Good evening. Tonight we’ll be talking about enlightenment and self-realization.

Well, good evening spiritual types. [Audience laughter.] Anybody who comes to a workshop in self-realization and enlightenment classifies as a spiritual type.

[Rama is looking at a brochure for the workshop.]

Sometimes I can look at these things for hours! [Laughter.]

Well, you know, on higher planes of attention, I mean, you can see eternity in anything. It’s not necessarily so hard.

Well, tonight, uh … God, anything can happen.

And I’m glad you came! Aww, gosh, gee! So nice to see you! Kisses! [General laughter.]

So you want to know about death, eh? I thought I would dress suitably for the occasion. We’re celebrating your funeral. Coming soon to a theater near you.

Yes, everyone dies! It’s a fact!

That sounded good, didn’t it? That was like very intense, and right? Punchy. And good way to get …

So everyone dies, it’s a fact. And then you are reborn again! Big deal.

And then you die again and you’re reborn again, and you die again. The average human being has something like 84,000 incarnations.

Yeah! Isn’t that … awesome? 84,000 incarnations. And you’re having trouble with one. [Great laughter.]

So tonight, I thought I would make your life a little more difficult … and we would discuss how—within a week or two, in your spare time—you can lose all of the good karma you’ve amassed over all those lifetimes. [Laughter.]

Now, I would guess that—chances are if you’re here tonight—you’ve had at least 30,000 or 35,000 lifetimes, somewhere in there. Just ball park estimates. But …

You want to know about [enlightenment.] You really want to know?!

You know what you have to go through? Don’t ask.

If you ask, I’ll tell you. It’s a long, long, long, long explanation. But it’s funny! That’s the thing about life.

You see, the chances of you attaining liberation—no, be realistic for a moment, down to earth tonight—let’s forget all the spiritual jazz and let’s talk dollars and cents. [Laughter.]

The chance of you attaining enlightenment [Rama chuckles aside, audience laughs] … is probably better than you realize!

No, it’s true. Hey, why do you have such a negative attitude about yourselves? Why not feel, it could be you? It could be! … I wouldn’t hold my breath! [Great laughter.]

But it could be! It could be.

Krishna, you know—you’ve all read the Bhagavad-Gita and you’ve all memorized it, I’m sure [laughter]—Krishna says, to Arjuna, at one point he says, “Arjuna, do you know where I can get a good strawberry shake?” [Laughter.]

That wasn’t in your translation.

Krishna says to Arjuna, he says, “Arjuna, do you know what your chances of attaining enlightenment are like?”

And Arjuna says, “Uh, I don’t know man, what do you think?”

He says, “Well, one out of sometimes millions—sometimes billions—attains a full liberation.”

That’s—I mean—that’s a lot of people. Now, you could of course, take that very personally, and say, “What chance do I have? The lottery is a better shot.”

But you might have a better chance than you think, because what he’s saying is that most people aren’t even interested in the subject of meditation, enlightenment and self-realization.

So naturally, they’re out of the ballpark. OK, the first cut.

You’ve eliminated several billion right there. [Laughter.] So your odds have just improved dramatically. [Laughter.] See what I mean? So that’s why you shouldn’t be so negative.

We’re talking, of course … Through the whole Earth, you don’t have a chance—but—most people on the Earth could care less about liberation.

So, then, how many are there? How many people do you really think are striving earnestly towards self-realization on this planet right now? Five? Six? No. But, how many?

Oh, thousands! Ten thousand, twenty thousand. Oh, there are many people in different religions and they pray and do things like that.

But they’re not going through the training process—that’s necessary—the training process that the universe puts you through.

In order to qualify—even to get into the pageant, right—you’ve got to figure, you’ve got to have at least 40 - 50,000 incarnations. I mean otherwise, they don’t even look at you.

Then you get an audition. And we’re talking, you’ve got to be … good.

Not necessarily. Ah! This is the good news!

You see, most people are under the assumption, that in order to attain enlightenment, self-realization—we’ll talk more about those subjects in great detail … later.

But, in order to do that, most people think that you have to be really, really, really good. A sweetie. “Mmmwah!” Love with life, little birds, trees, flowers, everything, happy!!!

All the time! Blithering idiot! [Laughter.]

• Nuclear bombs? “Wonderful!”

• Pollution? “Good!”

“God is in all things.” So, you know, dull-dull-dull.

I mean, God gets bored by people like that. Well, you can’t have much of a conversation with someone like that.

• “How are you today?” “GREAT!”

You know, where can it go?

• “How’s everything in your life?” “WONDERFUL!”

A little less cocaine please! [Laughter.]

So you want to know about self-realization. Well, you’ve come to the wrong place. No, the right place. It’s someplace, we’ll find it.

How do you do this? Well, there are different ways. You’ve got your (I’m sorry, I have to go through this, just bear with me) you got your Zen. Nice sounding word, isn’t it? Zen. Bodhi Dharma started it out. We’ll get him!

You got your Tantric Mysticism. Oooh, that sounds gnarly, doesn’t it? Yeah, I like that.

You got your Bhakti, the path of love.

You’ve got your Karma, the path of Hard Work. [Laughter.] All those interested in the path of Karma Yoga, please line up on this pin over here. [Rama and audience laugh.]

[Rama imitates a slacker.]

• “Hey, man, like it’s the twentieth century, man, like, you know, I can’t hassle it, you know, it’s like I got a lot to do, man, I just don’t have time!

• “Wow! I mean, like, I gotta get dressed in the morning? That takes a half an hour, like I gotta take a shower, you know, sometimes I forget to turn the water on.

• “And then, like, just the freeways, man, by the time I get home, I’m too tired to like be enlightened, man, I mean it just takes too much energy. You gotta be wealthy, you know, to have the time to do it!”

[Normal voice]

So, yes, it’s true, enlightenment has become a tool of the wealthy and powerful. [Rama and audience laugh.]

So yes, so you’ve got your paths, your four basic paths. Count them, four.

The path of love—this is ridiculous, I know, “the sermon on the couch”—the path of love [great laughter from the audience, Rama joins in.]

Oh, sorry. Well, what do you want? Do you know a hill around where they’re not going to hassle us?

You’ve got your path of love, your basic, right—Bhakti.

Selfless giving.

The path of knowledge, also known as Jnana Yoga. Knowledge, discrimination. And that’s the real techy stuff.

And of course Mysticism.

Those are the big four.

Then you have the subvariants like Zen, which is the path of no mind, OK?

The Tibetan Rebirth Process, techy rebirth experiences in the bardo.

Oh, Tantric Mysticism which is sort of living in the world and seeing God in household products.

Oh, there are subvariations. I mean you’ve got Buddhism, for example, which is like a combination of various forms. Or you’ve got Raja Yoga, or there’s the—you know, there are all the “-isms.”

Taoism, the path of being wet. Sooner or later one can offend everybody. [Laughter.]

So, what does this all add up to? It all adds up to a very confusing thing!

I mean, imagine a poor little soul that went down to the Bodhi Tree Bookstore, that was looking for enlightenment, right?

You know, like we had a sincere one. Let’s say one floated in from someplace, you know, Cleveland or something. They got off the bus in L.A., right? They heard that L.A. was a hot power spot, you know.

It is, yeah. There’s ancient civilizations used to exist right in the Los Angeles area. Mystical civilizations. A lot of spiritual practice going back a long time ago was here, long before the Indians. This is a power spot we live in here. A wonderful place.

So let’s say somebody in Cleveland had a dream, right? You know, “Come to L.A.” So they take the plane, land at LAX and they ask, “Where’s the spot?” And they say “The Bodhi Tree Bookstore.” Right? [Audience laughter.]

Because they have, I mean, any path that there is, is in that place, right? They have books on it. So you go down to the Bodhi Tree Bookstore. And go inside, and you look around, what’s the poor thing going to do?

[Rama mimics a young female voice.]

• “There’re so many books, so many teachers, so many paths!

• “God! I can’t even afford half of them.” [Laughter.]

That’s the books, right?

Well, I mean, what’s … It used to be simple in the old days. Really. You know, people couldn’t read. [Laughter, growing slowly.]

(This is my Zen approach, you understand.)

So, then, what does it matter? I’ll get you to that point by the end of the evening, where you won’t care what I say—see, and then we’ll be making …

That’s good, then we will have gotten into another level of attention.

ॐ

Enlightenment. Enlightenment is absorption in eternity. To become one with what we call nirvana.

There are various stages that we go through in the process. We can discuss it, but you should always remember that any discussion of the process is in no way indicative of—at all—what it’s like. Because we’re just painting little tiny pictures of eternity.

Enlightenment is to become eternity itself. To merge with all of life, all of existence. Beyond definition, beyond form, beyond awareness.

But yet there is a defined way to do that. Life has a structure. Life has a pattern, it has a weave.

And when we understand that way of life, that eternal tao, the movement of existence, of energy, of consciousness, as we pull back from the veil of maya, of illusion, we become aware of that which we are, and that is the Self, or eternity, nirvana, call it what you will.

How does it begin?

Well, we have to talk, of course, a little bit about reincarnation, naturally, if we’re going to deal with such a lofty subject ’cause that’s the general cosmology that usually is found in the approach.

Reincarnation.

There was a time—or there is a time occasionally—when there is no time. There’s no life, there’s no death, there’s nothing but eternal awareness. The Self—God, the unmanifest, reality—is everywhere.

And then—it gets bored. That’s what they say in the books. It gets bored. And so, to give itself some entertainment, right, it puts on a video. You.

(You didn’t like that. OK, I’ll try again.)

The Self creates—out of itself—infinite forms, worlds, realities, dimensional planes, multifarious beings. Everything that you could imagine—and more—is existence.

That existence will be manifest for a certain period of time. In the East they call it “the day and the night of Brahman,” and the day of Brahman is the creation.

It’s usually measured in yugas, which are long, long, long periods of time, and there are these different cycles within a cycle of creation and finally there’s a cosmic dissolution.

Everybody goes back, the stage is cleared, the players leave. Everything is empty for a while, and it starts again.

But that’s only one aspect of eternity. Beyond that is something else entirely. And within that is everything.

Enlightenment is the study of the particular—of the moment, of feeling, of being human, of having a body—of seeing the world around us. It’s the exploration of interdimensional planes of reality. Thousands of them, endlessly stretching out.

It’s discovering that we are not physical beings, but that we have bodies of light that stretch into these other dimensions, and exploring, discovering our different selves that exist in parallel dimensions.

It’s the experience of samadhi. Samadhi means the entrance into the supra-conscious state.

Dissolving into the pure white light or clear light of the void. Being absorbed in that light.

Over and over and over until all of your impurities—not just the ones in the conscious mind, but in the subterranean selves—are completely washed away, and you’re completely clarified.

There’s no jealousy, no anger, no possessiveness, no greed, no hatred, all of these qualities are completely washed away, even on subconscious levels.

Eternity is a hard task mistress.

If you step forth on the pathway to enlightenment, then you must experience, really, a little bit of every part of life. And it’s a wonderful, wonderful journey.

Meditation is always the key, regardless of the path that you follow. Meditation takes us there. It’s a vehicle.

Meditation is stopping thought. Stillness. Erasing the perceiver. The one inside who’s watching, who’s observing the personality forms.

You are capable of everything.

But to do that you need something that you don’t have now. Power.

The power of the kundalini energy which gradually rises through our being in the process of self-discovery.

Self-discovery is so wonderful, I can’t believe that people can get through the day without it, because life is so empty, and horrible, and boring without it!

