Here is a link to a FB group called Robert Adams Talks. One of the posts in it resonated with me and I have decided to read it daily for the foreseeable future – perhaps for the rest of my life.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RobertAdamsTalks/permalink/1264633717586533/?mibextid=Nif5oz
I have included the text of the post at the end of this article (in italics). Scroll down the page and read it before going further.
Here are the main takeaways for me:
- The last few paragraphs spoke of a power and a presence that can be trusted to take care of me. This is similar to some passages in the Bible (the New Testament) that speak of leaving all worldly cares to God.
This message alone is worth the price of admission. There is no point thinking or worrying about the future. The only thing to be done is live each day as best we are able. Sufficient unto this day is the evil thereof. - The next takeaway is the mind is not the self and simply by witnessing it (the mind) we can get in touch with the Divinity within us.
One of the basic principles of Hindu spirituality (also Buddhist) is the Body-Mind-Intellect aggregate is not the self. If we free ourselves of identification with the Body-Mind aggregate then that is all we need to do to access God. Quoting again from the Bible – Be still and know that I am God.
But what is the need for me to read this passage daily you might ask. The reason is that I need to dehypnotize myself of false concepts.
I have been accustomed since my birth to think of myself as the body. So this false concept has strong roots within me. To see things in a different way I need to free myself of false concepts. Then that which is true will reveal itself.
I can compare this with my ongoing attempt to quit smoking. I have smoked for more than 35 years of my life. I have associated this habit with relaxing, with enjoyment, with dealing with boredom and loneliness, with getting courage and confidence and a lot else besides.
In reality all I had been doing all these years was that I was setting fire to tobacco leaves wrapped in paper and inhaling poisonous fumes. Smoking is not a somewhat distasteful habit. It is a drug addiction which kills and is the number one killer in history.
I know this but being convinced of this requires that I keep reminding myself of these facts. It is not enough to simply abstain. I need an entirely new attitude or way of looking at smoking.
And the path of Gyana Yoga is somewhat similar. You just remind yourself of the basic concepts of spirituality over and over as you go through the day.
Reading the above FB post will do more than just motivate me to meditate and give me courage to face life. It will enable me to experience what I really am.
I hope you liked this article. Please share it on FB, WA and X (formerly Twitter) and let me have your comments. Feedback from my readers keeps me going.
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Text of the FB Post
Bit of a read…well more than a bit…..😁😊
The time comes, in our evolution, when we truly understand what the mind really is. And we begin to observe it, realizing that it functions without us. We begin to watch the mind in action.
We watch it making us depressed. We watch it making us angry. We watch it making us happy. We watch ourselves when we accomplish something great, and we think we’re important. Just the watching alone causes you to go further in your evolution. For it shows you that I possibly cannot be the mind for I have been watching all this time.
I have been watching my thoughts bring up the past and make me unhappy, bring fears into my life, as if something bad is going to happen in the future if I don’t watch out. We’ve been watching the mind do this to us.
Then we finally say to ourselves, “Who is this watcher? Who is this person that has been watching the mind?” We honestly have to say, therefore, “I don’t know. I don’t know who I am. I have no idea who has been watching, but I have to admit ‘I’ have been watching. All these years I thought that when I said ‘I,’ I was referring to my mind. I believed my mind was ‘I.’
But now as I watch myself getting angry, as I watch myself becoming depressed, or becoming happy, I realize that I am separate from my mind. Therefore, “Who am I? Where did I come from? It’s amazing that I am able to watch my mind doing all these things to me. But now I know that there is an ‘I.’ Who is this I? I don’t know. How can I find out?”
By becoming silent, through silence. By allowing my mind to empty itself of all thoughts, and as I keep on watching my mind in action, without responding, I notice something very interesting happening to me. I notice that I feel happier. I feel more peaceful and I feel more powerful. I notice that I’ve lost my fears, my frustrations, and even my searching for truth has slowed down, for I am beginning to understand that there is really nothing to search for. It’s all here.
Everything I’ve always wanted is here. Amazing discovery. Yet I still don’t know who I am. But I’m beginning to understand that I do not have to know who I am. It is not necessary to know who I am. Do you follow? I doesn’t have to know who it is. What an amazing discovery. I don’t have to go around searching for the I, or wondering who the I was that has been watching the mind in action all these years.
I simply have to become still. Be still and know that I am God. And the watching all these years has caused me to become still. In other words, as you practice observation of your thoughts and mindfulness, your mind becomes quieter, and quieter and quieter. And to the extent your mind becomes quieter and quieter, to that extent does your consciousness become revealed to you as absolute reality.
Now when we talk about absolute reality, or Parabrahman, there are no words, for everything I would tell you about that would be superfluous. We therefore learn to keep quiet. We no longer get involved in complications. We keep our lifestyle simple.
We actually stop worrying about the future, about our existence or about anything else. Something tells us from within that the same power that knows how to make apples grow on apple trees, flowers bloom so beautifully, mangos grow on mango trees, wheat grow in the fields, and yet there’s just enough sun, just enough rain, just enough of everything to sustain and maintain their growth. Something tells me that the same power knows how to take care of me.
I can therefore be myself,
silence.
Robert Adams