The True Nature of Reality

This series will offer direct pointers to the natural state. What these pointers do is illuminate the way – revealing the cul-de-sacs or false paths. It is easy to become lost in the variety of mystical experience; yet these pointers bring you back again and again to the correct direction. The natural state can never be described, as this would make it simply another object in consciousness, splitting the unified field into subject (seeker) and object ( realization ). Instead, these pointers have the effect of eroding the false, dissolving the mistaken sense of self-identity and creating the conditions for the return to the non-dual state.  Nothing you do will change you, for you need no change. You may change your mind or your body, but it is always something external to you that has changed, not yourself. Why bother at all to change? Realize once for all that neither your body nor your mind, nor even your consciousness is yourself and stand alone in your true nature beyon

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Without it [self-realization], you will be consumed by desires and fears, repeating themselves meaninglessly in endless suffering. Most of the people do not know that there can be an end to pain. But once they have heard the good news, obviously going beyond all strife and struggle is the most urgent task that can be. You know that you can be free and now it is up to you. Either you remain forever hungry and thirsty, longing, searching, grabbing, holding, ever losing and and sorrowing, or go out wholeheartedly i

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . As long as you take yourself to be a person, a body and a mind, separate from the stream of life, having a will of its own, pursuing its own aims, you are living merely on the surface, and whatever you do will be short-lived and of little value, mere straw to feed the flames of vanity.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

HOW TO BE FREE FROM DESIRE AND FEAR - PART 24 With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . The obstacles to clear perception of one's true being are desire for pleasure and fear of pain. It is the pleasure-pain motivation that stands in the way. The very freedom from all motivation, the state in which no desire arises, is the natural state.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Pleasure depends on things, happiness does not. As long as we believe that we need things to make us happy, we shall also believe that in their absence we must be miserable. Mind always shapes itself according to its beliefs. Hence the importance of convincing oneself that one need not be prodded into happiness; that, on the contrary, pleasure is a distraction and a nuisance, for it merely increases the false conviction that one needs to have and do things to be happy, when in reality it is just the opposite. Bu

HOW TO BE FREE FROM DESIRE AND FEAR - PART 22 With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Moods are in the mind and do not matter. Go within, go beyond. Cease being fascinated by the content of your consciousness. When you reach the deep layers of your true being, you will find that the mind’s surface-play affects you very little.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Watch yourself closely and you will see that whatever be the content of consciousness, the witnessing of it does not depend on the content. Awareness is itself and does not change with the event. The event may be pleasant or unpleasant, minor or important, awareness is the same. Take note of the peculiar nature of pure awareness, its natural self-identity, without the least trace of self-consciousness, and go to the root of it and you will soon realize that awareness is your true nature, and nothing you may be aw

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . What was never lost can never be found. Your very search for safety and joy keeps you away from them. Stop searching, cease losing. The disease is simple and the remedy equally simple. It is your mind only that makes you insecure and unhappy. Anticipation makes you insecure; memory, unhappy. Stop misusing your mind and all will be well with you. You need not set it right, it will set itself right, as soon as you give up all concern with the past and the future and live entirely in the now.  –       Nisarga

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . The idea - 'I am the witness only' will purify the body and the mind and open the eye of wisdom. Then man goes beyond illusion and his heart is free of all desires. Just like ice turns to water and water to vapour, and vapour dissolves in air and disappears into space, so does the body dissolve into pure awareness (chidakash), then into pure being (paramakash), which is beyond all existence and non-existence.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence befo

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . It is because the "I am" [and all associated desires and fears] is false that it wants to continue. Reality need not continue - knowing itself indestructible, it is indifferent to forms and expressions. To strengthen and stabilize the "I am", we do all sorts of things - all in vain, for the "I am" is being rebuilt from moment to moment. It is unceasing work, and the only radical solution is to dissolve the separative sense of "I am such and such person" once and for good.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . If one conceives of 'self', then one must also conceive of 'other'. Attachment and aversion arise as a result of these two conceptions- of self and other. As a result of relationships accompanied by feelings of attachment and aversion, all faults are generated. It should be understood that the root of all those faults is this view- that the transitory aggregation called I and mine has an inherent existence.  –        Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Remember, to know Yourself, return to th

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . When we closely examine the ordinary habits that underlie whatever we do and try to discover where they come from, we find that their very source is our failure to investigate them properly. We operate under the deluded assumption that everything has some sort of true, substantial reality. But when we look more carefully, we find that the phenomenal world is like a rainbow—vivid and colourful, but without any tangible existence. When a rainbow appears in the sky we see many beautiful colours—yet a rainbow is no

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . To cut through the mind’s clinging, it is important to understand that all appearances are void, like the appearance of water in a mirage. Beautiful forms are of no benefit to the mind, nor can ugly forms harm it in any way. Sever the ties of hope and fear, attraction and repulsion, and remain in equanimity in the understanding that all phenomena are nothing more than projections of your own mind. Once you have realized absolute truth, then you will see the whole, infinite display of relative phenomena that app

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . This is the open secret, which all can discover for themselves. We live our lives, as it were "inside out," projecting the existence of an "I" as separate from an external world which we try to manipulate to gain satisfaction. But as long as one remains in the dualistic state, one's experience has always underlying it a sense of loss, of fear, of anxiety, and dissatisfaction. When, on the other hand, one goes beyond the dualistic level, anything is possible.  –       Namkh

