A Simple and Profound Introduction
to Self-Inquiry by Sri Mooji [Mooji] Om. Namaste. Welcome everyone to satsang today. And I'm actually very happy that
so many people felt to come today. What triggered today's satsang, was that a few days ago you were talking and I had mentioned the effectiveness, the potency, the directness,
the immediacy of self-inquiry as perhaps the most direct
and the most effective tool to the recognition of the Self, of what we are. And I'd said that nevertheless,
it seems elusive. It seems difficult to understand. And even in the days of Sri Ramana Maharshi, when he was present with us on this planet, even as great a teacher as he was and is, even his own disciples found it difficult to grasp the directness and the simplicity
and the power of self-inquiry. Now, there are many, many, many paths, maybe as many paths as there are seekers, into the realisation of the Truth. Why I say this is because in each one, even if a thousand people are practicing through the method of inquiry, or any other path, it will still be uniquely experienced through the instrument of each body. I don't want to bring too much of that, because I don't think it is so significant. I've tried somehow to present the inquiry
in the most simple way. Because, in fact, it is simple. And the Truth, what we are,
is not a teaching. What you are is not a teaching. What we are is not something
that we are going to create or develop. Teachings and methods may develop,
but what you are cannot develop. That is one of the fundamental pointers, that what you are is not an evolutionary outcome. It is timelessly, eternally perfect. This is not a belief. And by the time
we have spent some time together today, I hope most, if not all of you,
come to understand this, or have at least a better understanding
of what this self-inquiry is. I put it like, the inquiry is like a mirror. Just like you look in a mirror
and immediately you see your face, a reflection of your face.
The inquiry is a bit like that. It is like somehow looking
into the mirror of introspection, and seeing a reflection of your pure Being. You are not the one in the mirror! But the mirror enables you to both see, although it seems that your seeing is phenomenal, but at the same time, it's experienced here. Just like I see my hand there,
but where I perceive it is here, in me. Everything is inside of us. Now, human beings want to know
many things in the life, but ourselves we don't know. Why? Because we take for granted our self. That, 'I am me! I am me.' And what is that?
'Well, of course, it's me, here, me.' So OK. But this is your body.
Is your body saying, 'I am me'? Or is there something else, or more, inside the body that's saying, 'I am me'? And this which is saying, 'I am me', what is that? Now, of course, because we are so unused to ... we're not accustomed
to asking this kind of question. Because no one in our life
asks us this kind of question. Your parents don't ask you,
our friends don't ask, no institutions ask,
including religious institutions. Nobody asks you, 'Who are you?' So of course, it feels deeply, it's ... I call it the main assumption, we just assume that it is our body,
'I am my body, and my beliefs. And the conditioning that arose in my body
amounts to what I am.' But this has not proven to be enough, because with this belief,
we still struggle to be happy. We still struggle to understand who we are, what our purpose is, or whether we do have a purpose
or something like this. And what brought us here? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Is there a going place
after you finish this story in this body? Do you move on to something else? Because the body will fall. Then, is that it? Is that all there is to us? So these are ancient questions,
people have been asking like that. And we have many theories, we have many ideas about life, but few know. There are many beliefs, many doctrines, but few sort of know inside the heart. So in spite of so much study, so much effort, so much literature, so much philosophy,
so much religion, human beings still are at a loss as to who we fundamentally are. And it is not a knowledge
that you're going to have in your head. Whatever we have in our head, does not stay. Amnesia will take it away.
Something will take it away. Is there something that cannot be taken away?
That will not ... Even the body may get sick.
The mind also can get sick. Is there something that cannot get sick? The body can die.
The mind can become deluded and despondent, and in full despair, and we can go crazy. Is there something
that is not touched by any of this? So I felt, it was a good subject again to start in as simple a way as I could, to try and look a bit into this subject, and to ask you to participate with me in this exploration, not a lecture. And to look together,
to see what we can discover together, today! Because for some years,
I have been talking on this subject, it's the only subject I talk about. And still, some have not grasped it,
even in spite of many years. 'Not quite ...'
They kind of get it, but not really. So is it that we don't understand, because the subject is so complex? We don't understand, because you have to be
a very, very strong meditator? Do you have to have done the work
of a lot of spiritual background and exercises in the past to be eligible, to be a candidate for this freedom? And perhaps you have not done enough. Why is it difficult? And what is difficult? What is difficult? Because the subject, the whole quest is to come to a true and profound experiential understanding of what I am,
what you are. Why even do that? Why even bother? Until we do know, until we do know in the heart, we continue to be restless and dissatisfied, happy only momentarily. Mostly, pursuing one thing after another. Imagining that something will fulfil us, and finding after a short time, it does not. So I feel
it is a very crucial subject for exploring. It's the most important subject,
I feel, in the human kingdom, but of course, many may disagree. Some people may not even have
the slightest interest in this, at this moment. But at some point, life will compel you to look
beneath the surface, to find out, to get more out of this existence than merely material comforts
and human company, and so on. There must be something
much more profound than this. So where do we start now? I told you that
I did not do any preparation at all for this. As many of you will know,
that is very much my style. I can't prepare, I haven't prepared. It's fresh, you have to be fresh, to see. If I prepare something,
you may learn something. I've not been able to do this, even from my days of teaching at college, I was not able to prepare one class.
[laughter] So obviously,
I chose subjects that were not too mental. Art was my subject, which was more intuitive,
and more ... But still, even with the intuitive arts,
you need to do some preparation. And I got away with it for a little bit, and then after a certain point,
the requirements were so demanding, that it just ...
I had to drop the whole thing. [laughter] Something inside knew that life ... I could not be ...
Everything is spontaneous. It was not a belief, it was not an attitude,
I just could not help it. It had to be just, it has to be now.
Something is just now, it's fresh. It wasn't a philosophy, it wasn't a belief. It wasn't that I thought about it. I was just not able to function like that, to plan ahead, in any meaningful, deep, rigid way. The best I could manage
was to make some feeble sketches which themselves, I saw, went through innumerable changes before. So I feel the most truthful way
of encountering each other is to come fresh and empty. And then what happens, something else happens. Out of the spontaneity of us being together, we are in real time with the universe. Because the universe is not planning somewhere down there, down the road. It will produce seeds
that will take time to sprout, but it doesn't plan how those seeds will sprout. All of life is one thing. This is another thing that
you are going to find out. Not as a teaching, but as discovery. I don't know how much today. Today, I only want to focus
on the fundamental thing, on the basic thing. You don't need to know so many things. You just become confused.
You just need to know the right thing. The thing you need to know now. You don't need fifty keys to open one lock. You need the right key! Do you understand? You can have a thousand keys, and you'll just be a thousand times confused,
more lost. You just need the right key. So today,
I'm hoping that we have found the right key! To open what? The mystery of our own nature. So it sounds a huge thing, a huge, huge thing, but I say it's the most simple thing. One, why? Because what we are trying to find
is already here. It's the first thing, isn't it? What you are trying to find
is not somewhere in the next room, or in some divine vault waiting to be discovered. It is right here. It has always been right here! And what you are going to find
is that it didn't arrive here. It didn't arrive here, because it is infinite. Now, I am saying, it is infinite, but you are going to have to discover
if it is infinite or not. If I only tell you it is infinite,
and you only accept it's infinite, you are only parroting my words. You have to discover yourself that it is infinite. And I intend today to prove to you that it is so, and that you are That! So it's a big order.
I come to you like this today. [laughter] And we have to prove like this.
And also, I'm not prepared. [laughter] So let's see how it goes now. OK? Everyone speaks some language. Even deaf people have to learn some language. Everyone has a wide language
to communicate something. Everybody has to speak some language. In order for any language to be spoken, whether from a deaf person
who is doing this thing and this, or with words, or something to be spoken, something has to be there,
the first thing has to be there! The first thing of any language,
any language at all, the first thing that has to be there
is the sense 'I'. You must first have a sense that you exist, the one who wishes to communicate something. The first arising, the sense 'I', or the intuition, the feeling, the sense 'I am', the knowledge, 'I am', means 'I exist'. Only after, 'I exist' is formed
can the sense 'you' come. 'I' must arise before 'you'.
'You' cannot arise before 'I'. We are going to show you, 'I' must be there, because the sense 'you'
takes its meaning from 'I'. 'I' see 'you'. I cannot refer to 'you'
without having a sense of 'me', or 'I'. This is the fundamental thing. OK? You can try it. Try and speak without 'you'. Without the sense, 'Yes, what I want to do is ...' 'I am trying to tell you ...'
'What I believe ...' 'Where I went ...' 'What I think ...'
'I, I, I, I.' It's the subject
behind almost everything you say or think, not only say, but think. 'I am not feeling well today.'
'I am not able to come.' 'I think I've understood this
more closely than ...' 'I, I, I', 'I' must be there. Take any language.
Find the dictionary for this language. Thousands of words are there, but no one is more important than 'I'. None of them have any meaning without 'I'. At least the sense of who is speaking,
who is understanding. Again, it is myself, 'I'. That is the most important principle of language, of the sense of self-awareness. Even if no one else in the world exists, but you, you will be aware of yourself, you will be aware of the feeling,
'I exist', 'I am'. Even without the words, you would know you exist. This knowing that you exist
is the feeling, 'I am', inside the body. Where did you get this feeling, 'I am', from? Was it from your parents? Where did it come from? Your name you received from your parents. But no parent
has ever christened their child, 'I am' or 'I'. Nobody. OK? 'Let's call this baby George.'
'Let's call this baby Susan.' For a while, they are calling,
'Hello Susan, hello Susan', 'Hello Georgie, hello Georgie'.
This thing doesn't know, 'I am George'. It's just looking. It responds to feeling of warmth,
of love, of milk. It doesn't know it's called milk,
it doesn't know this is mother, it doesn't know this is father,
it doesn't know anything at all. But it is somehow naturally self-aware.
Soon, the sense begins to ... The consciousness is developing.
And the first development, it becomes aware of itself
in the form 'I', 'I am'. It doesn't say it.
The 'I am' is there before the words 'I am' come. The 'I am' is there as an awareness of yourself,
the sense 'I am'. That is the first knowledge,
that is the first knowledge. As I said before,
if nobody else on the planet was here, you will still know you are,
you will still have the feeling, 'I'm here'. If you woke up one day and there is no one, the whole planet has disappeared,
at least the people, you will say, 'Where did they go?' You won't say, 'Where did I go?' You will know, 'I am'. This 'I' is there. It witnessed the absence
or the presence of others. 'I' must be there. OK? I am keeping repeating this 'I', because it is the fundamental precept, the fundamental essence of language itself is 'I'. It's the one who speaks, the one who listens, the one who lives, the one who thinks, 'I die'. 'I go, I come, I sleep, I'm awake.'
'I, I, I, I.' 'I see you, I see your sister,
I see my mother, I see, I, I, I, I ...'
'I' is there. So as soon as the 'I' arises,
first, the form is there. The consciousness,
the consciousness which is the knowing capacity, has to develop sufficiently
to be aware of itself in the form 'I am'. Just 'I am'. When it believes this 'I am', it needs a body also, to feel, 'I am'. It needs a body to feel, 'I am'. As soon as the body comes, and the feeling 'I am', the feeling, 'I am this body' comes. The feeling, 'I am this body' comes. That's the second one.
