ARE YOU THE SCREEN,
… OR THE IMAGES ON THE SCREEN ?
“All of life experiences, are images on the screen of Eternity.
The screen is Real.
The images change.
‘Consciousness’ is the screen.
When you identify with Consciousness, you become Consciousness.
When you identify with the image, you enhance the image, and you worry, and fret, and fear, and you have all sorts of experiences.
As soon as you begin to identify with Reality – with Consciousness;
all fear leaves you – all doubt leaves you, all false thinking leaves you, and you become Free.
But that’s the only Free Choice you get. Everything else has been preordained.
The Free Choice – again is:
with what are you going to identify; with the image, or the screen?”
The Self is your real nature, that’s what you are. The Self is consciousness.
What is consciousness?
Consciousness is the power that is conscious of itself. It is self-contained, it is omnipresent. When you speak of love, of peace, of God, of joy, of happiness, of bliss, you’re speaking of consciousness. These words are just other words for consciousness. Consciousness is you. The Self, consciousness, they’re all synonymous. They all pertain to you.
Now what have you been seeing? What have you been reacting to?
The mind goes out and causes problems and you try to resolve them. You cannot.
For when you resolve one problem another one pops up somewhere else and there’s no end to it. It’s like trying to figure out, what came first the seed or the tree? You never get anywhere, there’s no solution. People have been trying to resolve problems, since the beginning of time and the world is getting worse. There’s no adequate solution in trying to resolve anything in the outside. The great secret of course is to;
Leave the world alone, go within your Self and there you will find happiness, joy and peace.
But how do you go within yourself? How do you dive deep within yourself?
By asking the question, “Who am I?”
I have found this to be the fastest method there is, to awakening. There are other methods, but personally I found this the fastest. All you have to do is question, “Who am I?” You do not have to answer, you do not have to analyze anything, you do not have to come up with any solution. You simply ask the question,
“From whence did I come? Where did the I come from? What is the source of I?”
Many people have been practicing Jnana Marga have made the mistake of concentrating on the I and this is why you do not get anywhere. You concentrate on the source, not on the I. The I is only an illusion. It is only something that appears to be like your body. It has no momentum, it has no substance. But yet you have to watch the I. You have to abide in the I. For it leads you to the source of existence. The source of everything.
ROBERT ADAMS Transcript 29, p. 416 More On Satsang 9th December, 1990 Robert Adams Satsangs The Collected Works
When your mind starts thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking about good and bad, yousimply ask the question,
“To whom do these thoughts come?”
You do not answer you simply pose the question to yourself.
Everything happens within yourself.
“To whom do these thoughts come?” The answer will eventually come to you. “These thoughts come to me. I think them. I think them? I do? Who is this I. Well what is the source of the I?” You hold on to the I, but you do not concentrate on the I, you concentrate on the source.
“Well what is the source of the I.” For it seems that all of my problems are attached to I.
For I say, “I feel bad. I feel upset. I feel angry. I feel cheated. I feel emotional,” or even “I feel good. I feel
happy,” that’s human happiness.
You feel happy because somebody gave you something you like or somebody did something for you.
That’s just as bad as feeling depressed.
I feel this and I feel that, I feel that I am a Jnani, I feel that I am not a Jnani, I feel all kinds of things.
But there’s always I, I, I.
If you investigate you will find that everything is attached to the I. And if you get rid of the I, all of your problems, the whole world, the whole universe, God and everything related to it, will disappear.
And the source will be your true Self which is pure consciousness, ultimate oneness, nirvana, emptiness.
This is your true Self.
And you will look at the world as your Self.
You will still see the world but you will see it differently. Nothing will ever upset
you again. For you will realize that the world is your Self.
How can you be upset at your Self?
You have become an embodiment of divine love, bliss, pure intelligence, ultimate
awareness, sat-chit-ananda, parabrahman, that is omnipresence.
