self is already who we are.

It's what traditionally is called praptasya prapti.

It's something that you cannot gain.

Everything else other than self is gainable.

You can gain all the things relative in the world.

You can gain money,

You gain a house,

Gain education,

Gain qualifications,

Gain all these things,

But you cannot gain the gainer.

Self is already gained.

You are already gained.

And there's a lovely story in the tradition.

There's a swami and he comes to talk to the students about to graduate from uni,

University,

And he says to them,

What would make you happy right now?

And just please understand,

Let me just say to you that anything you tell me,

Whatever you tell me,

Is going to be a lie.

So he says,

What would make you happy right now?

And they say,

Well,

If we could get our degree right here,

Right now,

That would make us happy.

Ah,

Okay.

So he says,

If the chancellor of the university sitting next to you could write out your degree,

Would that make you happy?

Ah,

My gosh,

Yes,

That would make us happy.

Right.

You don't want anything else from this.

No,

That's it.

We don't want anything else.

That's it.

If we got our degree,

We'll be happy.

Ah,

What are you going to do with the degree?

No,

Well,

We're going to go get a job.

Ah,

So the degree isn't all you want,

Actually.

You want a job.

Ah,

Yes,

Yes,

Of course we want a job.

We want a job.

When we get our degree,

We want a job.

So,

Ah,

You already told me a story.

You already told me a lie.

Basically,

You don't want a degree,

You want a job.

Well,

Of course.

They all look at each other,

Think this guy asking questions must be stupid.

So then,

Ah,

So what then,

What do you want the job for?

So we can make money.

So the degree wasn't what you wanted and the job isn't actually what you want.

What you want is money.

Yes,

No,

We want money.

Ah,

So what happens if I gave you all the money you need in the world right now?

So we open up a nice Swiss bank account for you,

Put how much money,

How much money do you need?

We put all the money in the world in the bank account.

So put five million in the bank account.

Nowadays,

You need more.

You need 10 million in the bank account,

Right?

All in a numbered bank account in your name,

Would that be enough for you?

Ah,

Yes,

That would be amazing.

You said,

Okay,

Fine.

Well,

Let's just imagine that you can have that money in the bank account,

But there's only one condition.

You can have all the money in the bank in your name,

In a numbered Swiss bank account,

15 or 20 million or 5,

10 million dollars,

But you can't spend the money.

Still want the money?

Of course not.

We don't want the money.

We want to spend the money.

What do you think?

Don't be crazy.

Ah,

So it's not the money you want.

You want to be able to spend the money.

Okay.

So what do you want to do with the money?

What is spending the money going to do for you?

Well,

We want to buy cars and houses and all the things we need to live.

The money isn't what you want.

You actually want all these things that money can buy.

Okay.

He says,

Well,

How about we buy,

As well as the money in the bank,

We give you a house wherever you want.

Where's the best locations?

Where's the best real estate in the world?

Monaco.

We give you a house in Monaco,

Big compound,

You know,

With security,

Everything there,

Huge garage,

And they can put all the cars in the world inside the garage.

Everything you want in the garage.

And then you need a yacht,

No?

You park a yacht outside.

So you get another place in New York,

Another place in Paris.

You need a plane to go from Paris to New York to Monaco.

And then you need staff.

So you need all this paid for.

Yes.

No,

We need all that stuff.

That'd be great.

Amazing.

He said,

Okay,

Fine.

You've got all of that.

Imagine you've got all of that,

But there's one condition.

You can't live in the houses.

You can't drive the cars.

You can't fly in the helicopter.

You can't fly on the plane.

You can't live in any of the apartments,

Anything.

Still want them?

Are you crazy?

Of course not.

Ah,

So you didn't want the things,

Right?

What is it that you actually want?

Well,

You know,

We want to live in the houses,

Go on the boats and planes and live in the apartment and go to Paris and New York so we can be happy.

Ah,

Well,

He says to them,

Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?

So you've been lying to me all this time,

All the way along.

And the biggest lie that all you really want is happiness.

If you told me that in the first place,

I would have told you that's impossible because nothing can give you happiness in the world because happiness is already gained.

Happiness is already yourself.

Looking for self on a desert island,

Looking for self on a online retreat or in meditation or in yoga,

What are we actually looking for?

We're actually looking for happiness.

And in yoga terms it's called anandam,

Happiness.

And what we don't realize is happiness is already ours.

It's never been in any situation or any relationship.

It's always in the one looking.

Imagine if we do go to the exotic island retreat and we get there.

And where does the original inspiration to get on a plane and go to some island or to get online and go on retreat on a little computer or whatever come from?

Where does the thought originate?

The thought and idea that by doing that I'm going to be happy and more complete.

Where does it come from?

Does it come out of the computer,

Out of the copy on the website or from a friend saying,

Hey you're going to join this retreat,

Come to this island or join this online retreat or whatever?