It’s really terrible. You’re out there, and you’re alone, in this cruel world, and people could care less, and even when they care, it’s mostly about themselves.

You know, we live in a world of wars, and war’s alarms, they’re building Star Wars technology so we can pollute outer space now. I mean it’s ridiculous. The same old thing.

So it appears. But it’s not really. And that’s the exciting part. One could get very discouraged if he just viewed the world.

But the inner worlds are reality.

This thing that you see—life, where we’re born, and we exist for a while and we die, and we experience some pleasure and some pain—is just an appearance.

It’s just the outermost surface of all that exists.

Life is wonderful beyond comprehension.

But in order to experience that, to know that, you have to be called. (“Hey! Psst!”) No. You have to be called.

Something calls you forth.

You’re out there, perfectly content to just like, heavily sense out, and have a good time with your life, right?

And a hand—you know, like the Monty Python hand that reaches in—the big hand comes down and grabs you, and pulls you up and says, “You are going to follow the pathway to enlightenment.”

And you say,

• “No way. Listen, I’ve heard all about that. This is not for me. Now, look, there’s lots of people in the world. You know, you made a mistake.

• “It’s the house next door. He’s over there now. He prays, all the time. He’s got beads, he does the incense, the whole thing, you know?

• “I mean you should, I mean, if I tell you what I do with my time, you don’t want me! You don’t want to know. I mean, we are talking Impure City.

• “Sodom and Gomorrah? That was just lunch! [Great laughter.]

• “I mean, what goes on in this mind of mine? Boy, I mean it could wilt flowers miles away. No, I’m just, I’m not the one.”

And then the voice says, “You!” [Laughter.]

You can argue, you can reason, I tried, we all try, it doesn’t do any good. When your number is up, that’s it. They get you.

You cannot beat God! It’s worth trying. But you just can’t. God has all the cards, God can change the rules on you halfway through.

You’re playing under a certain system and you think, “Ha! I won!” They say, “Oh, yeah? Read your rule book.” And you look it up, and it’s been changed—while you’re playing—in the book. [Audience laughter.]

You just cannot beat God, but you have to try, that’s part of it. You’ve got to, you know, you just say, “Ohhh, I’m gonna resist every step of the way, I’ll make it tough for you.”

Go ahead, that’s the sign of a good spiritual person, is you fight every step of the way, it doesn’t matter. They get you.

So, I’d like to talk a little bit about what’s going to happen to you. Because, obviously, if you’ve been drawn to a talk like this, much against your will, to listen to somebody like me, much against your will, obviously, your number is up.

It’s clear. I mean, I just sit at home and meditate, and you know, put out an extremely powerful force, and snag people like you to come and listen, and get your consciousness expanded for an evening, and then you can go back and trash it, and drop the energy. It won’t matter!

They got you.

So, my job, they sent me in tonight to talk to you, because essentially, they wanted someone to explain to you what’s going to happen.

You know, they’re compassionate, they understand, the people who run the universe. And they know, they’ve been through it themselves.

So, you’re like the new recruits. They just want you to understand what’s going to happen to you, and it’s really OK, and that God loves you, and, well, sometimes. [Laughter.]

Well, God has other things to do than just love you all the time. I mean, give me a break, you know?

But they just wanted to, you know, they grabbed me and said,

• “Look, it’s your job, you go out and you just explain to them what’s going to happen to them, and they’ll feel better. They’ll sleep better at night.”

So I said,

• “Well, sure, I mean, I have nothing else to do, sure, you know, it doesn’t matter what I had planned to do with my life, no way! No!

• “Sure, I’ll go out, I’ve had nothing else to do but take my life and go up on stages and talk to people and have people out front who say [Rama mimics noisy gibberish of picketers. Audience laughs.]

• “Sure, it’s fine by me, I don’t care!

• “Get married? Doesn’t matter, no, that’s OK, I can give it up. Nah, it’s alright. Have children? Nah, that’s alright, I never liked kids anyway. Ummm …

• “You know, my career? Sure, sure, right, which one? Which one do you like? I gave up two, three careers, sure, no problem! For you? Hey, you’re hot, I’ll do it!

• “But—I can’t be responsible for their reaction.”

That’s a difficult thing to explain to someone that they’re going to die, not just once, but again and again and again.

And that it’s wonderful, because every death is followed by a rebirth, and I don’t just mean in the physical terms of death.

When you meditate perfectly, it’s a kind of death.

And death is a celebration. It really is. People misunderstand death. They’re so afraid of it. I don’t know why. You’ve died many times. You don’t look any of the worse for it, you know? [Laughter.]

There is no such thing as death, it’s an illusion, it’s a doorway that we walk through.

The question is, how can you beat death at its own game? Well, that’s what I’d like to talk to you about.

The only way you can beat death is to die before it gets you.

Right. You understand. That’s what a warrior does.

Wimps? They just, “Oh, snivel, snivel, Oh, I’m gonna die! Oh!” [Rama mimics sniveling.]

The warrior, he’s already dead.

That’s what enlightenment is. Enlightenment is a kind of death.

You have to understand, it isn’t the big lollipop at the end of the ride. What do you think you do, sit around in Glow City all the time?

Oh, sure, sometimes there’s nothing but infinite light flowing through every atom of your being, you are that light, and you know, all the usual samadhi stuff. But …

Well, it is complete ecstasy most of the time. I mean, that’s fact. I have to be honest about it, that is ahead of you.

I don’t know how you’ll do with it. It’s pretty intense to be in ecstatic consciousness 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you know, and the whole bit.

[Rama sighs heavily, blissfully. Audience laughs.]

You get used to it.

Well, it’s kind of weird when you glow all the time. I mean, literally, the kundalini just rolls off my body, and everywhere …

You just glow. You can never be in a dark room again.

Seriously! You think that I’m kidding. Just waves of energy just always come out, all the time.

What do you do with it? There must be a way to make money with this. [Laughter.]

Now, that part I’ve never worked out. Rajneesh does well with that, I must admit. He’s got that part figured. We always run in the red. But what can you do? Anyway. So …

That was good, I thought that was a good bit there, that put you through a change.

So, anyway.

[Rama adopts a sneaky, conspiratorial voice.]

“Now wait a minute, now wait, what is this, what’s going on?”

ॐ

I think we should meditate. That would be a good thing. If you’d sit up nice and straight, please, I’d like to describe the meditation technique.

Great.

When I meditate with you, I’m going to be going into samadhi. I’m entering into dissolution. I go away, I dissolve. I’m not much here anyway, most of the time. But not at all, then.

What will happen is a tremendous amount of energy—a volume of energy—will come through me to you.

And also all of these good folks here tonight are joined together, and we’re linking our consciousness, we’re creating a psychic network, we’re networking our energy.

A few people can make a terrific difference.

People get very discouraged these days because, you know, things don’t look too good on this planet.

But don’t be fooled. A few powerful people can make all the difference. They always have.

Even sitting here together tonight, linking our energies in meditation, all these people with all these incarnations of stored power, is just waiting to come out.

We send out a force and energy that is part of destiny, too.

What I’d like you to do is to try and still your thoughts. We’ll be doing several meditations tonight to music, I play electronic music to meditate to. You can ignore the music or just flow with it, whatever you prefer.

The first meditation I’d like you to do is the meditation on the third eye. The third eye or the Agni Chakra is located between the eyebrows and a little bit above, right here. [Rama touches his forehead.]

If you just take your index finger for a moment and touch your Agni Chakra, between the eyebrows and about an inch above. Touch that spot, and just press very lightly and close your eyes.

Wonderful. OK, you can let your hand down.

The Agni Chakra is one of the seven principal chakras in the subtle physical body, or the body of light that surrounds the physical body. They are doorways that lead us into altered states of attention, into states of enlightened awareness. They all work differently.

I’d like you to focus your attention for a few minutes on the third eye, and just look at that spot. After a while you may see kind of a glowing light, it looks like the sun or like the moon. It might be different colors, you may see visual scenes, nothing at all.

But while you’re focusing there, what you’re doing is letting the kundalini flow through you more strongly. And naturally, I’m producing a great deal of energy, or it’s coming through me, you might say, to alter your attention, to bring you into a spiritual state of attention.

Just focus for two or three minutes and then stop focusing, and just let go. And just let the energy take you.

When thoughts come in and out of your mind, please ignore them, just relax and have fun with it.

If the energy gets very intense, which it sometimes does, when we meditate together, just enjoy it, relax with it, don’t try too hard. Let the energy work for you.

Don’t try and accomplish any specific aims or goals, don’t use a mantram or anything like that.

Just sit there, and feel the silence, enjoy the music, and just let the energy fields that emanate from my being spread through you and all of the energies from all of us here will network together, and we’ll have a great time. Good.

We’ll just be meditating for about an hour and a half. [Laughter.]

We’ll be meditating for about, you know, 5, 10 minutes, something like that, and then we’ll talk. Good. Great.

And we’ll be meditating to some Tangerine Dream. So if you sit up nice and straight, close your eyes.

Later on you might want to open your eyes and meditate with the eyes open a little bit, but to start out with, focus on the third eye, please, you’re all familiar with it.

And we’re going to be looking through the spiritual eye vision at eternity.

Moving from time to the timeless. Don’t try too hard now, let it go.

[Meditation]

ॐ

Enlightenment is not something that happens to you in one day. It’s a very gradual experience that takes place actually over many, many lifetimes.

Some people are under the assumption that it’s sort of a flash, bang experience. Not really.

It’s just each day your awareness becomes more formless, you’re less in the world of time and space, less in duality, and a little more conscious of eternity or eternality.

But enlightenment does not preclude the physical. That is to say, it isn’t necessary to reject the world or commonplace events, because enlightenment exists everywhere, in all things, in all experiences.

Enlightenment is the awareness of awareness. Becoming eternally conscious. Waking to life.

And those wakings or spiritual epiphanies can occur in the darndest places. Sometimes they occur while you’re seated in meditation, in a situation like this. Sometimes they might occur while you’re shopping in a supermarket, or hiking up a canyon somewhere; in traffic; at work; with someone you love; in a terrible situation.

Suddenly a moment will turn on itself. It will dovetail, and it will become eternity. You’ll step outside of time.

It’s not just a question of being out of the body in the sense of an astral experience, but suddenly you’ll become aware of the timelessness of existence, of the perfect beauty and stillness of life.

Those moments add up as we have them over and over again, and more frequently. Gradually, eventually, we become a moment like that ourselves.

Someone who is enlightened is like a hole in time.

If you’re interested in studying, of course, if that’s your bent, if you’re interested in becoming more conscious, more aware, more beautiful, essentially—if you really like beauty and you’d like to be a very beautiful being—then there are a series of ways to accomplish that.

Traditionally, of course, in the books, they say that you should go seek out a teacher. Now, I always wonder about that because I figure these books were written by teachers. So, but, you know, who am I to buck the system?

So, I think that you just have to be yourself. That’s the most important thing that you can do, in self-discovery, is to be yourself.

To not try and do your meditation—your experience—like anybody else.

There’s some schools of self-discovery where they tell you that what you should so is, “Do this practice, and at 6 a.m. you get up and at 6:30 you wash, and you do … and at 7 you do … and at 11,” they lay out your whole life for you, and I suppose that works for some people.

At a certain phase that can be good. You need the discipline, something like that.

