NO REMEDY
Part Two: The Complications of Sadhana
THE WAY OF DIVINE COMMUNION
On Turning to Me
(1) You must, through the experiencing of the effects of
your karmic, recoiled life, see that its destiny is entirely
negative, regardless of how you manipulate it. And only then
can you become capable of submitting to the real form, the
sacrificial form that is appropriate relative to each of
your functions. Therefore, you turn the mind into attention.
You turn the emotion into love. You turn the body into
presentation or relationship. It is a painful discipline,
but where there is insight or real sympathy with the Guru,
it becomes possible. And wherever it is done, to whatever
degree it is done, the force of contraction becomes
obsolete. The functions come to rest. You rest more and more
naturally, contemplatively in the Gurus Company and begin to
intuit his communication, his Nature
(2) DEVOTEE: Bubba, it used to seem that it was so easy
for me to turn to you. I just turned to you all the time,
but it is very hard for me now. I feel very much turned to
you now because I have been in your company for two days.
And I know that I could wake up tomorrow and it might be
over. Anyway it seems that it doesnt have anything to do
with me
(3) BUBBA: Obviously this turning to me is a discipline,
not something you do by tendency. It is difficult, so that
obligation must be a certainty in you, especially in those
moments and under those conditions when it is most
difficult
(4) DEVOTEE: I dont see that, Bubba. Thats what I wanted
to ask you about. I dont understand it that way. It seems to
me that when I feel that way, all I can do is say, “Bubba, I
dont understand this.”
(5) BUBBA: It has nothing to do with understanding
(6) DEVOTEE: I mean that I feel I cant do anything about
it
(7) BUBBA: You cant do anything about it, but you can
turn to me
(8) DEVOTEE: What Im asking you is, I feel that you turn
to me then. You know, I just ask you for your Grace
(9) BUBBA: I am always turned to you. But you can turn to
me regardless of what is happening. You cannot do anything
about all that is happening in you. Doing something relative
to what appears in you is not the focus of this way. The
focus is stepping aside from all the strategies you want to
create, positive and negative, relative to your usual
condition, and simply turning to me. You will notice over
time that the tendencies in you become weak and even
disappear. But your obligation is simply to turn to me,
without measuring that turning against what is happening
with you. Simply turn your attention to me, turn your
emotion as love to me, make yourself present to me with your
life
(10) DEVOTEE: When I surrender that. . .
(11) BUBBA: Simply do this turning
(12) DEVOTEE: Then I cant surrender it
(13) BUBBA: You can do this turning
(14) DEVOTEE: I mean that when I turn to you, I know you
are just Grace. Isnt that the same thing?
(15) BUBBA: Yes, in a certain sense it is the same thing,
but what I am talking about is very simple
(16) DEVOTEE: I dont understand what you are saying,
Bubba
(17) BUBBA: Turn your attention to me and do not measure
that turning relative to whether or not your mind stops and
you feel better. Love me and do not measure that against
whether or not you still feel negative emotions and
confusion. Give your life to me, turn to me bodily,
recollect me at all times, whether Im physically present
with you or not, and do not measure that activity against
whether or not you feel pains in your body. Maintain that
discipline of turning to me. It can be done, as long as you
do not associate that turning with the reading of the
problems in you. The turning can always be done. You are
never disabled in terms of that turning. It is only these
effects, because you are always reading them and wanting to
manipulate them, that make you doubt your ability to
turn
(18) But you can always turn. That is the principle
wherein these effects become obsolete, not in that moment
necessarily, although on some occasions they disappear
immediately. But ultimately they disappear, because they are
not being used. What you are doing is this turning. They are
simply memories presently communicating themselves as your
functions. They are a kind of remembering. But when your
conscious life becomes participation in relationship to me,
then these effects become obsolete. It is not for you to
measure that process, to decide when they should become
obsolete. Be willing to have these things arise in you
forever. Make your business turning to me.15
d* * *d
Note
15. Bubba Free John, “Have I Said It?” an unpublished
talk to the Ashram, January 29, 1976.
