Have the Conviction that You are Free

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.      

    If you have that complete conviction that you’re free, then your seeking starts to diminish, and even if you’re not completely free, because you’re not seeking, you’re not looking for freedom anymore.

     This was Nisargadatta’s experience, “My Master told me I’m free and I believed Him. It took me three years, but I still trusted Him and I didn’t doubt that I was free”. But it took three years for His liberation, for the realisation or the recognition to happen. He said, “I did what my Master told me, I spent every quiet moment I could on the I Am”.

      He said something that’s very interesting too, he said, “You’ve got a belief that you’re not free, the belief that you’re bound is false, so why not replace it with another belief that you’re free, even if you’re not. Because you’re not bound, that’s false. So believe that you’re free. Fake it” (laughter).

     He used to say, “Might as well take that belief instead of the other belief”. He said, “But if a person can’t trust the Guru, their Master, when the Master tells you they’re free, then it can take a long time”. I think with a lot of people it takes years and years.

      We can have a glimpse, and that glimpse makes the change, and I feel that after the glimpse nothing is ever the same again. Freedom is my nature, when you have that conviction completely, even if you still get caught up, then your mind is not going to bother you nearly so much.

     The mind is a lie, there’s hardly anything in there worth believing, unless it’s to do with your job, or something practical like that. Anything it tells you about you or the world, forget about it.

Murray. (At end of a 3hr talk.) Jan 2020 Tiruvannmalai