Welcome to Satsang!

Today we are going to talk about the Great Myth of separation. It is a powerful subject because it is something that the ego-part of us does not want to accept. The great myth is simply this — that we believe there is separation.

Separation is, of course, a very natural thing in the world, which can only appear solid or real because of duality — spirit and matter. Matter is mass, which is energy. We do not see that the two opposing forces complement each other. We see only the opposition.

Many years ago, I gave a TV series in Toronto. It was called Mind/Body Connection. On the show I had quite a few experts come up to be interviewed by me regarding the idea — the power of mind over the body. Many people were fascinated about the power of mind over body. However, one thing nobody has ever been told — I guess either the TV or the people themselves were not ready to hear — is that there is no separation between mind and body. [Brief laugh] Initially we were very impressed how the mind affects the body, until we realized there was no difference at all. Where does one begin or the other end?

So we can go into ‘human’ and ‘Being’. The ‘human’ forgets the ‘Being’ and so it thinks, it is an ego. The two seem to be in conflict, but they are one. Until they are integrated, there is no love. Love is called Oneness, when there is no separation at all. One of the greatest misconceptions I find and one of the greatest fears, is about life and death. You read a lot about life and death — death of the body — as being very real.

I remember when Yogananda’s Master, Sri Yukteswar, passed away Yogananda mourned him. He was broken-hearted because he was so close to him. He was such a great Master. Yogananda, of course, knew there is life after death. At the same time he missed him so much. It is in the Autobiography of a Yogi, and other people also have quoted it. Sri Yukteshwar appeared to him in the room physically after about one month of having passed away. Yogananda ran to him and embraced him. Sri Yukteshwar was physical, solid. However, in half an hour he dissolved. Then Yogananda knew that death is just an appearance. The best lesson is direct experience.

Does the body really end? Or does it keep changing form as we change forms throughout a lifetime? We get recycled so many times. Are we really alive? And if we are, what is that part of us that is alive? Is it the body? The body is consciousness. Every cell in the body is consciousness. But is consciousness alive? Can consciousness die? It just IS isn’t it? It just IS! ÊAll that there is, is consciousness. So therefore we can say, like all scientists have said, energy is indestructible, it simply changes form. Forms are changing. But forms are simply the appearance of that energy. There is nothing but that energy. That is the Oneness. Until we realize that Oneness, until we see very clearly, we can say that we are not truly living.

Now why does separation exist? It exists because we believe in duality as opposites rather than complimentary.

There is another thing also which we do not realize and it is this — the ego needs separation in order to establish its own identity. So therefore you find that the ego-part in us, the personal side of us, always feels better than... or less than... but never equal to... So either you are feeling inferior or not good enough or there is something wrong with you, or you are feeling better than others and you are very proud. That’s all separation-thinking. So the greatest block to oneness is the need to separate.

Now, what would be necessary for a person to wake up to this Oneness? It is called an Open Heart. There is nothing more beautiful than when you see somebody’s heart opening.

I would like to relate a case to show what happens when the heart is open. An open heart is trusting, innocent, yet it is intelligent, not naïve.

I have a couple of clients, and, this particular client came only about five times and she is so open and trusting. Every session we have, she is just like a new person. She is so vibrant, so alive, so joyous. Anyway, as she was lying down — (you know I do hypnotherapy) — she was not hypnotized, she was just in a very relaxed state. I said to myself, “I am going to test her openness because she is just so beautiful.” So I did the following test with her, which I actually have never done before. Now, she has never been in our living room and she has never seen Sivia (my wife) and of course you know that I do hypnotherapy in my office next to the living room. So I said to her, “Now I want you to go in your consciousness to the living room and tell me what Sivia is doing.” She described in perfect detail what Sivia was doing. She described Sivia’s manner, what was around her, everything. So when she said that, I went immediately to the living room to see if this was actually true. I like to confirm whatever happens — I am not sceptical, of course not, I trust a lot — but I like to have proof for my own record and I found exactly what she had described. So I told her that she described exactly what Sivia was doing and it was perfect in every detail.

