Q & A 2
"Triumph of Nothingness"
Q: You seem quite critical about
self-investigation. Why?
A: Well, may I ask you what you yourself have gained from it until now?
Q: Yeah, that is difficult to say.
Sometimes I really think I am making progress, sometimes a real insight is breaking
through, but many times my mind remains quite foggy.
A: Do you mean, that after all your effort you still don’t know who
you are?
Q: That’s right. Of course, I have
read books, so intellectually I am quite informed. In the mean time I am restless and keep
searching though.
A: There’s only one answer to your problem. And that is: become
aware of your restlessness, observe it. It serves two purposes. You not only will
understand the nature of your inner turmoil better, but also your key question „Who
Am I".
Q: Dear HMS, you analyses are very clear.
Where do they come from, from THAT or from your mind?
A: Once united, the mind has become a function of THAT.
Q: How powerful thoughts become, once you
have attained?
A: Thoughts are only powerful to those who are unaware, e.g. those who
have not realized any inner space. Once your inner space is fully developed, thoughts come
in, loose their energy and become shadows. Hence, the realized Mind is both utterly alive
and peaceful. The secret is this: space, vacuum, emptiness („negative" in the
physical sense) is more powerful than energy („positive"). For a limited
awareness things are outside and powerful; for an unlimited Mind things are in and
powerless. The first has every reason to "renounce the world", the second one
only smiles. Once united the functions derive their power not from themselves, but
exclusively from the Mind.
Q: What is your relationship to the
Divine?
A: There is a paradox. How to relate to Something you Are yourSelf? It
depends on your position. If you are unaware you are cut off, so you relate. Prayer maybe
helpful to you. If you are aware, you are already (consciously) part of it, so you
meditate in order to expand your consciousness further. If you are Enlightened you ARE IT,
so there is nothing left to do. When Enlightenment eventually turns into the Great
Transparency, a deep roaring escapes from your Being. There is only Nothingness and
everything is in: "you", people, the grass, the rocks, the world. You are free
even from freedom and have returned to the marketplace. Eventually everything appears to
be a Big Joke.
Q: Isn’t there any God left to you?
A: The more you live in the world, the more easy your awareness is caught
by everyday activity. The quality of Consciousness is never the same. It may shift from
unawareness, awareness to total Presence. Given the human condition (even the Enlightened
one) this is natural. The supreme attitude is always accepting yourself as you are.
„It is like it is" is the highest achievement possible. So, for a long time I
didn’t care about „God".
Q: Has that changed?
A: Yes, it has changed. Recently I feel the Ultimate is again pulling me
into ITSELF in such a way, that I cannot resist it. A deep desire has arisen to be acutely
unified with IT. I feel my mind weakened, less and less able to function. The Godlife
automatically makes you humble. It was there all the time, but is still entering a new
stage. So I long for IT, become more and more otherworldly, praising and celebrating Life.
The paradox is: I continuously surrender to WHAT is already there.
Q: Why becoming One, if you already Are
It?
A: I like your question. It is like in love. Your beloved is always in
your heart, present, you are one soul. Still, you may long for becoming actually
(physically) united.
Q: What is the best practice for everyday
life?
A: The best practice is the one, which is related to your deepest
(existential) suffering. The decisive thing here is authentic self-investigation, not to
„Who You Are" - which is usually one bridge too far - but to the true nature of
that suffering. Discover it, open yourself up to it and feel. Only by allowing the pain to
enter your innermost Being, the longing for Wholeness is born. Often, the problem is not
the suffering, but the lack of it.
Q: Do we need to suffer in order to
become awakened?
A: You should distinguish between awakening - becoming aware - and
Enlightenment. These two are not the same. The first is a piece of cake, the second beyond
your reach. Everybody who closes his/her eyes and discovers, that you are here and your
thinking is there „in front of you" - besides realizing the true nature of
his/her observing - is an awakened one. It is just a trick, no suffering involved
whatsoever. For Enlightenment suffering is certainly not a precondition, but sometimes it
helps. The logic is this: your question ("Who Am I") as such is not decisive,
the power behind is. This power is derived from the purity of intention (genuine surrender
rather than greed), the intensity of your longing (for Unity), which in its turn, not
necessarily but very often, depends on the acuteness of your separation, your alienation.
The more intensity behind, the more might happen.
