The five senses and the four inner faculties, mind, intellect, memory, ego, all lament when they lose sight of the self. Then the master comes and shows you that you are the tenth. Count, but never stop until you find the tenth. Finding the ever-present self, inside, makes everything truly joyful. Are you evolving? If you are evolving, you are not in the Self. But you are not out of the self, because nothing can exist out of the self.
There are 6 distortions that do not exist in the self:
1.Expansion - Prasarana: Expansion implies there is something into which to expand. That which expands cannot be the basis for expansion.
2. Contraction - Akunchana: Contraction means something shrinks from something else. Self does not withdraw or shrink from anything, so contraction does not exist in the self.
3. Evolution - Vriddhi: Evolution is the process of becoming something that does not already exist. Self is always the same, so it cannot evolve.
4. Decay - Ksaya: There is no devolution or decay in the self, it does not get old or stale. That is why when you are close to your Self, you do not feel that you are aging.
5. Beginning - Anaadi: Self has no beginning. If God has a beginning, then He is not God.
6. Lack - Abhava: Self has no lack. Whatever lacks something is not complete. Self does not lack anything, it is complete. Lack indicates the existence of something outside itself that does not exist for the self. So if you feel you have not grown at all, do not worry, you are close to the self.
When your mind is with the Self, then you do not worry about evolution. If you think about evolving, then you are stuck in the mind. Mind is part of matter, and matter evolves and decays. That is how the experience of contraction and expansion is all play and display of the mind. Mind expands and contracts. But when it expands, it comes close to the truth, which has no expansion. Are you still evolving? Good luck :).
How do you become centered? By shifting your awareness from the experience to the experiencer. All experiences are on the circumference, and they keep on changing. The unchanging experiencer is at the centre. Again and again come back to the experiencer.
If you are frustrated, instead of spending your time on the experience of frustration ask, “Who is frustrated?”
If you are unhappy ask, “Who is unhappy ?”
If you think you know something ask, “Who is it that knows?”
If you think you are enlightened ask, “Who is it that is enlightened?”
If you think you are ignorant ask, “Who is ignorant?”
If you think “poor me”, “Who is ‘poor me’?”
If you think you are highly devoted ask, “Who is it that is devoted?”
Shed all your faces and face the I. Then you have truly come to me. Life without wisdom is incomplete. Wisdom that does not give rise to feeling is incomplete. Feeling that does not translate into action is incomplete. Action that does not give rise to fulfillment is incomplete. Fulfillment is returning to the self.
Give me not thirst if you cannot give me water. Give me not hunger if you cannot give me food. Give me not joy if I cannot share. Give me not skills if I cannot put them to good use. Give me not intelligence if I cannot perceive beyond it. Give me not knowledge if I cannot digest it. Give me not love if I cannot serve. Give me not desires if they do not lead me to you. Give me not a path if it does not take me home. Give me not prayers if You do not want to hear them.
When the master prays, to whom does he pray? To oneself. In prayer the mind goes to its source, the self. God, the master and the self are the same.
