|
“No One Survives Beyond That
Moment” From The Method of the Siddhas – 1978
Author(s): Adi Da Samraj
THE METHOD OF THE SIDDHAS
(1978)
Part I: The Method of the
Siddhas
CHAPTER 12
No One Survives Beyond That
Moment
(1) DEVOTEE: Are we
evolving?
(2) FRANKLIN: What do you
think?
(3) DEVOTEE: I think we are
evolving toward the astral.
(4) FRANKLIN: What is so good about
“astral”?
(5) DEVOTEE: Well, nothing. But as
far as evolution goes, there is a constant change. Is it
constant change? Where are we going? What is it doing for
us? What is it?
(6) FRANKLIN: Is it?
(7) DEVOTEE: Well, it seems to be,
but I am in a dilemma. Is evolution part of the
dilemma?
(8) FRANKLIN: There is this
dilemma.
(9) DEVOTEE: There is dilemma. Yes.
Then it is part of the dilemma.
(10) FRANKLIN: What is the
question?
(11) DEVOTEE: Now, Im really
confused.
(12) FRANKLIN: Are you talking
about anything? In this concern for “evolution,” are you
really talking about something?
(13) DEVOTEE: I dont really
understand what evolution is, or even if there is
evolution.
(14) FRANKLIN: That is the
truth.
(15) DEVOTEE: There is no
evolution?
(16) FRANKLIN: That you dont
know.
(17) DEVOTEE: Yes.
(18) FRANKLIN: What you know is
this dilemma, this confusion, this ignorance about your own
propositions. That is the truth. That is your experience.
This “evolution” doesnt really exist as an experience. You
are not certain of it, of its existence, of its quality, of
its nature, of its direction, of its relation to you. You
know nothing whatsoever about it. Why are we talking about
it?
(19) The truth is that you are
confused. There is this dilemma. There is suffering.
Questions about “evolution” are completely beside the point.
Such questions, for the time being, are ways of drawing
attention away from your actual state, of distracting
yourself from that confusion, temporarily. We could take
this symbolic category of “evolution,” and we could talk
about it from many different points of view. We could create
all kinds of mind-forms with it. But after we have said it
all, nothing will have been added in the way of real
experience, and you will remain in the same state you were
in when you asked the question.
(20) So this “evolution” question
doesnt represent anything significant. It is not your real
question. The real question is your actual state. That is
the question. That is the question you are truly asking,
that you are always asking. You present your very life to
the world in the form of a question. You are this real
question. But you conceal it from consciousness. Therefore,
it exists only as your chronic state , your suffering, your
search, your dilemma. Ordinarily a man does not ask his real
question. He only lives it and performs it as seeking,
suffering and death. Sadhana, or real spiritual practice in
relation to the Guru, is the means whereby men become
conscious of their real questions.
(21) Just so, the “answer” to your
real question has nothing whatever to do with evolution, or
any other arbitrary “topic” the mind can select. The true
answer is not in the form of a response to a symbolic
question. The true answer must be a radical transformation
of your state. That is the answer to your question. And if
this state that you are always in, this confusion, this
dilemma, is utterly, radically overcome, then the nature of
this whole appearance of life and world also will become
obvious. The answer of the Guru to his devotee comes through
the discipline of real conditions, demands for functional
action, the sadhana which is always generated in his
company.
(22) There is absolutely no point
whatsoever in talking about evolution. It is an arbitrary
distraction you have selected from the pattern of your own
movements. You have chosen it from the moving confusion of
your ordinary state. That confusion is our genuine concern
in these talks. All our questions are forms of this dilemma,
this state. Every question is in the form of a dilemma, and
every verbal or mental dilemma is an expression of an
underlying state that shapes every moment of the usual life.
The arbitrary creation of “questions,” of artifices to
occupy the mind, is a way of distraction from this state. It
is a form of self-indulgence. To answer such questions is
only to serve bewilderment, unconsciousness, fear, ignorance
and all the qualities of seeking and suffering. I know that
you have been upset for several days, crazy with this whole
movement in yourself, and now you want to talk about
evolution. What has that got to do with anything? This
suffering that is begun must continue. The death must
occur.
(23) DEVOTEE: It just goes on and
on and on. It never seems to stop.
(24) FRANKLIN: The death. That is
what you want to get away from. You would “evolve” to the
astral world, and so escape this necessary death. There is
no elimination of death, no ultimate avoidance of death. You
are trying to prevent death, this very crisis, by occupying
yourself with symbolic questions.
(25) DEVOTEE: But thats the only
answer, that death. Why dont we? Why do we keep fighting and
fighting?
(26) FRANKLIN: Keep fighting
what?
(27) DEVOTEE: This thing. We know
we are fighting it, and, yet, we cant help it. Why are we
avoiding it? How do we get out of it?