So how can you be angry or upset over anything if you are pure consciousness, you just cannot.
Do you see what I’m saying?
If you learn to identify yourself with consciousness, you will always be happy. If you keep identifying with world conditions or with your body or your mind, you will be miserable and you’ll have short spurts of happiness, when things go your way. But then you will not trust people.
You will be suspicious of everybody’s motives and you will feel that there’s something wrong.
If you want to know whether you’re a Jnani or not, ask yourself,
“When was the last time I saw something wrong?
When was the last time something wasn’t right when I had a bad thought when I believed somebody was doing some-
thing to me, or when I became angry,” and that will give you a good inclination where
you’re coming from.
What you see in yourself, you see in everyone else. If you’re self-realized, then you know your Self as omnipresence and you can only see love, peace, harmony and happiness in everybody.
The choice is yours.
The only freedom you’ve got on this planet, in this universe, is to make the choice to go within and not to react to any condition.
Everything else about you is preordained. Everything else about you is prarabdhic
karma. Even when I lift my hand like this, it’s karmic. But what have I got to do with my hand? I am not my hand, I am not my body, I am not my mind, I-am that I-am. Absolute awareness, pure intelligence, absolute reality, parabrahman, nirvana.
I am spaceless, I am birthless, I am deathless. Water cannot drown me and fire cannot burn me. That is my true nature.
Find your true nature my friends and you’ll always be happy. Om shanti.
“The person is not God, the body is not God, but you are God. The reason you will not accept the fact that you are God is because of your orthodox upbringing. You still believe God to be an anthropomorphic deity up in the sky, and if I tell you you’re God, you think it’s blasphemy. That only shows me that you are identifying with your body. You believe you are a body, and there is a God somewhere up in the sky that you’ve got to pray to, and if he is in a good mood, he’ll give you a boon. If he’s not feeling too good that day, he will throw a lightning bolt at you. People still believe that. The question is, what do you believe? It’s your life. What you believe, what you accept, becomes your lifestyle. You create it, you cause it. Why not experiment? Why not begin to believe that you are God? What is God? God is consciousness. What is consciousness? Something that is conscious of itself as pure awareness. And all of that is not some place outside of yourself. It is you. You are that. The whole universe is yourself. The whole universe is happiness, joy, love, peace. But you will never see that in the world until you see it within yourself. You must consequently practice seeing yourself as a loving person, as a kind person, as a joyous person. And then you will drop the person, and you will see yourself as omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence. You are the power. There is no other power but you. Many of you, most of your lives, have been dwelling on occult powers, trying to find the golden fleece, so-to-speak, outside of yourself. It has never been outside of yourself. Everything you’re looking for is within you. Stop searching outside of yourself. Everything you want is within you. The potential, the possibility for everything you can imagine is within you. The omnipresent Self is your real nature.” ~ Robert Adams
Every negative condition you see in the world is a lie. Every positive condition you see in the world is a lie. Reality is beyond positive and negative. Why do you see these things? Why do you worry and fret about your life or about the life of someone else?
What can possibly happen to you? Where can you go? Who suffers? Only the body-ego-mind suffers. To the extent that you can realize that you are not the body-ego-mind, to that extent do you become totally, absolutely free.
You take a look at yourself.
Look at the way your thoughts have been ruling you, keeping you in bondage to them, how your thoughts have caused you to fear, to be suspicious, to be doubtful, to be apprehensive, to worry, and you
begin to do the work.
As long as the thoughts keep coming, you have to ask the question
“To whom do they come?”
That’s how it all begins.
Forget about the world.
Forget about everything.
I know some of you are saying already
“If I forget about everything, how will it get done?”
As I explained to you before,
before you were born everything was already laid out, and your body is going to go through the experiences it has to go through, yet it has absolutely nothing to do with you.
So forget about that.
Deal with the thing at hand.
It meant first that your thoughts control you completely, and it’s hard for you to get away from them.