But in the more advanced aspects of the self-discovery experience, it’s really not necessary to do that. We have a much more fluid way of dealing with consciousness. It’s no less intense or disciplined, it’s probably more.

But what we’re interested in doing is learning to become conscious.

Not in any particular structured way. As a matter of fact, it’s a real pain in the neck for people who have gotten attached to structure.

A lot of people have problems with advanced self-discovery because they get so attached to the basic practices in self-discovery in their early years, that when you finally run into someone who is a little more demanding, and they say, “OK, now let’s really—you know, you’re interested in advanced self-discovery, great! Now let’s do some things.”

And you had a picture-perfect idea in your mind of what advanced self-discovery would be like—you figured you’re going to sit around and eat bananas all day, or something, I don’t know. But you have ideas. And it’s nothing like that at all.

It’s different for everybody, but yet there are certain stages or experiences that everyone must go through. Yet your approach to them—the way they happen to you—will be unique to yourself.

Do you need a teacher?

I don’t know, it depends on how you feel.

I think the most important thing is to have heart, to have a sense of love and well-being, and then everything will fall in place. If you don’t have that, then nothing will really work out for you.

What matters is aspiration. You know, it’s funny, people want everything, but sometimes they don’t want to do the one thing they need to do to make it all happen or take place.

And the thing that you need to do is to love. To love, to love, to love.

In a new way, in a different way.

To love without strings, without something in it for you. It’s frightening at first, I’ll agree. It’s a little scary, to not know where your life is going to go, to not have everything programmed out.

Also, of course, my experience, or at least the way I teach is, I feel that people have to be extremely well-grounded in the physical world.

Because having traveled the ashram circuit and that sort of thing, what I have observed is that most people get so up there in their second attention—they get kind of out there—that they lose contact with basic reality. They think they’re being spiritual, and all they’re doing is ruining their minds, and not making much spiritual progress at all.

A good sign of a person who has their meditation together is that their life is very successful also.

You’re able to think and function in the twentieth century, or whatever century or on whatever planet you happen to find yourself. It really doesn’t matter, because if you can’t do that, there’s something lacking in the system, you see?

So I think it’s real important that you be versatile. You don’t want to do the same thing all the time to the point where you get stuck in a structure.

You see, enlightenment is going beyond structure, it’s going beyond “-isms.” Religions are great, and forms of self-discovery are great, but the point of them is to take you beyond them. And not to get stuck in them.

You don’t want to get stuck in anything, really, in self-discovery.

How do you do that? Well, the secret really has to do with erasing the self, erasing the ego.

Now, this is tricky because there is a need for a certain amount of self to exist in the world.

In other words, if you go down to the dry cleaners, and they ask you, “What do you want?” there has to be somebody there. [Audience laughter.]

To say, “My cleaning.” [Audience laughter.]

Or suppose you’re out in the world and somebody gives you a hard time. You know, you’re just walking down the street, or you’re in the store, the department store, trying to exchange … Somebody gave you some useless gift, and you’re in there, and you’re trying to exchange it and they say, “I’m sorry sir, but we can’t.”

Or someone starts to take advantage of you, because they sense that you’re a “spiritual type.” Commonly known as a push-over. So they figure, “Ah, here’s someone I can manipulate and give a hard time to.” So, if there’s nobody there, you’ll just kind of go, “Ah, ah, oh, oh, gosh, really? Oh, gee.” [Rama mimics a babyish voice.]

See?

So, then, we have to redefine our ideas, or forget anything we know about enlightenment and God-realization and meditation, and just throw it all away and start over. Every day.

Because we’re trying to go beyond forms.

Yet, there’s tremendous etiquette in the enlightenment process, it’s amazing. It’s amazing, the etiquette.

So what we’re going to do then, is we’re going to start out with the person you are now.

“Today, Suzy Q. Public, you are going to begin the process of self-discovery!” Various trumpets sound, you know, archangels descend and all the usual stuff. [Laughter.]

And you say, “Oh, really, me? How wonderful!” Sort of the Miss Piggy-consciousness.

So, then, great. The first thing, Suzy, it’s your first day as a student.

“Hi, Sue, how are you today? Please sit down. Not too close.”

Well, you know, right? You want to be realistic, you don’t want to be that close to somebody’s energy field, they’re a beginner, you know. Who knows what’s in there? It takes thousands of lifetimes to clear it out. [Rama laughs heartily.] Gotta go slowly.

So you say then …

“Hi Sue, now look, this is the thing. The first thing we’ve gotta work with is your current self. Now Suzy, you have the good fortune of being a woman.

“However, your good fortune is a difficult fortune because you have been conditioned by the world to think that you are a powerless being who is not very capable of almost anything.

“Because you’re a woman. That’s the definition of woman in our society and our world.

“So, Suzy, your task is going to be even bigger than the task of the guys because you have more conditioning.

“The first thing that we’re going to start with is the conditioning that you’ve gotten in this lifetime. Now, Suzy, I know that you’ve had a lot of incarnations in spiritual practice, otherwise you wouldn’t even be very interested in meditation and you certainly wouldn’t have found me, because I don’t work with beginners at all.

“I mean, you may just be starting meditation in this life, but I only work with people who have had lots and lots of incarnations doing this, and clearly you have, because that’s why power brought you here. OK, great.

“I know you’ve got it all inside you, and you’re really frustrated right now, because you know you can do things that you just can’t do now, and you know that these states of consciousness that you’re in, and the clothing that you wear, is just not what you want. I understand that!

“You’re not chic enough, inwardly or outwardly, but we can take care of that.

“But in order to get back all that knowledge that you’ve already got inside you, the first thing we have to do in the enlightenment process is deal with who you are now, and wash away all the conditioning from this lifetime.

“Once we clear how they’ve screwed you up in this life, then we can take on the samskaras, the deeper tendencies from your other lifetimes.

“But of course, every time we clear a level, lo and behold, you’ll feel great, you’ll feel wonderful. It’s like getting a ‘good’ haircut. And you just walk out, and hey, they did it right, you see? So you’ll feel really good, Sue. (This is L.A. talk).

“So, now the first thing I want you to do Suzy, is you’ve got to meditate every day. It’s real important. It’s more important to meditate for an hour every day than five hours every other day. Because you have to start to put little holes in time.

“Right now, Sue, you’re in a world of desires and emotions and feelings and thoughts, most of which aren’t even yours.

“These are thoughts, and ideas and impressions that were given to you—you were programmed by your world and your society—to feel.

“And it all starts with sex. They define you sexually. You’re in blue or you’re in pink. You’re a little boy or you’re a little girl. And now they’re going to tell you what that means.

“But obviously the people who are telling you don’t have it all that together, because they’re not exactly happy. They’re not exactly enlightened, they’re not having a great time with their lives. They’re doing the best they can.

“But for some reason, power has brought you to this point, where you’re having an encounter with someone who has gone beyond time and space. And who says that you can do the same thing. It’s not that difficult.

As a matter of fact, it’s your destiny. But there’s still certain things that you have to do to make it work.

“So the first is, we’ve got to set up a meditation schedule.

“You need that meditation every day because in that period of time, whether it’s a half an hour or forty-five minutes once or twice a day when you’re sitting there, gradually as you learn to stop thought, you’ll open a doorway to another world.

“That doorway will not necessarily close at the end of meditation.

“That is to say, the light, the kundalini energy, the power, the beauty, the perceptions of God, all those things will continue to flood through you during the day.

“So, Sue, start every morning with meditation. Get up, take a shower, be clean, feel good, sit down and meditate. Because your mind hasn’t been active all night, you see. After you’ve been out in the world and you’ve been thinking a lot, it’s much harder to meditate. So always start the day with meditation.

“Then, run off to work, and during the day now, you’ve got to do some yoga. It’s really important. Yoga means union. Union with everything.

“So what I’d like you to do is, watch your mind during the day.

“And every time you start to think about the past, don’t let it happen. Because it’s gone. And when you think about the past, you’re identifying with a person whom you no longer are.

“Suzy, you’re anybody you want to be.

“But you’ve already seen the movie that we shot about your past, and it was a good movie maybe. Maybe it wasn’t. But we don’t want to do a rerun.

“We want to get you in a new take, here, OK? So let’s forget the past. Every time you think about the past during the day, push it out of your mind. Just say ‘No.’

“That’s your mantra Suzy, your mantra is ‘No.’ [Audience laughter.]

“Every time you start to think about the horrible experience you had when you were five, the wonderful experience you had when you were twenty, the mediocre experience you had when you were thirty—whatever it is—‘No.’

“We’re not interested, we’ve done it, we know—thinking about that Suzy is not going to make you any different. It’s not going to change you.

“Let’s not worry about tomorrow. Because we all know that tomorrow is going to be a horrible day [laughter.] Because every day is a horrible day on the planet Earth. It’s a fact.

“So we know already it’s going to be beat, so let’s not worry about it. Let’s just assume it’s going to be terrible, but we’re going to have a good time anyway.

“You know what Rama says, Rama says, ‘Life sucks wherever you go, but you can still have a good time if you know how.’ [Audience laughter.]

“And the reason it’s going to be horrible, Suzy, is because those people out there who are not going to leave you alone. They’re going to try and mold you and condition you and make you unhappy. They’re going to try and drain your personal power, and just reduce you to rubble.

“They want you to just be another automaton walking around there in a machine-like existence, because they’re afraid of women with power! They’re scared to death of them.

“And if you start to get powerful, Suzy, you’re going to threaten, like, the whole male power structure.

“And we’ve got a problem there. So we’ve got to be discreet about this. We can’t let them know.”

ॐ

“We must consider your wardrobe, Suzy. Real important, because the way people project energy towards you—which is half the battle to be honest with you—depends on how you look and how you dress.

“It’s very, very important, whether you’re a man or a woman. Because as an evolved soul, you’re very sensitive, you’re all psychic. And you pick up energy, more than you realize.

“Most of the thoughts inside you, Suzy, are not your own! They’re from the people around you, but you’re a psychic sponge. You’ve had thirty thousand incarnations, you’ve developed your psychic abilities in past lives.

“I remember you in Atlantis, you were the one on the left, in the temple, in the back. You gave me a hard time then! Don’t you give me a hard time now. Now listen to me.

“This time, get it right, alright? We don’t have time, you know, this is the Kali Yuga. The end of the world is not that far away, so we want to get it together and get out of here. We’ve got to beat feet.

“So look, we’ve got to do something—you look terrible, Suzy. Why don’t you wear makeup? You’re into holistic health. Big deal. What’s that going to do for your enlightenment? Maybe it’s nice for your body.

“Wear a little makeup, because if you don’t you’re going to be picked right out. Alright?

“Wear a little black, Suzy. It’s a little more powerful. You’ve got to have a more powerful image as a woman.

“Your friend Bob over there? Maybe he should soften his image a little bit, a little more androgynous.

“Because maybe he’s been defined, they brought him up in a way and told him that you’re a guy and you should be, you’re afraid …

“It’s no good to be a girl. There’s something wrong with it. Women are inferior, they’re second class, ‘Bob, you can’t be like that, don’t be a girl, Bob! Be a man.’

Right? But they never say that to Suzy, they don’t say, “Suzy, don’t be a man.”

“So Bob, maybe they’ve pushed you out in an extreme, too, and they’ve tried to make you into some kind of desensitized macho being that you’re not. Sure you can be tough. Why not? You can be a great warrior. But still be soft inside.

“And unattached when necessary. Actually, you’ll make a better warrior.

“Now, you’ve got to get this meditation going every day. Great.

