Jivanjili: Once Anandamayi Ma said: “Once a year you should go to an environment where you have never been before.”

Why would this be like that? Why would such a Great Master give such a simple order to her disciples?

Student: To untie you from your “home.”

J: Yes, from your familiar spot, from your concepts, from your securities, from your fears of losing something. Anandamayi Ma intends to make you aware of your patterns, because in a complete new environment you suddenly know nothing precisely anymore. You have to be alert in the moment, so to speak, discovering, researching and being inventive anew.

It is so important to untie. When you do not detach time after time from habits that are installed just like that, your world is seemingly separated and restricted. I call it rusty. It may even seem comfortable, but comfortable rust also gives apparent certainty, just like discomfort does.

“This is what I have know absolutely certain,” is an error. Seeking absolute certainty is fundamentally the cause of unnecessary suffering. When we look into the universe, do you see anything absolutely stable? Or is everything constantly moving and changing?

S: Everything is passing.

J: Yes, everything is passing! Everything is transient. That is the only thing that is certain. We are upside down; we are searching for security in things and circumstances as stable forms, models. We attempt to put life in a rut, as if to assure it. But the only stability we have is the impermanence in all appearances, in all things. Looking for assurances gives a permanent feeling of separation and a permanent feeling of “Oh, God, if only it would be all right!” The attention is ceaselessly focused on “I-me-mine:” “Should I trust this?” “How much should I give?” “How much did I receive?” “ I must be in control, this is my money!” “What do they think of me?”

Once I asked my sister to join me for a holiday, from my first salary. I simply asked her to join me. For her? For me? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. When there is circulation, there is no “I”, no “you.” In circulation everyone experiences well-being. To see that, is so wonderful and utterly freeing.

When you give, don’t give out of Christian do-gooder's dogma, by putting a candy in the offertory plate; not because you want to get straight A’s from the Lord. Don’t give because you feel obliged by morals. Give wholeheartedly or don’t give at all. So don’t give out of principle, give with all of your heart. Wholeheartedly is flowing – principle rusts. We cannot build up credit for the hereafter, because we are simply nowhere.

You have always something to give, if only a smile. If only being silent.

In that flow, that eternal circulation, and in that silence, every place is your home, everywhere….now-here. Absolutely certain.

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