Summary
The book covers many common questions and struggles we have in life and is 100% written in Q&A format. One of the easier philosophy books to get into.
Key Takeaways
To be added on a reread. See notes below.
What I got out of it
To be added on a reread. See notes below.
Table of Contents
Summary Notes
Who Am I?
Q: Who am I?
A: That which remains when you remove all the things that you are not.
Q: What things am I not?
A: All that you believe yourself to be.
A: Others have tried to tell you straight on. What did it do for you?
Q: Perhaps it did nothing for me because what they were telling me was wrong.
A: Perhaps it did nothing for you because you are curious for answers, rather than hungry for realizations.
An intellectual question seeks an intellectual answer. This will do nothing for you.
A: I did not say that you should do anything.
Q: But what is the point of doing it if it does not help me arrive at my goal?
A: If you examine it sincerely, it will take you somewhere. If you use it as a crutch or a prescription, it will take you nowhere.
Q: Very well. I will dive into this. I will examine all the things I believe myself to be.
And begin to extract these beliefs from myself.
A: As you wish.
Why Do I Get Angry When I Am Insulted?
Q: Which is to say that if I become angry at being called stupid, I believe myself to be stupid. I wonder if you might expand upon this for me.
A: If someone calls you a bird, would you become angry?
Q: No.
A: Why not?
Q: Because being called a bird is not an insult.
A: Very well. If someone were to call you a bird that was too stupid to flap its wings, would this make you angry?
Q: No.
A: Why not?
Q: Because it isn’t at all true.
A: Yet when you are called stupid, it makes you angry. Because something within you entertains the possibility that you might, in fact, be. Then something else within you grows irritated by the idea that you might be. This internal conflict manifests itself as anger.
Q: I see. So, if not a single iota of a belief about being stupid existed within me, then anger would not arise.
A: That is correct.
How Do I Deal With A Difficult Person?
Q: I don’t know what to do in the presence of such people.
A: Your troubles arise because of your insistence that they not be difficult.
Q: Is it wrong to hope that someone not be difficult?
A: Wrong does not exist. Hope leads only to disappointment.
Q: Then what do I do?
A: It depends what it is that you seek.
Q: I feel very uncomfortable in their presence.
A: This is the most sincere statement you have made since you arrived. If you seek to be comfortable in the presence of difficult people, understand the source of the discomfort.
Q: Isn’t the source of the discomfort the difficult person himself?
A: If this was the case, how could anyone in the world become free of discomfort?
Q: I see your point. If the discomfort doesn’t arrive from the difficult person, then please help me understand where it arises from.
A: The discomfort that arises from being in the presence of a difficult person arises from your insistence that they not be difficult.
Q: So, I need only to understand that the discomfort arises from my insistence that they not be difficult. Is this correct?
A: Yes.
Q: Without trying to accept them as who they are?
A: This is correct.
Is There A God?
Q: Why do you say it would not benefit me to depend upon a god?
A: When one wish is granted, you will beg for another. When it is not, you will either wait in hope, or curse out of spite. Dependency will rob you of your freedom.
Q: God serves no other purpose than to satisfy the needs of humans?
A: From the human’s perspective, no.
Q: What you are saying, then, is to forget about god.
A: What I am saying is to rely upon yourself for all the needs that arise within you.
What Is The Meaning Of Life?
Q: Why might someone choose to become a success?
A: Because he enjoys it. Because he is skillful at it. Because he feels alive in pursuing his craft at the highest level.
Q: Is there not meaning in that?
A: No.
Q: Why not.
A: We are all here for but a short time. Then we die. If something is guaranteed to end in death, how can there be any meaning in it?
Q: How do you view life?
A: I view life as something to be devoted.
Q: Would you please explain?
A: If a human life is devoted to something, one tends to lose oneself in it. As one loses oneself in it, the more blissful one becomes.
Q: But without purpose. And without meaning. Is this correct?
A: Anything that has a guaranteed shelf life has no meaning.
What Is The Best Way To Raise A Child?
The Truth is that attachment is the greatest bondage in the life of man.
The problem that you are experiencing is not that you do not know how to be unattached. The problem is that you do not realize the consequences of attachment.
Q: How is it that attachment has produced all of these problems between me and my children?
