[Upon awakening some people expect] to see blazing lights and see stars and geometrical figures and hear beautiful music. These things are all of the mind. All you’re doing when these things ensue you’re going into subtle areas of the mind. Where there are things happening just like they’re happening in this plane of existence.

So in the subtle planes of existence there are also things happening. They may be a little different. You may hear sacred voices talking to you. You may hear the voice of your deity. Maybe it’s the Christ or Buddha or somebody else. You’re making headway but remember this is also of the mind. It is the mind that causes all of this.

You want to go beyond that. You want to go beyond everything. Never stop and say ‘I have arrived.’ For when you make that statement, ‘I’ve arrived,’ it shows that you have not arrived because there was somebody to arrive. When you have arrived there is nothing to say and there is no one to say it. It’s all been transcended.

Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)

Everything is preordained.
As long as you are living a worldly life, as long as the world affects you and you affect the world, everything is predetermined, everything.
But as soon as you become humble and you acquire humility, you begin to turn within, instead of thinking, “I am great,” and “I can do this,” and “I can do that,” you would rather feel that you are nothing and surrender everything to the Creator by turning within and offering to the Creator.
That is the time when the predetermination becomes weak.
But as long as you are living in this world as a worldly person thinking, I am that and this is this and this is this way and that is that way, everything, even the raising of the finger is predetermined.
Only when you dive deep within yourself and you surrender your ego, your ambitions, your temper, your emotions, your idea of right and wrong, your consciousness, and you become empty, only then will you become free.
But as long as you react to conditions and to the world you can never be free, it’s all predetermined. And you go on life after life after life until you give it up. The ego appears to be very strong. It will tell you you’re this or you’re that and you’re good person and you should become this and you should become that, that is your ego at work. You should smile and say, “No, give it all up to consciousness,” become empty.
Robert Adams

“When you sit in the silence the power of the Self is at work. Even though your mind is still thinking thoughts. As long as you’re sitting in your quiet and you don’t talk, no noise is going on, even though the mind maybe busy, the power of the silence is at work.

When you talk a lot, have too many conversations, maya [illusion] is at work. Maya rules over you. I’m not speaking of in satsang in particular. I’m speaking of in your home, at work. Always have very little to say and you’ll be safe. If you have too much to say it causes conflict, misunderstanding and chaos.”

~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)

The universe is a cosmic joke. It plays games with you.
It wants you to become attached to things.
You cannot possibly find yourself when you are engrossed in the world.
So you do not have to keep thinking about your affairs
and your body and the world most of the time.
You must begin to understand that you are the only one who can
dissolve the maya and awaken to the truth of your being.

You can tell where you’re at by what you do all day long.
Just think about today, since you woke up this morning.
How often did you think about your higher Self.
How often did you practice self-inquiry.
How often did you surrender completely.
Not too much, you identified yourself with the worldly situation.
You identified with maya.
With things, with persons, with places and then you tell me
I want to awaken. I want to become self-realized.

Of course the truth is that you’re already self-realized, you know that,
but those are just words.
What are you doing to prove it? Robert Adams