(28) FRANKLIN: This desire is
another form of that same avoidance. But it has already
begun. This transformation, this conflict, this crisis has
begun in you. It has become intensified. You are beginning
to find your real question. It is your death. That is the
significant event. There is no distraction from it. There is
no consolation for it. But it is true and real. Evolution
can make no difference. Translation to the astral plane can
make no difference. None of that can change this chronic
state. This crisis would still be necessary, no matter where
in all the worlds you happened to appear. This crisis is the
peculiar event of all life. Going to the astral plane does
not change that necessity. Intelligence is still
required.
(29) This question about evolution
represents a form of “concern,” a search. That is what is
communicated to me in the form of your question. It has no
real content other than that. It is only because this crisis
is occurring that you have the least interest in evolution.
But for one who is dying there is no evolution. What does he
care whether the seven hundred billion that remain behind
him are transformed into ducks or luminous red astral
bodies? His death is the only remaining content of his life.
From the point of view of his experience, there is no
evolution. There is only sudden death. But this death is
true, it is the real process. So it is worth seeing, worth
living, because this real death of which I speak is the very
crisis of consciousness that serves both Truth and
life.
(30) One who awakens is not
concerned for the destiny of those who appeared along with
him in his dream. There is no such destiny, there is no one.
All that appears in the universal form or great cosmic
process is a spontaneous display, like the conditions that
appear in dreams. All of that goes on in any case. But now
you are beginning to see this more fundamental condition
underlying your adventure of distraction in the cosmic
event. In the past you did not see it, or know it for what
it was. To the degree you felt it at all, it was a subtle
sensation, a discomfort, a sort of formless craziness, a
wildness, but now you are beginning to know what it really
is. Now you are beginning to know it as your chronic state.
But you will come to recognize it as your own activity. You
are beginning to be aware of it more or less continually.
That continuous awareness is the self-purifying sadhana of
real spiritual life.
(31) DEVOTEE: Even one who comes to
reside in the Heart has patterns and rules which he has to
follow on his journey. Otherwise, certain things wont open.
There are rules which he cant switch away. So there is in
fact a pattern, isnt there?
(32) FRANKLIN: A pattern of
what?
(33) DEVOTEE: By which the universe
is ordered. Even if a person comes from any state, seeks the
light, and finally resides in the Heart, he must go by
certain signs along the way. It is different for each
person, but still there are rules.
(34) FRANKLIN: If they are
different, what is this specific pattern?
(35) DEVOTEE: There isnt one that
fits everyone, but still there are patterns
existing.
(36) FRANKLIN: Of course, there are
apparent patterns in life. But the Heart is not someplace
else. The Heart is not a point separate from any other
place. It is not in a certain direction. It is not the end
of any particular road. It is not the goal. If you are
speaking of the “causal” center, the heart-center on the
right side of the chest, it is indeed a point, a place, a
psycho-physical sensation. But the true Heart is another
word for the one, unqualified Reality.
(37) DEVOTEE: That becomes true,
once you realize it. But between the time you know it and
the time you are only approaching it, there are still
patterns.
(38) FRANKLIN: They are your own
patterns. They are your apparent condition. They are the
subtle forms of cognition which help to fabricate the
dilemma and the search, prior to the enjoyment of the Heart,
which is radical understanding. But in Satsang, the
relationship to the man of understanding, or the Guru, the
Heart establishes a living relationship with the individual,
and then it no longer makes any difference to him what the
patterns are. The patterns are simply observed from that
moment. Another kind of condition is lived, and so these
patterns become obsolete. They fall away, until only the
Heart stands out. From the point of view of the true
disciple, there is no significance to the patterns. There is
no significance . “Significance” is your dilemma. It is the
pattern of your own mind-forms. That is the only thing that
obstructs perfect consciousness. It is neither external nor
internal. All that arises is only a modification of your own
ultimate nature and condition. When this is perfectly
understood, the enjoyment realized in understanding is
called the “Heart.” There is no subjective, no objective, no
external, no universe, no astral world, from the point of
view of the Heart. All such phenomena are simply apparent
modifications of the Heart.
(39) Until a man truly enters into
Satsang with his Guru, he is very concerned about the way,
about this pattern of his own growth and experience, his own
transformation, his own liberation. But when he enters into
the condition of Satsang, his concerns, his path, his
patterns become obsolete. All of that is simply not
supported. He simply lives the condition and conditions of
relationship generated in his Gums company, and the patterns
subside. They become obsolete, without function. Therefore,
concern for those patterns is more evidence of the search,
of this fundamental dilemma.
(40) All movements within the
cosmic and universal form are movements within the cosmic
and universal form. No movement implies or leads to Reality.
All movements lead to terminals within the great form
itself, to more states, more change, more phenomena. They do
not in any way in themselves obviate the dilemma that is
suffering. A man who assumes that action will lead, to the
Self has performed an act in consciousness that is not in
itself true. Truth is in the re-cognition of motivation and
action.
(41) We are always already “there.”
This is it. There is no dilemma. There is only one Reality,
presently. It is not somewhere else. It is not hidden within
us, nor behind the world. It is only obvious. Satsang is the
condition of Reality, consciously lived. It is lived to you,
within you, as you, along with you. It is that real
condition lived as life, as a pressure upon the disciple.
