Enlightenment Simplified

It’s not arrogant or disrespectful to say, “I am one and the same with my Beloved.” I used to think that that was an impossible thing to say because that would be insulting to the Beloved. As a human with all my faults and shortcomings and things that I do wrong continually day after day after day, how can I say that I am the same as the Beloved which is so, so magnificent. How dare I? But I was looking at it the wrong way. I was looking at it from the point of view that I am only a physical human form that is here separately without any relation to That that created me in the first place. So stupid! But it takes such a long time to finally realize that. So it is not arrogant or disrespectful to say, “I am one and the same with my Beloved.” That is the truththe beautiful, magnificent, divine truthperiod!

One reason it took such a long time for me to realize that was because I didn’t have anybody who I trusted to tell me what I’m telling you now. I didn’t have anybody to tell me that without my thinking that they had ulterior motives for telling me that. It was only until I met Poonja-ji that I felt I had met someone who did not have an ulterior motive in what he was saying. He didn’t want anything from me.

It is my nature to be skeptical. The way that I am with spiritual teachers is that unless they are proven innocent, they’re guilty. That’s what happens with things pertaining to spiritual teachings because there are so many of these teachers and teachings that are false and so arrogant. They want to enslave us in so many clever ways. After many terrible lessons I would regard them all as lying until I had proven for myself that they were not.

So, like Poonja-ji, I say that we have no teachings, no students, no teacher. But once in awhile there exists a few things which are worthwhile for you to ponder. However, if what I have been saying does not sit right in your heart, and it doesn’t fit well, you’ve got to discard it.

You’ve got to discard it because a fundamental precept to what I’m saying is that I don’t want any followers. I have never sought any followers. What I want to create here are beings that are like eagles and lions and warriors. I want you to be strong so you can do as you see fitnot just follow along because Yudhishtara or any one else said that you have to do this and have to do that.

As I have said many times before, there is nothing that gives me greater pleasure than for somebody to look at me and in their heart feel that they are one and the same with me. I may or may not be wiser in some things, but those are the things that pertain to life and the experiences of life. But I am not wiser in speaking about That that cannot be spoken of than you are in your own heart. Nor do I have within me a certain part of the Beloved that only belongs to me and not to you.

A lot of beings don’t want to hear what I’ve just finished saying. It is so much easier to hear specific information about what you should do; what you should follow; how to do it exactly. Then you can come back to me to report your progress and I will grade you. I will tell you how you’re doing and what more you have to do. I will tell you how you are to please me; etc., etc., etc. But that’s not what I do here.

Most of the time I am not even as direct as I am today. Today I was very, very direct and almost instructive. But most of the time you walk out of here wondering what did Yudhishtara say today. The reason for that is because I want you to walk out of here without attaching to any particular thing that might keep you as a prisoner. We already have enough chains around our necks. We have a lot of chains. It is my job to cut all these chains. That’s why I’m here.

There’s a beautiful Buddhist story about an eagle. An eagle was caught and was taken prisoner. He was placed on a log with a rope around his leg. After a few days passed his captors would make the rope a little longer but keep the rope tied to the log. The eagle could walk around a little bit but he was still tied. Each day they would make the rope longer and as time passed they eventually took the rope completely away. But the eagle never flew. He thought he was still chained and he had forgotten that he could fly. He had forgotten that he was an eagle. Then one day, for some particular reason, the eagle decided to take one step more than he was accustomed to take. With that one step he realized he wasn’t tied anymore and he flew. He became an eagle again.

It’s the same for us. We took birth and we got tied because we had to fit the requirements of the society in which we live. To be free is not considered a good thing by others because once we’re free we might become obnoxious. Maybe we won’t take orders that easily any more. Maybe we question things. Our society doesn’t like that very much. Depending upon our backgrounds the rope, the chain, can be very, very tight.

But you are hereand I am saying to you that there is no chain on your necks. I didn’t say that we are going to make your chain finer and finer and finer. I said we are going to cut the chain you think you have. Once you cut it, you will know you are free. But when you make something finer and finer and finer it may become almost invisible, but it is still there.

It’s the same thing when you go to teachers or accept religions that tell you that you have to clean your mirror. They tell you that you have to improve yourself. You have to clean and clean and clean. You have to purify yourself at an essential level. Imagine! Telling the Beloved that it has to purify itself. It’s ridiculous.

What is really being said is that the ones who are saying this have the muddied minds. They are the ones that need to be cleaned. But no, they want you to do the cleaning.

So you start to clean your mirror and you are cleaning and cleaning. And you realize that no matter how much you clean up, there is always some kind of residue. It may occur to you that this is like cleaning a regular mirror where you keep polishing and cleaning but there is always some kind of little speck or streak left on it. So you try harder. You get better paper that doesn’t have any lint. You get better cleaning compounds. And you keep cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. And, by god, there is still a little teensy speck there! Then if teacher is inspecting this mirror he tells you that you’re still dirty.

You’re still dirty?!! So when they tell you that, you lift the mirror above your head and you throw it on the floor. You smash it into a million pieces. Then there is no mirrorand there is no cleaning!

It’s the same as when you cut the chain. The way to cut the chain is to know that we are in essence the same as the Beloved. The Beloved lives in us. We don’t need any cleaning.

Our personalities may need some cleaning, but what we truly are does not need any cleaning. What we are has always been and will always be. It has no end and it has no beginning. And this brings us to the understanding that this concept of death is also beside the point. It’s a mute question. But while we have a life here we have to learn to live. Are we to spend this life contemplating the next life or living this one? Let’s live this life. It’s the one we have now.

And living our lives now, in the present, is also an aspect of enlightenment.

Ponder that for awhile. We will talk again.

You are in my heart.

Yudhishtara