Introduction To Self Knowledge

In times like this when peace seems so elusive, we search for something we can do to get back that peace. Find out in this insightful talk why peace is never elusive. Being your very nature, we just keep missing it. The teachings of Advaita Vedanta point out the true destination of happiness and peace has never been closer than yourself. If you are curious about Self-Knowledge courses, this is your chance to find out why the teaching is such a revelation for our times. - John Weddepohl

Transcript

Earning your own peace.

How do you own peace?

It's the easiest thing in the world actually.

Because as you'll see,

It's already who we are.

It's nowhere else other than with us.

Not only is it not only with us,

It is the true nature of the human being.

Which is what these teachings have constantly brought to civilizations of mankind over the ages.

You know,

Endless.

And whenever the teachings threaten to disappear,

Somehow miraculously someone spent their life reviving them.

Like Shankara.

That was actually Shankara with Vedanta and Advaita and all the Vedanta Advaita Vedanta.

His whole mission in life was to to revive.

That's why he's known as the great revivalist in India.

Because he revived this knowledge of the Self,

Atma.

And then I'll just go through a bit of a ramble before we do a little mantra.

But then it became so,

The teaching became so revered that the priests treated it as sacred.

And they thought,

Oh okay,

Well to keep this teaching to help it survive for future generations,

They made it a secret.

So they hid it in secrecy.

They thought this would save the teaching.

What happened was it got lost in orthodoxy and taboo.

And only people who could read Sanskrit could understand this knowledge.

And women were excluded.

And the people of the lower caste in India were barred from learning self-knowledge.

And even my teacher's guru,

Not his guru,

But yeah his guru's teacher said you cannot share this knowledge with the plains people of India,

The farmers and you know common people.

And they just turned around and said well sorry.

And they began sharing it.

So my teacher and his teacher and two teachers are known as the modernists,

Modern revivalists of this knowledge in India.

And of course my teacher fortunately was PhD in English.

And so now you don't have to go studying Sanskrit to understand this because I mean the self doesn't speak Sanskrit only.

It can speak any language you know.

Obviously we speak English,

We speak everything.

So to understand this knowledge you don't have to go studying Sanskrit for the rest of your life because you'll just break your head open.

Sanskrit's a beautiful language no doubt.

But with the modernists in India now translating this knowledge into and my teacher's teacher was also,

Dayananda was also an incredible linguist and logician.

So it's all to do with logic.

There's no,

You don't have to believe in logic.

No,

You don't have to believe anything in this knowledge.

It's not about beliefs and it doesn't mean you have to give up any beliefs and have to do anything you know.

It's just pure logic.

So now what's happening in India is self-knowledge,

Atma vidya,

Is being taught to children in primary school.

My teacher's got 27 schools that they've established in India where first generation kids,

In other words kids who have parents who have not had education,

They get educated for free.

They get their school uniforms,

They get fed,

They get everything and they get taught self-knowledge as part of the curriculum.

Included in mathematics,

Biology,

Whatever geography,

History is included self-knowledge,

The knowledge of the human being.

And this is taught in English now in India and so it's very simple to share this knowledge.

And I was just,

Rachel and I were just talking about this afternoon.

We have not heard in all our travels and exposure over the last however many years to yoga,

Which is when I started when I was 19 years old,

So it's like over 50 years of yoga and Rachel's been doing yoga for at least 30 or 40.

And we've not heard the teachings shared so directly in such a direct delivery other than from my teacher Swami Sutanand.

And to end this whole thing off,

We've been very lucky for the last whole COVID time that he's been live doing classes online from his ashram in India.

So we've been having a great time.

And then I chat to my teacher after the classes and you know because nothing's ever prepared when you go into these classes.

And it's all just to do with whatever thoughts come when you're about to give a class,

You know,

Then you decide on the topic and the topic then,

You know,

Is about,

In this case,

We're talking about owning the truth.

I mean,

Owning your peace,

Owning your own peace.

So before we begin,

I want to thank you for your time.

And before we begin,

I'll just,

Let's just close our eyes and get a little bit still.

And when you do that,

Let's just tune into the breathing,

Feeling the breath through the nostrils,

Feel like a coolness in the nostrils.

The moment you bring your awareness to the breath,

Wherever it is,

Whether it's in the nostrils or if you want to move your awareness to the breath in the back of your throat,

Feel the breath in the back of the throat and feel that like a coolness in the back of the throat.