Now, what is amazing about all this, which is beautiful — that here is a person who is new to non-duality and she was able to travel outside the body in her consciousness and see clearly through remote vision. Now when I told her, she herself was very excited, very happy, but she was not as happy as I was. To me it proved that an open heart is trusting, is so here-now, that even questions didn’t arise. She didn’t even say, “Can I do it? What if...? What are you trying to tell me?” There was none of that. She trusted me so much that when I told her, “Go in there and tell me what you see!”, she just went in her second body, (if you want to call it that) and there was no doubt at all. To me that was a very moving experience.

The point of satsang, what we do here, is to get that open heart, not to just hear Burt talk, because I never know what I am going to say next (Burt laughs). So it is not to listen to these words and take these words literally, but to open your heart.

Someone asked me a few months ago, “How do you define satsang?” I said, “Satsang is like a beautiful song. You don’t stop listening, because you know the words, you listen because it makes your heart sing.” That is the beauty of satsang. Satsang is to open your heart, to be so innocent, so trusting, so open, so here ‘Now,’ that whatever is being said, you experience it directly.

In a little while I would like you to do a little direct-experience. When I take the initiative and do something like I do with my clients, it turns out to be okay, depending upon how open a person is.

First I would like to mention this — I know from experience as a hypnotherapist — all fear, all emotional fear — it does not matter what form it takes; shame, guilt, anxiety, inferiority — is all coming from the belief that you are separate. Nothing is separate from anything. Love is not separate from fear, but complimentary. I like you to experience that in a little while. If we say the opposite of ‘up’ is ‘down’, where does ‘up’ end? Where does ‘down’ begin or end? Ask those questions about everything. You will see that what we think to be opposites are actually not opposites, because they are interrelated, interdependent, interconnected. When we begin to see the Oneness of everything, whether psychological, mental, or physical, we begin to see clearly.

Sometimes we say, “But the body is separate from others.” How can the body be separate? Where does the body end or begin? Where? The air itself is needed to sustain it, the food is needed to sustain it, the sun is needed, the earth is needed and all nature itself. So is this where the body ends? [pointing to the body’s surface] Or is it just the appearance? We don’t see the energies that are interacting between us. You can hear me, you can see me, you can experience me. For instance, we talk on the cellular phone and we never think that there are waves reaching out, miles away to connect to somebody else and we talk as if they are here. We take it for granted. What is causing that? It is the energy, the Emptiness. This energy is indefinable, inexplicable. I can call it ‘IT.’ To myself I call it Bhagavan. It is the only thing there is, and ‘IT’ plays the role of everything. But you see, the ego itself, the part in us that has not awakened yet, is terribly afraid of death. What is it afraid of? It is afraid of being no more, because there is the belief, ‘if I am the body and this body is gone, I am finished.’ But when we begin to see clearly that there is no separation of anything, then there is peace of mind.

I don’t even like the word ‘enlightenment’ because there is no such thing. The reason ‘enlightenment’ is another myth, is because nobody gets enlightened. You just simply ‘see clearly’. So we can use another term, ‘seeing clearly’. So, instead of seeing separation, you see totality! [pause]

What I’d like you to do now is remain as you are. Become very still. Forget everything that has happened or is going to happen. In other words, be totally Now, totally present. Are you totally present? Okay, now I am going to ask you a question. In this here ‘Now,’ in this very moment, where is love? What is love? Where is it, right now, this moment?

Student: “It is a joke because there is just...”

There is just? Go on! Right. [laughter] There is just here, isn’t it?

Student: “Yeah.”

There is nothing, just here! Now where does this ‘just here’ begin or end? There is no end. So you see, that’s Love. That is Love.

