What is Awakening? Spontaneous Talk with Mooji
23rd February 2013 Rishikesh, India
[Mooji] As long as the body is existing,
there will continue to be a kind of maturing taking place,
becoming deeper and deeper, and purer and purer,
against a background of unchanging awareness.
So, on one side, there is only the unchanging awareness,
the thing which she is referring to,
that this is always still, always the same, it is always the same here,
but somehow, inside me, some behaviour is changing,
the way in which life is appearing, and there seems to be something here
that is becoming more refined, more kind, more gentle.
What is realisation of the Self?
Realisation is on both sides.
One is the recognition that there is the unchanging awareness,
which has not evolved into itself, because it's always perfect.
But the purpose, it seems, of the manifest existence,
when I appear like I'm a living being,
brought up in a particular culture, in a particular way,
and all of this way is expressing inside this body also.
There is a belief that there is a 'me' that this life is happening to,
and I'm becoming more angry or becoming more wise,
and all of these things are there also.
I'm noticing as a result of being in satsang, listening, contemplating,
that what it is affecting is not the awareness,
but actually this dynamic being seems to be becoming more refined,
more gentle, more kind, less tight, less full of desire,
less attachment, becoming more and more ...
Gradually what is happening is that the sense of myself
as, 'I am the body', 'I am this person', 'Why is life like this?',
'I want to to be this', 'I want to just realise myself',
all of this noise is leaving also.
Because this maturing is coming in somehow,
to just be the same as awareness itself.
There isn't a person becoming better and better.
What is happening is that the person is slowly vanishing,
and what remains is just the dynamic existence,
the pure existence without the projection,
the psychological projection that comes from the idea of a person.
And now there is the life which simply unfolds.
The consciousness that appeared as individuality
in order to somehow refine itself through life,
to become free of identity, of personality and personhood,
now it is the same as the natural mind.
It has no personal content anymore.
Life is still experienced, there are still the senses, there is taste,
but there is no identity, there is no 'me and you' and 'this and that'.
This fire, this conflict, this violence is gone.
So somehow, on the level of duality,
the sense of the person became the presence,
then the presence is now absorbed also in the Absolute,
and there is just that One.
So there is the Absolute which cannot be seen,
and there seems to be the Absolute that can be seen.
But the Absolute that can be seen is momentary,
it belongs to the field of change, and it is continuously changing.
Papaji also said, 'You cannot come to the end of This',
becoming deeper and deeper, and more refined and more refined.
What is going to happen when this body finishes?
When the body finishes, is there a story to finish with it?
You can see from inside your own being in your own life,
as you are living, there is a sense of relationships,
and there is the dynamic and the deep connection with Beingness,
and relationships and so on.
At the same time, there is an ability in us,
that when you change your attention to something,
the old thing doesn't stick inside.
There is something fresh about experiencing.
I am not suffering from yesterday. Do you understand?
Whatever happened yesterday is not affecting me today.
My last thought is not alive in me now.
So this is what I refer to like writing on water.
If you have strong identity,
it is still holding on to memory, it needs memory,
it needs the kind of evidence that, 'I was yesterday'.
Many people are still trying to solve a problem about yesterday
that really doesn't exist, apart from in the mind.
This sense of continuity of identity is still very tight,
so it is still being lived, although it is not alive.
What is going to happen? I can't say what is going to happen.
In a way, nothing is going to happen.
And in a way, I cannot say, So what, will you be born again?
Well, you can think, 'OK, first of all, who am I who is born now?'
You have to be quiet with this question,
'Who am I now that is saying, "After this, then, the next time"?'
What is this time, even? Who is here in this time?
There is consciousness and there is also a sense of individuality,
there is a kind of individuality.
Because when consciousness awakens
to the reality inside itself, in one body,
it doesn't automatically awaken to itself in all the bodies.
So there is an individuality sense there.
What happens when the consciousness awakens to the Truth in one body
is it knows inside this body, 'I am the same reality in all the bodies'.
It knows this.
The details may be different, because each flower has its own perfume.
This is fine.
But that is not such a hugely significant thing,
because the consciousness has many perfumes,
but the core of it is the same.
And this is the foundation of love actually,
because it is the unity of Being.
When you know, 'I am the same one in this body at the root of it',
then you cannot help but love yourself in that body.
The love is just there,
because you know it is the same Self that is inside everyone,
playing through the different surfaces,
the different aspects, the different conditioning.
One flour makes cakes, biscuits and breads, and all different things,
but the root of it is just the flour.
The same one consciousness is playing in each form,
creating its completely unique expression,
but inside it is all the same thing.
This is what I call the unity of love.
When you are in this space,
you are not concerned, 'Oh, after I die, what is going to happen?'
It doesn't seem to have too much power,
because this introspection is not relating to time.
And the mind is relating to time,
'When this body drops, what's going to happen?'
This is coming out of fear.
You can only contemplate and keep contemplating,
because in your contemplation, you find, 'I'm here'.
Whatever will happen next, you're not concerned about.
The next moment, the next life, the next life after that life ...
Maybe this life was at some point the fear you had in another life,
'What's going to happen, where am I going to be next?'
Actually, you are here.
I can't say like this. I don't know like that.
For me, there is something that is fascinatingly unified in itself,
and there is tremendous joy in that, and a peace in that.
So whatever comes out of that, it has to be good.
Whatever is going to be next, has got to be good like this is good,
or better, if you want to say like that.
If the tree is good, the fruits will be good.
Maybe at a certain point,
this whole topic of enlightenment will just leave you.
As I said today, someone who goes around saying, 'Yes, I am awake',
most probably is not awake.
Because as one's attention is focused in the root,
you don't want to say anything like that.
You are content without even making any statement.
You don't know what you are to say, 'Oh, I have awakened!'
Just the natural sense 'I am'.
And it has no measurement on it.
It has no limits because limits are also seen.
As long as the body is existing, there will continue to be
a kind of maturing taking place,
becoming deeper and deeper, purer and purer,
against a background of unchanging awareness.
There isn't a person becoming better and better.
What is happening is that the person is slowly vanishing.
And what remains is just the dynamic existence,
the pure existence without the psychological
projection that comes from the idea of a person.
You can only contemplate and keep contemplating,
because in your contemplation you'll find, 'I'm here'.
... and whatever will happen next, you're not concerned about.