Q: In what way?
A: For instance: if you have tried everything and there is no way out,
only a leap in another dimension is left. Therefore, a good teacher never offers a
solution to your problems. As long as there are choices, you will not leave the plane of
the mind.
Q: Is there a freedom of choice?
A: As long as there is „freedom of choice" you are caught by
the mind. Once „freedom of choice" ceases to exist, true freedom emerges. Deep
down you are not able to make choices. God’s freedom is His inability to make any
choices whatsoever. Only if you cannot choose, you include everything equally, which is
the essence of Love.
Q: To me life is increasingly
meaningless. Should I be worried about it?
A: I assure you: Life is meaningless. Meaning is a projection of
the mind. You give meaning to something. We need meaning to make life bearable, to
bring order in the chaos. Blessed are those who don’t need to give meaning to life,
but do without, living life as it is and not as we want it to be.
Q: I sometimes experience that slogans,
advertisement on buildings or clocks do not resonate with my thinking. In such moments I
don’t understand their meaning. First it was frightening, but know I realize that it
is always in the best moments that this is happening to me.
A: In those moments the mind is transcended, absorbed by the inner space,
resonance with anything related to thinking, conceptualizing etc. ceases to exist. In
those moments things loose their meaning. Once the meaning is lost, direct communion is
born. You see the tree as it is, which is a source of tremendous joy.
Q: Being a nobody, is that where it is
all about?
A: The Ultimate Realization is that Consciousness is all-Embracing. It is
empty and full at the same „time" (the Dutch have one word for it:
"vol-ledigheid", which is very beautiful). In the same Eternal Moment everything
is returning to the Source and coming out of IT. Realizations or philosophies that
emphasize one aspect only are incomplete. Hence, question everybody, whatever his or her
reputation.
Q: What is the essence of your teaching?
A: There is no teaching other than ME. I AM the teaching. However,
through insights in the past, some systems have been set up. I consider them to be my
„heritage". They may be valuable too. You resonate with what is suitable to you.
My passion used to be offering everybody something, at every stage of the Path. Nowadays,
I dropped all ideas about stages and paths.
Q: What about ambition?
A: There is nothing outside the Great Space. Only when you claim things
for yourself, that particular part will not be effectively integrated. So, the crucial
question is: am I going to claim it for myself or will it be an instrument of the Whole?
Some say Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was addicted to his Enlightenment. The joke is, that just
because of that - his ambition - he was able to share his innermost Being with the world.
Without it he just would have been sitting in his chair, doing nothing. Hence, we have to
be grateful to his "ego" (laughed). Conclusion: your ambition is perfectly okay,
as long as you continuously give it back to where it belongs.
Q: I have understood that an inner
freedom towards everything you do, is the final solution here.
A: You're absolutely right. It corresponds with the inner quality of
awakening: doing coming out of non-doing, a non-committed commitment, not being identified
with results.
Q: Have you gone beyond karma?
A: The Beyond is beyond all karma. Karma is there, but You aren’t
your karma. Karma is your periphery, not your Center. Eventually, karma has no grip on
you. In fact it is only a philosophy, not related to Real Life.
Q: That means we don’t come back?
A: At the end (of your life) everybody will be Enlightened, nobody
excluded. It is just a matter of patience (laughed). Only the impatient ones want „to
have" it earlier. Because of their ambition I am here. Without your impatience I
would be jobless. Actually, I shouldn’t give a damn about you. But, yeah, what
choices I have?
Q: Some say there’s nothing left
after death.
A: In death first your thoughts and „individuality" die. Then
your emotions and desires disappear. Next your energy, your aura, the soul evaporate.
Eventually the body also dies. What is left is clear awareness, the spirit, emptiness.
First this may be experienced as Light, but very soon will turn into Transparency.
Emptiness reunites with Emptiness, so Nothing is left.
Q: And what about frightening experiences
that may happen?
A: Some people will go through experiences that are related to previously
unsolved problems, suppressed, e.g. rejected parts, their „karma". Because you
are in a timeless dimension (of dying), they may appear to last „eternally". It
is the reason why this was called purgatory. In (our) reality, this may last only seconds
to minutes though.
Q: So, everybody will be reunited with
the Ultimate, regardless his or her conduct of life?
A: You say it. It is the Essence of „God is Love".
Okay for today?
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