Your duty is to merge with the Source

*note*-great talk about Karma from Robert Adams-
-added by danny-
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You Only Believe You Are Trapped by the World

Robert: Om, Shanti, Shanti, Om. Peace, peace. Good afternoon. I welcome you with all my heart. It is good to be with you once again. I love every one of you unconditionally.

Never judge things as they appear. Never look at the world and allow the world to tell you how things are. The world is false. There are all kinds of people living in the world, all kinds of beings, all kinds of animals, all kinds of insects, all kinds of birds.

Everything intermingles with everything else. Nothing is as it appears. By judging the world you become very frustrated and your equilibrium gets out of balance. Rather, turn within to Reality and see the truth which is within each one of us. The truth is that you are the universe. Everything in the whole universe is within you. You have given birth to the universe. If you did not exist there would be no universe as when you go to sleep at night. When you're in deep sleep the universe does not exist. You may say it exists but you don't know; it doesn't as far as you're concerned.

So it is with the Sage. It's like being asleep but awake. There is no universe yet there is a universe. What do you see when you look at the world?

Problems. Man's inhumanity to man? You're seeing what you are that's all you can ever see. Each one of us is like a mirror. A mirror can never see itself but sees it's reflection. There's only one. One is all-pervading, omnipresence, the Absolute Reality. That One is you. When you look at the world you're seeing yourself what else can you see? So if you're seeing the wrong things in this world, do not think they appear wrong or there is something wrong in the world. Look at yourself ! Ask yourself, "Why do I see these things?? Why so I feel these things? Where do these things come from?" And soon you'll discover you've been giving birth to them. It will change your mind and everything else will change.

Change your mind and change the world!

One day a man was walking through the park late at night and he heard somebody yelling at him. "Hey you! Come here!" And he looked around and he didn't see anybody. And he kept walking and the voice said, "Come here! I'm over here!" And he looked down at the rock and he saw a frog sitting on the rock. So he bent down to the frog and the frog said, "Kiss me and I'll become a beautiful maiden and do anything you want!" And he didn't say anything and the frog said, "Didn't you hear me? I said, 'Kiss me and I'll become a beautiful maiden and I'll do anything you want." So the man picked up the frog and put it in his pocket, and he proceeded to walk along. And the frog yelled, "Hey! I told you, kiss me and I'll be a maiden and I'll do anything you want!" So the man said, "Well, I'm deciding whether to turn

you into a maiden or to keep a talking frog." And so it is with us. Are we all talking frogs? What does this story have to do with anything? (Laughter) Interesting story. Remember it always I for no reason just remember it.

I receive many phone calls, as many of you are aware. This morning I received a phone call from a lady who asked me an interesting question. It was a question so interesting that I'll share it with you. I got permission from the lady first. She's here this morning so it's O.K. She asked me, "Robert, when I was younger, I lived a rich, full life. I was really a bitch. I teased people. I hated people. I did everything to get my way and I hurt a lot of people. Now my question is, can karma be abated? Is there some way I can forgive myself, expunge the karma, or does it have to come back to me? The things I have done to people, is there any way I can be free of this? Also in my past lives a psychic told me I was a rotten person in those lives too!" What to do? "Is there any hope for me?” she wanted to know.

Well, my answers are always ambiguous. I said, "Yes and no." So we'll talk about this. I asked her if I could talk about this in class. She said yes. So we'll discuss my answer. What I mean by yes and no?

No, you can't abate your karma. You cannot remove the karma that's coming to you. This is a very difficult thing to do. And yes, you can. It depends on who you are what you know, where you're coming from. There is no human being on this earth who has not gotten into problems growing up, of some sort, of some kind. There's no such thing as a perfect human being on this earth! This earth is not meant for perfect human beings. If you want to be a perfect human being, you got to go to another planet! You're on the wrong planet. There's no perfection on this planet.

I kid you not. This is not a planet of perfection; there are such planets, but this is not one of them.

So, when one realizes this, in order to abate their karma, they have to change their lifestyle totally and completely and absolutely. And not many people are willing to do this. In other words you have to do a turn-around, a complete about-face. Anything you believe has to be dropped. Every action you've ever taken has to be changed. The more you react to person, place and thing, it has to be totally changed completely and absolutely. Not just slightly but altogether. In other words, if you want to transcend the karma, become totally free and liberated, you have to look at yourself totally differently.

