Satsang is an opportunity for the one who has already found out that Peace cannot be found externally, that this constant search for objective experiences cannot produce real results. It is not possible to find Peace, Freedom and Happiness in external experiences.
You cannot feel completely Free, Self-Realized, in full Happiness, you cannot live this Divine Presence because this inner mind’s movement prevents you from that. Thoughts and feelings inside you are producing internal states of conflict. To get rid of this conflict, you search for external objective experiences. In fact, by doing so, any experience you have will be just an experience within this belief, still within the mind and reflecting a state of the mind itself. That will only confirm you remain as a separate entity, “you” are within the experience as a separate entity.
So, this is an unsolved matter: to feel yourself separate (a separate entity) is surely not peaceful, not happy, not Liberating. It is imprisoning, something inside a prison, as it hides your Divine Nature, the real Peace, Freedom and Happiness.
This way, every experience you have will always be within the mind itself, and never beyond it. Therefore, this search format does not solve the sense of separation. This Real Presence You are in your Being is the very own Freedom, Happiness, Peace. I can illustrate it as a space where you see some things. They are there within that space, but the space itself cannot be seen, but only the things within it. The objects can be seen within a given space, but the space cannot be seen. In fact, when the space is occupied, it cannot be seen at all, because it is as if the space were absent and only the objects were present. This illustration is quite interesting, since the objects can only be present because there is a space preceding them.
Therefore, your whole experience may be just the experience of objects and not of the space. Your whole human experience, the whole history of this character there, who has a name, a body, a set of experiences, all of this is just part of these objects within this Space. There is no history, no body, there are no situations, conflicts, dramas, no experience in the Space itself. The Space is always free and remains unknown, it is something you cannot recognize. The Space can recognize you, but you cannot recognize It. It recognizes this body, this name and this history, but none of this can recognize this Space, because It precedes all of this.
When we talk about Freedom, Happiness, Peace, Divine Realization, we mean Space. This Space has neither birth nor death; it is not subject to agitation. If you have a room, you can change the furniture, but the space will not change. That is exactly what happens to you. Your inner states are changing but this Space does not change. It cannot be touched by activities, that is, activities and agitation can happen, but the Space will remain intact, absolute, without changes. The Divine within Yourself is something like that. The Presence of God’s Reality, of this unknown “Thing” without name, shape, body, history, is something like that. This Divine Presence allows everything to happen! It may seem strange to hear this, but there is no problem with agitation. What I mean is that when you are disturbed, disoriented, scared, fearful, unhappy, none of this touches this Space!
Everything you have learned in your life from those around you, within this society, within this culture, through relationships with “people” in this world where you were apparently born - or that you believe you were born in - was to live in agitation, to be restless. Conflict, fear and suffering are this restlessness. The story of this “person,” of this character there, who has a name, is this restlessness – a restlessness within the Space, and not a restlessness of the Space. Basically, the sense of ego, the sense of separation is restlessness, and this is the ordinary, the “normal” way of knowing the experience. However, this Presence remains the same and allows everything to appear within Itself, without choices, without preferences.
The mind can be restless, the body can be restless, the world seems to be restless, but these are all objects within this Space. So, there is absolute no need for you to search for a peaceful, happy or loving experience, since this search is the very own separation from this already full and complete Space. This Space is Peace, Love, Freedom, Happiness in Itself! Thus, there is no need for this movement. In fact, it is not only unnecessary but it also further reinforces the illusion that it is possible to find something by moving yourself, but all you can find through this movement is more restlessness.
In other words, in the state of conflict, your movement is towards conflict. In the state of fear, your movement is towards fear. Being confused, you can only act in a confusing way, you cannot act otherwise, so your action will be confusing. If you are restless, your action will come from this restlessness. So, you do not need this search, because it is completely unnecessary and counterproductive.
Another point here is that you do not need any special knowledge to become aware of your Essential Nature, of this Space that remains free from this restlessness. It is enough to know You are That and to assume this Knowledge. The more you remain aware of Yourself, being disidentified from this restlessness movement the mind produces, the more the Truth of your Essential Nature reveals Itself, which is Peace, Happiness, Love, Freedom.