Then you start to work by inquiring
“To whom do they come?”
Whatever thoughts come to you, you pose the same question. It makes no difference whether the thoughts are good or bad.
Some of you are still believing that to pose the question “To whom does this come?” is only for bad thoughts, or when things are not going your way.
On the contrary. All thoughts are erroneous. No matter what kind of happy thoughts come to you, no matter what thoughts come to you that are horrible, you have to ask
“To whom do they come?
To whom do they come?
They come to me. I feel them. Since I can think about I, I must be separate from
myself, and all of my thoughts are threaded on the I.”
You therefore follow the I thread to the source, realizing all the time that you are not I. You become the witness to I.
That alone makes you feel wonderful, for you begin to realize that your real nature is freedom.
It is I who has the problems.
It is I who has the apprehension, the suspicions, the anger, the fears, the frustrations, the needs, the wants,
the desires, are all attached to I.
It is even I that wishes to become self-realized.
Watch the I.
Abide in the I.
Just by abiding in the I do thoughts begin to become weaker. When more thoughts come, you inquire again “To whom do they come?” and you realize they belong to the personal I. At this time, when you’re witnessing the I, do not inquire “Who am I?” but spend the time witnessing the I.
As further thoughts interrupt you, again inquire “To whom do they come?” Again “They come to me, to I.” Again
feel and realize that my real nature is safe and secure. It is I who has the problem. When you come to this realization
after a while, you then can inquire “Who is this I? Who am I?” Remember when you’re saying “Who am I? you’re
not talking about your real nature, who does not experience problems. You’re referring to your personal I, that is
separate and apart from you.
Where did this I come from?
Who gave it birth?
If you do this correctly, everything will come by itself. You will begin to feel and realize your self. “When I slept, I
was not bothered by I. When I dreamt I was not bothered by I. But now that I woke up, I is born. Who gave it birth?”
This kind of inquiry will cause something beautiful to happen to you. You will begin to feel that no one gave the I birth.
It never existed to begin with.
I know some of you still believe that consciousness, or the self, gave the I birth. How could this be? Consciousness,
the self, is all-pervading. It takes up all space. There’s no room for anything else. In other words, there cannot be
consciousness and you, or consciousness and I, or consciousness and the world, because there’s just no room. There
never was room for you and I. This will be a new revelation for you. You will awaken simply by realizing this great
truth.
When I say you look for the source of I, the source of I is nothing. It comes from no thing. But you will ask the question “Then why did it come at all?” And the answer is, it didn’t. The I exists like your body exists, like your mind exists, like the world exists, like the universe exists, like God exists. All of that is I. If none of these things
exist, neither does the I.
The important point to remember is, when you’re playing with the I, do not identify the I with the body or with yourself. Keep the I separate. Realize that your body is attached to the I, the universe is attached to the I, but the I does not exist. Nothing gave it birth. That’s why as I opened up the lecture tonight, I said your true nature is nothing.
You are plain nothing. You are no thing. No thing, nothing is consciousness, absolute reality, pure awareness. It is Parabrahman, it is beyond Brahman, and you are that. It begins and ends with you.
What do you do with all of your time during the day? There is no such thing as you’re too busy to practice self- inquiry. This should come first in your life, because this is your life. Everything else is secondary. If this appears too cdifficult for you in the beginning, surrender everything to God.
Let God take care of everything for you. Say something like this “God, self-inquiry is too heavy for me right now. I seem to go nowhere with it. But I surrender to
you my emotions, my body, my anger, my fears, my frustrations. I surrender the universe, the world. Everything that I believe I surrender to you. Take it and do as you will with me. I am only a puppet for you. Play with me as you desire,” and leave it at that.
As you keep on surrendering every day, twice a day, three times a day, just by that alone fear will leave you. Your frustrations will leave you. Your mind will not concentrate on your body. It will become
weaker just by surrendering.
