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I AM That (34) > Ron > 06/04/2023
Posted by Holger:
Sunday, May 28, 2023 3:45 pm (California Time)
We are a small group of friends;
together we read some paragraphs in
Nisargadatta’s I AM THAT
and then talk about it.
Feel warmly welcome
Please RSVP to Ron@Nondual.Community
and you will receive a free Zoom link ❤️
Greetings to One and All!
Sorry for the LONG summary…
I couldn’t decide on which ones to leave out!
Gita will be facilitating this week..
so do your homework!
Peace Peace Peace
Chapter 34 – Mind is Restlessness Itself
Q: My knowledge of Yoga did not end my search for peace of mind?
NM: Naturally. There will be no end to it, because there is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance; restlessness itself is mind… It may go blank occasionally, but it does it for a time and reverts to its usual restlessness… A becalmed mind is not a peaceful mind. 141-142
Q: So what remains to do?
NM: Striving too is a form of restlessness… The Self does not need to be put to rest. It is peace itself, not at peace. Only the mind is restless. All it knows is restlessness, with its many modes and grades… What we call progress is merely a change over from the unpleasant to the pleasant. But changes by themselves cannot bring us to the changeless, for whatever has a beginning must have an end. The real does not begin; it only reveals itself as beginningless and endless, all-pervading , all-powerful, immovable prime mover, timelessly changeless. 142
Q: I am trying to rejoin the personality back to the real self?
NM: The personality (vyakti) is but a product of imagination. The self (vyakta) is the victim of this imagination. It is the taking of yourself to be what you are not that binds you. The person cannot be said to exist on its own right; it is the self that believes there is a person and is conscious of being it. Beyond the self (vyakta) lies the unmanifested (avyakta), the causeless cause of everything. Even to talk of re-uniting the person with the self is not right, because there is no person, only a mental picture given a false reality by conviction. Nothing was divided and there is nothing to unite. 143
Q: Does Yoga help in the search for and the finding of the self?
NM: You can find what you have lost. But you cannot find what you have not lost… It only shows that you believe you have lost. But who believes it? And what is believed to be lost? Have you lost a person like yourself? What is the self you are in search of? What exactly do you expect to find? 143
Q: I expect to find the true knowledge of the self?
NM: The true knowledge of the self is not a knowledge. It is not something that you find by searching, by looking everywhere. It is not to be found in space or time. Knowledge is but a memory, a pattern of thought, a mental habit. All these are motivated by pleasure and pain. It is because you are goaded by pleasure and pain that you are in search of knowledge. Being oneself is completely beyond all motivation. You cannot be yourself for some reason. You are yourself, and no reason is needed. 143
Q: I expect to find peace?
NM: Can there be peace apart from yourself? … Your book knowledge is useful to begin with, but soon it must be given up for direct experience, which by its very nature is inexpressible… You got into this present state through verbal thinking; you must get out of it the same way. 143-144
Q: What are the means of perceiving that immovable state which is not affected by the birth and death of a body or a mind?
NM: In life nothing can be had without overcoming obstacles. The obstacles to the clear perception of one’s true being are desire for pleasure and fear of pain. It is the pleasure-pain motivation that stands in the way. The very freedom from all motivation, the state in which no desire arises is the natural state. 144
Q: Well, pleasure may be imaginary. But pain is real?
NM: Pain and pleasure go always together. Freedom from one means freedom from both. If you do not care for pleasure, you will not be afraid of pain. But there is happiness which is neither, which is completely beyond… It would be a grievous mistake to identify yourself with something external. 145
Q: Many teachers have I followed and studied many doctrines, yet none gave me what I wanted?
NM: The desire to find the Self will surely be fulfilled, provided you want nothing else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. 145
Q: But my desires and fears are still there?
NM: Where are they but in your memory? Realize that their root is in expectation born of memory – and they will cease to obsess you. 145
Q: What is ahimsa?
NM: Primarily, ahimsa is what it says: ‘don’t hurt’. It is not doing good that comes first, but ceasing to hurt, not adding to suffering. Pleasing others is not ahimsa. 146
Q: How does one go beyond the need of help? And can one help another to do so?
NM: When you have understood that all existence, in separation and limitation, is painful, and when you are willing and able to live integrally, in oneness with all life, as pure being, you have gone beyond all need of help. You can help another by precept and example and, above all, by your being. 146
Q: If what I am, as I am, the person I take myself to be, cannot be happy, then what am I to do?
NM: You can only cease to be – as you seem to be now. There is nothing cruel in what I say. To wake up a man from a nightmare is compassion. You came here because you are in pain, and all I say is: wake up, know yourself, be yourself. 146
Q: In the ultimate state there can be no happiness?
NM: Nor sorrow. Only freedom. Happiness depends on something or other and can be lost; freedom from everything depends on nothing and cannot be lost. Freedom from sorrow has no cause and, therefore, cannot be destroyed. Realize that freedom. 147
Q: My knowledge is limited, my power negligible?
NM: Have your being outside the body of birth and death and all your problems will be solved. They exist because you believe yourself born to die. Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person. 147
Please RSVP to Ron@Nondual.Community
and you will receive a free Zoom link for Sunday ❤️
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Created: June 3, 2023
Last modified: July 16, 2023
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