The question is, where have you failed? Your failure is in the absence of the straightforward recognition of your own Being, in imagining yourself placed in the body and the mind. You have this belief in a very strong way! Thus, you believe you take part of these qualities of thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations. You believe that this is you, your reality, the reality of your life. You carry this conviction! Because of a feeling, of some emotional pain, you believe to be that pain. Because of the feeling of sadness, for example, you believe you are sad.
This also happens because of any sensation you have in your body. If you feel cold, warm or hungry, you do not attribute this to the body but to yourself, just like when the body is experiencing some illness problem such as a very intense pain. There is a psychological conviction that this pain, that cold, that heat or hunger is something that is happening to you. A feeling of sadness or unhappiness brings the same result.
In this way, there is a self-limiting conviction created by the forgetfulness of your True Nature. This is the main and the most powerful oblivion. You have forgotten your Essential Identity of Pure Consciousness, beyond all qualities and definitions. Most people live in this state of complete amnesia. This Consciousness about the Truth of Yourself is something eclipsed, hidden by the thoughts, feelings and sensations. That’s why you have imagined yourself as a "me," a separate and fragile entity, thinking, feeling, deciding, choosing.
The curious thing is that, although this is not truth, it is felt as being the only truth of yours. But that is just the mind’s point of view. So it is not the Truth! Your Essential Being has never been or will be obscured by the mind - thoughts, feelings, sensations or perceptions. However, this forgetfulness creates this feeling, this strong conviction. Since almost everybody spends part of his or her life, and in some cases even the whole life, without working directly on him or herself, people live within that forgetfulness. In Satsang, we are questioning all this. We are giving the opportunity for you to realize that everything is just appearances.
We live within the experience of appearances and disappearances of thoughts, perceptions, feelings and sensations in the body. This shows us that there is Something here that is immutable, that remains present as the Nature of these perceptions. It never appears or disappears. It is something that remains unchanged. So, when we are in Satsang, we have this opportunity to look at this body-mind experience as something that is changing all the time, while there is Something present that does not change.
What does not change is That which is always present now, but it is not an experience. This is not like the body, with its changing sensations, or like the mind, which has perceptions that are also changing all the time. This is very important because it is the great key for this Realization - to know that there is Something present that does not change.
You see the change in all that knowledge of the mind and the body - the body with its sensations and the mind with its perceptions. All of this appears and soon disappears, but there is Something present able to perceive this change. You can see that time is something simply mental, which varies due to the movement of thoughts, for example. So, the notion of time is something that changes. It is just how the mind perceives it.
Thought imagines a series of images or events and thus creates this notion of time. The body experiences different sensations, and in this way, the mind creates the idea of being a "present entity." But notice that everything is changing: this multiplicity, this huge diversity of things, not only in perceptions sensations but also in experiences. Among all this, there is Something present capable of perceiving these changes, and that is what we call Consciousness, Presence, Reality. This is the Truth of your Being.
Meditation is what reveals very clearly That which is present and unchanging. Then, you observe closely that thoughts, feelings, sensations, images, memories and perceptions are not What You Are. They always happen to the body and mind. Your Being is What knows or becomes aware of these experiences. While all this changes, your Being, this Presence, Consciousness does not change. So, this series of sensations and perceptions experienced are not You. This Reality that You Are knows all these sensations and perceptions.
Five years ago, this Present Reality had its perceptions, sensations and experiences, just as it had fifteen years ago. The body has changed, the mind has changed, everything has changed, but there is Something present, always present, and It does not change. This is our Being, this Presence, Consciousness. This Consciousness was present and has always been present. When the body appeared and even prior to that appearance, this Consciousness was there. Now, here, there It is. In the forgetfulness, you see yourself as a “present entity” linked to the age of the body and the experiences of this moment, linked to the experiences of the mind, to those perceptions and sensations. This is just a belief, a thought.
