REALIZATION - Keys to the Ultimate Freedom

星空

We try not to be intellectual. That knowledge may be gotten from reading books. Most of us already have the intellectual knowledge and yet are not realized. What we want is knowledge through experiencing it, through feeling it, through realizing and integrating it into our very being. The only knowledge that is useful for growth is the knowledge that we realize with our inner sight and feeling. As we contemplate, knowledge should fit in with our feelings, i.e., feel right, and should integrate with our whole Beingness. Then it is a realization, a revelation. Then we know, and we know that we know.

A realization is seeing something really for the first time, although you've heard it again and again. When it's realized, it's as though you've heard it for the first time. It's like an electric light bulb turning on in the mind and you say, Oh, now I see. It is something that you might have heard a hundred times before, but this time, on seeing and experiencing it, it's a realization. It has become real to you.

This perceived and experienced knowledge is the only knowledge that does us any good. We can read everything on the subject but it doesn't help and our life doesn't change much. And it doesnt because we don't integrate the knowledge into our beingness through realization.

Realized knowledge is non-intellectual although the means we use are intellectual. We use our mind, we direct our mind toward the answer. But you will discover that the answer does not come from the mind. It comes from a place just behind the mind. It comes from the realm of knowingness, the realm of omniscience. By quieting the mind through stilling our thoughts, each and everyone of us has access to this realm of Knowingness. Then and there you realize, you make real. You know and you know that you know. Is there any question about what I just said?

Q: Is knowingness and feelingness the same thing?

Lester: No. The feeling comes just before the knowing.

Q: Is knowingness beyond feeling? Is knowledge that which feels true?

Lester: The answer to both your questions is Yes. It's something you'll have to experience. There's a feel to things, and also there are times when you just know and you know you know, and there's no feeling to it. Knowing is really a higher level. We start with reasoning, thinking, in the realm of thinkingness. Then we move into the realm of feelingness. The top realm is the realm of Knowingness.

Q: Is ego implied in feeling?

Lester: Yes. The ego does the feeling. It is a higher ego state. Therefore there's duality, I feel emotion. Knowingness is awareness. When I said: You know and you know that you know, you're aware and you're aware of the fact that you are aware. There's no thing conditioning it. The very top state is the state of All Awareness, of All Beingness. Beingness and Awareness turn out to be the same thing when we get there. Before, it seems as though they are two different things. But when we move to the top, Beingness, Awareness, Consciousness are all the same thing, because the Awareness you are aware of is of Beingness being All Beingness. We see that we are not only this body, but that we are every other body, every other thing and every atom in this universe. So, if we are every being and atom, we are all Beingness.

Q: You mean I am That?

Lester: Yes, definitely! It's I The top state is I. That's all, not even am. Just below the top it's I am. A step below that is I am that I am. A step below that is I am unlimited. A step below that is I am great.

Q: Or one with God?

Lester: Well, where is One with God? One with God is not a top state because it's in duality. If I am one with God, there are I and God. In the ultimate we discover that I is God, there's only a singular Oneness in the universe, and we are, we must necessarily be, that Oneness. That's what we discover at the end of the line, or the beginning of the line, whichever way you look at it. We are unlimited Beings covering over this limitlessness with concepts of limitation, the first of which is I am an individual separate from the All, that's the very first and a very big error that we make. I am separate, I am a personality, my name is Lester:, I have a body. and I spiral right down. After we assume a mind and a body, then we assume all these troubles and all these problems and they're nothing but assumptions. They are only a fiction which we see after we go within, quiet the mind, and discover all this truth right there.

This whole world, as now seen, is nothing but a dream illusion that never was. The Truth is just behind the outward world. So why make trouble? The growth is simply the eliminating of all the concepts of limitation. That infinite perfect Being that we are must always be infinite and perfect and therefore is perfect right now. That's one thing we can never change, -our unlimited Self. That is all the time. But I, the unlimited Self, can assume that I am limited and that I have a mind, I have a body, I have problems. However, it is only an assumption.

Q: What's the technique for cutting through all that, for getting right to that state where you have that total awareness?

Lester: Pose the question Who and what am I? and await the answer to present itself. The thinking mind can never give the answer, because all thought is of limitation. So, in quiet ness and meditation pose the questions: Who am I? What am I? When other thoughts come up, strike them down. If you can't, ask To whom are these thoughts? Well, these thoughts are to me. Well then, who am I? and you're right back on the track of Who am I? Continue this until you get the answer to the question Who and what am I? regardless of how long it takes.

