Questions & Answers With Sat
Discussion on letting go of thoughts, Feeling Connection, Destroy & demolish the little self, Inward distraction, Original purity, Expansion, Agony of God, Meditation on how to deal with fear.
Question 1: Watching You over the years, it seems as though there is nothing that You hold onto or hang onto. Whether it is a memory, an experience, even a spiritual opening, whether it is joy inducing or painful, it seems as though You let everything go.
Is there an Art of Letting Go, just as there is an Art of Living? How can we let go, especially when something is distressing or painful? And what exactly are we letting go of?
Sat: We are letting go of pain. When we hold onto unforgiveness, animosity, revenge or any unpleasant event in our life or people, after a while of a spiritual journey, we realize that holding onto this type of thing is absolutely empty and meaningless.
I am not even talking about the self-inflicted pain, sometimes it just happens automatically. [Either] it is not as important, or even when other people want to remind you of your painful memory. First, you don’t review it as painful, second you are not interested.
Every one of us who is on this journey of [going] back Home, eventually or gradually as we have- would realize that dwelling on the past is making the present time miserable.
Even the happy moments that are in the past- when we dwell on it, then we are not present in the present time. I don’t really have a method, I guess you can call it maturing, or moving on or not taking the past seriously.
Question 2: Can You please quote on the following quote from Baba: “Self-confidence is the foundation for the house. Because self-confidence brings self-satisfaction, self-satisfaction brings self-sacrifice, self-sacrifice brings Self-realization. Self-confidence however, is the foundation.” (From Self Confidence DVD, 6.21.2005)
Sat: I don’t know, it is true and an amazing step, but I really don’t want to interpret or dissect Baba’s saying. I know that through My own experience, self-confidence is very, very important to be successful in our life endeavors, but if it is solely on our ego, it is subject to change. That means sometimes we have a lot of self-confidence and at other times we lose it.
So, I am wondering if Baba is talking about self-confidence means trusting in something beyond the will of the personal self. Or perhaps, the personal self-confidence would eventually merge into the Ultimate Self-Confidence.
But I know that in day-to-day life, when we have self-confidence, we are surefooted, we are more successful. When He talks about self-sacrifice, I believe that it is not that you selflessly give your life to other people, your attachment to other people and forget about your own spirituality. Self-sacrifice means sacrificing the ego and that brings you to realization.
I really haven’t dwelled on it, so I don’t want to comment on it more than that. I think it is good for whoever asked this question to sit with it, and see how each part of it feels to them.
Question 3: Because of Your love and grace, I sometimes unexpectedly feel a movement in my heart during my daily activities. Sometimes it comes with a sense of awareness that I should do something, while other times, I just feel a connection or love without any specific awareness. Does this feeling always come with an awareness that I might not recognize? Should I always expect to get something out of it?
Sat: No, how can we expect something that happens spontaneously without us taking any effort for it? It is true that it is sometimes accompanied by some sort of awareness or insight. And sometimes it is in the form of love; sometimes it’s joy, just unconditional joy or contentment. It can come in many, many forms but what stamps the truth of it is that it is without any reason. It is not because “this” happened and you feel this way, it just comes upon us suddenly and that is really a visiting card- we can say.
Question 4: On the FDE Conference call on May 19, 2024, You said: “Each excuse says ‘Let me continue to remain in my own misery.’ Being open is accepting what is being said and saying instead ‘destroy me … demolish me.”
How can I truly live this quote and say ‘destroy me … demolish me,’ in my daily life, especially when confronting my weaknesses? I would love to have that level of sincerity. However, sometimes I feel as though I am falling short.
Sat: The way I said it was very dramatic, and I am sure that the listener needed it to be moved. But it really doesn’t have to be this way. Whenever you confront your repeated thoughts, your negative thoughts, the suggestions that are not profitable by a very neutral, indifferent type of an approach, you have demolished a part of yourself that causes you pain. Whenever you are not surrendered to the emotion that is suggesting to you that you are not who you are, you have destroyed a part of that built deity, I mean personality. As much as we can, it is just choosing to not accompany the entity that is painful, as much as we can, and that is destroying yourself.
I think that this question and answer refers to the fact that whenever I see something in someone that can be removed and free them, if they start protecting themselves, or bringing excuses by saying “but no Sat, You are taking it wrong … this is not what I thought …” The moment that we come up with excuses, we have lost the opportunity. We have to allow it to penetrate, to hurt, to break our heart, to do whatever it needs to do- without us trying to protect it as we do always.
I really think that was meant for that person who I was probably trying to guide them someplace and they were trying to protect their personality. On the way back [Home], we cannot protect it anymore because we might as well be in the bazaar. “Me, me, me” has to go!
Question 5: On the U.S. Chat on May 14, 24 You said “There are lots of distractions- inwardly and outwardly. So, we have to be alert and wise about it.”
What do You mean here by inward distractions?
Sat: Your thoughts; you can get distracted through your five senses- what you hear, what you see, what you taste, what you touch and smell and you could be distracted without using any of that, by getting entangled with your thoughts and that would be an inward distraction, which is greater than the outward ones.
Question 6: At the end of the Letter from Truth to untruth, You say: “All of these desires must go through transformation to their original purity.”
Can You please elaborate on what that original purity signifies? Is there only one ultimate desire that gets masked and misinterpreted as multiple desires that we seek in our lives?
Sat: Going to the original purity means going to nothingness, being nullified- that is the original purity. Because everything is originally silence, so every desire goes back to silence and it finishes.