Feel how effortless the breathing is.

Breath comes and goes.

Heart beats effortlessly.

The whole arrangement,

One's whole relationship with creation goes on effortlessly.

There's no conflict in our relationship with nature.

Creation.

Absolutely effortless.

Now just move your awareness to the breathing in the chest and feel your breath in the chest,

In the lungs.

Feel the coolness has now moved simply by moving our awareness.

Feel the coolness is now in the lungs.

And again,

Moving your awareness back to the nostrils,

Feel the air moving through the nostrils.

Coolness is now no longer in the lungs.

It's now in the nostril.

Let go all effort.

Let go the need to do anything.

Let go the need to undo anything.

And let go the need to let go.

And just feel your effortless presence here and now.

I'm just going to chant a mantra which the students and teachers chant at the beginning of the class asking for understanding that there may be no misunderstanding between us,

That our studies may be fruitful,

May we come to know the truth.

Vishāvī shāriṃuṃ shāntiṃ shāntiṃ So,

Owning one's own peace.

How easy or difficult is that?

The Vedanta teachings basically,

While most,

Let's say most would be nice,

While most other traditions talk of there being an ultimate goal,

An absolute destination that has yet to be reached.

All right?

Advaita,

The teachings from the Vedanta Upanishads completely tear that idea apart.

They slam that idea saying that the destination and the goal is already reached.

The destination is already accomplished just by being born a human being.

Already gained is all the things that we are seeking.

Happiness,

Peace,

Contentment,

Completeness,

Bliss,

Joy,

Call it whatever you want.

So now,

In order to be able to own that,

Call it peace,

Because I mean peace and happiness go together,

Joy,

Happiness,

Peace.

You could name them all the same thing.

When you're peaceful,

You're happy.

When you're happy,

You're peaceful.

So joy,

Happiness,

Peace,

If that's already the nature of who I am,

Then how do I get to own that?

Right?

So it's a like a paradox.

And so we're constantly trying to get it in all the things that we're doing in our lives.

But the human being,

Not only the human being,

All sentient beings,

Whether it's the mouse chasing the cheese,

The cat chasing the mouse,

Or the dog chasing the cat,

The owner of the dog chasing the dog,

Everyone's looking for one thing,

Happiness,

Peace,

Contentment,

Fulfillment,

And especially with this COVID going on right now.

And where is it?

And what we find in our lives is the moment we see our peace in anything,

See our happiness in anything,

That then owns our peace.

So if I see my happiness or my peace in any situation,

That can always be belonging to that situation,

That can always be taken away.

Without a doubt.

You know,

So I made a little silly post during the week where,

You know,

If if happiness is owned or peace is owned by a nice little scotch in the evening whiskey,

Or it's owned by morning coffee,

You know,

How many of us are kind of addicted to having a coffee first thing?

There's Peter.

And we see this as a moment of peace.

So,

You know,

You can get,

You know,

I was in the recording industry.

So I had these incredible,

You know,

Big coffee machines that used to do the trick for me.

And so there was always a special time of the day where you'd have your coffee,

You know,

And that was your time of peace.

And God forbid anybody stood in the way of that,

You know,

That didn't,

Because that's your that you see as your time of peace,

You know,

Time of happiness,

Where you sit with your coffee,

Smelling that,

And that's it.

But then if something takes that away,

What happens?

Does peace disappear all of a sudden?

You know,

We think it does,

But it doesn't.

We've attributed all our contentment,

Peace,

Happiness,

Whatever you call it,

Tranquility to that situation.

It can be coffee,

Can be whiskey,

It can be a cigarette,

It can be anything in the universe,

Right?

So let's just say the universe owning anything to do with happiness or peace,

Okay,

Basically owns us.

Okay?

Yeah.

So if I see my house as my peace and my contentment and my happiness,

My house owns me.

I don't own my house,

Right?

This is just logical.

Or if I see my relationship as holding my happiness and my peace,

My relationship owns me.

If I see my bank account holding all my peace and happiness,

I am owned by my bank account.

Okay?

So if anything in the universe owns happiness for which I see as my happiness,

Then I'm in trouble.

Not only because,

You know,

It can be taken away,

But because looking for,

If happiness and peace,

As Vedanta says right in the beginning of the class here,

You are that peace,

You are that happiness.

Okay?

