All posts by Dr. Robin Starbuck

About Dr. Robin Starbuck

Professor of English 1973 M.A., New York University 1989 Ph.D., New York University Linguistics

DEEP SLEEP AWARENESS – RSpira

What is deep sleep? Rigorously explore and trust your experience. Keep pursuing it until you reach absolute satisfaction. Have I ever experienced the disappearance of awareness? The knowing with which you know your experience. (All experience is known, but sights, sounds and sensations disappear.) It’s the I. The thoughts you had 2 minutes ago are gone but the knowing that you had about them remains. The knowing of the thoughts and experiences you had 2 minutes ago 2 weeks ago 2 decades ago is the one stable element. It’s the knowing of these thoughts and experiences. This awareness is the only continuous element. It’s so familiar and intimate. Have you ever experienced a break in the continuity of that knowing? Your experience tells you there’s never been a break in that knowing, so why not trust that? Have you ever not known knowing? That’s the one thing that’s always been continuous. Most people are influenced by what they read. Einstein said, common sense is a series of prejudices that most people acquire by age 18. If you ask the knowing – not the thought, but the knowing – what is your experience of yourself … If knowing could speak it would say in my own experience of myself I am ever-present. I have never known myself to disappear. The world disappears the world leaves me but I never leave myself.
The mind, the body and the world come to an end but the KNOWING WITH WHICH WE ARE KNOWN = THE I = never comes to an end.
You can push it a little bit further. Ask yourself – which means ask this knowing – did you ever experience yourself beginning? No. If you’ve never experienced yourself beginning, don’t presume that you have begun.
Don’t presume that YOU = KNOWING = were born. It is your experience that the body appears and disappears. It’s born and it dies. It is not your experience – that means you, or pure knowing, not mixed with anything else – it’s not your experience that you have ever started or were born. And you have never had the experience of having yourself disappear or of dying. Until you have had that experience don’t presume it, stick to your experience. I am eternally present in my own experience of myself. I wasn’t born, I don’t move or change, and I don’t die.
Deep sleep is most real (consciousness).
Secondary is dreaming (mind).
Tertiary is waking state (matter).
The I that falls asleep is not the I of awareness. Awareness remains in the only condition it knows: wide awake. Awareness is not traveling through time, sometimes awake, sometimes dreaming, sometimes deep-sleeping. The entire culture of the separate self is founded on the idea of temporary existence, temporary awareness. But awareness is eternity, infinity. It’s the timeless time and the placeless place. Awareness is not a fleeting byproduct of the mind which comes into existence
The one who has realized their true nature is wide awake in deep sleep. Awareness doesn’t know – like water (H2o, ice, steam) – about various states.
Deep sleep is not a state that is conceived of by the waking state of mind, which is a concept. I am speaking of ourself – thinking, sensing and perceiving.
The waking state of mind conceives of deep sleep as a state of the mind. I am referring to it as the complete absence of thinking, sensing and perceiving, just the pure knowingness which subsequently becomes.
Thought never arises or appears. This would suggest that some things appear from outside awareness. THERE IS NO OUTSIDE AND THEREFORE NO INSIDE: THERE IS JUST AWARENESS.
This sole substance of experience is modulated and becomes thinking, sensing and perceiving. That which IS never ceases to be. That which is not never comes into existence.
Now we are retracing our steps from feeling we are a body. We are seeing that less and less. This is knowing substance is aware, wide awake. We are leaving our experience of successive layers of superimposed concepts.
We were never a body. There is no real veiling of our true nature. Nothing needs to be opposed in our life. There are no parts, no separate self to oppose.
Unhappiness is the separate self arising and creating the world which we oppose or we cling to. Happiness is when there is no separate self and no resistance. It is the natural condition of all experience, not the experience of a body but all experience experiencing itself.
Experience experiences everything with nothing to resist, no place to go.
In India they say there is no real ignorance and no real resistance, therefore no suffering
Since I have no awareness of deep sleep , should I conclude that it doesn’t exist? Yes.



WHY IS DEEP SLEEP AWARENESS SO IMPORTANT ?

Rupert says such a preposterous thing and repeats it in video after video that one wonders if he’s going to be able to make his case or not! But knowing Rupert Spira, you know he’s going to make it powerfully!

Waking, dreaming, deep sleeping, which one is closest to awareness? Methinks most people get it right on the third try!! That’s right, it’s deep sleep and here’s the reason, to the best of my surmising.