“We’ve got to work on the wardrobe. That’s fun, we’ll go over to Bullocks, we’ll get new clothes, that will be fun. Alright.

“New image. Now, I know what you’re going to buy, you’re going to buy the same old stuff again, no way. We’ve got to go with a whole new image here, a little bit of makeup, that’ll be nice.

“How’s your body doing? You should be getting more exercise.

“Because as you advance and the kundalini starts to surge through you, your body needs to be in pretty good shape. It’s real, real important.

“Your subtle body is pretty trashed by your experiences in the world.

“You know, men project anger and hostility towards women all the time. And so you pick all that up in your subtle body, and it’s like acid.

“Particularly when you have sex with somebody, you have to be very careful who you have sex with. Yeah, you can have sex, sure. But you have to be very careful, because people get very—men get very threatened by sex, you see.

“And it’s not their fault. It’s not their fault, but they were brought up to feel that they have to always be like the raper, the conqueror, the performer, you see.

“And so naturally, they feel all this power in you, because women are innately much more powerful than men are, and so this need to control.

“Now we know that you’ve been controlling him all along. That’s obvious, and not letting him know.

“That’s clever on your part, but the only problem with that, Suzy, is that—granted that he thinks he gets sexually excited but you’re just pushing energy through him and not letting him know, and that male ego just goes for it—but the problem with that Sue, is that when you do that, you’re putting yourself into a duality situation.

“And also, of course, when you’re just pushing it out like that, then you get all this energy thrown back at you.

“So the sex thing, you know, do whatever you feel is right. But just try and be more unattached about it. And just pick people who don’t have so many problems inside, because I can see you’ve run into a lot of them.

“Let’s see, what else have you got to do?

“Oh, you’ve got to just be exposed to more highly evolved people.

“You should go someplace … I know you’re not a joiner. I don’t blame you, I was never a joiner myself. I’m definitely a loner if I’ve ever met one.

“But at the same time I know that it is a gnarly world out there, with all kinds of people who aren’t very interested in love and selfless giving, and so we evolved types have to stick together.

“That’s the lesson that we’ve learned.

“Because when we don’t stick together, they get us. Every time.

“When we stick together—and we network our energies—then our power is impeccable, and they just cannot trash us. They can’t shoot us, crucify us, burn us, french-fry us, whatever it may be.

“They can’t get us.

“But when we all go our own way … I know you need solitude—you like to do your own thing—I’m all for it!

“But you’ve got to go find a group of people—what in the I Ching they call an organic community of people—who you feel good about. It doesn’t matter which one. But pick one that you feel good about, and be with those people. You need the association.

“Now during the day you’ve got to learn to be kind to everybody, Suzy. It doesn’t matter who it is. I don’t care if it’s the lady with the dry cleaning, if it’s the person who cut you off in front of the freeway, you just have to learn to have more of a reverence for life.

“Because that reverence for life will make you very, very happy. Of course, meditating every day gives us the energy to do this, and the insight.

“But you’ve got to become more sensitive. That waitress, Suzy, you’re a woman, you’d think you should know that being a waitress is the worst job on earth.

“And you go into that restaurant and she comes over and you treat her like she’s just some kind of a robot or something. That is a fully sensitive being, a sentient being in evolution that’s standing there taking your order. Don’t look at them like they’re some arbitrary being. That being has life as much as you do. Feelings.

“That doesn’t mean you have to stare at them with a glassy look. But respect that being. Relate! Just because other people don’t, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t.

“But at the same time you have to learn to be inaccessible. Don’t tell people you meditate. Don’t tell people that you’re involved with self-discovery. Because they don’t understand. You think it’s America, California, the 20th Century, Los Angeles. Doesn’t mean anything! Look who they just elected for president, you know?” [Laughter.]

That was our political note. [Laughter.] Not that there was much of a choice.

“So, Suzy, life is fantastic, but you just gotta get your tush in gear here!

“What else can you do? Well, you could read spiritual books. Now, they’re good. If you need to fall asleep and you can’t fall asleep at night, read a spiritual book, you’re out in a minute! [Laughter.] Zoned!

“Who do I recommend? Anybody who makes you high. But I think, you know there have been some genuine spiritual teachers. A lot of phonies, but there’s some genuine …

“Ramakrishna. Can’t go wrong. He’s a little heavy with the Bhakti, get’s a little carried away, but it worked for him, right? But he’s inspiring. He was a nut, but he was a spiritual nut.

“Ramana Maharshi, now that’s Jnana Yoga, it might be a little thick for you. Because you might want to run away, and you know, you just don’t understand what he’s saying yet. He was very techy. He was a good one.

“The Way of Life by Lao Tzu. Impeccable knowledge.

“Shankara, again more Jnana Yoga. I like that sort of thing. But you know it’s the highest path, Jnana Yoga, it’s a good path.

“The Tibetans are fun to read. It doesn’t matter. Whatever you like.

“Yogananda. Whatever suits you.

“They were all trying to say something that couldn’t be said in words. Most of them didn’t write, because they were just too gone. You have to understand, Suzy, what it’s like to be enlightened.

“I mean, most of the time Suzy, I don’t even know. I mean, I’m not even here! I’ll just be like sitting, I’m just gone.

“Samadhi takes you over, and I just dissolve in eternity again and again, you know?

“So it’s tough. ’Cause how can you say—when you are everything—what are you going to say? You read the books where they describe it and it’s real nice, but it’s not like that. It’s not like that. A few of them have written, because that was what they, that was just how the dharma worked through them.

“Most of them don’t write, because if you’re really meant to get there, when you’re advanced, you will find someone who’s enlightened, you’ll be drawn to them, and you’ll hang out together.

“They will … you will see each other from time to time. And a beautiful interplay will occur between the two of you.

“See, Suzy, if you really want enlightenment real, real badly, you probably won’t get it. Let me give you a hint to start with here.

“The way to go about it is selfless giving.

“This is just my opinion. You know, you start out with love. You meditate on the heart chakra, you learn to love, and just feel the wonderful love flowing through you.

“But I think the hip way to go about it, is not to be so concerned with your own realization. It’ll happen when it’s supposed to. God’s got a computer program worked out, your number’s up at a certain time, pow! It’ll just happen.

“What’s important is not self-realization, but what you can do for others. That’s the emblem of a person who is really ready. Who’s in the ballpark at all.

“So, Suzy, what you need to do, is begin to think more of the welfare of others. Like what can you do for other people. And you say, ‘Well, what can I do for other people?’ and well, there’s an easy answer.

“Smile more, be kinder. You know, you don’t have to get up on stage in front of thousands of people and give talks about spirituality.

“Every life you touch is something. Every energy, every thought you send out affects others.

“You can be sitting in your room—Suzy, I can sit in my room, and I can affect thousands and millions of people when I meditate. They’ll never know it, they won’t know my name, that’s fine.

“Who needs to? What’s the big deal? I’m nothing anyway, I know that. But it has an effect. A good effect.

“Sometimes you don’t believe in God, I know. Well, I wouldn’t believe in God the way they describe God either. Sounds ridiculous.

“You say to yourself, what kind of a being is going to make a world like this? With all this horror and suffering? I understand! It’s a difficult thing.

“But don’t look at it that way.

“You’ve got to make friends with God. You know, God has gotten bad press. [Audience laughter.]

“Meaning, men have made God in their image. I mean, God is a man, Suzie, what are you going to do with that, right? Know what I mean? What a start!

“God’s not a man, God’s not a woman. God is everything. Everything.

“We’re talking artificial intelligence here.” [Audience laughter.]

ॐ

We should do another meditation.

This time I’d like you to meditate not by focusing on any particular chakra or place. But I’d like you to meditate on something, and that something is light.

Light is our substance. We are literally made up of light, of energy.

When you meditate—when you meditate very well—you will just be nothing but light. You will see that that’s all that there is—is endless light, timeless, ecstatic, perfect light.

And that this whole world appearance, it’s just like a movie that you are watching.

And that you should be neither attracted nor repulsed by it.

Light and life is interesting, but the universe is endless. We’re all endless. We are that light. You are God, in essence, and in substance.

I’d like you to meditate on light. Now, how do you do that? Well, just by feeling it. You don’t have to picture it, you don’t have to see vast rays of light shooting through your mind. It’s not necessary.

Meditation is a very quiet, a very personable experience. Very subtle, yet totally powerful in the changes it brings about in your awareness and your attention.

So what I’d like you to do is just to close your eyes, to start with.

And then just to consider light. Just to feel it. And as we all do that together, we will invoke a great light. A great energy. It will transmute us all, it will change us all forever.

If you’d like to, if you do need a sense of focus, I would recommend focusing on the heart chakra—right in the center of the chest—which is the center of love. Sometimes it’s very easy if you focus here to feel light spreading through your being.

Or you could not focus on a particular point, but just feel light. Imagine a sea of light, an ocean of endless light stretching in every direction endlessly, never beginning and never ending. Nothing but light, forever.

When thoughts come in and out of your mind, ignore them. Stop them if you can, but don’t get too hung up in them. Just ignore them.

Let the meditation take you. Feel the energy in the room shifting. As we meditate together, I’m bringing you through a series of dimensional shifts.

Planes of attention are whizzing by you, one after another. You’re out in space and you’re traveling.

Some of you are more aware of it, some less, it’s dependent upon whether you’ve developed your spiritual sensitivity. But just relax and let it go.

As you sit here, you’re storing power. When you leave tonight, you will leave with much more power than you came in. How you use that power is up to you.

But an evening like this is an evening of great power.

So the best thing is just to have happy thoughts—if you must have thoughts—but try not to get too involved in them. Don’t judge, don’t wonder what you’re getting out of it, leave yourself alone. Take a vacation.

Just relax a little bit. Think of light and just let go. And you will feel this energy, this light, pass through you and change you. Forever, actually.

Good, let’s meditate for just a few more minutes.

[Meditation]

ॐ

Very good. Please set back and relax.

[Rama begins speaking in a cowboy twang.]

• Put up your feet and stay a spell. Ahhhh-yuh. Hang out with that kuuuuundalini. Ahhh-yuh. All them chakras a glowin’. Ahh-yuh. Eternity just spinning around your fingers.

[Rama resumes normal voice.]

So you can play with light, after awhile. You know, when you get up in the upper stages of attention, you can just manifest it, or it manifests you. It’s all the same. And you can just, with the movement of a finger, change the tonality of the universe. [Over a period of about 10 seconds, Rama breathes out several times.]

The thing people forget—I think sometimes—about the enlightenment process, is how beautiful it is, how incredibly beautiful light is. We’re made up of light, it’s our substance.

And as you let go of your attachments—as you fall in love with light—that light just becomes you.

And then of course, you can do some things with it. Some people develop the superpowers, the siddhas, where you can project kundalini, manifest light, create changes and alter peoples attention, and things like that.

Some people are just absorbed in nirvana, and that’s enough.

There’s no right and wrong in it. When you get up far enough, it’s all the same. It’s just the Self, it is that which you love, and it operates through all of us in different ways.

But you’ve got to get your feet off the ground. Low level flying. You’ve got to start.

And so many people get incorrect starts. Oh, there are some things to be learned from it. But there’s no singular way. There’s so many ways.

I’d like to answer some questions for a while that you might have about self-discovery, the enlightenment process, self-realization, it’s such a vast field.

