"The content of experience means nothing! The content of experience means nothing! What do I mean? "Out there" means nothing! Whether you're a pauper or a prince is not the point. The point is: who it is that is that pauper or prince. Take the prince, the prince buys a 5-series Beemer. He's a fool. He gets behind the wheel; he's still a fool! It doesn't matter what he does in this world, the fool is in charge!
So no matter what the experience is, it's going to be the same. It's going to be boring and unfulfilling no matter how big the car, the big screen is, all that stuff is. Indian gurus wear diapers and they're happy! They're happy as clams! Why? Because they're quiet inside. There's not this need to have the "out there" make the "in here" feel better. Nothing out there can make this feel better! Only this can become silent. This moment already exists, there's nothing for people to do. You have the most powerful technique in the universe sitting in you day and night and all you can do is work your tail off to get away from it!
We spend day and night thinking of anything other than being where we are! We plan our trip away months in advance. So that's all we can think about, "I don't want to be here. I'll be happy somewhere else!" Who's going somewhere else? The fool who's already here! They're just being transplanted, but the same process will go on there!
That's why the "in here" is so important. Enjoy the movie you're in; you're in a movie. Everybody's in their own movie. Step one: Don't stress over it! It's a great movie! All your movies are fantastic. Ask the Divine to allow you to watch you in the movie. You can't do anything else. You can't tweak it, you can't change it. All of these drives are really old, and they're organic, and you cannot tweak 'em! It's never worked-all those stupid books-it's never worked. It's not going to start working now. Why? Because it's really deep inside, and it's unnecessary to change outer action! It is only essential that we culture who's looking at it.
My suggestion-and it's just a suggestion-is that we ask the Divine-to become extraordinarily aware of what's going on now. That we see who we are just for what we are. As I've said in the past, the only person who's going to get enlightened is the person you were born to be, not the person you want to be. God's going to send enlightenment to the authentic you, so you better look in that mailbox and not some goofy mailbox where you're wearing a turban and love beads in a cave. The gift of enlightenment won't be mailed there; it's being mailed to who you already are.
What do the gurus say? "There's nothing to do, there's nowhere to go, there's nothing to be." There's no action you can perform, YOU'RE SCREWED! Accept it! You're completely screwed here, and there's no way out! There's no hope! When you sit with the gurus in India and they surround you and say(they got me to the point), "Do you surrender? Do you accept that life has beaten you? Do you give in and give up? Do you realize you can never win-that life has screwed you?"
When you see that Truth as real, you're enlightened! Just like that you go, "Oh NO! You mean there's nothing to do, there's nowhere to be, there's nowhere to go, there's no way this can be tweaked? Nothing I can do? I'm helpless?"
"Yep!"
"Oh! OK!"
This all looks so hard because we're all trying so hard to get somewhere we can't go! How are we going to get somewhere that doesn't exist? The getting somewhere is the problem; the solution is right here! This is as good as it gets! This is as good as it gets! And when that becomes real, then the next set of thoughts becomes "God and I are one. God and I are one. God and I are one. God and I are one. God and I are one." Because when this I-sense drops off, it goes to that larger I, and then one sees, "I don't stop at the end of my body! I go on forever! I include all things everywhere. I am that! That alone is!"
It's the most un-egotistical thing you can possibly think. I-the larger I-am that! Which is a quantum reality. Nothing is localized, this is all virtual, and has a potential for changing in an infinite number of ways any time it wants. It just so happens it's configured like this now. That's the quantum truth-it's not mine, it's just the way stuff is. We just have to accept it on a real-life basis. This is what it is. In the next moment it will be something else. And the canvas of the painting-the screen-with show a different form of movie, but it's just light, it's just light moving on a screen. We're the ones who give it power."
Copyright American Buddha 2009 All Rights Reserved
