Adapting Teachings: Strategies for Self-Guided Learning || Acharya Prashant (2024)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 24.08.31, Vedant: Basics to Classics  Context: ~ How can one come close to the teachings of the Teacher? ~ Why one has to learn to have the highest level at his heart? ~ What determines what one needs to do? ~ Why level of doing has to be left free? Why not to expect much from it?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00So, my question is about the three levels of teaching, and you were talking about it

00:11now more from the teacher's side, and the question is more from the student's side,

00:18because we don't always have Krishna in front of us, so the question is how is one to know

00:26which level of the teaching is correct for oneself at any given moment, because we don't

00:33remain at a certain level of consciousness always.

00:37You are trying to ask which level of teaching is correct for the student, right?

00:48So the student is saying, I will assess the level of teaching and then determine which

00:58particular level is good for me, right?

01:03So the student being the student, the student being where he is and who he is, will assess

01:10the teaching.

01:11Will he?

01:12That's why I said, assuming that the teacher is not there.

01:21No, no.

01:22The teacher is always there.

01:24The problem is that the student wants to remain who he is.

01:30The student doesn't have to assess the teaching.

01:32The student first of all has to say, I am not right as I am.

01:40Instead of assessing the teaching, the student has to assess himself and that opens him up,

01:46that cracks him up.

01:50If I want to assess the teaching, how will I assess the teaching?

01:53According to my own standards, right?

01:55And according to my standards, no teaching is good enough, because I am already good

02:00enough.

02:01All teachings are telling me, you are not good enough.

02:07In my field, I am already good enough, therefore all the teachings are just lies.

02:13Why must I accept lies?

02:18Is there anything else that any bit of teaching tells you?

02:21All teachings just come and declare to you, you are stupid, right?

02:30In my own eyes, I am the wisest one on the planet.

02:35The teacher is telling me, you are stupid.

02:37I am the wisest one, therefore the teacher is stupid.

02:42Hence there can be no coming together.

02:47One of them has to accept that he is stupid, either the teacher or the student.

02:53Now the teacher sees that the student, being as stupid as he is, will never accept that

03:01he is stupid.

03:03Therefore the teacher must now pretend to be stupid and meet the stupid student at his

03:11own place, the student's own place that is.

03:14That's how the game proceeds.

03:19How do I assess the teaching?

03:23How do I even know that there are various levels of teachings?

03:28Who is the assessor?

03:31I am the assessing party.

03:35So what will I assess?

03:36The only thing that I will assess is that except for me, everything is just bullshit.

03:44Or only those parts of teachings are somewhat considerable, that align to my interests,

03:53that do not seem to threaten me.

03:55So only those parts will be somewhat acceptable.

04:03It doesn't happen that way.

04:05There has to be, you see, the seed, the shell has to be prepared to crack open from the

04:18inside.

04:21Only then it can receive the sunlight.

04:27That willingness has to come from within the seed.

04:32Obviously the right conditions must be provided otherwise the seed will never break out.

04:40But like the window panes, like the doors, they have to be open to receive the guest.

04:52And that opening is a sovereign decision of the individual.

04:57There can be no authority there.

05:00There can be no compulsion there.

05:02It's a matter of either realization or love or simply boredom.

05:09It is possible that one gets so frustrated with being himself that he says, I am going

05:15to throw all the doors open now because I am just fed up of being myself.

05:24So something has to give in.

05:29But could you also say that it can be a matter of exposure?

05:39Because what if the situation is such that in contact with the teacher, then the contrast

05:47kind of reveals that in that light, the situation, what you're saying, then it makes sense.

05:57But then when the session is over and things return to whatever they are, then that contrast

06:06might not really, you said, realization, love and boredom.

06:15What if none of them are there?

06:18I'm not saying it's like that.

06:22I understand.

06:23You're saying it does not last.

06:26You can say that.

06:27Take it from there.

06:28Yes.

06:29Yes.

06:30But then one has to hang on to whatever works for him, no?

06:39Why must I wish that it lasts for me?

