Tom asked: "If you see what you want, how is it that you don't want to go on until you reach it?" Baba replied: "It is like a deep valley. This seeing, he thinks, is the end. He cannot say he thinks it is the end. Few try, thinking it is not the end, but cannot stay there.

"Kabir says the three ends for an aspirant are:

1. With smoke and no fire.

2. Fire and smoke

3. Fire.

"Now your mind can imagine God as Infinite, vast, but what can you compare to that thing — vastness? Sky? Sea? Now you think that union with the sky means merging into the sky and becoming the sky. When the eye turns inward and the third eye (between the other two) opens, you see the Self. You are not united . . . because you are still there as the seer.

"When this happens mind is not as clear as now. It is dazed and so it feels that this is the end. Now you think clearly. If you could think as clearly then, you would know it is not the end. You would say, "I must go on." But few souls keep the mind clear when this is experienced. When they do they long, like a fish out of water, to be one with what they see. But they cannot. They then feel this is the end. But, if a Master helps them then there is Union. Now is this clear?"

Baba put the question to one of the group as to whether it was clear, and the answer was: "No, I get all confused when you talk like that." Baba smiled and answered: "Love Baba, that is all you need to do.

"The fun of it all is, you are already united. It is fun. But you have to go through it — you have to — everybody has to. To know "I am already One with the Infinite, I have always been Infinite."

Malcolm Schloss asked, “When you speak of being One with the Infinite, do you mean One with all creation?" Baba replied: "Self is that eternally, but when Self plays the part of mind, then it is aloof from the Infinite. But this aloofness is illusion. Creation is Infinite in its being, the production of Infinite imagination. What we have to do is to be rid of that imagination and its infinite productions.

"You take seven flights of imagination. Now you have to go back seven flights through seven planes. But when your imagination takes flight you don't fly — you think you fly. Say you are there (pointing to where one of the group was standing) but think you are over there. When your imagination returns, you feel you return. Now is it clear? You think you have gone. Now in the human form your imagination is at its seventh flight. You are really back of the body, but your imagination is in the body, therefore you think you are the body. It is ignorance to think 'I am the body.' To find the Self again you have to go through seven planes. Imagination itself removes the seven veils of imagination."

Malcolm asked a further question: "This Infinite process of becoming is all illusion. How can we get beyond becoming to pure Being?" Baba's reply was: "You want to know how to realize the Self. Very cute. He asks the only thing that matters! That is not knowing, it is Realization. Now is it clear? Unless one is imprisoned one cannot appreciate freedom. A fish born in water lives in water. It cannot realize water. When it comes out of water it goes back into water and knows the water."

Nadia said: "Then we should bless everything, even our difficulties, shouldn't we, Baba?" Baba. "Bless everything, even the sweets and the lemon soufflé! Everything is a blessing."

Instruction on Meditation

Meditation: Do it very, very seriously. By that I mean follow literally every external instruction. To each I have given different external instructions. How to