But we think of it as an emotion. Love is so simple — It is being still. ‘Be still and know I am God.’ Be so still that you see no separation at all. Then wherever you look, you see yourself. Everything is a part of you. Everything. This is how you begin to understand love. When you understand it, that is, your very clarity itself, your lack of ego, will drop the fear and you are just here, like you said, ‘just here’. This Here has no beginning and no end. It just is. It is a Totality. That Totality, that spaceless IT, is all there is!! [pause]

Now remain still as you are and now again, tell me where is fear? What is fear? (Pause) Think of fear or think of when you were afraid!

Student: “It seems like an emotional shadow.”

Yeah, you can think of it as an emotional shadow. Think of it as right here, feel that fear, when you were afraid. Isn’t it like a constricted space? All it is, is separation, isn’t it? That’s all it is. It is the feeling or thought of separation. It is the feeling ‘I am separate.’ Separation is desolation, deprivation, loneliness, desperation, rejection — those are separation. That is what separation is — that incredible feeling of death. So our fear of death brings death.

Are you seeing the contradiction now? The very fear of death brings death. The moment you become afraid of death, you become very small. You become afraid and you hold on to what? You don’t know, because there is nothing to cling to. So you shrivel inside. You become smaller and smaller and smaller, more and more contracted. You keep away from that space that you are. Now what have you done? You have separated from the only reality that you could ever be — the only reality that you are! So you have limited the very thing that you are. That’s what fear is.

Now the important question comes — Didn’t we say that fear and life are opposites and we said that opposites complement and are one? How are they one? We cannot fight fear.

I visited two mental homes in Toronto to study insanity. They all initially fought it until they broke down and now they all live in their own small world, talking to themselves, talking to shadows.

So what is it then? You cannot resist fear, you cannot deny it, you cannot run away from it. There is nothing you can do with fear. However, there is one thing.

Student: “Love it.”

Love it. Give it space. Right. The moment you feel restricted, allow that restriction and give it space. You can say, “Loving it.”

Student: “You move towards that. You move towards the fear.”

You move towards the fear. You allow the fear. Stay with the fear. Let it play itself out and give it lots of room in which it plays itself out. You see fear hates space. Fear hates lots of space. It wants to restrict itself. It wants to contract. The moment you start giving it space, the moment you allow it, you are giving it what it does not want — acceptance. So it melts away into Love, and, Love absorbs it because Love can absorb anything. It can absorb the most horrendous hate, the most horrendous fear. Love is total. Love is emptiness. Love has no end. When you understand Love — (and I am not talking about romantic love), though that is okay, I am talking about true Love — the fear of death leaves you completely. In Love death is not possible. In Love there is nothing but Love. That’s the Oneness, the Totality. That is the non-separation.

So this is the great, great myth that causes all the wars, all strife and all the corruption that we know. When you believe that there is separation, you try to protect and defend that which you think you are. That brings greed, selfishness, the idea of gain, even at somebody else’s loss. It’s all because of separation. When you realize there is no separation, how can you harm another? How can you be violent?

Now another thing too, that we use in psychology, the term ‘Love yourself.’ Then we begin to believe, “Yes, I love myself.” Please understand, there is no such thing as ‘loving yourself’ or loving another. There is only Love, period. Love is oneness where no separation between you and I exist. So when two people join and they are in love and they feel that total resonance, they disappear within each other. They have moments of total, total being. They are not merely saying, “I love you.” (Of course it is beautiful, you can say it definitely). But the truth is, you are not loving the other. The other is not loving you. There is Love. [With feeling] Period. It is total.

Love really is the only secret of life when we understand it. So if we want to believe in God or not does not matter. God is Love, period. You can call it God, if you like. If not, call it IT. It is all that there is. It keeps everything appearing as it does.

So are there any questions at this point? [Long silent pause]

This is a vast subject. For example a while ago, we talked about thought and awareness. Now they seem to be contrary to each other, being opposites. Are they really? Thought and awareness are one — only the expression is different!

