Individual vs Universal

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ82GNYGBZA

there was an interesting question few

few days ago and it says that how do we

see that the individual is a product of

the universal mind there is this notion

that the individual is a separate thing

an entity which is independent and has

its own existence and the universal mind

is somewhere high up there in the sky

somewhere in the other dimension and is

not even accessible to the individual

this is usually the picture one draws

when they hear about these things that

there is a universal mind and

if we are a part of the universal mind

but they don't really understand because

they say that i am here in the physical

world i have no access to the universal

mind how will i ever know about such a

thing so you can clearly see that

this kind of thought is there this kind

of ignorance is there because of

identification with the body

when they say i am down here and i do

not know anything about the universal

mind they are actually equating their

body with the eye and therefore the

solution is to know the essence of what

this i is and then you will know what it

the universal mind is

so i already answered this question and

the answer was like this in only one or

two lines that when we investigate the

reality of the individual we do not find

any individual

and all that remains then is the

universal

it is very easy actually you don't need

to hunt for the universal mind but let

me find it where it is what kind of

experience will give me the experience

of the universal mind with strange

experiences in which extraordinary

abilities are going to show me and and

are going to connect me to the universal

mind

this is not the right approach there is

a lot of ignorance behind such thoughts

as long as you have assumed that there

is an individual which can go and meet

the universal it will never happen the

key is to investigate whether there is

an individual or not and you will find

that there is none whatever is called an

individual is simply a thought is simply

a belief which is based on our social

conditioning if you have not

investigated what is this i who am i

then and there is no

good chance of knowing the universal

so there are many ways to find out the

reality of the individual and on the

path of knowledge we use the direct way

that we try to point to the individual

for example and

just like we point to any other object i

can ask you to point to the individual

and most of people will point to their

bodies that here is the individual but

that is the body that is not the

individual

the body keeps changing the body is not

permanent one derives a sense of

individuality from the body that is

another thing but it is not the

individual

most of the body that we the individual

had is gone now and the individual will

never say that i am gone they will

always say that yes the bodies are

coming and going bodies are changing a

20 year old will say i am in the same

way

80 year old is going to say and so on

and

you can point to anything in this whole

system in this whole layered system and

you will find that these are only

thoughts of individuality

some things were associated with being

the individual and if you remove this

thought of the individual whatever

remains is now universal

this is how we discover the universal

mind the current mind the current

experience is universal experience not

an individual experience

the happening of the individual or the

ignorance of the individual or the

concept of the individual arises in this

universal mind not in the individual

mind the individual mind does nothing

because there is nothing

once this

individuality is dropped you will find

that everything is happening on its own

instead of the individual acting the

universal is acting instead of the

individual taking birth and dying the

universal is doing it these are the

processes in the universal mind of birth

and death of taking various forms and

discarding those forms so those who know

that this universal is also not me i am

something which is not even the

universal mind i am the witness of these

processes i am the witness of the minds

whether the illusory individual or

whether the universal i am the witness

and this universal mind is also an

illusion it is also impermanent it is

also coming and going it is not in the

beginning it is not in the end and it is

not in the middle

this is the direct method and if it does

not work like the identification remains

at the body the person can say for

example that i am the body but the body

is changing but i am it and

the person can also say that i am the

memories or i am thoughts and if that is

taken away there can be thought like i

am the universal mind now or anything

which is intermediate such as the causal

body

so we use a more detailed method which

is progressive elimination which i have

described in the path of knowledge

series also called the traditional

nativity method so you check whether i

remains or goes

when one of the experience is examined

whether it is memory whether it is a

causal body whether it is universal mind

with anything and you will find that

everything is an illusion everything

comes and goes

i remains as a background of these

changing illusions

and now you can drop the universal also

and you can say that there is only me

whether it is universal or individual it

does not really matter this division was

never present all the remains is the

experiencer and the illusory experience

which is then found to be one the

experiences are arising as non-physical

and non-mental vibrations in the

experiencer itself

there are no two

so that division can be dropped by

checking that there is no separation

between the experience and the

experiencer

and when you investigate the qualities

of the experiencer as we have done in

this series you will find that it is

absolutely empty it has no qualities at

all whatever qualities and whatever

forms and names are seen are illusions

and

if you remove them if you treat them as

false then absolute nothingness remains

absolute emptiness remains and that is

the nature of the whole that is that is

how i am and that is how the universal

mind is and that is how the individual

is and that is how every object is from

the tiniest grain of dust particle of

dust to the huge mountain and the whole

universe and the whole universal mind

the universal mind is same as the

universal memory that i talk about in

the video series if

you are confused that is because i have

used this word universal mind in the

past but then i found that the word mind

is very confusing for many people they

think that it is a subjective event of

some kind which is right actually that

is what minds are so i removed it i

replaced it with memory which is also

confusing but is more clear than mind

now it is possible to understand the

whole world the body and the