Once it knows, 'I am this body', other knowledge can start to come on top. That is the root knowledge. Other knowledge, 'This is my mother',
'This is my father'. Otherwise, 'the father' has no meaning. The parents give birth to the child, but the child gives birth to the parents, also. Because until the child is born,
you were not a father, and you were not a mother. When the child comes,
then the mother comes, then the father comes. So this sense 'I' is fundamental. In each form,
the sense 'I am' must arise, the sense 'I'. Even if you cannot speak, the sense 'I am', meaning self-awareness, must be there. Then self-awareness believes, 'I'm a woman', because it's got a female body, 'I'm a man, I've got a male body'. The sense 'I am' is not the body. But when it believes it's the body,
then it believes it's the body type. The body type is male or female. It says, 'I'm a man', or, 'I'm a woman'. This is the beginning of concepts. Why? Because the 'I am' is not the body. The 'I am', you may say,
is a kind of intuitive knowingness, you may call it spirit,
you may call it the sense of being. It is not an object. It's a sense. It is actually consciousness
that is speaking like this. So this is the first thing. You cannot say, 'I am not'. Because to say, 'I am not',
you must be there to say, 'I am not'. OK? So we will come
to a bit more about these things. Now, if the sense 'I am' is not the body, and if it is not the body
and it is not other thoughts that come, like, 'I'm a girl, and girls wear pink,
and boys wear blue', and then, 'I go to school', 'My mother is this', 'My parents are Christians,
my mother is Christian', 'My father is Hindu, I am ...'
I don't know, what that is, whatever. This is the building of concepts. And with the building of ideas or concepts, the 'I am' which is none of them,
embraces the concepts. And an identity is formed out of this. And every identity is unique,
every identity is unique. All circumstances are unique. In the same way, you go to bed
and you dream a very unique dream that even someone you love,
your twin, or your beloved next to you, they can't share the same dream with you. Your dream is unique. In the same way, your perception of the waking life is unique, in the sense of how things feel for you,
how they taste for you. Some days you like something.
Sometimes you don't like the same thing. Nobody can control it. Somebody comes to you and they say,
'What temperature ...' Suppose you have someone, a good servant,
and they say, 'What temperature do you like your bath to be?' You say, 'I like it to be 38 degrees'.
'38 degrees.' Tomorrow they come, you say, 'It's too cold!' 'You said 38 degrees. It's 38 degrees.' You cannot be consistent about this thing! Because your body is changing,
your feelings are changing. So whatever you regard yourself to be,
even this cannot stabilise. Things are changing. Your moods change, your feelings change,
climate changes, people you are thinking of change. So nothing is so steady in this field. Yet, we seem to be living on one common earth.
One earth. Right now,
nearly 8 billion human beings are on this planet, and we all have the same one house. All of us are living
in the same one house called Earth. And it has to cater for all these
different ways of being, all these different ways of being. Now, let's come back to our point,
the sense, 'I am'. So the parents did not give it to you, nobody taught you the feeling 'I'. Where did it come from? It is synonymous with existence. It is the way in which consciousness, which is what we are fundamentally, this is the way that consciousness
announces itself in the body, the feeling, 'I am', 'I exist'.
It means, 'I exist'. If you don't exist, nothing exists for you. Only after this 'I exist' feeling comes,
then other things can come. The sense 'you' can come,
world can come, life can come, time comes, change comes, all of this comes. You are the witness of them. They all report to you, to your consciousness. It is you who perceives them. But one thing went missing. It's that we forgot how important we are
to our perceiving. Everything depends upon your perception. Everything depends upon the way you perceive them. That is how important you are. You feel that you study and learn many things, and you believe or disbelieve many things. But in the end,
you are experiencing a world according to you, according to your conditioning,
what you believe it is. Let's just take a second. We say 'I', we say 'I'. 'I think', 'I believe',
'I want', 'I do', 'I don't do', 'I accept', 'I don't accept'. 'I, I, I, I, I.' Then I ask you, What exactly is 'I'? If you answer me with anything I tell you, like 'I am consciousness', if you try it, 'I am consciousness', you may say the words, 'I am consciousness', and from the point of view of words and language,
it is correct, yet it is not true for you, yet. It's just words. Very often it's just words. 'I am George.' What does it mean, 'I am George'? Who the hell is George? 'I am George.' What does it mean, 'I am George'? 'I'm Susan.' What is Susan? It's just a name. The 'I am' is there even before the name comes, because without the 'I am consciousness',
the name has no meaning. It's the, 'I am consciousness'
that accepts any name. You can change your name. You can change even your belief, your religion, your country,
you can change your partner, you can change many things. But something fundamentally
remains unchanged in you. We want to find out what that is. Not intellectually, but experientially,
we need to find this out. Because until we do,
we are feeling that we are restless. You imagine something is going to make you happy, but after a short while,
it doesn't make you happy. You look for something else to make you happy. And everything is only for a time,
and everything is only in time. I can say, in a way, that we are three-aspected. The physical aspect of our self is this body. The body was born in time, lives in time,
and departs in time. That aspect of ourself, you may say like this, has a birth, has a life, has death. You may say this thing. Mind also, the sense of mind, there is no thing such as just mind. Mind is only a relationship of yourself which is consciousness, or the beingness, with thought together, or identity. That is also in time.
That is also belonging to time. And that is also not stable,
it is always changing. That from where the body and the mind emerge, like a tree emerging out of a seed, that from where they come, the seed of them,
we call the pure Self. This is the goal or the aim
of all spiritual seeking. To find where you come from, your Source. Most seeds, as soon as they germinate,
the seed is finished. It starts to become something else. The difference with the Self is that when it germinates into a living being,
it does not change. It remains the Source. [silence] If we learn anything, whatever we have learnt, or believe,
came after the 'I', after the 'I' thought, the 'I' concept, the first arising, the first born. It is referred to as consciousness
or the dynamic consciousness, the creative consciousness. That creative consciousness comes out of a deeper consciousness which does not do anything. It simply is. It just is. It's not a doer. It simply is. That is the ultimate discovery
of all spiritual striving. It is to discover the 'What Is', that you may call the Absolute,
the ultimate principle, the Supreme Being, God, you can call it like that. And what is our relationship with this God? Are we only the creation of this high God? Do we have more of a status within this God? Are we simply a part of the God? Are we one with the God?
Are we as great as the God? We have to find it out. Today. How are we going to do it now? Because the belief is there, because the fundamental belief is there, first 'I am', and then the 'I am' splits
into, 'I am the body'. The 'I am' sense exists by itself,
it does not need anything. But it's as though it is compelled by some power to identify with the body, identification with the body
makes room for other thoughts to come. Other thoughts, plus the 'I am the body' idea create the sense of an individual, a person. And because the body is growing, and the conditioning and the experiences
are changing, we have a sense of growth, and we feel that we are living,
growing, evolving, an evolutionary being, like this. But there is another dimension inside us
which is not growing. Growth takes place in it,
and is perceived in it and by it, but does not affect it. This is why
you are able to perceive subtle things. And you are going to see that you are perceiving, and have the capacity to perceive a lot broader
than we presently do. Everything that you see,
even the most subtle things, like there are thoughts and sensations
which have no name yet, but you perceive them. Because of the subtlety of consciousness
you perceive them. There are some feelings that you are not able to really put any name to them,
you are the perceiver of them. Subtle thought, sensation, imagery, feeling, projections, discriminative powers, the power to discriminate
between fantasy and actuality, all these things, a capacity nobody taught you, it simply arose within your own consciousness. This is the marvelousness of the consciousness, the root consciousness. The root consciousness is there, whether it is identified with the body, and the body's characteristics or conditioning, or not. One of the great steps of spiritual discovery is when we are able to recognise the sense 'I am' without combining it
with any other thought or feeling. It's as though you sieve it out, and so only the feeling 'I am' remains without connecting with other concepts. But because this was begun
early in the childhood of one life span, it seems very strongly
embedded in the consciousness that 'I'm the body', 'I'm a woman', 'I'm a man'. In the beginning, for many people,
there is no aspiration, there is no desire to go beyond this belief, which seems like it's an unchallenged fact,
that, 'I'm a woman'. It seems sometimes more loud than
'I am consciousness'. But first you had to be consciousness, before you had the thought you're a woman
or you're man. Do we understand this or not? OK.
[Sangha] Yes. [Mooji] Before any understanding came, the first understanding must be,
'I am', 'I exist'. No other knowledge is more important than the conscious knowing, 'I am'. Only when the ideas, 'I am the body', 'I'm a man',
and so on come, along with our cultural conditioning, our religious conditioning, political conditioning, comes the pressure to perform according to our cultural norms and traditions,
and so on. So the first, the most important thing, is to understand what this 'I am' is, because it's not enough that you say, 'I am'. Everyone says, 'I am',
but few understand what 'I am' is. And it feels,
'Why do I need to understand?' And the reason why we ask,
'Why do I need to understand?' is because it feels sufficient enough
that I know, 'I'm a man', 'I'm a woman'.
What more do we want from life? 'I know I'm a man, I never question, I never doubt if I'm a man, if maybe I'm a woman.' 'Why should I say, "Who am I?"
Why would I even bother with this?' So this question is not going to have
universal appeal in the beginning. It's only somewhere along the line, even with many religious and spiritual people
practicing for many years, it may not be a path that they're aware of. They still feel, 'I am a servant of God',
'I'm a pilgrim', 'I am a Muslim', 'I'm a Christian'.
They use the same 'I am'. And we say, 'I'm a Christian', 'I'm a Muslim', 'I'm Hindu', 'I'm atheist', or so on.
But what does it really mean? 'I am' is what?
Because most people, they don't understand. They say, ''I am' is me, the person,
I am is the person, me'. 'I am a Christian.' 'I'm a Muslim.'
And it seems it's enough. Why would we go further than this?
Isn't that enough of a fact? Isn't it enough of a fact to say, 'I'm a Jamaican,
I'm 42 years old, I'm this thing'? Because it's accepted everywhere.
It's your credit card. It's accepted everywhere.
No one ever challenges it. But it is put now, when you say 'I', what do you take your 'I' to be? Because as I said before,
it is written, God says, 'I am'. 'I am.' But the devil also says, 'I am'. The ego also says, 'I am'.
Even a mosquito believes, 'I am'. Everything feels ... Life says, 'I am', inside the form, or something like that. So we are just trying to see which 'I am' are you speaking from,
when you say, 'I am'. And if you listen keenly,
you will see almost always, go to any restaurant, sit down quietly, listen to conversations,
'I did this ... Blablablah.' And see, when people speak as 'I',
what are they referring to? And you will soon see, it is, 'I am this body', 'I'm this person', 'I'm my conditioning'.
That is as far as we go. It will not be enough to recognise the Truth
on such flimsy, flimsy assumptions. It's very important to understand
what 'I am' actually is, experienced inside this body,
when you say, 'I am'. And we are going to go now into that. I want you first to understand the difference
between an assumption ... because mostly,
we are learning from second-hand concepts that are handed down to us,
that we've never challenged. Like a child can learn to speak a language
without understanding what the meaning really is,
just by growing up in that environment. We use words, we have a sense of what they mean. We have a sense of when you say 'I',
what it means. 'It means 'me'!' And no one looks further into this 'me' sense. What is 'me', who am I? Again, why? Because nobody wants to know, particularly. If you look deeper than that,
people think you are a freak. If you look more deeply than, 'Who are you?' 'I'm ... My name is so and so and so. I ... I'm a 23-year old woman from Brazil. I studied here, at this academy. I did this ... Blablablah.
