You don't need to change anything
Q: I have the feeling that I’m slowly beginning to wake up, more or less.
Karl Renz: Since in this eternal Now there’s only the experience of the pure Self, there’s absolutely no sense of “more” or “less”. There’s no “closer” to it, “more advanced”, “less advanced”, or everything else. Nobody’s enlightened or unenlightened; in fact, any idea of awakening disappears. There are no sleeping or awakened ones anymore, no more hocus-pocus of trying to get anywhere and have special experiences, or any other such nonsense.
Where I am, nobody can be. No one’s awakened and no one’s sleeping because that which exists has never slept and therefore never can awaken. Every personal awakening is a joke, a fart in the wind. A person can never wake up because the Self is always awake.
Q: You say it’s nonsense if someone says he’s realized or enlightened.
KR: The only thing one can say is that there’s no personal story anymore. One’s history, which seemed so real before, drops away. A person can never say, “Now I’m enlightened.”
Whatever happens in time can’t make you into what you already are. The Self becoming aware of “it-Self” doesn’t depend on the person. It occurs spontaneously, not because of some event in time.
Q: Is there still a person then?
KR: Yes. For example, Ramana said, ”As awareness, I am absolute awareness; as consciousness, I am absolute consciousness, and as man, I am absolute man.“ Jesus said the same thing: ”I and my Father are one.“ When relativity is present, the Self is lost. That which lives the human being is this same ever-present existence.
Q: And am I an aspect of that?
KR: An aspect is fleeting. Check whether you’re something fleeting or something that is. An aspect is just an angle on something, only a passing reflection of what you are. You’re the absolute manifesting itself as a human being, as the moon, the sun, and all the universe. You’re reality itself. Whether you realize yourself as a human being, a stone, or a tree, you’re the truth, the reality.
Q: Then I don’t need to strive for enlightenment.
KR: To ”strive for enlightenment“ means that an object thinks it can do something to bring about an absolute existence. The object thinks it needs to change something, so the absolute state may come into being. In this way, what’s perfect can become a bit more perfect! But when Ramana says, ”Be what you are,“ it simply means, ”Be this absolute existence, be that which you can’t not be,“ and let the details follow their own destinies.
Q: But apparently you can work toward this moment when you can ”be what you are.“
KR: Yes. Nisargadatta Maharaj said, ”There were times in which I existed and therefore populated the world. Those were times in which I and human beings still existed. But since this one here exists no more, no population exists either. Since then, the world is empty.“ Thus, there were times in which he lived in the illusion that he existed as a separate being among other separate beings. He believed it, and although it may have been a dream, it appeared real to him.
After all, when you perceive an idea, it seems true. Only when you find out that it’s false does the illusion burst. In this moment of clarity, there never was a ”before“ or ”after“. To be where you are, you don’t need time.
Q: How does this help my daily life?
KR: You simple see that there never was anyone who could change anything. When you see that your ordinary Self is perfection itself, you realize that this ordinariness is no more ordinary than the eternal NOW, which never comes and goes. Just look inside yourself for the vision of God. In Meister Eckhart’s words, ”The eye by which I see God is the same eye by which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye are one and the same - one in seeing, one in knowing, and one in loving.“
Q: Well, that’s Meister Eckhart. I haven’t had this realization.
KR: You never had anything and never will have anything. But in the moment of this realization, you see that this is how it’s always been. Then there’s no more ”before“ or ”after.“ And it’s effortless! Nothing needs to be done, nothing needs to change, nothing has to go, and nothing has to come. In fact, nothing needs to be understood.
Q: Then I’m relieved.
KR: Me, too!
Karl Renz, ”The Myth of Enlightenment: Seeing Through the Illusion of Separation"
Karl Renz: Since in this eternal Now there’s only the experience of the pure Self, there’s absolutely no sense of “more” or “less”. There’s no “closer” to it, “more advanced”, “less advanced”, or everything else. Nobody’s enlightened or unenlightened; in fact, any idea of awakening disappears. There are no sleeping or awakened ones anymore, no more hocus-pocus of trying to get anywhere and have special experiences, or any other such nonsense.
Where I am, nobody can be. No one’s awakened and no one’s sleeping because that which exists has never slept and therefore never can awaken. Every personal awakening is a joke, a fart in the wind. A person can never wake up because the Self is always awake.
Q: You say it’s nonsense if someone says he’s realized or enlightened.
KR: The only thing one can say is that there’s no personal story anymore. One’s history, which seemed so real before, drops away. A person can never say, “Now I’m enlightened.”
Whatever happens in time can’t make you into what you already are. The Self becoming aware of “it-Self” doesn’t depend on the person. It occurs spontaneously, not because of some event in time.
Q: Is there still a person then?
KR: Yes. For example, Ramana said, ”As awareness, I am absolute awareness; as consciousness, I am absolute consciousness, and as man, I am absolute man.“ Jesus said the same thing: ”I and my Father are one.“ When relativity is present, the Self is lost. That which lives the human being is this same ever-present existence.
Q: And am I an aspect of that?
KR: An aspect is fleeting. Check whether you’re something fleeting or something that is. An aspect is just an angle on something, only a passing reflection of what you are. You’re the absolute manifesting itself as a human being, as the moon, the sun, and all the universe. You’re reality itself. Whether you realize yourself as a human being, a stone, or a tree, you’re the truth, the reality.
Q: Then I don’t need to strive for enlightenment.
KR: To ”strive for enlightenment“ means that an object thinks it can do something to bring about an absolute existence. The object thinks it needs to change something, so the absolute state may come into being. In this way, what’s perfect can become a bit more perfect! But when Ramana says, ”Be what you are,“ it simply means, ”Be this absolute existence, be that which you can’t not be,“ and let the details follow their own destinies.
Q: But apparently you can work toward this moment when you can ”be what you are.“
KR: Yes. Nisargadatta Maharaj said, ”There were times in which I existed and therefore populated the world. Those were times in which I and human beings still existed. But since this one here exists no more, no population exists either. Since then, the world is empty.“ Thus, there were times in which he lived in the illusion that he existed as a separate being among other separate beings. He believed it, and although it may have been a dream, it appeared real to him.
After all, when you perceive an idea, it seems true. Only when you find out that it’s false does the illusion burst. In this moment of clarity, there never was a ”before“ or ”after“. To be where you are, you don’t need time.
Q: How does this help my daily life?
KR: You simple see that there never was anyone who could change anything. When you see that your ordinary Self is perfection itself, you realize that this ordinariness is no more ordinary than the eternal NOW, which never comes and goes. Just look inside yourself for the vision of God. In Meister Eckhart’s words, ”The eye by which I see God is the same eye by which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye are one and the same - one in seeing, one in knowing, and one in loving.“
Q: Well, that’s Meister Eckhart. I haven’t had this realization.
KR: You never had anything and never will have anything. But in the moment of this realization, you see that this is how it’s always been. Then there’s no more ”before“ or ”after.“ And it’s effortless! Nothing needs to be done, nothing needs to change, nothing has to go, and nothing has to come. In fact, nothing needs to be understood.
Q: Then I’m relieved.
KR: Me, too!
Karl Renz, ”The Myth of Enlightenment: Seeing Through the Illusion of Separation"
