I would very much like
if two, three, or four
would get up and tell me
what exactly they want
out of this seminar.
I rather expected this.
[Laughs]
So, my teaching is really based
on three very simple assumptions.
The first assumption is
that the totality of manifestation
has come from the Source.
The Source is only One.
So, in creating the manifestation,
the Source could not possibly
have taken
any other material from anywhere
to produce the manifestation.
So it must have been produced
out of Itself.
So, strictly therefore,
if the Source has
produced the manifestation,
if the Consciousness unmanifest
has become manifested,
if the potential energy
has become activized,
they are not two.
It is the same Consciousness
which was unmanifest
has become manifest.
Which is precisely
what Buddha meant
when he said:
Nirvana and Samsara
are one, not two.
Nirvana in action is Samsara.
When Samsara is not in action
it is Nirvana.
They are not two.
Basically, that is the point.
They are not two.
And the human being
is part of that manifestation.
And what is the manifestation?
Totality of objects.
The totality of manifestation
is the totality of objects.
Which means, according to me,
the human being is an object.
The rock is an object,
the animal is an object.
the human being is an object
with different characteristics.
The rock has no senses,
therefore the rock
does not need sensions
or consciousness
for the senses to work.
The animal has senses,
therefore it has sensions
which enables the senses to work.
But both the rock and the animal
are objects in the totality
of objects in the manifestation.
The human being, similarly,
is an object,
like the rock or the animal,
with the same sensions
as the animal has,
which enables the human being
to live his life
and for the senses to work.
The second thing
that my assumption is based on
is the statement of Lord Buddha.
"In life, events happen,
deeds are done,
but there is no individual doer thereof".
The events and the deeds
are actions which happen
through any body-mind organisms,
or all body-mind organisms
together constitute the functioning
of that manifestation.
There is no individual doer thereof.
That is precisely
what Lord Krishna meant,
which is my third assumption.
Lord Krishna,
in the Bhagavad Gita, says:
"You cannot commit a sin,
you cannot commit a meritorious deed,
you think in terms of sins
and meritorious deeds
because your knowledge
of your true nature
is clouded or enveloped by ignorance."
The word used is "ignorance".
And the ignorance which is referred to
in the Bhagavad Gita
is what we in modern times
use as the word "ego",
which is the basic problem
of the seeking.
Most teachings start with
the basic that it is your ego
which is the cause of all your suffering.
It is the ego which is
the cause of your suffering.
Therefore, you must kill the ego.
And in order to kill the ego,
various prescriptions are given.
So my question therefore is:
if the human being
is merely a created object
which is part of
the totality of manifestation,
where did this sense of individuality,
this ego,
which is supposed to be destroyed,
where did it come from?
Where could it have come from
except from the Source?
So, my concept is
that it is the same Source
which created the rock
and the animal with sensions,
and the human being
with sensions and intellect
which created the ego.
In fact, my concept is
that the thinking mind,
the intellect, the "me",
and the ego are names
for the same thing.
The intellect which considers
oneself as an individual
with a sense of personal doership
"I" do things, which is the ego.
So the "me"
to whom a prescription is given
to kill the ego
is the same thing.
I repeat:
you, to whom the prescriptions
are given,
to kill the ego
are not two.
So how can the ego
kill itself?
The ego cannot kill itself.
Therefore, my basic concept is
that only that power,
the Source,
which created the ego
can remove the ego
and that is precisely
what the source is doing.