layered structure as a form of the

memory the memory has organized itself

to produce all these

seemingly individual forms they are not

really separate from anything

they are like waves on the water it is

impossible to find boundary of the wave

the boundaries arbitrary and they arise

in the water and they collapse back in

the water

something similar is happening in case

of all the forms there are processes in

this memory that will brand or that will

delineate a form and call it an

individual and it totally depends on the

ignorance present there if the ignorance

is too much then the boundary of the

body is taken as boundary of the

individual this is how the individuality

is extracted out of the universality it

is only thought

what is the utility of this thought you

will understand it very clearly that it

is necessary to survive and therefore it

is there nothing happens in this

universal memory without a reason so

this drawing of the boundaries arbitrary

boundaries around the body let us say

are around the mind that the person is

going to say look i cannot see the other

minds i cannot see what is happening

behind my head and i cannot see what is

happening in this other country that is

my limitation

i cannot think anybody else's thought

and so on and therefore i am not

universal and all these boundaries are

there for a good reason and the reason

is survival

there is this phenomena of

assuming forms and the forms if they are

not separated by one or the other means

will not survive

there will not be any wave in the water

if nothing distinguishes the wave from

the water it must take an illusory form

and it lasts for a while and then it is

dropped in the water disappears in the

water something similar is happening

some of the forms they will stay for a

longer time some are so fast that they

are not even perceived so where is this

universal memory it is here and now

whatever we are experiencing right now

is the universal only

this is the simplest answer there can be

more

follow-up questions like how can i

become the universal member and the

answer is very simple there is no i

there is no i at the level of

individuality so there is no point of

this question it is not possible to

become the universal because the

universal is absence of the individual

and when the individual says that how

can i become universal the only way to

become universal remain becomes to drop

the individuality it can be done right

now also

investigate the reality of the

individual it falls away and you can say

roughly that now it is all universal the

individual does not become the universal

the individual disappears and universal

remains it is very easy how can the wave

become the whole pond or whole ocean

just stop being the wave

now it is very uh amazing that

the wave is not going to disappear only

the ignorance needs to disappear only

the illusory bond boundaries need to be

seen that's all

that can be seen by simply trying to

find

the individual you will never find it in

your experience you will find various

boundaries which are a product of the

ignorance or which are due to necessity

of survival

since this

question falls

in the category of the illusion

sometimes it is not possible to show it

the person or the individual will remain

trapped in the individuality for a while

so there is something interesting that

is happening this whole structure is

evolving towards

greater universality like it is giving

up the individuality slowly and so we

just let it be

there are some parts on which this

evolution is pushed so that there

remains no doubt in our minds that i am

not really the individual my boundaries

are assumptions and so on and when you

follow those practices when you

follow those paths

the

doubt is completely removed

on the path of knowledge we do it using

direct experience in logic once the

doubt is removed you abide as the

universal are you abide as emptiness

because

if there is duality there is universal

and individual when there is non-duality

the question does not arise

this can also be called liberation

liberation while in the body the forms

need not be dropped only the ignorance

needs to be dropped

some people have this odd belief that if

the body dies i'll become the universal

no you can try but it is not recommended

if it was so easy to become

the universal whatever that means it

means nothing really then we would have

highly recommended to kill yourself

first kill this body that would become a

path but you know it very well there is

no such path because the body is just an

empty shell if you kill the body the

individual does not go away

the illusion remains because the reason

of the individuality is not the body the

reason is ignorance the reason is this

form belief that i am the individual i

am not the universal that will remain

forever

remember that the body has been killed

millions of times already still there is

individuality so that proves that

killing it once more destroying the body

once more will not work the only way to

come out of this individuality is

through knowledge investigation

experimentation direct experience and

logic that clears the mind of this

ignorance and we see that i was never an

individual there was no individual since

the beginning and there will not be any

in future

the strange thing is

the

assumptions will be dropped but the

function of the individual will remain

that function need not be destroyed also

it it can function as an individual this

layered structure of the memory can

function as an individual as a body as a

mind as a causal body also this is the

game that it that is going on and that

is also harmless nothing is gained by

destroying this these things and nothing

is gained by keeping these things

nothing is gained except the knowledge

we do not become editing the humans do

not become anything they remain humans

liberation does not make you anything

else simply drops your ignorance that's

all

why don't you become anything because

there is no individual to become the

whole is becoming the individual the

individual will never become the hole

the water appears as waves the wave will

never become the ocean the ocean appears

as waves

this is very simple logic this is common

sense so stop trying to become the

universal stop trying to become the

whole just see the illusion of the

individuality this is the direct path

why are they meditating why are they

doing these experiments in the universal

memory why are they trying to get the

powers and so on because of this basic

ignorance that i need to grow i need to

evolve i need to expand i need to get

more experiences that are of the

universality as long as this belief is

there as long as this

belief in individuality is there however

subtle it is the effort will continue

the path will never end your seeking

will not end

on the path of knowledge we end it like

this