ॐ

And so you may have some particular questions. So, if you would raise your hand, I will call on you and perhaps I can answer your question. Say it nice and loudly so I can hear you. I’ll repeat the question, because doubtlessly lots of people won’t be able to hear it, and I’ll see if I can answer a few questions.

Just try and absorb this energy that’s in the room. That’s the main thing. The room is pulsing right now with kundalini. Just let it go through you. You don’t have to do anything, it’s just absorbing in you, and it will be part of you. It will help you.

So, I’d like to answer some questions. If you could just raise your hand—Yeah?

[Question from a man]

• OK, uh, is enlightenment, or Buddha Nature that very living silence that’s in between your thoughts, beyond thought … and thinking itself.

[Rama]

Right. Yes, it’s endless light, and as you said, it’s the nothingness that’s between thoughts. That’s very good. It’s that absolute stillness, the satori, you see. There’s no thought, there’s no self, there’s no jiva, no soul, no world, no god, no universe, all of this goes away. That’s why we use the term nirvana. Meaning the extinction of the flame.

But at the same time, it’s within the world, within the form. The stillness and the substance are really the same thing. We just use words to make them appear different in duality.

So it’s wonderful because you can’t categorize it. It just is. And sometimes it isn’t, and sometimes it isn’t/is at the same time. Right! I agree.

Yes. Yeah?

[Question from a woman]

• These different selves that you talk about … are they like different life beings?

[Rama]

Ah, very good, yes. Very often when I talk, I say, “know your selves”—with an “s”—because there are many selves within the self. And your question is, “Are these selves, selfs from different lifetimes?”

Yeah!

Yes, in each lifetime you develop a self, and it never entirely goes away. It becomes part of the causal body, and so it’s always there.

But also there are selves that aren’t just having to do with, like, particular incarnations that you’ve had, but let’s say they’re just part of the structure of the unique being that is you.

They are deeper voices. Most people don’t realize that the surface personality is actually controlled by the deeper selves, that are operative in other dimensional planes.

And coming to know them is fascinating, yeah. So, it’s that and something else too.

Questions. Yes?

[Question from a woman]

• When I’m out in the world, I kind of have a shell around myself to protect myself, especially driving in bad neighborhoods, against men’s hatred of women.

• Other times, like occasionally, in my own home, someone will have a guest over. Or right before you came out. Someone made a comment and I wasn’t protected, and I felt a feeling in my body, I feel like I’m kind of wasting my time.

• My thoughts keep going, what I should have said, what I could have said.

• Is there a way that I could preserve myself when that happens?

[Rama]

Yes, as a woman, you’re in a very difficult situation.

You’re in a hostile environment for women, where women are seen as commodities to be traded in exchange, to be used and abused. And the energy you pick up—particularly as an evolved woman, is—I mean it’s pretty hard to ignore.

It’s like living in the South, say 20 years ago, when you couldn’t go into a restaurant, and you know, trying to pretend that that wasn’t true, you know, it’s pretty absurd.

You can just feel the hatred towards you, if you’re black. Just because of your color, right?

So, it’s the same thing being a woman.

Just constantly energy is being projected at you that just says you’re inferior, you’re not capable, or very often, you’re just hated.

It’s this understated anger that you’ve talked about, that’s there all the time. What can you do to protect yourself?

Well, the best thing you can do is, first of all, become more powerful yourself.

You have to tap more deeply into your own power. Because if more power is generating through you, naturally, these things will bounce off more. You won’t be so fragile.

Secondly, as I suggested, you have to begin to think about appearance. When you’re running into people on a one-to-one basis, a lot of the reason they push you or give you a hard time or project energies like that, is because they think they can get away with it.

So there are ways you can remain a nice person. But you know, Christ said, “Be like the lamb, but kind of dress like the wolf, appear like the wolf.”

You need to learn to be inaccessible. Not to let people understand your sensitivity unless they would really value that. And project a counter image that is an archetype that touches the consciousness of people and suggests a certain strength and power that people will just not bother with.

It makes a tremendous difference in the amount you’ll pick up. Just in terms of, as you say, when you’re driving through a neighborhood and you just feel like hostility and anger, what can you do?

The best thing is just to try and be at a high level of attention, maintain your sense of humor, and stay pretty grounded. I mean, you have to feel kind of tough, really, because you are.

You know, part of the illusion of the image of women is that they’re not tough, you see. And you walk around thinking that, and then naturally you think you’re not strong, and you can’t deal with things, and you can.

You’re very strong. The very aspect of the kundalini that manifests through you is raw power.

But of course, if you don’t know that, and you haven’t tapped into that, then you’re operating on 1/10th of what you have, if that.

So, it’s really, you have to redefine yourself and just learn how, of course, to plug more into that essential energy that’s in yourself.

The same is true for a lot of men, too. There are a lot of men who are really nice.

But they, in being nice—in realizing that there’s an alternative to just being aggressive constantly—sometimes go too much to an extreme, almost to make up for something. And again, they lose contact with their energy and power too.

You can be kind but powerful at the same time. You need to learn how to discriminate from a spiritual point of view to do that.

But it really has to do with just unlocking more of your own energy, and really redefining your image.

You have to go through your life. You have to go through the people in your life who are defining you in a certain way, even mentally. They’re just holding an image of you, day and night.

And the closer they are to you, the more powerful that effect is. Not in physical proximity, but emotionally.

The people you love are the people who hurt you or help you the most. Because you’re psychically open to them. So you have to take a real look inside the people you’re close to, and ask yourself just what …

Do you know what’s a good question to ask sometimes, of everyone in your life? What do they want from me? A real basic question.

Because if they’re not enlightened, they want something. They may love, they may care, but there’s another part in there. If that being is not enlightened—if they are not in a luminous state of attention twenty-four hours a day—then there’s still residual karmas, residual selves in there that haven’t been completely worked out. There are selfishnesses.

And so they want something.

And it’s no problem, I mean, people are people, right? So you should expect it. It’s just nice to know who you’re dealing with. It’s good not to be too idealistic about human beings.

They’re all gods and goddesses walking around.

But it’s nice to know the deeper structure.

So it’s good if you could take a good psychic scan of everybody you know. And just ask yourself, “What is it they really want?”

And trust your intuition. That doesn’t mean that they’re not a wonderful friend, or that they don’t love you.

But like yourself, they have their limitations, too. When you understand those limitations, you won’t be hurt by them.

Then you’ll say, “OK, of course, I don’t expect them to be kind about this or understand this. They’re working that out. But I’m not going to let them work it out on me.”

Follow? Yeah, this is true whether you’re male or female. I mean, it makes no difference.

You have to learn … People are more powerful than you realize. And naturally, as an evolved person—meaning someone who’s interested in meditation—you are going to naturally know and attract people who are more evolved. And they may not look any different than anybody else, but inside they are.

The difference—between a soul that’s had 40,000 incarnations and one that’s had a thousand—in power, is tremendous. In their ability to affect your attention level. It’s astounding.

Most people’s lives are molded and shaped by those around them, more than they realize.

So it’s necessary to step back from everyone in your life—inside yourself—and just reexamine constantly. And ask yourself, is this person—do they love me, do they care?

If they don’t, you really don’t need them in your life, unless it’s just on a business basis or something like that.

Do they understand what I’m about? Not that they should have some perfect understanding, but does it matter? You see, because if it doesn’t, then you shouldn’t expect anything, but a little negative energy once in a while.

Because they’re just looking at their fantasy creation in their mind, you see, and it could be you, it could be anybody else. They’ll just slip somebody into the fantasy creation model mode.

And then they will treat that fantasy creation in a certain way, and naturally when it doesn’t live up to the impossible expectations that they have for it, then you get the abusive anger.

So, in other words, you have to downplay your expectations a little bit about human beings. Human beings are human beings.

This is a planet of beings in relative early stages of evolution, obviously.

There are also some beings—a small number here—who are in more advanced stages of evolution. This is not the way the universe is.

The universe has many lower worlds, where the beings are in even lower states of evolution—hard to believe but true [audience laughter.]

And many higher worlds, where there are beings who are all fully developed, who are all enlightened. There are worlds just of enlightened beings.

So don’t judge the universe just by the action on this particular planet. It’s not a good representation.

But you are in a unique position because, as I said, if you’re drawn to a workshop like this—unless somebody handcuffed you and brought you—this means that you have some evolution. That’s why you came. You came because of the energy, the power level.

The ads don’t really matter, something drew you, it was an inner force.

And that suggests that you have a certain amount of evolution. So you are a stranger in a strange land.² That’s your situation. You live in a world of people who are not as evolved as you.

And consequently some are more evolved.

But consequently you have to learn how to deal with that, and particularly as a spiritual woman, it’s really tough.

You know, there is a way to deal with it.

But you have to be aggressive without being angry. I mean, you have to be a little bit militant. Just because the conditioning is so against you, and your back is so against the wall in every way, that you have to just be very, very militant and very strong.

But not strong in an angry way, because that just dilutes your power and energy. And you just have to tap into the kundalini more. And remember, this is the planet Earth, what do you expect?

Keep your sense of humor about it all.

Another question.

Yes, sir, back there a little ways in the middle—yeah?

[Question from a man]

• In meditation I find myself getting to a point … where all of a sudden I feel … and open, and sort of hunger for more light. How can you maintain that on an every-day basis more?

[Rama]

You mean how do you keep that level?

[Questioner]

• Yes.

[Rama]

So in other words, how do you stay in that?

OK sure, when you come and meditate with me it’s easy, because I’m just putting out so much energy, you know, that if you’re at all sensitive you just sit back and you just roll right out, right?

No, well, that’s why you come. That’s my job, that’s what I’m supposed to do. If I do a good job, that happens for you, and it opens you up.

But also, of course, there’s a structural change that takes place on an evening like this. With so much kundalini manifesting, it’s creating a change, and creating openings for you, so it’s easier for you to do this on your own.

How do you maintain that level on your own?

It’s very, very hard. That’s why people band together. But, there is something that I was talking about a couple of nights ago, and it’s the psychic network.

There’s a network of higher beings throughout the universe. On this planet, also. People who are highly evolved, beings who are highly evolved, and they network their energies. And that net is there 24 hours a day.

24 hours a day there is a high level intensity energy that you can tap into. I’m part of that network, every enlightened being is part of that network, you can join that network.

You don’t have to pay any dues, fill out any forms.

Wherever you are, all you have to do is open yourself to the network, and just feel that there is this luminous edge of eternity, of energy that we’re part of.

Naturally, of course, when you’re around people all the time who could care less about light, all those thoughts and all those impressions—because you’re somewhat psychic as an evolved soul—enter into you.

So you need to begin to discriminate between what’s your feelings, and the feelings of those people in the apartment next to you, in the car next to you, in the city and so on.

And you’ve got to just go through this process of self-discovery, where you just will go back and go through and eliminate all the conditioning from this life. It’s a fascinating thing.

But the network will help you, is what I’m suggesting. It’s real, it exists. And I’m a subscriber. [Audience laughter.]

It’s like getting the cable hooked in, you know, lots of channels. Lots! Lots! More than you can imagine. And the network is there.

So when you’re out there during the day or at night, or whatever, and you’re cruising around, just think of the network. Just think of it, that energy. And not just in this world, but throughout all of the universes, all the dimensional planes, all of eternity.

All higher beings are part of the network, this network of light.

And they understand the plight of the individual who is just trying to reach higher, and they help. Everyone on the network helps.

And if you reach intensely enough, then light will always be there.

That’s what the network is for. And it’s available to any being who seeks light. You need not be alone, even when you’re supposedly alone.