06:47It should be sufficient that I do get to see that there exists some practical interval

07:01in which an effect does take place.

07:08It's too much for me to wish that the effect must last even after the event.

07:20I got to know that the effect does happen in the duration of the event.

07:28So this much is certain that there is an effect under certain given conditions.

07:36Now my demand is, even after those conditions are removed, the effect must persist in some

07:47way, even if in a weakened way, yet the effect must remain.

07:53But isn't that too much to ask?

07:54My question is, I mean, if I were really desperate, I would say, if the effect remains in the

08:05session, why can't I always remain in the session?

08:14Why must I wish that the effect must remain after the session?

08:21If the effect remains in the session, fine.

08:24I love the effect so much, I will remain in the session.

08:30That's it.

08:33But then the entire search will be for ways to perpetually remain in the session.

08:43Right now the search is a bit misdirected.

08:46Right now the search is how to make the effect remain after the session.

08:51That's what the direction of the search is.

08:56So how about searching for ways to perpetually remain in the session?

09:09If the thing is lovely, why must it ever conclude?

09:14Why must it ever get over?

09:20If I am in love with something, why will I allow the thing to ever end?

09:35Don't allow the session to end for you.

09:47I get what you're saying.

09:50It's just that in some sense I could say that, I could ask myself that what else am I doing?

09:59Because you mean it in another way.

10:05No, no, no.

10:06Julius, the level of doing is the Vyavaharic level.

10:11One has to learn to co-exist at two levels.

10:18At the level of doing, there would always be the world.

10:21At the level of doing, you would never find the teacher or the teachings or the session.

10:28One has to learn to have the highest level at his heart and then what is at your heart

10:40would determine what you do.

10:44The level of doing has to be left free.

10:51Don't expect too much from it.

10:55You have to make the session perpetually continue in your heart and then the session will decide

11:05what you do in the world.

11:10Doing is not the plane where change can be initiated.

11:15Doing is the plane where the change is manifested.

11:22Doing is the plane where the change becomes visible.

11:27It is not the plane where the change is initiated.

11:34The change is in the Parmarthic plane, the highest plane.

11:39There you have to be in the session all the time.

11:43Carry the session in your heart and then see how doings change and even if the doings do

11:51not change, it doesn't matter because what matters is the session and the session would

11:56always be there.

11:58What else is there to matter?

12:05One has to learn to co-exist in these two planes at the same time.

12:13I operate here but I belong there.

12:18I am on a mission.

12:20I don't belong here.

12:21I belong there though I operate here.

12:25I have come here but I am not a native.

12:29My hometown is there, Amarpur.

12:32That's my hometown.

12:33I am just on a visit.

12:34I am here to do certain things.

12:36This is not my permanent address.

12:40One has to have two addresses.

12:43The permanent address and a functional address, a temporary address.

12:51So all this is temporary, functional.

12:54One has to remember both his addresses.

13:00The session will be found whenever you will go to your permanent address.

13:09That's the place where the session is always on.

13:19And do you understand, what if it feels like that I am in the session, outside the session

13:31but then when I come to the real session, I realize in that contrast that I actually

13:35wasn't in the real session, if you get that.

13:38I get that.

13:39What if that's the situation that you think that you are in?

13:44Then if I were you, I would quit everything.

13:47I'm still young.

13:48I would give 1, 2, 3 years of my life to physically being in the session till I find that the

13:57session within has started resonating exactly and authentically with the session outside.

14:08Otherwise what I will be carrying within, in the name of the session, will be some kind

14:14of a duplicate session.

14:17Yeah, that's exactly the problem.

14:19It's not about what you're missing, but what you're getting or think that you're getting.

14:24Because if that's good enough, then who needs the real thing?

14:29Like obviously you need the real thing, but you must understand, you know.

14:41There's nothing much at stake.

14:45What is anybody gaining by being in any particular corner of the world?

14:52You know what space and time and locations and geographies and these things are, right?

14:59You know what these things are.

15:01You also know there is not much to be gained or lost in terms of being here or being there,

15:09even in the material sense.

