“What causes resistance?”

— Transcribed from a talk by Bhagwan —

What causes resistance? Does the dissolving of identity produce fear? And the fear (produce) resistance? Is there fear of the unknown, of the unfamiliar? Do you need a structure to hold on to the past, the conditioning, the fixed patterns etc? If these dissolve, how would you know what to do? Does this produce fear?Why do you feel that you have to “do?” Do you make the sun rise? Do you make your heart beat? Does breathing happen on its own or do you breathe?

If you look everywhere around you, things are happening. Why do you feel you have to do? Which doesn’t mean you don’t have to do. It rather means: Why this need to do? Why not just allow it to be alone, like your breathing?

So then if there is no need to do, then you are not afraid of the unfamiliar. You don’t have to do anything. You have to perhaps to be tuned – in tune to what is happening.

So this need to do, is this resistance? If you think that you have to breathe would that obstruct your natural breathing? Your breathing happens automatically. If you try to breath, would you be disturbing your natural flow, rhythm of breathing?

So rather than the need to do which is resistance, is it more necessary to be in tune with what is – with what is, i.e., your thoughts, your feelings, your sensations, events in the world – to be aware of these without the need to do. To be aware of them, to be in tune with them, the changes each moment to watch them. To be in tune means to watch them, not to obstruct them, not to think you have to do.

So watch what is happening in your mind and the world. To watch neutrally as witness, without judgment, without prejudice. Would this put you into the flow. And in this flow would actions happen through you just like your breathing, as natural as your breathing? So your actions in the world whether it is concerning your profession, your relationships, (or) any other (such as) sports, hobbies or activities. Whatever your actions (they) would be as natural as your breathing – no effort, action but no effort, effortless action.

So is this what we are practicing in silence? To watch your thoughts, not to be led by them. If you are led by them, then you are not watching them. To watch your feelings and imagination, to watch your sensations, not to be pulled away by these. Is this what we are practicing in silence?

For if you practice this, if you watch your thoughts, they quieten down – your feelings and your imagination too. All become quiet because you are not nourishing them with your attention. So they become quiet and you experience silence, the unfamiliar, the unknown because there are no patterns here; there is no past, there is no conditioning. It is unfamiliar. It is amazing but comforting, a feeling of being home of being held, of being protected even though unfamiliar. So you become comfortable with unfamiliarity, comfortable with the unknown. In that state you have conquered fear.

Is it just that? Or is there greater depth? Is there deeper understanding in the silence? How deep can the understanding be? And how does it happen? How can there be an understanding in silence when there is not even a thought? Is this the understanding of that which is beyond thought – beyond feeling, beyond perception and beyond sensation, beyond the world – an understanding beyond the world, beyond mind and beyond world?

How can this be in silence? Let’s go into this. Remember you are inquiring, you are discovering. The words are not important at all. Your discovering the truth of what is being spoken. Without your discovering the truth, the words have no meaning. So let’s go into this. How can there be in silence a deep understanding beyond world and beyond mind?

So in silence, in deep silence where there is not a thought, you have dissolved into the silence. There is nothing else. In that is there the understanding of oneness? And why is oneness beyond mind and world? Because in the mind there is not oneness, there is duality, there are opposites, there is multiplicity. So also in the world there are many forms, different forms, there is no oneness. But in silence if you experience a Oneness. You were not not imagining, you were not thinking because in silence thinking and imaging had stopped. So you were not imagining or thinking and there was a oneness.

So which is true, oneness or what you experience in the world as multiple. It is important you discover which is real, which is whole, which is satisfying, which is harmonizing, which has love, infinite love. In which is there compassion, intimacy? If these are lacking in the world, why would you consider the world more real? If in the world, there is conflict, there is suffering, there is exploitation, there is violence, terrorism etc.; how can you consider this more real than harmony, wholeness? Why should harmony and wholeness be considered more real? Because is it this that gives you life? Is this your life force? Without this could you survive? Is this your inner being? Could you survive without it? Therefore is it more real than your experience of the world? Is the experience of the world and mind sensory perception?

So is your inner life force more real than the outer sensory perception? This is what you have to distinguish. And once you can distinguish this, you are free from the world, no longer attracted even though participant but not attracted any more – even though participant and enjoyment of it but not attracted any more because you have discovered something more real. Your reality is different from your perceptions. You have discovered your Self rather than the perception of yourself. So does the understanding come from silence?”

(c) Dr. B. Awatramani