It's very rare that this happens. It's very rare because most people refuse to change themselves. They don't want to. They want somebody else to do it for them. They want to keep on going the way they're going. And it's true that when you come to Satsang, things begin to happen to you. But yet I am with you about twice a week, maybe about 4 or 5 hours altogether. And the rest of the week, you're on your own. What do you do when you're by yourself? What do you do when you're on your own?

What kind of life do you live? Only you know that! Do you have loving kindness in your heart for person, place and thing? Do you have peace in your heart? Or do you allow things to bother you, annoy you, make you upset, angry, mad? It is only when you calm down totally and completely, and you have peace in your heart that that a change takes place within you. And unless that change takes place within you, you're in the laws of karma.

Most of us here know the ultimate truth; karma does not exist. But what's the use for most of us to get up and say karma does not exist, when we're controlled by it? It's fine to be able to say that intellectually. There's no karma. There is no world. There is no liberation. There is no illusion. There is no God. In the ultimate sense this is true. But is it true for you? Are you living that sort of life or are you just speaking words? People learn at the talking school where you just talk... talk.... talk....talk, talk, talk on spirituality.

But are you learning to keep silent and make something happen with your life? The choice is always yours.

What difference does it matter? What difference does it make what happens to you as far as going through life? What difference does it make, whether you lose your job or you get a job, whether you have money or you're broke, whether you have health or sickness, whether you're happy or sad, whether you get what you want or you don't get what you want? There should be no differentiation in your mind. If you can learn to treat these two imposters just the same they're all imposters, human good, human bad; they are all imposters. If you learn to treat them just the same, then you'll see you'll be free. But if you keep reacting to things, all you're doing is you're accruing more karma. That's all you're doing.

Karma comes in two different sections: what you call Boomerang Karma and Parabdha Karma. Boomerang Karma is like when you step on a rake, the handle hits you in the head. That's Boomerang Karma. It comes right back to you. You step on the rake and the handle hits you in the head. It's karma like this when you do something; it comes right back.

Then there's Parabdha Karma, which is your destiny which comes to you from past lives, from things you've done when you were little. This seems to go through time and space. In other words, there seems to be a long time before you get it back.

What I'm trying to say is that most of us have no idea what karma has in store for us. We have no idea. We may believe and think things are well, that things are going right for us. Then we may step off the curb and a bus hits us and breaks our back and we become paralyzed and we're in a wheelchair the rest of our lives. We don't know! Not one of us knows what's going to happen tomorrow. But by what you do, you can tell if your karma's going to get you by the way you act, the way you think, the way you react. If you begin to understand and realize, what ever has happened to me is the result of karma, good, bad or in between, whatever situation I am now, is a result of karma. Nobody made it like this. No one's responsible for my being who I am.

This is the first truth that you have to remember. No one is responsible for your being the way you are, where you are, where you're living or whom you're living with. No one is responsible NOT EVEN YOU!

If you knew what was going on, you'd put an end to it. But unfortunately, you don't

know what's going on, so you're experiencing karma, apparently different situations different moods, different times, different days, different weeks, different situations. All kinds of things come to you.

The important thing for us to understand is that this is all karma. If you know it's all karma you realize if you react to any condition that comes to you, you're accruing more karma; that's all you're doing. Nobody wins and nobody loses in this game called life. There are no winners and no losers. You're always accruing karma, always, by the way you react to a situation. It's up to you to see this, be aware of this.

If you can see this and be aware of this, you develop loving kindness, peace. You no longer believe there's a god that dealt you a bad hand or you can't be like this one or that one. Or, " I wish I was like this person or that person." You stop thinking like this. You look at yourself, you make the best of who you are, and you work through it. But you've got to do it ! You've got to do it yourself ! This is what I mean when I say you take an about-face. You reverse everything. Never mind what anybody else is doing! What are you doing? That's what matters. For what you do determines what's going to happen to you over and over again.

So here we are. Karma's all over the place. Do you really wish to transcend karma? Do you really want to get rid of it, totally and completely? Then you must turn within and never react to the outside world again! Understand that your happiness is WITHIN YOU, not in things or people or places. Everything you're looking for is within you. That's the first principle you have to understand. All the answers are within you. The way to become free is within you. Liberation is within you. It's all within you...... you've got it all. Not outside nothing's outside. Do not pay attention to one thing in this external world. Do not take one thing seriously.

