[Music plays]
Mooji
Zmar
God Bless McDonald's Silent Retreat
31.05.2014 session 1
Don't Mind the Mind
[Mooji:] We have for so long been educated
and conditioned to be, you know, seekers and finders.
And, somehow, you know, 'I've been on this path for a long time, and
I've been looking for this, I've been looking for this,'
and then finally, 'Ah! I found it! Thank you!' See?
But then, there's, from this place of looking,
all of that: the sense of the
'Eureka!' is also seen,
and, 'Yes, thank you, it's so good,
I finally got it,' is also seen.
From the place that cannot divide.
It's neither a giver nor a receiver,
and so for a while we must just keep confirming,
it just gets confirmed. Because it is natural that
what you may call the ego or the identity
wants to celebrate, it feels relief and so on.
You see? But gradually, gradually, now it will thin away.
It doesn't just [snaps fingers] 'Pop!' like a balloon being
pinned or something. It may still continue, somehow.
You see, it's like, the ego is fired,
but it keeps showing up for work. You see? [Laughter]
And the next morning he's back at the desk. [Laughter]
You say, 'But, I fired you, no?!' [Laughter]
'No, you were thinking about it, but, uh,
I'm on time and everything.'
So we have to get used to him a bit,
keep coming and going.
And in someway, this subtle tension,
we should not mind this, in fact,
because to mind it too much brings you back into person.
Brings back something that can be disappointed,
which is not the consciousness, the pure consciousness, you see.
Again, there's still some
residual energy in the form,
hiding a little bit.
But the big job is done, the big cut is done.
The thief has been caught. You see?
But still, he's going to keep trying and defending, a little bit like this.
And it takes a little time to just gradually just ...
because once you have found where he is drawing his power from,
just the very exposing of that, you see,
is already cutting the juice to that.
It will live, just like if you have a fan, 'phoop-phoop-phoop-phoop,'
you turn it off, it will keep spinning, for a while.
But the juice is cut. See?
If you're cooking some dhal, or something,
or boiling some milk,
and you have to be watching, watching.
But if you turn it off, it'll still, 'bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop,'
but you know you can go out and have coffee, it's okay.
It's not going to boil over now because the juice is cut.
And in the same way, this thing is going to keep playing
to see, 'Listen, I'm showing to see if you want a bit of business.
You want a bit of business today?'
And you, somehow, your remembrance is bright, you know?
So, 'You again? Oh, yeah...'
or you simply turn away.
And gradually, it cannot live without
interest from you, identity,
which came because you were distracted from your state.
You see? And I see a place for it,
because sometimes we feel, 'Aha! Been there, done it now.
Now we can cruise and everything is fine.
The rest of my life I'll live in a hammock, very good.' [Laughter]
But there's always some tension that will stay there, that will
keep exercising your spiritual muscle for discerning,
to keep checking a little bit. It can there.
Also, with my master, somebody once asked him,
'Papaji, you often talk about vigilance,
but for you, in your case, do you have to be vigilant?'
You see? And he said, 'To my very last breath.'
[Mooji gasps] and he goes, 'Oh my God! I mean, all this work to do!'
It's not work, it's not work!
It's a quiet...
It's a joy. This vigilance is a joy.
The mind says, 'Work out there, keep on doing it!'
No, no, no, it's not a sweaty work.
It's a joy. Just every morning you brush your teeth
in the morning and evening, or whatever.
And you say, 'Oh, twice a day I have to do this.
A year is 365 days and...' [Laughter]
No, you see, the mind will do this.
'I have to do this so much!
And how much toothpaste in one week?' [Laughter]
You see? That's mind.
So simply, as is needed, the inquiry,
actually, it will come automatically.
Now the inquiry happens, it's like a bodyguard to
the Beingness, it spontaneously comes.
You see? And it is so wise in a way, the Spirit, no?
That even if... it can listen to lots of things,
it can be in the energy of a lot of things, speaking and moving,
and it's not disturbed by it. Some voices saying, 'I did...' and 'I want...' and 'I - I - I...'
and it can laugh along with it.
But at some point it will stop and say, 'Ah, wait a second.
What do you mean by "I" now?' You see?
It's not like a policeman looking for something
when you say, 'I' Hah! What I?'
No, it's not busy like that, it's completely relaxed in life.
So it's not a person, you see, it is just a vibration,
it's coming spontaneously like that.
And the same way, it knows the kind of thoughts to zoom in on.
It catches them now. Hm?
In the beginning, when we first we first start to inquire you're discovering the power of inquiry,
for a while we experience a kind of paranoid inquiry,
like, every single thing, 'Who did this?!' [Laughter]
'Who's hungry?!' [Laughter]
'Relax a little bit, yeah. Who's to relax?! Who's to relax?!' [Laughter]
You see? Then gradually, something just, 'Ah! Whoo! Oh, gosh!'
Otherwise you burn yourself out.
