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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
~~~~~
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
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
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.