A: Attachment gives birth to hope and need. If you are attached to them, you will need them to do certain things, achieve certain things, be a certain way, and behave toward you in a certain way. When they do not, it will cause you pain. When you experience pain, you will behave toward them in a way that pain compels you to behave. And they will behave toward you in a way that their need for freedom compels them to behave. And this will continue for the rest of your lives.
Behavior is the leaf of a tree. Understanding is its root. I will not tell you how to arrange your leaves. I will only tell you to proceed by way of understanding.
Understand the consequences of your motivations. If the consequences are acceptable to you, you may choose to proceed. If they are not, you may choose to examine your motivations.
No human being knows love. He knows only attachment in the name of love.
Responsibility is a societal creation. No one is truly responsible for another. You do not owe your children anything. They do not owe you anything. If you wish to do, then do. If they wish to do, they may also do. That which comes from the heart is natural and satisfying. That which comes from the idea of responsibility is forced, artificial, and often produces resentment and the expectation for reciprocation.
How Do I Deal With Anger?
Q: What may I do about my anger?
A: Why do you wish to do anything about it?
Q: Because it’s wrong.
A: Then you will not be able to do anything about it.
Q: Why?
A: Because wrong and right are not sufficiently powerful motivations.
A: I don’t view things in terms of right and wrong.
Q: Why not?
A: Because right and wrong are societo-religious creations. They have no basis in reality.
Q: But I don’t like getting angry.
A: When do you not like getting angry?
Q: I don’t understand.
A: When do you not like getting angry? Before, during, or after the anger?
Q: I guess I’d have to say after the anger.
A: Then your statement is not correct.
Q: How so?
A: It is not that you do not like getting angry. The Truth is that you do not like having been angry.
Q: Does it matter?
A: Yes.
Q: Why?
A: Because you will not cure something that you do not have a problem with.
A part of you relishes getting angry. For when you do, you are able to exercise your right to become angry. You enjoy this right. For you feel that you have been wronged, and thus your anger is justified. You do not wish to pass up on exercising this right.
But another part of you feels remorse for having been angry. And this remorse is to some degree, disingenuous. The remorse makes you feel better and morally correct.
For if you had felt good about getting angry, you would have a difficult time accepting yourself.
Q: And unless I truly wish to no longer become angry, nothing will help.
A: This is correct.
Q: And if I truly did wish to never become angry, what would I need to understand?
A: That anger is not as reactionary as you think it to be. It is a weapon that you enjoy using in order to protect your ego and to bolster it.
What Is The Secret To Getting People To Listen To You?
Q: What is the secret to getting people to listen to you?
A: Why do you wish for people to listen to you?
Q: I’m stumped by the question. Part of it is ego, I suppose. But I do think I have some things to teach. To my children. And to my employees.
A: The need to be listened to will sabotage your efforts.
Q: But what of the things I think are important to teach?
A: You may say them sparingly. And evaluate the responses as you say them. Refine your approach in accordance with the responses that you quietly observe.
The most fruitful realizations are quiet ones.
Understand that you are the architect of this relationship. And, in many ways, the architect of your son’s fate. Become the person he would seek to embrace. Provide a place of peace that he is looking for in the wrong places. As he recognizes that you have transformed from a place of need, into a source of quiet comfort, he will come.
And he will listen.
From Where Does Addiction Arise?
The mind peddles in desire. It has an unending appetite for desire. It is a wanting machine. It cannot get enough of that which it enjoys. This is the seed of addiction.
A: All addiction creates bondage.
Q: But what is the problem with pleasure?
A: Pleasure is ubiquitous in the lives of humans. As the mind is ubiquitous in the lives of humans. From morning until night, a human seeks nothing other than pleasure. In the smallest thing. And the largest thing. All addictions stem from this one characteristic of mind.
Q: But the opposite of pleasure is pain. And why would anyone want pain?
A: It is the search for pleasure that produces pain.
Q: What would be the nature of a person’s life if he did not seek pleasure?
A: He would live a life of equanimity. He would be content and complete in each moment. Though he may involve himself in lofty pursuits, his contentedness and completeness would go with him. He would have abandoned the ceaseless chase. And when a man no longer feels the need to chase, life begins to chase him.
Q: You seem to have turned this entire game on its head. What you are saying is that nothing really happens to us. We seek it out.
A: This is correct.
Q: And in chasing pleasure, we receive pain.
A: Yes.
How Do I Stop Feeling Guilty About Being Wealthy?