So, you believe you were born and, for the same reason, you believe you will die someday. In fact, That which is immutable was never born. It may seem strange to hear that, but in reality (and now I am going to say something different from what I just said) you were never present at the birth of the body, nor will you be present at the death of it. This is a matter of the body. It is not a matter of your Essential Nature, of that Consciousness. This Consciousness is not in that dream state, only the mind is. And in it the idea is about birth and death.
Notice that these lines sound quite paradoxical. You cannot adjust it to an intellectual basis and afterwards end up saying “I understood everything.” It is not a subject for understanding, because This is outside the mind. In fact, all beliefs, which are only what the intellect can have, end up being responsible for the fear, because the intellect does not reach That which is outside of itself. All it knows is judgment, comparison, separation, division, that is, the intellect is still part of this principle of ego-identity.
You need to go beyond the intellect, to discover your Essential Nature! We are Pure Consciousness! What you are feeling, right now, in the body and in the mind, concerns to the body and mind. So, it is not true that you were born when the body was born or that you will die when the body stops breathing. Notice that when your body-mind disappears during sleep, there is Something that remains, but That is outside the known, outside the idea of "being born" and "dying."
So, what is This that does not disappear when the body, the world and the mind disappear? The idea that we are born and are changing, that we are growing, aging and that we are going to die, is simply a belief - the belief of the major part of mankind. It is something present within religion and culture. Usually, we think we are born, we change, we evolve, we grow, we get old and we will soon die. This belief is present for there is not the Realization of the Truth.
It is evident that the body and the mind appear and disappear, are born and die. Every experience is like that! This belief in death is a presumption. This fear of disappearing or dying is a very primary emotion, something deeply imaginary in this illusory entity, exclusively created by this association with the body, with the thought "I am the body."
Therefore, the Liberation from the illusion of this identification with the body and the mind is essential. Without this, there is no Liberation! This experiential, straightforward and non-intellectual understanding of our own Being is essential. Therefore, before we know anything, we need to know the Truth of our own Being. Any knowledge coming before this Knowledge is just ignorance, something completely useless. It may even have some use in this dream called "human life," but it is useless from the viewpoint of Happiness.
This also happens because of any sensation you have in your body. If you feel cold, warm or hungry, you do not attribute this to the body but to yourself, just like when the body is experiencing some illness problem such as a very intense pain. There is a psychological conviction that this pain, that cold, that heat or hunger is something that is happening to you. A feeling of sadness or unhappiness brings the same result.
In this way, there is a self-limiting conviction created by the forgetfulness of your True Nature. This is the main and the most powerful oblivion. You have forgotten your Essential Identity of Pure Consciousness, beyond all qualities and definitions. Most people live in this state of complete amnesia. This Consciousness about the Truth of Yourself is something eclipsed, hidden by the thoughts, feelings and sensations. That’s why you have imagined yourself as a "me," a separate and fragile entity, thinking, feeling, deciding, choosing.
The curious thing is that, although this is not truth, it is felt as being the only truth of yours. But that is just the mind’s point of view. So it is not the Truth! Your Essential Being has never been or will be obscured by the mind - thoughts, feelings, sensations or perceptions. However, this forgetfulness creates this feeling, this strong conviction. Since almost everybody spends part of his or her life, and in some cases even the whole life, without working directly on him or herself, people live within that forgetfulness. In Satsang, we are questioning all this. We are giving the opportunity for you to realize that everything is just appearances.
We live within the experience of appearances and disappearances of thoughts, perceptions, feelings and sensations in the body. This shows us that there is Something here that is immutable, that remains present as the Nature of these perceptions. It never appears or disappears. It is something that remains unchanged. So, when we are in Satsang, we have this opportunity to look at this body-mind experience as something that is changing all the time, while there is Something present that does not change.
What does not change is That which is always present now, but it is not an experience. This is not like the body, with its changing sensations, or like the mind, which has perceptions that are also changing all the time. This is very important because it is the great key for this Realization - to know that there is Something present that does not change.
