Robert Adams: “Ramana Maharshi said to me, “The only spiritual life you need is not to react.” To be calm is the greatest asset in the world. It’s the greatest siddhi, the greatest power you can have. If you can only learn to be calm you will solve every problem. This is something you must remember. When you are perfectly calm, time stops. There is no time, karma stops, samskaras stop. Everything becomes null and void. For when you are calm you are one with the entire energy of the universe and everything will go well with you. To be calm means you are in control. You’re not worried about the situation, the outcome. What is going to happen tomorrow. To be calm means everything is alright. There is nothing to worry about, nothing to fret over. This is also the meaning of the biblical saying, “Be still and know that I am God.” To be calm is to be still.”
“All is well. Exceedingly well. In order for you to prove this you have to let go of those things that have been hounding you for years. Those things that appear to be wrong or erroneous. You have to turn away from these things and turn to consciousness [Self], which is your friend, your lover. Which will never desert you, never leave you, which is always with you under all circumstances. All you have to do is know this truth. That is all you have to do is know it. Know it intimately and wonderful things will begin to happen to you.”
~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)
“Consciousness is everything—never forget this. Consciousness is absolute reality, pure awareness and pure awareness is Brahman. If you could only realize that consciousness is everything, you’d be at peace and you’d be very happy.
For consciousness is peace, love, God, bliss. And if you remember that you are consciousness, and so is everything else, how can you be sad or upset or depressed or feel there’s a problem going on?
It’s virtually impossible to have a problem of any kind when you consider and ponder that consciousness is everything. Everything, everyone, every situation, no thing is apart from consciousness. But when you know that consciousness is bliss, nothing will ever disturb you again.
Whatever your eyes behold, whatever your ears hear, wherever you are, wherever you go, realize that consciousness is all of these things. Everything is consciousness, everything! Again, this means that everything is harmony. Everything is good. Everything is perfect, just the way it is!”
~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)
“When the sun is covered by clouds, you think there is no sun, the sun has disappeared. Yet once the clouds dissipate, the sun shines once more with all its glory and splendor. And so it is with the mind. You have believed that the mind causes you to function, to shine, and this is not necessarily true. The mind is here to keep you earthbound.
When you stop thinking, the mind becomes the infinite, becomes God, becomes boundless space, nirvana, pure awareness. It doesn’t really become that. You’ve always been that. The mind merely disappears, as a mind, and your true nature is expressed.”
~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)
“When the mind has been transcended there is no longer a world that you see like it was before. You see the world as images, appearances on the screen of life and you become blissful. You become more blissful than anything this earth can offer you. This world, this universe cannot offer you anything as good as this bliss that you already are.
… And we want to have this bliss because it’s our natural state. This bliss is peace, happiness, joy. Can you ever imagine being in eternal happiness, eternal peace, eternal joy? When nothing bothers you any longer. Nothing comes into your mind any longer. Nothing disturbs you any longer. Yet the so-called disturbances are still going on. They’re still going on as it was before but not for you.
For you no longer have a mind to comprehend these things. The mind has been totally annihilated, totally destroyed. The body will continue what it does yet you will understand that you are not the body. You are not the doer. You are free. You are total freedom. You are effortless, choiceless, pure awareness. This happens by itself.”
~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)
That’s what the silence is. It’s not being quiet. It’s beyond that.
It’s not just quieting your mind, like I say all the time.
It’s understanding that there’s no mind to quiet.
When you realize there’s no mind, you automatically become silent.
When you still think you’ve got a mind, you make every effort to quiet the mind, and you can’t.
How many of you believe you can quiet the mind through effort?
You can’t do that. It’s not the effort that makes you quiet your mind.
It’s the intelligent understanding that you have no mind to begin with.
Then you just keep still and everything takes care of itself.
If you have to meditate, by all means meditate.
This path is never against any other method, due to the fact they all eventually lead to awakening.
You have to do whatever you have to do.
But for those who can understand what I’m talking about, and realize you’re dealing with no mind, no body, no world, no universe, no God, an awakening comes immediately, because there’s no one who is sleeping.
Do you follow this?
–Robert Adams – T52: Jnana Marga – The Path Of Knowledge – 14th March, 1991
“In silence there is power, in silence there is the highest truth, in silence there is pure awareness. When we talk too much, when we get involved in too much discourse with people, when we talk too much about philosophical teachings, spirituality, it loses the essence of the teaching.
When you hear about your self, you hear me telling you, you are pure awareness, boundless space, sat-chit-ananda, you are the Self, when you’ve practiced observation, observing, being the witness, when you’ve practiced vichara, self-inquiry, and you’ve done this for many years, it is then time to be silent.