In the Bible it says, “In the beginning was the word and the word was made flesh.” The ‘word’ refers to thought and it appears as flesh. The world we experience is thought in manifestation. Vibrations are waves. Waves become particles, which is matter. But that, which has produced this, is pure consciousness. Pure consciousness has the ability to be conscious of itself. That is how we became flesh. We are able to be conscious of ourselves [With feeling] I am conscious and I am aware that I am conscious. I think, and I am aware that I think. The moment I become aware that I am thinking then I can observe that thought. I have now brought in the Divine Trinity into being and that is called ‘clear seeing’. I am thinking, I know that I am thinking, but I also know that I am not that thought. This is just a movement of that consciousness, which I am. That brings the emptiness with it. That is the Trinity. And I am free. That freedom does not mean the mind stops thinking. That freedom does not mean the mind is no longer doing its thing. Of course that won’t stop. You’re free, because you know you are more than that. You are Awareness.

Awareness and thought co-exist. If there were no thought, there would be no world, period. There would be nothing, that is, nothing appearing. But that is not possible, because the very nature of energy is the expression to manifest. That expression is form. So the two are one. So always ask in all polarities, in what you think is separate — where does one end and the other begin and vice versa? Just like yin and yang in Chinese. When yang is taken all the way, it becomes yin, and, when yin is taken all the way it becomes yang. Male and female don’t oppose. They compliment. We think there is a female and a male. Is there really? We are talking about male and female energies. The complete being has both male and female.

Student: “So the dance of duality is a myth.”

That’s right.

Student: “Our awareness of that myth, dancing in the same way that I am aware, I am speaking and moving my hands that is just a free expression of this unit, but without identification to that then it is just a part of the whole and not separate.”

Yes, not separate.

Student: “It is identification that separates.”

Yes, it is which separates. Now I am going to ask you a question. Feel it out. We have a way of exploring. What is skill or talent? Lets talk about skill. What is skill? Somebody is very skilful — they are great jumpers, great runners, great soccer players, great mountain climbers. What is that special skill?

Student: “They are so... They aren’t there when it is happening.”

Yes, that is right. They become one with what they are doing. They empty themselves at that moment and they become the thing itself. It is an infusion, oneness, that’s right. [With feeling] The same happens with a genius or one who has talent. What happens with a lot of talented people? It is inborn. They are able to become one with what they love.

Sometimes they think they are doing it, “I am talented. I am special. I am different.” Then, as they become older, it finishes, like with Judy Garland.. What a beautiful singer, what a talent! But fear haunted her every step and she was afraid of death. She was always living in that fear and she ended up quite desperate. So this happens to a lot of people who do not know that talent is a gift. Talent is not yours. Talent is your ability to express in a particular way, to feel that Oneness, [says with feeling] to feel that Divine Totality.

So whatever way you look at it, you find that whatever you are learning, it is to leave separation behind and move towards Oneness.

Student: “I was going to ask a question. So in that place where there is stillness and there may be thought, but yet there is no separation. Is there any movement at all?”

Not really. All movement is in appearance. It seems so, like Burt is talking now. You hear the sound. The hands are moving. I am saying a lot of stuff, but the moment you become still — where is it? It only appears in the moment. You see, at that moment thought is moving. Thought creates the semblance of things happening. But in its Totality, in IT-ness, in the IS-ness of reality, nothing is happening!

This is where we begin to understand something, which is mind-boggling — Einstein’s theory of relativity, which states that everything is relative. Relative to what? To ‘IT.’ But ‘IT’ has no time. Because everything is relative, it creates the semblance of time, because everything follows the sequential order of events. This is happening... and it creates a chain-reaction to that and that and that. If you happen to think a negative thought, then the next moment will be negative reaction and negative manifestation. It is inevitable, because thought creates what we call ‘law of cause and effect’. So it creates a cycle that corresponds to that thought. But nothing is happening either. It is simply an effect of a cause. The Cause itself is always untouched. It is always Love. Now when we begin to see the Cause and remain as the Cause, whatever effect happens, does not affect us. We are free because we see clearly. It is that understanding, that total understanding, which is not an intellectual thing. You cannot understand it with the mind. The mind cannot understand timelessness, but the heart understands it completely.