And I am applying for this job.' Nobody goes further than this to question you. This is all you need, this is your password
to be a visible being in this world. To enter the game of transacting, and interacting with other beings, it's only enough to know your gender,
date of birth, study, what you've done and experience. It's enough. Here, we are perceiving more deeply. When you say 'I', what does it mean?
And this is the birth of inquiry. The inquiry looks at, when we all say 'I', what is the implication of 'I'? It is not merely a mental study
or a mental exploration, or psychological, or intellectual. It is a research, an exploration
into the living Truth of what we are. Now, let's start with a simple exercise. If someone came and said, 'Excuse me, there is a Volkswagen car
parked outside here. Would the owner please remove it? Whose car is it?'
Somebody may say, 'Oh, sorry, it's mine'. You will not say, 'It's me'.
You will say, 'It is mine'. You will not say, 'It is me'.
There is a clear difference. It belongs to me. You use the word 'mine'. 'Mine' is related to 'I'.
'Me' is also related to 'I'. It belongs to me. 'Mine' means 'it belongs to me'. 'My', 'mine'.
You can also say, 'This is my family'. 'My family', not 'me'. Not 'me', 'my family'. 'They are connected with me,
they belong to me, my family.' You can say, 'My body is tired'. 'My', not 'me'. You follow? 'My body was exhausted.' So something is aware of the body and exhaustion. It is not the body, and It is not exhausted. It says, 'The body is exhausted'.
It says, 'My body was exhausted'. So again, 'My', 'I'. What is saying, 'My body'? It can also say that, my sight in this eye,
in the left eye is not very strong. It's very weak. It's functioning at about 60%. In the right eye it's about,
I would say, 85 percent. So it observes the sight even. It knows the strength of sight,
or the weakness of sight. It is not the sight. It says, 'My sight
is not as good as it used to be'. It also can say,
'My memory is not as good as it used to be'. It is not memory. It knows memory.
It observes memory. It says, 'I used to be able to remember every person's name here, if I'm told it. For one year, I would not forget the names. Now, I can't remember even two or three.' It knows memory and the abilities of memory. If memory has faded, it observes memory,
'my memory'. You follow me or not? OK? OK. So memory it is not. Senses it is not.
Family it is not. 'This is my religion.' 'My religion', not 'me'. 'My chosen religion' or whatever. OK? Some people say, 'My ego is very strong'. 'My' ego, not 'me'. What is this 'me'? 'My ego', not 'me'. Who is speaking? 'My ego', not 'me'. OK? 'My relationship is not flowing very well
at the moment. We had a beautiful relationship six months ago. But now it's just completely falling apart.'
Relationship I am not. 'Oh, my life is over, my life is over. Because my husband has left me,
and my children are gone. My life is ...' 'My life.' Who speaks, 'My life is over'? I am not over! 'My life as it's conceived as whatever shape, that is probably going to change.' And somebody says,
'Come on George' or 'Come on Susan'. 'Why do you speak like that? You are only speaking from an emotional state.
It's not true.' 'But, OK,
my emotions are a bit like that.' Emotions you are not, 'my emotions'. I am not emotions, also. What is left now? 'Oh, my breathing is very heavy.'
[breathing heavily] 'My heart is beating very strong.'
[breathing heavily] 'My heart', not 'me'. 'My emotions',
'I'm a very emotional kind of person. My emotions are like this.' 'My emotion', you are not emotion. 'My breath [breathes heavily] is getting weaker.'
OK? 'Hospital! I have to get an appendix operation.' They put the gas, 'I'm breathing. I see, I [mimics inhaling anesthetic]
am losing consciousness. I am watching consciousness go.'
Who is 'I'? Who is 'I' when any of these, I can say, I am not? They depend upon me. I am the witness of them. I am the seeing. I am the witness of them.
They are not witnessing me. I am looking at my hand.
My hand is not looking at me. 'This is my autobiography', not 'me'. So we go through everything, not merely the body, not the vital force, not the breathing, not the senses,
not intellect, not memory. 'My mind, my mind creates a lot of fantasies.' Fantasy, create, mine. Not me. Who is 'me'? So for a moment,
leave all these that you say belong as 'mine'. 'My house burnt down! It is no more.'
Am I burnt down? Who am I?
Now, looking at all these things, my life, my dreams, my future, my past, 'I don't have a good past. I had a troubled past.' Past, time, all of these are not me.
I am the witness of them. So let's leave them all aside for a moment. What remains is the sense 'I' or 'I am'. Take a moment. Feel this sense, 'I am'. [silence] Does it have gender? Does it have past?
Does past stick to it? When it says, 'Oh, the past is gone', 'Oh, I don't have any future now,
my future is gone', whatever we speak, emotions,
relations, philosophy, memory, intellect, breath, heartbeat,
all these you perceive. You who are perceiving all of these,
what are you made of? You are not your body. Some people were born as a boy
and got converted into a girl later. Some feel that they are different orientations,
they perceive that. You are not that. Who are you here? Don't imagine now.
You already said imagination you are not. That which is aware of imagination, or actuality,
what actually are you? Something is here, isn't it? Something is here. But it's a kind of 'something-nothing'. Does anybody feel somehow disturbed
by this looking? Yes. Pass this microphone behind for me. Behind. [Questioner 1] What I observed just before, it's like a ping-pong ball inside, I see that something wants to attach to something. Search, search, search, search. 'Tsu-tsu-tsu ...' [Mooji] Something is going,
'Ting-tong, ting-tong, ting-tong'. But you are not going,
'Ting-tong, ting-tong'. You are watching, 'Ting-tong, ting-tong'. But you are not, 'Ting-tong, ting-tong'. Isn't it? Put anything there. Let anything come. And you'll see that it is only a movement inside your mind or consciousness. It's only a movement. What makes a difference
is how significant you take that movement to be. If you say, 'Wow, man, this is so ...
Oh, look at ... Oh, no.' Then you see, right there, what we are doing is creating a relationship with that,
and personalising it. When you personalise something, it seems to bring it much more intimately, it seems to make it more true for you. It's not necessary to personalise. You can perceive, and, in fact, the truest perception
is non-personal or impersonal. Because you simply are aware. But if you don't embrace it personally,
if you don't say, 'Why is this happening to me?',
it's simply happening. And emotions are involved in it, but you stay as the 'I'
that witnesses all of this. What is happening to the witness? The habit is to say,
'Something is happening to me'. Or, 'This is too much for me.
I can't take anymore of this.' Who is speaking? Who is speaking when this thing happens? Somebody comes and says, 'Listen'. You thought you had cleared up all your bills, and they call you again and say,
'Listen, I'm sorry, but we can't accept this last cheque'. And you say, 'I've just had enough!
I can't cope with all of this!' Now, we can say that, and it means nothing. It's just letting off some steam.
'I've just had enough of this!' OK? 'Huuhh, good.' OK. 'So what are you going to do now?
Jump off a bridge?' 'No, no. I just had to say that.' [laughter] OK? But another one, 'I've had enough,
I've had enough!' [imitates jumping] So it just depends on the strength
of how deeply it is believed. Because when it is believed,
it creates a sense of a 'me', and makes this 'me' feel really real. Simply even that state,
even if it's a very, very emotional state, a very strong state, it is also observed. Now there's a strong feeling here. Now the feeling is getting weaker. Just like you feel a toothache is coming,
'Aah, ohh!' And it gets very strong. Then you take some aspirin, then it goes. All the while you know, 'I am not that toothache'. Even though it is strong.
Then it goes, it's gone. It's not you. If it was you, when it was gone,
you would be gone. But you witness the coming, the strength of it, the weakness of it, the disappearance of it. And everything is like that. Who is 'I'? Again, we come back to 'I'.
Now, look again. What is 'I'? Now, because of habit, we are accustomed to feeling,
'The 'I' is me, person'. Again, you go back to the old formula,
'I am this person. I'm the daughter of so and so. You are only my cousin, you're not my sister.' All of these are concepts. But deeply believed in,
they are lived as though they are truths. And for many people,
they don't care whether it's true or not. They just ... They live in the feeling of it. The feeling is enough. But those who are searching for what is true, I have given you a simple exercise. If you are the witness of all of this, of your breath, of your form, gender, your height, your weight, your belief, your education, your preferences, your family, your thoughts, your attachments, your projections and see, 'But all of these are interchangeable. If I take any of these out, I am still here. If I take any of these out, I am still here. If I take all of them out, I am still here.'
Who is here? Now, you may say,
'My existence is here, my body is here, my life'. Yes, because at some point, the consciousness that is supported by the body, if the vital functions or the body dies, the consciousness will have to leave the house, it won't stay in a dead house. I just want to come to this point. Are you having a sense now, that you are not merely the object of the body? Does anybody have any query about this one? OK, over there, what do you want to say? And be quick with this. Just pass it on. [Questioner 2] There's something that still feels that when this body goes, I will go.
[Mooji] That's OK. That's OK for the moment. It's a feeling. 'When this body ... I'll go.'
You may or may not know. We are not deciding that now. Who are you while your body is still here? [Q.2] Something is stuck on,
'After the body goes'. [M.] That is to do with some kind of fear. 'When the body goes, what will still be left?' Let's find out
who you are while the body is here. Then we'll see if we can find out
who you are when the body is not here. Now you are here, the body is still warm, we can carry out this type of exercise
and find out. Let's see what you actually can experience,
not just believe now. It's not enough that you simply believe or accept. But what are you seeing?
What are you experiencing inside? You say, and we talked about it, you can perceive the functions of the senses,
the mind, the body, the vital force, all of these things. The world coming and going,
all these things coming and going. Sleep coming, sleep going,
dream coming, dream going, waking state coming, waking state going. Who are you? I don't want just a mental answer,
'Yes, I am the consciousness'. Because it's just words. It has to be somehow informed by actual seeing, when something really has been understood. There's a difference
between an intellectual understanding and understanding really opening up,
flowering inside you. So we've come again to this place,
'I see all of this'. Who am I? Who are you? Please now, take a look. Don't imagine. Anything you imagine will also come and go. The one who imagines is what? Who are you? Who perceives imagination? Feel. What is actually here? Are you something tangible? Are you this body? Is it clear for anybody? Is it clear for someone here that,
'I cannot be merely my body'? Is it clear for anybody here?
[Sangha] Yes. [Mooji] Yes, yes. OK. If I am not the body, then, what can I be? Look. Don't go into the mind
and start to speculate now. I don't want speculation. It's enough what we have looked at
and how we have looked so far. It's enough to give you a next step. Then what really is here,
if I'm not the body only? Maybe the body allows me to make this inquiry, allows me to talk about it. I need a mouth to talk about it. OK? But what really am I? Look. Do I have a form? Am I particularly a woman? Or particularly a man? Is this fundamental to me? 'Me' is what? Who am I? Something tangible or intangible? And don't imagine. Simply look. Feel. Any sensation that comes in consciousness, if it's a thought or a feeling,
you must be there to perceive it. It is secondary, you are primary. Thoughts come, feelings go. Notice, often we are reporting about a thought, 'This thought is getting more loud', 'This thought is so strong, Mooji', 'This thought is really about the past'. Why are you talking?
Because you are getting involved in it. It's just floating by. You are aware of that. But rather than looking
at what is being viewed in front, try and keep your attention
on who you are who is perceiving it. Who or what are you that is perceiving it? Do you have a size? Can I ask you now? Do you have a particular size
or a particular shape? Do you have a particular size
or a particular shape? What are you? Are you an object? I want to see some of the new faces.
