Q: Those moments that we might call mundane tasks, where I've lost awareness of the false self - it seems these moments are valuable. I don't know if they are valuable...

S: You've discovered that they are.

Q: Yes.

S: Whatever is in front of you, with your full attention on it to do the best that you can, is being fully present. You remind me of just a little snippet that I remember reading from talks of Ramana. The man that used to sweep the grounds met Ramana coming back from his walk and he prostrated himself. Ramana said to him, "Doing your job to your fullest is your prostration. No more is needed." That's totally being present. Whatever that job is, the sweeper is no lower than the one running the ashram handling all the money, for example. Whatever your job is, no other prostration is necessary.

Q: In the moment of doing the job it's different than saying, "I'll do the best that I can do."

S: There's nothing wrong with that.

Q: But that's how I feel.

S: But it's your intention. Sometimes what is it? Sometimes you don't have an intention. Sometimes you feel lost, isn't that what you are saying? Sometimes you are quiet; sometimes you're just involved in what you are doing, and that's presence; and sometimes you forget. You don't realize that you are anything but the small self. Is that what you are saying?

Q: Exactly, yes.

S: Then you chastise your self for that afterwards. And sometimes you don't?

Q: No.

S: Well then you should. [laughter] See you didn't have a Jewish mother. [laughter]

Q: I have an Italian mother.

S: Italian mothers are different; there's a difference. [laughter] One day I'll tell you.

Q: Sometimes I just notice that I've forgotten. That's okay that I've forgotten. But impatience screams in.

S: Yes, so really it's impatience. Either that you didn't go to presence or that impatience took over. I don't think you really get too upset if you just forget, but if you get impatient then you probably think you shouldn't get impatient. "It's not very spiritual."

Q: That's true.

S: Not very good. It's not very nice.

Q: No.

S: No, it's bad. Now we've got a problem.

Q: Absolutely.

S: You still haven't cleared impatience. [laughter] You still haven't cleared impatience. And all the ashrams, and all the robes, and all the times to India, and still there is impatience, when it appears.

Q: That's part of it. It's like waiting for satsang, waiting for the conditions to be perfect, for presence. So this is part of that, what I call the great lie. "I've got to get rid of impatience before presence can present itself." Know what I mean?

S: I hear you.

Q: It's that personal perfection.

S: Yes.

Q: Which is part of...

S: Which doesn't work.

Q: No. But that's one of the teachings or misinterpretation of teachings. It's hard to get rid of. I know it's not true, but I keep flogging myself over it. The great fallacy. It's because... I'm looking for all the right decisions to be made before...

S: Having everything in order first.

Q: Yes.

S: That's the way he is. That's the way you've been set up. That's why I am always pointing to the truth of who you are, so you can start on that bridge. What's the book that you borrowed?

V: It's called, "Filling the Bridge As You Walk It".

S: That's exactly what we are talking about right here. You are walking on the bridge knowing yourself as the person who has put in so much time and energy, desire, and love for truth, who loves satsang, and sometimes catches himself being impatient person, which is intolerable to him after all this time. The bridge is knowing that you are Self. It's like getting it in your heart and in your head that no matter what's going on, you are Self already, with the idea that you are impatient that needs correcting. That's crossing the bridge from what you know yourself as, to knowing your Self, that big leap of faith, that I am Self. The image of your self as being imperfect and impatient still can take the next step into the truth because it is true. I am Self anyway.

I have found from working with people that it's very helpful right in the moment that you're feeling this feeling, like impatience, just softly to remember "I Am." Even when you are impatient. Ever so softly, "I Am".

Kind of radiates through all of it, just that remembering.