There was an incident in a mining town in Ireland where miners were buried in an explosion. They were there a couple of weeks. Some of them survived. When they were dug out, they didn’t know the time that had gone by. They had no sense of time at all. So time is relative.

When you are making love, even though it will be an hour, it will feel like five minutes. But when you are sitting on a hot stove for one minute, [laughs] it will be eternity. Time is relative. That is what Einstein was trying to say in very simple terms. Time does not exist. There is only NOW. [with feeling] ‘Now’ is the only reality. “‘Now’ is a Holy Instant”, says the Course in Miracles. We begin to experience the Grace of Now, which is the Holy Instant, as we allow ourselves to be still and really look. When we start looking, the body starts to be aging, because there is such a thing as chronological, biological and psychological time. The reason time seems to be split in three different ways is because of concepts.

For example, biological time — it has been stated that a person’s age has nothing to do with aging. Some people are old at forty. Some are young at seventy. There are tests you can do. We believe in age, but in actuality biological age is something different than chronological age. When we look at psychological time, we can see, it is the belief in ‘yesterday as a reality’. Yesterday is history, but we still think of it as reality. There is only NOW! It is all present now. All past is now. As a matter of fact, it is called akashic records. Everything that has ever been ‘done’ or ‘thought’ — which is mind-boggling — you can tune in and grab that energy, just like the computer on the internet. Everything is available.

The future is also contained within the moment. People who have developed pre-cognitive powers have been able to get glimpses. So we begin to see what seems to be happening, is just a movement.

Chronological time has to do with the movement of the earth around the sun. We call it day and night... But nothing is happening. It is just rotation. It is just going round and round and round for eternity.

You will find that people, who are not awakened spiritually, repeat the same thoughts every day. So they become like a broken record. They repeat, they react, they have the same emotions. It is just like a video-tape that you put it in the VCR and you watch it. As you watch it, it is very alive. It is real as you watch it. You love and cry as if it is happening now and then you stop it and it is over. But if you play it again, it looks real. Well, this is what is happening with us.

I believe it was Deepak Chopra who said, “We think 26,000 thoughts a day and the next day, we repeat the same 26 000 thoughts.” Now what are we doing there? We are repeating the same thing over and over again, because we live in separation. We don’t have that oneness-knowing. When you have that oneness-knowing, not only do you live in that timeless essence, but you also find that every moment is new. Every moment is alive, every moment is fresh, nothing repeats. What repeats is what we call ‘mind,’ a minute portion of consciousness.

Mind does not really exist. What mind is, is really thought or consciousness, what you identify with. When you identify with just what you really are — consciousness recognizing consciousness itself — then you break free from that attachment. When you break free from that attachment, then everything is one and you see very clearly. That is a big one.

Everything is one. This means that anything that you may follow, whether it is a religion, a philosophy, a psychology, or whatever it is, if it does not bring you joy in the moment, don’t follow it. Leave it alone. The moment itself is joy. It is a feeling of newness, a feeling of freshness. [pause]

No questions? This is such a vast subject. There is absolutely no end to it. There are so many facets of looking at it.

Student: “I have a question about something you said. Does it really matter? Our sense of happiness is mostly how things match with our training. In reality we can wake up whether we are walking on nails or lying on pillows. We tend to strive for pleasure and avoid pain, but that just accentuates the duality.”

Absolutely.

Student: “So just in your last comment, it does not seem to really matter what we follow as long as we are aware of who we really are and then that awareness guides us anywhere we go.”

Exactly. Exactly. Clarity is all that is needed. It doesn’t really matter what you follow or if you don’t follow anything. It is all a matter of allowing yourself to see clearly what-is!

Student: “Yeah.”

There has to be that clarity that there is no separation. But it does not matter what you follow. Isn’t that beautiful and so simple?

Student: “So freeing.”

