Some Essential Statements

One could very well say that Self-realisation (meaning 'understanding' what one is in essence) occurs immediately and effortlessly as soon as one's attention is fixed on the incontrovertible fact that one is always NOW. The NOW is the only real, non-imaginary point in our life; everyone can see that for himself. We are always NOW. one month ago it was NOW. one year ago it was NOW, and now it is NOW. It will always be NOW. When there is time and space, I am HERE and I am NOW. We need not do anything to attain it. At any moment of your life you can verify this effortlessly; you really do not need to be a university professor in order to see that this is so. This simple recognition is the essence of Self-realisation. Realising this, one can begin to work on oneself.

All we can talk about is the past. It is not just memory-based thoughts; there is not a single word we use that is not past. One single approach, such as recollection of the NOW suffices to 'clean the entire attic'. Remember: '1 am not somebody with a past; I am NOW.' I never leave the NOW and cannot escape from it. In time and space I am HERE and NOW. Since we are in search of freedom, what, actually, are we bound to?. To one thing only: the past. And, since that does not exist, away with it!

There is nothing wrong with thinking as such. The trouble starts when a marriage takes place between the ever-present sense of being that you are, and one of the things you perceive, such as the body. Then consciousness 'says': "I am a body", or, "I am a thinker", or, "I am someone with a past". In other words, when consciousness identifies itself with a concept, a person comes into being with all his attendant problems. The truth is, none of us has ever had a single thought. Why? It is mere conditioning to believe that here, in this body, there could be a thinker of thoughts. If one looks clearly, one will find that there is no one there at all. The only correct thing we can say as a result of this intense scrutiny is that thoughts appear in consciousness, are perceived for a few seconds, and then disappear again. Only consciousness remains. There is no 'I' thinking those thoughts, for that 'I' is just another thought. And one thought does not think another thought. That is why the statement 'I think' is sheer nonsense. Thoughts appear, that is all.

When you sit in a relaxed position and attempt to locate the 'I', you find that it is not there. Here, you discover, is a sensation of hunger, but there is no 'I' saying, "Will you put some bread in me, please!"

Words, words, words. 'We have all been taught to give credence to words. That is how our apparent bondage or limitation has come about. In consciousness, which is beyond measure &ndash' so, immeasurable – the mind projects discrete compartments – the measurable. Maya, the measurable, becomes illusion when I take myself to be something measurable, something bound by time and space, an object that comes and goes.

There is no real silence in time and space. Nevertheless, we all have known inner silence. Silence is the absence of certain perceptions. That is our essential home. The world, on the other hand, is merely an extension of your own standpoint. Therefore, if you take your standpoint in the silence that you are, the noise will disappear.

He who has 'understood', directly, not intellectually, what perceiving or awareness is, is, to use that somewhat ridiculous term, 'enlightened'. Really, there is no such thing as an enlightened being. What is said to be 'enlightened' is merely a spot from which the thought 'I am somebody' has disappeared. There, there is no one 'in charge' and no identification with various objects. So, if you are enlightened, you are not free, as some people say, but you are freedom itself. Not like a bird in the sky, but like the sky itself.

In order to repossess this birthright, you have, on the one hand, to take note of what you are, especially the NOW, the presence, the feeling of being something conscious. On the other hand, you also have to take note of all sorts of things you have taken yourself to be but which are, in fact, only temporary and occasional perceptions. A Great many perceptions arise that never last any longer than a few seconds. Due to delusion, we have learned to give 'I-images' a lifespan of several decades, whereas they merely appear for two or three seconds.

Resistance can only occur because for years on end I have taken myself to be someone who could, for instance, be hurt at certain points. One could give a long list of everything that goes with any particular person. If I think, 'I am a decent gentleman', I have an image in which I believe which makes me vulnerable to other images. And when I see that 'being a decent gentleman' is just as nonsensical as any other concept, or when I see that I cannot be confined to a single concept, I am no longer vulnerable.

