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!

Here is a transcript of the first six minutes
of the youtube we listened to on Sunday evening
along with a link to the whole (half hour) you tube:

“Destruction of the False”
Nisargadatta Maharaj,
spoken by Samaneri Jayasara

Peace Peace Peace
Ron@Nondual.Community

The way to Truth lies
through the destruction of the false.

To destroy the false, 
you must question your most inveterate beliefs.

[Inveterate – Having a particular habit,
activity, or interest that is long established
and unlikely to change.]

Of these — the idea that you are the body is the worst.

With the body comes the world.

With the world — God,
who is supposed to have created the world
and thus it starts…

Fears, religions, prayers, sacrifices
— all sorts of systems — all to protect
and support the child-person frightened
out of their wits by monsters of their own making.

Realize that what you are
cannot be born nor die
and with the fear gone — all suffering ends.

If you seek Reality,
you must set yourself free of all backgrounds,
of all cultures, of all patterns
of thinking and feeling.

Even the idea of being man or woman,
or even human, should be discarded.

The ocean of life contains all — not only humans.

So, first of all, abandon all self-identification.

Stop thinking of yourself as such and such,
or so and so, this or that.

Abandon all self-concern.

Worry not about your welfare
— material or spiritual.

Abandon every desire
— gross [material] or subtle [mental].

Stop thinking of achievement of any kind.

You are complete —

here and now.

You need absolutely nothing.

**********************

Chapter 40  
Only the Self is Real

Q: What is the nature and purpose of the world?

NM: The world is but a show, glittering and empty.
It is, and yet it is not.
It is there as long as I want to see it and take part in it.
When I cease caring, it dissolves [sleep/death].
It has no cause and serves no purpose…
there is no depth in it, nor meaning. 
178

Q: Then is there anything Real?

NM: Only the onlooker is Real,
call him [It/That] Self or Atman.
To the Self, the world is but a colorful show,
which he enjoys as long as it lasts [unfolds]
and forgets when it is over [enfolds]…
Without desire or fear he enjoys it,
as it happens.  
178-179

Q: The person [self/individual/jiva]
immersed in the world has a life of many flavors.
He weeps, he laughs, loves and hates,
desires and fears, suffers and rejoices.
The desireless and fearless jnani [Self/Atman]
what life has he? 
Is he not left high and dry in his aloofness?

NM: His state is not so desolate.
It tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted bliss.
He is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature
and that he need not do anything,
nor strive for anything to secure it.
It follows him, more real than the body,
nearer than the mind itself.
You imagine that without cause there can be no happiness.
To me dependence on anything for happiness is utter misery.
Pleasure and pain have causes, while my state
[Unmanifest/Unconditioned] is my own,
totally uncaused, independent, unassailable.  
179

Q: Like a play on the stage?

NM: The play was written, planned and rehearsed.
The world just sprouts into being out of nothing
and returns to nothing.   179

Q: You seem to function like the rest of us?

NM: Joy and sorrow, life and death,
they are all real to the man in bondage;
to me they are all in the show,
as unreal as the show itself…
I may perceive the world just like you,
but you believe [yourself] to be in it,
while I see it as an iridescent drop
in the vast expanse of consciousness.  
179

Q: How does a jnani feel as an old man?

NM: As he gets older he grows more and more happy and peaceful.
After all, he is going home.
Like a traveller nearing his destination
and collecting his luggage,
he leaves the train without regret.
180

Q: The jnani may be detached from his own suffering,
but still it is there?

NM: It is there, but it does not matter.
Whatever state I am in, I see it
as a state of mind to be accepted as it is…
He who experiences the body,
experiences its pains and pleasures.
I am neither the body,
nor the experiencer of the body.  
180

Q: Pain is pain.
You experience it all the same…
How would you feel?

NM: Just as I feel now.
You keep insisting my inner state is molded by outer events.
It is just not so. Whatever happens, I remain.
At the root of my being is pure awareness,
a speck of intense light.
This speck, by its very nature,
radiates and creates pictures in space and events in time
— effortlessly and spontaneously.
As long as it is merely aware [awake] there are no problems.
But when the discriminative mind comes into being
and creates distinctions, pleasure and pain arise…
The mind is a form of consciousness,
and consciousness is an aspect of life.
Life creates everything,
but the Supreme [Unmanifest] is beyond all.
180-181

Q: Are you not afraid to die?

NM: Everybody dies as they live.
I am not afraid of death,
because I am not afraid of life.
I live a happy life and I shall die a happy death.
Misery is to be born, not to die.
All depends [on] how you look at [experience] it.
181

Q: Even as a dream you are a most unusual dream.

NM: I am a dream that can wake you up.
You will have the proof of it in your very waking up.  
181

Q: Imagine, news reaches you that I have died.
Somebody tells you: ‘You know so-and-so? He died.’
What would be your reaction?

NM: I would be very happy to have you back home.
Really glad to see you out of this foolishness.
181-182

Q: Which foolishness?

NM: Of thinking that you were born and will die,
that you are a body displaying a mind
and all such nonsense.
In my world nobody is born and nobody dies.
Some people go on a journey and come back,
some never leave.
What difference does it make since
they travel in dreamlands,
each wrapped up in their own dream.
Only the waking up is important.
It is enough to know the
’I am’ as reality and also love.  
182

Q: Most of the people in the world just do not know
that there is a reality which can be found
and experienced in consciousness.
It seems very important that they should hear the good news
from somebody who has actually experienced [That]. 
Such witnesses have always existed and their testimony is precious.

NM: Of course.
The gospel of Self-realization,
once heard, will never be forgotten.  
182

Please RSVP to Ron@Nondual.Community
and you will receive a free Zoom link ❤️