The guilt is protective. It serves as a buffer between you and your feelings of superiority. If you do not allow yourself to feel guilty about being wealthy, your mind tells you that you are insensitive. It tells you that you consider yourself special for having wealth. It tells you that you are gluttonous, in a world that suffers from famine and thirst. And your mind is impressioned by a society that points fingers at you and blames you for being wealthy.
Q: What’s the problem with being reactive if it’s the truth?
A: The Truth is constant. Reactivity fades.
In order to overcome the guilt, you will have to resolve within yourself the need that this guilt serves within you.
Q: How do you think the guilt is serving me?
A: This is but one example. But often times a wealthy man invites guilt in order to round off the edges that his wealth creates.
Q: Could you please explain that further?
A: A man’s wealth stands in stark contrast to a world that is largely devoid of wealth.
Having guilt about being wealthy allows him to not look upon himself so proudly. By internalizing some of the feelings that the world has about him, he feels more a part of the world. It is like a man who wears a bright red shirt in a sea of white shirts. And upon noticing this, he dawns a transparent white robe to dull the redness of his shirt.
Being unabashedly wealthy makes him feel the sharp fingernails of the fingers that point at him. Being shyly or half-ashamedly wealthy makes the fingernails feel a bit less sharp.
Q: Then what is the difference between the wealthy man who gives and the one who doesn’t?
A: Each has his own reasons for doing so. If one wishes to give, whatever his reason may be, he may give. If one wishes not to give, whatever his reason may be, he may choose not to give. It is his choice. He is not good for having done so. He is not bad for not having done so. Each man acts according to his own personal motivations. And whatever his motivations are is a matter for him to resolve within himself. The government that forces him to give is a criminal enterprise. The people who shame him into giving are outside their right do so. If a man chooses to give, he may give.
But whether he chooses to give or not, he surely does not “owe.”
How Do I Have Beautiful Relationships In My Life?
Compromise produces conflict.
Q: But if I don’t compromise on what I want, and the other person doesn’t compromise on what they want, will this not produce conflict?
A: Each person must examine the source of the want. The why’s and wherefores of the want. In doing so one is able to separate the wants that are reactive and baseless from the wants that are genuine and innocent. It is often the case, that as the reactive wants are removed, the sincere wants are shared between the two individuals.
Compromise muddies the water. It is a cheap and fruitless bartering between the reactive wants of each individual. It perpetuates itself. And moves inevitably toward conflict.
Q: What else leads to a peaceful relationship?
A: The abandonment of need.
Q: But if two individuals don’t need each other, what is the point of a relationship?
A: Two individuals who need each other will only have conflict. They can never have a relationship.
Q: So if there’s no need, what binds them together?
A: The enjoyment of each other’s company.
A relationship of peace is a relationship that is more parallel than perpendicular. It is two individuals that move side by side. Rather than two individuals that intersect. A maintenance of individuality and freedom results in the prevalence of peace.
Should I Not Subscribe To Religion?
If one devotes himself to a god so completely that he himself disappears, he is certain to find the Truth. The completeness of devotion matters. The object of devotion matters not.
Q: Yet you say that religion has nothing to do with god?
A: Yes.
Q: Why?
A: In all things, there is the ideal and there is the bastardized. There is the pure and there is the manipulated. Wholehearted devotion to a god is one thing. Praying to, and depending upon, a god to give one things is something entirely different. It can perhaps be said that at one time religion was pure. But whether it was or not, this is not what it is today.
God has become a wishing well. Religion is a social club. It is a place to hope for things and ask for things. It turns human beings into something less human. It turns a man into a beggar. If god was seen as someone who didn’t have the power to give something to man, no one would give him the time of day.
Spirituality is a concoction of prescriptions and half-truths. It is a circus of orange robes, incense, and ineffective jargon such as love and mindfulness. It is a maze of silent retreats and men with pony tails and yoga pants spouting spiritual psychobabble to those who enjoy the psychobabble. It is the unserious leading the unserious in concentric circles that lead only to more circles.
Q: Why do you think this has happened?
A: Because humans are forever interested in form and fashion. The one who seeks the Truth is as rare as a sun that rises in the west.
If a desire for the Truth is in someone’s bones, then he will not stop until he finds it. Not because he should. But because he has no choice.
Why Does Mindfulness Not Work?