No,

The idea comes from ourselves.

We decide what's going to make us happy or not.

It doesn't come from anywhere else.

And then once you get to the destination,

Where does the happiness resolve or completeness suddenly get resolved?

Does it happen outside in the retreat,

In the desert island or in oneself?

Of course,

It's never in the destination.

It begins with us and it ends with us.

So where is the happiness?

Is it ever in anything?

It's never in any relationship.

It's always in the one looking.

And that's what this whole teaching of yoga,

Meditation,

Call it Atma Vidya,

Call it Vedanta,

Call it Atreta Vedanta,

Call it whatever we like.

It's all to do with the destination of happiness.

And what is the destination of happiness?

Can it be anything other than oneself?

Please tell me.

It's impossible to be in anything.

All that's happening is when the thought of happiness comes together with the object or destination of happiness,

The thought disappears completely and leaves us with ourselves.

Is this rocket science?

No.

So all of us sitting fixedly between the eyebrows,

Looking into space,

You know,

Looking for what?

Looking for completeness,

Looking for happiness in our meditation.

What are we looking for?

The one looking,

Already there,

Is the truth,

Ourselves.

And so what is needed and what is stressed in this tradition from day one is,

Please do not try to do this by yourself.

Because look how it works.

Knowing all about ourselves,

All about,

Okay,

We become very fixed on that idea of ourselves.

And then nothing other than that idea is going to work for us.

When it comes to looking for ourselves,

Every other idea we don't want.

We just throw it out.

And so fixed on that idea of ourselves,

We think now self is that idea,

But actually it's the one having the idea.

And does anything in the idea tell us about the one having the idea?

Nothing will ever tell us.

24-7 we're experiencing nothing but the owner of the idea,

The owner of truth,

The truth itself,

Ourselves.

But nothing in our experience is ever telling us anything about the nature of ourselves and never will.

And see how this all works.

Even if I go and sit in a cave in the Himalayas or on top of Machu Picchu and I take as much ayahuasca as I want,

Nothing in my experience is ever going to tell me the nature of myself,

The experiencer,

Because experience is blind.

That's how it is.

We've been experiencing 24-7 this creation,

Beautiful,

Vast creation all day long,

The beauty of nothing else but ourselves.

Nothing in the experience tells us the nature of what we are experiencing and never will.

See what happens if I sit in a cave in the Himalayas or wherever on top of Machu Picchu taking ayahuasca and doing what what.

Eventually the I,

The individuality works out for itself because you're that smart that I don't exist.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

And you hear this all the time in these circles of self inquiry and spirituality,

Yoga,

Etc.

Is that like,

I know I'm nothing.

That's not the whole point.

The point is you are everything.

There's no such thing as nothing.

All I'm hearing all the time is how there's this emptiness.

How can it be emptiness if there's nothing but fullness?

Where is this emptiness?

Show me.

You can't.

And so where is this emptiness that everybody's talking about?

When you look at space,

Is space empty?

Space accommodates everything.

There's nothing but fullness in space.

So accommodating everything,

Space,

Is the fullness itself.

So when we look at space we see emptiness but it's nothing but fullness.

There's nothing,

There's no such thing as emptiness.

And so what we interpret as emptiness is when we see something like a vast planet or something or solar system or something,

We think of fullness in terms of objects and then when those objects disappear we say,

Oh it's empty.

But where did the object come from in the first place?

From space.

So there's no such thing as empty.

So when I say to myself,

Oh,

Because now when the whole idea of myself dissolves or reverts back to where it came from,

Consciousness,

Then I think,

Oh,

I'm empty.

I'm nothing.

No.

Where that idea came from and the idea of individuality comes from,

Which is true individuality,

Comes from consciousness in which space is objectified.

So space,

Which contains everything in it,

Is objectified in consciousness.

Then how can you say that I'm empty?

I'm the pureness of auspiciousness itself.

That's all of us.

Every one of us is the pure auspiciousness itself.

Consciousness itself.

There's no emptiness anywhere.

Show me emptiness.

When everything disappears,

This is the beauty of this tradition.

The image of Ganesha,

You know,

The little elephant god with the tummy like this,

He's got a big tummy and he's got this big head,

Elephant head.

Why?

It's all symbolism.

The stomach symbolizes swallowing up the whole universe.

And then you've got to have the intellect to be able to do that.

So the elephant head symbolizes knowledge.

Once you get the knowledge of yourself,

You've got to be able to swallow up what the whole universe gets swallowed up.

Because the only thing mysterious in this universe is the universe mysterious.

Is creation mysterious?

Is this body mysterious?

We know that we've got a body.

We know that we're existing in this creation.

We know that there are trees and planets and solar systems,

Galaxies,

Universes,

And all this kind of thing.

