VINEETO: I can only be free without ‘feeling’ that I am in an advanced state, without ‘being’ the One in the advanced state. The moment there is a ‘feeling’ superior, a ‘feeling’ advanced, a ‘feeling’ grand, then the ‘self’ has found yet another identity to thrive on...

RESPONDENT: So true and so obvious.

VINEETO: You have cut out the second half of the quote, which answered No. 8’s question. I’ll give the full reference:

[Respondent No 8]: But is now the whole of you – in its own perception – better than all the people who are still completely stuck in the human condition and as well, those who are beginning to find a way out – albeit a false, spiritual one? Can you be free and aware without identifying with that advanced state?

[Vineeto]: I can only be free without ‘feeling’ that I am in an advanced state, without ‘being’ the One in the advanced state. The moment there is a ‘feeling’ superior, a ‘feeling’ advanced, a ‘feeling’ grand, then the ‘self’ has found yet another identity to thrive on.

But living in this magnificent actual world, without a ‘self’ in the road of experiencing intimacy with every thing, event or person is, in fact, vastly superior to anything else I have ever experienced in my life. With ‘my’ disappearance I am able to do what is happening, at ease, every single moment in my life.

RESPONDENT: So true and so obvious.

VINEETO: What is so true and obvious?

Is your comment a remark that ‘feeling’ and the ‘feeler’ are the problem and that you have known it all along? The ‘feeling’ as in feeling sadness, feeling anger, feeling love, feeling bliss, feeling God, feeling Oneness? The ‘feeler’ as in ‘being in the heart’, the soul, Atman, Essence? Do you say that that is ‘so true and so obvious’ to you?

Or do you mean that you think that Vineeto ‘feels’ superior to someone else?

Feeling superior is but a quaint substitute to the vast superiority compared to anything else I have ever experienced in my life. It is vastly superior to ‘being the watcher’, ‘being the disciple’, ‘being the seeker’ or ‘being the experiencer’.

But instead of objecting or ‘feeling about it’ you could, just as an option, check out why it is so superior and how to achieve it for yourself.

Let’s say, I offer you a vacuum-cleaner called ‘a ‘self’-demolishing method’. I tell you that it works wonders, you will only need to apply it yourself. I tell you that it is far superior to the old way of cleaning with a broom and dustpan.

What would be your reaction? Blame me for claiming to be superior? Or check out if the vacuum-cleaner is really superior to the broom and dustpan used up to now?

It is the method and the result of the method that is superior, not ‘me’. It completely demolishes any ‘I’ that would be feeling anything, superior or inferior, angry or sad, compassionate, blissful, desperate, murderous or just annoyed. What is left is the blithesome at-easeness as a sensate and reflective human being.

The only thing I say is that it works.

2.2.1999