The answer is the unlimited Self. The only way It becomes obvious is when the mind stills almost completely. The only obstacles to immediate full realization here and now are the thoughts, everyone of which is limited. Eliminate those thoughts and you'll see this infinite Being that you always were and are and always will be.

The difficulty is the past habit- patterns of thought, the unconscious constant turning and churning of thought in a mechanism we have set up that we call the unconscious mind. The unconscious thoughts are simply our thoughts now that we do not look at, and so we call them unconscious. This is the enemy we set up. To lessen these unconscious thoughts, we first make them conscious. When we make them conscious, then we may let go of them and they are gone forever. This quiets the unconscious mind. Now, the more we eliminate the thoughts, the more obvious our real Self becomes. The more obvious our real Self becomes, the more we are able to scorch the remaining thoughts, until the mind is totally quieted.

Q: You have to still the conscious thoughts before you can get to the unconscious thoughts?

Lester: The conscious thought is only the unconscious thought made conscious.

Q: They come through dreams too. at that state, don't they, the unconscious thoughts?

Lester: Yes, but it's only in the waking state that we can eliminate them and thereby grow.

Q: You still your conscious thoughts through meditation, other techniques, etc. Now. the  Who am I? will go right through both, is that correct?

Lester: Yes. Also, you can use Who am I? to still or eliminate thoughts. Pose the question Who am I? and when a thought comes up you say. To whom is this thought? The answer is To me. Then, who am I? and you're back on the track. Thus you eliminate the thoughts as they come up.

Q: But what keeps the unconscious thoughts from popping up at that time?

Lester: They will and should pop up. If they pop up they're conscious. Then you can drop them. Eventually you eliminate all of them.

Q: How many minds do we have?

Lester: Theres only one mind. What we are looking at this moment is what the world calls the conscious mind. The part of the mind we're not looking at this moment the world calls the unconscious mind. It's the mode of mind that we give a different name to. That which we are talking about now, that which we are aware of now, is what we call the conscious mind, the conscious thought. The unconscious mind is all the thoughts we are not interested in at this moment.

What some call super-conscious thought, there's really no such thing as super-conscious thought. The super-conscious, that which is above consciousness, is already out of the thinking realm, that's the omniscience, that's the realm of knowingness. The super-conscious realm is All Awareness, All Knowingness. There is no thinking when you know.

Q: Is unconscious different from subconscious?

Lester: Subconscious and unconscious are the same.

Q: Do you agree with Jung's collective unconscious theory?

Lester: I only agree with Truth. And this is one thing I emphasize, truth is the only authority for truth. Accept nothing until you can prove it out. Don't even accept what I say, no matter how much I speak as though I know. If it doesnt fit into your knowingness at present, you can accept it for checking. But only that which you can prove out for yourself, only that should you accept. This is basically important. IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO PROVE ALL THIS KNOWLEDGE FOR YOURSELF. Otherwise it's hearsay to you. You must make this knowledge your knowledge.

Now, there's only one Truth, one Absolute Truth. So putting names to it doesn't mean anything. Whether so-and-so said it or I said it, doesn't mean anything. Is it true? Does it integrate into your understanding? That's the only thing that matters. That's the point wherein we are different. We try to make this very practical so that you can use this knowledge and move toward the total understanding as quickly as possible.

Q: Is it necessary to go through stages?

Lester: No. How long should it take Infinite Power, Infinite Knowledge to know that It is infinite?

Q: Wouldn't take any time.

Lester: Right. When man so wills with full intensity of will it happens quickly.. If you would want this more than anything else, you would have it in a matter of weeks or months.

Q: Is there any way of making yourself want it more and more?

Lester: Yes, make yourself want it by experiencing the wonderfulness of it.

Q: Or make yourself more and more miserable?

Lester: Well, there are two incentives; misery is one but not the best. The sweetness of it, the wonderfulness of it, the glory of it should make us want it more than the misery should.

Q: The glory in what sense?

Lester: The glory of it, of knowing what you are. It's a tremendous experience, it's an ecstasy, a euphoria. There are no real words to describe it because, well, we're in an age where these things are not experienced and therefore not understood, so how can there be words for things that are not understood? There are no words to describe these feelings, they're so beyond present understanding. So you pick the words you know best to describe it and that's it. Paramhansa Yogananda uses the words ever-new joy welling up every second, and that's a practical way of describing it. At first it's a joy that spills over every second, just keeps pouring out, pouring out, you feel as though you can't contain it. Later on, it resolves itself into a very profound peace, the most peaceful peace you could ever imagine. It's a delicious peace which is far more comfortable than ever-new joy. But please, get the ever-new joy!

Q: But don't stay there.

