Question 56: Oliver, does Andrew Cohen transmit the Truth? In our opinion he goes around in circles, but stays close to the core. Do you see any similarities to your personal style of teaching?
Oliver: Truth cannot be transmitted. Everything that happens occurs in a time- and space-less Oneness, including Andrew Cohen and his teachings. They are not separate from you or from me. Whatever he tells you, what you should do or not do to reach liberation, is exactly THAT which appears and is therefore perfect. It is THAT. If his words please you and you trust him, this will be your path resp. the path of the psychosomatic apparatus you think you are. Otherwise you can always look for another teacher or throw the towel, because you are fed up of all of this (= my modest suggestion :-). All of this is the movie of life, which appears WITHIN you, within Oneness. It doesn't matter what Andrew Cohen says. He cannot make more or less out of you than that, which you already are. Oneness. With the (apparent) liberation of Andrew Cohen you have been liberated as well. Whether you go to Andrew Cohen, or come to me, or go to the cinema, in every moment exactly THAT is here, what you are looking for.
Question 57: Oliver, my Indian guru says: "You are love." Okay, I say, but then I am also envy and hatred! He didn't like this at all. What do you, as an approved Satsang teacher, say to this?
Oliver: My reply as an "approved Satsang teacher" comes directly from common sense (yes, the mind has by all means a function in daily life):
If your guru teaches in a dualistic way (your question points to that) and his concept says that THAT what you really are is love (= the "true" Self), then envy and hatred (= two mortal sins) represent the polar opposite, in fact that which, according to his concept, you have to renounce. Your guru wants to help you with his concept to become a more loving, "better" human being (religions happen to ask the same from their followers). It is a kind of spiritual re-education that your guru offers you.
If you counter this with non-dualistic arguments, you will not get anywhere. It is as if a catholic tried to dissuade the Pope from catholicism with mind games. Of course you are, if everything is One (axiom of non-duality), also envy and hatred. You are also spaghetti. So what? That is not the question. Your guru wants to offer you a gift with his statement and you reject it by questioning him with non-dual thought concepts. No wonder he doesn't like this, as he sees that you are in the wrong place with him. That is the game of life and you have just gone against the rules of your guru. Who cares? :-)
Additional query to question 57: Oliver, what does this Indian guru teach at all? In a factual way the Self cannot be styled to LOVE. It changes its mood at random, right? In my case, ANGER made a glass shatter in the sink tonight. I don't know where love was at that moment :-((
Oliver: Love was and has always been Oneness which - according to my concept - manifested itself in the form of a glass shattered by your temper... Love is that which you are, in every moment. Love is the Ocean of Oneness that you are, no matter how high the waves (emotions like anger, sadness etc.) are. You are, like most people, strongly fixed on the emotions of the psychosomatic apparatus that you perceive as "I" resp. "my body" or "my character". Your guru appears to teach (or at least that's how you take it in) that you can only awaken if you can master these emotions and become more loving. This makes you angry, as your conditioning is obviously quite vigorous; accordingly, you distance yourself from the ideal of a gentle, enlightened sage, a picture created by your mind. But to reach this ideal is neither possible nor necessary. You can try for years to become gentle and loving by changing your conditioning. Perhaps you manage to achieve this lastingly, perhaps not. But this has nothing to do with Awakening and Liberation - it is only an attempt to improve the dualistic world and to control it, which religions have tried for millenniums. It is a control of the mind over the body and the thoughts, in fact - as mentioned above - it is a mental exercise. Instead you can collect stamps for years; in both cases you are and remain the Ocean (Love).
Question 58: Oliver, you question my amiable guru (a Brahman)! He doesn't sell chocolate. He would never say "all is ONE… or IS = SHOULD BE. He says, You are THAT and my reality as a human being is THAT.
Oliver: Well, every teacher, master or guru - whether Brahman, Buddhist, Christian or Muslim - is selling chocolate in a certain way (beautiful metaphor :-) I sell chocolate, too. We are trying to sell you with loving words the mystery that the search for enlightenment (chocolate!) is unnecessary.
That you ARE already chocolate. In fact we are poor salesmen as we don't sell anything to you at all. We see that you have already everything and we tell you that. That's all! One does it in a dualistic way, the other in a non-dualistic manner. Everyone does it the way he has learned it himself and the way he can do it best. It doesn't matter with which hand the master points to the moon and how this hand is: big or small, fat or thin, smooth or hairy, clean or dirty. The hand is not important. Only the moon matters.
Question 59: Oliver, can you please interpret the following question with your words: "Is there life after death? Does true life only come after death?"