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Questioner: You too will die Maharaj: I am dead already. Physical death will make no difference in my case. I am timeless being. I am free of desire or fear, because I do not remember the past or imagine the future. Where there are no names and shapes, how can there be desire and fear? With desirelessness comes timelessness. I am safe, because what is not, cannot touch what is. You feel unsafe, because you imagine danger. Of course, your body as such is complex and vulnerable and needs protection. But n

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Giving up desire after desire is a lengthy process with the end never in sight. Leave alone your desires and fears, give your entire attention to the subject, to him who is behind the experience of desire and fear. Ask: who desires? Let each desire bring you back to yourself.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Note 1: Maharaj is not referring to a person or an entity when he says "give your entire attention to the subject, to him who is behind the experience of desire and fear." This is simply

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Nothing is wrong with you, but the ideas you have of yourself are altogether wrong. It is not you who desires, fears and suffers, it is the person built on the foundation of your body by circumstances and influences. You are not that person. This must be clearly established in your mind and never lost sight of.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . If you recognize the emptiness of your thoughts instead of solidifying them, the arising and subsiding of each thought will clarify and strengthen your realization of emptiness.  –       Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . To cut through the mind’s clinging, it is important to understand that all appearances are void, like the appearance of water in a mirage. Beautiful forms are of no benefit to the mind, nor can ugly forms harm it in any way. Sever the ties of hope and fear, attraction and repulsion, and remain in equanimity in the understanding that all phenomena are nothing more than projections of your own mind.  –       Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . If we allow our thoughts to arise and dissolve by themselves, they will pass through our mind as a bird flies through the sky, without leaving a trace. This method applies not only to attachment and anger but also to the experiences of meditation, such as bliss, clarity and the absence of thought. These experiences result from perseverance in practice and the expression of the inherent creativity of the mind. They are like the appearance of a rainbow as the rays of the sun strike a curtain of rain. For us to bec

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share Maharaj's pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . The problem arises only when the memory of past pains and pleasures, which are essential to all organic life, remains as a reflex, dominating behaviour. This reflex takes the shape of “I” and uses the body and the mind for its purposes, which are invariably in search for pleasure or flight from pain. When you recognize the “I” as it is, a bundle of desires and fears, and the sense of “mine” as embracing all things and people needed for the purpose of avoiding pain and securing pleasure, you will se

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share Maharaj's pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . The difference between the person and the witness is that both are modes of consciousness. In the one you desire and fear, in the other you are unaffected by pleasure and pain and are not ruffled by events. You let them come and go.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share Maharaj's pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . The desire to find the self will be surely fulfilled, provided you want nothing else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If, in the meantime, you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between contradictory urges. Go within, without swerving, without ever looking outward.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share Maharaj's pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Desire is merely the fixation of the mind on an idea. Get it out of its grove by denying it attention. Whatever may be the desire or fear, don't dwell upon it. Here and there you may forget, it does not matter. Go back to your attempts till the brushing away of every desire and fear, of every reaction, becomes automatic. Avoid the disturbance, that is all.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share Maharaj's pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Don't you see that it is your very search for happiness that makes you feel miserable? Try the other way: indifferent to pain and pleasure, neither asking nor refusing, give all your attention to the level on which "I am" is timelessly present. Soon you will realize that peace and happiness are in your very nature and it is only seeking them through some particular channels that disturbs. Avoid the disturbance, that is all.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share Maharaj's pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Increase and widen your desires till nothing but reality can fulfil them. It is not desire that is wrong, but its narrowness and smallness. Desire is devotion. By all means be devoted to the real , the infinite, the eternal heart of being. Your longing to be happy is there. Why? Because you love yourself. By all means, love yourself -wisely. What is wrong is to love yourself stupidly, so as to make yourself suffer. Love yourself wisely. Both indulgence and austerity have the same purpose in view - t

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share Maharaj's pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Giving up desire after desire is a lengthy process with the end never in sight. Leave alone your desires and fears, give your entire attention to the subject, to him who is behind the experience of desire and fear. Ask: who desires? Let each desire bring you back to yourself.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

Everything manifest is simply the play of the five elements - space, air, fire, water, earth.  The series will share the View of  the  elemental  interplay of "material life", the sense of beingness or "I Am", and the Absolute state which is prior to and gives rise to this elemental play. The five element essences, plus the three gunas means a person. With that, this knowingness comes, the memory “I Am”. This personality is sustained by the provisions supplied by the five elements. So long as the provisions are supplied in proper order the body and “I Amness” will be there. Once the supply is stopped the touch of “I Amness” is gone.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

Everything manifest is simply the play of the five elements - space, air, fire, water, earth.  The series will share the View of  the  elemental  interplay of "material life", the sense of beingness or "I Am", and the Absolute state which is prior to and gives rise to this elemental play. Having understood this state of beingness and all its play, the jnani has transcended it and abides in the state prior to conception. He ever dwells in that perfect state, whether beingness appears or disappears. One who has understood all the five elements and its play is not worried about the essence of these five elements, the beingness.....this state is transcended. That one remembers humanity, but knows that he has nothing to do with humanity.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.