Lester: That's it. It's very easy to get stuck in the ever-new-joy state. That's what they call the ananda sheath. It's the last veil we have to remove. It is the last wall we must break through. When you start this ever-new joy, it's so good you just want to continue it. Also you have no feeling of need to change, everything is so wonderful. But it isn't the final state. The final state is the peace that passeth all understanding. It's a deep, deep peace. You move in the world, the body moves, but you have absolute peace all the time. Bombs could be dropping all around you and you have that perfect peace regardless of what's going on.

Q: How do you maintain that state?

Lester: If you get it you don't have to maintain it, because you have it, you are it.

Q: Well, in that particular state then, you are really omniscient and all the other things, and there's no necessity for thinking.

Lester: Right. That's the top state. Now, it is possible to dip into this state to a certain depth that's very deep and not maintain it because the habits from the past, the habits of thoughts that have not been eliminated, re-emerge and take over. We can feel this infinite Being that we are and it's a wonderful experience, then, the next minute, Oh, so-and-so wants me to do this and I don't want to do it, a thought comes in and there you are: identifying with unhappy limitedness. You, the Self, are trying to be this unlimited Being through a very narrow ego, a very limited ego, and it hurts. That's all it is.

Q: How do you bombard that ego and get rid of it?

Lester: First and foremost, an intense desire to let go of the ego. Second, listening to someone who knows the way and following through on the direction, especially if that one is a fully realized Being.

Q: Thats hard to find.

Lester: No, they are available right where you are. Wherever you are, they're right there. I can name some of them: Jesus, Buddha, Yogananda. I don't know of any in the United States in physical body. India has, I believe, several. But there is no need for a physical body when you can get the others wherever you are, because they're omnipresent. All you need to do is open your mind's eye and see them. They're omnipresent so they must be right where you are. Also, they, wanting to help you, must necessarily come to you if you open yourself to them. They have no choice. They have made a commitment. So all you need to do is to ask for their help and guidance and open yourself to it and it is there.

However, since we think we're physical bodies, sometimes we more readily accept a fully realized Being when He is in a physical body. Therefore we will take more help, because in our physical sensing, He seems to be more real. Because of that it's good to have a fully realized Being in the flesh. However, if we don't have one, it doesn't mean we can't take the guidance of those who are omnipresent.

Q: Some aspect of the Hindu thought says you can't do it without a live Guru, but I think they've evolved beyond that now, and you're confirming it.

Lester: Yes. However, a Guru is alive, whether in physical body or not.

Q: Do people need a live Guru?

Lester: People need a Guru, a Teacher. He doesn't necessarily have to be live in a physical body but he has to be accepted as being alive. He doesn't have to be in a physical body.

The reason why we need a Guru is that we are in a very difficult age. It's an age of materialism where everything, everyone, is shouting at us: This is a material world. This IS it! We have been in this world again and again and again. So we really need the assist of a fully realized Being to offset that constant weight of the world that says we are physical, limited bodies.

We should want the Truth more than we want air. Then we would get full realization very quickly.

Q: Did you coin that, is that yours, an aphorism?

Lester: Nothing is mine. Anything I say will have always been said before. I might just twist the words around this way or that way, in my own style, but there's nothing new. Truth always was and always will be.

There's a story in the Eastern writings of a master and his disciple. They were bathing in the Ganges and the disciple asked: Master, how can I know the Truth? And the teacher took him by the hair and held him under the water until he was about ready to go unconscious, and then he let him up and said, Now, when you want Truth as much as you wanted air, then youll have it.

They have some great stories .That snake and the rope story is an excellent analogy of the physical world. I guess every one knows that, don't they? A person walks along the road at dusk and sees a rope on the ground, mistakes it for a snake, goes into an intense fear and a complete involvement as to what to do about this awful snake. Well, the snake is only an illusion. The real thing is a rope. So he spends a lifetime of maybe sixty-five years struggling and fighting this snake-world, and then takes a rest on the astral side and comes back and fights it again and again and again until he wakes up to the fact that the snake was only the rope, and it really never was. And that's exactly what happens to this physical world. It's just like that snake, it's an illusion.

The example I like best is that what goes on in this world is exactly the same as what goes on in a night dream. While we're in the night dream it's very real, we are there, there are other characters, it's either beautiful or ugly, and when it's a nightmare, we're being killed. It's a real struggle. All the time we're in the dream, it is real to us. But when we awaken we say, Oh, my gosh, it was only a dream, it never really was. And that's exactly what happens when we wake up out of this waking-state dream of the world.

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This Session was recorded in New York City, September 21, 1964.