There is no aloneness, because the network is always there.

But you just have to make the mental effort to think of it. To sit down, to meditate for a few minutes, or just driving your car, think about the network. You can feel it pulsing. Buzzing.

The net is always operating all the time. Through all the universes. And just light will come, and that will help a whole lot.

Another question, please. Yes.

[Question from a lady]

• The people that, that they have in the thousands of incarnations, what were they doing for all these reincarnations?

[Rama]

Well, not everybody starts the game at the same time. In other words, in the process of reincarnation we say, well, somebody has a thousand lifetimes, somebody has 80,000 whatever, it’s like school. Why, why, why are not all kids seniors in college?

Because new kids are starting school, or being born, and they’re starting the process.

So new souls are formed, actually. They come forth from the infinite. They combine and they begin their journey.

It isn’t as if there’s one group that started at the same time. So we have what we call younger souls and older souls. Older souls just means more incarnations.

Now, more incarnations does not necessarily mean smarter.

But it does mean more powerful. That power can be used in good or ill ways. So, for example, you could have a dictator who oppresses a country, it’s obviously a very powerful person who’s had a lot of lifetimes. But those lifetimes have not necessarily been used in the quest of light.

Not everyone attains enlightenment. Not all beings do that.

You know, there are higher and lower tendencies, there are different pathways you can follow. And one isn’t forced, really, to follow.

Questions.

[Question from a man]

• Could you comment on the lokas? You talked about that in your tape, and multidimensional lives?

[Rama]

Well, lokas. Lokas are planes of awareness or attention. They’re dimensions. And there are a number of different lokas. There are different terminologies. The Tibetans looked at it one way, the Indians another, and so on. But they’re all saying about the same thing—there are different worlds.

This tiny world—when I say this world, I don’t mean just the planet Earth.

But the physical universes are just one dimension.

And there are many other dimensional planes. They are endless in their size.

And in terms of the incarnation—you know—I believe that all our incarnations are happening all at once. They’re not … I don’t believe in progressive time, in linear time. But everything is simultaneous.

There is no beginning and there is no end. Time doesn’t end. Time doesn’t begin. It’s not like that. From my point of view.

Yeah?

[Question from the audience]

• Does a higher intelligence or higher awareness permit or deny any particular goals in my path, or are you always the captain of your ship?

[Rama]

Well, that’s a very good question. Does higher intelligence—the higher intelligence of the universe—permit or deny you any experiences that you might want, or are you always the captain of your ship?

Well, it depends. You know, I could give you lots of answers to every question. It depends which dimensional plane I’m answering them from.

So from one dimensional plane I would say to you, “No, you are always in charge. Absolutely. You are never forced to do anything whatsoever.”

And that would be absolutely true. In that dimensional plane, that would be a true statement.

In another dimensional plane, I could say that there’s only the Self which is the doer of all things. And we just think we have free choice, but there is no free choice whatsoever.

And in another dimensional plane, I’d say, well, there’s both. The Self exists, but at the same time creates free choice.

The reason there are different answers is that there is no right answer, because the real answers to these questions lie beyond words. There is something that is understood in that twilight area that we call enlightenment.

Because you’re dealing with such a process, it’s so complex, the way that the Universe is run, that the level of attention you need to understand it, you have to be so expanded. In other words, you’ve got a great computer, with fantastic this and that, but you’ve got an operating system that can’t handle it. It just can’t process, you see.

So that’s the situation you have with enlightenment.

So right now the operating system that you have can’t process all of the information.

So what’s necessary is to switch operating systems. And you just do it gradually, to a slightly more competent one, a slightly more competent one, and so on, until eventually your operating system is the universes themselves. All of it.

So, it’s a little of this, a little of that. It depends what day of the week it is.

Yeah?

[Question from the audience]

• How can you use the psychic network to make money?

[Rama]

How can you use the psychic network—well, that’s not—how can you use the kundalini to make money? That’s easy.

If that’s your interest, the more kundalini you have, all you have to do is work. [Audience laughter.]

I would suggest a career in data processing, as a good start.

And if you’re just somewhat clever, you see, computers are fascinating because the mind set necessary to work with advanced structures and programming and in design, is exactly what we do in advanced meditation. It’s exactly the same mind set.

So people who meditate, find computers to be the easiest thing, once they get into it a little bit. Particularly the more advanced programming. So if you want to make a lot of money, then obviously that’s the area to go into. You’d be a natural for it.

But, you know, just work real hard at it, and you know, start your own company, and put in 20 hour days, and you’ll make a lot of money.

I mean it’s not hard to make money, if that’s what you want to do. You just have to work twice as hard as everybody else and be clever. And have a lot of personal power, and you can make a fortune.

But it just seems to me like there are more interesting things to do with your time.

It’s good to have a bunch of money, I mean, don’t misunderstand me. But endless money, I don’t know. Unless you have some great selfless plan that you want to help people with and you’re inspired, I don’t know.

I can think of more interesting things to do with the kundalini. But it’s really not hard to make money at all with kundalini. You can take this energy and do anything with it. But the thing we ask ourselves is of course, what is right?

That’s the thing. As you progress along the path, that becomes more important than the energy, “to do what is right.”

And so we search the self for those answers, and if what you come up with is what is right is to make a fantastic fortune, and if that is what is truly right, then that’s what you’ll do.

Because once you ascertain what is right, a tremendous power is unleashed from within you that will accomplish whatever is necessary.

So what I advise people to do is, rather than worry about techniques of “how to,” instead to inquire into the self and gain self knowledge and determine that which is right.

Because once you determine what is right for you, not only will it make you extremely happy, and will liberate you, but it will also give you the requisite power and knowledge to do whatever it is you seek to do.

Whereas, if you just learn the snappy techniques, you’ll accomplish it, but you won’t be any different. You won’t have changed, and it will just be paper, just empty experiences.

But, obviously, the question answers itself. As you have more kundalini at your disposal, power finds a way. It will happen, whatever you want. Whatever you desire …

Always remember my friends! I should tell you this. There is a law in the universe, there’s a number of them.

• One of them that you should know, is whatever you want, you get. So be very careful of what you want. Sooner or later, it’ll come. If not in this life, then another life. So be very careful. The monkey’s paw, here, OK?

• And the other one, of course, is whatever you don’t value, you lose. They go together.

Questions. One or two more.

[Question from the audience]

[Rama]

OK. Well, recognition is liberation. Just realizing, that, of course, helps you sort, at least, and you can detect when suddenly you get in the … Let me tell you a story.

Some friends of mine—some students of mine—recently purchased a house, a married couple, and they’ve never had problems or disputes over money. They’ve always gotten along, it’s no problem. Whether they had a little, whether they had a lot, it was never a big deal, and they’ve been married for many, many years.

They move into this house, right, and they haven’t actually even moved in. They buy, and you know, they’re fixing it up, and going over to the house once in a while, checking it out, putting new cabinets in, all that sort of stuff.

And when they go over there, they start to fight about money. Whenever they’re there, they start to fight about money. They start to bicker about money.

“Well, we shouldn’t spend this much,” she’s saying. “Goddamn it, but we’ve got to do it right,” he’s saying, and you know this whole thing is going on, right.

So, they get in a conversation with the woman who, I guess, lives next door or whatever, and she says, “Oh yes, well you know the people who had the house prior to the tenant who was in here, they were renting it for a while because they couldn’t sell it because the market was lousy, the couple, they had a divorce.

“The reason they had a divorce? Well, they fought over money all the time.”

And the subtle impressions stayed in the house, you see.

Now, once they saw that, of course, then they said, “Ah, this is it.” And then it was just easy to, you know, do your simple exorcism of the house and that took care of it. [Audience laughter.]

So, when you realize that you’re being affected, it makes it a whole lot easier. When it’s tough is when you don’t know, and you’re just sort of depressed, or discouraged, and you assume it’s you!

And you don’t realize that you’re just picking it up from somebody else.

That actually you’re a happy being. And there’s not a darn thing in the world to feel bad about, but you’re just picking it up.

So when you realize that, it makes it a lot easier.

Once they understood that fact, that helped a whole lot. And, it’s harder in proximity. That residual vibration of the house, so what they did was just had it totally cleaned, repainted, and you know, did the stuff, and anyway.

But when you have somebody living near you that’s putting out a lot of bad energy—this can happen at work. A person’s desk next to you. It can happen where you live, it’s more difficult.

If it’s real bad, I always suggest that you try and get out of the situation, or move to a different place, or whatever. If you can’t do that, that’s not practical, then the best thing to do is just to strengthen your place as much as possible.

Make your house as beautiful, or your room as beautiful as possible. Put as much good energy into it. You’re creating walls of energy. Keep your place impeccably clean, your closets in order. Everything in place.

That creates a force, a web, a network of energy around where you live. And of course by meditating there.

And then by being compassionate, and trying to understand that that person is just in a certain stage of evolution, and that’s where they are.

That’s about the best you can do, really. Just to try not to think about it too much, because if you get angry with a person, you focus on them, and more of their energy enters into you.

And there’s nothing to be angry about. They’re just doing what they do. That’s the kind of being they are, that’s the kind of operating system they have, for now.

So, try and feel compassionate.

If you can move, that’s the best. If you can’t, you try and be understanding, and at the same time, just make your place as strong as possible.

Put as much good energy into your home, or your place of power, as possible, and that will help a whole lot. That’s really all you can do.

Yeah?

[Question from the audience about conditioning]

[Rama]

Well, conditioning is everything that you’ve been taught. In other words, conditioning is sexual conditioning, that’s where it starts. Meaning that you are a certain sex, and as a member of either the male or female sex, you are this and you are not that.

Conditioning has to do with language. It’s thinking. The thoughts that you’re taught. How you view …

• “Now this is a good person, Suzy, and this is a bad person.”

• “Suzy, no you can’t wear that dress, it’s too short, you see, that’s not right.”

Conditioning is what your parents teach you, society, teachers.

But conditioning—that’s simple conditioning. More complex conditioning has to do with the way or the nature of reality.

In other words, we’re taught that,

• “This is possible, and this is not possible.”

• “This is real, and this is not real.”

We’re given … Our whole framework in our minds is supported by our thoughts.

But there is another section of our being—the will—which has nothing to do with that, which is open to other worlds, other realities. Very few people ever tap that part of their being, and that’s the part of your being, of course you tap to attain enlightenment, and higher planes of attention.

But conditioning is the way you see life. When you look at a tree, do you see it, or do just see your idea of “tree” that you were taught? Or do you see what it really is?

Do you see, in other words, the tree on other planes?

What I mean by conditioning is—those thoughts and impressions that keep you limited, your consciousness structured to one plane.

You can look at a tree, you should be able to see its luminosity, it’s life forms on other dimensional planes. The reason you can’t do that is because you’ve been taught that it’s not there.

So we’re cut off from most of life by our conditioning. And so the removal of that conditioning is the first step, and then of course, the deeper conditioning—the samskaras, multi-life patterns—has to be dealt with also.

And the way it’s really dealt with is just by absorption in the superconscious. The more you move into light, light just diffuses that, and washes that off, and of course the recognition that it’s there.

You don’t have to think about it a whole lot, but what you need to do is just move into higher and higher spectrums of kundalini, of energy. It’s just as if there are layers upon you and they’re just washed off, it goes away.

And, of course, you have to tighten up your life, and see where you’re losing power and stop losing power, learn new ways to gain power, luminosity.