Are you an object? Can you see? You cannot. Objects you can perceive.
But can you be perceived? Objects you can perceive. And by objects,
I don't mean just a table and a light. I'm talking about objects
in terms of thought and feelings, also. They have some sense of tangibility about them. You can see whether they are bitter or sweet. This is what I call objects.
Are you yourself an object? And why not? Why are you not an object like other objects? You see people, different shapes, different forms, different races, from different countries. OK? If you are not the body, who are they?
[laughter] Take it in, take it in. Look. Inside this body, where are you particularly? And as what? Do you look like your face?
[laughter] [silence] [Questioner 3] I don't feel I'm a body,
I can see beyond that, and this presence. But still, there is some feeling
that it needs to be protected. And in order to do that,
I have to separate myself. [Mooji] OK, stop for a second. If you are not the body, what needs protecting? [Q.3] I know.
[M.] No. Don't say you know. We're not going to sweep over anything today. I want you to look clearly, so that we stop speaking things
that we're not clear about. Are you clear, some of you,
that you are not merely the body? That's not cursing the body, not telling you to harm the body,
or that it's not important. I'm saying that it's not fundamentally
what you are. It's not the body saying, 'I am George!' What is saying, 'I am George'?
What is saying it then? You say that there's a feeling inside, like, 'Do you know who you are talking to?' You are speaking with someone,
'Do you know who you are talking to? How dare you talk to me like this?' So who are you exactly? Who is speaking this? [Q.3] I know it's just some identification
that is still there, and I try to identify what it is identified with. But if I go through that,
it's too much understanding, I'm not going to really grasp what's this, and ultimately, I go to this one which ... [Mooji] But you're speaking
still using the word 'I'. Do you have a license to use this 'I'? You are using it very freely. 'I', 'I try to look at who's the one
who's doing that, but I find it's too difficult.'
'I, I, I.' 'I' again. I have to try to catch every 'I'
that you're speaking. 'I' try to see who is actually doing these things, but I just find it's too complicated for me.' You being what? Who is speaking? Listen, first of all, I'm not leading you
towards any state of confusion. I'm only showing you
how confused you are anyway. [laughter] And then to bring you back
to a place of real sanity. The only reason
why you are not aware that you're mad is because everybody else is mad.
[laughter] Because we don't know who we are. But it's just like a whole village that's mad elects a mayor and a psychoanalyst
out of the mad people. I'm just saying like this, I'm making a bit of a joke about it, because we're maybe getting too serious,
I don't know. But we don't question this, because we may feel, 'I'm getting more confused'. The fact is that we are confused, but it's just that we're happily confused,
for a long time. Because when everybody is confused,
we can just hide. We can just keep making out that we are together,
we're really together. So at least sometimes
coming into a state of confusion is part of growing out of confusion. Just to show that the ground
that we have been standing on is not quite the ground. We are going to pass this
to show you your true ground. And no one can make you ungrounded
when you see the true ground. [Q.3] Yes. This ground seems, appears,
as if it's falling away. After a while of being out of this context,
and this environment that is constantly pointing to, 'What am I really?' Because there is still something not grounded, or it's still interested. Even though I cannot exactly identify
what that is, but ... [Mooji] OK. Before we go too far,
because if you go too far, it's going far further into confusion. [Q.3] Anyway, I'm here now.
[Mooji] Yes. But you are aware that when you are not here sufficiently
in a physical way, that there's something that comes back
that feels a bit ungrounded, and a kind of 'ungroundedness', and so on,
and then that is believed. Now, this 'ungroundedness' that you may feel, there is an awareness of this 'ungroundedness'. What happens is that
you are too much believing in what you see. Wait. You are believing too much in what you see. And you are interpreting with the old mind, with the old regime of thinking. A feeling is there like, 'I don't feel grounded'.
And it's believed. But, 'I don't feel grounded'
is only a thought being perceived. That which is perceiving
the 'ungroundedness' thought, is that ungrounded?
Does it need to be grounded? You must experience your discovery and affirm it! I am going to show you that
no thought can destabilise you. No thought, no concept can destabilise you
except if you believe in it. Because you are there before any concept came. Concepts came subsequent to you. You are not a concept.
You are the witness of them. So if you feel,
'This thought just confused me', that is also a thought, believed in. It is the believing in it
and the identifying with it that gives it that potency. Now, I want to know if we can finish
this part of the lesson or not. Otherwise I won't proceed. Yes, come. Come. [Questioner 4] Hello.
It seems that the sense of 'I am', either in feeling
or in any other way seems very weak. So there is still a sense to it, but it seems a weak sense of 'I am'. [Mooji] Who or what witnesses
the weakness of 'I am'? [Q.4] Yes.
[Sangha] Yes. [Mooji] Who or what is witnessing
the weakness or the strength of the sense 'I am'? [soft laughter] [Q.4] That seems also weak.
[M.] Who witnesses that that is also weak? [M.] Who is the witness?
What is witnessing that even that is weak? [Mooji] Is it after the 'I am'
or before the 'I am'? [M.] Is it looking back at the 'I am' to say, 'You're a bit weak over there!' Or is the 'I am' in front of it? And it's saying, 'The 'I am' itself is weak'? This has to be clarified. We are not going to leave any blind spot. Because we do this, it's how the mind works. It just brushes over something,
and says, 'OK, go, go'. But I want you to stop,
because these are fundamental pointings. There are not many,
but it is crucial that you understand them. You say something,
that the 'I am' itself feels weak. What do you mean by the 'I am'? And who are you who is looking at it?
Are you strong? And the 'I am' itself, does it have any quality,
to be seen to be weak or strong? In order for something to be weak or strong, it must be measured against something else. In what way can the sense 'I am' be weak? Do you mean it is weak by the sense of perception, that you are not perceiving it clearly enough,
so it seems weak? Or that within itself it has no muscle,
it's just a kind of 'I am'. What? [M.] What does it mean, 'It's weak'?
[Q.4] The perception of it seems weak. [Mooji] Perception seems weak.
And the perceiver is what strength? [Mooji] The perceiver of the perception, [Mooji] that which is aware
that even the perceiving is weak. [Mooji] Come, you have to do this,
or I close up the evening and I go and watch some TV. [M.] I want to know from you,
what is there to say that it is weak? In what way is it weak? What is 'I am'? Make sure that the 'I am' is the 'I am' itself, not something maybe being created or imagined. [Sangha friend] Something has the idea
that it has to be strong. [Mooji] So there's an idea
that the 'I am' should be strong. OK? There's an idea that the 'I am' should be strong. Whose idea is it? [Q.4] For me it's more like
the presence of 'I am' should be strong, [Q.4] a strong presence.
[Mooji] OK. I see. OK. This I understand, what you mean. The sense 'I am'
should feel more strong in the body. At present, what feels more
strong than 'I am' in the body? [Q.4] The person.
[M.] 'The person.' Thank you. The person feels stronger
only because the person is more loud. The person feels stronger,
because the person is more loud. The person, actually, is the sense of attachment, first of all to the body, and to the identity, and the importance the identity
has become to the consciousness that perceives the identity. The person also is consciousness, but it's a very contracted, very conditioned, very limited expression of consciousness. It's full of self-belief and desire,
and attachment, 'I want this! This is important to me.' 'Why did I lose my house?'
'Why did this thing happen to me?' 'I don't trust God anymore.
I don't believe in any God anymore.' It has a lot to say. And it seems somehow
to be stronger than the 'I am'-ness. Does the 'I am'-ness need to have an effect? The only thing that can happen is that, either something feels strong,
because it's full of history, it's full of adventure, it's full of intention, full of desire, full of attachment.
So therefore it's loud. OK? That's one form of strength. Or something is so totally empty of any intention,
any identity, so that it is not a flavour that keeps changing. Flavours can change in front of it,
but it is unchanging. And it is strong, because it is unchanging. Either something is strong,
because it keeps changing, and keeps going, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' like this. Or it's strong because it never changes.
It is steady. And it witnesses the movement,
but itself is unmoving. So who is to determine what strength is? You must define what you mean by strength.
Is strength loudness? Or is it that the loudness of the mind
creates a sense of confusion, dissatisfaction, pain also,
rather than credibility? Just because a thing is loud
doesn't mean that it's more real than the thing which does not fluctuate,
which is always steady. What is the criteria for saying
something is real or not real? [Q.4] Its unchangingness.
[M.] 'Its unchangingness.' Very good. Is the person unchanging? No. The person is always changing. If the person is always changing,
can it be said to be a thing? What is the shape of an amoeba? It's more like a verb than a noun. And it is being witnessed by something. It is witnessed by the unchanging. Because if everything is changing,
who gauges what is changing most? Only the thing which is unchanging
perceives correctly the amount of change that is being perceived. So it is from the state of the unchanging,
which is the 'I am' sense, which is not combined with anything, that you can perceive
the changefulness of the person, and then something says,
'The person seems more real'. Why does it say, 'More real'?
Because it's more active? [Q.4] It seems to catch all the attention. [M.] Because it catches the attention more. [Sangha friend] It observes
this movement of attention. The person, coming from inside ... [Mooji] Yes. Hold on, hold on!
I'm hot at the moment. Please, stay with me, look. Because of the amount
of the attention that goes to it. [Mooji] OK?
[Sangha] Yes. [Mooji] Because attention
is one of your great powers. 'Your', not 'you'. Your great powers. Where attention goes, it feels like,
'That's my experience'. OK? Attention is very powerful! OK? But something is able to observe attention. So attention goes to the person. So the person is said to be more real,
meaning it's more loud. The attention going to the person,
is that not also seen? [Sangha] Yes.
[Mooji] This is what I want you to do. You are still in the process of your inquiry. The attention is going, now even attention goes, and something is not gone.
It observes attention going. Sometimes people say, 'I could not keep
my attention fixed on this thing. It kept going off somewhere else.' So something witnesses the attention going off. Is this thing going off?
This is all I want you to do. Keep staying here! Keep staying in the place
that's not going somewhere. And you'll see that everything else
is going somewhere, including the attention.
Attention is one of your secret, great powers. The next great power is the power to believe. And another power is the power
to identify with something. You are that which is aware of this. 'I can see that something is believing
in all of this.' [Mooji] You are still unmoved. [Q.4] Mooji, it seems that I am the attention. I seem to be ...
That it's me, the attention. [Mooji] But then, if you were the attention, and the attention moved,
who would know the attention moved? [Q.4] It seems like that sometimes. [Mooji] Yes. You need to check it out!
It's a seeming, not a truth! The attention goes there. Now, you witness that the attention goes there, but something says, 'If the attention goes there,
that is really strong, it makes it very strong.'
To make it very strong means make it very real. These are beliefs, they are not truths. You are the witness of the attention, there is a power here that's unmoved. Attention is creating a big party over there, with the identity and the person,
but something here is unmoved by it. If there is disturbance,
it's because there's a belief, 'I don't like this, please stop it!'
And it's not stopping. But there's a strong belief, 'I want it to stop!' And yet it is not stopping.
