QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Can you talk a little bit about the issue of speed? The world in many contexts seems to be moving faster and faster and faster. What impact does this have on our consciousness and our ability to drop?
The faster the world moves, the more difficult it is to drop. The faster the world moves, the more information we get. We are processing much more information and this also adds stress. Amidst all this processing, we forget to question the basics.
One important thing to note is, when everybody is engaged in so much work, we forget to question the whole system. There is so much to get done, to be accomplished, that we have no time to question the basic stuff underlying the system.
That is why in Bharat, the first thing they do in their traditional education system is, raise basic doubts. Until the age of twenty five, nobody can take up any job.
Each person will have to raise basic doubts and live with them; and question again and again; search. Only when they achieve the balance of discovering the answer unto themselves, into their being, only then are they allowed to enter into life: whether into marriage, making money, or anything else.
Until the age of twenty five, it is called the period of brahmacharya. This period means studying, living with Existence, living with doubts, searching within one.
Of course, the greater the speed of the world, the less possibility there is of dropping.
You can drop out, but not drop in.
Are there many phases to this dropping in? For example, you talked about one phase, this person who is living in a ten foot by ten foot room?
Yes, there are many phases. Just see what happens when you drop in.
What happens after you drop in is tremendous, totally different from what you might imagine it to be. But dropping in is only one thing; one aspect. Once you drop in, whatever happens when you rise, rises in thousands of ways - different for each person.
One person might go around the world and preach. Another might sing and dance, like the great enlightened lady Meera. Another might sit under a banyan tree like Buddha. Some may just walk around without clothing, like Mahavira. There are so many expressions after dropping in.
But the dropping in is common for everybody. After that, when you rise, you rise in many, many ways. Ramana Maharishi himself never sat inside a ten foot by ten foot room. He moved around within the whole city, although he never went outside the city. But his disciple has been sitting inside one room.
So each one to his own method of expression. Buddha was quiet and silent; peaceful. Krishna was singing and dancing. So, it is totally based on the individual's experience.
Things are speeding up so much that we cannot drop. In general, everything seems to be moving faster, so it almost seems like it is by design that we should not drop.
I think we must take a little time to doubt basic conclusions.
The other day I read a beautiful book, The Final Theory. If you have read that book, you might have been just as surprised as I was. Basic ideas about gravity - Newton's laws, Einstein's theories, everything is questioned; everything is questioned. I was shocked! How did we miss such basic questions about these theories?
When we accepted Newton's theories or Einstein's Theory of Relativity, everything fell in place. But from the book Final Theory, you can make out that there are so many basic scientific questions which have not been raised at all.
So before going further, we must raise some basic questions. We must take time to doubt basic ideas. We cannot put the responsibility on society saying, 'It is speeding up; it affects me in this way, so I cannot, etc.'
Of course, when we say that we cannot, we will go along with it, no problem there. But if at all we want the truth, the ultimate experience, if at all we are really in search of bliss, we must raise these questions.
See, there are two things that we are all searching for: some people are searching for status, some for the state. If one is looking for status, one can run with the speed. Status is different from state. If the state comes, status will follow. If status comes, we cannot be sure that the state will follow. So if we really want to achieve the state of bliss, we have to question the basic assumptions which we have made.
Master, what are the steps to drop? You just said, 'Drop.' How do we empower the mind to drop?
The first step is to drop this idea. The mind will then empower you!
But you will say, 'The mind is too difficult; I have tried this so many times; the mind never accepts.' All these are just ideas which you have given strength to. Just try to relax from these ideas.
Decide: for the next ten days, I will not repeat these ideas in my mind. I will not allow these words to come into my mind.
For just ten days, don't give any power or strength to words such as, 'It is very difficult to drop, master. You don't know. It is easier said than done. I have tried many times. It is very solid. The mind is very complicated.' Just don't give power to these words for ten days. For ten days, repeat 'No! The mind can be dropped. After all it is I who is thinking.'
To be sure, are you clear that nobody else is sitting inside you and thinking? Are you the one who is sitting and thinking? When you are sure that it is you who is sitting and thinking, why can't you change? It is you after all. It was you who created your world, your perceptions of weakness, word by word, sentence by sentence.
The moment the first word comes into your thoughts, just catch it. Why do you allow the whole sentence to come out? Then you go around crying, 'Oh! This is difficult! That is difficult! This is difficult!' The moment the first word comes out, catch it. Just say, 'Stop! For ten days I am packing you off on a holiday!' So just from today, for ten days, decide: for the next ten days, I will not give power to these words.
