Another lesson from a remarkable wise man.
What I Teach
Robert Rabbin
When people come to one of my Truth Talks for the first time, they want to know what I teach. I tell them I teach what you already know, though you may have lost sight of it.
I tell them that when I was young, I was haunted by a single question: Who am I? I traveled for a long time, all over the world, in search of answers. One day I came upon Silence. In Silence, this question was finally answered. In Silence, I saw that I was freedom itselfÖI was pure awarenessÖI was joyÖa simple happiness, all the time. Of course, this is only true as far as words goÖthe thing itselfÖI can’t say. But I love to talk, and so I do my best to stir up their own knowing. I am really more of a reminder than a teacher.
I am a reminder of what you know when your mind is still, when your heart is open, when your listening is deep–and when you forget all about the small self with which you are usually preoccupied. I remind you of that Silence which opens to the world of endless beauty and truth, in which you discover that you are different than anything you have thought you are.
I remind you of what you are, beneath all your ideas, beliefs, and concepts, beneath the burdens, problems, and aspirations that you call your life. I remind you of what you are in those quiet, precious moments in which you lose your small self–the one that is built from thought and lives alone in its quiet desperation. I remind you that to let go of that small self is to return to your true Self, the one that is not alone or desperate, the one that is a whole part of mysterious, unknowable immensity of creation.
I also remind you to ask two essential questions: Who am I? and How shall I live?
It is only by asking these questions, in pursuing these questions to a very deep place within us, that we become fully human. I pursued these questions for a long time, traveling all over the world in search of answers. One day I came upon Silence. In Silence, these questions found fulfillment. In Silence, I experienced a clarity, freedom, and joy that I recognized as my Self.
And so I also remind you of Silence, that Silence which turns our mind to a place beyond words, beyond the constant internal dialogue which hides the world of beauty and truth, that Silence which is of the soul, that Silence in which lovers give themselves away to that greater loving, that selfless loving, that Silence which is the language of the heart, that Silence which knows only this moment, this present moment, this incredible instant of pure life, not the past, not the future. That is Silence which lifts us above this world, that we may better know its truth, and beauty, and that is Silence which then returns us to this world, full of gratitude, clarity, and compassion.
Silence is that presence we sense when we are inwardly still, when we stare at something beautiful, when time suddenly stops, or when we breathe the high-altitude air we call love. Silence resolves our internal and external conflicts and heals our confusion, fear, and insecurities.
I want to remind you of these forms of knowing and being, and of Silence, all of which we know, but may forget, and in forgetting we feel lonely, sad, and heavy.
The 15th century Indian poet-saint Kabir once wrote:
“We sense there is some sort of spirit that loves birds and animals and the ants–the same one who gave a radiance to you in your mother’s womb. Is it logical you would be walking around entirely orphaned now? The truth is you turned away yourself, and decided to go into the dark alone. Now you are all tangled up in crazy ideas. You have forgotten what you once knew, and that’s why everything you do has some weird failure in it.”
We know we are all descended from this spirit that loves birds and animals, the same spirit that gave us our radiance in the womb, the same spirit that lives within us now as love and outside us as beauty.
The spirit that created and loves birds and animals is within our very genes. It is wound together in our DNA. It is the essence of who we are. It is within the breath. It is the light within our eyes. It is the high arc of birds we long to follow home to their secret nests. It is in the rhythm of waves, the innocence of children, the deep feelings within the heart that have no cause, when the heart is pierced without warning and our eyes fill with tears. It is within the kindness and care of one to another. It is within the stillness of nights and peace of early mornings. It is there when music makes you listen with ears that animals have, hearing what we can’t hear with human ears. It is there when you see the one you love coming towards you, and your pulse pounds and races with delight and you move with her in a twilight not of this world, but of the spirit world, the world of our knowing, the world of original cause, my parents, your parents, our parents calling us home, calling us into their arms, into their embrace of peace.
How do we forget? How is it that we turn from what we once knew? We simply invest our thoughts and beliefs with a reality they are not entitled to. There is life, and there are thoughts about life. If we see our thoughts as thoughts, we don’t become our thoughts; we recognize that we are different from our thoughts. Thoughts just arise and disappear; we can’t even say they arise within us. Leave them alone. Do not grab them, do not collect them, do not push them away, do not think about them. Leave them alone. We just have to recognize that thoughts are thoughts, and we are not those thoughts. We just have to recognize that we are not the complex beliefs woven from single strands of thought. We just have to recognize that we are not the albums of pictures and images created by thoughts.
In this recognition, we make direct contact with life, we open to life, and as we open to life, life opens to us, life reaches towards us and touches us right in the center of our heart. Our heart breaks open, and another heart is revealed. This is the true heart, the one that knows how to meet life with open arms.
This meeting with life occurs in Silence. In Silence we have no problems, nor are we confused or frightened by life. When we are not confused or frightened, we do not act in crazy ways.
Without this recognition, we become our thoughts, and we begin to have a lot of problems. Trying to solve these problems with more thought only tightens the noose. Soon, we can’t breathe, we become afraid, and we start acting out our fear in crazy ways. The only effective way to solve these problems–the ones created by thinking we are our thoughts–is to touch life again, through Silence.
Silence is the recognition that thoughts about life are not life itself. If we stay in touch with life through Silence, life will stay in touch with us. In this way, we become life itself, not thoughts about life. And then the mystery of life, the magic of life, and the beauty of life become our life.
Remembering this truth, our lives become what they are supposed to be: simple, clear, joyous, free, even beyond free, happy, even beyond happy, full of the most ordinary magic imaginable. Knowing this truth, our lives stop as when touched by a vast power; stopped, we become still, open, listening, listening to Silence, to what we once knew. We know ourselves for the first time. We see the world for the first time. Remembering this truth is dying to sadness and sorrow, to confusion and doubt, to fear and hate. Remembering what we once knew stops us in our tracks, and we walk toward the light, away the darkness of forgetfulness and crazy ideas.
Remembering what we once knew is knowing Silence. Knowing Silence is knowing yourself. Knowing yourself is freedom. I simply want to remind you that you are free, that you are as clear as the sky, that you are the very embodiment of joy, the very expression of love. All this is true right now, in this moment, and nothing needs to be changed or achieved, nothing needs to be given away or won. Just enter yourself fully and deeply. You will find this Silence, and in Silence you will know your own truth, your own freedom. As the embodiment of Silence, truth, and freedom, you will become a treasure to the world in its time of great poverty and need.
This is what I teach.
Robert Rabbin is a writer, speaker, and “solution architect” whose passion for radically engaged spiritual wisdom is expressed in his lectures, workshops, and column of social commentary. He will be speaking in my local community of Monterey, California, and working with us in the formation of CommUNITY. His talk is open to the public.
IONS-Insight into Action: Merging Spirit with Political Activism
Monday July 19, 2004
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Event Location: Monterey Beach Resort , Pts. Cabrillo Room, 4th Floor
Street: Hwy 1at (218) Seaside/Del Rey Oaks Exit – on the Beach
City, State, Zip: Monterey, CA 93940
Phone: Anne Auburn 831-659-1424
Notes: Robert Rabbin, writer, speaker, and spiritual activist (http://www.robrabbin.com) will lead our first in-depth theme program on Spiritual Activism. This theme of expanding our spiritual lives to include personal responsibility for the state of the world will be developed over the next three months of meetings, all of which Robert will facilitate. This new format will include active participation by all attendees in dialogue, reflection, and the creation of specific projects we’ll initiate by way of turning “insight into action.” Suggested donation $5.00 and bring a friend.
Visit Robert Rabbin’s website. Read more about him.