So then disturbance comes. If this is flapping here, and the attention is kept only in the awareness, at a certain time, the power will stop going there and just stay with the stillness. When the attention can stay with the stillness, the movement will fall away. [Questioner 5] Guruji,
is that not exactly what inquiry is? [Q.5] When you don't inquire, you are in it. [Mooji] There comes a time
when inquiry has really hit the jackpot. Meaning that it is now totally clear. You have used the mirror to see where you are, to see your face. Once you have really seen your face, you don't have to walk around
with the mirror in your pocket. [Questioner 6] [inaudible] [Mooji] You feel like
you're moving in all the room. Yes. [Q. 6] Everything is happening in me. [Mooji] Yes, he says,
'I feel like I'm moving in all of this room, and everything is happening in me'. [Q.6] Even the 'I am' presence
is coming and going. [Mooji] 'And even the "I am presence"
is coming and going.' [M.] But the 'I am' presence itself
is watching the things going. [M.] The sense of being is coming and going. [M.] When the sense of being is gone,
what remains? [Q.6] Nothing. [Mooji] When the sense of being is here,
what remains? [Q.6] It's nothing. [Mooji] It's not any different. The sense 'I am' is coming and going. We have come into the point,
from the person perspective, 'I am doing this',
'I want this to be my life'. 'I, I, I.' And seen that this 'I'
is mostly made up of belief, conditioning and false identity; it is limited. The consciousness by nature wants to be free. Nobody taught it to be free,
it just naturally wants to be free. Just like when you're feeling unwell, you don't need a doctor to tell you,
you should feel well. You know within your own self
that you feel unwell, and you naturally want to be well.
You don't need education for that. In the same way, the consciousness
naturally knows itself to be free. When it is bound, it can only be bound because it purchases
some idea from the psychological mind that it's not really bound, it is just particular. And it likes
the 'particularness' of being a person. It likes the sense of privacy. It likes that,
'Nobody can know what I'm thinking'. It likes the fact that it can achieve and be somebody special by being a person, for a while, until it wears that out. Then it says,
'No, this game is a bit too weak for me now. I want something more strong.'
Then it maybe can look. [Questioner 7] Sorry,
going back to the attention thing. [Mooji] She says,
'Going back to the attention thing'. Yes. [Q.7] I feel it's like I know that I'm lost,
and I lost the attention inside. [Mooji] She said,
'I know that I lost the attention inside'. [Q.7] Not at the same time, just a bit after. [Mooji] Yes. 'Not at the same time,
but just a bit after.' [M.] OK. 'Just a bit after I realised
the attention was straying.' [Q.7] In that moment
I was lost in a thing with the persona. Then you realise, 'I've been identifying'. But in that same moment, you were not ... [Mooji] Yes. But only after the fact is there the recollection that,
'I was not being present! I was going off with my ...
The attention had gone off somewhere.' Does it mean then,
that you always have to be consciously conscious? [laughter]
You always have to be consciously conscious. Because if you have to be consciously conscious,
you'll be tired. So it must be
something more subtle than that. I would say, This is OK in the beginning,
once we are beginning to look, and you see, 'Wait a minute,
I can see that the attention is going off'. I'm asking you to pay attention
more to the thing which is not going off. As you start to pay attention to that
which is not going off, not coming and going,
then you will not lose energy in noticing it. Because it doesn't exhaust energy. It takes a lot of energy to be a person, it takes no energy to be your Self. If you keep looking at the space in which the whole theatre of consciousness is being performed and acting, but the witness of that is not busy watching
and involved in the story. And yet, at the same time,
it experiences through this body, yet it is beyond this body. [Questioner 8] Guruji,
I have this really intense experience sometimes when you're speaking,
of witnessing my body falling asleep. And it's like, 'Don't do that!'
But it's so strong sometimes. [Q.8] So I try to keep my eyes open. [Mooji] Yes, yes. Sometimes this happens. She says, 'Sometimes I witness my body trying to fall asleep while you're talking'. And this sometimes happens, because the habit of the psychological identity, which is sharing in our sense of existence, there's an aspect of ourselves,
a portion of our energy that doesn't seem to want you to wake up. It wants you to stay in the form of the person and get on with your person things. So it is inclined sometimes ... When it's just at the right time to get the right thing,
it goes off. So something like this
can be a sense of avoidance. It just goes into [mimicking sleep]. But as soon as you're onto it,
you're aware of that tendency, you watch him like this each time,
and you see that maybe in the past, you've just not challenged that
but just gone along with it, 'I'm just so tired, I can't do it'. But when you're aware of it,
you see that it could be a form of avoidance. And when you see
that something is witnessing that, then it will turn things around, gradually. [Q.8] So just stay with it?
[M.] Yes. Just stay as the awareness alone. You're not the thing which is fluctuating, not the thing which is going to sleep or waking up. You are there before everything,
before every shade, every colour. [Questioner 9] You mention this quite often,
to stay as the Self. [Q.9] Why does it seem to be so hard to do that? [M.] You say, 'Why does it seem so hard
to stay as the Self?' It is not hard to stay as the Self. It's not the Self
that's experiencing it being hard to be the Self, anymore than space is trying hard
to remain as space. Suppose I were to say to space,
'Stop believing you are the wind! And just remember you are space.' It is like that, in a way. But because all along, we are always the Self, even in the limited expression. When the Self is identified, when the pure Self is identified with limitation, it comes into a kind of behaviour, and this behaviour tends to be
to disregard or to ignore, or to be lazy,
or these kinds of characteristics can come. But as soon as you are
in this kind of environment for a while, things relax a lot more easily, you come to see that,
'I'm naturally in this state, without trying'. The sense 'I am', whenever you feel your self,
it is the 'I am'. If you don't add any story into it,
you are just the 'I am'. The story comes for the person mostly,
not so much for the 'I am'. And this will gradually become
more simple and natural for you, until it becomes effortless again. All witnessing of your fluctuating states, the witnessing or the observing, of all these things that come and go, that is occurring to the 'I am' itself. It is the witness,
it is the deity of the waking state. Relative to all else, the position of the unmixed, the unassociated presence,
the feeling 'I am', unmixed, that is the witness
that you must first know yourself to be. It is from here
that even the subtlest movement of thought, and feeling, and desire, and all of these things are perceived in the 'I am', in the 'I am' first. When you have come to see that everything is occurring
to this sense of being, when you are aware that you exist, and that that existence is not merely a person, but more the existence of consciousness, inside which even the sense of the person seems to be a creative movement,
like a mask inside it, then you are getting established
in the sense 'I am'. When you are sufficiently established
in the sense 'I am', it will gradually become clear that even now the sense 'I am'
begins to be seen phenomenally. When you're in the position
to perceive the sense 'I am' to be phenomenal, you are in the unspeakable. You will not have any questions there. Just a few, just to confirm your state.
That's all. But that doesn't mean
you kill the 'I am' or something. The sense 'I am', which is what I may call the dynamic aspect of consciousness, through which we have experiencing
and the sense of even satsang, needs this dynamic consciousness
in order to inquire and to look, and to introspect and transcend. All of that is to do
with the dynamic consciousness. Only when you've made full use
of the dynamic consciousness, to recognise your Absoluteness, as the unchanging, the absolute unchanging one, then you will say
that all of your questions will be finished. It doesn't mean
that you're then willing to drop the body, that the body drops immediately because of that. The body can be there,
other bodies can come after this, but delusions are over. You come to see
that your consciousness is pure, and that it, in fact, purifies the world. So it's not that you see the world as, 'The world is so terrible
and I'm the pure consciousness'. Your pure consciousness
perceives the whole world as divine. It is the person that sees fault in the world. [Q.4] I might have a misunderstanding
I'd like to clarify. Is it, the more you put attention on the person, [Q.4] the harder it becomes to be the Self?
[Mooji] Yes. [Mooji] He says,
'Is it that the more the attention goes to the person, [M.] the more you put attention on the person, [M.] the harder it is to be the Self?' Yes. [M.] The more 'you', meaning who? [M.] The consciousness gives reality
to the sense of personhood, and then lives as personhood. Then obviously,
two kings will not sit on the same throne. When you speak, you believe,
'Yes, I am the person', then somehow, the personhood state
seems like it's sufficient. It is sufficient somehow,
and you are in the state of personhood, then the attraction to be in the Self
is not strong. I think if you are completely stoned on coke, you're not going to want
to have a beer at the same time. It's enough for you, it's like, 'Enough'. You are in the coke state,
he's in a marijuana state, another one is in a magic mushroom state. You are quite happy, you don't need any top ups from any other kind of narcotics. When we are in the narcotic state
of being a person, the aspiration to be the Self is not there. Only when the person is hurting, the aspiration to go beyond
into the state of presence emerges in that. We need, actually, the difficulties, the challenges, the suffering, and so on, to stimulate the aspiration to go beyond them. And this is why a life of comfort,
which the mind wants to have, a life of comfort, where nobody troubles you
and everything like this ... Actually it's the worst life,
it makes you go to sleep. And yet we work a lot for this comfort.
It's like working so hard just to take the sleeping tablet
of being a person. Whereas difficulties, challenges in life, compel the consciousness to look more deeply. The more it looks deeply,
the more it flourishes as consciousness, the more it's able to transcend the lower states. But at a certain point,
it has transcended everything. When it transcends everything, it doesn't believe itself to be transcendental. It's the most natural thing,
natural like a child. It's nothing. [Questioner 10] I realised during the inquiry ...
[M.] Wait, take this one. [Q.10] Something I realised during the inquiry is that sometimes there's a voice that,
while I'm observing, says, 'OK, I'm not this, I'm not this'. But sometimes I see
that this voice is not true as well, because it's still like a denial,
or it's still in the same bubble, and only when I see
the whole bubble in front of me, I see this is the whole thing running in front,
and I'm here. But still, there's something
that feels not finished yet. Like I see I'm here, and this is all running ... [Mooji] I think I understand what you say, I think in your case, I think you have an illusion about the loss of finishing. There is still something that's playing there, 'If I'm really finished,
then that's really the absolute end of fun'. Or something like this. Something is still playing
as though to finish in that way, it is like an event. It's like, 'OK, now the race is finished, what am I going to do with my shorts,
with my things?' There's something that plays in us like that, which is like,
'I still love this life and I still love ...' So do I, I mean, it is fine.
The whole of it is divine. But if you love it as a person,
you will suffer and perish. [Q.10] It applies to inquiry as well, when it goes, 'I'm not this. OK, I'm here.'
Then, 'That's it!' [Mooji] Say again.
[Q.10] The same voice applies for the person and for what you describe, but it applies the same logic sometimes
to thinking and to the inquiry. Like, 'OK, I've seen I'm not this, I'm not that',
like it's something to do. [M.] I know very well that it wants to ride
on the inquiry bandwagon. More than anything else, it wants to do that. It wants to claim victory
as a spiritual victory for itself also. Like it's helping out. There are lot of people who have attained a kind of fake enlightenment. Because they get the feeling, 'OK, I understand that, and that's what I am', but it's a kind of a belief. But what happens is that energetically, in their company something feels very wrong. Because it's mostly just a kind of idea. It's the idea, 'I am free',
the idea, 'I'm not this'. It's kind of like an idea
rather than the falling away of ideas. Something becomes totally relaxed and empty, and non-dependent upon ideas. It's not an attitude, it's not a pride,
it's not a specialness. It's actually empty of all of that. And out of this emptiness, the spontaneity dances out of this emptiness. It's not trying to ...
The other one, it still has person in it. It's still the person who has done something, and carries around the sense,
'I've done something, I'm really the one who did it. I'm just waiting for somebody to recognise that
I'm the one who did it.' [Q.10] It feels like
there's still some control around it, that's when I spot, 'OK, it's not that'. [Q.10] Because there's still,
there's the manager, like you said, the manager of existence
or some control around it. [Q.10] And that's the thing,
even when I speak this, I see this, and it's like, 'OK, I've seen this', but still, experientially, it's not ...