The Guru lives it to him, until it begins to become obvious,
until it begins to become intelligent in him. But all he
will have realized, after all, is the obvious. The nature of
the rising event, the apparent condition, becomes clear. It
becomes obvious to him that his dilemma is his own activity.
He sees that in fact there is no dilemma. There is nothing
about the present that is not Truth.
(42) Satsang is the real condition.
It is the condition of Truth. It is the condition of
conscious relationship to the Guru. When a person enters
into it consciously, with any degree of clarity, he has
begun to live under the conditions that are Truth. And that
is the entire process. That is spiritual life, real life.
Everything else is an extension, another reflection of a
mans search, his dilemma, his dis-ease. When this real
condition is truly lived, whatever arises tends to be
consumed.
(43) DEVOTEE: Is it within the
power of ones will to remain in the condition of
Satsang?
(44) FRANKLIN: Apparently not. An
individual can maintain himself responsibly in the company
of his Guru, and fulfill the specific demands imposed on him
by his Guru. But to live the conscious condition of
relationship, even with ones Guru, depends on the subtle
grace of that condition itself.
(45) Every man tends to live apart,
separately, constantly. Even when he begins to sense the
unique presence of one who lives as the Heart, he resists
and defends himself. He covers up his disability, his
discomfort, his dilemma. He approaches such a one with
argumentation, self-defense, the endless formulations of his
own mind, and with suggestions that maybe “its all right
anyway.” He continues to do his number, assuming the Guru is
a captured audience for his act. When he overcomes all of
that only a little bit, he begins to “hunt” the Guru,
seeking to “find him out,” and justify independence from the
Guru through various kinds of moral and philosophical
righteousness. He penalizes the Guru, he resists him, he
plays with him, he creates dramas with him, he goes away, he
comes back, he teases his Guru. All of this because the
principle of ordinary life is the avoidance of relationship,
the “ego,” the activity of separation.
(46) But when a man enters into
real and conscious Satsang with one who lives as the Heart,
he no longer has this activity or separate self as his
primary instrument. The activity that is the “ego” has
become obsolete. It may continue to arise and obsess him,
but Satsang has become his condition. The process of the
Heart itself, the Guru as Truth, performs his sadhana and
holds on to him. The Guru creates a drama within the drama
of his devotee. This subtle drama or grace makes it possible
for the devotee to maintain his sadhana, the living practice
of his connection. This grace looks forward to the time when
the devotee becomes responsible enough to assume that
relationship fully and consciously, as his responsibility,
as his real condition. Then he is given responsibilities
that will test him, prove him, and awaken in him all the
qualities of a true disciple.
(47) DEVOTEE: What are the
responsibilities of a person who lives in the condition of
Truth? For years Ive fluctuated between everything from
total self-indulgence to forty-day fasts and found basically
an inability to eat moderately. I dont think that this is a
responsible thing to do. And yet its inappropriate to be
always compulsively responsible. But at the same time, if I
dont eat properly I become less conscious. I sleep more. I
get spaced out.
(48) FRANKLIN: The point of view
that you are expressing is the point of view of dilemma, of
suffering, which has nothing to do with Truth. It is this
very condition that men try to destroy by all means.
Excessive fasting or eating, self-indulgence of all kinds,
deprivation of all kinds, turning inward, turning outward,
ascetic practices, “ordinary” practices, all of these are
only means to overcome the fundamental sense of dilemma and
suffering. None of that has anything to do with illumination
or Truth. All of that is suffering,
(49) The question for such a one is
not how to become responsible. That is not his real
question. His real question is the state that he is in. And
the real answer is not in the form of a response to verbal
dilemmas, or even apparent life-dilemmas. The answer is the
obviation of this state. A man will seek by all means to be
free of the dilemma as it appears to him, until all the
forms of his seeking, all of which are reactions to the
subtle condition or dilemma that is his suffering, cease to
occupy him. He comes to the point where the force of his
life is no longer fully captured by his search. He knows
that his search is failing, that his search does not produce
salvation. He falls from ordinary fascination into a crisis,
a form of despair, of doubt. At that point, he has become
available for Satsang, for that relationship which is
spiritual life.
(50) Satsang is the answer. It is
that process and condition wherein the dilemma is undone.
Not any spoken word, but that process itself which is
enjoyed in relationship to the living Heart, is the
“answer.” It is not in the form of a method, another
technique, or a conceptual system that applies to your
peculiar ideas of your state. The answer is in the form of
the force of Truth, and it undermines that very structure in
consciousness that supports your whole search. This becomes
a real possibility only when a man has begun to suffer from
his search, when he has begun to sense its failure, when he
is no longer totally occupied by it. Then he becomes
available to Guru, to Satsang. And Satsang is non-support of
his dilemma, non-support of his search.