Refocus your life more on light, and God and truth and frogs, you know, things like that.

You see, there are two principal paths. One is the pathway of light, and the other is the pathway of power. Both lead to enlightenment and self-realization. But they are very different ways.

In order to follow the path of light, you have to be good. That’s the path of the saint, the happy little soul.

But you don’t have to be good to really get there. There’s another way, that’s why there’s hope [laughter.]

And that’s the path of mysticism, or the path of power. And that doesn’t really have to do so much with morals, as with power and its use, and its abuse, and the structures of power within the self. The systems analysis of power and its uses to change attention and regain luminosity, and things like that.

There are different ways to attain enlightenment. There isn’t just one way. And different ways are suited for different people.

The question is, sometimes you feel that there is a blockage, as you say, a root blockage, within the self that you can’t seem to get rid of, that’s separating you from the light, or the self, or God or higher consciousness, and you don’t understand why you should keep feeling that, because why feel the pain of it since you don’t seem to be able to get rid of it.

Well, it can be gotten rid of.

And just because you haven’t done it in the past doesn’t mean that you’re not about to do it. But obviously, in order to do it, you’re going to have to do something that you haven’t done thus far. Because if you just repeat what you’ve done thus far, you’re going to get the same result.

So you have to … You know you have to keep hope in your life. You see, there’s just so much discouragement in the world today, you just pick it up.

You know, we’re entering a very dark time now. We’re entering a dark age spiritually. And it really intensifies starting in 1985 and it will be really tacky from now until about 2015.

We’re in a thirty year cycle now, in a dark age to begin with, in the Kali Yuga. Where it’s just very, very difficult for things that would be much easier. That you would just look at and say, “Oh, what the heck, that’s going to transform in its own time, and let me just work on a lot of happy things now, and light is going to take care of it,” you see.

But instead we just pick up these very negative attitudes and impressions about how difficult it all is. And it’s not particularly difficult at all.

Chances are we’re discussing here a samskara, a multi-life tendency. And that’s why it is harder to deal with. It’s nice that you can feel it, because if you can feel it, that means that you have a sense of what you have to work on.

But now, what you need to do is turn your back to it for a little while. Because just to keep looking at it, it’s going to frustrate you.

It’s like trying to take an exam over and over that you fail, and after a while you’re gonna get so discouraged, you’ll give up the subject. Let’s forget that exam for a while, and work on some things that will create a success pattern in your life, and give you more energy.

So that when you come back to it later, it won’t be so awesome.

Let’s let the self work on it. Don’t feel that you’re the doer, that you have to accomplish this action. It’s the self that does all things. It’s just vanity on our part to think that we’re capable of anything whatsoever.

It’s the self that does everything. You take a sharp piece of glass and you throw it in the ocean, and it comes back two months later, it’s washed up, and all the sharp edges have been smoothed perfectly. When I was a kid we used to call it harmless glass.

That’s what the process of enlightenment is.

You’ve got a lot of sharp edges right now. But if you keep throwing yourself into the light, over a period of time, those edges will soften, but please don’t expect that it should be done in the order that you like, or that you would prefer. Because you’ll only be frustrated.

There is an order that’s taking place, that’s beyond your sight right now, and it’s a wonderful order. And that’s the order of eternity.

But you can open yourself up to it, or you can slow the process down. Largely based upon your attitude, to be honest.

And the worst thing you can to is to start to feel discouraged, and that it’s some kind of insoluble … Nothing is insoluble. Nothing.

All things transform. That’s the one thing, my friend, you can be assured of in the transitory universe. Nothing will remain. Nothing. It’s just a question of when. So, the thing to do is to have fun in the meantime.

Because by having fun in the meantime, instead of knocking your head against the insoluble, you see …

Ramakrishna used to say, and some other saints, they used to say that they were really happy when life made them really miserable, because it made them cry more to God. And some of them used to just …

That’s an interesting way to look at a situation, too. There are different ways that you can play it. You can play it as an opportunity.

But I would just feel that you haven’t found the way yet.

There’s a way to cut down any obstacle. You might try making friends with it. That’s my method. I make friends with everything.

Because you can make friends with your opponents. Go out to lunch with them, you know. And you can make friends with your obstacles. You should see that that so-called obstacle is God, too.

It’s just a question of perception here. You’ve got to loosen your perception up, it’s too stratified. You’re still thinking too much in spiritual terms. You’ve got to stop trying to be so spiritual, it’s boring. [Laughter.]

Because when you’re trying to be spiritual, you aren’t. When you leave yourself alone, you are. You see, you’re still in concepts of what is right, and what you should be and shouldn’t be. Forget it. You’re obviously not having enough fun with your life.

Good!

I’d like to do one more meditation before we close up the evening.

ॐ

I’d like you to focus your attention at the very base of the spine. The kundalini resides—part of it—at the base of the spine. All the way down the bottom. What we’re going to do is very simple.

We’re going to take the kundalini energy, and just bring it all the way up to the crown of the head, straight on up.

But! Ha.

Once you get it up to the top, you don’t want to leave it there. Because otherwise, you’ll become top heavy and fall over. [Audience laughter.]

So what you want to do, is then you want to bring the kundalini all the way back down.

If you take something out, make sure you put it away. Don’t leave it out.

If you just bring the kundalini up all the time—[Rama mimics a cuckoo whistling]—you will go clean out of your mind. [Audience laughter.]

I’m serious. The kundalini can destroy you completely. The kundalini must be balanced. And if there’s too much up flow or down flow, it’s check-out time. So, always bring it back. Be polite.

So what we’re going to do, is just feel the energy at the base of the spine. You may not feel anything, that’s fine, just go through the exercise.

And just, what you’re going to do is imagine a streak of light, or energy, or power, moving from the very bottom of your spine—and just in a nice quick flash—to zoom it right up to the top of the head, a few inches above the head. If it wants to keep going, fine.

And then feel then, we’re going to do the opposite. But when we bring it down, it’s not so much a flash—it’s like a gentle rain of golden light—trickling it’s way down through our whole body, and our whole being. All the way down.

So we’re going to go up fast, and down slowly. I’d like you to do that for just a couple of minutes, and then stop.

And that will have released a great deal of kundalini, then we’ll meditate.

Ignore thought, or stop thought, or just pay no attention, and just let the energy carry you.

So for a minute or two, you’re going to be taking energy—maybe do it ten or twenty times. Twenty is good.

Take the energy all the way up—imagine it going right up, and then veerrryyy very gently radiating just a beautiful light all through your whole being. Relaxing you, renewing you, and then we’ll do that over and over again, just for a couple of minutes. Then stop, just let go.

You may feel light like you’re floating, or whatever. Ignore thought.

Relax. Just let go. That’s meditation.

ॐ

]Meditation finishes and Rama continues speaking.]

So how’s it going out there, OK? Good.

It gets intense, you know. [Rama chuckles.]

But what the heck. That’s what you’re here for.

ॐ

How do you attain enlightenment? I don’t think you attain enlightenment. It’s something that happens to you. It’s the hand of cards you get dealt.

But there are certain things, you know, that you need.

When we’re talking about enlightenment, we’re talking about something that’s very far out. We’re not talking about good meditations, or even just experiencing altered states of consciousness all the time.

We’re talking about merging with the universe consciously. Wedding yourself to it, being it’s bride. It’s a big step. You have to give up your humanity, your humanness. You’re going to become something other than human.

You know, I have a lot of students and they all want different things. I give a lot of workshops to the public, and you know, I travel, go to restaurants, Denny’s sometimes. I see a lot of life.

And I don’t see people who want enlightenment much. That’s not discouraging, it’s just how it is. People want pleasure, power. Power is the big one, isn’t it. That’s what people really want. In this age, power is it. Whether it’s power in the physical world or power in the inner world.

But how many people really want enlightenment? Because if you really want it, what you’ve got to go through—it’s beautiful, it’s not hard—but you have to want it very badly. And you have to want it more than anything. Want it so much that you’re willing not to have it, if that’s what’s right.

That’s not just a little cute trick you say in your mind, but that’s how you feel. I mean, you have to be really clean. Inwardly.

You have to just have total integrity, work beyond the point of exhaustion, meditate with your whole being. Live a life that’s just perfect.

Not perfect in a moral sense. That perfection will take itself in different directions. But perfectly true.

• “To thine own self be true. And it must follow the day the night, thou canst be false to anyone.”

You have to be true to yourself.

Enlightenment is not gained by techniques, by wishing, by hoping.

It’s gained by loving and by giving and by serving. Things that most people really don’t want to do too much of.

And they’re missing all the fun. What’s fun is not to lead, but to follow.

To be a servant of eternity. You know, when you become enlightened, all that means is that you’re a servant, essentially. It’s not an elevated position, it doesn’t mean that you’re the king or the queen of the land. It means that you’ve become a servant of all.

Because you realize that the real excitement, what’s really happening, the techy stuff—from a spiritual point of view—is in service to others.

So you have to have a very strong mode of selfless giving. So I suggest that there’s another way. The way of power. But even the way of power will take you through the same channels.

The difference is—when you follow spirituality—what we would call the Yoga of Love, the Yoga of Selfless Giving, Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Knowledge. You know, all of those different things. There’s different paths.

In the beginning, you have to first be good. And then later you become powerful. Because the idea is if you become powerful first, you’ll probably abuse the power, create a lot of bad karma for yourself, and just mess things up entirely.

So they tell you to stay away from power. And to just be good. Learn goodness. Learn humility. Purity. Integrity.

On the path of Mysticism—which is an equally valid path—I teach both, you know. I follow both.

But on the path of Mysticism, you do it the other way around. First you become powerful. You don’t worry about being good. And then goodness comes after power.

It’s a riskier path. But you can do it either way. You have to go through the same changes either way.

Enlightenment means taking the self that you now are and dissolving it. We’re just going to make you go away. We’re going to take a big eraser and erase you.

And then we’re going to have another self that’s similar, that’s more evolved. A little higher tech. And then we’re going to erase that one, and do it again, and again, and again.

Until we reach a self structurally, inwardly. I’m not talking about how you look or how you think. But inside yourself, in the inner worlds, in what we call the causal body.

Until everything is lined up in a certain way. Until you network with all of the universes. So you’re an access point between time and the timeless.

Enlightenment is not an arbitrary thing. It’s not just some state that can’t be defined.

There are actual structural changes that take place in the being—the nonphysical being—in order for that to be.

And the process that you go through, causes that to happen. It can be done over lots and lots of lifetimes. It can be compressed. You can go through—what you would in many lifetimes—in one lifetime. And there are different approaches that you can take.

But the point is not to become enlightened. The point is to become luminous. Whether or not you’ll become enlightened in this incarnation, who knows?

But you can become luminous. You can go very, very high.

Enlightenment is the post-doctoral stuff. It’s pretty out there.

You have to be willing to take some very large risks, which most people are not willing to take. You have to be willing to face yourself. All the horror within you, all the beauty within you. And then walk away from both, and let yourself dissolve.

You can’t be afraid of dying. You have to be willing to die many times in life, over and over, and go through this dissolution process. It’s not for everybody.

Because all the things you want, all the things you love, all your attachments will swing up before you, each time you’re about to go into samadhi. Everything you love is there. And you know that after samadhi, that self—that was there—won’t be there again!

It’s the darndest thing. You’ll be somebody else. And so, if you’re at all attached to any part of that self or anything—if you can’t let go and just trust God or the universe completely—you just can’t do it.