If anything,

If I'm looking for peace or happiness in anything,

How successful am I going to be if it's me?

Okay.

So we were getting to how,

If anything earns our happiness or peace,

It means that we are owned by that,

Which is just logical.

I mean,

The moment that gets taken away,

Then our peace disappears along with it.

So what we're interested in is,

In this tradition,

We're interested in peace that never disappears.

Happiness that is permanent,

Never ending happiness.

And everybody thinks,

Oh,

That's impossible.

But if that's yourself,

And so the idea then,

Then it cannot disappear.

It's,

It's un,

Unburstable in other words,

You know,

So what we keep on doing is blowing up these balloons,

Thinking that there's happiness inside something.

So we blow up this expectation of happiness.

Right?

And then it's always going to burst because who's the one blowing up the balloon?

Who is seeing the happiness in that particular relationship,

That particular object?

We ultimately are the chooser of our own happiness.

And so where does the happiness ultimate,

What is the destination of the happiness?

Can it be anywhere other than with the chooser?

It can't be,

You know,

So when you've always get whenever you're happy,

The happiness is not in the object or the situation.

It is in your soul.

It's not inside you.

It is you.

Juliet.

So we lost the john did a bit of a joke.

Juliet,

Welcome back.

Donna bosses back.

We're having fun.

This is great.

I love it.

So please see the chooser of happiness,

Can the happiness or destination of happiness be anywhere other than where to region?

It has to come back to you.

Logically,

Right?

And this is what the teachings have been saying.

Thousands and thousands of years when and so what happens?

Annette.

So then what happens?

We keep looking for happiness in the world.

Never finding it.

Anybody found happiness,

Permanent happiness in the world?

If that if someone had found it,

And generation after generation of civilization after civilization has been looking for one thing only happiness.

And you imagine if someone had found the recipe for happiness,

The queue would be endless around the planet because the whole planet is seeking seeking happiness.

Every human being every sentient animal is looking for one thing,

Happiness.

So we wake up in the morning.

And the moment we wake up,

We start looking for one thing alone.

Peace,

Contentment,

Happiness.

You know what's curious?

Where do we all experience absolute peace,

Absolute happiness?

In order to look for it.

In order to look for something,

You must have experienced it before.

Right?

Because otherwise,

How do I recognize it when I see it?

Yeah?

Or even somehow recognize happiness in anything.

If I haven't experienced happiness or peace before.

And the beauty is,

And we all know this,

We experienced nothing but absolute pure peace,

Pure happiness every single night in deep sleep.

And then what happens the moment we wake up?

The whole human race goes on the march for what it's just experienced in deep sleep.

It's actually fascinating.

Looking for it in a thought,

You know that,

And the first thing that comes up when we wake up in the morning is a thought.

And thinking this now is going to make me content.

This now is going to make me complete.

I've got to do this,

This week or today or whenever,

You know,

To really kind of catch hold of my contentment,

My fulfillment,

Seeing happiness and all sorts of things in our lives.

We keep attributing happiness to situations where it does not exist.

In deep sleep,

We experience nothing but the absolute happiness,

Absolute joy.

Because in deep sleep,

We don't know it,

But we are with ourselves.

And that's why it's a state of pure ignorance.

Deep sleep is absolute ignorance.

And then from that moment on,

When we wake up,

The whole march is on for happiness,

Contentment,

Completeness,

Fulfillment,

Joy,

Seeing it in all the thoughts and things.

So self knowledge.

What self knowledge does is show you first of all,

The nature of thoughts,

The nature of the mind,

Why we keep on falling asleep in our thoughts,

As it were falling asleep to what falling asleep to the true nature of ourselves.

So dreaming of dream happiness in a situation,

Dreaming of peace in a situation,

You know,

Whereas when you do get finally to that situation,

When you experience a situation,

The peace is not in any of thing to do with the situation.

It's yourself.

Just to give you an example.

Peace,

We might see on some beautiful beach somewhere.

What do you do when you get there?

And the sun's going down.

And it's a beautiful sunset or sunrise.

Yeah.

You just want to close your eyes and just enjoy it.

You'd love it.

You want to be with yourself.

And we use the example of a person,

You know,

Worshipping somebody,

Worshipping a God.

They go to the temple.

And what happens when you get to the God in the temple?

You close your eyes.

Why do we close our eyes?

Because all we want to do is be with ourselves.

In that moment,

God could be anything.

