Practiced diligently, meditation techniques purify the mind because they bring awareness to unholy patterns of thought and feeling. Unhealthy thoughts cannot survive the penetrating light of awareness. Nothing purifies like experience of the Self, which releases a flood of healing, cleansing, spiritual energy into the conscious and unconscious minds.

The most important part of the story of my time with Papaji actually came later. I realised I had been a long time in the dilemma of appearing to be ‘in’ and ‘out’ of Self. Papaji would often talk about the memory of spiritual experiences being just another memory, the past.

SHY CRABS
AT SUNSET TIME
PERCHED ON THE EDGE
OF THEIR SAND HOLES

Suddenly…

It’s simple, even if you don’t think you’re free, or even if you’re not completely free, have the conviction that you are free. Even if you know it intellectually that you’re free, hold on to that. It may be just intellectual, but it will help you because it won’t let your mind disturb you so much.

A person like Ramana Maharshi or a person like Eckhart Tolle, who I know quite well, who realised, and that’s it, end of doubts, end of everything, end of the vasanas, the tendencies, is very, very rare. It’s a very, very rare occurrence.

I urge all of you, to listen to the pull. To listen to your heart, to listen to your call, especially in this business that we’re involved with, or this what we’re involved with…

We are the Open Sky, not the clouds

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but when you’re really, really Quiet, there’s so much Beauty! Everything is beautiful! It was one of those days: today, the ocean was beautiful, the houses were beautiful, the people were beautiful, the weather was beautiful, the paintings were beautiful, the lunch was great. It was just like a flow through Beauty, the whole day.

Unfortunately we have been filled up in our education by all kinds of ideas. If we want to be really happy, then we have to be special, and if we do these special things, that will make us especially happy. So we aspire to having a big house or car or special clothes, because this is supposed to make us happy. This way of desire is actually the game of society, because societies are now-a-days based on this idea of desire.
But this game of desire simply doesn’t work, because it only can give you a feeling of satisfaction for a short moment.

The only true way to step out of all the stories and all the nonsense is to really see with great clarity that this ‘me’ that we are so fond of referring everything to, simply doesn’t exist. Once you see it doesn’t exist then the whole thing falls away. Everything just falls away and you’re left with what is.
Often there is a tremendous release of energy.

The first thing I would say is that there are not any enlightened people. This word enlightenment is a wrong word. It is like sex or love or god. It is like some idea far away in the future. Maybe it has a value because it can bring people to find themselves, just as the peak of Mount Everest brings people to climb mountains.

Some argue that because the Self is already realized, only the unenlightened mind-ego entity can get enlightened. Others say that since only the Self exists, there is no ego to get enlightened. These apparently opposing views suggest that ignorance both exists and does not exist.

Love is our Being, Being is existence, so love is existence. Your essential state is love. What distorts that is that we look outside for love not realising that the love we experience outside is a reflection of the love we have for our deepest self.

It’s quite clear that for almost everybody this issue of intimacy with another human being is a strong structure, a strong issue. In the eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism there is a deep understanding that if you seriously want to become a spiritual seeker you become celibate and stay alone.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.
And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be,because death is very likely the single best invention of life.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes … the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. …

The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When not attached to love or hate,
all is clear and undisguised.
Separate by the smallest amount, howe
and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.

Love is an energy. It has nothing to do with boys and girls and falling in love and candlelight dinners. That’s not what I would call love. I would call that a disease.

Andrew Cohen in his “Meeting with Remarkable People,” interview talked about the issue of stablising or embodying the new reality once a strong energetic opening has occurred. How easily the ego structures can close things down and therefore the need for work on strong inner mind patterns.

Of course I respect that everybody here has read the same books that I’ve read. We all read the same books so we all know what the books say but of course we don’t really ‘know’ from reading books.

You’re all awakened. It’s very beautiful to realise that you’re already complete, you’ve already got everything, there’s nothing more to get from the outside. In fact the only thing to get from the outside is not to look so much on the outside and to look more on the inside.

My understanding is that the point of our life, if anything, is to become Self-realised. This means that we see the ego, the movie of our life, is not who we are. When this is clearly seen, everything profoundly changes.

JD: It’s very easy to say, “I don’t need to look at anything, ‘I am nothing.’”

Q: I did therapy where I ended up in very nice love space with an open heart. Then I met you and Advaita and discovered this “Oh, I’m nothing,” and again I don’t need to look to anything.

JD: But this is just a nice idea. It is one of the popular mistakes made by people during the last years in Satsang, about non duality.

JD: Hello Bhakti, which is the Hindi word for devotion.

BHA: This is my treasure. In the first three minutes of silence, already I noticed I’m always just in thoughts.
So busy in the thoughts, and then I go more into myself and the tears came. If I hear you talking, then in just a short time I really can go into my heart. I appreciate this so much and I really recognise your energy, like a mystery.

Does sex help me to wake up or does it prevent me from that?

I think it can help and hinder. It depends. When sex is just pure, then actually it isn’t such a big deal. It’s an energy phenomenon.
Intimate relating creates an energy field, a circle between the two people. Normally, with sex, it’s between two people, but it could be the energy flowing through twenty people.

CH: I’m very touched.

JD: Yes.

CH: There’s a deep longing to really live, to connect and to share. It’s very, very strong, I didn’t expect that.

JD: This came out of just doing this ten minute exercise?

CH: Yes, a strong urge to live.

I have observed that amongst spiritual seekers there is some confusion about the topic of change. Often people have glimpses, moments or times when the identification with the thoughts, emotions and all the things that normally tie people down, breaks down.

Much of life has become solely focused on material wealth. Money has become the focus all around the world, and through that focus the planet itself has become threatened by the ecological consequences. Yet the economic rationalism of the society always takes first place.

Authentic Intimacy becomes possible when two people meet without the daily drama of “my life.” This relating is about presence, just being there in a dance with the other. Being present with everything that simply is.

In ancient times and still in modern India, a particular spiritual tradition is passed down from a teacher to a student and in turn to his student. So there is a sense of lineage and nobody takes any personal claim on that lineage. The truth is important, not the teacher.

There will be War until you find Inner Peace which is your Essential Nature.

Peace is your essential nature. Therefore there is nothing to do to be at Peace. We arrive on this planet in tremendous Peace with an invitation to enjoy, play and have fun! Then our parents raise us to be adults and without knowing better, they condition us to be nearly constantly at war.

The only sure way to step out of all the stories and all the nonsense is to really see with great clarity that this ‘me’ that we are so fond of referring everything to, simply doesn’t exist. Once you see it doesn’t exist then the whole thing falls away. Everything just falls away and you’re left with your essence.

What exactly is Love? Love is very, very difficult to talk about. I can start perhaps by talking about what love isn’t, because love isn’t all the love songs, all the romantic love stories, all the television dramas.
This drama of love between couples is definitely not really love.