I don't know. [M.] It is good that you share and you talk, especially when you're in the space,
a community of a sangha like this, your talking is also a part of your sadhana. When you speak, you're sharing
and you are also hearing yourself speak, in a way, just kind of evaluating,
assessing your wisdom and this type of thing as well, too. But, don't be frustrated with any of that,
don't go too much with that. It's best to just stay empty.
If you stay empty, you can't go wrong. Except if the mind starts to go,
'Wow, I'm really empty now.' [laughter] 'I'm sure I'm the most empty one here.' Then you are in trouble like this. But then you will know that something is playing. The ego does not smell its own breath. When you are able to pick out these things, something is washing out
the noise of that identity. And it is good. All is fine.
You just keep on like you are. Over there. Yes. [M.] Yes, go.
[Questioner 11] I feel stuck physically, [Q.11] in the face and in the heart.
[Mooji] Yes. [Q.11] Like a very strong emotional,
physical point, [Q.11] and I feel like it's me, and the face too. [Q.11] I feel stuck there in the inquiry.
[Mooji] Yes. I can only tell you you are not.
You are not stuck there. It's a feeling that you believe,
and if you believe it strongly enough, you believe it into existence, and you'll begin to feel it as experience,
but it is not a Truth. The Self can never be stuck. First, it has no form
to be stuck against anything. But the Self cannot be stuck. It's a sensation that is felt, where there is still some amount
of personal energy combined with a sense of beingness, and that gives rise to this sort of sensations of being stuck and being blocked and so on. But in the big picture, they are not true.
You are not stuck. It would be like saying,
'The space is stuck in this room'. You can say, 'The air is stale', but you cannot say, 'The space is stale'. You are like the space.
Mind is like the air or like the wind. It is more of a thing,
but the space is not a thing, it cannot be. How old is space? Does it grow old? Does it have moods? And I would say that space itself is regarded as one of the five elements. So it is phenomenal, in a sense, and yet it is perceived in the Self, which is infinitely more subtle than even space. So your Self is like this space.
It cannot be stuck. It's just a sensation, it's just a feeling. Don't give too much reality
or any reality to that feeling. If you feel stuck, just say,
'There's a sensation of stuckness here'. But don't believe it too deeply, like it's a fact or a truth,
and it will wear out. The important thing is that
if it's not given significance, it loses power and it begins to thaw out. But if it has belief in it,
belief is the most powerful thing you can do, the most powerful service you can do in life. What you believe you make true for yourself. If you just see it as a sensation, it will change, as everything else is compelled to do. Everything that is elemental,
everything that is phenomenal, everything that is perceivable,
is subject to change. [Q.11] Also, I see that the seeing is not clean. Like it's a girl looking,
and sometimes history looking and ... [Mooji] But what is looking at that? Because you've heard me use the example before, in satsang one time I was asking someone, Who is looking out from behind those eyes? Who is looking out? And he said, 'Conditioning is looking out'. I was very pleased, I felt, It's good. But who is looking
at the conditioning looking out? You are behind all. Everything starts after you. It's just that we have
a strong, habitual sense of identity, that has been firmed up because of habit, and then we take that to be a fact and we tend to start from that place. But gradually, you'll come to see that these are just sensations in consciousness. At a certain point,
you're going to ignore all of them. And not to your peril. It's not that you're going to ignore them and it's a great loss that you do it. It will be a great thing. You'll say, 'My God, I thought these things were so important
for so long!' Evolution or maturity in this life
is just about how much you forget. How much you remember just keeps your head noisy with things that you believe to be true. And it's not like saying, 'How much you forget', I don't mean you actively try to forget anything. You forget, you may say,
or it gets bleached out of consciousness, as you come to see what you truly are, rather than what you appear to be. If you're a person,
a person needs a lot of information and belief to keep going as a person. For people who are working in daily life, they only give you
two or three weeks holiday a year. More than that
and you don't want to go back to work. Most people.
Some people love their work totally. But after a while,
something just loses the connection with things, if you're not grounded in the heart with it. Some work you're clearly meant to be doing, it is deeply linked to your ... You'll use that work to evolve spiritually. And the other work that we're doing, especially if you have the idea
that you're just working for money, you will not learn so fast from that, because the attitude is not truthful. [Questioner 12] I can feel that the love is seen
and the joy is seen. [Q.12] And I've also seen that the attention ... [Q.12] I'm leaving on Monday, and I also can see
that my brain is telling me, 'Only be', or, 'You have to do that',
or special things coming up. And my question is that even the inquiry,
is it important to ... The thing that is really felt in this is like a big light which wants to turn back. [Mooji] It can be put in many ways, and I'm happy that we learn and see things
in lots of different ways. This is a very healthy way of perceiving, we should never perceive only in one way. All of this life,
because the human intellect and human capacity, mental, psychological capacity is so limited, that if we were to learn from just one place, we would just develop bigotry
and fascist thoughts and so on. It's very, very good that we learn from many different ways of looking at things. We don't have to go about doing that,
life provides everything you need. [Q.12] So I go on Monday and I go with this life.
[M.] Yes. [Q.12] And if it happens that I have to go
to the forest alone, I do it. If it happens that I want to make pasta,
I do that. [Mooji] Yes.
[Q.12] Is it as simple as that? [M.] Yes, it is simple, phenomenally,
that is simple enough. What is important today,
is that today is not Monday, today is Saturday. And today you can find out
all you need to find out. You don't have to worry about tomorrow or Monday in the sense that it becomes,
you can say, irrelevant. But life still goes on!
If you're a mother, you'll still be a mother. If you work, you'll still work.
But something will have changed. The place where you are looking from will have become much vaster than that. I'm not telling anybody, Go and kill your life. I'm just saying,
you can come more deeply into your seeing. As you come more deeply into your seeing, what is not in service to your Truth will fall away by itself,
you don't have to do anything about it. If you understand what I'm speaking, I pray that grace also ...
That you're open in your heart to grace, because without grace the person is still present and thinks that it's the person doing it. Grace helps to remove the sense of the person and helps you to recognise
that you are consciousness, introspecting into consciousness
through consciousness. This is the important thing. Otherwise we are still retaining
the sense of a person doing something to become the impersonal.
So it's not like that. All of this is God's will, God's grace and love, that allows us to come and look and to come out of the suffering state
of personhood, and the arrogance of personhood, and to begin to experience and clarify, and enjoy your divinity as wholeness. And this wholeness and holiness are not different. And what it comes to is, in a sense, your mind becomes free
from these locked conceptual states that bind the consciousness
and keep it feeling limited. When I point you to That in yourself
which is beyond quality, it is the most profound recognition, because if you are beyond quality,
then quality cannot bind you. And yet you are not afraid of them, you understand things in the correct context, that in the phenomenal world,
the manifest world of names and forms, you'll move in this world
with this body and experience. And know that somehow
this is an aspect of yourself, this is your dynamic being, moving in life, having the sense of growth and maturity,
and all of this. And yet, you still know that all of this is in the theatre of consciousness, all of this is on the screen of consciousness, including you being there,
holding this microphone in this moment. But this is a three-dimensional screen.
It's not a flat screen. It has depth and time and a sense of space, and feeling and everything.
You're playing in your own movie. At the same time, you're an audience to it. But where are you sitting inside all of this? This is why people say, 'Yes, I'm doing this,
but I'm actually doing nothing at all'. Because of this two-aspected feeling. One is that you're in the sense of doing, 'Yes, I'm going down to Sao Martinho,
later this afternoon'. We're talking like that,
but actually, that doesn't have the gravity, it doesn't have the heaviness that it used to have when you had the pride of a person. When it comes out of the mouth of consciousness, it's a much lighter thing. So if you say, 'I'm going to Sao Martinho at 9pm', and you end up in Odemira,
it doesn't matter, actually. You know that, 'Well actually ... Hallelujah. I'm always in the right place somehow.'
[laughter] You have this feeling.
And you're not fighting with life. So I'm not trying to say that the phenomenal life
is a lesser life. All I say is that it is impermanent. And it is always changing.
And I don't know who can refute that. Nobody can refute it, that it is always changing. Phenomenality is always changing. And that which witnesses the change, but is unaffected by it, is the pure Self. You are that which is changing,
and you are also the unchanging. But you are more true as the unchanging, with the apparent changeful aspect. This is always changing and growing and evolving. Amazingly,
we are constantly maturing and refining, and becoming more deep, against the background of unchanging awareness. It's a paradox. Mind cannot understand that. As long as you have the privilege
of being in the body, experiencing in the body
through time and duration, and shape and name and so on, you will experience growth, and its beauty, it's a part of the beauty of life. It's just unfathomable,
you're growing deeper and deeper. At the same time,
from the perspective of pure awareness, you're always the timelessly unchanging. [Q.13] Guruji, can I say something?
[Mooji] Yes. [Q.12] I want to say that
something happened here [Q.12] and it's that I don't want to interrupt life.
[M.] Interrupt life? [Q.12] Yes. I can see the feeling here
is that life is coming through [Q.12] and I can see life around me, [Q.12] and it happened like that,
that I don't want to interrupt it. [Mooji] In a way, in the big picture,
you cannot interrupt. Because even disharmony
is inside the greater harmony. It plays everything,
good and bad, right and wrong, up and down, you and me, heaven and hell, life and death, everything is played in consciousness. It is arrogance to think that you can make one difference to consciousness. You are the consciousness,
having to do what you have to do. If, for a while,
you have to bump into trees for a bit, and to have fights with people, in some, the consciousness is growing through it,
hopefully. We say that the consciousness grows through that. And if it is because of some intense arrogance
or something, it is still a kind of growth, that at some point the suffering
will become heavier than the joy, and something will have to transcend that state. Because it is compelled within your being
that you must evolve, at the evolutionary dimension of existence. Just in the same way, you cannot wake up one morning
and decide to not experience. It's just that while in the waking state,
perception is happening, and against the background of the sense of being, and that goes on, automatically. And if you hold onto just the sense of being, you'll see that you are urged into movement. And that when you are urged into movement
without trying to manipulate and to control them too much, you find that life becomes more sweet. [Q.12] Yes, that was what I meant.
[M.] More kind and harmonious. When you have a strong sense of personal identity, you are much more fearful
and then you try to control life more, that's the nature of fear,
to try and control and to suppress. The more you try to suppress,
the more conflict you experience. And the more sort of confusion comes. So through that the consciousness learns
and it chooses its path, and at the same time
it's flowing through a chosen path. They are not things that are easily explained. We have a life, and most human beings think that we pretty much have got it all sussed,
that we understand. But we don't understand, actually. To understand, you have to forget about you! You have to go beyond you, become totally empty, so that only God's wisdom is inside this body,
not just the person. The person is also a form of consciousness, but as I said before, it's very limited, and inclined towards arrogance and selfishness. It's a state that is not beautiful. But life compels you to go beyond that,
it hurts you. When you are hurtful to other beings,
it will hurt you, until you give up that disharmonious functioning. It's just ... we don't have to learn all of this. Just like I say,
you have to learn only the thing you need to know. That in all the things, you come back to the place
that you are the witness of them, and they are perceived
as is determined and impelled by the force of your own conditioning. And this 'you' with conditioning
is a little bit of a hybrid. It's a constructed self, it's not the pure Self. And as you begin to see this, you are automatically realigning your own being
with your natural Self. And that's all that has to happen. The rest is just coming spontaneously,
automatically out of that. And what joy, because if you had to unlearn, and then learn everything one by one,
it would be such a suffering. This is grace, and this is why I feel the more you feel inclined
to show gratitude to life and to say, 'Thank you
for even the taste of experiencing, thanks that the senses are functioning fine, and that I can use my mind in the correct way to try and solve this mystery
and to transcend the power of delusions', I think all goes well with you.
