| Excerpts from Meetings with John Sherman |
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Excerpts From Meetings
These are excerpts taken from live recordings of Meetings with John Sherman. This page has the first paragraph or so of the excerpt and a link to the full text. Go to this url:Subscribe to Excerpts from Meetings for quick subscription to this blog with various readers: Feed Demon, Yahoo, Google, AOL, and many more.
You Are As Awake As You Will Ever Be
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - December 17, 2005 let me tell you in a nutshell what I have to say about this business of awakening and enlightenment you are right now in this moment as awake as you will ever be and that's true no matter in what moment I say that you are as awake as you will ever be Continued ...
The Two Aspects of Self-Inquiry
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - August 15, 2006 The first aspect of self-inquiry is always available to you: to see what you are. That is easy, because you are always here. You cannot deny that. What you are has not changed, and it is unaffected by the story. So what you are, in reality, is the source of that absolute certainty that you exist. Nothing can be said about it, but it can be noticed or felt, intuited, again and again. This that you are is never absent, never unavailable. So, the first aspect of self-inquiry is to, repeatedly, whenever it occurs to you, stop for a second and taste that reality, the ever-present, unchanging, unmoving presence that you are. The second aspect of self-inquiry (and Ramana spoke about both of these aspects interchangeably) is to find the truth of what you have believed yourself to be, to find who you are, who is at the core of the story, the subject, the actor, the sufferer, the seeker. It is the who that the story is about: you, ... I. It arises, propagates, dissipates, and arises again. When the story is present, "I" is present. So, look for the entity that the story is about. When you look for it, it disappears, and what remains is only that same ever-present reality, the seeing of which is all that's needed ever. Continued ...
Origins of Self-Inquiry
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - October 21, 2006 It seems that eastern spiritual traditions share a common ground from which all the different teachings and practices spring. That common ground, that common viewpoint of reality is very seductive and it resonates with us in a way that nothing else does. It seems to have a couple of components to it. First, there is not two anywhere to be found or, to put it another way, we are all one. Despite appearances, despite our different upbringing and experiences in life, despite different or even conflicting desires, even as enemies, we are all in this together and we are all the same, no matter how it seems. Second, creation itself is essentially benevolent, and there is a benevolent purpose to it that may not be immediately apparent to us. This sense of benevolence and goodness underlies the whole of creation and colors everything, even the strife, the warfare and hatred. In some mysterious way, this goodness infiltrates the whole show. Third is the view that it is possible for an individual human being to break through the cloud of ignorance and confusion and have the direct experience of this unifying vision of reality. That experience clears everything up, makes everything make sense, and ends the nagging sense that things are not as they should be. Continued ...
You Don't Need to Stop Anything
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - October 7, 2006 It is very hard to abandon the idea that my spiritual work will fix me, make me better, smarter, clearer, calmer, more loving and compassionate. It is very hard to swallow the view that my deepest purpose in life is to know consciously the truth of my nature, and that none of the work I do to make myself better is relevant to that deep purpose. Perhaps because of this, many who speak about spiritual matters claim that one must first stop trying to fix the story before any progress can be made in the more profound and important spiritual work. The self-inquiry of Ramana Maharshi is a lot simpler than that. It really does not matter whether you stop trying to fix your story or not. You are welcome to continue trying to work your story all you want, just as you are welcome to continue trying to get high, or to get enlightened all you want. These activities have not worked in the past, they are not going to work in the present, and they are certainly not going to work in the future. They cannot give you what you are really looking for, but neither can they prevent you from knowing the truth. They can neither help you nor harm you in any way whatsoever. Continued ...
I Am No Guru
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - October 20, 2006 I am no guru, but I am a teacher of sorts, and I do not conflate the teaching with the teacher. I am a teacher of sorts and I am trying to learn how to teach what I have to offer, I am trying to learn how to pass it on to you. Sometimes it seems like there is some success; other times it seems like I just cannot get it right, but that is what I am here for. I am not here to bestow upon you any good experiences or any bad experiences. They come and go on their own, with no help from me or anything you can do about them. I am not here to give you enlightenment. I am not here to show you the path to enlightenment. I am not here to bestow on you samadhis or experiences of oceanic consciousness. I am not here to give you something new to believe about yourself, for example, that you are Self, or God, or Oceanic Consciousness. I am here only to try to bring to you what worked for me, and what seems to me to be the only thing that has any possibility of ridding you of this cancerous, stupid idea that there is something wrong that needs to be fixed, which leads to all the horror in the human world today, yesterday and tomorrow. Continued ...
Nothing Needs To Be Done About The Story Of Me
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - September 9, 2006 The whole teaching of Ramana Maharshi can be reduced to two simple points. First of all, the only problem I have is a false idea about what I am. Secondly, the only solution to that problem is the truth about what I am. It's that simple. The truth of what I am is not far. It doesn't require gaining anything, it doesn't require understanding anything, it doesn't require fixing anything in the story about what I am and it doesn't require undertaking any therapeutic measures. It doesn't require anything at all other than to see what I am. Continued ...
