We take a look at ourselves, as human beings so called.
What are we doing here? Why are we here?
Where did we come from originally? We don't know.
Therefore, to a person who wishes to become liberated,
divine ignorance is very important. It’s a sort of surrender.
It’s the same as practicing neti-neti, not this, not this.
We see all of these things and we understand that
they do not exist like we think they exist.
Nothing is the way it appears!
That's the first consideration you have to have.
And you have to keep thinking about these things
pondering these things, everyday.
We’re told were supposed to live certain lives, doing certain things,
becoming professional people in certain objects and subjects. Why?
If were going to die in any event.
What's the purpose of going to school for 25 years becoming
a professional engineer, doctor, lawyer,
whatever when we have to leave all of this behind.
The average person does not want to consider this
it’s too frightening! The average person wants to go on
with their duties, with their work, with their families,
with their life as if it is never going to end.
But alas, here comes good old death which takes us away.
But we don't want to think about these things
we don't want to consider them.
We want to have fun we want to run around
we want to become the top in our profession
we want to acquire millions of dollars, be in perfect health
that's all we care about.
But when you begin to ponder that you have to leave
all of this behind, and one day you will leave your body behind
we wouldn't like to ponder this at all.
Therefore, the first step to consider in Advaita Vedanta
is divine ignorance. When you admit to yourself I don’t know.
I don’t know anything!
But most of us have never wanted to be this way.
We want to make people think we know!
So we talk and talk and talk about things
to make people think we know. But we know nothing.
To know that you don't know is Divine ignorance.
To not know that you do not know is plain ignorance.
That's the first consideration.
The second consideration to ponder is to tell yourself,
I am consciousness.
And Consciousness is like a gigantic Screen
that takes up the whole Universe, that is the whole Universe,
beyond the Universe.
And you think of a screen which takes up all time and space
there is absolutely nothing but this screen is consciousness
and this is my true nature.
Yet, somehow, consciousness appears to produce a replica
of Itself as a human being as a person,
that is superimposed upon itself.
I know some of you are thinking, 'But Robert,
you told us that consciousness is nothing it is self-sufficient, all-pervading.
How can it produce a human being?"
Well, it is like water in the mirage.
It doesn't really do this but in order to explain it and for us
to become evolved and liberated we have to think of it this way.
This is a process. Something to think on a higher level.
It is true when you see water in a mirage,
when you're walking in the desert and you're thirsty
and you go after it and you jump on it and you grab it
you grab sand! In the same instance,
when you try to grab the human beings,
so called on the Screen of Life, which is Consciousness,
you grab the screen!
So the first person appears super imposed on consciousness.
This first person is the I-thought. The personal self.
Now the personal self thinks of itself and creates out of its mind
other beings like itself all super imposed on consciousness
or the Screen of Life.
You create families, friends, enemies, different types of situations.
They all appear on the Screen, until the Screen is totally covered
with people, places and things and you forget about the Screen
and get involved with the people that you have created out of your mind
and the situations and the conditions and everything else.
I am referring to all of us.
Everything you behold everything you see the stars the moon
the sky, the trees, the water it is all a superimposition
on consciousness on the Screen.
It doesn't exist.
Yet it is difficult for most of us to understand that
when something exists it doesn't exist!!
It exists and at the same time it doesn't exist at all.
Like the sky is blue. The sky looks beautiful, blue if you go up
into the atmosphere there is no blue sky.
There never was a blue sky. It’s an optical illusion.
Like the snake and the rope. The rope appears to be a snake
and frightens you until you find out it’s not really a snake.
Therefore, you will never be frightened by a rope again.
So these pictures on the Screen, some are frightening,
some are happy some of this and some of that.
You get involved in the play of life.
You appear to get old and die and you are reborn again,
go through different experiences
Remember you are creating all the time, with your mind.
The further you get involved in this picture the more you create images, situations, persons, places and things
the more that you get stuck in these things.
And they appear So real to you that again you forget
this is a superimposition on the Screen.
The Screen has long been forgotten.
Consciousness has long been forgotten.
The reality to you is the people, the things, the places the things
that make you happy you go after things that make you happy
trying to get rid of things that make you unhappy.
And you keep on like this, life after life after life after life after life.
The time comes when you get tired of playing
and you begin to take the search for the answers of life seriously.
You begin to ponder and wonder what this is all about
by practicing divine ignorance,
which is what we've been talking about.
You realize everything comes and goes
and within time no one will remember you ever existed.
Therefore, you begin to ponder this.
“Who am I?", you say to yourself. 'What is my Real Nature?"
You begin to give up the places, things, situations that seem to make you
happy or sad, because you begin to understand this will not last long.
So what I really should be doing is trying to find out the Truth
about all of these things.
Where did they all come from? What gave them birth?
What is their purpose?
You'll finally come to the conclusion that ‘you’ exist and yes,
that everything is within your Self.
This is the greatest discovery a human being has made.
All of the answers are within you.