Oliver: Who is it that asks this question? It is the one thought: "I am a body separate from other bodies in a world of linear time and space." Metaphorically speaking it is the wave that feels separate from other waves and from the ocean. When this thought dies, and with it the feeling of separateness, the perception of space, time, life and death also disappears. Through the death of the Thought of Separateness (= that which earlier was equal to "I") a fundamental feeling of existence remains. This feeling can be described as Oneness, Being. But it is not personal; from that follows my statement, utterly confusing for the analytic mind, that there is Nobody who does anything resp. to whom anything happens. In this Oneness the circle of Life and Death appears, just as everything simply appears and fades away again. The notion of "Life", "Death", "Life After Death", "Reincarnation" or whatever, are finally just thought-up concepts of this separate "I". The separate "I" wants to reach a place without distress, e.g. Heaven, Paradise, Nirvana or Eternity. But it can never experience the fact that this Heaven is already NOW here, even if it reincarnates millions of times. Heaven cannot be experienced by a somebody. Heaven simply IS, and it is always NOW.
Additional query to question 59: Oliver, in your opinion, when did the identification with "I" "die" with Ramana Maharshi? Immediately after his near-death-experience or in the years of retreat and immersion?
Oliver: In the awakening moment of Ramana Maharshi, as he realised during the "death simulation" that what he really is, is the true Self (that's the way he called Being, Oneness), his identification with "I" died also. What followed can be interpreted by the mind at random: It is the path of the conditioned "body-mind-entity" who was drawn to the holy mountain Arunachala in South India. Ramana's conditioning made him choose retreat and immersion, risking the death of the body which, as is well known, was prevented by courageous yogis.
Question 60: Oliver, I am a victim of maya (= world of illusions. My wife (a sensory perception like me) feels neglected and wants a divorce. What can I do and how do I harmonise the story and the images in my head again? They say that everything happens inside the head and not outside.
Oliver: If you have read these pages of mine carefully until now, then you know that you need not harmonise anything in your head; harmony is already here, even if it doesn't appear so to you at the moment. This perfect harmony (= Oneness) has nothing to do with the judgements of the mind of "right" and "wrong". Perfect harmony is always THAT which appears, in every moment. The present moment cannot be otherwise at all, for then it would not be the present moment. My concept for you: Every situation in this dualistic world manifests itself (apparently) IN you, in Being; therefore in THAT which you really are. No part of a situation is ever separated from the other. You, your wife, I, my words, your idea of harmony and the feeling of neglect of your wife are ONE, inseparably connected. They appear seemingly in the time- and space-less Being. Without cause. Without any reason. You ask what you (relatively seen) can do. Well, you can apply the rules of the game of the dualistic "maya world" (= apparent universe) and take action, e.g. by doing a couples' therapy with a practicioner. Or you could apply the universal law of attraction by throwing out all the ideas in your head about how your life should be in order to be felt as harmonious; you could try to carry inside you a general basic feeling of causeless wellbeing, around which your universe can regroup itself. Or you can apply other techniques of "brain washing" that will change your conditioning. However, whether such methods will lead to the desired "results" and make you happy depends on the personal life movie of the body-mind-entity which you think you are. And this film has been shot already. Allow me a remark to finish: All these have been purely practical recommendat-ions for life inside duality, they have nothing to do with Awakening and Liberation, which is what Satsang is all about; I have pointed out (quite exciting) techniques to control and manipulate thoughts and thereby the universe. To explore these issues further would go beyond the framework of this non-dual website. But there exist heaps of books on all these topics.
Additional query of another questioner to question 60: Oliver, in such a crisis, does the identified "I" have the strength at all to willingly dissolve itself into Oneness? Aren't resistance and struggle useless, if the "life movie" has already been shot anyway?
Oliver: The small identified "I" can apply whatever power it may have; it cannot dissolve itself. The disappearance of the tiny thought "I am a separate being", on which the small "I" is based, needs such infinitely little strength that the mind cannot even imagine it. For that matter a crisis can be helpful to "let go" (many masters would depict a crisis as a "gateway to Enlightenment", but this assertion can lead to misunderstandings with the small "I" as it might think it must do something to make "IT" happen, e.g. first to suffer and be in a crisis, but this is completely unnecessary). The concept "the film has been shot" means that the body-mind-structure with its small "I" will always act in the world of duality the way it has learned to act, resp. the way it has been conditioned from the beginnings of the universe. For that reason each moment is perfect as it could not be otherwise, and every apparent action (each of which is always a single moment in the timeless NOW) is always a predestined reaction to previous moments. Therefore, whether resistance and struggle appear in the movie or not is connected with this. But all this occurs IN Being, in Oneness, in the true I, in THAT what you really are. It appears to occur as this as it is only a concept and nothing has to happen. You don't have to be awakened, as you're not sleeping at all.
Here is a comment from another visitor of Satsang.ch for the sender of question 60:
| "If you seriously look for something, whatever it is, then you will find it in OLIVER'S answers. Read them repeatedly and trust him. Please. It's worthwhile." |
Comment from Oliver: Words I can write down. Whether they lead to trust or not is Grace.