Q: I’ve practiced mindfulness for a long time. I haven’t become present. Am I doing it incorrectly?
A: No.
Q: Then why haven’t I arrived at the present?
A: Because mindfulness does not bring one to the present.
Q: Then what does it do?
A: It is an attempt to force oneself into the present.
If they are looking for a way to naturally live in the present moment, mindfulness is not effective.
Q: Why not?
A: Because one may force himself into the present for a fraction of a second, but he will not force himself to live there permanently. It is like trying to empty the ocean with a teacup.
Q: Why is this the case?
A: Because if you try to force the mind, it retaliates. You can attempt to force your attention upon the present moment, but the mind will fight you every step of the way.
Eventually, your willpower will wane. And the mind will win. That which does not happen naturally, is neither effective or sustainable.
Q: But mindfulness originated in Buddhism, didn’t it?
A: The Buddha was not mindful. He was mindless.
Q: Mindless?
A: Yes. He arrived at the state of No-Mind. He arrived at the state of No-Self. This is ultimate liberation. If Buddha had practiced mindfulness, there would be no Buddha.
How Do I Practice Meditation?
Q: Then why don’t you meditate?
A: I do not do things purely for health.
Q: Why not?
A: It isn’t a sufficiently powerful motivator for me.
Q: What do you think is more powerful?
A: Meditativeness.
Q: What’s that?
A: To be lost in what you are doing.
Q: Isn’t that mindfulness?
A: Mindfulness is forced awareness. To be lost in what you are doing is to lose the self. Instead of trying to improve the self.
Meditation is an independent activity. Meditativeness is to make your entire life a meditative experience.
Q: Do you think meditativeness is more powerful than meditation?
A: Whether it be meditativeness or meditation, it must be an effect rather than a goal.
That which one pursues as a goal never arrives. Any prescription that one pursues, he becomes imprisoned to.
Why pursue scraps, when the ultimate heights are available to you?
How Do I Become More Disciplined?
Man is lazy and undisciplined for the things that do not move him. He is motivated and voracious for the things that inspire him.
Discipline is an attempt to force oneself to do that which he fundamentally does not wish to do.
It is far more fruitful to evaluate the desires for achievement, than it is to force discipline. If one’s desire for achievement is pure, he will be sufficiently motivated to do all that needs to be done in order to achieve. If it is not, he will play clever and ineffective games such as discipline.
Forcing oneself is short-lived. As all things that are insincere are short-lived. If one is honest and sincere about his motivations, he will move with himself, instead of against himself.
How Do I Become Happy?
Happiness is the attempt to escape from misery.
Q: What would it benefit a person to seek?
A: Freedom from misery. Freedom from the need for happiness.
Understanding that happiness is a fleeting emotion. One cannot build a home in it.
In understanding this, one naturally begins to seek an alternative.
I Have Already Achieved Everything. What Do I Do For The Remainder Of My Life?
Q: It’s a question that has been with me for years. Money is no longer a problem for me. I’ve achieved all that I want to achieve. I find myself tending to this and that. I find myself contributing to various philanthropic causes. But there’s an aimlessness to it. I don’t have a steady direction any more. What can I do about that?
A: Understand the source of such feelings.
Q: Can you please help me with this?
A: There is something within you that is causing an emptiness. It seeks to be satisfied.
Until it is satisfied, it will create within you a feeling of aimlessness.
Q: What is the thing that’s causing this?
A: The thing is fundamentally the same for all human beings. It is only the name that differs. Regardless of what personality the mind has manufactured for us. Regardless of who we believe ourselves to be. We are first and foremost a piece of life. And this life seeks to live. It seeks to bloom. The way in which man has attempted to make it bloom has not worked. It is for this reason that despite all the things that you have attained, this sense of aimlessness resides within you.
Q: What is it that allows life to bloom within us?
A: A Journey toward the Ultimate. If a man is not on a journey toward a thing, that upon reaching it, will satisfy him forever, he will grasp at straws trying to occupy his mind. He will wander here and there looking for a respite from his mind.
Q: What is an example of a Journey toward the Ultimate?
A: If you made an additional billion dollars, would this satisfy you?
Q: No.
A: If you pursued meditation, would this satisfy you?
Q: I do meditate. But it’s more of a practice. It hasn’t really led me anywhere.