(51) In Satsang, all a mans
techniques fall away, all fascination with his search
subsides, all his methods become comic. His whole life
ceases to obsess him. His need for liberation no longer
interests him. His life becomes one of the enjoyment of
Truth, the enjoyment of Guru, until the whole form of
consciousness in which he ordinarily rests is utterly
dissolved. In Satsang, an entirely new and living form of
intelligence replaces a mans ordinary strategic
mentality.
(52) Some individuals have become
involved in the most incredible adventure of spiritual
technique. They are concerned with all kinds of technique.
There are techniques of living, techniques of subjective and
psychological states, the seekers meditation, strategic
diet, and all the rest. Such individuals come to Satsang in
the moods of spirituality and philosophy. Others are more
“ordinary.” They come to it after the equally traditional
self-indulgent life. Everyone comes to Satsang in the midst
of a different form of adventure. All come with the same
fundamental dilemma, but all communicate it through
different artifices, through the form of a peculiar
adventure. In essence, all adventures are a description of
the same state: this contraction, this subtle dis-ease, the
avoidance of relationship. That is so. That is the
experience.
(53) From the point of view of the
real question, the actual dilemma, a man is happy to enter
into Satsang. Spiritual life for such a one is, happily, not
a technique, a method, a remedy, or a path. Spiritual life
is a relationship. It has always been so. Nothing apart from
the relationship to the Guru is offered. Relationship itself
is the principle and condition of life. The relationship to
the Guru is the single principle of sadhana, the single
medium of Truth, the one “method” that arises in the life of
the disciple. It is the condition and the medium through
which all things come that are appropriate for the spiritual
life of the disciple. And they come spontaneously, as a
grace. In Satsang a man has become available to Truth
itself, Reality itself, for his illumination. Until that
point, he has been too occupied to be illumined. First he
must fall from search and fascination into the crisis of his
ordinary condition.
(54) The most difficult thing for a
man to achieve is ordinariness. But the primary condition of
Satsang, of true life, is the realization of ordinariness.
Men are extremely inventive, eminently capable of the
extraordinary, the adventure, the search. But the ordinary,
what simply is the case, what already is the case, is
extremely difficult, because of the principle of action by
which all men create their lives. When Satsang begins for a
man, when it becomes his real alternative, he suddenly
becomes capable of ordinariness, of simplicity. It simply
becomes appropriate. It is not the least connected with
anything compulsive, anything like the discipline which a
seeker might embrace. The functional simplicity of the
disciple is only obvious and natural to him, because action
has been released from its connection with the search for
Truth, liberation and the like. Anything that is pictured as
a means to Truth belongs to the adventure of seeking and its
dilemma. It is part of the adventure of extra-ordinariness.
(55) When a man is released from
the pursuit of Truth, he simply lives it. He lives Satsang
as the condition of life. All his ordinary functions become
truly ordinary when he is released from the need to realize
Truth. In Satsang, a mans ordinary, functional life becomes
realizable, usable. There is no reason why diet should be
manipulated as a means to Truth. Nor should it be considered
an obstruction to Truth. The ingestion of food has nothing
whatever to do with Truth. Neither food-obsession nor
food-righteousness is the way of Truth.
(56) DEVOTEE: What it seems to have
to do with is my being in a state where Im willing to put my
attention on the Truth. If, for example, I am overeating or
taking drugs I will not be in a condition to put my
attention on Truth.
(57) FRANKLIN: You cannot put your
attention on Truth in any case. Truth is not an “object.” It
only appears to be an object from the point of view of the
same search that motivates you to indulge yourself and also
not to indulge yourself. Truth cannot be concentrated upon
even by a mind that is clear and free. It cant be “noticed.”
It is not an object. It doesnt appear within your view. It
already includes you and your points of view.
(58) DEVOTEE: Instead of the term
“attention on Truth,” could we say “to experience more
consciously”?
(59) FRANKLIN: Experiencing has
nothing to do with Truth. Truth cannot be experienced, nor
is it an experience. Neither is Truth experience itself. All
these expressions you have used have the same form. As far
as Truth goes, there is nothing to be said about it in this
sense. No formal communication is the equivalent of it. All
of the descriptions you might give of the peculiar form of
your adventure have the same form, the same structure.
Indeed, your questions are a strategy whereby you prevent
the realization of your actual condition. Your concerns are
a way to avoid self-recognition.
(60) Truth always appears to the
seeker as a kind of alternative . But Truth is not an
alternative. Truth is your very consciousness, your very
nature, your very condition. It cannot be concentrated upon.
It is not an object. It is not something in which you can
become interested. It is not something from which you can be
distracted. Your interests, your distractions, your
noticings, your experiencings are all expressions or
modifications of the fundamental Reality. But you are not
living them as such. Therefore, you are constantly obsessed
with alternatives, with particular distractions, noticings
and experiencings. Alternatives are all that you
have.
(61) When you no longer have any
alternatives, when the search has died, then Truth becomes
your real possibility. But Truth is not an alternative. It
is not in the form of an answer to a specific question. It
is not something perceived. It is not something that serves
you, the subject. It is not something that liberates you as
a separate person. It has nothing to do with you as a
separate one. It cannot be enjoyed by you as a separate one.
