Silence of the Heart by Robert Adams

Selected quotes from the book "Silence of the Heart" by Robert Adams

Ramana Maharshi was Robert Adams' teacher, 1947-1950
"As long as you are born of the flesh you have to suffer. This is the way of the flesh. Do not try toimprove your life. You're making a big mistake. For there is no question about it, if you use positivethinking and use your mind, you may appear to improve your life. But remember, this world in whichyou live is a world of duality. For every up there is a down. For every forward there is a backward. For every good there is a bad. Therefore, whatever improvement comes in your life, it will last for a while,then will subside, then you become miserable again. You'll start sticking up for your rights and fighting for your survival. Then as you get what you want, you'll be happy again. You're like a yo-yo. You go upand down, up and down. And no matter how much I talk to you about this, you're going to keep ondoing this." -

Robert Adams
http://www.robertadamsinfinityinstitute.org/silence1.pdf
"Consciousness, you may say, is the screen of reality and all of the images of the whole universeare superimpositions on the screen of reality."
Page 20 
"The only freedom we've got is not to react to anything, but to turn within and know the truth."
Page 21
"Consciousness is self-contained, Absolute Reality. It is yourself, when you do not identify withthe world. And that only happens to the average person just as they are falling asleep and just asthey wake up."
Page 27 
 "There is only one I actually. That “I” is Consciousness. When you follow the personal
I to thesource, it turns into the universal I, which is Consciousness. Begin to catch yourself. begin torealize your divine nature. You do this by keeping quiet. The fastest way to realization is to keep quiet." 
Page 36
 "When you catch on to your awakening, the world does not change. You just see it differently,that's all. You acquire a feeling of immortality. A feeling of divine bliss, so to speak, when thingsno longer have the power to affect you."
Page 45
 "There is a power that knows how to take care of everything, and will also take care of your body,so-called, if you stop thinking. But as long as you think I am the body, then you have to take careof your body, and watch it, and feed it aspirin and cold remedy and proper foods and do all kinds of strange things with your body."
Page 46
"As long as you are born of the flesh you have to suffer. This is the way of the flesh. Do not try toimprove your life. You're making a big mistake. For there is no question about it, if you usepositive thinking and use your mind, you may appear to improve your life. But remember, thisworld in which you live is a world of duality. For every up there is a down. For every forwardthere is a backward. For every good there is a bad. Therefore, whatever improvement comes inyour life, it will last for a while, then will subside, then you become miserable again. You'll startsticking up for your rights and fighting for your survival. Then as you get what you want, you'll behappy again. You're like a yo-yo. You go up and down, up and down. And no matter how much Italk to you about this, you're going to keep on doing this."
Page 49 
"There is no thing in this world that is that important. As long as you believe it is important, youwill never awaken. You can't. For you are caught up in maya. You are playing the game. You arestill involved in the leela. You're feeling things. You're reacting to things. You're arguing aboutthings. You're debating things. You're still not sure."
Page 51
"When something takes place in your mind or in your world, you become the observer. Youbecome the witness. You do not react. You try to keep your mind centered in the now, in themoment."
Page 52
"Grass grows spontaneously, but we can imagine we are making it grow with our willpower. Thesame with the activities of our bodies."
Page 53
"When you stop searching and you calm down and you put your books away, and you confrontyourself and see what you are all about, that will bring about bliss faster than anything you canever imagine or ever do."
Page 110 
"It's only what you experience that matters to you. It's not what you read. So what if you learn atruth that you haven't learned before. So what if you say this teacher expresses it this way, andnow I know it from this angle and that angle. I must remind you again. Knowing truthintellectually does absolutely nothing for you. You might as well take LSD. Because you only getpsyched up."
Page 115
"How do you make progress? By using books for reference only. By practicing the methods I sharewith you. By practicing Self-Inquiry. By watching as you go through life's experiences and notreacting. Watching yourself become depressed. Watching yourself become angry. Do not deny it,but observe it. And if you observe yourself correctly in that calm way, you can ask yourself, "Whobecomes angry? Who is feeling depressed?" And follow it through. Do this over and over and overagain, as many times as you have to. One day, the anger will leave you, the depressions will leaveyou, your thoughts will leave you. And you'll just be."
Page 116
"I remind you again, the only difference between the sage and yourself is you see the world andyou identify with it. You think it's real. A sage sees the world and he knows it's a superimpositionupon Consciousness. So he identifies with Consciousness."
Page 117 
"For you're saying, "Aren't we supposed to help the world?" You're supposed to find out who youare. Your first and main job is to awaken. And then you will see if you want to help the world. What world?"
Page 119 
"Find out who this God is, from where this God came, and you will soon realize that you havecreated God in your image. There is no such God, but it's better than nothing. It's good to knowyou have a big daddy somewhere, who you can cry to, who you can scream at, and blame for allyour problems. Yet, as we grow, as we unfold, as we let go of all this stuff we've been holding onto, something happens; we become lighter. The burden seems to disappear by itself. The onlyburden you've ever had is your mind."
Page 125
"Vichara, Self-Inquiry is only to keep your mind from thinking. That's all it is."
Page 131
"Whatever you're no longer attached to gives way. Whatever you're no longer holding to, no longerholds on to you."
Page 138
"The power that takes care of that knows how to take care of you. Don't you see, there isn'tanything you have to do to help. In other words, God doesn't need your help. All you have to so isto take a deep breath and say, "Take it God. I'm all finished with it. I will never worry again. I willnever be upset over anything again.""
Page 139 
"But I mean when you are really in deep sleep and you wake up, if you catch yourself, you'll seeyou feel good. You feel great. You feel wonderful. It's only when you start to think, that thefeeling changes. Check it out for yourself. Why? because deep sleep is really bliss."
Page 148
"Whenever you use the word "I" you want to catch yourself and say, "I is not me. Me is, Who am I?"Me is the question, "From what source does the I come?""
Page 150 
"When your thoughts take on a feeling nature you give them power. But when you refuse to takeon that feeling nature, the thoughts disappear." Page 153"No matter how many times I tell you this, you're still thinking, thinking, judging, judging, comingto conclusions, trying to work out your life. You have to let go. Totally, absolutely, completely.You have to let go so completely that you will feel no body, no mind, no pain, nothing."
Page 154
"As you look at the world without interpretation, as you look at the world without attachment,what the world is will be revealed to you."
Page 155
"Worshiping God in the form of a Satguru, or in the form of a Buddha, or a Christ, whatever, iseven better."
Page 172
"Once you know there is no mind, there is no longer the experience you've got to go through. Allexperiences cease. But be aware that all experiences have come from the mind. In reality thereare no experiences. The life you're living now is an experience."
Page 178
"Never pray to God for release of your problems. Never pray to God to change your life, and togive you something better. This is wrong prayer. If you have to pray to God, pray to God to giveyou the strength and the wisdom and the courage that you need to be able to handle the situationthat you're in. This is correct prayer."
Page 185