During our so called waking hours we are under the hypnotism of the world mind, carrying out our activities with nary a thought of how much we are Not in control of our lives. In the dreaming state it’s a little clearer how it certainly can’t be nearest to awareness because it’s by definition fantasy; but at least it’s not tied down to the limitations of being “awake” under an hypnotic spell.

Yes Rupert maintains that the deep sleep most nearly approximates full awareness. The reason for this is that our own experience is what bears it out. We know, or at least we can know, from examining ourselves, that we have never experienced non-awareness. By examining ourselves enough we can finally trust our own experience. This is Rupert’s measuring rod.

We’re guilty of having assumed that our human minds are capable of discerning what is awareness and what is not. We let them trample over the amazing fact that awareness doesn’t come and go but is something that we can really depend upon.

We’ve never seen awareness go nor have we seen it come, and we can trust this experience of our own to realize that during what the human mind dubs deep sleep there’s no deep sleep at all but pure awareness of the complete absence of racing thoughts, feelings, sensations, fears, doubts, you name it.

That is real awareness. It’s being conscious of pure absolute nothingness. No thing. No mind. No power. Just wonderful, wonderful conscious awareness.
DrRobinStarbuck

The mind is nothing -RA

Well, you know, the mind is nothing. The mind is only a bunch of thoughts. Thoughts about the past and the future, that is all a mind is. But, the Heart is a center of stillness, of quietness, of Absolute Peace. When you rest your mind in your heart, you feel a joy and a bliss that overwhelms you, and you will know. Surrender your mind to your Heart, and you will feel it.
~Robert Adams

Confusing* All karma happens

When Ifirst read this I was not a little disquieted. Then I got it: of course, in the illusion – if you believe it – you’re in it!

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

“Whatever your karma is, is going to happen, no matter what you do. So why concern yourself ?
See whatever you’re going to do, you will
not be able to stop.
“The way to see it is like this. Let your body do whatever it has to do. Do not think about it too much. Do not identify with it. Do not attach yourself to it. Everything was preordained before you came into existence. It will take care of itself. The apples grow, the grass grows, the sun shines, there’s warmth to make human life exist, there is a power that takes care of everything and it has nothing to do with our thoughts.”

Robert Adams: The Collected Works

[Robert Adams Community, Vineet Anand]

All is well & unfolding -RA

All is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There was once a Prime Minister of a large Kingdom. And he went to his Guru who simply used to say, “All is well and everything is unfolding as it should.” And the Prime Minister used to wonder why he says this. And the Guru would say, “Just come here and listen to those words and repeat them to yourself.” He did this often enough, enlightenment came. And he did realize, all is well and everything is happening as it should.

So he went back to the kingdom and sat in his chair and gave advice to the people as he usually did. Now the head of the security force had a problem. That day he was due to get promoted to chief and he was bypassed and somebody else got promoted, so he was disturbed. He went to see the Prime Minister and told him his troubles. And the Prime Minister smiled at him and said, “Don’t worry, all is well and everything is unfolding as it should.” And the guard got mad, he went away mumbling, “How can he tell me something like this, this is ridiculous.”

Now the head chef had a problem because his wife ran away with one of the cooks. And he was very disturbed. He came to the Prime Minister and said, “Mr Prime Minister what should I do? My wife ran away. I feel very bad.” The Prime Minister said, “Don’t worry, all is well and everything is unfolding as it should.” And the chef got very upset and he left.

He was walking down the hall and he bumped into the guard and they related their stories. And they said, “Lets fix this guy. He can’t tell us things like this, we have serious problems.” And they were thinking of a way to get even. They were walking down the corridor and they saw the royal barber shop. And there was the king getting his royal shave. The barber inadvertently slipped and cut the kings throat and it was deep gash. Royal blood was spilling all over the floor. (laughter) And they both looked and they said, “I know what we’ll do,” they conceived a plan. When the king was feeling better with a bandage around his neck. They went and said, “Your majesty, we went and told the Prime Minister that you cut your royal neck and you know what he said? He said, All is well and everything is unfolding as it should.” So the king said, “What! Bring him to me.” So they brought the prime minister and the king said, “Look at my neck, I’m in total pain. Do you see the cut and the bandage? What do you think of that?” And the prime minister looked and he said, “Don’t worry your majesty, all is well and everything is unfolding as it should,” and the king said, “What! How dare you tell me something like this when I’m in pain, throw him in the dungeon!” So they threw the prime minister in the dungeon.