You see the change in all that knowledge of the mind and the body - the body with its sensations and the mind with its perceptions. All of this appears and soon disappears, but there is Something present able to perceive this change. You can see that time is something simply mental, which varies due to the movement of thoughts, for example. So, the notion of time is something that changes. It is just how the mind perceives it.
Thought imagines a series of images or events and thus creates this notion of time. The body experiences different sensations, and in this way, the mind creates the idea of being a "present entity." But notice that everything is changing: this multiplicity, this huge diversity of things, not only in perceptions sensations but also in experiences. Among all this, there is Something present capable of perceiving these changes, and that is what we call Consciousness, Presence, Reality. This is the Truth of your Being.
Meditation is what reveals very clearly That which is present and unchanging. Then, you observe closely that thoughts, feelings, sensations, images, memories and perceptions are not What You Are. They always happen to the body and mind. Your Being is What knows or becomes aware of these experiences. While all this changes, your Being, this Presence, Consciousness does not change. So, this series of sensations and perceptions experienced are not You. This Reality that You Are knows all these sensations and perceptions.
Five years ago, this Present Reality had its perceptions, sensations and experiences, just as it had fifteen years ago. The body has changed, the mind has changed, everything has changed, but there is Something present, always present, and It does not change. This is our Being, this Presence, Consciousness. This Consciousness was present and has always been present. When the body appeared and even prior to that appearance, this Consciousness was there. Now, here, there It is. In the forgetfulness, you see yourself as a “present entity” linked to the age of the body and the experiences of this moment, linked to the experiences of the mind, to those perceptions and sensations. This is just a belief, a thought.
So, you believe you were born and, for the same reason, you believe you will die someday. In fact, That which is immutable was never born. It may seem strange to hear that, but in reality (and now I am going to say something different from what I just said) you were never present at the birth of the body, nor will you be present at the death of it. This is a matter of the body. It is not a matter of your Essential Nature, of that Consciousness. This Consciousness is not in that dream state, only the mind is. And in it the idea is about birth and death.
Notice that these lines sound quite paradoxical. You cannot adjust it to an intellectual basis and afterwards end up saying “I understood everything.” It is not a subject for understanding, because This is outside the mind. In fact, all beliefs, which are only what the intellect can have, end up being responsible for the fear, because the intellect does not reach That which is outside of itself. All it knows is judgment, comparison, separation, division, that is, the intellect is still part of this principle of ego-identity.
You need to go beyond the intellect, to discover your Essential Nature! We are Pure Consciousness! What you are feeling, right now, in the body and in the mind, concerns to the body and mind. So, it is not true that you were born when the body was born or that you will die when the body stops breathing. Notice that when your body-mind disappears during sleep, there is Something that remains, but That is outside the known, outside the idea of "being born" and "dying."
So, what is This that does not disappear when the body, the world and the mind disappear? The idea that we are born and are changing, that we are growing, aging and that we are going to die, is simply a belief - the belief of the major part of mankind. It is something present within religion and culture. Usually, we think we are born, we change, we evolve, we grow, we get old and we will soon die. This belief is present for there is not the Realization of the Truth.
It is evident that the body and the mind appear and disappear, are born and die. Every experience is like that! This belief in death is a presumption. This fear of disappearing or dying is a very primary emotion, something deeply imaginary in this illusory entity, exclusively created by this association with the body, with the thought "I am the body."
Therefore, the Liberation from the illusion of this identification with the body and the mind is essential. Without this, there is no Liberation! This experiential, straightforward and non-intellectual understanding of our own Being is essential. Therefore, before we know anything, we need to know the Truth of our own Being. Any knowledge coming before this Knowledge is just ignorance, something completely useless. It may even have some use in this dream called "human life," but it is useless from the viewpoint of Happiness.
* Transcribed from a speech at an online meeting, on February 29, 2020 – For further information about our meetings, click here.
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