Whenever someone yells at you, it is only a movement of air to which a specific tone-colour has been given. It does not refer to anything. So I can be afraid only so long as I still imagine myself to be somebody. If I do not exist, who is there to be afraid? As soon as one has fully seen this, there cannot possibly be any fear, psychological fear.

All problems are only apparent problems. Each problem results from an assumption, from believing you are something that you are not. In other words, each problem arises from believing in certain images of ‘I’ and in the reality of a past — whereas you are, in fact, always NOW. Because you are NOW, you, as a perceiver, are NOW and that which is perceived is also NOW, for I cannot perceive what is not there NOW. However, I call certain thoughts, that arise NOW, the past. That again is maya. We can never experience anything from the past; it simply does not exist in our experience. Our experiences are always NOW. That is one of the things you should discover. What struggles do you need to carry on in order to be in the NOW ? Whatever you are doing, you are NOW. You need not take any steps to reach it. Our apparent bondage is due to the belief that we are a product of our past. Open your eyes, look and see that you are already in the NOW. If you do, you will notice that this is a fact as indisputable as anything. Look at yourself and see that, "every day, every hour, every minute, every second, without having or being able to do anything for it, I am always, effortlessly, NOW. That is my true essence, the NOW , the HERE and NOW, where time and space appear." There is no need for any struggle.

This recognition is so simple that even a five-year-old understands it. After that recognition arises, there is still some work ahead. The false belief that "I am not HERE and NOW, but a product of ..." that is what needs to be scrutinised. Look thoroughly, see it, and say: "Nonsense!"

I am a perceiving, conscious being in which perceptions arise, in which thoughts appear. I am the knower, I know these thoughts, but these passing thoughts do not know me. They cannot tell anything about me, for the limited cannot tell anything about the unlimited. Stop believing in words! When I say 'table', I know what is meant by such a thing. However, so far as you yourself are concerned, there is not a single word or thought that can express what you really are. It takes a long time before we lose the belief that thoughts can describe reality. It is a deeply-rooted habit that has become an automatic process within us.

There are as many paths as there are people. In reality, though, there is, of course no such thing as a path because there can never be a gap between me and myself. The image of a path is a very dangerous one, but it is difficult to avoid using it. You can, however, never come any closer to yourself because there is no gap between you and yourself. The only thing that may happen is that you dismantle all the various false ideas that you take yourself to be. That is all.

The 'technique' of these talks is based on the fact that you start from where a questioner believes himself to be, such as 'I am a gentleman from Amsterdam'. And from there, you are taken along to waking consciousness, which is formless in itself. Consciousness will then show you that, when it is devoid of all forms, it still remains as it is. That is the Absolute. Consciousness, from which all forms have disappeared, is the Absolute.

Up till today, for centuries Buddhists have spoken of the 'void'. By this term is meant consciousness in itself. There are no forms in it and that is why one uses the image of space devoid of objects. But do not be misled by the word void' by saying, for instance, that it is absolute nothingness. I would rather say, 'abso- lute fullness', that from which all arises. But it has neither name nor form, and is, as a matter of fact, unimaginable. As long as we consult ideas, we do not understand. When these ideas disappear, real understanding arises. This does not mean that something is then understood: it merely means that we are then only That.

In the waking state it is quite easy to believe in an 'I' that is awake, although we may remember at times that it is a false belief. Similarly, in the dream state it is equally possible to believe in an 'I' that is dreaming or that has been dreaming. But in the dreamless deep-sleep state, you will never find an 'I' that is sleeping. That dreamless deep sleep is merely something delightful. How do you know? That is an important question, and its answer provides a key to correct understanding. The 'I', the mind, may tell you it was delightful, but how can it know? It was not there. You may very well appeal to the senses, but they were not there either. There is nothing visible, imaginable or tangible which can confirm it. Yet you know. And that is the key. The mind has no part at all in the knowledge. Actually, that which we call deep dreamless sleep, or the Absolute, is always HERE and NOW. You are then, for an instant, the Absolute, timelessness itself. The Absolute is so near; it is nearer than anything else. For an instant the world disappears and we remain as we are, the Absolute. The mind then returns and says: "Yes, that is right!"