It is then time to keep quiet, not to allow your thoughts to go any further. When I say to keep silent, I do not mean just keeping quiet, when your mind keeps thinking, thinking, thinking, I am referring to quieting the mind. When there is no longer any noise in your mind, when the mind becomes quiescent, the reality appears by itself.”
~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)
ROBERT ADAMS
Excerpt from: Satsang
Q/A: ‘Mind, Senses and Doer’
As you keep giving up all the reactions to life. As you begin to surrender everything to the one Self. The one Self which is the absolute reality, the pure awareness takes over. And will do whatever you have to do, even better than you can do it yourself. This power that knows the way will take you over completely. And it will speak for you. Do everything for you that you have to do and yet you will feel that you are not the doer. Yet everything will be done perfectly.
Many people are afraid to give up their senses. For they believe that they will turn into a vegetable. But this is not true. You will always function. You will always do what you came to this earth to do. And you will even do it better than you ever can imagine. So do not concern yourself about these things. SImply go within, surrender everything to the Self. Give up everything.
SZ: But in our daily lives we have to also sometimes pay attention to many things. Life requires us to solve many practical problems.
R: Yes of course. But as I said the Self will take over and do all these practical things for you without you believing that you’re the doer. Everything will be done. You will see.
SZ: We have to pay attention to many things therefore we cannot give up the tendency to follow the arising things.
R: As you follow the arising things as you say all of the senses will become destroyed and the Self will take over. And the Self will do the things that has to done. Everything will be okay. You don’t have to worry.
SZ: Do you mean, when I abandon the tendency to fix the things by my attention, the Self will take over and will automatically fulfill all the functions?
R: Yes, exactly.
SZ: And when things are arising, I follow them or not by my senses?
R: No, the idea is to get rid of the senses. You do not want to use your senses to do anything. What you should do in your case, is to inquire, “To whom do these things come?” And as they come you say to yourself, “They come to me. I feel these things. Then who am I? What is the source of the I that feels these things?” And the I will disappear one day and you will be completely free.
SZ: Another question is that, our body must be prepared to receive the grace of the liberation? If the body is not prepared then the shock of the grace will cause great harm to our bodies? And does that mean our growth for liberation will take time?
R: If you inquire correctly. Every time a thought comes to you, just like the thought that you just had. If you ask, “To whom does this thought come? Who is thinking these things? To whom do they come? Who do they come to?” and you say, “They come to me.” The me you’re referring to is the ego, the mind. So you ask further, “What is the source of this ego or the mind? What is the source of the I that thinks all these things?” And you keep still, then slowly but surely the I will begin to be dissolved and the one Self will take over and there will be no problems.
SZ: But when I think about the practical problems of life I must think to solve the problem. Is that true?
R: You think what about the problem? You have to solve the problem? Do you think you have to solve the problem?
SZ: Yeah.
R: As long as you’re speaking as you are, you’re speaking from the senses. So you will have to solve the problem. But if you go beyond the senses by inquiring, “To whom do the senses come?” You will realize that you have no senses whatsoever. And you will be free of solving problems by yourself. Things will come easy for you. Everything will happen like it’s supposed to.
See all the questions you’re asking is from the sense of your ego, your mind. Get rid of all this and everything will take care of itself.
“We believe erroneously that person, place and thing bring us happiness. There is no thing external to you that can ever bring you happiness. Why? Because happiness is your very nature. You are happiness all by yourself. When you go after happiness outside of yourself, you have to know that it’s a temporary condition.”
~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)
“The ultimate reality is part of us already. But yet we go through all kind of practices, meditations, sadhanas, trying to awaken the kundalini, doing all kinds of Tantric exercises, learning the Kabbalah, practicing Taoism, doing all these things that are completely unnecessary and ridiculous. … They’re not a waste of time because if you didn’t do them, you wouldn’t be here, you wouldn’t be in a class that teaches Advaita Vedanta.
You wouldn’t be seeking complete freedom. Everything you’ve done has led you to this. Yet, it is all a bunch of nonsense. How can they both be correct? How can it be necessary and also be a bunch of nonsense? As long as you refuse to awaken, and you refuse to see yourself as no body, you’re going to go through all these rituals and all these experiences, and practice all these teachings, and memorize the bible, and the sutras, and everything else.
You’re going to go through all kinds of teachings again, and again, and again, and again, perhaps for many, many lives, until you awaken to the fact that it is not the teaching that’s going to awaken me, … it is no person, place or thing that can ever awaken me, and free me from bondage to myself, from bondage to maya [illusion], to the universe, to the world.
And this is the beginning of wisdom, when you realize this.”
~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)
