No self

Nothing you do will change you, for you need no change. You may change your mind or your body, but it is always something external to you that has changed, not yourself. Why bother at all to change? Realize once for all that neither your body nor your mind, nor even your consciousness is yourself and stand alone in your true nature beyond consciousness and unconsciousness. No effort can take you there, only the clarity of understanding.

Don't try to reform yourself, just see the futility of all change. The changeful keeps on changing while the changeless is waiting. Do not expect the changeful to take you to the changeless - it can never happen. Only when the very idea of changing is seen as false and abandoned, the changeless can come into its own.

Nisargadatta Maharaj; Excerpt from: I AM THAT ‘Clarity of understanding’

George Strait sings, “life is not the breaths you take but the moments that take your breath away.” That’s a nice life motto to have, but it’s still not freedom. Freedom is the moment when we stand outside of the ‘I’, like an on-looker on a robot that would have gone about its business had it not been for this momentary change of perspective. Some of these glimpses of freedom occur in the special moments that take our breath away, some when we go about our mundane existence, and some in moments of turbulence. There is no telling when, but we know when we are free, and it’s what this spiritual mission is all about.

Nisargadatta Maharaj sounds quite relaxed about life goals, the need for spiritual transformation and religious practices, but at the end of the day it’s not even about that either. Do good if you like, become your authentic self and try to follow the spiritual path that works for you. Yet, once again, the ultimate goal is freedom, not getting some spiritual achievement awards. Treasure these ‘no-self’ moments and be alert for the next one. It’s bound to come. We are free already. We are That!