A: The single most important characteristic of a Journey toward the Ultimate is that upon reaching it, one becomes satisfied for the rest of his life. For he becomes life itself. He arrives at a place in which there is no longer any need to strive, practice, search, or crave. The end of emotional turmoil, the end of conflict, the end of sorrow, the end of anxiety. He has arrived. And now he can live as only a free man can.
Q: Such a thing exists?
A: Yes.
How Is Life To Be Lived?
If a man tries to “live” a life, he suffers at every turn. If he devotes his life, the game changes.
Q: How so?
A: If one dabbles, he suffers endlessly and fails. If he devotes the whole of his life to something, he is due for an ultimate boon, and is engaged during the Journey.
Q: What are some things that one could devote a life to?
A: Devote means to surrender. Devote means to allocate in its entirety. One man might devote his life to conquering anger. Another might devote it to becoming totally free.
Another might devote it to a sport. Another might devote it to conquering the mind.
Another might devote it to god.
The object of devotion is largely irrelevant. So long as it provides man with the intoxication of losing himself. St. Francis of Assisi devoted his life to god. As did Meera. They lived in complete freedom. I did not say pray. I did not say worship. I did not say preach. I did not say follow. I did not say scriptures. I did not say prescriptions. But to devote the whole of oneself to god or to any other endeavor takes one away from oneself. And this is the door to freedom. The door to becoming life itself.
How Do I Become A Legend?
Q: How do I become a legend?
A: It begins by wanting to become a legend.
When I say ‘want,’ I am not speaking of preference or passing desire. I am speaking of a life-and-death sort of want.
A: Practice leads to meager and incremental improvement. It is essentially repetition.
It becomes work. Over time, it saps one’s inspiration. It maintains more than it transforms. One must train in order to become who one seeks to be.
Q: What does Siddha training entail?
A: It begins with a vision. A precise determination of who one seeks to become.
Q: I understand. Please tell me more.
A: I cannot tell you the method. For there is no method. Each human being is his own unique universe. But the approach and the philosophy centers around discovering the Truth about what gets one to his vision. Rather than myths such as “hard work,” “pain vs gain,” and “striving.”
Q: The Truth?
A: Yes. The reason that it supposedly takes “10,000 hours” and decades to become what one wishes to become is because one uses a bicycle rather than a locomotive. If you do not know the Truth, you must take the long and arduous road. But the Truth always takes a fraction of the time and provides a far greater result. For even the best coaches and institutions of society know only of becoming a “practitioner.” They have no concept of becoming a Master. It is for this reason that there is parity in all domains.
Q: What happens when one becomes a Master?
A: He is in a class by himself. He has no equal. And thus, he is beyond competition.
Q: Beyond competition? Can you please explain this?
A: The one who resorts to competing is the one who has not become a Master.
Because he and his competitors are of similar skill, they must fight for scraps. Siddha Training prepares one for a life that is beyond competition. So much so that every match is won before it begins.
How Do I Ensure A Great Performance?
A: In every domain, performance waxes and wanes. In every domain, one is taught to compete. In every domain, one day a person “has it” and the next day he “doesn’t have it.” One day he is “in the zone” and an hour later, he “falls out of the zone.” And he is “in the zone” only a fraction of his entire career. These are the consequences of not knowing the Truth.
Q: What questions do they ask? And what are the right questions to ask?
A: The questions that have forever been asked relate to “doing things in order to perform better.” Performance is traditionally pursued as a goal. As a result, it is viewed from the standpoint of activities, rituals, behaviors, and do’s and don’ts. This is not where consistent, world class performance comes from. For performance cannot be viewed as a goal. One must not be interested in how to “improve” performance.
One must be genuinely interested in where it lives, how it moves, and what causes it to emerge. This allows one to become dominant in his field. It allows him to own his performance. It allows him to become a Master.
Q: Where does performance live?
A: In order to discover where performance lives, one must have a certain quality about him. He must be interested in a holy grail, rather than a sugar pill.
Q: I am ready to learn.
A: It does not rain because it wishes to rain. When the conditions are ripe, rain has no choice but to fall. It is the same for performance. Performance does not live in the limbs. It does not live in the brain. It cannot be exercised, strategized, or ritualized.
One must understand the conditions that allow performance to emerge.
Q: What are the conditions?
A: I can tell you a few of the conditions. But this will not help you.
Q: Why?
A: Because they must be understood and experienced through the context of a Journey. Sketching the highlights will do nothing for you.