It doesn't have to,

You know,

Because now in that God doesn't do the trick for us.

We immediately change the God and find some other God,

Especially in India.

There's so many gods.

You know,

So our gods in Western and not only Western,

But in the modern world are now not anymore in the temples.

You know,

They've become superstars or brands or,

You know,

Apple brand or Nike or so attributing our peace to those things that are relative to us.

When the peace is actually ourselves,

We can never earn the peace.

But once you do own up to the nature of yourself,

Then peace being the true nature of the self can never get taken away.

And this is what Rachel and I,

Having spent our last 10 years together and on the ashram and having got these teachings.

You know,

We've just found that,

You know,

Especially in times of huge challenges like this COVID time.

You know,

It's incredible to have this knowledge of yourself that nothing can touch you.

You know,

No matter what circumstances you find yourself in,

Especially in times of crisis,

You find yourself relating back to the self,

The truth,

You know,

Immediately.

And so these things can't sway you or throw you around because your peace doesn't belong to anything.

It belongs where it's always belonged to yourself.

And so if we keep on attributing it to things,

Obviously no one's ever become free by depending on anything.

No one's ever become independent by depending on anything.

You know,

Depending on anything for peace,

For happiness,

For joy,

For anything,

For completeness,

For fulfillment,

For anything,

It's definitely going to get taken away.

Okay.

So depending on anything for peace,

Joy,

Happiness,

Just take that joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

As meaning one thing.

If you take a line and draw it across a whiteboard or blackboard or something,

Let's say that represents peace,

Happiness,

Joy,

Tranquility,

Fulfillment,

Contentment,

Right?

And what we're doing in our lives,

We're going through our lives.

And when we have a cup of coffee,

We touch that line and we get happy.

Then we go away.

Then we carry on and we get,

We bump into a friend and we meet the same line.

We get happy.

Yeah.

You go and watch the sunset.

Boom.

You touch it,

Go to sleep,

Deep sleep,

Peace,

Happiness all the time.

Yeah.

So we keep on touching that line.

It's a constant in our lives.

Happiness doesn't disappear.

Peace doesn't,

That line doesn't disappear.

It's the only constant.

Self is the only constant,

But we don't know what self is yet.

Right?

We call it self.

So when we,

When we go into these teachings of Atma Vidya,

As I said,

Having been revived by Shankara two and a half thousand years ago,

Okay,

In India,

Then they got lost and got taken into some kind of obscure orthodoxy where it was not available.

And it's still like that in India,

In the tradition in the,

In the,

In the Hindu tradition,

They still not sharing this knowledge,

But now the teachings have been translated into English.

And fortunately we can get to know the nature of self.

So that is how you own your peace by knowing yourself as the peace itself.

And this is the simplest of the simplest because why is there any time when you are not with yourself?

When even in deep sleep,

You with yourself,

You know,

Even in deep sleep,

Self is coordinating all your thoughts,

All your memories,

All of the day before.

So you wake up the next morning and you're still there.

It's not like if you forget everything and suddenly imagine waking up tomorrow morning and everything you've been doing is forgotten.

Your whole life is gone.

You have to start again every day.

Can you imagine something crazy like that?

So self I,

The I,

The absolute I is coordinating and everything that we're doing.

So that when we wake up in the morning,

We remember,

Oh,

I was asleep and I slept well or I had these crazy dreams.

Yeah.

So all the time,

Consciousness going,

Self going all the time.

But we,

We take our consciousness for granted.

We take being conscious for granted.

Right?

So we keep on looking for happiness everywhere else.

It's like a wild goose chase.

Nevermind.

Wild goose chase.

It's like a,

It's like a mystery treasure hunt.

See seeking out this happiness and the universe.

As long as it holds this secret,

It can wield and weave its magic on the human being because everybody's totally ignorant.

We don't know anything.

We keep looking for this contentment in him,

In and through everything.

Looking at a rainbow,

You think of the rainbow.

There's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

We've been told,

Right?

There's a pot of gold at the end of rainbow.

What is,

Who is the pot of gold?

Can it be anybody but you?

Without you does the rainbow have any meaning?

So this is what's so incredible about this knowledge.

You know,

It's just pure logic.

Yeah.

So the pot of gold at the end of every rainbow has always been you.

You just don't know that.

This is what's going on.