You've got the power to change anything if you would but recognize it. But as long as you keep blaming person, place or thing, as long as you keep reacting to things, then the power lies dormant within you. It's in abeyance. It will not come forth until you begin to recognize it.

Principle number two: Realize that there's a power within you and know that it transcends all the karma that you ever had and sets you free. You must call upon it, acknowledge it, for it to do anything for you. This power is beyond any earthly person, any earthly situation, and it's beyond all phenomena. This power can be called the Self the Absolute Reality. It is the Self that seems to have created karma and the way to get rid of it. The Self is the source, the source of everything imaginable.

Your duty is to merge with the Source. Your duty is to become the Source. When you are the source of karma, how can you experience karma? When you realize that you are the Atman, the Self, and you're all-pervading omnipresence, there's no time and space, then where can there be karma when there's only the Self? Do you see what I'm getting at? Only the Self exists! The Self is pure awareness, Nirvana, Satchitananda. I am that I Am. Only That exists, nothing else. There's nothing else...only That!

Now with what are you identifying, worldly situations? You're not identifying with the Self. You can't identify with both! You have to become absorbed in the Self. This is your duty! to become absorbed in the Self, totally and completely. Now do you see why very few people can overcome their karma, for most of us do not want to be absorbed in the Self. We want to go on playing games. We think that if we become absorbed in the Self, we'll become lonely, we won't have anything to do, all the fun will be gone, there will be no T.V. to watch, no music to listen to, no sex, no friends! Where are you coming from that made you believe that? That's not the Self that you've talking about, it is you, It is your idea of what liberation is.

Liberation means that you're totally and completely free, without thoughts. There are no thoughts in the Self. If there were thoughts in the Self, it wouldn't be the Self. For the Self is only one and all-pervading. When you become absorbed in the Self, it's completely different than what you ever believed. It's not explainable. But as far as you're concerned, you become totally free, happy, peaceful. There is no longer anyone to argue with or become upset over. This is the Self. You become absorbed in the Self by thinking about the Self. How else? And you stop thinking about your problems, your affairs, your mind, your karma. And you begin to think of your Self and you never acknowledge the world again!

But you remain absorbed in the Self, all the karma will disappear and you'll never have to worry about karma again. You won't even think of the word. You will no longer think about overcoming karma, transcending karma, for there is no such thing to transcend.

And it's a new stage of your life. It is only where most of us are coming from now that we have to worry about karma so to speak. But when you start diving deep within yourself and you become absorbed with the Self, that's it. You're cooked. There's nothing else you have to do. So my question to you is, what are you doing with your life every day? How do you see things every day? Do you still have to be entertained by the world? As long as the world has to entertain you and you don't get entertained by Reality, you're stuck in karma and you're accruing new karma every day.

Leave the world alone. Leave people alone, mentally. Mentally. If you mentally begin to go within then you never have to worry about the physical again, the so-called physical body will take care of itself. You'll always be happy, always. You'll have real happiness, real joy, real peace. It's not what you think it is. It's complete bliss. Bliss in itself.

Feel the peace that prevails. Feel the emptiness. Feel the love. Feel the harmony. Do not think about it; feel it. If you think about it you spoil it. Just feel it; it's here; it's everywhere.

Feel free to ask questions. I know why you won't ask questions, you're afraid of this:

(Robert presses a button on a small electronic box which caused a voice to say...."Were you always this stupid?" Laughter )

Student: What's wrong with laughing?

Robert: Nothing.

Voice from the box: "You're a schmuck !" (Laughter )

Student: More!

Voice from the Box: "Screw you and your sister too."

Student: Robert, if it isn't necessary to overcome karma, nobody objects to good karma, they object to bad karma. What I object to is my own reaction to karma, not the karma itself. So there's no need to overcome it. If I don't care about it, it doesn't matter as long as I don't react of it.

Robert: This is true of course.

Student: So there's no need to overcome it.

Robert: No, you're right. When there's no reaction, there's no karma. When you learn to be still you'll never have any karma to worry about. But when your mind is always rattling, making noises, always thinking, thinking, thinking, you accrue karma by the very thoughts. Noise is still the mind. Keep the mind quiet, quiescent. Then you don't have to worry about karma.

