Dear devotees, Sri Robert Adams is one of those direct devotees of Bhagwan Sri Ramana who received nectarine Words of Grace from Him directly, imbibed them completely and attained Self-realization. I feel that those who are finding the Self-enquiry a little difficult to practice, should study now and then Sri Robert Adams' conversations which contain profound understanding of and insights into the practical aspects of Sri Bhagwan's Teaching of the Atma-vichara. I am certain that some of the doubts assailing some of us on the Path would be removed and they would thus certainly benefit.
Sri Robert Adams:
The idea is to stop thinking completely, not to function mentally at all. Yet some of you still believe if you stop functioning mentally, you will become a vegetable, you wouldn't be able to function. This is not true. What you were will not function, but what you become will function very well. You will always appear to function, yet there is no functioner. You are not what you seem to be.
No matter how many times I tell you this, you're still thinking, thinking, judging, judging, coming to conclusions, trying to work out your life. You have to let go, totally, absolutely, completely. You have to let go so completely, that you will feel no body, no mind, no pain, no thing. That is the only time you will make progress. Do not think about this. The thoughts cannot help you. There are no thoughts that can help you realize the Self. It is only a total completely letting go, giving up. What do you give up? You give up the ego, the mind, your opinions about things. That's all you give up. But yet a tree seems to appear, and turn into a beautiful tree as it grows. So will you appear, yet you will know you're not the appearance. You will know that you are totally free and you are omnipresence, all-pervading. The whole universe is taking place inside of yourself. And if you are no self, there's no universe. You are beyond the no self, where there is a no-no-self. You're beyond the no-no-self, where there are no words to describe it. Yet it's so beautiful, so blissful, so joyous, that if you have had a taste of it, you'd never return. You'd never want to go back to humanhood.
This is why there have been many who have been touched slightly by this realization. They have been touched by truth, and they can remember there's something there, even though they're back to their human self, so it appears. They never forget that touch. And these people are the ones who strive forward, to go all the way into realization.
What does it mean to go all the way? It means to look at your life as a picture show. All the experiences are images on the screen. It means not to regulate your life at all, in any way, but to observe it and watch it. To look at it intelligently. To see the emotions that come into your mind. To observe the fears, the arrogance, and not to do anything about them. But to look at them, look through them and become free of them. Only by looking through them can you become free of them. Think of an emotion that you have that bothers you. Perhaps you have a bad temper, a fearful disposition, whatever. First you have to see it. Then you dive deep, deep within it, and it will totally and completely disappear. It will never bother you again.
When you try to change things, they all appear to be fine for a while, then you will find yourself in the same position you were before. Different people, different places. You don't want to change anything. You want to be still and look. As you become still and look, what you're looking at will look back at you.
As you look at the world without interpretation, as you look at the world without attachment, what the world is will be revealed to you. The world will be revealed to you as no thing, as an image on the screen of consciousness. You will become radiantly happy for no reason whatsoever. You will find the peace that you never dreamed existed. You have to want this. You have to love this. You have to want this more than anything else in this world. When I say want it more than anything else in this world, I don't mean in a "I don't have it sense and I want it." I mean to feel, and believe, and know, that you are that. And you want that to be uncovered for you, by going deeper all the time, by letting go of all the things that seem to be happening in life, continuing to dive deeply within the Self. You dive deeply within the Self to the extent that you give up the stuff that you've been carrying around for years.
Pranam,
Anil