The choice is yours. Do what you must. But remember, to go on playing the game of life will only lead you to more life, more births, more deaths, more frustration and more ignorance.
Realize the truth about yourself, and become free.
The Collected Works of Robert Adams Volume 1, page 248-249
There is only the One Brahman, the One Self, the One Reality, and we’re all That.
Therefore, I will make Our confession.
The “I-am” confesses to you. Not my confession or Henry’s confession, or Dana’s confession or anybody’s confession. Our confession.
The confession is not coming from a person, it’s coming from the One Self, it is the One Self.
Close your eyes. I Am boundless space, infinite like the sky, I Am.
Not a person, place or thing, but I Am.
I Am choiceless, effortless, Pure Awareness.
I Am Parabrahman. I Am Sat-Chit-Ananda.
I Am Ultimate Oneness. I Am
Absolute Reality. I Am Nirvana. I Am infinite like the sky. I Am Absolute Consciousness. I Am That I Am. I Am. I Am. I Am.
There are some who want to awaken with all their heart and with all their soul. Yet they always forget that they have to
get rid of the stuff that’s keeping them from awakening. The concepts, the preconceived ideas, the dogmas, the belief system that we’ve had for so many years. This has to be given up.
We must develop loving kindness, compassion. If you are I Am, then you must practice ahimsa, non-violence to any living thing. For if you admit and confess I Am Absolute Pure Awareness, I Am Parabrahman, this is All-Pervading, this is Omnipresence. Therefore the trees, the animals, the mountains, the Universe, everything, is I Am. When I use the word I Am, do not believe or think it applies to the human body. There is no human body. The human body does not exist. I Am Consciousness exists, and the “I-am” Consciousness is everything.
Everything is holy. Everything is sacred. Do not believe that some things are sacred and some things are not.
Everything is sacred, even man’s inhumanity to man, the dastardly situations that appear in the world. It’s hard for the human mind to understand these things, but everything is very sacred.
Everything is God. God is all there is.
There is nothing else. So how can there be an evil situation someplace and also be God? This is duality. And we know and understand that duality does not exist. There is only the ONE, and the ONE is everything that exists. You consequently have to start feeling this in your Heart. For your Heart center is Omnipresence, All-pervading. It includes the whole universe.
There is nothing to be angry about, nothing to be upset about, nothing to be depressed about, for the whole Universe is God and nothing else. You are not your body or your mind. We still make the mistake in believing that when you say I
Am Brahman, you’re referring to your body.
Your body can never be Brahman.
The body is an illusion, a mirage.
Well, you know, the mind is nothing. The mind is only a bunch of thoughts. Thoughts about the past and the future, that is all a mind is. But, the Heart is a center of stillness, of quietness, of Absolute Peace. When you rest your mind in your heart, you feel a joy and a bliss that overwhelms you, and you will know. Surrender your mind to your Heart, and you will feel it. ~Robert Adams
When Ifirst read this I was not a little disquieted. Then I got it: of course, in the illusion – if you believe it – you’re in it!
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“Whatever your karma is, is going to happen, no matter what you do. So why concern yourself ? See whatever you’re going to do, you will not be able to stop. “The way to see it is like this. Let your body do whatever it has to do. Do not think about it too much. Do not identify with it. Do not attach yourself to it. Everything was preordained before you came into existence. It will take care of itself. The apples grow, the grass grows, the sun shines, there’s warmth to make human life exist, there is a power that takes care of everything and it has nothing to do with our thoughts.”
All is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There was once a Prime Minister of a large Kingdom. And he went to his Guru who simply used to say, “All is well and everything is unfolding as it should.” And the Prime Minister used to wonder why he says this. And the Guru would say, “Just come here and listen to those words and repeat them to yourself.” He did this often enough, enlightenment came. And he did realize, all is well and everything is happening as it should.