So you have to build up to that point. But even when you get to that point, the most difficult part is, as you become more advanced, of course, you kind of become powerful.

Maybe you can manifest a few psychic powers, you know. Create falafels in the air, stuff like that. [Audience laughter.]

And when you can do that you start to think you’re hot stuff, you see. Big deal, they can do it down [at] the shop, you know. You go down to the Falafel Shop, they can do the same thing. And it doesn’t probably take them half as much energy.

But the problem is the advanced, so-called “advanced spiritual seeker” is a real pain in the ass— to work with, as a teacher. Because they have a certain amount of power, so they’re not willing to start over.

You have to always be willing to start over. You have to be a perpetual beginner. ’Cause that’s where the fun is. The fun is being new.

The universe is new every day. It’s just beginning. Every moment. And, but you see, as human beings, when you’re into power—once you get power—you’re afraid to lose it. Because it took you so long to get it. Big deal!

So what, if you’re everything, who cares?

The point was to have a good time. We were only playing Monopoly! It’s you who started to think that the money was real. [Audience laughter.]

So you have to go back to playing Monopoly. That’s all life is, it’s a big board game.

You know, you get the chance, right, you know that sort of thing, the Community Chest, and the heavy bucks come in. They send you to the clink for a while, somebody springs you—it’s karma, right? And in each life you’re accruing karma.

You are experiencing in this life what you accrued in your other lifetimes.

But you’re not bound by it, because now in this lifetime, you’re accruing new karma, which you will experience either immediately, or later in this life, or in another incarnation.

Enlightenment doesn’t necessarily mean an end to lifetimes. Just because you attain liberation—I’ve attained liberation many lifetimes ago, and you know, you come back. (We’re working on it though.)

But—there was this brochure, I keep telling you, they show me this brochure about this place. They said “Vacation Loka.” Right.

You just have to put in a couple of hours once in a while, help a few people, right? Ha, ha, yeah. [Audience laughter.]

Last time I go to that interdimensional travel agent. But what can you do? You try and save a buck, you go to the cheap one [laughter.]

“Bargain Vacation World,” my foot.

That’s why this is my last incarnation in this one. I’m beating feet. There are other places, and this one’s going down, anyway.

But—you can’t necessarily do that, can you? I understand. I’m sympathetic. To a certain extent.

Well, you got yourself into this mess. You can’t expect me to get you out of it, hell. I can laugh about it, but what do you want? You’re the ones that created the karma that got you into the mess that you’re in, right?

But you’re also the ones that can change that. I mean you can be next to someone who’s imbued with light, energy, power, and it can all just fall “in one chakra and out the other.”

Unless you really have figured out the error of your ways.

And the error of your ways is simply that you didn’t love enough.

It’s not what you do that hurts you, it’s what you don’t do. What you don’t do is love enough. You need to love more.

You know, all the teachers say the same thing. No one ever gets it. It’s so basic. You need to be wildly, madly in love with light. With God, with whatever part of life works for you.

But it’s that love that frees and liberates the spirit.

You also have to learn the ways of power, of course. Otherwise, you’ll be a victim.

You have to understand the structure and networking of the universes and interdimensional planes. Because you’re subject to all of that, of course. It’s a very complex subject, naturally.

But the thing that you need the most is to love.

And not to worry about enlightenment and nirvana. But rather just to plug yourself into doing good for others and advancing yourself.

In other words, you need a sound structure to start with.

You have to define your goals properly, in my opinion. Now again, I’m an old school spiritual teacher, you’ll have to forgive me. But I believe that what you need to do is think about what you’re doing before you do it.

A little self-analysis can go a long way. It can save you a lot of incarnations. And what you need to think about is—what you’re here for. You took incarnation in this lifetime for a particular purpose. And you need to ask yourself, are you doing it?

And if you’re not doing it, no wonder you’re not happy.

The reason a person isn’t happy when they’re evolved—a person such as yourself—is because you’re not doing what your soul wants.

Before you came into the incarnation, there were certain goals that you set. They’re not like goals like we think of goals. Like, you know, producing 50,000 cars or something. But there’s certain things you want to learn or experience.

But now we come in, and we’re timid, we’re afraid, we allow the world to beat us down, the descriptions of the world and so on.

And we don’t fight hard enough. If you really love, you’ll fight for light.

Not fight someone outside of yourself, but you’ll fight inside of yourself so that you’ll never settle for anything but truth and clarity inside your own mind. And you’re willing to work hard enough, because it’s fun to be liberated.

Every day you meditate, every time you care, every time you love—you take a step into a larger world. You become more of a citizen of the galaxy than a citizen of a very small confused planet.

There’s a big universe out there, with lots of highly evolved beings who figured out the problems people are having here, a long time ago.

And you can be part of that world, or you can stay in this one for a long time. That’s up to you.

And you don’t have to follow a religious code, you don’t have to follow a particular creed, all that stuff is very backwards. It’s good in its place for beginners. But as you advance, that’s not necessary. We move into the pure experience of mysticism.

You need the actual experience of the clear light.

Talk is great—what you need is to dissolve into that light again and again. That’s what creates enlightenment. And also, you have to have a feeling of, there’s more in it than just for yourself.

You have to want to put energy back into the system. Because if you don’t, there can be no enlightenment. It’s impossible. There’s just not enough evolution in the soul.

Because an evolved soul knows that you are not just yourself, that you are all of “this.” And every time you do something for “this,” it’s for yourself.

And that’s just where the fun is, is in giving. It’s that attitude that’s necessary. Along with a tremendous sense of humor and a great deal of personal power.

And powerful friends help. You know, they always say that associating with the holy is part of how you do it. You burn away some of that—when they say the holy, they don’t mean people who are walking around on Wheaties all day.

The holy are some of the weirdest bunch you’ll ever meet. I mean if they’re really holy. Meaning, not that they walk around with Bibles, but if they’re really holy, meaning they’re intoxicated with God-consciousness. You’re dealing with spiritual teachers, the real ones, or just enlightened beings, or highly evolved beings are a weird bunch.

And they’re funny, they’re real funny. And they’re all real different, they’re characters.

And they’re not particularly moral, nor are they particularly immoral. They don’t follow any code or any creed. It’s all been passed away.

Because once you’ve merged with that light, God is in everything, so what’s the difference. You just let the Self direct you. Because you are the Self.

So, associating with beings like that, obviously, you pick up a tremendous charge of energy and inspiration from that. That helps a whole lot.

But the main thing is—you just have to ask yourself—what did you come here to do? You came here to do something. Not “do” in the sense of a project. But what did you come here to see, to experience, to learn? That’s your project.

Anything you accomplish here will be washed away, everything is transitory in this world. But you came here to have certain experiences, to enlarge yourself.

To increase your heart.

You know, you want to be like the Grinch. You know, the Grinch who stole Christmas? The old Grinch is not too evolved in the beginning. He’s going to rip off all those Whos. All that Who pudding and Who pie. [Audience laughter.]

He’s going to go for it, the Grinch! But then something happens to the Grinch!

He has a little enlightening experience. His heart grows. You know that day he’s up on the hill and he’s got that poor little dog pulling his sled, and all the Who pudding and the Who pie and the whole bit and the presents are about to go over the cliff!

And the Grinch, suddenly it’s just like his heart chakra goes “Whhhong!”

And he just realizes that there’s more to life than just messing up the Whos’ Christmas.

And I always cry at that part when—Boris Karloff is narrating it—and the tears come down, “And the Grinch’s heart that day grew the size of 12 Grinches.”

And then he pulls his sled back and he goes back and they have a great Christmas, and stuff like that. And then they shoot the Grinch. [Audience laughter.] They cut that part for TV.

Well, he needed to move forward to another life, I guess. I mean how far can he go, he’s a Grinch, right? I mean, even a good Grinch. There’s structural limitations upon a being.

Maybe he’ll be a Who in his next life? I don’t know. Is that a step up? Sally Who?

“Sally Whooo!” [Said in a sweet sing-song manner. Laughter.]

Those Whos were bhaktis if I’ve ever seen them.

I don’t know about all that love stuff. I’d stay with power if I were you. [Laughter.]

Love—you can’t trust it. One day you love, the next day you hate—stay with power, don’t get involved with love. Love is the pits, love is the pits. Power is happening. Because when you follow the path of love, I mean, the dangers on the path of love are excessive.

They’re just excessive. Because what happens is, you don’t really love. It’s just your self you’re loving. You’re not loving outside yourself. It’s very selfish. You’re loving all the time because it makes you feel good.

Whereas, when you follow the path of power, then you can do anything for someone. What can you do with love? Love is totally impractical.

I would love if I were you. I would always follow the path of love. [Laughter.] Love is absolutely the best way. Power has too many problems in it. You can be taken out by it.

ॐ

Listen, this could go on forever, and it probably will, but what I’d like to do is end with just a very brief two, three minute meditation. But I want to really take you over the top with energy, OK?

This is the last public workshop in our series. I won’t be doing any more until like next September in Los Angeles, so it’s like nine months, so this is the last minute of it. So it’s sort of the moment of power at the end of the series, 1985, the whole bit.

So for the last few minutes, I’d like to just sort of take you away someplace. Put you out for a while. Make it difficult for you to walk later, the usual.

Now, I’d like you—in this meditation—to at least part of the time keep your eyes open and watch. I’m going to be doing some of those mudras again.

And essentially what I’m doing is taking the energy of the kundalini. It can be done two ways. One can just sit as I was before, and be absorbed in samadhi and dissolve. I go beyond the form and the formless and just dissolve in eternity.

And you could say, “Why would you want to do anything else other than that?” Well, that’s wonderful, and the kundalini radiates to everyone.

But there are other types of power that can be transferred to people—that will aid them in their self-discovery—that can’t be transferred that way. And they’re transferred through what we call the siddhas.

The siddhas are not just miraculous powers to dazzle and entertain, but the siddhas are the opening of interdimensional planes of reality, whereby certain energies—strands of luminosity—are brought through.

We actually open those interdimensional planes and bring energies through, and infuse them into people. That’s really what spiritual teaching is all about. It doesn’t have that much to do with words, but it’s the transfer of energy and power.

So, when we do it with the siddhas, we use the body, because the body is part of the Earth, and these are powers of the Earth. They are of the material universe. They are high-tech spiritual powers. But they’re of a different order than the superconscious.

The superconscious is just the absorption in nirvana, the stillness.

This is samadhi. Dissolution.

[Rama briefly goes into samadhi in order to demonstrate dissolution.]

ॐ

The siddhas are different. It’s applied power. So that’s what I’m going to be doing.

And the reason I have you watch is because what you’re doing is focusing your attention, like you’re aiming.

But never watch too hard, because you need to be meditating. Clearing your mind, but it’s like daydreaming. It’s what we call “gazing.” A different practice than meditating.

You don’t want to look directly. If you look too hard, you’ll focus too hard, and you’ll focus too much on the physical.

You want a very diffuse gaze. You’re just looking very generally at the stage.

I’ll be doing a series of movements. Sometimes they look like—it looks like Tai Chi sometimes.

It’s really what Tai Chi evolved from. People don’t understand Tai Chi. Tai Chi has very little to do with movements. It was originally energy transposition.

But things are forgotten in this age. It’s leftover from another cycle.

And I’ll be just bringing a lot of energy through—just for a couple of minutes—and then we’ll say goodnight, and you’ll have a good journey, I’m sure.

Why not? The way is light, isn’t it? So. Let’s meditate for a few minutes, OK? Good.