So freeing! This means that the thought of salvation, of being lost forever in hell or whatever it is — these are concepts, in order for people to control others. Nobody is ever lost, except the thought of being lost makes you feel lost. Remember the power of thought — thought takes form and so if we think a particular thought, we are that. It is inevitable. We create according to that thought. If you begin to see that thought is okay, then it becomes creative. Then you can create the kind of world that you like, but you are not a slave to it. That’s freedom! That is the free spirit, the creative spirit. Your world is created every moment by knowing that all you have to do is visualize it. Whatever you visualize will come true. Not true in the sense of reality, but in the sense that you can live in it.

For example, there have been many meditations in the beginning until people get a grip of emptiness in which they visualize a particular place. I used to do that too. I used to create a comfort zone for myself. Like I am with Bhagavan and there is peace, a big ashram, sweet music playing, love all around, you can feel that, and, you begin to create it to the point that every time you go into silence you can feel it. It becomes alive. You know everything you experience is not real, everything is a myth. But there is one thing that is not a myth. Awareness itself. The Is-ness itself. It is THAT which creates everything.

So if you are a victim of thought, it simply means that you believe your thoughts. You believe whatever you see or hear and make it real. The moment you make it real, it becomes e-motion, motion of energy in your body and your body reflects it. But if you see it as a thought, as a movement, and you are free of it, you become creative automatically. You create your world. ‘Now.’ You might say, “But if you create your world, isn’t that a fantasy?” Of course it is. But you cannot help create. You either create unconsciously and you get sick and you get anxious and you suffer, or, you become aware that this is all a lie and you begin to create creatively in a positive way. But there is no in-between. You have to create. You cannot ‘not create’, because your nature is creation. The world is creation. You are constantly creating. You cannot help creating.

Take a person who is very, very happy, and then take a person who is miserable. They are both living in the same room right now. They are living in the same world, but their reality is different because their thoughts are different. That is it. That is all the difference — their thoughts. But you cannot ‘not create’. It is not possible. As long as you are in the form, you are creating all the time, but the point is to see that it is a creation and not reality. Are we seeing the difference here? You are always creating. You cannot help that.

Student: “So the miserable and the happy — aren’t they equal opportunity employers, employed by the same boss?”

Yes.

Student: “So wouldn’t both of them stand equal chances of waking up laughing?”

Of course! That is the whole point. We cannot say that the happy person temporarily is better than the miserable person, for the simple reason that the miserable person is getting fed up with his life sooner than the happy person! So he seems to question himself sooner. [laughs] There is a greater chance of waking up then. The point is being clear of what is happening. That is waking up. Everything is a thought. Everything is a creation of the mind!

Everything is a myth! Nothing is real except Love because Love is not something. It is Emptiness. Love IS!. All you have to do to know Love, is to be very still, become very silent. There is nothing but that, and you melt into everything. The reason people don’t melt into everything, is, because they cannot be quiet enough to perceive that silence. They start thinking, “Oh, I wonder what it feels like.” The mind creates another myth to replace the first myth. This is continuously happening. But if — and that is a big ‘if’ — you are able to be still long enough to see the Emptiness of you, totally empty, at that moment you begin to awaken that Love. You see there is nothing else but that, and that becomes creative automatically.

The beautiful thing about finding silence and emptiness and giving yourself to it in total trust, is — that in that moment, this force called ‘Love,’ takes over and it lives you. It will act through you. It will create through you. That is its beauty. Then you begin to feel, “I am being lived!” and moved by this energy.

Student: “Stop trying to analyze it all!”

Yes. Interpretation, analysis, and comparison — these are all keeping you from being innocent. We are talking about an open heart. We are talking about innocence, but not naïveté, not being naïve or gullible. We are talking about trust that emerges from total openness of being loving.

These recent clients I have been having are proof enough that it has nothing to do with how much work you have done spiritually. It all has to do with... [pause] — I don’t know. [Everybody laughs.]