Why Does One Have Great Success, While Another Struggles?
Q: Why does one person have great success, while another person struggles?
A: One enjoys success. While the other enjoys struggle.
A: If you examine professional athletes, for example, you will notice a pattern. Some will speak endlessly of their successes. Others will speak endlessly of their failures. They may not do it overtly. But subtly. They will get across the message that is most prevalent in their mind. What they think of themselves will dictate what they choose to share and withhold from others.
Q: And what can be learned from such behavior?
A: That the successful identify themselves as successes. While those who struggle identify themselves as unfortunate failures. The successful view themselves as conquerors. While those who struggle view themselves as victims of circumstance.
Q: Why would an individual view himself as a victim of circumstance, rather than become a conqueror?
A: The fear of having to leave behind the comfort of his identity. The fear of loss.
Q: The fear of loss? He already loses. What more could he lose?
A: The luxury of self-pity. The sympathies of victimhood. Such things are not easily sacrificed.
What Is The Mind?
If one seeks to become the master of the mind, one must begin by exploring intensely the details of the mind’s creation. That is, this “you” that it has created.
Explore it as an innocent observer. Explore it as the one who is not the “you.”
Q: What will this do?
A: This will allow the one who is sincere in his exploration to see the true nature of himself. This will allow him to see that he is not the person he has believed himself to be. This is the beginning of true freedom. This is the beginning of making the mind a slave. And a glorious tool created for the benefit of man.
What Is Anger?
Q: What is anger?
A: An energy.
Q: Why does it arise?
A: Anger is born of unfulfilled desire. It is born of unfulfilled expectation.
Q: Where there is no desire or expectation, there can be no anger?
A: That is correct.
What Is Fear?
Fear is the natural consequence of man not knowing himself.
Q: Can you please explain?
A: The fundamental basis of all fear is fear of oneself.
Q: Why does man fear himself?
A: Man seeks pleasure for himself. He seeks stability for himself. He seeks egoic satisfaction. He seeks many things in order to make himself feel a certain way. Any situation that threatens how he feels about himself will bring fear.
Q: What is the way out of fear?
A: If a man achieved a rock bottom steady state with himself. If he had a relationship with, or an understanding of, himself that was unshakeable. He would become immune to fear.
What Is Time?
Time comes into existence when man begins to think.
Q: When does man not think?
A: When he has discovered the cocoon of the present moment, thinking ceases. When he arrives at a state of No-Mind, time comes to an end.
What Is The Flow State?
The state of No-Mind is a state of No-Self. When on arrives at this state, his talents become free from all interference. They become uninhibited. He begins to commune with the gods.
Meditation may provide a sense of peace and well-being. But it rarely produces a state of No-Mind.
Q: Can the state of No-Mind be sustained?
A: One can live the whole of his life within it. It is way to accessing the whole of one’s genius. It is the way to unending peace. It is the holy grail of human existence.
How Does One Live As A God?
Q: I have heard you speak of living as a god? How does one arrive at this?
A: There is a way to live beyond the meager state of a societal human. An existence in which one does not experience problems. And where there is endless satisfaction from one moment to the next.
Q: What is this state?
A: This is to live within the Cocoon of the Moment
Q: Happiness doesn’t exist?
A: No.
Q: Then what are those times when I feel, for lack of a better term, “happy?”
A: A relative reduction in misery.
Q: Please tell me more.
A: The presence of rain gave birth to the invention of an umbrella. In the same way, the presence of misery gave birth to the idea of happiness. No human being seeks happiness. What he seeks is an escape from misery.
Q: So, living in the world produces happiness and misery?
A: The world consists of nothing but anxiety and misery. The same way that a swimming pool contains only water. It has nothing else to offer you. This does not mean that one must physically leave the world. It means simply that one must see the world for what it is. And if one sees it for what it is, he or she has a true chance of living a life free of constant assault.
Q: And this cocoon of the moment is a freedom from the world?
A: The Cocoon of the Moment is the only place that one can truly live. It is not a luxury, or a lofty spiritual endeavor. It is oxygen itself. A fish may attempt to force itself to live on the shore, but it will tremble and writhe throughout its existence. For it was not meant to live outside of the water. Similarly, man has created this world. But he was not meant to live within it. The architect of a prison is not required to live within his creation. To live outside the mind is to live within the world, yet above the world. Beyond its poisonous tentacles. It is like walking through water without getting wet. This is what it means to live as a god.
