May 21, 2026

For a third (and final for now) time, I’m continuing the discourse with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, from his book, I AM THAT.  It’s another excerpt from an exchange between him and a visitor from the West.  This a time a woman, who is designated the Questioner, or “Q.”  “M” designates the guru’s reply, M being the initial of his title, Maharaj.

It’s yet another delightful mini-discourse.
Lots of love,
Mayet

————————————-

Q: I am engaged in the study of philosophy, sociology, and education. I think more mental development is needed before I can dream of self realization. Am I on the right track?

M: To earn a livelihood, some specialized knowledge is needed. General knowledge develops the mind, no doubt. But if you were going to spend your life amassing knowledge, you build a wall around yourself. To go beyond the mind, a well-furnished mind is not needed.

Q: Then what is needed?

M: Distrust your mind, and go beyond.

Q: What shall I find beyond the mind?

M: Only one thing, the direct experience of being, knowing and loving.

Q: But exactly how does one go beyond the mind?

M: There are many starting points – they all lead to the same goal. Some may begin with selfless work, abandoning the fruits of action; some may then give up thinking and give up all desires. Here, giving up is the operational factor. Or still another may not bother about anything they want or think or do and just stay put in the thought and feeling “I Am”… focusing “I Am” firmly in their mind. All kinds of experiences may then come to you – experience them indeed but remain unmoved in the knowledge that all perceivable is transient and only the “I Am” endures.

Q: I cannot give all my life to such practices. I have my duties to attend to.

M: By all means attend to your duties. Let all your duties become merely action. Action in which you are not too deeply emotionally involved is beneficial and does not cause suffering and will not bind you. 

You can indeed be engaged in several directions and work with enormous zeal, yet remain inwardly free, and quiet, with a mirror-like mind reflecting your experience back to you.  

In this way you have your experience of life, sometimes disturbing, sometimes painful, and you experience all this, but as tho reflected in the mirroring of your own awareness of them.  This makes of all experience that which does not capsize you in the extremes. 

Q: Is such a state realizable by me, by the common person?

M: I would not talk about it, if it were not. Why should I engage you in fancies?

Q: How will I receive instruction for this?

M: Your own Self is your teacher, satguru, the inner teacher. The outer teacher, guru, is merely a milestone, an aid, an enjoyable and useful choice. But it is only your inner teacher that will walk with you to the final goal, for she is the goal. An outer teacher can guide, share wisdom, point the way.  But it is the student who must walk the path and it is only the inner teacher who can hold your hand as you go.  It is not either/or.  Either inner or outer teacher.  Each facilitates the other.

Q: The inner teacher is not easily reached.

M: Since it is you and with you, the difficulty cannot be too serious. Look within, you will find the wisdom carrier.

Q: When I look within, I find sensations and perceptions, thoughts and feelings, desires, and fears, memories and expectations. I am immersed in this cloud and see nothing else.

M: And that which sees all this, and sees the nothing too, that is the inner teacher. She is alone there, all else only appears to be there. She is your own self, your hope and assurance of freedom; find her and embrace her and you are saved and safe.

May 14, 2026

This week I’m continuing the discourse with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, from his book, I AM THAT.  It’s another excerpt from an exchange between him and a visitor from the West who is designated the Questioner, or “Q.”  “M” designates his reply, the initial of his title Maharaj.

It another delightful mini-discourse, as I think you might agree.
Lots of love,
Mayet

——————————–

Q: So you are saying that bliss is also temporary and not the ultimate pursuit?  The memory of my wonderful experiences of bliss haunts me. I want them back.

M: Because you want them back, you cannot have them. The state of craving for anything blocks all deeper experience. Nothing of value can happen to a mind which knows exactly what it wants. For nothing the mind can visualize and want is of much value.

Q: Then what is worth wanting?

M: Want the best. The highest happiness, the greatest freedom. This is what desirelessness actually is… wanting the best.  Not things and possessions, not the physical-based wanting.  These are desires.  

Desirelessness is the greatest, highest bliss, and in it — tho it seems contradictory — is the fulfillment of all desires.  Certainly be aware of your desires and wants.  Knowing what you desire is not bad, there is a strength in the awareness of them.  Have them and be aware that you do. But craving them is another matter.  Craving is a hunger for which there is no satiety.  No amount of receiving can fill it’s gaping maw.  Be free of such desire.

Q: But freedom from desire is not the freedom I want. I want the freedom to fulfill my longings.