15:13So makes sense to commit oneself to physical presence till the point one starts finding

15:25that the words outside have become the words inside.

15:29Now there is no more a misalignment.

15:33Now the sessions can wonderfully continue or one can take the help of technology.

15:42We are developed people now, technologically at least.

15:54So that would save the attendant risks of travel and this and that and all the disruptions

16:03that travel brings.

16:11Listening in continuity is magical and throughout the centuries across the world, knowers have

16:24emphasized on the importance of continuous listening.

16:34You know in the Jain tradition, they call the student as the listener.

16:42It's so instructive.

16:43They don't even call the student as the student.

16:47They say he is the listener, Shravak.

16:52That is the essential quality of the student.

16:54He listens.

16:56So continuous listening is sufficient.

17:02Even in the Guru Granth Sahib, they say that if you can just listen with attention, that

17:13will be enough.

17:16But that listening has to continue over a period of time and that has to be the most

17:26important thing in your life.

17:30So the universe is all around you and the listening is all within you.

17:38That's the place you must give to the listening.

17:40Eating, walking, talking, sleeping, the listening must continue.

17:49And technology can be a great aid.

17:55Some of these new sessions, I have listened to copious amounts of times, like seriously.

18:03Some of them have been like that, like it's not like I haven't immersed myself in them.

18:13But it feels like what I can understand is that why somehow the contacts and the kind

18:26of my receptivity is very open and things seem very self-evident.

18:33But then at some point, even if I'm listening very fully, it feels like I start going to

18:39other teachings and I'm not even sure why.

18:43It's like instinctive.

18:44It's like something is not clicking, so I'm going somewhere else only to come back to

18:49this and realizing that I've missed again.

18:53But it's not like I have an active feeling of being against whatever is being said here,

18:59at least consciously.

19:00It might be a subconscious thing, but actively I don't feel like that.

19:05It's just like that sometimes it's self-evident and sometimes I'm not getting it at all.

19:11And I don't know what is happening is Julius, you're not going to someone else.

19:15You are again and again going back to yourself, to the ego.

19:21The ego itself is the biggest teacher.

19:25Yeah, obviously.

19:26So, any other teacher is a threat to ego, the teacher.

19:31Hmm.

19:32Yes.

19:33So, ego, the student keeps going back to ego, the teacher.

19:40You're not going to someone else, you're going back to yourself again and again.

19:44Yeah.

19:45Yeah.

19:46It's just that ego would not want to say that I'm going back to myself.

19:54So, it would give itself the name of some other teacher.

19:57Yes.

19:58So, instead of AP, now I'm listening to BC.

20:02Hmm.

20:03Right?

20:04So, but that BC is no one else but you.

20:07Hmm.

20:08So, that's the way the whole thing.

20:12Now, what to do?

20:14Then there is the way of Vedanta, the way of Upanishads, dialectical way.

20:22Because listening pre-assumes a student not in dialogue with himself.

20:30Listening pre-assumes a level of immersion in which the student is in contact only with

20:38the teacher.

20:41But that's too much to ask for.

20:46The ego loves itself much more than it loves the teacher.

20:52Therefore, it wants to be in contact with itself rather than the teacher.

20:58Teacher.

20:59So, when we say listening suffices, then there is a big condition there that you are listening

21:05only to the teacher.

21:07Teacher.

21:08But if the listening is divided, you're listening to the teacher and then you're listening to

21:12yourself and then you're listening to the teacher and listening to yourself, then there

21:15is a problem.

21:16The solution to that problem is the method of the Upanishads, which is the method of

21:21dialogue.

21:22Which is the method of dialogue.

21:26And now that's where whatever you have learned from yourself by listening to yourself must

21:34come out to be scrutinized by the teacher.

21:38Hmm.

21:40And then what is false would probably get exposed and therefore dissolved.

21:52But even that can happen with the aid of technology.

21:55The dialogue too is possible.

21:57Yeah.

21:58Yeah.

21:59Yeah.

22:00And I mean, it's as I said earlier, it's not that I feel particularly resistant.