[Q.12] Thank you. [Q.4] I was just thinking
that the purpose of the inquiry is actually to bring you back to your Self. [M.] 'The purpose of the inquiry', he says, 'is to bring you back to your Self'. You can say the purpose of the inquiry is to show that you've have never left, actually, except through your own dreaming. That's not to say, 'You are to be blamed!' In fact, all of this life, as we grow, we come to see how great life is. That it caters to not just the taste, but the needs of every living being. That we get what we need, and the great thing about life
is not about how long you live, but just how true you are. That is the greater measuring stick,
if you want to say one. It's not how long you live, but the depth and the understanding
you have attained, as to your true nature
that is the most important. [Questioner 14] Guruji,
[Questioner speaking Italian] [Mooji] Yes. [Q.14 in Italian] Thank you, thank you, thank you. [Mooji] Prego. [Q.14] When I listen to the sound of your voice ... [translation] [Mooji] Let her speak also in the mic there. [Q.14] The sound of your voice
goes directly into my being and directly into my heart,
I feel completely my heart. And then the ego ... [translation] [Mooji] Yes. She wants to know if it is ego that she is feeling or what? [Translator clarifies]
[Mooji] 'Then the ego' ... OK. [Q.14] Ego. Because I have this strong sensation coming from receiving your words, I'm wondering
whether this is still in the realm of ego, because it's very much into this feeling. [translation] [Mooji] Yes. Yes.
[translation] [Mooji] Si. I am going to say, Yes, but a good yes. It's a good yes in the sense that
it is in the form of ego, because almost everything, while we have this sense of identity, we are still perceiving in the realm of ego.
It's nature, no? [translation] [Mooji] But I said, It's a good yes, my answer, because to have this kind of response to Truth is what I would call a sattvic response which means that the heart, our own heart and mind
are sufficiently open to be touched by words that point you to the Truth. [translation into Italian] [Mooji] Good. Good. And you understand the term sattvic? [translation] [Mooji] Sattvic meaning
a higher form of consciousness, within the realm of phenomenality. [translation] [Q.14] I had an experience of non-duality,
the non-dual state, but this state has not remained stable and it's coming and going. [translation] [Mooji] Yes.
[translation] [Mooji] Yes. For now!
[translation] [Mooji] Because what happens, generally,
for as long as the sense of personhood persists, [translation] as the person becomes more refined
in consciousness, [translation] they will be experiencing
flashes or moments of no-mind, pure awareness, no-mind. [translation] [Mooji] Whereas the state of a sage, they are always in the state of the pure. And they sometimes get flashes of identity.
[laughter] [translation]
[laughter] [Mooji] But the true nature is
that we are the non-dual Self, but necessarily experiencing through duality,
for a time. [translation] [Q.14] I sense
that the mind has become more subtle and more tricky. [translation] [Mooji] Yes. The mind can only become tricky
if you are trickable. [translation] [Q.14 confirms that she understands] [Questioner 15] Guruji, I want a clarification. [Mooji] Maybe you take that. [Q.15] Before you said that when you are in the position
to see the pure presence, you are in the unspeakable. In the pure presence there is still individuality, some individuality. [Mooji] Duality is not an error. Duality is not a mistake. Duality is a necessary tool in order to allow consciousness
to have the taste of experiencing. Experiencing necessitates duality. So there are people
who are so fiercely identified with, or want to believe that there is only non-duality, and, 'There is only non-duality,
there is nothing as duality'. And you just have to laugh.
It's very funny to hear that said, because even to say there is only non-duality, necessitates that you must believe in duality. Otherwise the statement is not valid. Some people are very much,
'But he's speaking duality! And ...' I say, But 'He'?
If you say, 'He is speaking duality', this 'he' is duality and 'you' is duality.
Why not just relax about it? And stop making it like you can be super clean. What it implies, when I say that when one is in a state to observe or to be aware of even the sense of presence, then automatically,
you are in the state of the unspeakable, meaning the indefinable. But it has no clash with duality. It still continues to function, because supposing
everyone who awakens to the Self basically could not speak anymore. Then who would be there
to pass on the pointings and so on? Everybody'd be swimming for themselves. So the fact is that the duality is a way in which consciousness expresses compassion, and love and unity
by sharing from direct experience rather than from speculative knowledge. [Q.15] In my experience of inquiring, I feel like I can do something, do more playing with attention
until I am in the sense of presence. And once I am there there is not so much to do. [Mooji] Yes. I find that in the state of presence activities are not determined
by any person or so on. But actually, your actions become
the actions of the universe. That somehow something wants to happen. Because you're doing something, for instance, so your action made here, you may think, 'I moved this to put there,
and that's my action, I did it'. But your action
is only part of a greater series of actions that the universe wants to make through this body. And there is no independent manager in this body, only a seeming one. It is as I said before.
There are no dialogues actually happening. The whole of this universe is a monologue. There is only the Self talking with itself, with the apparent sense of another.
It's like that. And so when it plays as disharmony
or plays as personhood, it intensifies
the sense of duality and separateness, which it wants to do. Then it plays also the sense of unity
and creates a beautiful power that attracts itself that is presently playing in one form strongly in the form of duality, it draws it back towards the non-dual Source. So that duality and non-duality, actually, at a certain point
you forget both these terminologies and stay as the Self. Everything is useful up to a point. But the best use of them
is when nobody is there to make use of them. And they are just the flow and the outpourings and the dance of the consciousness itself.
It plays like that. Yes, please ... [Questioner 16] Thank you.
[Mooji] Thank you. [Q.16] I feel I understand the sense of 'I am'.
[Mooji] Yes. [Q.16] And with this I understand also that nothing can bother you,
because nothing happens to you, and the other person is also the one, some actions come from the other person you can see that that's not the person. [Mooji] Yes,
you must actually see that authentically, not just believe that. Sometimes you feel, if you are the consciousness, nothing is really happening to you,
nothing happens to anybody. And after a while we go into some big talk. What actually happens is that that understanding keeps maturing
and developing, over time. It grows into a beautiful completeness, where it's not just about the knowledge of it, but you are the actuality of it also,
of the knowledge. [Q.16] Still, I don't understand yet how, I don't know if the word is correct,
to do inquiry. If I have a situation that needs inquiry, because you don't reach that
state of consciousness. I still don't understand, or the mind doesn't understand how to do it. [M.] Actually, I have already put the seed in you
of more about it. And you will find that as time goes on, you may just find that you are inquiring even without any intention to inquire. You find that when it is appropriate, because I don't want to put inquiry
as some some kind of dry practice, that you just get up at 6am and inquire. You will find that as you live in the life, you may find something arises for you, you feel very strongly and you think,
'How am I going to do that?' And someone can ask you,
'Who exactly is going to do it?' It may just come like this,
and it grows very naturally also. It is like putting one thing,
with just one tiny little root and it grows into a thousand roots by itself.
It does work like that. Not everything is being done by the person, putting each thing in the right place. Automatically.
You look at life, it grows organically. We don't know how it goes. We don't know how, from one moment, you don't know anything about inquiry, and after a while you find that
you can show someone and guide someone through the inquiry. They ask you, 'How did you learn?' 'I'm not even sure if I learnt, actually.' It just feels like it goes like this.
Like the rest of life. It seems just to come out of itself. How do you ride a bicycle?
You try to explain that. You make a silly thing out of it.
You can't explain how you did it. You practice and at a certain point it happens. But when it happens,
what did you especially do that day? You start to ride a bicycle, you have bloody knees for three weeks, bumping into things, killing people on the street, then one day suddenly you are, 'Woooo!' Riding! What did you do especially on that day? Nothing! It is also, you are inquiring, looking … 'What's this? But I don't get it.'
Then one day somehow it comes. Like this, 'Wow!
Yes, but who is saying this thing? It's ... Wow.' And you feel the space of it.
It creates a space inside. 'This is just a thought.
But it's just a thought, just a thought. It keeps coming back, but whose thought is it?' And you may find that with this question, you don't want to pick up any other question. You are trying to understand, 'Whose thought is it?' And just turning your attention there has changed and created a new reorientation inside your mind. It cannot be put down like some code
or some kind of manual. It's such an organic … Just like everything in your life is like this. But something ...
It brought you here to begin to trigger this kind of investigation a bit
and to continue to be aware of that. And what is beautiful that I want to encourage, is how universal it is. I'm not trying to say,
'You're this type of person'. You are not a type of anything. When something comes back to emptiness,
it transcends all categories. And so in a sense you can see
the different perspectives of looking without disrespecting them or grabbing onto them. You automatically see,
because the seeing becomes all encompassing. It's not a belief system. This instrument of self-inquiry
is not a belief system. It's just a way in which to facilitate
a simple way of looking. Now, if you feel that you want to ... you feel inclined to pray and ask God to help you to merge in the Supreme Being, or to understand, to use the inquiry better,
this is all fine. It's all the same one. The importance is just how quick
one gets out of the habit of referring to oneself
always as the person, as the identity. This you'll outgrow. And the sooner the better,
because your life is so much broader, and so much more silent and open and fearless. Self-inquiry is not a practice for life. I'm not telling you to practice for life.
I don't tell you how long. It will depend on something. Maybe after a few days
or a few weeks or a few months, in fact, you inquire yourself out of the picture. And that's it.
[laughter] Which is very beautiful.
You simply can't find you. Someone says, 'Hello Janet! What's so and so?' You say, 'Hi, how are you doing?' But you don't know who they're talking about,
in a sense. It's not that you become stupid,
you kind of understand, but you understand and you see completely the illusion of all of this, at the same time. But it's not some strangeness. It's not strange. Do you want to say something? [Questioner 17] I just want to express
my gratitude. Because over and over
you've been saying the same things. [Q.17] And now I really see it clearly.
[M.] Yes. [Q.17] In just a few seconds, all these beliefs
that have held me so captive for so long have just been shattered. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I love you. [Mooji] I love you too. [laughter] Because it is like this,
and we're just bringing it over and over and bringing it back. Sometimes again the mind builds up
some kind of noise and you keep looking and something feels, 'Wow, I thought I did all of that already. I just cleared the whole house empty. And it's full again, of rubbish!'
[laughter] Something goes through a little bit and ...
What to do? [laughter] You keep looking again and throw this stuff out, and burn it in the back. It keeps coming back on for a bit,
but it does have an end. An end of time thing happens,
less and less stuff comes. Like the weeds come in your garden, you keep pulling them up,
the next day they're up again. You pull them up again,
next they come, you pull them up again. You don't say,
'I've had enough, just leave them'. No. You pull them up
and at a certain point, they lose power. It's just a habit.