-Robert Adams - T.138 - Divine Ignorance - 19th March, 1992
What are we doing here? Why are we here?
Where did we come from originally? We don't know.
Therefore, to a person who wishes to become liberated,
divine ignorance is very important. It’s a sort of surrender.
It’s the same as practicing neti-neti, not this, not this.
We see all of these things and we understand that
they do not exist like we think they exist.
Nothing is the way it appears!
That's the first consideration you have to have.
And you have to keep thinking about these things
pondering these things, everyday.
We’re told were supposed to live certain lives, doing certain things,
becoming professional people in certain objects and subjects. Why?
If were going to die in any event.
What's the purpose of going to school for 25 years becoming
a professional engineer, doctor, lawyer,
whatever when we have to leave all of this behind.
The average person does not want to consider this
it’s too frightening! The average person wants to go on
with their duties, with their work, with their families,
with their life as if it is never going to end.
But alas, here comes good old death which takes us away.
But we don't want to think about these things
we don't want to consider them.
We want to have fun we want to run around
we want to become the top in our profession
we want to acquire millions of dollars, be in perfect health
that's all we care about.
But when you begin to ponder that you have to leave
all of this behind, and one day you will leave your body behind
we wouldn't like to ponder this at all.
Therefore, the first step to consider in Advaita Vedanta
is divine ignorance. When you admit to yourself I don’t know.
I don’t know anything!
But most of us have never wanted to be this way.
We want to make people think we know!
So we talk and talk and talk about things
to make people think we know. But we know nothing.
To know that you don't know is Divine ignorance.
To not know that you do not know is plain ignorance.
That's the first consideration.
The second consideration to ponder is to tell yourself,
I am consciousness.
And Consciousness is like a gigantic Screen
that takes up the whole Universe, that is the whole Universe,
beyond the Universe.
And you think of a screen which takes up all time and space
there is absolutely nothing but this screen is consciousness
and this is my true nature.
Yet, somehow, consciousness appears to produce a replica
of Itself as a human being as a person,
that is superimposed upon itself.
I know some of you are thinking, 'But Robert,
you told us that consciousness is nothing it is self-sufficient, all-pervading.
How can it produce a human being?"
Well, it is like water in the mirage.
It doesn't really do this but in order to explain it and for us
to become evolved and liberated we have to think of it this way.
This is a process. Something to think on a higher level.
It is true when you see water in a mirage,
when you're walking in the desert and you're thirsty
and you go after it and you jump on it and you grab it
you grab sand! In the same instance,
when you try to grab the human beings,
so called on the Screen of Life, which is Consciousness,
you grab the screen!
So the first person appears super imposed on consciousness.
This first person is the I-thought. The personal self.
Now the personal self thinks of itself and creates out of its mind
other beings like itself all super imposed on consciousness
or the Screen of Life.
You create families, friends, enemies, different types of situations.
They all appear on the Screen, until the Screen is totally covered
with people, places and things and you forget about the Screen
and get involved with the people that you have created out of your mind
and the situations and the conditions and everything else.
I am referring to all of us.
Everything you behold everything you see the stars the moon
the sky, the trees, the water it is all a superimposition
on consciousness on the Screen.
It doesn't exist.
Yet it is difficult for most of us to understand that
when something exists it doesn't exist!!
It exists and at the same time it doesn't exist at all.
Like the sky is blue. The sky looks beautiful, blue if you go up
into the atmosphere there is no blue sky.
There never was a blue sky. It’s an optical illusion.
Like the snake and the rope. The rope appears to be a snake
and frightens you until you find out it’s not really a snake.
Therefore, you will never be frightened by a rope again.
So these pictures on the Screen, some are frightening,
some are happy some of this and some of that.
You get involved in the play of life.
You appear to get old and die and you are reborn again,
go through different experiences
Remember you are creating all the time, with your mind.
The further you get involved in this picture the more you create images, situations, persons, places and things
the more that you get stuck in these things.
And they appear So real to you that again you forget
this is a superimposition on the Screen.
The Screen has long been forgotten.
Consciousness has long been forgotten.
The reality to you is the people, the things, the places the things
that make you happy you go after things that make you happy
trying to get rid of things that make you unhappy.
And you keep on like this, life after life after life after life after life.
The time comes when you get tired of playing
and you begin to take the search for the answers of life seriously.
You begin to ponder and wonder what this is all about
by practicing divine ignorance,
which is what we've been talking about.
You realize everything comes and goes
and within time no one will remember you ever existed.
Therefore, you begin to ponder this.
“Who am I?", you say to yourself. 'What is my Real Nature?"
You begin to give up the places, things, situations that seem to make you
happy or sad, because you begin to understand this will not last long.
So what I really should be doing is trying to find out the Truth
about all of these things.
Where did they all come from? What gave them birth?
What is their purpose?
You'll finally come to the conclusion that ‘you’ exist and yes,
that everything is within your Self.
This is the greatest discovery a human being has made.
All of the answers are within you.
-Robert Adams - T.138 - Divine Ignorance - 19th March, 1992
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