22:06It's just like, it happens like you just slide away, you know.

22:10And then when you remember, it's not like some kind of a feeling of repentance of how

22:17could I, how am I so fallen.

22:19It's just like, oh, I forgot again.

22:21And it doesn't feel like, it's not like a punch to the face or anything.

22:25It's just like, right, this is what I was missing.

22:30But yeah, it has been going on pretty long.

22:34Maybe that's kind of the problem.

22:36It's been the problem since the beginning.

22:39So just probably just need to assure yourself that the thing is within reach.

22:48Yeah.

22:49You probably need to assure yourself that the whole thing is not impossibly difficult.

22:59That's the reason why we call that as infinitely distant.

23:07We also call that as intimately close.

23:13Because if you just call it distant, then there is hopelessness.

23:19That's what probably the ego is searching for.

23:23Hopelessness with respect to dissolution or liberation.

23:27Since liberation cannot be achieved, let me make peace with my bondages.

23:32Now, I have done that very consciously at some point.

23:36So you don't need to be dejected.

23:40You need to probably assure yourself that it's possible.

23:44Let me commit myself to the process.

23:48And maybe a displacement within is possible.

23:51And it's possible in real time.

23:55Not that it should take 40 years.

23:57Maybe it's possible in months.

23:59Maybe it's possible in years.

24:01Maybe it's possible in weeks.

24:02Who knows?

24:08And when that reassurance is there, then there is a certain urgency.

24:14When you see that something is possible, then you want to be more committed to it.

24:21Yes.

24:26I get what you're saying.

24:30Sometimes I even feel just like...

24:33Because the people who have been with you the longest,

24:37they obviously have been in very close contact with you.

24:41And sometimes I've even had the feeling that

24:44what if this kind of a thing is not really meant to happen

24:48without that kind of a contact?

24:50What if you need that kind of a very close kind of connection

24:55for the real kind of thing?

24:58I don't know.

24:59But sometimes I've...

25:00Julius, you could have looked at it both ways.

25:04You could have...

25:06You choose to look at the students around me.

25:11And you say that the students around me do have a teacher

25:17to closely connect to.

25:20You look at the students around me,

25:23but you don't look at the student that I am.

25:32Who do I have?

25:34Who do I have?

25:36Who did I ever have?

25:39Good points.

25:41Yeah.

25:48For once.

25:54All credit, all credit to you.

25:58You at least have a screen to look into

26:03and you find a face there.

26:07You find a face there.

26:10I never even had a face.

26:12All I had were words.

26:15You have my sympathy.

26:24I'm reminded by that one quote.

26:29We can't maybe close with it

26:32unless you have something more in mind.

26:34But I think it was,

26:36you're not missing the secret,

26:38you're missing the obvious.

26:42It proves to be very...

26:44We choose to miss.

26:46We choose to pick.

26:47We choose to miss.

26:49It's a choice.

26:50Otherwise, everything is obvious actually.

26:54It is with purpose

26:57that we choose to pick and choose to miss.

27:04Let love overcome all other purposes.

27:12Pick that, why pick this?

27:15What's the point?

27:17There is no point in...

27:19There is no fun in playing games beyond a point actually.

27:23No, yeah.

27:30Another thing,

27:31self-observation

27:33is not about keeping an eye on oneself

27:37because self-observation

27:40because keeping an eye on oneself

27:43implies judging oneself

27:48through preconceived value standards.

27:53Yeah.

27:55So,

27:57if you will judge yourself,

28:02you'll be disappointed that progress is not happening

28:07because the very definition of progress will come from the ego

28:12and whatsoever change is happening,

28:15if that will not correspond to the definitions of the ego,

28:18the ego will not take that as progress.

28:21You'll continue to feel that you're not progressing

28:25and that will frustrate you.

28:27Maybe you are actually progressing.

28:30No, that's not true.

28:32I mean, every year has been progressively a lot better

28:35and internally the kind of capacity for internal honesty

28:39and the ability to take the kids.

28:42Wonderful.