Now, it was Wednesday afternoon. And every Wednesday afternoon the king went hunting in the jungle with the prime minister. But since the prime minister was in the dungeon he went hunting by himself.

Now in the jungle there lived a tribe of Kali worshippers. And these Kali worshippers always sacrificed somebody to Kali. And this was the day of the sacrifice. So the chief of the Kali worshippers told the worshippers, “Go out and find me somebody virtuous so we can sacrifice this person to Kali.” They got on their horses and rode out. And sure enough they found the king. And they didn’t care whether he was a king or what he was. They grabbed him and took him to the chief. And the chief said, “Good you found somebody, undress him and bathe him and let’s sacrifice him.” They proceeded to undress him and they saw the cut on his neck. And they showed the chief and the chief said, “What! This guys no good, he’s not pure. Throw him back where he came from.” And they took him back and let him go.

On the way back to the kingdom the king started to think and he said, “Now wait a minute, if didn’t get this cut I would be dead meat. The prime minister was right,” and he rode back to the kingdom, to the palace and he said, “Release the prime minister.” Which he did and he related the story to the prime minister and he said,”you were right all the time.” So the prime minister said, “Not only that your majesty, but if I rode with you today and you didn’t throw me into the dungeon, they would have caught me also and I didn’t have a cut and they would have sacrificed me to Kali. So by being in the dungeon my life was spared.” This story shows you that when something happens to you and you try to solve it by blaming others or believing there’s something wrong you are making a dreadful mistake. For if you are able to see the whole picture, whatever happens to you is for your ultimate good.

Never curse the darkness if you don’t understand what’s going on.

This is why when things are troubling you and you have no idea, why, and you think you have got bad luck, or people are against you, or life is very hard. If you would merely go within yourself, dive deep within yourself and ask yourself, “To whom does this come?” or “who am I?” and follow the I to the source, everything will be revealed to you. EVERYTHING will be revealed to you. And you will find unalloyed happiness, total joy and total peace. But you have to do the work. You cannot just ride through life and take things as they come. Simply begin the work of self-inquiry and everything else will take care of itself. And remember do not ask about time, when it’s going to happen. It will take care of itself.

Robert Adams

Transcript 29
More On Satsang
9th December, 1990

I AM meditation & self-inquiry RA

THIS SIMPLE MEDITATION CAN SETTLE YOU !!

HAVE YOU BEEN TRYING AND TRYING to calm your zillions of runaway thoughts and fears, but somehow find yourself assaulted yet again? This guy, Robert Adams, knows what he’s talking about when it comes to going deep and staying there! Hint: he even allows a moment or two of self-inquiry to stare down [my words] any particularly obstreperous unwanted thoughts. Here, I’ll let him tell you himself. Remember the key word is SIMPLE :

