Ramesh Balsekar - Gut Schermau Seminar - 1998-06-27

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.

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
that 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.