I got two ladies lately who are so beautiful, so innocent and trusting, that if I tell them to do something, they do it. They trust totally and their trust is so beautiful, so precious. When I am saying to them, “This is what you are going to experience,” there is no question. [laughs] That is an open heart. That is innocence. The opposite of that is being worldly, cunning, shrewd, sceptical, or cynical.

[Pause. Burt looks around at everybody and laughs warmly.] No questions?

This is the point - to be able to bring everything into one, no matter what it is, good, bad, up, down, black, or white. Bring it into that oneness. That is the highest wisdom. That is clear- seeing. Separate nothing! Nothing is separate from anything else. Everything is relative.

Do you know of ‘something’ that has an independent existence? Nothing that is manifested (or unmanifested) can have an independent existence! Name something, anything at all, that has an independent existence?! You won’t be able to name one thing. You might say, that cushion over there has an independent experience — really? Why was it turned into a cushion? So that you can use it, that you can lie on it. That is why it was created. Nothing is totally independent. Everything relates to everything else. Everything has a purpose. Everything is relative. Relative to that one Truth called Love. Please see it very clearly. Everything is just relative truth. It is not truth. It is relative truth. There is only one Truth, Emptiness, Now, Oneness, Love. You will find, that no matter what it is, it is relating to ‘That.’ It has existence only because of ‘That.’

Student: “Do you know that or does it just express itself?”

Yeah. It expresses itself. We can’t help it. Even if a person is totally separate, they are gravitating towards that. They don’t know it. So if they happen to be physical, they want sex, connection. But they don’t have enough awakened energy to love. So it takes an animal form — lust. But it is still part of the need to connect.

If it happens to be emotional, then there is the need for emotional security, emotional love. So it takes that form, it is still seeking that one Being, but you seek it from another form.

If you happen to be materialistic, then you want ‘physicality’ (material form), you want accumulation. You are greedy. Why? Because, when you have power, you think, “My goodness, I have this incredible feeling that I have power.” But why do we need power? It is a substitute for love. People who want power, they want love, but they’ve never had love. This is why there are gangsters, for example, or people who accumulate or corrupt, because they have never really known love, real caring. So the only way to get some form of power, or the feeling that they are okay, that they are fine, is by getting respect through power.

Student: “Which is not lasting!”

Of course not. It is self-destructive like Mission Impossible. [Laughter)

Student: “Where this question came from — love knowing itself as itself at times and there is absolutely nothing else at all. In those times I have expressed that verbally. I have not known that ‘as something’ and yet the expression comes out and it surprises me because I don’t know where that expression comes from.”

Yeah, yeah, this is the beautiful thing. If you have experienced these moments, for example, “I am saying these words. I don’t know where they are coming from and I have done this, oh my God.” You begin to get glimpses. This is a beautiful place to be in, because you begin to realize, “My goodness, I am being lived here.”

Student: “Yeah.”

It is acting through me. I have no say in the matter. It is just like ‘It’ is ‘breathing me’, It is keeping my heart beating. In the same way, ‘It’ is acting and speaking through me. As you begin to realize this, you see, this is ‘It’, this Oneness, this Living me. I am ‘It.’ I am Its expression. That is the annihilation of the ego. It is kind of scary. When you start experiencing that, it is very, very beautiful. That is quite an advanced stage.

Student: “You stop thinking of yourself as something.”

Yes, that’s right. You begin to feel this energy moving through you.

Student: “Sometimes at times like that I even feel fear and than there is just the necessity for trust, so that the fear does not stop the flow of love.”

Beautiful.

Student: “Now I don’t know where this is coming from as we are talking.”

Beautiful, you see. As you talk, you see the wisdom that is coming out. The moment you relax, the moment self-consciousness is gone, the moment you forget about yourself, wisdom starts to come out, because there is nothing that is ‘walling’ it away. There is no separation to it any more. That is why the death of the ego is so important. But ego does not exist. It is an idea that you are separate. But the moment there is no separation, because you are in love or you feel this incredible energy — at that moment there is this tremendous flow, this tremendous energy, beauty and wisdom. It is coming from ‘This,’ from this Oneness, from this Being. [Pause]

The reason why I like to take pauses is because I love it when you talk and I can see your wisdom coming out. [laughs] It is lovely to hear. You know that when you share in a satsang, that sharing enhances you and deepens your own awareness much more.

