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

Simply watch, do not react RA

Adams, Robert

Whatever is going to happen, will happen. You simply watch. You do not react. And you realize it’s all for the good. You are not what you appear to be. You think you’ve made decisions today of what you should wear, where you should go, what you should eat. Every thing has been made for you. What I’m trying to say to you is you do not have to carry the load.

It’s like when you go on a train and you have your suitcase in your hand. Do you sit with the suitcase on your head and carry the load? Or do you put the suitcase on the train in the compartment? You will still get to your destination. It’s the same with life. You’re going to your destination. Your destination is awakening, liberation. You do not have to carry the load. The load is desire. You want it very bad, and the more you want it, the more you’re pushing it away, because a strong want, a strong desire, is a strong ego. It’s not desire you want to develop, it’s love, compassion, understanding. Let everything happen as it may. When the smoke clears, you will still be who you are, and you’ll be totally free.

Robert Adams
Transcript 57
You Have to Have Bhakti
28th April, 1991

I don’t need a body

Nisargadatta Maharaj

I am not my body, nor do I need it. I am the witness only. I have no shape of my own. You are so accustomed to think of yourself as bodies having consciousness that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies. Once you realize that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that the ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, you are the witness only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether.

  • Nisargadatta Maharaj “I Am That”

Catch yourself if your mind starts thinking RA

Adams, Robert

You observe your body, you watch your body doing its thing, but you are not that. You never were the body and you will never be a body. You are pure awareness, the absolute reality. As you think about these things you become them. The worst thing you can do is think about troubles and worries. Always think about the heart. Always think about the Self, which is forever. If you think about anything else it is only temporary, it comes and goes. The good things, the bad things of this world, they come and go. Think only of the Self, the heart. This is your reality, beauty, joy. This is being-ness. This is the I-am that I-am.

Remember all the time it begins in the morning when you first open your eyes and get out of bed. That’s when you catch yourself. If your mind starts thinking about the work that you’re going to do and the problems of the day, catch yourself and change…make the change. Say to yourself, “I’m not my work. I’m not my thoughts that come to me. I’m beyond these things. I-am that, which has always been and will always be. That which remains the same forever. The substratum of all existence, the absolute reality, I-am that.” Just thinking about these things in the morning makes you feel wonderful.

Robert Adams
Transcript 239
Take Refuge In Your Heart
15th April, 1993

One Self, Sole Reality, alone exists eternally RM

Ramana Maharshi

Five Verses on the Self
“Katma Panchakam”
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

1.) He who is forgetful of the Self, mistaking the physical body for it, and goes through innumerable births, is like one who wanders all over the world in a dream. Thus realizing the Self would only be like waking up from the dream-wanderings.
2.) One who asks, “Who am I?” and “Where am I?” is like a drunken man who enquires about his own identity and whereabouts.
3.) While in fact the body is in the Self, he who thinks the Self is within the insentient body is like one who considers the cloth of the screen which supports a cinema picture to be contained within the picture.
4.) Does an ornament exist apart from the gold of which it is made? Where is the body apart from the Self? He who considers his body to be himself is an ignorant man. He who regards himself as the Self is the Enlightened One who has realized the Self.
5.) The One Self, the Sole Reality, alone exists eternally. When even the Ancient Teacher, Dakshinamurti, revealed It through speechless eloquence, who else could convey it by speech?

Ramana Maharshi
The Collected Works
edited by Arthur Osborne

Direct v Progressive path

Rupert Spira
RUPERT SPIRA

PROGRESSIVE VS DIRECT PATHS = Traditional (Feeling), don’t go directly to true nature but go to true nature via steps or stages, like guru, sound, object to purify. In the end, sink attention into Source. VERSUS (Direct) don’t focus on body but go directly to presence of awareness.

Progressive vs Direct PATHS

How do you recognize a truly enlightened guru?

If they dress in orange, carry the paraphernalia, utter non-duality sayings …? No!

Ramana Maharshi recognized his true nature (in a near-death experience) was at odds with his everyday life.

All [bad, amoral, unethical] actions are perpetrated by people who believe they are temporary, limited, separated selves – to aggrandize or protect them.