Say, 'What kind of trouble did you introduce me to?'
Then gradually, rather than catching fish one by one,
you throw a net over the whole thing,
and you can say and see, 'For whom is all of this now?' You see.
And quickly, 'Phoot!'
It is all seen, you see.
So don't mind that somehow the mind comes up
and says 'Yeah, you know,' like this...
It's not a big deal. Let him have his moment.
This psychological mind, identity, is on a count-down now.
But you don't have to count.
You stay in this. Just you remaining as you are,
without any calculation, no assessment,
will burn him, burn that.
And it's a beautiful burning because mind is also an aspect of the Self.
You see? As soon as the consciousness
somehow descended into a state of personhood,
it's like mind descended with it also,
to accompany what you may call this kind of soul entity
to play the part of friend and foe.
We need it, also, to grow
and to exercise your powers of discernment, you know?
And then when the job is done, everything folds up into that consciousness.
So, in one way it seems like he's trying to trip you up.
Why? Because you're tripable.
When you're no more tripable, his job is over, you see?
[Questioner:] How can you get there? [M:] Huh?
[Q:] How can you get there? [M:] How can you...?
[Q:] ...get there? Being no more tripable.
[M:] It just happens spontaneously. You just abide as the Self,
your attention just stays only as the Self.
As much as you, as I say, marinate in that contemplation,
this just confirming over and over again, as you see,
whenever the mind goes out to something,
for a while the power is there to do that, and you simply...
just you're in a state of self remembrance,
the attention just comes to be here.
Then after a while it doesn't matter if the attention
seems to go somewhere, the power of the Self is such
that it stays here, and when it stays with itself,
attention cannot live, it cannot go. You see?
Because it's not sentient, you know?
It cannot think for itself.
A thought cannot think itself.
It must play for something that engages with it.
And that is the idea we have of who we are, and
the whole thing creates this dynamic, you see?
In the awareness itself
somehow everything becomes nullified, purified in a sense,
and yet, this dynamic thing can still play.
But now it's like a snake without its fangs, somehow.
It's very different; you're not afraid.
It's like you know it, you know him, but more than that,
you're just your Self. He has no power in this way.
The psychological kind of serpent mind can only,
as I say, intimidate the idea we have of who we are.
It cannot intimidate your pure Self.
When you're naturally Self-absorbed,
these powers cannot come near you at all.
They have no meaning at all, nothing.
You see? And when you're not busy fighting ghosts,
you see, then your love can just flow.
You see? Your joy knows no bound.
[Q:] Would you say that you have to have complete acceptance of what it is?
[M:] Hm? [Q:] To have complete acceptance of what it is?
Whatever it is. Complete, full-hearted acceptance. No? Because you have to accept
that this is what it is, it doesn't touch you. [M:] Yes.
Whatever is needed, it grows out of itself. [Q:] Thank you.
[M:] Whatever is needed, it's not coming from elsewhere,
it sprouts out of its own Self, if you want to use the term 'needed,'
which we can do for a while. You can say,
'Whatever is needed in the moment, gets supplied.'
The Self is its best self-supplier, basically. It supplies everything.
So you don't have to go out, you don't have to leave your station
to go somewhere, something is missing... nothing like that.
It seems what I'm speaking can sound over-simplistic,
even naive, but to the educated mind, you know?
Because we're so used to techniques and asanas and trying and accomplishment and...
the Self is not at all caught up in that traffic.
It simply is.
We are. It doesn't mean, though, that the Self is
somehow promoting a kind of laziness. This is not in it.
Nor that it's busy with activity or it is responsible.
All these things, they only exist in the domain of the mind-consciousness,
not in the pure Self.
But if you keep wondering what I mean: 'Without the sense of responsibility,
of moral judgment and so on, you know, what is life for us?'
Well if you're going to sit around wondering these things,
you're not going to go very far.
Some impulse is driving, guiding, pulling, pushing.
At some point, you're to just find and be that,
rather than learn about it.
There's a time when you don't want to learn more, you don't want more experience,
you just want to be! You see?
Grace has prepared everything for you
then the urge is just for this.
Nothing else will distract you. You see?
[Q:] Thank you so much. [M:] Thank you. Thank you.
The ego is fired but he keeps showing up for work. We have to get used to him coming and going,
and in some way we should not mind this subtle tension. To mind it too much brings you back into the person --
it brings back something that can be disappointed, which is not the pure Consciousness.
The ego cannot live without interest from you, without identification, which came because
you were distracted from your true state.
Some tension will always stay there that will keep exercising your spiritual muscle.
Somebody once asked my master: 'Papaji, you often talked about vigilance,
but for you in your case, do you have to be vigilant?' And he said: 'To my very last breath.'
Whenever the mind goes out to something you simply stay in a state of Self-remembrance.
Let the attention be there.
A video extract from the Satsang DVD 'God Bless McDonalds'
Zmar Silent Retreat, Portugal 31th May 2014 - Session 1
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