In general, people are not interested in this. They will keep their external searches, remaining restless and appreciating objects, unaware of the Presence of the Space. So, the ordinary intelligence - or what people consider intelligent in this world - is exactly this movement towards external accomplishments, through this search for a richer, more profound, more meaningful experience. Then, you end up following the steps of those who achieved “success,” of the “well-succeeded people,” but remember that “people”, even the “well-succeeded ones”, are still “people.” “Person” is synonym for illusion, the illusion of the sense of a separate existence, of an entity living a separate life; it is the unawareness of the Space.
You need to ask yourself how deep there is something inside you really burning for This, for this Self-Realization. What I am telling you is that the deeper you go, the more you are aware of Yourself, of this Presence, of this Reality, which is this Space. The more It becomes clear, the more this quality of Silence, of Peace, of Freedom, of Real Intelligence is revealed. Here, I use the word “intelligence” differently than the ordinary understanding for the major part of the people. Intelligence here means to be aware of the Reality of non-separation. So, the deeper you go into your Being, into your Natural State (that is this Space, that I have also called as Consciousness), the more these attributes or qualities of your Essential Nature are revealed. That’s when you are, in fact, touched by the Grace, by the Divine, by this Presence, by this Consciousness, living in Love.
Now, it is up to you apply yourself to that, to get yourself involved, to work on it. That is the purpose of our work here: to show you the importance of a profound involvement with the Divine Truth You bring within, that You are, that is within yourself, sleeping, but It is there.
When you watch a movie, you see things like tragedy, shocking, difficult, hard and complicated scenes … If you saw that happening to you, you would be completely off your feet, desperate, but while watching a movie, you consider it a film. However, is this so different from what you currently call as “your life,” at this moment? Are the things happening to you truly real? That is just a movie over there and it has nothing to do with you, but the things that seem to happen to you do not seem to be a movie; they seem very real, quite scary. So, it is time to find out this Space – the Space of your Essential Nature.
You cannot feel completely Free, Self-Realized, in full Happiness, you cannot live this Divine Presence because this inner mind’s movement prevents you from that. Thoughts and feelings inside you are producing internal states of conflict. To get rid of this conflict, you search for external objective experiences. In fact, by doing so, any experience you have will be just an experience within this belief, still within the mind and reflecting a state of the mind itself. That will only confirm you remain as a separate entity, “you” are within the experience as a separate entity.
So, this is an unsolved matter: to feel yourself separate (a separate entity) is surely not peaceful, not happy, not Liberating. It is imprisoning, something inside a prison, as it hides your Divine Nature, the real Peace, Freedom and Happiness.
This way, every experience you have will always be within the mind itself, and never beyond it. Therefore, this search format does not solve the sense of separation. This Real Presence You are in your Being is the very own Freedom, Happiness, Peace. I can illustrate it as a space where you see some things. They are there within that space, but the space itself cannot be seen, but only the things within it. The objects can be seen within a given space, but the space cannot be seen. In fact, when the space is occupied, it cannot be seen at all, because it is as if the space were absent and only the objects were present. This illustration is quite interesting, since the objects can only be present because there is a space preceding them.
Therefore, your whole experience may be just the experience of objects and not of the space. Your whole human experience, the whole history of this character there, who has a name, a body, a set of experiences, all of this is just part of these objects within this Space. There is no history, no body, there are no situations, conflicts, dramas, no experience in the Space itself. The Space is always free and remains unknown, it is something you cannot recognize. The Space can recognize you, but you cannot recognize It. It recognizes this body, this name and this history, but none of this can recognize this Space, because It precedes all of this.