Robert Adams: There is one thing I can tell you for sure. All is well. Everything is unfolding as it should. I can tell you that truly nothing is wrong anywhere. If you think you have a problem, that's the mistake — thinking you have a problem. As soon as you stop thinking, everything will go right.

Questioner: Isn't everything going right while you are thinking?

R: Yes, but you don't know it. Some of us don't think it is, saying, "I've got a problem," or "I'm involved in some-thing I can't handle which is bigger than I am," or "Some-thing hurts me," or "I feel anger." But I can assure you, there is nothing wrong!

All that you have to do is watch yourself. As soon as your mind starts thinking past your nose, grab it — not your nose, but your thoughts. You can grab your nose too if you want (laughter). Grasp your thoughts with your mind, and put a stop to them any way you can, either by observ-ing the thoughts or by practicing self-enquiry and asking to whom they occur. Whatever you need to do, do not allow yourself to think. If your mind does not think, you will be exceedingly happy. You will have unalloyed happiness.

Some people ask me, "Robert, why don't you just speak the highest truth all the time?" Some others tell me to speak in such a way that they can understand what I am talking about (laughter). So that is the dilemma. I do whatever I have to do. I plan nothing. Everything is extemporaneous. I have no rehearsals.

A man called me yesterday telling me he had been practicing for two weeks, took a seminar and paid seven hundred dollars, and is still not realized. I get calls like this all the time. What you say determines the answer I give you. But there is a standard answer. Think of the question, "When will I become self-realized?" Before I answer this one I usually ask "Please tell me what do you mean by `I'?" Then I further ask, "What do you mean by `Self-realization?"' They usually become silent, so I finally ask, "Who do you think the `I' is? Who wants to become Self-realized?"

If you can't do anything else, surrender to consciousness. By surrender, I mean surrender your ego, your problems, your emotions, your fears, your frustrations and anger. Give it all up. Say, "Take it, consciousness!"

Do not get carried away by your emotions. Stop in the middle and watch. Watch your emotions ruling you. Watch your fears controlling you. Watch your anger arise. Do not try to stop it, just watch and observe. Look intelligently and realize who it is that is getting angry. It is not you. It is not even your ego because there is no ego. It is not your body because there is no body. It is not your mind because there is no mind. Therefore, what is making you angry? Nothing.

I was talking about all the phone calls I've been receiving. People still ask what I think about this or that teacher, this or that person, or why shouldn't they go to see other teachers as well? I really don't know what to say. You have to do what you have to do. I can tell you that the more people you consult, the more confused you'll become. I don't care if you never come back here again because I am not looking for anything.

If you do find a teacher that you seem to have an affinity for, you should stick around for a while. If you run from teacher to teacher, you will become totally confused. Every teacher has his place. You will be attracted to the person you have to be with for as long as necessary. It depends on where your consciousness is.

Q: Robert, throughout the spiritual literature there are distinctions made between a gradual path and instantaneous enlightenment. A lot of this stuff about passing through stages — I can't relate to it. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

R: What can't you relate to?

Q: Just the idea that you pass through one stage to the next stage.

R: This is for the person who is striving. The truth is there is nothing to pass through. It appears that some people, who need to understand these things and research them for themselves, will be helped to see where they are coming from. Perhaps you don't need it.

Q: The state of happiness you talk about I would not callhappiness. The state seems far above happiness — happiness as the opposite of sadness.

R: You are right.

Q: Sadness could even come into that state you are I and it would only be something that was passing through with no identification.

R: You are right. As an example, I can cry at a funeral but I realize who is crying. I can have sadness if I want to but I am never really sad.

Q: The state of non-attached mind, that's really the closest thing to it, isn't it?

R: That's true. I am looking for words to describe things. More importantly, there is always total happiness. It i not human happiness. For most people to be happy, there has to be a person, place, or thing involved in their happiness. In true happiness, there are no things involved. It's a natural state. You will abide in that state forever.

Q: From the standpoint of practice, I have noticed that no matter what state arises, the problem is whether I am willing to let this go. Is it important for me to stay in my emotional state. The answer is that there is nothing you can do anyway as it come and goes.

