The Distance Makes the Difference
3 August 1970 pm in Bombay, India
Question 1
IN ORDER FOR OO STAY AWAKE AT THE TIME OF DEATH, OR IN ORDER FOR OO SUCCESSFULLY EXPERIENCE A SCIOUS DEATH IATION, PLEASE EXPLAIN IAIL HOW A SEEKER SHOULD WORK ON THE FOLLOWING: THE BODY SYSTEM, THE BREATHING SYSTEM, THE STATE OF BREATHING, THE STATE OF ONES BEING, CELIBACY, THE STATE OF ONES MIND.
Before one remain scious in the moment of death, first one o prepare to stay scious in pain and suffering.
Ordinarily, it is not possible for one who bees unscious even in misery to stay awake at the time of death.
One o uand what it means to bee unscious when in misery.
That will make one uand what it means to be scious in misery too.
Being unscious when one is in misery means one has identified oneself with the misery.
When you have a headache, you dont feel any distaween the headache and yourself; you dont remain just a distant watcher.
Rather, you feel as if you are in pain.
When you have a fever, it doesnt feel as though the body is hot, somewhere at a distance from you, instead you feel as if you have bee hot.
This is identification.
When your foot is hurt and wounded, you dont feel just the affected foot; rather, you feel as if you are hurt and wounded.
Basically, we dont feel any distaween ourselves and our bodies.
We live identified with the body.
When hunger arises, one doesnt say his body is hungry and he is aware if it, instead he says, "I am hungry.
" But this is not the truth.
The truth is, the body is hungry and he is aware of it.
He is simply the ter of awareness -- tinuously aware of whatsoever is happening.
If there is a thorn hurting the foot, he knows it; if there is a headache, he knows it; if the stomaeeds food, he knows it.
Man is sciousness, sciousness which is tinuously aware.
He is not the experiencer, he is simply the knower.
This is the reality.
But our state of mind is not that of the knower, it is that of the experiencer.
When the kurns into being the experiencer; when he knows not, but rather bees identified with the act itself; when he does not remain a witness watg from a distance, but rather bees the partit i, that is when the identification takes place.
Then he bees oh the act.
This identificatios him from waking up, because in order to be awake, in order to be aware, a certain distance is required, a space is needed.
I am able to see you only because there is a distaween you and me.
If the whole distaween you and me were to be removed, I wouldnt be able to see you.
I am able to see you because there is a space between us.
If this entire space were somehow eliminated, it wouldnt be possible for me to see you.
My eyes see you, because there is a spa between but my very eyes are uo see themselves.
Even if I o see my figure, I have to bee the other in a mirror; I have to be at a distance from myself -- only then I see my refle.
Seeing the refle in a mirror means my image is at a distance, and now it is visible to me.
All that a mirror does is present your image at a distance from you.
The intervening space thus created enables you to see.
In order to see, a distance is needed.
For one who lives identified with the body, or thinks he is the very body, there exists no distaween him and his body.
Ohe