When we talk about Freedom, Happiness, Peace, Divine Realization, we mean Space. This Space has neither birth nor death; it is not subject to agitation. If you have a room, you can change the furniture, but the space will not change. That is exactly what happens to you. Your inner states are changing but this Space does not change. It cannot be touched by activities, that is, activities and agitation can happen, but the Space will remain intact, absolute, without changes. The Divine within Yourself is something like that. The Presence of God’s Reality, of this unknown “Thing” without name, shape, body, history, is something like that. This Divine Presence allows everything to happen! It may seem strange to hear this, but there is no problem with agitation. What I mean is that when you are disturbed, disoriented, scared, fearful, unhappy, none of this touches this Space!
Everything you have learned in your life from those around you, within this society, within this culture, through relationships with “people” in this world where you were apparently born - or that you believe you were born in - was to live in agitation, to be restless. Conflict, fear and suffering are this restlessness. The story of this “person,” of this character there, who has a name, is this restlessness – a restlessness within the Space, and not a restlessness of the Space. Basically, the sense of ego, the sense of separation is restlessness, and this is the ordinary, the “normal” way of knowing the experience. However, this Presence remains the same and allows everything to appear within Itself, without choices, without preferences.
The mind can be restless, the body can be restless, the world seems to be restless, but these are all objects within this Space. So, there is absolute no need for you to search for a peaceful, happy or loving experience, since this search is the very own separation from this already full and complete Space. This Space is Peace, Love, Freedom, Happiness in Itself! Thus, there is no need for this movement. In fact, it is not only unnecessary but it also further reinforces the illusion that it is possible to find something by moving yourself, but all you can find through this movement is more restlessness.
In other words, in the state of conflict, your movement is towards conflict. In the state of fear, your movement is towards fear. Being confused, you can only act in a confusing way, you cannot act otherwise, so your action will be confusing. If you are restless, your action will come from this restlessness. So, you do not need this search, because it is completely unnecessary and counterproductive.
Another point here is that you do not need any special knowledge to become aware of your Essential Nature, of this Space that remains free from this restlessness. It is enough to know You are That and to assume this Knowledge. The more you remain aware of Yourself, being disidentified from this restlessness movement the mind produces, the more the Truth of your Essential Nature reveals Itself, which is Peace, Happiness, Love, Freedom.
In general, people are not interested in this. They will keep their external searches, remaining restless and appreciating objects, unaware of the Presence of the Space. So, the ordinary intelligence - or what people consider intelligent in this world - is exactly this movement towards external accomplishments, through this search for a richer, more profound, more meaningful experience. Then, you end up following the steps of those who achieved “success,” of the “well-succeeded people,” but remember that “people”, even the “well-succeeded ones”, are still “people.” “Person” is synonym for illusion, the illusion of the sense of a separate existence, of an entity living a separate life; it is the unawareness of the Space.
You need to ask yourself how deep there is something inside you really burning for This, for this Self-Realization. What I am telling you is that the deeper you go, the more you are aware of Yourself, of this Presence, of this Reality, which is this Space. The more It becomes clear, the more this quality of Silence, of Peace, of Freedom, of Real Intelligence is revealed. Here, I use the word “intelligence” differently than the ordinary understanding for the major part of the people. Intelligence here means to be aware of the Reality of non-separation. So, the deeper you go into your Being, into your Natural State (that is this Space, that I have also called as Consciousness), the more these attributes or qualities of your Essential Nature are revealed. That’s when you are, in fact, touched by the Grace, by the Divine, by this Presence, by this Consciousness, living in Love.
Now, it is up to you apply yourself to that, to get yourself involved, to work on it. That is the purpose of our work here: to show you the importance of a profound involvement with the Divine Truth You bring within, that You are, that is within yourself, sleeping, but It is there.
When you watch a movie, you see things like tragedy, shocking, difficult, hard and complicated scenes … If you saw that happening to you, you would be completely off your feet, desperate, but while watching a movie, you consider it a film. However, is this so different from what you currently call as “your life,” at this moment? Are the things happening to you truly real? That is just a movie over there and it has nothing to do with you, but the things that seem to happen to you do not seem to be a movie; they seem very real, quite scary. So, it is time to find out this Space – the Space of your Essential Nature.
*Online meeting transcription, originally held on June 15th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on August 31st, 2020. For further information about our meetings, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment