Spiritual Awakening
Just be yourself. It’s difficult to be totally honest with yourself, yet this is exactly what you have to do. Forget about being enlightened, or spiritually awakening or self realized. I get too many calls like that. People are calling me from all over the world telling me that they have had a spiritual awakening and are now Self-realized. So now I just say, “Good, what do you want me to do?” They want the confirmation. So I was thinking of printing certificates and mailing them out. This is to inform you that you are now Self-realized. Congratulations!
I received many calls during the week, and you’ll see why I’m smiling when I explain it to you. Just this morning I received a call from somebody in Texas that I have been corresponding with. And he told me, “Robert, I read your transcript for a month straight like you said and I am enlightened now” So I said, “That’s wonderful. What makes you think so?” He said, “I stopped quarreling with my wife, I feel more peaceful, and I don’t give a damn about the world. But I have a question. What do I do now?”What can I say?
There are many people who are going around claiming they’re enlightened, more than ever. It really makes no difference to me, but it’s amusing. It’s interesting.
First of all, what does the word enlightenment mean? I’m not talking about a dictionary definition. To the path of Jnana, what does enlightenment mean? The answer is, there is no such word. No one becomes enlightened. There is no body, no I, no me, there is no ego that can ever become enlightened. The word enlightenment is used by the jnani, by students.
Absolute Reality, Choiceless Awareness, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Parabrahman —those are all words that do not exist except to the student in order to explain that there is a state beyond the so-called norm. A state of total transcendence, and we give a name to this, enlightenment.
When this actually happens or transpires in a person, the I has been totally destroyed, totally annihilated. The me no longer exists, and to that being, there is absolutely no one who became enlightened. That being is resting in his true nature, in nothingness, absolute nothingness.
No one can become enlightened. No one can be liberated, for the you that thinks it can be liberated doesn’t even exist. There is no you. There is no person. There is no human being who is a human being one day and the next day becomes liberated. There is only the liberated Self, and you are That.
There is not you as you appear. The appearance of you which you think you are is false. This is why I say all of your problems, all of your nonsense that you go on with, all your worries, all your cares, all your emotions, they do not exist. They never have existed and they will never exist. It is all the game of maya, the leela. It doesn’t exist. No one in this room exists. There is no you and there is no me. There is only the Self. And when the self becomes the Self, it is no longer the self. For there never was a real self to begin with. This is the reason why I emphasize, stop thinking. Your thoughts pull you deeper into maya, into illusion. Do not think of enlightenment or awakening, or being liberated, or finding a teacher who can help you. You are beyond help. No one can do anything for you.
Actually spiritual awakening happens like this. You begin to realize you are not your thoughts, you are not your body, you are not your mind, you are not the world, you’re not even liberated. You are nothing. As you begin to think this way, whatever has to happen in your evolution will transpire without your doing anything. If you are meant to be with a teacher, you will be with a teacher. If you are meant to be by yourself, you will be by yourself. Yet, you have absolutely nothing to do with these things. Remain in the no thought state. Leave the world alone. Leave people alone. Do not come to any conclusion. Do not judge anyone. Everything will take care of itself.
The worst thing you can ever do is to search for enlightenment, for liberation. This keeps you back. It keeps you back because there is a self that is searching. There is an I that is searching. There is a me that is trying to become something, and the whole idea is to remove something from your consciousness. Therefore, the process of realization is removal, not adding. Removing this and removing that. Removing all concepts and all preconceived ideas. Removing all of your thoughts, no matter what kind of thoughts they are. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, they all must go. And what is left will be nothing, no-thing. You are that. You are that no-thing.
Doesn’t it feel good to be nothing, instead of believing you are thoughts, and you are human, and you have a job to fulfil, and you have a mission?
There are many spiritual people you know who think they have a mission. They have come to save the world. They can’t even save themselves, and they’re looking to save the world. The world will go on the way it’s going on without your help, for or against. Leave the world alone.
There is a power and there is a presence which I like to call THE CURRENT THAT KNOWS THE WAY, that takes care of everything. It is all part of the grand illusion. And even in this illusion which appears in front of your eyes, there is a presence and a power that lifts you up. It will lift you up as high as you can allow it to. Until it lifts you up completely out of your body, out of your thoughts, out of the universe, to a completely new dimension.
You’ll appear to be the same person as always to people, but you’ll not be that person any longer. For that person is gone, no longer exists. You have become Brahman. You have become all-pervading. You have become your Self without trying to do so.
You must always have gratitude for the way you are. Do not feel sorry for yourself. Love yourself just the way you are. By loving yourself just the way you are, you will transcend those things that have appeared to annoy you, to bother you, to cause you pain. They will all go. You’ll no longer be aware of them. Let go of everything. Have no desires whatsoever. Dive deep within the Self. Do not react to the outside world or to your body. ALL IS WELL.
When you are without thoughts, without needs, without wants, without desires, then you are God. You are the Universe. You are Divine Love. You are beautiful.