Q: And there is a way to do this?
A: Yes. It is an honest, genuine, and sincere journey in which the Truth is constantly seen at every step. And the more one understands the Truth, the more deeply he begins to experience it. And the more deeply he begins to experience it, it becomes home.
And the turmoil that was once his life begins to completely fall away. Once he has reached this stage, he becomes the Creator of his life. By a simple wave of his hand, he controls all things. And becomes a god.
What Is The Only Way To Truly, Truly Live?
Q: If I have no self, how will I function?
A: Perfectly.
Q: Why?
A: Because where there is no self, there is no interference. Where there is no self, there is no confusion. Where there is no self, there is no complications, upheavals, conflicts, or turmoils. There is nothing. And where there is nothing, one is available to everything.
How Do I Become Pure?
You will have to become wary of the ideas that you have always been told are innately human.
Q: Please explain.
A: There are things that the world has always told you are part of being human. The world views being human as an excuse, rather than a possibility. For instance, “to err is human,” or “after all, I’m only human.” Such things must be abolished in your mind. The path to becoming pure is a path to becoming perfect. And a path to becoming perfect must be without compromise. Not because I say it. But because you desire it.
Q: I understand. What must I become free of?
A: All things that are not a part of your innate nature. All things that you have picked up from the world. All stains that society has tarnished you with, and called “normal.”
In cleansing oneself of all such impurities, a peace and a freedom begins to dawn in a man’s life. The likes of which he has never known.
Q: Is it a matter of changing habits?
A: No. It is a matter of being inspired by a possibility. Habits will change by themselves.
How Do I Become A True Humanitarian?
The truest humanitarian will be the human who becomes the world’s ultimate citizen. The one who becomes a shining beacon of possibility. A living demonstration of what a human being can truly become.
Q: I don’t know what to say . . . Where do I begin?
A: By turning the light that shines upon the people of the world, until it shines upon yourself. Illuminating the cobwebs and the broken pieces of your humanity. A human must be willing to clean his own house, before he attempts to clean that of another.
The greatest change arises from inspiration.
Q: I cannot deny that there are many flaws within myself, and within my life.
A: And you have always been told that man is meant to be flawed. You have always been told that no man is perfect. But what you have not been told is that the greatest aim of a life is to become perfect. It is this that transforms the world. Buddha did not try to change the world. He turned himself into a Buddha. And because he did, the world began to change.
Q: So philanthropy and charity have no place?
A: If one wishes to give, let him give. His philanthropy will indeed do good in the world. But what is the point of doing things in a fractional manner? If one truly wishes to pursue something, then he will only be content in pursuing it to its ultimate possibility. Give time and money. And give it freely. But before giving it to another, give it to yourself. Spend lavishly, with your time and your money, on perfecting Yourself. Spend lavishly, with your time and money, on conquering Your mind. So that you may become a light to your loved ones, and the world.
Before You Depart, Can You Leave Me With An Ultimate Secret To Life?
A: The earth rotates in a gravitational orbit around the sun. The moon rotates in a gravitational orbit around the earth. But the sun does not touch the earth. And the earth does not touch the moon.
Q: I can feel that there is a lesson in there. Could you please speak more about this?
A: The modulation of the people and the events in our lives is done by way of gravitational pull, than by direct manipulation. In fine tuning our gravitational pull, we attract what we want in our lives, and repel what we do not. In delicately titrating this gravitational pull, we keep our children on a correct path, without controlling them.
Without direct manipulation through speech or through action.
Q: Can this actually be done?
A: You have been doing it all your life. It is just that you have been unaware of the nuances of the refinement. You have been unaware of the levers that lead to attraction and repulsion. And when the buttons and the levers did not produce the end that you desired, you reached out with your bare hands to manually manipulate that which will not bend to such a will.
Q: How does one learn such a secret?
A: To guide people along the true path without them feeling your hand, is true guidance. To speak to them in such a way that they do not feel instructed, is true speech. To keep them in your orbit so that you may watch over them, without them feeling the slightest loss of freedom, is true caring. To invest in them the Truths that will keep them safe and successful in their journey of life, while surrendering the need to take ownership of these ideas so that they may take ownership of them, is wisdom and dispassion. These, and other secrets like it, is what the Master devotes his life to. It is this that he lives for.