So that the mystery treasure hunt that we're going through in our lives,

Looking for this mystical treasure,

Looking for happiness,

Looking for peace,

Joy,

Contentment,

Fulfillment,

Tranquility,

Completeness,

Right?

Where does the feeling of incompleteness arise?

In the world or inside me?

It arises in us,

Right?

So then we see the world and we think,

Okay,

We need this to complete who we are.

We need this to make us complete.

We need,

And now what's going on?

Nevermind whiskey,

Coffee,

Nikes,

Apple,

IPhones and everything.

Meditation.

Now the practice of meditation is going to make me complete.

How if I'm ready to completeness,

Frozen again.

Boom.

Okay,

So how,

How is meditation going to make me complete if I am already the completeness?

I'm not saying anything's wrong with meditation.

I'm just saying,

Looking in all these things,

Practices,

Yoga,

Fasting,

Ritual,

You know,

Looking in anything else for the peace that is in the seeker already,

Already present,

Right?

How successful are we going to be?

Impossible.

If it's you,

You can't find it anywhere.

So you should basically,

And then trying to find it in yourself where have we got the mechanism that's needed to look at ourselves?

You can't look at yourself.

We haven't got the senses to look at ourselves.

We haven't,

We've gotten,

There's no sense of self.

Self is that in which all sensation is taking place.

Through what five senses?

Touch,

Smell,

Taste,

Hearing,

What's the other one?

Seeing.

Exactly.

Yeah,

That's,

Those are the five senses.

We've only got five senses through which the self sees and experiences the whole universe,

Right?

Limited to five senses.

And the self itself is limitless.

But we don't know that because we don't know what the self is.

And so what's happened is throughout our lives,

What's happened is we've been introduced to everything relative to self,

Right?

Everything has been named,

Starting with a flower,

A butterfly,

Starting with the ocean,

Water,

Everything that you can see,

Taste,

Touch,

Smell through the five senses has been named for us.

But the one naming everything and experiencing everything through the five senses has yet to be named.

No one's named the self.

It gets taken for granted.

We take our existence for granted.

Yeah?

And this goes on all the time.

Take our consciousness for granted.

So then meditation,

Thinking I need to be here now and present.

If you aren't already present,

Then who is saying that I need to be present?

You see how this whole thing?

I need to be present now.

What's not,

What's more important is to work out what's making us absent.

Because already we fully present.

All that's happening is we're getting lost in a tiny little thought called I.

Yeah.

The thought of ourselves is putting us asleep all day long,

All day,

Dreaming of completeness,

Dreaming of resolution,

Dreaming of trying to complete this thought I have of myself.

Nothing wrong with that.

That's what's supposed to be.

But there comes a time when that thought needs to be resolved because until you resolve that thought,

You can never be at peace.

It's just impossible.

No matter how much meditation you'd stay here in between the eyes here looking,

Hold your breath,

You know,

All of that.

I mean,

I've been doing yoga for for 50 years,

Which tells me I started when I was 19.

So I went looking here looking in the third eye seeking,

You know,

Peace,

Contentment,

Happiness,

Where is it looking then inside.

So what happens to us?

All the things that we think makes happy in the outside world,

Discovering that they are we're done actually do the trick.

We then get into some form of crisis and then turn the search inside.

Now we want to start meditating and doing practices like yoga,

Because we've heard the teachers say,

Now look,

If you've been looking for happiness outside,

There is no happiness outside,

But the happiness is inside.

So now you start looking inside.

Right?

Anybody found it?

Happiness inside?

You can't.

It's impossible because it is the one looking.

So again,

Taking the self,

One self,

One's own present for granted,

We keep looking in everything,

Everywhere,

Try to find that which is already existing and enlightening the whole journey is the self.

This is the conundrum.

This is what's going on.

And this is why it's so crucial to have a teacher.

And we were like,

We're very lucky to have the power teacher who,

As I said earlier,

I've never heard anybody teach this knowledge in such a direct way,

In such a direct delivery.

When I say direct,

I mean,

How and simple,

You know,

To right now,

Can you try to be unconscious?

It's impossible.

Okay.

To be conscious of something takes effort to be,

But to be conscious,

Absolutely effortless.

So this consciousness,

When we are doing meditation and so on,

Is the meditation itself.

There is no such thing as meditation.

You are the meditation because when you really feel at peace,

You are with yourself and you are the meditation itself.

Because all the ideas of peace,

All the ideas of happiness disappear,

Suspended,

Right?

