The question here is: "Why does this suffering exist? This psychological suffering present in each of us." It is present because we haven't studied the truth about who we are, about how the mind within us functions, how it works; it's the absence of comprehension.
We are living in a pattern of behavior that is sustained by what thought evaluates. Thought is the element that makes evaluations; it looks at the present moment within the conclusions it draws. Life, in thought, is the presence of a life within the recognition that thought can reach, perceive, and deal with.
It's interesting to know, to comprehend, something fundamental: thought is an element within a limitation; it doesn't encompass the vision of the totality of life. Thus, its evaluations are limited evaluations, and we are living within these limitations, as people. So, why does such a thing as mental suffering exist? Because we are living in the mind.
But what is the mind? What is the truth about the mind? The internal movement of consciousness within us, what does that mean? It's the presence of recognition; a recognition that, because it arises from thought, comes from the past. See the implications of this. What do you know about the other? Everything you can know about them is based on what thought has to say about them.
What can you know about yourself other than what thought tells you? This is what allows you to have not only an idea of ??who you are, but also an idea of ??who the other is. You don't have the truth about them, you don't have the truth about yourself; you have what thought tells you. We have to investigate this, to have a clear understanding of this limitation.
If here, for example, I use an expression, a word, immediately, in your brain, this creates a mental representation; this mental representation in your brain is not reality, it is the image that thought is producing about what we are talking about here. Note that each word, in the dictionary, has numerous meanings. So, what exactly are we talking about here? If any of these words has multiple meanings, thought can create a specific image of a given word, and yet that's not what we're communicating here.
So, how can we approach life, how can we approach others, or ourselves, through words? Words are an element of communication, but they are limited to this condition of multiple interpretations. These are the evaluations of thought. We don't have contact with life as it happens, with ourselves, as we are, with others, as they are. And we don't have it because we haven't learned to observe, only to observe.
Our gaze becomes contaminated by thought, by this evaluation, by these various interpretations that the image creates-we do this all the time. Therefore, if I use a word here, whatever it may be, for example, the word "chair," you immediately have an image, but you don't know which chair I'm talking about, because there are countless chairs, and chairs come in many different shapes. And you have a particular image of a chair, but you don't know if that's the chair I'm talking about. So, this is the difficulty.
We are dealing with life through thought, through the evaluation that thought makes within us about a given thing. All our contact with others, with ourselves, with situations in life, through thought, is through a thinker, someone who is evaluating, that is, drawing conclusions, forming images, having ideas about something.
Here the question is: Is it possible to have contact with life without ideas, without images, without evaluations, and therefore, without thoughts? Such a quality of contact would be fundamental for true comprehension. We don't know what this true comprehension is because we are living in thought.
Why do we need to learn about Self-awareness? Because it is this that will reveal to us the Truth of Life as it is. You cannot have the Reality of Life as it is based on a mistaken idea about who you are. And this mistaken idea is the idea that thought has formed about who you are, and we are living in this thought.
We cannot comprehend life without first comprehending the truth about thought, about this image model that thought has established about who we are. Once again: this image is a particular image of evaluation, of comparison, of self-acceptance or self-rejection.
Note the implication of this: we are not dealing with the truth about ourselves, we are merely dealing with an imagination about who we are, when we are grounding our particular present person, which is the image that thought is establishing-establishing within our relations, with ourselves and with the world around us. Notice how complicated this is.
Learning about Self-awareness is investigating the nature of this "I," the nature of this self-image, the nature of this quality of thought. A true approach to oneself is a new vision of life, without the "I," without this one that thinks, feels, acts, evaluates, compares, or judges. And who is this? This is the presence of thought in this self-image. This is what we consider ourselves to be, the person. The person is this self-image.
Learning about ourselves is discovering the truth about this; and when there is full awareness of the truth about this, what we know as thought within us undergoes a profound, significant, and radical change. It is when we encounter Something beyond thought, and this is the end of mental suffering. This mental suffering is the presence of the one who suffers. There is no separation between this suffering and the one who suffers.
Now, what is this suffering essentially? If there is no separation between suffering and the sufferer, and if it has already become clear that the sufferer is thought itself, which is this self-image, this is the "I," the "I" that suffers. Therefore, the end of psychological thought, the end of thought, is the end of suffering. Thus, contact with Reality eliminates illusion, and illusion is this person, self-image, the "I," and this is nothing other than thought in this format.
Thus, we stop living in thought and embrace the Reality of Being. This is our true encounter with Truth. The encounter with Truth is the encounter with God. Notice what an extraordinary thing we have here now: How to find God? By embracing the Reality of Life without the "I." It's not something for the future, not something for tomorrow, not something for later. God isn't there waiting for you-so you would have to get out of here and get there.
The Reality of God, Divine Truth, the Truth about Life, is here and now, when the "I" is not. This awareness, this Revelation, is the presence of Meditation. Therefore, when we approach this learning about ourselves, we are having an answer to the question: "What is Meditation? Meditation, what is it?" Will there be "someone" present in the practice? Will there be"someone" present in the exercise, in the technique, when there is the presence of Meditation? The answer is simple: there is no one present when Reality is present.
Therefore, the presence of Meditation is the absence of the meditator. When there is the Revelation of this Being, which requires the presence of Self-awareness, here is the answer to the question: "What is Meditation?" It is the Revelation of this moment, when the "I" is not present. Therefore, we are faced with this awareness of Life when we learn to look at it without the old model of thought, which evaluates, judges, compares, draws conclusions, and interprets.
We are in direct contact with Life when thought, or word, or symbol, or image, is no longer present. Therefore, here in these meetings, investigating this, is embracing the Truth of what is present here, without the "I." This moment here, for example, is something that requires an encounter beyond words and, therefore, beyond thought, beyond these diverse meanings we give to each word, each image, each symbol.
We need to have an encounter here beyond speech, where, in the heart, something new emerges, something new happens. It happens in this space between words, it happens here in this gaze, in this feeling, in this perception. Real communication is this communion beyond the known, beyond all this symbolism of words, images, and mental representations, something beyond thought.
Thus, this moment here, like each and every moment, is always an opportunity for Meditation, since the presence of Meditation is the awareness of the moment, without interpretations, without evaluations, without comparisons, without thought. Therefore, what is this learning about ourselves? What is this presence of Meditation? It's about approaching this moment and simply listening, looking, and perceiving.
Therefore, don't judge, don't compare, don't evaluate, don't interpret. Then, in this Attention, in this simple and direct listening, something beyond speech, beyond words, happens. So, notice, this is a moment of Meditation, this is a moment of encounter with Silence, of encounter with Freedom, of encounter with Peace. It is the Reality of this Being, the Truth about You. This is the Divine Presence, it is Real Consciousness, it is that which is present here beyond the "I," beyond the ego.
Therefore, our true encounter with God consists of this awareness of Being, of simply Being. This is the end of mental suffering, the end of this idea of ??someone present as the thinker, the experiencer; this is the end of this idea of ??the person, of this "me," this "I." Your true encounter with Life consists of the acknowledgment of this moment. This is what we are here, together, working on in these meetings.
We have online meetings on weekends, where we will be working on this with you on Saturday and Sunday-two days online. I want to extend an invitation to you. You can find our link to participate in these online meetings on weekends here, in the video description. In addition to the online meetings, we have in-person meetings and also retreats. If what you just heard resonates with you, here's an invitation. Like it, subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment: "Yes, that makes sense." Okay? See you soon. Thanks for the meeting, and see you next time!