Self-Inquiry Is Not Spiritual
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - October 4, 2006 My purpose in being here is to discuss with you and bring to you the practice of self-inquiry as offered by Ramana Maharshi. I am not a very spiritual person. I see nothing that is essentially spiritual in the practice of self-inquiry. In fact, it is my experience and my clear sense that the idea that there is anything especially spiritual about anything is a delusion, and not worth paying much attention to. I am not here to offer you the possibility of waking up because, so far as I can see, you already are awake and always have been. So, I am not here to offer you enlightenment or awakening. I am not here to offer you what you already are. I am here to offer you the very practical and down-to-earth practice of self-inquiry as it comes to us from Ramana Maharshi. Continued ...
Self-Inquiry Is Like Medicine
Adapted from an Afternoon with John Sherman Westlake Village, California - September 24, 2006 The longer that I am in this peculiar role, the less it seems to me that I have to do. For a long time, I talked about a whole lot of things and maybe that was of some help to people. But in the last six months or so, I have taken to calling this role I am in as the role of a servant of the teaching of self-inquiry as given to as by Ramana Maharshi And I have come to see that what I have to offer, and what I have to speak about, is very little and very simple. It is my goal, my desire, and my intent to persuade you to try the practice of self-inquiry that comes to us from Ramana Maharshi. This is all I am here for. Continued ...
The Only Thing That Works
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Westlake Village, California - June 25, 2006 The way to be finished once and for all in this life with suffering, dissatisfaction and longing is easy. It is easier than you can possibly imagine. In my experience, the hard part is hearing the instruction through the cloud of all of our spiritual understanding. Throughout human history, we have seen numerous great beings appear among us, all of whom have had basically the same thing to say: quite simply that what we are seeking is our self, the truth of our self. Continued ...
The Core Insight
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ashland, Oregon - May 19, 2006 I don't have much interest in spiritual experiences. I have no desire to transmit to you any experience of awakening, or peace, or bliss, or eternal love, or anything of the sort. I don't have any interest in the metaphysical understanding of the way the cosmos manifests. In fact, my interest in spiritual things is pretty narrow and simple. So far as I can see, from my own personal experience as well as my experience with the people I've been meeting with over the last seven years or so, we all have wandered far from the simplicity of the truth that has been announced to us and offered to us, time and time again, since the beginning of humanity. Continued ...
The Power of Self-Inquiry
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - March 11, 2006 Every true spiritual teaching has at its core, the insight that the only problem is a false belief about what I am. This gets covered up and layered over, explained and understood, and forgotten more often than not, but at the core of every true spiritual teaching, there is this really simple insight that the source of all of my misery, confusion, aggression, self-hatred, self-betrayal, and suffering is that I believe myself to be what I am not. I believe myself to be the story of "me" that is continuously unfolding within my mind. Continued ...
Only Truth Matters
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Nevada City, California - March 4, 2006 We spend our lives trying to figure out what our actual nature is, but we do so unconsciously and without direction. From the time we are children, we are desperately seeking to cobble together some understanding of what I am, in terms of what I have come to understand is a satisfactory thing for me to be. These ideas of what is a satisfactory thing for me to be can be spiritual, psychological, philosophical or political in nature. We are endlessly trying to become something that will be satisfactory. Something that satisfies my ideas of what I should be, whether those ideas have to do with what I should get, what my position in life should be, what my material circumstances should be or ideas of what is right or wrong for me to be. Mostly, they are a mishmash of all of these things and they are endless shifting and changing, as our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world shifts and changes. Continued ...
The Magic of Self-Inquiry
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - April 8, 2006 All of life is spiritual. No matter what we do, we have always been trying to know, finally, who we are. What can I get that will put an end to this incessant urge to get what I don't have? What is it that I need? In some lives, a shift occurs in which we come to believe that we have, for the first time, embarked upon a spiritual life. And we often discard the years that came before, in what seems to have been a fruitless effort to put together a comprehensible reality of "me." We discard that time and effort because now we get it. We see that what we need is spiritual. This is an imaginary shift. It is merely an attempt at redefining what I have been doing all along. It is still the same search for self-definition, only now I am trying to put a new face on it: a spiritual face. Continued ...
Your Heart's Desire
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Santa Barbara, California - December 3, 2005 The purpose of your life is to find out who you are. This is not a new purpose to take on, but a clear observation of the reality of life. The only thing that stands between you and the finding of your heart's desire is the belief that your heart's desire is to be found in the story about you. That's all, nothing else. It is this belief that drives us outward, looking for what cannot be found there. This belief that I am this mind-body story, with its successes, failures, expectations and hopes is the misidentification spoken of in all the spiritual teachings. This is unseeable -- that is what makes it a belief. This belief cannot be defeated by replacing it with a new belief, a spiritual belief such as "I am Buddha-mind" or "I am enlightenment" or "I am eternal awareness." That is just changing one belief for another, if you could even do such a thing. Continued ...