No longer looking for it.

So now does that sense of peace,

Performance,

Contentment,

Happiness disappear just because you stopped meditating?

No.

It's just like you're having a coffee.

Does the peace and happiness and joy you get from a coffee disappear just because the coffee is over?

No,

It's still,

It's not in the coffee.

It's in you and it's not in you,

It is you.

And now self-knowledge shows you without a shadow of a doubt,

How you can recognize this in everyday life.

How come we look for happiness in things?

Because we've been trained,

We've been told,

You know,

Do this and get happy.

So we think ultimately to be happy we have to do something.

But to be conscious right now,

Do I need to do anything?

Nothing.

To be existing right now,

Anything we need to do?

Effortless.

Nothing.

To be the happiness right now,

To be the peace,

Joy,

Fulfillment itself right now also,

Nothing needs to be done.

All that needs to be done is we need to remove our ignorance and that's all that's standing in the way of us being happy.

Attributing our happiness to everything else in the world,

Everything is making us unhappy,

Miserable.

If you are feeling miserable it's because you are making a mistake of attributing happiness to something in the world.

And once you understand the true nature of yourself as the happiness itself,

As the joy,

The peace,

Everything itself,

Contentment itself,

Then if you find yourself having a problem in the world then you are the problem.

There can be no other problem.

Okay?

But until such time as we recognize that and understand that,

Our true nature is nothing but peace,

Nothing but joy,

Nothing but happiness.

We've got to keep on making that mistake.

It's impossible not to.

And this is why,

We get to the next stage of this little talk,

Journey,

This is why crisis in India has always been treated and held sacred.

Because only when we get into crisis do we actually question and are our minds open to listening.

Right.

So now the tradition in India is where this huge river,

The Mother Ganges,

They call it the Mother because it feeds all of India,

The Ganges River turns as though turning back on itself.

Where it turns the holiest cities are built.

Why where it turns?

Because it symbolizes that point in every human being's life where we turn within and question and wants to know what is this,

What is one doing here?

What is going on?

You know?

So the River Ganges hasn't got very far to turn.

It only has to turn as far as itself because being water itself it only has to turn back to get to understand its nature.

And the human being too,

Being the peace itself,

The completeness itself,

Only has to turn back as far as its nature.

And recognizing that nature as our true nature,

The crisis then draws to its logical conclusion.

And the only thing getting in crisis is what?

One thing,

I.

There's only one crisis on this planet.

Nothing else is in conflict.

Is the creation in conflict?

Where?

We saw that during the beginning of the whole lockdowns and COVID,

All the animals come out,

No problem.

Everybody's happy.

Everybody,

Everything's going on without any conflict whatsoever.

The only thing getting conflicted in this whole arrangement is the human being.

And there's only,

And in the human being,

There's only one thing that's getting us into conflict and that's our ignorance of one tiny little word called I.

Before we came into this existence,

Was the I word existing before or not?

It was already existing.

Yeah,

Everybody's been called I.

Does anybody know what it means?

What is this meaning of this word I?

First it comes I,

Then comes everything else.

The first I am,

Then comes all my names,

Qualifications,

Degrees,

Everything else,

Right?

But who's this I saying I am?

Okay.

This is where self knowledge comes,

Right?

When the person gets into a crisis and gets into personal conflict within,

Then the teaching answers the question for them.

The teacher who having had their questions answered for them by their teacher,

Who had his questions answered for him by his teacher,

Who did the same thing happened because of his teacher,

Et cetera,

Up the line of this whole lineage,

The teachings have continued.

Because experiencing,

Please get this,

It's extremely crucial,

Experiencing nothing else 24-7,

365 days a year,

But ourselves,

Right?

Experiencing nothing else but the universe,

365,

24-7.

Does anything in our experience,

Has anything in our experience told us anything about the nature of what we are experiencing?

Or has anything in the experience told us anything about the nature of ourselves?

The experiencer?

Nothing.

And nothing will.

Because as I said earlier,

We've only got five senses.

They're designed to give us all the information from the outside world back to the self.

There's no sense for self because imagine,

All the senses run hot and cold,

Right?

Imagine if your sense of self was running hot and cold.

How would that feel?

The self remains changeless.

If it was dependent on a self,

A sense of self,

Then it would keep on changing and it wouldn't be self.

It wouldn't be the changeless.