We learnt ignorance out of habit. And you again recognise the Truth out of habit. Repetition. We repeat it. So ... Yes. Yes. OK. Who? Who? [Questioner 18] It's more than a habit. Sometimes it's very subtle that I notice that there is some very subtle confusion,
also about attention too. There is a seeing that's going there
and it's not the right direction. [M.] You must look and as you investigate,
you may come to find that you still have some investment
in personhood. This is what is perpetuating these states
for a long time. Because something believes
in a certain aspect of this and identifies with it. There's nothing wrong
with using your mind in the life. If I want to learn to make picture frames
or I want to make paintings, there's nothing wrong with it, if you see that all of it
is an expression of consciousness. But if you then start to look and think,
'I want to do ... I ... I ...' you start to cultivate a strength inside
as a personal 'I', then naturally, the urge to go beyond
the personal 'I' will not come. Because you already choose, in a way,
to want to be that. The thing is that sometimes you make a choice and you forget you've made it. You make a choice,
'I don't really want to do this', but you keep going to the classes to do it. You keep going to the class,
and you sign up for another term, but inside, 'I don't really want to get it'. You keep going and I ask, Why do you go? And if you look, you say, 'Actually, because I like the teacher',
or whatever. It's not a good enough motive. Sometimes we have to see,
why is it perpetuating? Because by itself it has no power, without your investment of energy and belief. That's the only way it can go.
It cannot go by itself. A belief cannot develop by itself, it has to be somebody's belief. [Mooji] Here. [Questioner 19] I just want to check in with you,
I guess. I don't really have any idea
what's going on with this life at all, which is actually kind of nice. I find lots of gratitude coming
in many different moments. Moments of immense joy and love and then other moments of fear and embarrassment and then worry and all of those things. And it feels like everything
ultimately empties out. And a lot of gratitude comes from that. [Mooji] I feel it is important
to look at these things and to see what is it
that keeps returning, returning, returning. And look at them and what is their business here. What is their business here? I have met people
who have had a kind of awakening experience, and then go back into some invested duality, and then lose or get covered up
this light that's pouring from them, and then come back to satsang,
to kind of rekindle the light, or something like that. They have become a little bit attached
to this rekindling feeling. Like, 'Wow, yes, I know that's it!
Thank you, thank you.' This type of thing. Otherwise, once you've looked a few times, and really looked at something
and see that it has no value or any reality,
apart from a superficial appearance, then with the pulling away of your interest, that thing diminishes in potency, and after a short time,
it ceases to be relevant for you. It doesn't feature anymore
in your self-assessment, or something like this. So if it keeps going on,
it's getting fuel from somewhere, it must be getting fuel. And then you can look
and see where is the fuel coming from. This much is possible. But the aspiration inside, the urge to do it must also be there, in that. So we are good, for the moment? I don't expect, by any means that, 'OK, it's finished, we have done it!' OK? But I hope that somehow you have a sense of who you are when you say 'I'. Like, 'Yes, but the thing is, in my life,
my trouble is ...' Something must stop this and think,
'Wait, who is speaking this thing?' And at a certain point you start to see, 'It's nonsense, actually. It's nonsense.
Why keep saying this thing?' It's not something outside saying, 'Stop talking like that,
because you are now a monk!' No. But, you start to look and say,
'Wait, that's not true. That's just another kind of an idea.
And then what is true? Is there something that is true?' And these little kind of inquiries begin, and their yielding is so amazing. Just like you add a little bit of yeast, and it makes such a big effect! A little bit of inquiry
produces such a tremendous effect and power. So I wanted to have this,
I don't know how successful it is, but just trying to again,
keep opening up this box, opening up the window a little bit,
looking, looking. And get more familiar with this, don't be frightened by the inquiry,
it is your friend. It is a tool in the pocket of your heart
that you can use. And you keep looking
and this is all I'm sharing anyway, over and over. And gradually, you come to see, 'But wait a minute, things are so simple'. The life can be very simple
and at the same time be complete. Simple, but complete.
Effortless, but totally satisfying. And what can I really lose, apart from delusion? Then will you weep for losing delusions? Sometimes we want to invest in some delusion. This is also an expression of consciousness. It wants to invest some energy into some delusion. Because every part of it,
including delusion is part of consciousness. It wants to believe in something and play. It wants to create imaginary things. And of course, this is what consciousness does, one of the expressions of consciousness. But the great expression of consciousness
is self-reflection. When it begins to self-reflect at what it truly is and how it does not need anymore
to be clinging to its projections, and it's not able to leave its projections alone
or to control them. And aspiration grows inside. And as it begins to look,
there is no joy that can compare with the joy of self-reflection. Because it strips the being from all this clutter. And in this total nakedness,
you are in the height of your essence. This is the invitation of satsang. So thank you, everybody.
And very good, very good, very good. [silence] As you move in this, wherever you find yourself, as you move in this and feel the space
that is the awareness itself, you feel the space of awareness, and you feel the functioning of perception, of the senses and everything, like everything is just blowing
through the space of being. Like this. Like this body is just, sort of,
a very translucent, transparent thing that sensations are just blowing through. Maybe you find that even the body
is not there at all, in this way. It's just like a space.
The body has a certain proportion, but you're now beyond the proportion of the body. Somehow, you're just like a space
that is beyond shape, no shape or no size. But there is still
this wonderful sense of beingness, and the play of perception of light and sensations come, and something wants to ... You see when the consciousness
wants to form itself into a person again. But immediately you see
that that's a shape in the shapeless. Somehow you're looking out
from this great emptiness, from this great space. But you don't belong to any particular location. Apart from the location
of the sense of 'hereness'. But this 'hereness' is not a pinpoint. This 'hereness'
has a kind of 'everywhere-ness' about it. And it is already so. And get used to ...
If feelings of panic or something come, just see that they are also other sensations.
It also passes. And there is no panic. And you'll find that something,
an ability is still in you to respond to and interact with other beings at the appropriate level. This is a wonderful discovery! That you do not need any technique
or any sort of strategy to live! Because you are life!
You produce your own actions! Everything is spontaneous like this. Whenever the tendency arises to define yourself, you immediately see
that it feels like it is confining a self. It's creating a sense of limitation and you have a choice
to just not go with that thought. [Sangha friend] It brings such pain! [Mooji] It becomes painful and this is your gift! That every time
you condense into some tight space, it starts to feel, 'No!'
And you are out. Like this. And this is the changing over, actually, because you see how amazing consciousness is, because it can live with so much contortion. We have contorted the life. Still you're going on. And then see, 'Wait a minute!' And something goes, 'But I'm still me!'
[laughter] What a wonderful discovery. Because it's not saying,
'You need to be this shape. You need to be blue. You're a blue person.' 'Oh, I'm a yellow person.' Or whatever. You are no person, actually. But you can be also. You can, momentarily,
feel the feeling of being a person, but it never jumps out of the greater awareness that you are not an object. And don't try to work out ahead of time how that should come across to anybody. You don't. You are going to discover, more and more, this wonderful freedom. The beauty is that
you don't have to be trying to create a way to be. You'll find that if you stop trying to be,
beingness remains. And it knows how to fluff its feathers. If it wants to,
it knows just how to do it in the moment. It doesn't know how to do it tomorrow. It just knows ... It just does it now. But we are rehearsing for tomorrow,
which is only another concept. This is why I say that the ones who are awake, they are the happiest beings, because they've got nothing to do. Still, activities happen, the most beautiful sort. Because when there is nothing to do, it doesn't mean
that there is a cessation of activities. Activities happen as compelled by the vital force,
as it wants to do. You forget everything! Forget everything! You forget, forget all your attachments.
Can you imagine? Forget everything,
including who you are and what you should do and, 'I'm this', 'I'm a mother', 'I'm a father', 'I've got to sort out something by the next week'. And you just ... Something just ... 'Aha!'
[laughter] Now, can you bear the world saying, 'You're a very irresponsible person'?
[laughter] Yes, it's OK. It's OK. You don't have to go around telling anybody that you are responsible
or irresponsible. Somehow, everything is as it should be. You may find, after the most beautiful satsang, you leave and go out
and get into a big fight with someone. [laughter] And something goes, 'But this shouldn't happen! I was feeling so peaceful. I really felt that I was walking with angels. Where did Satan come from?'
[laughter] You say, 'You know what? You can come.
There is space for you also.' You have a big argument.
But inside, something feels empty. I cannot ...
I don't want to say how you should feel. You should be OK to feel any way. This is a feeling instrument. But when we start to give judgements about the price of this
and what this means and so on, the interpreting tendencies
create a little bit of a bad smell. You can be totally empty. And even when you forget to be empty,
that's just a kind of ... That's another idea arising in emptiness. You are to be empty, then you feel,
'Oh my God, for 15 minutes I was not empty'. That's another idea in emptiness.
[laughter] I mean, the whole thing is so beautiful.
[laughter] What to say about it? The whole thing is so beautiful, and also, nothing is wrong with you!
[laughter] Except how you use this thing. The only thing is, the kind of ...
the level of programming, and the belief in the conditioning and identity, are going to create some stink bombs which then the world has to suffer.
[laughter] Or enjoy, whatever. [laughter] [Sangha friend] In a way, all is grace. [Mooji] Why only in a way?
[laughter] All is grace! When you see that all is grace ... When you think only something is grace,
that is disgrace. All is grace. The wise one sees that even when something hits the foot,
'Aargh!' something does come out of it. But they don't necessarily sit and wait, 'What's going to come out of this?' They just move on. You may not learn your lesson until the next week, one week after the incident. Or maybe never. We don't know.
But something is OK about it. So. [music and singing] [Mooji] Om Sri Sadguru Ramana Ki! Jai! Papaji Ki! Jai! Sahaja Ki! Jai! Om Namah Shivaya. [Sangha] Sri Moojiji Ki! Jai! [Mooji] It is said that it is the Lord himself who called those who are pointed
to the lessons that they need to learn or to hear the things they need to hear in order to bring all back to Himself, the Supreme Lord of the universe. So it is to be taken that
each one who feels that ... Whatever each one's path is,
because all paths ... I would rather say that
like all streams go to the river, all rivers go to the ocean. But something here is very direct like that. And whatever each one's path is, it can go nowhere without Being, without grace. It's the grace of the Self that has inspired our attraction towards the Truth.
So trust it. As Rumi said,
'The one who brought me here, must take me home'. And I feel our journey is a journey home. And a journey of understanding. The journey that brings you into the space. How will you know
that you are on the right way home? When you begin to experience
more space in yourself, more silence and peace. When you feel openness in your heart not judgement towards any being, but feeling more empathy with them,
understanding and loving kindness. When you feel the joy of contemplation. All these are the signs along the way. But eventually, somehow,
you do come to some point where the journey is seen
as a journey inside the dream. You realise, 'But I've always been here!' But you don't regret the dream.
[laughter] So. OK. So, very good! I have much enjoyed today, sitting together like this and looking into, as I said before, the subject I feel is the most important subject
in the human kingdom. That we can talk about these things,
on this planet. [Sangha friend] Mooji, when you talk about it, just something happens, that's all.
[laughter] [Sangha friend] That's for me no talking. [Mooji] Yes. Yes. The talking has two aspects. One is to communicate the concept into the heart through the intellect of the being. That's one. But it has another aspect, the vibration aspect. The vibration means
that you don't even have to speak the language. You don't have to speak the same language. Because this is the language of vibration, of synchronicity, of Beingness. It's the heart language. And so we speak and somehow you simply find that you come to understand but you don't know how. It's not words necessarily. Like this. Yes. Om Namah Shivaya. [Sangha] I love you. Thank you. [music] You don't need to know many things, you just need to know the right thing - the thing you need to know now. You don't need 50 keys to open 1 lock. You need the RIGHT key. You can have a thousand keys, and you'll just be
a thousand times confused, more lost. You just need the right key. When you say, 'I am',
which 'I' are you referring to? When you say, 'I', what does it mean? This is the birth of self-inquiry.