'I Am' is an eternal truth, from the time of Adam and Eve & Co., up till and including now, for everybody, everywhere and always. But memory cannot tell you so. You may remember the words 'I am'; you may recollect, when you look at a deeper level, that you are NOW. You can see that NOW a thought is produced that you call 'recollection', and say: "He said the same thing at 10:15 a.m." You produce that past NOW. Memory is not a long rope with which you pull things towards you from a distance. Memory is a specific image that appears NOW; it is the mind which classifies it as 'the past'."

The fundamental question at stake here is: "Who am I?" The name that you were given as a baby indicates something that will be there during your entire life. There is only one thing that is permament, and it is not the body. The thing we call the body is a number of perceptions that appear from time to time. The same applies to memory. Memory projects an image and pretends that there is such a thing as a past and a future. That is fine, there is nothing against it, but it is maya, the measureable. I have nothing against the world, but I know that I am not a part of that world. I know that this world is projected through a mosaic. Memory makes one believe that what is NOW is not NOW , and what is HERE is not HERE. It projects a whole world that is, in fact, unreal.

It is impossible to talk about that which you are. There is no concept which can cover it. If I were a concept, I would have been smothered in the cradle because a concept only lasts for a few seconds.

When you have seen that you are not any of those stories you have been told, this recognition is so powerful that you keep reverting to it, whether you like it or not. The greatest obstacle which you could then possibly put on your own 'path' is a concept of the Absolute. What you should do is take note, at the deepest level, of all those things that I have been pointing at. Take note again and again of the fact that the body is nothing other than a series of occasional perceptions. Whether I like it or not, I am always NOW. I cannot do anything to prevent this being so. The waking state implies time-and-space-bound consciousness in which energy — nature — dances a dance. The waking state is consciousness with forms that are inherently made up of nothing but consciousness. In the HERE and NOW consciousness, I actually see nothing but myself reflected as those movements which we call perceptions. What matters is that I see that I-as-consciousness still am the same. In knowing this, I shall soon see that there is nothing in this world that can bind me because this world is nothing but perceptions that depend on me, and not the other way around. When I-as-consciousness am not there at 7 a.m. those perceptions cannot appear.

The collective term for all these perceptions is 'the world', and the great obstacle to understanding the real nature of these perceptions is the authority we give to the sense of touch. So, in practice, it is very important that, from time to time, you sit down and see that the body is indeed nothing but a series of perceptions. We know nothing other than our perceptions. To us, reality is the sum total of our perceptions. We project all sorts of things on reality that are not there. We even pretend that perceptions also exist when they are not being perceived. People often tell me, for example: "But when I am asleep others see me too." That is to say, people infer an existence for themselves not through direct experience, but because others tell them that they exist. Such ideas arise because we believe that the world gives us perceptions or enables us to perceive, and that we perceive the world. We, however, do not perceive any world; we perceive perceptions, and that is all. When I am sleeping, that body that you see sleeping is something I am not. It is part of your waking state, not mine. At that moment there are no perceptions in me at all. The waking state arises at regular intervals, and so does the dream state, but in the Absolute there are no alternations, no subject-object relation, no time, no past, no future.

There is something in you that knows without words, although words may point to it. But if you cling to the words, you will not grasp it. To go beyond them, to experience what the words mean, one must leave the mind alone for a moment and merely look at that which is devoid of thoughts. That is quite an easy thing to do. Why? Because you are already that.

I cannot talk about the deep-sleep state. I can only say that it is very pleasant, but that does not describe it. That in which there are no limitations — for, after all, the mind is nothing but limitations — cannot be described by something which is indeed limited.

We know reality because we are it. At the level of the Absolute, 'knowing' and 'being' are two words signifying the same thing. Usually, when we say 'knowing', we imply that something is known. But the knowing that arises in reality is not that kind of knowledge, for in it there is no knower and nothing outside of itself to be known.