The Effortlessness
The Effortlessness of
The Effortlessness of Being
The pure Self
is not trying
to figure out anything
[Questioner] Why is the Consciousness observing
a particular body, like, for example, my body?
Why? Or my thoughts? Why is it?
Why am I not staying only as Consciousness?
[Mooji] You say, 'Why is Consciousness observing
a particular body, my thoughts?'
'My' also means, implies what?
When you say, 'My thoughts also', the 'my' implies me.
Who is me? Who is the one? You say, 'Myself'.
So, also, this 'me' itself,
which is an aspect of Consciousness,
now has been modified into the form of a person that says,
'It is the personal idea of Consciousness
that feels that it has thoughts'.
Actually, nobody has thoughts.
That somebody has thoughts is really also a thought.
But it is very difficult to understand this thing.
If you identify as a person,
it seems totally appropriate to say,
'Yes, but these are my thoughts' and so on.
So you will probably very rarely hear
this type of response in a genuine Satsang.
Because there are people who say these things
but it is not appropriate at the time
because most people don't get it.
They don't see; they don't understand.
You say, 'Why is the Consciousness ...
why doesn't it stay as Consciousness all of the time?'
Well it does! [laughter]
[Q.] But at the same time it is observing ...
At the same time, it is kind of personal.
[M.] Yeah, there is a question in there you are asking,
and, in honesty, yes, 'Why is the Consciousness impersonal,
yet it seems to be involved in the drama of a personal life?'
It is observing it, or ... [Q.] Yeah.
[Mooji] Yeah. It seems to observe it
while there is still some interest that the person is true.
When it knows that the person is not true,
the observing of life is not quite the same thing anymore.
Because it is non-consequential, it has no particular ...
While we have the notion that we are a person,
observing of life and feeling we have a life,
all the different shades and colors
of existence become important.
Once you are clear as to what your nature is,
that you are the Consciousness -
not a belief, by the way, it is just clear -
then interest in observing life and making sense of things
just drops away, in fact.
Now where are we positioned to understand this?
Either it becomes a very smooth and liberating understanding
or it becomes more complex and confusing,
depending on where you place your identity.
If your identity is placed in the person,
it will just somehow seem like it goes over your head.
You don't quite catch what that means.
But as soon as it is grasped that, actually ...
The person feeling that is happening inside this body
is a sort of self-portrait
that Consciousness paints of itself as a person -
not just the object of the person,
but the whole psychological portrait
of what the person means.
[Q.] What I experienced the last days was that
I was constantly observing my thoughts,
and they were not really mattering so much anymore.
[Mooji] OK. Observing has this power also.
Because as you observe, something becomes obvious,
that the thing that you are observing
has no life independent of your observing of it.
It just seeps into the Consciousness and 'Wait a minute!'
It just loses its force, in fact, as you observe.
When you don't observe, what tends to happen is that you
either deliberately, consciously, or unconsciously,
accept the thoughts to be you or yours.
When you observe, it becomes almost impossible
to find the one who owns any thought.
[Q.] Yeah. [Mooji] Yeah, yeah.
[Q.] As soon as I realize the ever Present,
I don't have to actively observe
because observing naturally occurs.
[Mooji] Yes. Observing happens casually, neutrally,
because when you discover your true Self,
it has no benefit to draw
from psychological thinking or identity.
You are again in your natural state.
While we are in the state of personhood,
our thoughts and ideas are very important to us.
When you are again the Self,
thoughts and ideas are just thoughts and ideas,
nothing at all, not much about them.
The person itself, which is a construct also
of thoughts, memory, identity and so on,
is an aspect of Consciousness,
but it is a distortion of Consciousness.
And it is never stable, it is always ... it is an amoeba.
It is always changing shapes somehow; it is not constant.
At a certain point, this also is noticed.
And when this is noticed,
almost effortlessly you are slipping into the position
as the observer of the person. [Q.] Yeah.
[Mooji] It is not an intellectual thing;
actually, it is almost chemical.
You somehow find that the sense of person
just has little attraction.
You are into a space, which is like space.
And calmness is there.
The urgency about thought
or any sort of problem to solve or any of these things
becomes very light and almost casual, and uninteresting to you.
Because the pure Self is not trying to figure out anything.
The pure Self wears it.
In this body, the pure Self, the egoic identity,
the state of Being, the absolute Consciousness,
all, it is all here. [Q.] Yeah.
[Mooji] And in a sense you can say they all ...
All the things like the identity, the personhood,
the witness, all of these - they can quietly slip away.
Except one thing cannot slip away: that Absolute standpoint.
[Q.] Yeah. [Mooji] That alone cannot slip away.
All the others are sort of relative.
As you awaken to them, they become phenomenal to you.
[Q.] Also, the observing can become phenomenal. [Mooji] Yes.
When the observing itself is phenomenal,
all the pressure inside the Consciousness disappears.
[Q.] Sometimes I have the feeling that
I observe the person observing. [Mooji] Yes.
[Q.] Is that maybe what you mean?
[Mooji] Yes. In the purest sense even that is saying too much.
[Q.] Right. [Mooji] What is left is just a ...
a total state of contentment
beyond the concept of contentment itself.
You are just in your natural state.
The higher effortless state, in fact.
You are not turning any machinery.
Functioning through the senses is taking place.
Perception of functioning is naturally there.
It is not like there is somebody going,
'Oh, I am perceiving through the senses'.
No, it is all one organic whole functioning.
Functioning is also perceiving, you can say.
But, it is so totally innocent.
There is no cleverness about it.
There is nothing at all, not even, 'Wow, I am perceiving!'
No, there is no excitement about it. It is like, 'So what?'
