Conversations with Avant-garde Sages - The Wizard LLC

Conversations with Avant-garde Sages
the circle itself? Whereas, if you find a point on the line, you miss
the point. The whole idea is to stay centered. And so as long as
the mind is externalizing and going outwards towards things, as
long as we become attached to people, places, things, or events,
then there develops a certain anxiousness or tension in those
desires to acquire them. Whereas allowing the mind to turn
inward and rest in the center, you acquire them without effort. So
once again we come back to the effortless state when all is
acquired without effort, we rest in the center, and we realize we
are the center. But when the mind is going outward, and we forget
our Self, then we delude ourselves into believing that God, we can
conceptualize and say, okay, God is the lamp over on the table.
But by externalizing our mind toward that we forget our Self, you
see, and then we are not really in touch with the divine within our
Self. So the key is really again words are very limited in trying to
express this and so, yes, I mean everything ultimately is the
essence of that. And yet when we fixate or focus on only a small
part of it, we lose sight of who we are.
WIZARD: I get that when the I-thought is focused on something
external, it's reinforcing the idea or notion of the I-thought instead
of which becomes an obstruction to the vision of that within which
the I-thought is arising.
NICK GANCITANO: Yes, so is that clear?
TRIP: It is. I want to ask you something that's related to that.
Okay. We're just having Satsang here, so I guess I don't have to
worry about being like perfectly succinct.
WIZARD: It is whether you worry about it or not. [Laughs]
TRIP: Okay, you spoke about free will in one of your sharings, and
I think I can say that you would say that there may appear to be
free will for the one who has identified with him or herself as a
separate individual, but in the absolute sense there is no free will.
And on this and many other topics, you and I, and the Wizard
here, are completely in agreement, and it's lock step with Ramana
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