Posted 23 January 2020 by Sal

Philosophy - The Avoidance of Liberation

What would it be like right now if you knew nothing? What if you were not referring to your mind at all, for anything? Anything! Nothing in the mind. What would it be like to just be here and literally know nothing?

Some people are very philosophical. They think they know and understand a lot. They have read all the books, know all the jargon and they think that knowledge has something to do with liberation. We all know people who have read all the books and can speak about it and argue about it and debate about it. They can win the argument and they can win the debate. What good does that do them?

They think they’re on the path to enlightenment or liberation. But all of that knowledge, all of that philosophy, all of that spiritual understanding and all of that debating ability has nothing to do with liberation.

It’s not embracing freedom. Knowing everything about spirituality and reading, quoting and understanding all the books is not liberation, it is avoiding liberation. Actually, someone who is very philosophical and spiritually learned and who knows how to speak really well is not going to wake up. People who are philosophical are infatuated with their minds.

Right here and now, you are reading this because you are interested in freedom. So, let’s have a holiday.

 

HOLIDAY

What would it be like right now,
if you knew none of that?

Nothing.

Not one word of all of that.

Look now.

Be nothing, now. 

Now, you’re finding out what freedom is. Freedom is free of all those mental gymnastics. Freedom has nothing to do with those books, those philosophies and those pseudo-understandings. Nothing. 

If you burn all those books (metaphorically) right here and now, if you burn everything you know, everything, what's left? Well, there’s no word for what's left. You can say “nothing,” you can say “I,” you can say “aware,” etc. There are many words used to point, but really, what's left? There is no word for it, is there? 

The books, teachers and philosophies that we all think have something to do with liberation and we rely on to make us feel like we know something actually have nothing to do with liberation at all. They have to do with the avoidance of freedom. Because in freedom, the truth is you’re nothing. In freedom, the truth is you don't need any of that to be yourself. You don’t need any fancy Advaita knowledge or any other knowledge to be yourself. 

The truth is you have nothing. What if you have none of all the knowledge you think you have? Is that okay? Is that enough? It's a very genuine question. Are you okay knowing nothing, now? To find no comfort in the mind game of spirituality, psychology and philosophy. To find no hope in there. To find no merit in there. To know none of that. 

You've been reading those books and listening to teachers for however long (ten, twenty, thirty years or longer), and now the message is—they mean nothing. They have zero value, not one iota of value, not one shred of value. They mean nothing!

Freedom is very stark. None of the books apply. None of the spiritual concepts apply. No words apply. Nothing applies. Nothing. Let's be nothing together, now. 

 

HOLIDAY

Look.

What's true, now?

Where are those books now, where are those teachings now?

They’re not here.
But you're here, aren’t you?

You’re here.

The value is not knowledge, the value is you. 

You are truth, not books, not teachings.

 

Those books and all that knowledge are just ego. That's all it is. I don't mean ego in some kind of negative connotation, I mean it in a scientific connotation. All of that so-called knowledge is ego, it's the self. There’s not a you who knows all that information, there’s only that information. It’s only thought. It’s only ego. So, if you recognize now that all of that is gone, then ego is gone. You are gone. The whole world is gone and what's left is …  (silence) 

I have found that the people who consistently engage with this work are ready for freedom. I have one message—you’re nothing and you’re free. That's my only message. So a philosopher is not coming here, or if they do, they’re running away quickly because they’re not going to get what they want. 

I have so much respect for the people who engage with this work (coming to Open Meetings, attending Intensives in India, etc.) because I think they’re very mature and ready for freedom. They are ready to be nothing. Ready to be free, now. Ready to be done seeking with all it’s running around in mental circles (sadhanas, practices or future hopes, etc.). All that stuff is a lie because all there is, is this. This is all there is.

This message has to be lived. First of all, you have to come to know freedom and then it has to be lived. Freedom. Nothing. No jumping on those carousels of philosophies and seeking and future. None of that anymore. Nothing. 

If you’re ready to hear it, you will recognize what is being shared. But then it has to be lived. You have to live it and this takes a lot of maturity because this is not trivial at all. What is being shared right now, is simple and obvious. It can't be more simple and obvious, but it's not trivial. As mature as one needs to be for this recognition to happen, it takes much more maturity for its full fruition. Much more because you have to live this.