Truth is enjoyed only in the instant of non-separation, of
perfect equality with Truth.
(62) There is no state equivalent
to Truth. Every state is only a secondary condition. There
are experiences and states described in the traditional
spiritual paths that are identified with Truth or Reality
itself. Some traditions say Truth is equal to or necessarily
coincident with a vision of Krishna in his blue form. For
others, Truth must be samadhi in the form of yogic trance,
either with visions or without the least trace of form,
objective or subjective. Still others equate Truth with a
concentrated return of the vital force to the sahasrar, a
vision of Light, or some other esoteric signal of Deity. But
all of these are forms of experience. They may be sublime,
subtle, but they appear only as alternatives to other
“ordinary” experiences. No experience is Truth. And no
experience is the sign of Truth, the “symptom” of Truth, or
its necessary accompaniment.
(63) Truth is that which stands out
as Reality where there is re-cognition of the whole process
of experience, where there is absolute vanishing of
identification with alternatives, the whole scheme of
conscious life. Therefore, it involves the most radical
understanding, even of that which is extraordinary. Until
that occurs, the usual and the great events in life are your
fascination. It is the memory of experiences, ones own
modifications as the result of experience, that creates the
goals of seeking. Impressions in the form of tendencies
continue to fascinate a man and obsess him with the notion
that life is made of alternatives, so that all the usual man
is doing is playing this drama of alternatives continually.
One day he is going toward the “experience” of Truth,
another day toward experience itself, usually of a very
“human” variety. One day he pursues the enjoyment of
trance-samadhi, while the next he is a devotee of sexual
fascination. But it is always the same adventure.
(64) What appeared in the past as
the great moments of your life did not become wisdom. All
you are left with are the modifications which reflect those
moments. If great experiences had become wisdom, if in the
instant of any such experience the Truth were perfectly
realized, the experience itself would have fallen away, the
phenomena associated with it would have fallen away, but the
Real, the force of Reality that is Truth in every moment
would have then remained. And that Truth is the same Truth
that persists at this moment, when perhaps you are not
having such a “great” experience. Truth does not appear in
the form of this drama of ones experiences and alternatives.
It appears as a possibility only when that entire process,
that entire adventure, the whole force of ordinary and
extraordinary consciousness, which is seeking, begins to
wind down, when it ceases to occupy us mightily, and we are
stuck with our actual condition, our suffering. Only the
crisis in consciousness is that very event in which the
process called spiritual or real life takes place. It does
not take place in the adventure. It takes place only in the
re-cognition of this contraction that motivates the
adventure. And such re-cognition becomes possible for a man
only when the force of his ordinary and extraordinary
adventure has begun to die.
(65) DEVOTEE: I think that I might
feel a hesitancy to give up that aspect of the
search.
(66) FRANKLIN: Good, very good.
That is it exactly. Two types of people come. Those who have
died to their search, and those who still have a couple of
trips left. Regarding those who still have the search in
mind, there is no condemnation, no praise, no blame. That is
the truth of their condition. The search is still their
occupation. They have not come for Truth . The Truth has
nothing whatever to do with them. The search, the adventure
among alternatives, that is what “has” them. That is what
has all men, until it begins to die. Then the Truth becomes
possible.
(67) When you no longer have
genuine alternatives, when you no longer have the option of
your own preferences, when you no longer have the capacity
to persist, to survive in the form of your search, then
Satsang becomes something more than academic. Until that
time, all men are talking about the same thing: their
adventure! That is what they are talking about. They are not
the least concerned for the Truth. It hasnt entered into the
picture yet. It is only an amusement, an alternative notion
entertained in the midst of ordinary and extraordinary
suffering. They are still occupied. Fine. But the matter of
spiritual life arises only when the alternatives themselves
do not present a real option.
(68) DEVOTEE: How do I bring myself
to the point of not wanting?
(69) FRANKLIN: Wanting or not
wanting are both forms of the same activity. It is this
occupation, this preoccupation, this distraction or
fascination, moment to moment.
(70) DEVOTEE: How do I get over
that?
(71) FRANKLIN: This desire is more
of this adventure now. It is the adventure of getting over
it now. It is all the same. The fact of the matter is that
you are in this present state, and all your actions, desires
and even your questions are only descriptions of it. This
much should be clear from all this talk. The Truth is of
another variety. But this lesson about your present and
usual state can be useful. It is the first lesson of
wisdom.
(72) If it begins only to hurt, if
all the alternatives fall into one, if they cease to be a
real option, if you find yourself continually stuck only in
the crisis of consciousness itself, which is the very and
subtle form of suffering from which ordinarily you spring in
order to seek, when that becomes the nature of your daily
life, then Truth enters into the picture. Then Satsang, real
life, enters as a living possibility. It will be your
obvious need when you have no options.
(73) DEVOTEE: I am already aware
that none of these things work.
(74) FRANKLIN: There is some small
wisdom, because you are becoming exhausted with experience.