So in order to earn peace,

You need to earn your changeless,

Timeless nature.

And this teaching has been going on for who knows how long since man first questioned and got the answer to this dilemma that we find this mystery that we find ourselves in.

And this is the greatest mystery of the universe.

Can you believe that?

You are the mystery of the universe.

You are the secret,

The greatest secret that the creation has,

That it has yet to reveal to you,

Is the true nature of yourself.

It's mind boggling,

Right?

That all of us,

Until we get to this crisis where we start to question and want answers,

Right?

We are so like,

And now we're just oblivious to this question and to the great mystery of mankind.

The greatest secret of the whole creation is mankind.

We're the top of the food chain.

We are conscious of consciousness.

We are able to understand the nature of who we are as human beings.

We didn't come here into this creation to watch the Rolling Stones in concert,

You know what I mean?

Although it's great,

You know,

And we didn't come here to have great meals,

You know.

So when it's all over,

You go back to wherever you came from,

Wherever that may be,

Who knows,

You know,

And I'll say,

Oh,

Do you have a good time?

Yeah,

No,

I had some great times.

I had great meals.

I had everything was really cool.

I went on great journeys of travel that was,

Did some tourism,

Everything.

Is that what we came here for?

Is that all this is all about?

To have great tours and meals and see some great musicians,

Concerts and things?

No,

That's part and parcel of the whole thing.

So getting to know yourself,

Can you imagine how much you enjoy all of that?

No longer depending on it for happiness.

No longer depending on that for joy,

Completeness,

Fulfillment,

Knowing yourself as the completeness itself,

The fulfillment itself,

The joy itself in and through everything.

Right?

You're free to enjoy everything.

Nothing needs to be renounced ever.

You know,

This guy who sold the Ferrari,

The monk who sold the Ferrari,

Got to be a crazy guy.

I mean,

It's a great car,

What's the problem?

Right?

I'm being serious.

You don't have to discard anything to be yourself.

You already are the self.

And that's why the teacher and the teachings when the student comes in crisis to the teacher,

The teacher is so happy because he was exactly where you were.

Oh,

Ah,

Yeah.

So you can solve the problem.

It's the easiest thing in the world to solve if you know that the resolution of the whole I thought easy if it's been resolved for you,

Right?

And how difficult can it be?

So this is where the teacher and the teachings of self knowledge come in.

And this is where yoga goes but gets lost in all the practices.

You know,

Mantra and mantra and mantra.

I mean,

You tell you blue in the face,

You can mantra.

Yeah.

And the beauty is the thing that shining the light on the whole mantra is so funny.

Enabling you to do these things,

Enabling the practices,

Enabling all the stuff in the background.

Unseen,

Invisible is that which is the changeless in which everything appears to change the self.

Ever present,

Never a moment where it is not either real or absent.

The whole experience that we are experiencing,

Seeing,

Experiencing all the changes all throughout our lives,

Everything of outside us relative to the self is changing and changeable.

But the self in whose presence everything is experienced never changes.

Never.

If you look at the photo even of yourself right now,

Down to when you were a kid,

Something inside has never changed.

That's the self that we're talking about.

And this in the tradition of yoga and veda and vedanta and all the teachings of the veda,

The Vedas and the Vedanta Upanishads is called Atma.

And so this teaching is called Atma Vidya.

Knowledge of Atma,

Knowledge of the same the word I is the same as Atma,

Knowledge of the I.

Now who is this I?

I is the first name of the whole human race.

Everybody uses this word I to as their first name of address,

Right?

What is it?

Who is it?

That's the question.

So this is what we are doing in this little offering that we're doing online with a virtual ashram because we wanted everybody to come here to our ashram in South Africa,

But COVID put the planes down and prevented everybody from visiting us here to this beautiful place where you can't help but be with yourself.

So now we bring it into our own home in this online ashram offering,

Virtual ashram,

Where the teachings of Atma Vidya are going to keep on going.

We're going to have guest teachers from anyone.

We've got people from India coming in and doing all type of things.

So I think Rachel wants to fill you in on a bit of that.

But we'll finish off with the mantra quickly.

Just before we run into that,

We're running a bit over time.

Om Sahana Vavatu Sahana Bunaktu Sahabhi Vyam Karava Vahit Tejasina Vadita Mastu Mahavidhi Sahabhi Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti

Reviews

Beautiful reminder and so nice to hear your voice John.

great Yogi !!!