We exist in something called universe.

But universe is not a mystery.

It's all apparent.

We can see it,

Touch it,

Taste it,

Smell it,

Enjoy it all day long,

24-7.

What is a mystery is ourselves.

All because of one simple tiny little word called I.

Because I see myself as a mystery,

The whole thing becomes a mystery.

Never mind becomes a mystery.

The moment we take on this idea of ourselves,

I exist.

The whole thing,

Because this I is a mystery,

The whole thing becomes a mystery.

But once you explode the mystery of this I,

Because inside the I is the meaning of ourselves,

I mean the deep,

Deep meaning,

Which we call deep,

Deep meaning,

But it's actually not that deep because it's already ourselves.

We don't have to really dig anywhere.

It's already the closest of the closest.

It's closer than the closest.

Self is not distant.

We don't have to go anywhere.

Don't have to go to a desert island.

Don't have to go online on the computer.

Don't have to do anything.

If the computer and the desert island,

The person and the destination is teaching you all about self,

Then that's a good trip.

Take that trip,

You know,

Because that you're learning the knowledge of self.

Knowledge of self is called Raja Vidya,

The king of knowledge.

And it's always been the king of knowledge.

Through the ocean of time,

One teaching has survived.

The teaching that teaches you all about self,

All about the human being,

All these texts,

All the Upanishads,

All the Vedas,

The Veda Upanishads talk about one thing,

The human being.

And they all explode this notion of I,

Because inside I is the mystery of the whole universe,

Because the whole question of I comes from our existence in this thing called creation,

Universe.

Otherwise,

Would the question arise?

So creating the mystery is one word,

I.

Without us,

Without you in the creation,

Would creation being a mystery,

Would it matter to you?

It wouldn't matter.

Only our being a mystery matters.

So when we get into creation and it becomes mysterious and it becomes a mystery,

To get rid of the mystery,

We have to get rid of the mystery of ourselves.

And our existence,

We find eventually,

Is actually not a mystery.

We cannot deny our existence.

We cannot do anything.

So going into the cave and sitting there trying to work it all out by myself,

You're never going to get there,

Because the one looking is trying to work it out.

And eventually the ego,

The ahamkara,

The I thought eventually comes to the conclusion,

I don't exist.

But what that doesn't do is tell you what does exist.

So the person ends up feeling empty,

Incomplete,

Of course,

That's all that's going to happen.

Whereas in reality,

The teaching tells you,

The teacher tells you,

You are nothing but the completeness,

The fullness.

There's nothing fuller than fullness.

And there's nothing but fullness.

Fuller than the fullest.

Fresher than the freshest is consciousness.

It never dies,

It never gets old,

You don't have to keep up with consciousness.

Consciousness is that which everything has to keep up with consciousness.

Everything has to keep up with you.

You think,

Oh,

I must keep up with myself.

No.

Everything is keeping up with self.

It's the other way around.

Thinking I have to meditate,

Do yoga,

Trying to keep up with an idea of myself.

How successful am I going to be?

When I'm already successful,

I'm already conscious,

I'm already here,

All the teacher needs to do is just,

And all that ever has ever done,

Is just point it out that you are already the destination of completeness.

You already are the destination of happiness.

And what is the religion?

Today on earth,

Everybody's looking for self.

Self is the religion.

Be honest.

All that we are chasing,

In everything we do,

Is not happiness.

We are chasing ourselves.

But we start by answering the question of happiness.

What is happiness?

Let's just close our eyes.

We'll do a short contemplation meditation.

Gently closing the eyes.

Please notice closing the eyes doesn't mark the beginning of completeness,

The beginning of anything.

Closing the eyes just reminds you that you are already present.

What is present is the question,

And what it means.

Already present effortlessly,

Everything else is a job,

Is an action,

Other than being present.

Everything else,

You have to do something.

But to be oneself,

Already that,

Already conscious,

Already conscious,

There's nothing you have to do.

But just closing the eyes,

Already present,

Already conscious,

Is the truth.

Oneself.

Feeling the breath,

Just feel the breath moving through the whole body.

Feel the body resting on whatever you are resting on.

Breath comes and goes effortlessly.

The whole existence is absolutely effortless.

To exist as something takes all the effort in the world.

But to exist is absolutely effortless.

Heart beating effortlessly.

Creation,

Universe,

Underneath the body,

Right here,

Supporting you effortlessly.

Stars,

Planets,

Galaxies,

Hanging,

Suspended in space,

Effortlessly.

Who's making all this effort?

Only one thing.

I.

Feeling completeness is somewhere,

Hidden in something.

I don't realize the completeness is already myself.

Peace is already everywhere.

There's nothing but peace,

Bliss,

Completeness.

Completeness.

We see incompleteness.

Not realizing or recognizing the completeness that is ourselves.

Have the best time.