So he went back to the kingdom and sat in his chair and gave advice to the people as he usually did. Now the head of the security force had a problem. That day he was due to get promoted to chief and he was bypassed and somebody else got promoted, so he was disturbed. He went to see the Prime Minister and told him his troubles. And the Prime Minister smiled at him and said, “Don’t worry, all is well and everything is unfolding as it should.” And the guard got mad, he went away mumbling, “How can he tell me something like this, this is ridiculous.”
Now the head chef had a problem because his wife ran away with one of the cooks. And he was very disturbed. He came to the Prime Minister and said, “Mr Prime Minister what should I do? My wife ran away. I feel very bad.” The Prime Minister said, “Don’t worry, all is well and everything is unfolding as it should.” And the chef got very upset and he left.
He was walking down the hall and he bumped into the guard and they related their stories. And they said, “Lets fix this guy. He can’t tell us things like this, we have serious problems.” And they were thinking of a way to get even. They were walking down the corridor and they saw the royal barber shop. And there was the king getting his royal shave. The barber inadvertently slipped and cut the kings throat and it was deep gash. Royal blood was spilling all over the floor. (laughter) And they both looked and they said, “I know what we’ll do,” they conceived a plan. When the king was feeling better with a bandage around his neck. They went and said, “Your majesty, we went and told the Prime Minister that you cut your royal neck and you know what he said? He said, All is well and everything is unfolding as it should.” So the king said, “What! Bring him to me.” So they brought the prime minister and the king said, “Look at my neck, I’m in total pain. Do you see the cut and the bandage? What do you think of that?” And the prime minister looked and he said, “Don’t worry your majesty, all is well and everything is unfolding as it should,” and the king said, “What! How dare you tell me something like this when I’m in pain, throw him in the dungeon!” So they threw the prime minister in the dungeon.
Now, it was Wednesday afternoon. And every Wednesday afternoon the king went hunting in the jungle with the prime minister. But since the prime minister was in the dungeon he went hunting by himself.
Now in the jungle there lived a tribe of Kali worshippers. And these Kali worshippers always sacrificed somebody to Kali. And this was the day of the sacrifice. So the chief of the Kali worshippers told the worshippers, “Go out and find me somebody virtuous so we can sacrifice this person to Kali.” They got on their horses and rode out. And sure enough they found the king. And they didn’t care whether he was a king or what he was. They grabbed him and took him to the chief. And the chief said, “Good you found somebody, undress him and bathe him and let’s sacrifice him.” They proceeded to undress him and they saw the cut on his neck. And they showed the chief and the chief said, “What! This guys no good, he’s not pure. Throw him back where he came from.” And they took him back and let him go.
On the way back to the kingdom the king started to think and he said, “Now wait a minute, if didn’t get this cut I would be dead meat. The prime minister was right,” and he rode back to the kingdom, to the palace and he said, “Release the prime minister.” Which he did and he related the story to the prime minister and he said,”you were right all the time.” So the prime minister said, “Not only that your majesty, but if I rode with you today and you didn’t throw me into the dungeon, they would have caught me also and I didn’t have a cut and they would have sacrificed me to Kali. So by being in the dungeon my life was spared.” This story shows you that when something happens to you and you try to solve it by blaming others or believing there’s something wrong you are making a dreadful mistake. For if you are able to see the whole picture, whatever happens to you is for your ultimate good.
Never curse the darkness if you don’t understand what’s going on.
This is why when things are troubling you and you have no idea, why, and you think you have got bad luck, or people are against you, or life is very hard. If you would merely go within yourself, dive deep within yourself and ask yourself, “To whom does this come?” or “who am I?” and follow the I to the source, everything will be revealed to you. EVERYTHING will be revealed to you. And you will find unalloyed happiness, total joy and total peace. But you have to do the work. You cannot just ride through life and take things as they come. Simply begin the work of self-inquiry and everything else will take care of itself. And remember do not ask about time, when it’s going to happen. It will take care of itself.