M: What you do not understand it that you are free to fulfill your longings.  As a matter of fact, you are doing nothing else, ever. That is life.

Q: I try, but there are obstacles which leave me frustrated.

M: Overcome them.

Q: I cannot, I am too weak.

M: What makes you weak? What is weakness? Others fulfill their desires, why not you?

Q: I must be lacking energy.

M: What happened to your energy? Where did it go? Did you not scatter it over so many contradictory desires and pursuits? You don’t have an infinite supply of energy.

Q: Why not?

M: Your aims are small and low. They do not call for more. Only God‘s energy is infinite – because God wants nothing for the self.  God knows it is the All, therefore God wants for the All… the All that god knows themselves to be.  Be like god, know you are the All and all your desires will be fulfilled. The higher your aims and your desires, the more energy you have for their fulfillment. Desire the good of all and the universe will work for you. But if you want your own pleasure, you must earn it the way all singular pleasure is earned — you must desire it, deserve it and then achieve it.  That is the way of earthy desires.  They can certainly be fulfilled.  By gaining them in this way.  And that takes much energy. 

May 7, 2026

First a note about me.  I’m in New York!  Why? For various reasons that may become clearer as I go.  I’m not sure how long I’ll be here, a couple weeks?  A few months? I’ll keep you informed.  But for now, a change of scene and a change of focus and I’m sure more to be revealed.  You’ll be the first to know.

There is a guru I have a great deal of respect for.  He was a simple tailor when he became liberated.  He had no interest in having a following or being a renowned guru so he stayed a tailor, stayed with him wife and children and kept his humble little tailor shop and let people find their own way to him if they happened to.

Word spread and sometimes small groups would gather in his cramped room.  Many foreigners soon learned of him and they began to come as well.  Eventually the idea of recording his words occurred to someone and it was allowed.  And much later those recordings made their way into a book.  That book is one of my favorites of its type.

His spiritual title became Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.  The book is called, I AM THAT.  The following is an excerpt of an exchange that took place between him and a visitor from the West who is designated the Questioner, or “Q.”  “M” designates his reply, the initial of his title Maharaj.

It a delightful mini-discourse as I think you might agree.
Enjoy,
XO Mayet

———————

Questioner: I have met some realized people, but never a liberated man.  Have you come across a liberated man, or does liberation mean, among other things, also abandoning the body?

Maharaj:  What do you mean by realization and liberation?

Q: By realization, I mean a wonderful experience of peace, goodness and beauty, when the world makes sense, and there is an all pervasive unity of both substance and essence. While such experience does not last, it cannot be forgotten. It shines in the mind, both as memory and longing. I know what I am talking about, for I have had such experiences.

By liberation, I mean to be permanently in that wonderful state. But what I am asking, is whether liberation is compatible with the survival of the body.

M: What is wrong with the body?

Q: The body is so weak and short-lived. It creates needs and cravings. It limits one grievously.

M: So what? Let the physical expressions be, and be limited. It is an instrument of experiencing, there is nothing amiss in this.  But liberation is of the self from its faults and self-imposed ideas.  Liberation is not contained in some particular experience, however, glorious.

Q: Does it last forever?

M: All experience is time bound. Whatever has a beginning must have an end.

Q: So liberation, in my sense of the word, does not exist.

M: On the contrary, one is always free. You are both conscious and free to be conscious. Nobody can take this away from you. Do you ever know yourself non-existing, or unconscious?

Q: I may not remember, but that does not disprove my being occasionally unconscious.

M: But who is it then that is conscious of your lapse into un, or less, conscious? Why not turn away from analyzing the experience of the experience, sir, and realize the full import of the only true statement you can make: ”I Am That.“

Q: How is that done?

M: Just keep in mind the feeling “I am”, merge into it, until your mind and feeling become one. By repeated attempts, you will stumble on the right balance of attention and affection, and your mind will be firmly established in the thought–feeling I am. Whatever you think, say, or do, this sense of immutable and affectionate being remains as the ever-present background of the mind.

Q: And you call it liberation?

M: I call it normal. What is wrong with being, acknowledging, knowing and acting so effortlessly and happy? Why consider it so unusual as to expect the immediate destruction of the body? What is wrong with the body that it should die in encountering it? Correct your attitude to your body and leave it alone. Don’t pamper, don’t torture. Just keep that balance going, most of the time below the threshold of conscious attention.  That is liberation.  And you are the only liberator there is.