"All you've got to do is let go of the personal I by not reacting to the condition, and automaticallythe real I comes along, for you are really the real I. This is your real nature. This is your swarupa,God, Brahman, Consciousness. Can you imagine what would happen if you thought about this allday long, without forgetting? Why, you'd be enlightened in no time."
Page 189 
"This is a first step. To have total faith and total trust in the Infinite, the One."
Page 195
"We have names for everything. What if we forgot about those names? And we stopped seeingthings as something? What if we just observed things, watched things, without giving them aname, without coming to a conclusion? What do you think would happen? You would transcendeverything."
Page 198
"The realization that everything you see, the universe, people, worms, insects, the mineralkingdom, the vegetable kingdom, your body, your mind, everything that appears, is amanifestation of your mind."
Page 222
"Everything that your senses show you is an emanation of the mind."
Page 223
"Think about that! Everything in this universe, person, place or thing, everything, your body, yourthoughts, creation, God, everything you can think about, everything, and I mean everything, is aprojection of your mind."
Page 224
"When you close your eyes, it goes away. When you sleep you transcend it. But when you areawake, the world exists. The world only exists because your mind exists, and your mind existsbecause your ego exists."
Page 227 
"Then who am I? Keep silent for a while. You know it's working when you start to feel a quiet,loving feeling. You start to feel a peace you have not felt before. You start to feel that all iswell."
Page 232
"You don't have to set aside a time for meditation. You can do it while you're driving your car,while you're at work, while you're playing music. Just be aware of yourself, of who you really are,and realize the rest is a projection of your mind."
Page 234
"In the beginning, when you're finding yourself, you realize that I exist. "I Am That, I Am" means Iexist. Same thing. But then you find out who is the I that exists, and you follow it through."
Page 235
"How do you create a dream? Does it start with a beginning? As soon as you start dreaming, there'sno creation. The dream just starts. Everything is already there. The trees, the sky, the earth, theflowers, the grass, people, insects, birds, flowers, everything just appears. Does it die in the end?You just wake up, and it's all gone."
Page 237 
"And thinking every day that you are unborn, you have no personal life, and you do not exist, andyou will not disappear, just thinking about these things does something to you."
Page 237 
"And we cannot empty the mind by thinking. Only by observation."
Page 251
"See, all these years we've been dealing with a finite mind, with our own intellectual processes,with our own preconceived ideas, with our concepts. But I'm saying we have to transcend those,and use a new part of us that we've never used before. And that's the self."
Page 257 
"But if you put your energy into it, and you practice it every chance you get, and you put this firstin your life, you will see amazing results. Amazing results. But you have to put it first in your life.Think right now. What is first in your life? Don't tell me but just think. What comes first in yourlife? Can you take it with you when you die?"
Page 264
"When you open your eyes you can either ask yourself, "Where did the 'I' come from? Who am Ithat slept last night? Who am I that has just awakened? Who am I that exists now?"
Page 265
"You may learn about the astral planes, the causal planes, reincarnation. You may learn abouthow to become positive in your life, how to attract the right mate, how to attract money, health,and all kinds of stuff. How to channel, how to do this, and it's very exciting to the ego."
Page 266
"The three vehicles of Self-Realization: 1. You have a deep longing, a deep feeling to be byyourself. 2. You have a deep feeling, a deep desire, to always be at satsang. 3. You will have adeep feeling, and a deep desire, to be around people like yourself."
Page 268