I am talking about the desires that entangle you more and more into maya, I am not talking about desiring ordinary things for life. That is not what is meant, it is an endless desire that is just taking the person and bringing them to a restlessness and making their life a chain of chasing, chasing and getting nowhere. Even tons of money will not give it, an incredible amount of comfort cannot give it, because the desires just multiply.
So, we go back again to the simplicity of life. Of course, we want to have a comfortable life and a healthy body, etc. But it is not overwhelming; there is no chasing after it.
Question 7: On the U.S. Chat on 3.24.24, You say: “Beyond this existence that is conscious of the creation, manifestation, there is a subtler Existence that holds all of that together. Which is no different at all, it is just a different subtlety. It is like the five elements, how every element has more subtlety or more grossity than the other one. When a soul is born as a body, or in the body, that soul’s Beingness creates this manifestation or becomes aware of this manifestation. But when we really become very familiar with this “I am-ness,” even the “I am-ness,” and the Consciousness that the “I am-ness” is made out of, it melts into the infinite Existence, infinite or Absolute they call it.”
As I contemplate about subtlety, I have a sense that it is the same as expansion. Is that correct?
Sat: What is the difference? It is just words that we are using, whatever gives you the feeling of subtler. When we leave our body, we are in a subtler consciousness, which is body-less. Then beyond that there are other realms that become subtler and subtler and subtler. If you want to call that expansion, yes, in a way the more subtle you are, the more expansion you cover. It is like air, water can only cover so much but air, because of its subtlety can have more expansion.
Question 8: Can we say that our mission, the reason for this worldly life, is to Be Still and realize the Infinite that IS through expansion and subtlety?
Sat: I don’t know! I don’t know because it is different for each person. I can’t say this is the purpose! If I have to give life a mission, it would be to realize that this is a game or that this is just a dream. I really don’t understand the reason for birth. But I totally agree with the reason to get out of it- which would be the path of going back Home!
What if for a moment right now, all of us have no reason to achieve anything or think about the goal or purpose of life? What if for a moment we drop all of that? We drop all the questions, all the worldly and spiritual activity? (Remains silent)
Is that not the goal of life? That contentment and peace that you feel right now? Why should we name it? Why should we name it as some sort of achievement? When the mind settles in the heart, all the questions are swallowed, all the achievements are swallowed!
Question 9: In the article of The Story of the Child Who Left Home, it says: “Now, we can ask whose fault was it that the child walked away and got lost? Was it the fault of the parents or the child, or the circumstances? No, it was nobody’s fault. The child innocently walked out which symbolizes being born, and wandered away from Home, that’s all. It just happened! Whose fault is it? Who was selfish? Who did this and that? He had to survive and forgot that there is a place awaiting him and that his parents are looking for him. This is the agony of God.”
If nothing is anyone’s fault, what is the reason for the agony of God? Can You please explain what is meant by the agony of God?
Sat: When you take this maya seriously, don’t you sit in the corner of the bazaar and agonize over having lost your peace and your freedom, and having all sorts of mental addictions? Are you not the same as God in reality? Is that not a cry to go back and wake up to the fact that we never left Home? It was just an impression in the cosmic mind!
Don’t take it literally because then it would become something dramatic! When you sleep at night and you have a nightmare, if the dreamer is really involved as thinking that that dream is real, when you wake up you feel it in your body, you feel it, you break into a sweat and you are uncomfortable, you might even scream in your dream. That applies in the article you just read. But whose fault is it that the dream starts? No one can tell! Except to say that “I slept and this is what happened.”
Go ahead with the next one, because I think it would be a great idea to do a meditation together.
Question 10: Hi Sat, would You please lead a meditation on how to deal with fear and feeling powerless? I know that fear and feeling powerless are the causes of anxiety and that the Stop & Trust Meditations are the remedy. But I just wanted to see if there is anything else that You recommend?
Sat: There is no specific thing for any of the emotions, it is just Stay- that is the remedy for it and also knowing that whatever we fear is a belief system that we believe “if that happens, this will happen to us,” the fear of the unknown, the fear of future, fear of whatever it can be.
Let’s do a Stay Meditation. I think it will be good for all of us.
Let’s every one of us open our heart to this meditation.
Just relax your body.
Bring your gaze downwards.
What that means is instead of feeling all the energy of your body in your head, direct it downwards, meaning sink- that is what it means, to sink.
There is no threat awaiting you, there is no danger, just settle down.
Just like placid water!
When there is no movement, all the dirt settles down and you can have a very good view.
If there is any suggestion that appears in your mind, in the form of a thought or a feeling that used to be uncomfortable and we used to call it fear or this and that, Just Stay and be aware of the silence without tensing up in your body.
In this silence let your heart ask “Are You with me?” meaning you are talking to your Reality and be very quiet and conscious.
Keep the attention and the energy downward, aware of silence in the heart, which is the center of infinite Being in you and ask with patience and interest the same question again.
Keep your attention downward, if it wants to escape, relax and keep it in silence and release yourself in it.
Keep your attention downward.
Release yourself in silence.
When we go through life, with the eyes open, with the body moving here and there, we can also do this, even if it is for a few seconds or a few minutes- as we remember it.
That brings balance to our day, not only does it bring balance to our day but it is like an alarm clock. It sets itself to remind you. To remind you to not go with the thoughts that lie.
When the mind reminds you of your Reality, you are beginning to have a pure mind, so let’s achieve that through this meditation.
As you experience peace, you are tasting your Self.
My words only direct you to your Self, the Self never dies, It never goes away, It never decays, It never gets old or reborn.
Take refuge in that.
Namaste.
Conversation with Sat
August 20, 2024