It is not any more than an insect on one level.
I would say more than that,
because the Consciousness manifests in a much more complex,
much more sophisticated way through the human instrument,
than it does through, say, a mosquito, or something like that.
Therefore, it is said that the human form
is itself auspicious manifestation of Consciousness.
Because in this form,
the Consciousness can contemplate itself. [Q.] Yeah.
[Mooji] And be free from delusion. [Q.] Yeah.
Yes.
What I ...
[silence]
It is somehow recognizable in every object also.
It is ... I experience it like,
from every object is also coming this silence.
And, also, objects are wrapped in this silence.
And my mind is wrapped in the silence as well. [Mooji] Hmmm.
You must be coming into a very beautiful space of joy
if you come to such an observation - a lightness, an ease ...
the joy of not being responsible
for the functioning of the universe.
Things are simply unfolding, because the senses are there
and we have no fight with the senses,
because they are not offensive to the being.
In fact, you may say you enjoy
the diversity of Consciousness's expressions.
Because now they cause no injury.
They are not creating disharmony.
All these kinds of concepts become meaningless, in fact.
It is one totality functioning.
And when you, as a person, are out of the picture,
ah, it becomes very beautiful.
Exquisite. I don't want to say exquisite,
because it is not a kind of phenomenal beauty in that sense.
The beauty is in the ...
the effortlessness of being.
Not in the features of being necessarily.
That also you can include.
But just your own effortlessness,
because we suffer from our effortfullness.
[Q.] Now that is true. [M.] Because we are trying so hard
to kind of get life and to do something with life,
and it is just, 'Ughhh'.
But when you discover that the life takes care of life,
somehow it is quietly understood that the sense of person
is only a kind of a role that Consciousness plays;
then the person really has no real autonomy.
The autonomy is the Self's autonomy.
The person is not independent of that.
And it is only a sense.
And you don't mind even that sense being there,
because you are understanding
in the correct context and perspective.
But when you believe in the person,
you believe you are the person;
then it is a severe contraction of Consciousness.
And it is like you are a living headache!
Because you are just banging yourself against the universe.
Not making sense, not feeling the sense of completeness
restless, rarely in a state of compassion
or lightness or openness.
Because the state of personhood is quite a vulnerable state,
and I would say even an aggressive state.
[Q.] Ah. Yeah. [Mooji] And, so, it is not open.
What is aggressive tends not to be open.
When you are not open, you suffocate your spontaneity.
[Q.] Where does the effortlessness come from?
[M.] It is there! [Q.] It is just there.
[M.] It doesn't come, in fact.
Because it actually doesn't go either. It is there.
I mean, when the ...
And it is totally experienced as that. It doesn't come.
I mean we use language in that way,
in the same way you say that the sun rises and sets.
We say the sun goes up and the sun goes down.
Whereas, in fact, the sun doesn't go anywhere at all.
Relative to the earth it is totally still.
It is the earth that turns.
But you don't feel the earth's turning.
It is experienced as though it is the sun that is going down,
while somehow the earth is turning.
But you don't feel the turning earth.
You feel fairly still, as though the sun is going round.
It is only when you know the thing that it becomes obvious.
When you don't know something, it seems like it is the most ...
it is just so far away.
When you are aware of it, when you are conscious of it,
when you recognize it, it is just simple.
'My God, how did it happen that I did not see this before?'
[Q.] It is like a failure picture.
You have an image, a picture,
and you must seek the failure in the picture.
[Mooji] The failure is what?
[Q.] It is like, [Friend] A mistake.
[Q.] A mistake in the picture. [M.] A mistake.
[Q.] As soon as you see it, then you can't
[M.] not see it. [Q.] not see it.
[M.] Yes. [Q.] Is it like that mainly? [laughter]
[Mooji] I wasn't following, actually, what you were saying.
You say that something is a mistake. [Q.] It doesn't matter.
[Mooji] Everything is fine when you are not there. [laughter]
When you as this kind of personal identity is not there.
And there seems to be a fear about that
because in the absence of the sense of you,
the sense of you feels, 'But what is there?
What an unfair sacrifice to give up all this joy
and all of this wonder and all of this'.
But, it is not like that at all.
The ego is like the fingernail that hides the sun.
How can a fingernail hide the sun?
When you identify with it, it seems to be everything,
everything comes to me!
Once you see what it is, it is just a bubble in the universe.
When you believe it is what you are, it is like,
'But what will I be without this?'
When you realize yourself, you say,
'Oh my God, how could I imagine I am that?'
All the time you are the Self.
But it carries the label of being the person.
And it lives in the notion of being a person.
If I say, You are really happy, but you are not aware,
actually, experientially, you are not happy.
But when you realize your true Self, the happiness is there!
Where did it come from? It was always there!
But the mind interpreted it a certain way,
and you are living in the interpretation of your mind.
I don't know how useful these things I am talking about are.
Because it is so beautifully simple, actually.
And it is a doing, it is a doing.
Everybody is in labor with themselves.
Everybody is giving birth to themselves.
Some births are very easy. 'Phlup!' [laughter]
Another one is just pure trouble.
Another one, if it is too difficult,
it has to be cesarean, or something. [laughter]
But the baby has to come at some point.
And the baby is you. [laughter]
I don't know how good of an example that is.
It makes a kind of sense in me.
[Friend] And you are the midwife. [Mooji] I am the midwife?
[laughter]
Football? [Sangha] Yeah!
[Mooji blows horn] [laughter]
[Friend] Has anybody seen the remote control?
[Mooji] Oh, yes, yes. [laughter]
[Mooji] I have the remote control, my dear.
It is so beautifully simple actually
All the time you are the Self
Everything is fine
when you are
not there.