Student: “Expressing it deepens the Stillness.”

Yes. It is coming from Stillness. It is Stillness expressing. People think, in Stillness you don’t know. Stillness is very active. There is Stillness in a dance. There is Stillness in music. There is Stillness in total action. Action is synchronized, which means it is flowing.

We were talking about skills — for example a sailor of a sailboat has learned to manoeuvre the boat. He has learned one simple secret — to go with the wind! He knows how to move it according to the wind. He makes a friend of the wind. He has control over the boat only to the extend that he goes with the wind. Similarly it is with all skills. All it is, is learning to fuse yourself with that Oneness, with that flow. Once you are one with it, it takes you all the way.

Student: “I have a question about what you had said earlier, ‘Everything has a meaning and has a purpose.’ I also see it as a reverse - that nothing really means anything.”

That’s right, and, because nothing ever means anything, everything means something. In the same way that everything is a myth and nothing is real; and if nothing is real, then everything comes from nothing and therefore everything is real. Why? Because opposites are one. Are we hearing it now?

Student: “Say that one more time.”

Okay. In satsang we talk about Truth. We say many times, this is real or this is not real. This is this way and another time we say the opposite. But they are both true. So when we say, “Nothing is real!”, and absolutely nothing is real, it is true, because everything is an appearance of consciousness. But yet, if it is an appearance of consciousness and you realize that consciousness is everything, then everything that you see, is part of consciousness. Therefore everything is real, if you are seeing with consciousness, because you are seeing God everywhere. Nothing is real, except Love, but if Love is Oneness, then everything is that Love. So if you begin to see that Oneness, everything is that Love — even the killer, even the murderer. He is also that Love. But he does not know it. Because he does not know it, he commits those acts of separation. But in his nature, he is still that love, but doesn’t know it because it is all blocked. But when you see it through Oneness, there is nothing you see as separate.

There is no higher Self or lower self, there is no enlightenment or being asleep, there is no good or bad, that is, when you are awakened. But when you are not awakened, you see separation. When you begin to see that separation is impossible, then clarity comes and everything is Love. Nothing can be separate from that Love. The explanation that you gave, when you said, “This way and that way...”, that is right. They are both one. Everything is one. Nothing is separate from anything else. The only difference between ignorance and wisdom — although they are still one — is, that ignorance believes in separation. The wise person does not believe in separation and he is free. The ignorant person suffers, but the suffering is an illusion. He believes in separation, until he realizes there is no separation.

This is a subject that even by listening to it, might open up your heart a little bit. It is something that you have to experience. In the same way, when I said to take time to be very still and ask yourself, “What do I really know beyond any doubt whatsoever, in this very moment?” Not what is going to happen or what has happened, but right now in this moment, and stay with it. It is not something that you do once in a while. It is something to be done all the time. Then you begin to go deeper and deeper into that Nothingness. Initially it feels flat. It feels dead, because you are still thinking about it. You still have identifications and ideas, until it deepens and deepens and deepens, and, after you have done that for about a year every day, what happens is, you reach a moment of total and absolute Silence and when you do, Truth is revealed.

I used to read practically everything for years. Everything I could read. I used to read psychology books. But when I had the light-experience in 1998 and Burt disappeared, then I realized, everything that I thought or believed has nothing to do with what is real. There is only Light. It appears as seven billion people, it appears as all the things that are happening, but there is only this Light. Nothing can ever happen to you, but if you believe something will happen to you, then it will seem to happen to you. It is only real in your mind. You become free to the extend that you see, that only Emptiness is real. Then you become creative. That is the beauty. [small pause]

Okay. Namaste.