PROGRESSIVE PATH involves gradual purification, cleaning up, growing up.

No cleaning up on the way with Direct Path.

Make a firm decision NSG

Nisargadatta Maharaj

You must come to a firm decision. You must forget the thought that you are a body and be only the knowledge “I Am,” which has no form, no name. Just be. When you stabilize in that beingness it will give all the knowledge and all the secrets to you, and when the secrets are given to you, you transcend the beingness, and you, the Absolute, will know that you are also not the consciousness. Having gained all this knowledge, having understood what is what, a kind of quietude prevails, a tranquility. Beingness is transcended, but beingness is available.

Nisargadatta

Universal hypnotism

Stephenson, Virginia

“Let us look at the example of the parenthesis in eternity, and see how Joel has dealt with the limitations that take place between the cradle and the grave such as “good” humanhood, “bad” humanhood, and all those conditions that are warring with themselves.

Joel tells us that we must recognize this activity as universal hypnotism no matter what the problem may be. The problem may be disease, lack, poverty, greed, lust, hatred, war, depression, or rivalry – all these forms are universal hypnotism in operation and are without presence or power.”

Virginia Stephenson
1993 Gold Coast Class
October 2013
Monthly Lesson
Recording # 9311
on Aloha Mystic’s website.

Pack of lies vs Consciousness

Adams, Robert

So what pack of lies am I going to share with you today. I call it a pack of lies because all the world loves a lie. Therefore when I speak the truth, it thinks I’m telling a lie. After all it is a lie to believe that you were ever born, that you prevail and then you disappear.

This is not true. It is a lie to believe that the world exists as the world all by itself, that’s a lie. It is a lie to believe that there is an anthropomorphic type of a God who looks down upon you and sits in a little room with a big book with your name in it. (laughter) And tells you you’re going to go to heaven, you’re going to hell.

But all the world loves a lie and everything I say is a lie. Due to the fact that I have to share things with you that you want to hear to make you feel better. When you try to improve your health. When you try to improve your finances. When you try to live a better life. That is a lie.

Only consciousness, only God exists. It is what we call God or consciousness that is the world, that is the universe. Nothing exists on its own. Everything in this universe comes from your mind. It isn’t real by itself it’s like a dream. You believe what you see with your eyes, what you hear with your ears, what you speak with your mouth, what you smell with your nose. You believe all these things are real. They are not real. They are lies. You believe you exist as a human being and you make decisions, you make choices. You do certain things in this world. This is not true.

It is consciousness that does everything. You are like a puppet manipulated by the laws of karma. And everything that you do is the result of that karma. It’s a lie. For in truth karma does not exist and in truth you’ve never done anything because you were never born. There is absolutely nothing that you can ever do. You are spirit! All-pervading! Omnipresent! Not a little body like it looks and appears.

Robert Adams
Excerpt from: Satsang
“Feel the truth”

When it’s gone – wow!

Enlightenment

“It’s so simple. … I could put it down for you in two minutes. Whether you’ll hear it, though, is another matter. That depends on your own heart. So here it is: The world is full of sorrow. The root of sorrow is attachment/desire. The uprooting of sorrow is the dropping of attachment. How does one drop attachment? You only look and see that it is based on a false belief—the belief that, without this, I cannot be happy. That’s false.

The moment you see that belief is false, you’re free. Good luck to you. It may take you one minute, it may take you twenty-five years. But the day you see it, you’re free. You’re free as a bird. You’ll be coming up to give retreats, you’ll be talking to presidents. You’ll be meeting popes. You won’t be fazed one bit. You’re free. You’re completely free. You’ll be making an ass of yourself, and it won’t bother you. You won’t bother to impress anybody.

… You don’t give a tinker’s damn what they think about you and what they say about you. You know what that means? Oh, boy, that’s freedom. You’re not bothered about whether they approve of you or they don’t. It’s all right. You’re happy. You don’t approve? All right, too bad; you move on. You’re happy. But that’s because you’ve discovered that your happiness does not lie in these things. You’ve got to see that for yourself. It’s useless reading a book, useless listening to me. You’ve got to see it.”

~ Anthony de Mello

Thx to Anna Bharati Wysocka