Without the intrusiveness of personal mind, life is observed to be unfolding in a natural and harmonious way. Do not waste time just wishing for things to get better. The whole world is doing this and no one is really happy. We miss the true life. In fact, happiness arises when you stop chasing for something other than your own pure nature, and this is the happiness that remains with you.

The universal tendency in human beings is to seek lasting happiness in the field of names and forms, a transient field. Because they believe this is all there is, they look for happiness by immersing themselves in experience after experience, therapy after therapy, workshop after workshop—even ‘spiritual’ ones, which all sound so promising but never really address the present. This is really a form of avoidance, a distraction from what is timelessly unchanging and ever-perfect within ourselves. Ignorance of the Truth is the main cause of misery.

Avoid expectations and especially be aware of the tendency to wait for ‘next’ as a promise to happiness—the next good feeling, the next adventure or invitation from the mind. The ‘next’ experience, in fact, does quite the opposite; it pulls your attention away from pure presence, the seat of joy.

No one has ever experienced ‘the future’. Reflect. It is all imagination. How to transform these tendencies? Simply begin by paying attention to the natural thought-free state, the pure sense of existence, the feeling ‘I am’ that is naturally present in you. Shift the attention away from the mind-traffic and let it rest in impersonal awareness. Keep doing this each time the attention goes out towards sense objects or obsessive self-interest.

Self-attention is the beginning of real Self-discovery. It returns the attention time and again to its source—the one Self. Get used to staying in your natural and neutral state of being, a state of emptiness. Do not be afraid of this. In fact, get increasingly used to being empty. This emptiness and joy are synonymous. They are one. This is really what is meant by the saying, ‘To enjoy one’s self.’ It is a state of unfading contentment, wisdom, love and happiness.

Mooji, you speak about not looking for the next experience, but I feel so much better after reading self-help books and participating in courses. I really do feel that I am growing and evolving spiritually towards the Truth you point to.

Trouble will come from your belief in this ‘self ’ that you aim to improve. This is strong for people because one of our most treasured beliefs in this life is in personhood. Satsang is the biggest threat for the ‘person’. In authentic spirituality, satsang is a sword. It is such a direct way to expose the unreality of this little person-self. My words may at times seem brutal or even unkind, because you actually think you are doing so well, but from my place of looking, you are actually drowning in delusion while dreaming you are close to freedom. All this is the mind’s deception. You cannot be free as a person. You can only be free from the person. If the sickness is strong, the medicine must be equally strong; we are not talking about simply changing clothes, but about forces that can oppress your mind and send it into hell.

When I speak like this, people may react and take offence, but it is actually a chance of resurrection into eternal life. If your heart stops, sweet words are not going to get it beating again. You need a powerful shock. Sometimes it is not enjoyed, and I know how it is felt, but some delusions have to be crushed immediately, directly and without compassion—which incidentally is true compassion. If you do it slowly, you end up protecting the very thing that is suffocating your being. If you merely prune at your troubles, you will end up tit-for-tatting with me. I am not here to give opinions or exchange concepts. I speak with the authority of my own experience, which is not personal, and because it is not personal it has authority. The one who is personal has no authority for me; they cannot challenge what I am speaking. They can resist it, but they cannot challenge it authentically because the ground that they stand on is quicksand. When we are identified with the ego, we have no power—we have deluded power, aggression perhaps, but never the power of God.

People need to wake up and climb out of the strangling hole of egoic identity, to re-embrace the power of the living God within themselves. Rise up into a life of joy and peace; leave behind sorrow, vain investments and delusions. So I don’t come lightly. I come with love, but I don’t always come with a bouquet of flowers. I come with a sword, a loving and living sword. People don’t see or appreciate a loving sword—until their head falls off. Such is the power of Truth.