“I Am is the first name of God. When you want to think of God, you think of I Am with your respiration. I Am is the first name of God. Close your eyes and try. Inhale and say, “I.” Exhale and say, “Am.” Doesn’t that make you feel good? Just by saying I Am to yourself, it lifts you up. So the thing to do is this: Whenever you have a problem, I don’t care what it is, I don’t care how serious you think it is, whether it’s worldly or personal, wherever it came from, the secret is to forget yourself. For the moment, forget about the problem for as long as you can, and do the I Am meditation. If your mind wanders, bring it back again, and do the I Am meditation.
“When I explain this to some people they say, Robert, but you tell us we have to get rid of our minds. We have to annihilate the mind, not think with it. This is true. This is the highest truth. But most people cannot do this. Remember Advaita Vedanta is really for mature souls, people who have practiced sadhana in previous lives. It’s like going to school. Self-inquiry, Advaita Vedanta, is like the university of spiritual life. You cannot fool yourself.
“There are so many people who try to practice Self-inquiry and they give it up. Then I tell them to surrender, surrender completely. That’s the other way. Again this becomes difficult. They try it for a while and they always revert back to themselves, your personal self. So, I give them the I Am meditation.
“Everybody can do that. When nothing seems to work, go back to the I Am. It’s really powerful. Do not take it as simple. I can guarantee you this: if you practice I Am for one day, all of your troubles will be transcended. You will feel happiness like you have never felt before. You will feel a peace that you never even knew existed.
“As you keep practicing the I Am, your thoughts will become less and less. Your personal self will go into the background and you will feel an inner bliss. You will begin to feel that it no longer matters what I’m going through. It makes no difference, because it is God that is going through this, not me. And God has no problems. You automatically become happy, just by using the I Am meditation.
“In the Bhagavad Gita it says, “Out of a million people, one searches for God. And out of a million people who search, one finds Him.[“] It’s sort of difficult. That’s how it appears. But, if you begin to use I Am as a meditation and you allow the I Am to go deeper and deeper, your bodily consciousness will disappear, and the I Am will take over.
If you want to mix Self-inquiry, Atma Vichara, with I Am, that’s permissible. You can use them both together. I’ll explain how. Say you’re using the I Am meditation. In between, thoughts keep popping up. Whether they’re good thoughts or bad thoughts makes no difference, but thoughts keep interfering. You can now inquire “To whom come these thoughts?” Just observe and watch.
“When your mind becomes silent again, you go back to the I Am meditation with your respiration. When thoughts come again you inquire, “To whom do they come?” As you progress in this method, you complete the question. “The thoughts come to me. What is the source of me? Who am I? What is the source of I?”
“You begin to feel and see that the “I” that seems to have the problem is not you. You begin to feel “I” have a problem. “I” am sick. “I” am angry. “I” have no peace of mind. And you begin to laugh. For the realization tells you, “I” has all these things, I don’t. “I” is the culprit. “I” appears to want this and need that. So it is with wants, desires and self-aggrandizement. All of this belongs to the “I.” Who is this I? Where does it come from? If the “I” isn’t really me, then who am I? And you keep still.
“Now you may go back to the I Am with respiration. You inhale and you say I. You exhale and say Am. As you progress this way, you’re going to find out something interesting happens to your life. You’re going to find there’s more space between I Am. It will happen by itself. You will inhale and you will say I, and all of a sudden, nothing will come out of that. Then you will exhale with Am. You will inhale again and say I. Remember you’re not putting this on, you’re not making this happen. It’s happening all by itself and the space between I Am is the fourth dimension of consciousness. After waking, sleeping, dreaming. It is the state of the Jnani. It is your freedom. It is Pure Awareness. And when you keep practicing, “Who am I?” alternating with both of them, there will be a greater space before you say, “Who am I?” again.
“That space is bliss. You’ll feel something you’ve never felt before. An inner joy. An inner delight. You will just know that the whole universe is the Self, and I Am That. As the months progress, the words become less and less. You may start off with I Am, and then you will be in the Silence. You will not say another word. You will just experience the Silence. That Silence is Nirvana, Emptiness. It is no thing. It is the nothing I was talking about. You will just sit in the Silence.”

ROBERT ADAMS
I AM Meditation
Silence of the Heart
pages 101-104

No world outside your Self

Take a look at your life right now. Think what’s going on in your life. Are you happy, are you miserable, are you healthy, are you sick, are you rich, are you poor? Doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is everything you are is what you have identified with, somewhere, somehow. There is no power outside of your Self. There is no world outside of your Self. There is no creation outside of your Self. There is no universe outside of your Self. There is no God outside of your Self. You have given birth to all of these things. You are playing a game with yourself. You’re putting on an act. Why? Ask yourself.

Robert Adams

Spirit is our Escape from hypnotism

ESCAPE FROM HYPNOTISM

“Matter as such does not exist” – so spake Einstein and Planck. Think about it: the floor or ground beneath you does not exist. Now where are you? Are you ready to explore what being entirely Spirit means? There’s an awful lot of really good news tied to that courageous step.

It’s not a matter of going into a kind of la-la land: in fact it’s coming out of the la-la land known as world hypnotism.

The bad news is you can’t wake up from hypnotism until you recognize that you are under its spell. The good news is once you realize you’ve been hypnotized like billions of others have been, you instantaneously awaken from it.

Why are we so loathe to say “I am God?”

WHY ARE WE SO LOATHE TO SAY
” I AM GOD ” ?

Who decided to assault the English language by querying mockingly “Did you create everything?” Why not say instead: “Yes, and so am I. And so is he. And so is she”.

When we can finally, at long last, get over our aversion to claiming our rightful identity, we can put so many issues, that people fight over, to rest and get on with really seeing one another for their own unique expression of the perfection of God.

Can you think of someone who irks you? See them as God. Don’t be afraid to do it – that very act on your part could heal a long-standing ailment that you’ve been tolerating.

Do you feel that embracing your God-identity will make you look proud and arrogant? Just make a point of not acting proud and arrogant: let yourself love everyone more than you’ve ever been able to love before.

That’s what God is.

DrRobinStarbuck