“[Your becoming enlightened] may be gradual at first. You notice that things that used to annoy you, no longer annoy you. You notice that people that you live with, the conflicts you’ve had, they stop because you’ve stopped. There’s no more trying to get even. There’s no more trying to win your point. There’s no more trying to find the right book, or the right teacher, or the right anything. You remain centered. You remain free.

When something comes along, whether it’s good or bad, you simply sit where you are and you ask, ‘To whom has this come?’ and you laugh, for you have separated yourself from your body-mind and you begin to realize that your body-mind is going through the experience, but not you.

So there is nothing to worry about. There’s nothing to fear. There’s nothing that can upset you. There’s nothing that can harm you. You realize whatever someone does to your body, physically, or with words, or otherwise, can never, ever hurt you because you are not your body. No matter what anyone tells you, no matter what you see with your eyes, [nothing can ever] affect you, for you are not your mind. You have actually separated your Self from your body and your mind.

That’s only the beginning.

As you go further your body and your mind drop off. I don’t mean that you die. I mean that they become less and less important to you, and you no longer identify with them at all. You actually know, and you feel, and you experience, that your body and mind do not exist, yet you exist. You do not exist as your body or your mind. You exist as absolute reality, as consciousness, and you no longer believe that your body and your mind are a modification of consciousness. You just know that there is no body and there is no mind. You are egoless. There is no reason for your body, mind or the world to exist.

You may first feel this slightly, but you will notice the greater the feeling, the greater the happiness. You are beginning to merge in consciousness. You are beginning to feel reality. The world goes on, people do what they always do, yet you see it quite differently. You no longer see the same world you used to see. It’s like reading a magazine. The images in a magazine are in front of you but you are not the magazine and you are not the images.

Who you are may still be a mystery. Remember, as long as you can express it, it’s not that. Therefore you do not walk around telling everybody, ‘I am pure reality,’ or ‘I am consciousness.’ You remain silent. By their fruits ye shall know them. You become a light in the world of darkness. Automatically people come around you and they just feel good by being around you. You have found peace. It has always been you. You have really not found anything. You have just become your Self.”

~ Robert Adams