But the seeker still possesses some potency. He is still
springing, still reacting to this subtle dilemma. When this
“springing” stops, or when it begins to seem that it is not
possible, when the alternatives dont quite have you, when
the potency of the search begins to go, then the matter of
spiritual life begins to take on the form of consciousness.
When a man is only suffering, then the matter of release or
the obviation of suffering begins to become clear. Then the
force of Truth, of Reality, which is Truth, begins to move
in him. Then Satsang becomes possible, because at that
point, it has a function. But while the search is still a
mans task, still his fascination, Reality or Truth is not
his concern. Until then, Truth or Reality does not appear
except as an alternative, a symbol, another form of
distraction. Therefore, as the traditions have always said,
Truth or real life is a matter of death, of crisis, of that
dilemma or doubt which is the fuel of liberation. When the
search, the reactions to his dilemma, begins to wind down,
and only the dilemma remains, only this subtle suffering,
this dis-ease of life, then the force of Reality begins to
move into a mans life. Then his real question can be
answered. Until then his questions are his entertainment,
his amusement. They have no significance. They are the forms
of preoccupation and unconscious self-description. Then
“spiritual life” itself is only an amusement, only an
entertainment. Then meditation, sitting with the Guru,
reading spiritual books, all of that is only another form of
erotica, of “significance.” But when a mans hunger becomes
intelligent, when his dis-ease becomes mind, then the spoken
Truth, the word of the Siddha, and the living form of the
Guru become his need. He becomes intelligent with that need,
and he responds. A subtle re-cognition occurs. And this
process called spiritual life, liberation, realization
begins. Until then it has not begun, it has not entered the
picture in any sense.
(75) By your own admission, you are
yet a seeker. But you have been brought to consider the
futility and the causes of your own adventure. And, at some
point, very likely it will all become something more than
academic for you.
(76) DEVOTEE: If Truth is the
natural state, how did we get to deviate so much along the
way?
(77) FRANKLIN: You didnt get to do
it. You are doing it! It is not a created activity. This
sense of separation, this dilemma is not something that
happened, for various reasons, at some point in time. It
doesnt occur for “reasons.” It is always a present,
spontaneous activity, cognized as this sense of separation,
of dilemma. But it is not the result of anything. And the
attempt to trace experience back in time to recover the
events from which you are suffering is fruitless. It cannot
produce Truth as a result, because you are not suffering the
results of anything. Suffering is the quality or the mood of
your present activity. Your present activity is your
suffering.
(78) At some point a man begins to
dwell on his suffering itself, until he re-cognizes it,
knows it again, as his present activity. When he knows it
again as his present activity, and when he re-cognizes its
nature, it simply stops. It spontaneously comes to an end
whenever this re-cognition occurs, for re-cognition makes it
obsolete, without present function. But its precise nature
is of an extremely subtle kind, so that it is comprehended
only by radical insight. The traditions have often spoken of
it as something that happened in the past, in order to make
some sort of sense out of it. But it has no “sense.” It is
irrational, mindless. It is understandable only from the
point of view of a radical insight. Then its form can be
seen. Then its structure, its nature as a present event is
only obvious.
(79) The traditional myth of
suffering is that it happened to mankind some time ago, or
that we are presently in a state that is the result of some
beginning of suffering in our individual past. But our
suffering is always a present activity . That is what is
remarkable about it. People tend to think of suffering in
terms of something external to themselves in time or space.
By such means they try to explain it to themselves, to make
sense of it, so they can overcome it through efforts of
various kinds. But in fact, suffering is not your symptom.
It is your activity. That is the paradox. All a mans seeking
is based on the illusion that his suffering is somehow a
symptom that could be eliminated. But when the search begins
to wind down, it begins to dawn on him that his suffering is
his activity, not his symptom. His symptoms are simply the
mental and physical expressions of this activity. But his
suffering is absolutely present, and it is always cognized
as felt dilemma.
(80) Therefore, the process of
spiritual life is absolutely hopeful. It requires only the
Truth, which is the living force of Reality. It requires no
other process, such as the manipulation of your memory, or
the creating of “good karma” so that your “bad karma” can be
eliminated. All of that is a hopeless task. It could never
be done to the point of freedom. The karmas or the
tendencies that generate the qualities of your life could
never be fully “paid off” or dissolved by good works. All
action, good or bad, as well as all inaction, only
reinforces limitation and the dilemma itself. It is not the
elimination of karmas, not super purification by effort, not
any kind of righteousness that frees a man. The solution
could never occur. Freedom always already is the case. Thus,
freedom is enjoyed where Truth suddenly comes alive. Where
Truth is lived, where Satsang is truly enjoyed, Truth itself
consumes or includes all that of which karma is a part. When
it comes alive, Truth obviates the force of all
that.
(81) The search makes no sense at
all. It is an illusory and false principle. Only the living
Truth avails. And the living Truth must be lived. Such is
Satsang, the relationship of Guru and disciple. Such is true
sadhana or spiritual practice, wherein Satsang is constantly
lived as ones condition. And there must be a lifetime of
Truth, not a two-week smack of blessing, fasting and
meditation, not a vicarious weekend of “enlightenment.”