R: Act as if there is something yo can do, even though there is nothing you can do. If you were passing a starving man in the room. don't think there is nothing you can do. Give him a piece of bread.

Q: But in that state of mind arising, emotions arising, perceptions arising, there is nothing you can do.

R: Except watch. Just watch. Just observe. Another thing to consider is this: if you were here as avisitor, having only one meeting with me, and you would never see me again, I would expound the highest truth to you and take off. You would say how great that is. But when I see you twice a week or more, I begin to know you quite well, and everything I say is to help you grow because that is what is needed at that time, since I'm going to be with you again. To people who were with Ramana Maharshi as devotees, he didn't expound absolute truth to them all the time. He would talk to them like an ordinary person. He would inquire about their welfare, their health, about their problems, and he would give them practical advice. He wouldn't say, "Nothing matters because nothing exists." They had problems. So he would talk to them in a practical manner.

Q: If we don't see progress within ourselves and see we are continually getting upset, we shouldn't let that bother us?

R: Keep observing, keep watching, keep focusing on the Self, and there will be nobody to ask who is bothered or who is not bothered. You only ask such a question when your attention is more on the bothering than it is on the Self. If you change your attention to the Self, see what happens.

Q: The question is, is that gradual?

R: For some people. It depends on how much time you give to it.

Q: We can't just turn our emotions off. When I go to work sometimes, I find such an intensity there, with people snapping at each other, I get caught up in it. Of course I be-come aware, usually after the fact, asking myself, "will this disappear gradually by abiding in myself, or will I someday suddenly awaken?"

R: In the morning, when you first open your eyes, that's the time to work on yourself. Ask yourself, "Who am I? How did I get here?" Reconcile yourself with yourself. If you do that upon first waking up, the whole day will be good, without these problems. Just don't go straight to work. Get up an hour early if you have to. See yourself for what you are, and realize the truth. Focus on the self. Ask yourself, "Who Am I?" and wait. Concentrate on the source of "I Am," or say to your-self, "I Am, I Am," and then go to work. Then you will see changes. You will build up a power that you will carry with yourself all day long.

Q: To follow that "I" to its source, to find the "I" by self-enquiry and abide in it seems to mean non-existence, statelessness.

R: Don't worry about being non-existent. Simply observe the "I," and watch it going into the heart.

Q: It is not so much a following then, but that it hap-pens by itself?

R: It happens by itself.

Q: When I contemplate "I Am," does it means that al-ready I am the Self?

R: Yes it does.

Q: Robert, it's because we have the concept we are not the Self that we miss the fact that we are abiding in the Self all the time. As Ramesh Balsekar has said, we only have the doubt we are not the Self, but the truth is we have always been it.

R: Exactly. When we don't see that, we go through all these troubles and play all these games, until we realize we are the Self. Then that is it. But it's fun.

Q: If we don't have the Self and are saying, "I am it," what is to keep that from becoming a parrot-like repetition?

R: It doesn't become a parrot-like repetition if you do it with your breath. When you inhale, say "I." When you exhale, say "Am." A subtle change of energy takes place within the Self, and you will become more peaceful, calm, and soon you will lose all identification with your body and mind. You will remain as "I Am."

Q: Robert, when we do self-enquiry, actually that is the beginning step to find the "I." When we develop a sense of abiding in the "I," there isn't much need of enquiry because we go straight to the abidance.

R: Self-enquiry has no beginning. If you practice "Who Am I," it sounds simple, but is very powerful. Only say, "Who Am I?," then pause, then say it again, "Who Am I?" Never answer the question. Just keep repeating "Who Am I?" Eventually, something will happen.

Q: I'm asking, if you develop a sense of self-abidance, you can watch states come and go, watch identification with the ego, and then self-enquiry is not necessary if you can go directly to that.

S: If you are abiding in the Self, there is no ego to watch — there is only the Self. You watch the ego with the mind, not with the Self. If you abide in the Self, there is nothing else. You are finished. You're cooked. Everything else is of the mind. When I say abide in the Self, I mean for-get everything and be yourself. There is nothing else to know at that point.

Keep observing, keep watching, keep focusing on the Self, and there will be nobody to ask who is bothered or who is not bothered. You only ask such a question when your attention is more on the bothering than it is on the Self. If you change your attention to the Self, see what happens.