28:44That's sort of like...

28:45Wonderful.

28:46No question about it.

28:48But then, if that progress is there,

28:51then that should make things easier.

28:53If you can see that things are actually materializing,

28:56that should only whet your appetite.

28:59You have personal proof that things can happen,

29:03that progress can happen.

29:06You have personal proof, irrefutable proof

29:09that change can happen.

29:12So, now why are you worried?

29:15Why don't you commit yourself further to the process?

29:24Or are you afraid of the change?

29:29Maybe the proof...

29:32No, no, go ahead.

29:34So, there is proof that change can happen

29:37and that proof itself is kind of scary.

29:42Maybe an ineffective teacher

29:47would have suited better.

29:53This one is problematic because now you have proof

29:56that he is effective.

29:58No, you are very problematic.

30:01I can assure you of that.

30:12No, I get what you are saying.

30:19But it's the same point that I mentioned earlier.

30:23That I don't feel like an active resistance these days.

30:30I'm not really even sure what...

30:33Obviously, the umbrella answer to what one is protecting

30:36is obviously oneself.

30:39But it can be very hard for me to see that

30:46unless I actually come to the sessions like this.

30:50But it's easy to not do it.

30:53Just like out of whatever.

30:56You can always have some reason

30:59or just nothing to ask at some point.

31:02And then you just kind of...

31:05It's all like convenient stories.

31:13See, it's English sessions that you listen to, right?

31:16There is a repository.

31:19Yeah, I follow the India sessions too whenever I can.

31:22I can translate the reflections.

31:25So, I try to follow those too.

31:28Right.

31:31So, I mean,

31:34something that would definitely keep you

31:37pinned down to the sessions.

31:40Why don't you pick up the...

31:43Why don't you go through everything

31:46to just point out the exact parts

31:49that speak the loudest to you

31:55or that speak in the most intimate way to you

32:02and prepare an album of those parts

32:08and that album or those parts

32:12will be very useful to the mission as well.

32:15There are these thousands of videos.

32:18We are also now in the process of

32:21publishing the best of the Hindi work in English

32:24by dubbing it.

32:27It's a voiceover thing.

32:36If you bind yourself to that process

32:40that would make it mandatory for you

32:43to pinpoint this beginning here and till there

32:50is something valuable

32:53and the other parts can be pruned out.

32:56Why not?

32:59Why not?

33:08Because the ego is smart.

33:11So, one has to sometimes just outsmart the ego.

33:14No?

33:17It's a game of tactics as well.

33:23That's why in the whole field of spirituality

33:27there has been an entire dimension

33:30full of just tactics.

33:35Sometimes people think that those tactics

33:38themselves are spirituality.

33:41They are not but nevertheless they carry some importance.

33:49I'll give you an example.

33:52I loved the verses, the couplets

33:55coming from Saint Kabir.

34:01I was a busy person

34:04in the world, a working professional

34:07an entrepreneur actually

34:10in the initial stages of his enterprise.

34:13I was short of time. What did I do?

34:16I committed myself to creating two activities

34:19for my students.

34:22One called Kabir in Campus, other called Kabir in Corporate.

34:25Now these activities

34:28necessitated that I go through

34:31the entire corpus of Saint Kabir's

34:34sayings and couplets.

34:37I wouldn't have

34:40normally or ordinarily done that

34:43but I constructed

34:46an activity specifically

34:49with the objective that this activity

34:52will make me go through everything

34:55that my beloved teacher has written.

34:58Now how many couplets

35:01did I actually place in that activity?

35:04I am not sure. Maybe 10, maybe 20.

35:07Both those activities combined, maybe 15, 20, 30 something.

35:10But to choose those 30 couplets

35:13I went through

35:16I don't remember, 500, 1000 something.

35:24That's the kind of trick one has to play with himself.

35:37That was way back in 2008.

35:4016 years back.

35:43I'll figure something like this.

35:46I'll take something like this up.

35:49But we're being pushed to close.

35:52But we'll continue for sure.

35:55Welcome.

36:13Welcome.

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