There must be a lifetime of Satsang. In other words, there
must be an absolute commitment. Satsang does not exist until
it has become radical practice, until it is lived as ones
very condition, without qualifications of time, space or
life. There must be continuous and radical enjoyment of
Satsang. In other words, it must become the principle, the
very condition of life, whereas, in the usual man, the
dilemma and its search are the principle and the condition
of life. When Satsang becomes the condition of life, it
makes the whole effort of search obsolete through
non-support.
(82) DEVOTEE: What is the role of
others in ones pursuit of Truth? You mentioned the role of
the Guru. You mentioned the Guru as one such
individual.
(83) FRANKLIN: The Guru is not
other than oneself.
(84) DEVOTEE: What about the rest
of humanity?
(85) FRANKLIN: Neither are they.
They, along with you, may temporarily be living as if they
were other and separate, but the Guru does not. “Others”
function as others. Being others, they create circumstances
or apparent conditions for you to enjoy, for you to suffer.
The Guru is not an “other,” nor does he live as an other in
any sense. One who sees an individual whom others claim to
be functioning as Guru may consider him to be an other, like
himself. But he has only failed to recognize that one as
Guru. The Guru is ones own nature. Absolutely, not
symbolically, the Guru is ones very consciousness. This is
the literal truth of one who appears as Guru in human form.
He is not an other. Therefore, others have no role
whatsoever in the transformation that is Truth. Only ones
own Self performs that role.
(86) Ones own Self is the Guru. In
the condition of Satsang, wherein sadhana is the principle
of activity, the Self of Reality functions in the form of
the human Guru, in ordinary human terms, in relationship to
us, until perfect re-cognition occurs. But when
understanding is perfect, when Satsang has performed its
radical communication, when sadhana is most excellent, no
difference, no “other” can be found, even in the world of
apparent differences. The teacher who is “other” than you,
who only fascinates, who offers you various practices and
strategies for seeking, acts only to modify your state. Such
a one is not functioning as Guru. He is functioning as an
“other,” as a source of experience, of modification. The
Guru is not other. His activity is a paradox.
(87) Ones relationship with the
Guru, which is Satsang, depends on the subtle recognition of
the Guru as Truth, as ones own Nature, the Self. That
recognition does not necessarily appear at the level of the
mind, as mental certainty, or in the form of some sort of
visionary or psychic perception. But there must be a subtle
recognition. That genuine recognition has no explanation, no
mental force in many cases. But that recognition is what
allows the relationship between Guru and disciple to be
enjoyed as it is, as Satsang, rather than the usual
communication of “others.”
(88) DEVOTEE: I experience you as
in no manner different from me. Nonetheless, I experience
that you are you, and I am I. How can the Guru and the
disciple become identical?
(89) FRANKLIN: I have not been
talking about the notion that the Guru and the disciple are
or can become identical, that they are or can be the same
entity . Nor have I been speaking in the traditional
“spiritual” sense, in which Guru and disciple are identical
as some sort of spiritual substance, which “substance” is
found when you manage to “get out” of the physical body or
even the subtle bodies. Such notions are only another form
of the same conceptual separation, the same dilemma, the
same puzzlement, the same separation that is suffering. I
have been speaking of the radical condition of Truth, very
Reality, wherein no dilemma and no separation arise as an
implication of any condition, even the ordinary condition of
apparently unique, human entities.
(90) The notions of sameness or of
difference have no significance. Or, should I say, they have
only significance. They are very “significant,” but they are
utterly beside the point. They do not pertain to the matter
of Truth. If we are discussing significances, the discussion
can go on forever, because we are only dealing with our own
mental modifications. The perception or the notion that in
some subtle way there is no difference between us all is a
mental modification. It is not the equivalent of radical
understanding and Truth. It is not a symptom or sign of the
Truth. It is only the idea or the experience of no
difference. It is only an experience, a mental state.
Psychotics can be in such a state. Day dreamers, pot-heads
and philosophers can be in that state. People whose minds
are relatively at rest for a moment can be in that state.
Truth is not a state, a perception, or a thought. When there
is truly no difference, no one survives . Where there is the
realization of non-separation in Truth, no one survives
beyond that moment. Absolutely, no separate individual
survives it. It is death. No one remains behind to speak
glibly of it, because it is certain death. From the point of
view of ordinary consciousness, it is the most dramatic,
fearsome event. It cannot be conceived. It can only be
symbolically entertained from the usual point of view. But
this death of which I speak is the fundamental process of
real life.
(91) DEVOTEE: What happens after
death?
(92) FRANKLIN: You will
see.
(93) DEVOTEE: Well, I think that
moment has happened to me.
(94) FRANKLIN: Some experience you
have had is suggesting itself to you now. You think it is
this “death” I have described, because you are trying to
make sense of it. Such experiences are not themselves Truth.