I tell you, after the tenth day, these thoughts will never come back. I tell you, in the last two years, I have met people individually. And I have healers doing healing service. With all my experience I tell you, I have seen people like you who ask this question. Exactly the same question! All can drop. And there are many who are successful. Just for ten days, not more than that. I am not asking you for anything more than that. Just for the next ten days decide: I will not repeat these words and give power to these words.
All these are just words, pure words. It is you who creates these self-contradicting words and gets into trouble. We go and face the corner of a room where the two walls meet and we cry, 'Oh! I am in a prison! I am in a prison! I am caught! I am caught!' We never turn and see the third side; we never turn and see that the room is actually wide open. We never take the time to turn around to another side and see that we are free; that we are liberated.
We are always binding ourselves with the 'second person' - 'you' and 'third person' - 'he'; we are always looking at the outer world or feel we are being looked at by others. We look at everything else other than ourselves, the 'I', the 'first person'. We never look into the 'first person' to see that we are liberated.
First of all, there is no 'first person'. We always see our face in the 'second person' and the 'third person'; and we think that we are bound by the way we are seen. Just turn around and look at yourself again. There is no 'first person'. When there is no 'first person', how can there be second or third persons? Neither are we bound nor do we need liberation.
All our fears, our worries, our feelings of separateness, are built on our idea of being the first person; our idea of 'I'; our idea of the 'first person'. The 'first person' himself doesn't exist. He is not there in the way we think. Please be very clear: in the way we think, he is not there. Just turn in and see! He is not there. Then why do you need to liberate yourself from the 'second person' and the 'third person'? There is no need.
But as long as we are hitting our head against the 'second person' and the 'third person', we will never be liberated. It's like we are hitting our head on the wall; we can never be liberated. The moment we turn in and see, the moment we fall in, we will see that there is no 'first person' and therefore there is no second or third persons either.
We are just fighting with our concepts. We are just fighting with our so-called fears; our self-created boundaries and anxieties. The fear of separateness is nothing but a concept. It is just based on, built on the concept that we are somebody. When we look, we will understand that we are not as we think.
I have been in constant physical pain for the past 5 years. Can you help?
I can help you in two ways.
The first is: try to drop that word 'pain' and start seeing the whole thing as a new experience. If you are feeling pain somewhere, just see what is happening in that area, like a child would look at something new, with curiosity. That is the first step.
Next, I will try to help you by healing after the class.
Both of these will help you.
This is a follow-up question to when you said that there are thousands of ways in which we can rise, after we fall in. Some people laugh, some stay quiet, etc. Is it possible for us to do the same things that we are doing every day?
Of course! You will do the same thing every day, but in a different way; a much better way, that's all.
Your energy will not be sucked in as it is currently by your psychological worrying. Right now, up to 80% of your inner chattering is taken up by unnecessary worrying.
Try this simple experiment. Speak whatever comes to your mind for ten minutes and record it. Whatever comes up, don't edit it, just record it as such. Then transcribe the tape; write it down. Read the page.
You will find that not even 10% of what you have written is directly related to your life, or is going to help you. Not even 10% of your thoughts will be directly related to your life. You will find that there are things simply going on in your mind. It is almost like running a lunatic asylum. Each sense is pulling the mind in different directions; there are so many different kinds of thoughts. You don't even realize this most of the time.
But when you drop the past, once you start living in the present, once you start experiencing consciousness, this waste of energy will not be there. You will not be drained so easily.
We are drained so easily because even to make a single decision, we have to move our file through ten thousand tables. Thousands and thousands of our energy clots have to say 'yes'. Only then will we be able to make a single decision. If the energy clots are removed, we will be able to make that same decision in a split second.
The other day in St.Louis, the doctor who has been researching my neurological system, was analyzing what happens in my brain at the time of meditation. He says that my right brain is very active; many times more active than the left brain. He said that the information in my brain will be processed so easily and so quickly. If the left brain takes minutes to process some information, the right brain takes only a fraction of a second to process that same information. He said, I would simply be making decisions without any worry.
He also says that the right brain is more related to global thinking and timeless zones. He said that I will be continuously experiencing the timeless awareness, which is the greatest freedom.
Time-bound awareness or space-bound awareness is what we call bondage. We call this, banda in Sanskrit. Timeless awareness and spaceless awareness is what I call mukti or enlightenment - liberation.
So all you need to do is to drop the past, and you will find that you will be able to do your job in a much better way, a much more creative way, a much more beautiful way, a much more spontaneous way and a much more responsible way.
This ability to make spontaneous decisions, is what I call responsibility. If you are able to make spontaneous decisions, you are responsible; you have responsibility; you become responsible not just to yourself in a selfish way but to all those around you. You will start radiating love and compassion. You will experience and spread eternal bliss, nithyananda.
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