What Do You Want?
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Santa Barbara, California - December 3, 2005 What do you want? Where do you find it? How do you get it? Wanting is the engine that drives us. That we want is certain. What is not so clear is what we want. When we think we want something, and we get it, we just shift our wanting energy to something else. So, the conclusion that can be derived from that is that we don't have a clue what we want. And most of our time and energy is spent trying to figure that out. Continued ...
No More War
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Santa Monica, California - July 10, 2005 In times like these, in crazy times like the times we live in now, the whole spiritual context can come to be seen, seemingly justifiably, as self-indulgent. The world is in flames, as if it has never been in flames before. The activities of the human beings are insane, murderous, inexplicable, and irrational, as if this has never been the case before. In times like these, it is quite common and quite to be expected that the mind will present beautiful justifications for stepping away from matters that are spiritual; beautiful justifications for continuing the outward-bound energy of individual consciousness, such as, "It is self-indulgent for me to be concerned about my internal spiritual well-being, my eternal happiness, when all around the world people are blowing each other up." It is not only self-indulgent; it can seem quite risky. Continued ...
What We Are Here For
Adapted from a A Meeting with John Sherman San Anselmo, California - April 17, 2005 I would like for us for the rest of this day to forget every other spiritual idea. I think maybe these intensives ought to be called "working intensives," because what we are here for is to work, to spend this day, to devote this day to find out if there is any truth to what Ramana suggests. The feelings and states of peace and freedom and so forth that naturally arise when a group of people gather together in the name of truth are really wonderful, but we are not here for that. Those is a by-product. And we don't have to refer to anything whatsoever. This is the hugeness of the gift of Ramana: we don't have to refer to anything else whatsoever. Continued ...
Find Out The Truth
Adapted from A Meeting with John Sherman San Anselmo, California - April 17, 2005 Ramana Maharshi says that the only thing standing between you and self-realization is the belief that you are not already fully realized. This is a truly radical, outrageous, incomprehensible suggestion. It lays to rest all the ideas about what I have to do with myself in order to find truth. All the ideas about all the things that stand in the way, or distract me, or carry me away from the truth of my nature. If what he has suggested is true, then there is no fixation that is a problem for you. There is no thought, there is no pattern of behavior, there is no history, there is no karmic consequence bearing fruit in the present; there is nothing whatsoever standing between you and the immediate permanent realization of the truth of your nature, other than the belief that you are not already that alive true realization of reality. Continued ...
Find Out For Yourself
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Fairfax, California - October 23, 2004 Whether in the material realm or in the spiritual realm, or any other realm, the subject of conversation in life seems to be "How do I get what I want?" That's okay, I guess, except that it seems like a more useful topic would be "What do I want?" And it seems to me, for most of our lives, we have skipped over that step. Mostly it is from society that we get our cues as to what it is that we want. It is suggested to us, by all the ways in which society suggests these things, that what we really want is more money, or what money will buy, or maybe a love relationship, or fame, power or whatever. Continued ...
Finding the Truth of Who You Are
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Santa Barbara, California - August 21, 2004 For thousands of years, sages have told us that reality is not what we think it is; that the world is not what we think it is, and that our experiences of pleasure and pain are not what we think they are. And, most fundamentally, that we are not what we think we are. They have told us that this misunderstanding is the root of all misery and suffering, horror and aggression, hatred and violence. They have told us that knowing the truth will set us free from the ideas that we are in bondage, that we must seek pleasure and avoid pain, and that you are my enemy. We have constructed elaborate paths, practices and meditations, and told ourselves that, if we stick with these techniques, someday we will break through to the truth and be free. Continued ...
The Seriousness of Your Intention
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Ojai, California - March 9, 2004 I learned of a location where the people are now trying to form a kind of a farmers market of satsang teachings; where they say, "We have decided to put this together, so that we don't have to travel to go see the teacher; so that we don't have to be troubled by the difficulty of going a hundred miles, or five hundred miles, or a thousand miles to find our teacher. We can bring them here, and we can sample them here; we can get what we want from this one, and get what we want from that one, and get what we want from the other one." It is no wonder that by and large, we continue to suffer; really it is no wonder. Continued ...
Maturity and Discernment
Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman Carlsbad, California - November 1, 2003 Gangaji has said, more than once, that the only prerequisite to really being finished is maturity. And maturity being such a heavily ladened word in our culture, it carries a lot of the sense of judgment and value; and therefore "immaturity" is an insult. Maturity is a mark of wisdom, of age and so forth. But really the word maturity (in the sense that Gangaji uses it) only points to its other meaning, which is ripeness, readiness. So far as I can tell, the only aspect of maturity that indicates ripeness is that we have concluded that the problem of our lives is a spiritual problem rather than a material problem. That is all, nothing else is required. Continued ... |
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