In The Knee of Listening I devoted a lot of time to the
description of this kind of thing. In my own case, I passed
through all kinds of “spiritual” states, all kinds of great,
dramatic realizations, all kinds of yogic processes. At the
time they seemed to be the Truth or ultimate realization,
and yet they disappeared, they came to an end. At last the
whole adventure of associating Truth with experiences began
to wind down. I began to abide in my ordinary state. There
were many “enlightenment” experiences. There were many
states that seemed complete. But they did not alter the
fundamental dilemma. Truth was only in the radical
understanding or re-cognition of the whole process of
experiences and states. There is a radical understanding, a
radical consciousness, in which ones previous states of
illumination, which one thought were Truth, become obvious
as only more forms, more modifications. That obviousness,
and not experiences themselves, is enlightenment.
(95) DEVOTEE: Is enlightenment or
realization a process of growth?
(96) FRANKLIN: From the point of
view of one who is living in Satsang with the Guru, it may
seem that there is some sort of growth, some sort of
movement or transformation. But there is a radical form of
that whole event in which he sees there was no growth, no
transformation, and no path.
(97) You cannot be more and more
absorbed into the Truth. It is the principle of ones life,
the Reality, not merely the goal. But there are
modifications of ones life and strategy that occur in the
process of sadhana. They seem to give us a sense of progress
in this sense. And this sense may have a certain value from
the point of view of sadhana. The sense of growth, and the
memory of spiritual change, may give the individual an edge
over the occasional tendency to relapse from sadhana and the
principle of Satsang into his former condition of
self-indulgence, seeking, and the concerns of one in
dilemma.
(98) DEVOTEE: One teacher has said
it is mans sole duty to strive. Is that striving what you
mean by the search, or is there a healthy
striving?
(99) FRANKLIN: Let the one who has
said it be responsible for it. Let him justify it. To live
Truth is to be responsible for the dissolution of fear and
ignorance. The intelligence of Truth is not preoccupied with
the statements of men. People who become involved in the
traditional paths of spiritual life often gain a great deal
for the mind in the process. A major part of the defense men
make in behalf of their suffering is all of the language,
all of the things heard and read in the midst of the search.
All of that must come to an end, absolutely. All of that is
consumed by Truth. There is no resort but to Truth itself.
If a man tells other men to resort to themselves, to strive
onward until the Truth is glimpsed, he has functioned only
as a man to men, as an “other,” to motivate men while they
are still suffering. Truth itself is not served by the
command that men do something in order to realize the Truth.
No action of any man produces Truth as a result. Satsang,
the communication of Truth itself, the relationship to the
Guru, is the entire means, the only means, the radical
means. Truth is the very means of spiritual or real life,
not its goal. A man who resorts to the Truth of the Guru in
Satsang is never again returned to his search. But men
themselves are always trying to return to the search,
because of the difficult crisis demanded in spiritual life.
They always want to console themselves by some means or
other. The apparent emptiness of the Gurus offering becomes
a kind of aggravation to the seeker, who constantly refuses
the condition of Satsang and its demands.
(100) Men want to be filled with
all kinds of things, distracted with all kinds of things.
“What can I do to be saved? How can I meditate? How can I
get free? How can I get straight? How can I get pure?” They
want all kinds of occupations, and strategic methods. But in
Satsang nothing is given. No occupation, no means, no
method, no consolation, no philosophy that is itself the
Truth, no mantra apart from the person of the living Guru.
Only that relationship is offered, only that. And what does
that amount to? It doesnt amount to a damn thing from the
point of view of the seeker. That is not what he came for.
He came to get turned on, to get something going, to be
occupied again. The seeker is never able to stay long in the
Gurus company. Only when his search has begun to die as the
principle of his life does that relationship cease to be an
obstacle. Then the Guru and his offering ceases to be empty.
It becomes entirely a joyful possibility. He welcomes it,
even though it satisfies and requires nothing of the search
in him.
(101) Satsang does not support the
search. It does not begin from the point of view of the
search. It has nothing whatever to do with the search.
Therefore, one for whom the search is no longer a genuine
distraction finds great and true happiness in the mere
presence of the Truth, alive. Such a one has discovered the
secret of his Guru, for the Guru himself is the presence and
the communication of Truth. The disciple simply enjoys and
lives the condition of Satsang with his Guru. He becomes
full with it, intelligent with it, happy with it, at peace
in it, blissful in it. Satsang restores him. The
ordinariness of life becomes his possibility. He begins to
function again. He comes alive again because the sense of
dilemma has ceased to be the principle of his
existence.
(102) DEVOTEE: Ramana Maharshi said
to enquire within, enquire as to the nature of your own
existence. Is enquiry the method of
Self-realization?
(103) FRANKLIN: Ramana Maharshi
said enquire. Someone had already to be sitting with Ramana,
otherwise the recommendation would not have been made. In
fact, the fundamental method of Ramana Maharshi was Satsang,
and most often, but not always, he recommended enquiry in
the form “Who am I?” to those who lived in Satsang with him.
I also recommend a particular form of enquiry to those who
have turned to me. It is detailed in The Kne
|