"Three methods on the PATH 
:Number one is self surrender, where we surrender completely to God, or to your Self. Number two is mindfulness, which we were talking about. Becoming the witness. Watching yourself continuously. Watching your thoughts, watching your actions. Sitting in meditation and watching what goes on in your mind. Not trying to change anything or correct anything.And number three is the one that I advocate, Self-Inquiry. Asking yourself, "To whom does this suffering come? It comes to me. Well what is 'me'? I am me. Who am I? From where did the I comefrom?" And following the "I" to its source."

Page 270
" Whatever you think about, that you become ultimately.
So you have to be very careful what youthink about.
Whatever you think about, you become
. Think of the sage, you become the sage."
Page 338
"You realize that the [other] person does not belong to you. Belongs to God."

Robert Adams Quotes and Sayings

Use, Atma-Vichara, self-enquiry. Whatever method you have to use, do it, but do it all day long. That's the secret, not just when you come here, not just an hour a day, but all during the day.

What I'm trying to show you is, you cannot depend on anything in the world for your happiness or your peace. It's a false premise.

For most people to be happy, there has to be a person, place, or thing involved in their happiness. In true happiness, there are no things involved. It's a natural state. You will abide in that state forever.

Whatever you've been doing, you're using your mind to do it. And your mind will always fool you. It will make you believe you're getting somewhere. You're becoming something great. But it's really the ego. It is the ego that is controlling the mind.

You are what you've been looking for. The answer is always in you alone. There is nothing in the external world. For the external world is an emanation of your own mind, your own thinking and your own imagination. You created this world.

As soon as you start to turn within, as soon as you begin to listen to the still small voice within you, as soon as you start to practice self-enquiry, your life begins to change drastically. You become happy. You no longer search for happiness, for you are beginning to realize that you cannot find it externally. You may appear to find it, but it does not last.

The universe loves you. It will always supply you with your needs. Forget about other people, what they do, what they don't do. Do not listen to malicious gossip. Be yourself. Understand who you really are. You are the absolute reality, unconditioned consciousness. Work from that standpoint. Do not work from your problems. Do not get lost in meaningless gossip. Understand your true reality. Be yourself.

Many people enjoy the play, because they wish to continue. They continue to identify with their conditions, situations, bank accounts, wives or husbands. As long as you are attached to anything, you cannot find freedom. 

When you stop searching and you calm down and you put your books away, and you confront yourself and see what you are all about, that will bring about bliss faster than anything you can ever imagine or ever do.

As far as I am concerned, its morally correct to be a vegetarian. The soul become purified. You come closer to realization. Eating meat pulls you down to earth. Scriptures talk of the three gunas. Meat eaters have Tamasic qualities, which are the lowest qualities of humans. Therefore, it is better not to eat meat. Your thinking becomes clearer and you are able to absorb the higher teachings. 

No matter how many times I tell you this, you're still thinking, thinking, judging, judging, coming to conclusions, trying to work out your life. You have to let go. Totally, absolutely, completely. You have to let go so completely that you will feel no body, no mind, no pain, nothing.

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