Everybody is always searching for something, and that is why you end up in meetings like this one. It is quite interesting because, at the same time you have strong ideas about who you are, you believe something special will provide you happiness, peace or the answer to that search.
If I ask the question “who are you?” to any person, it will be answered from the standpoint of the person’s history he or she believes to have. This person will end up describing what he or she has lived in the past or what he or she dreams to accomplish in the future. The person will also be able to find a story about the role he or she is playing in life as a father, a mother, as someone who has just started a business up, who is working hard to get some results… He or she will literally tell a story about the past or the future.
You, like anyone else, are not interested in what is present now. You are always interested in what happened already or in what is going to happen. You cannot tell me anything about yourself now. You do this based on an idea about the past or future project.
What I am saying is that every person lives a story created by memory, by imagination, that is, by thought. People say: “I am a businessman,” “I am a doctor,” “I am a lawyer,” or “I am a spiritual seeker.” Some people are interested in things of this world, others are interested in the things out of it, and I keep on asking: “Who are you?” It is not what you were or what you intend to be, but who are you now! It is not the story you can tell me about who you believe to be or who you want to be. I keep on asking: “Who are you now?”
It seems everyone is living like this, just with a belief, with an idea. I call this “image” as the image of who you believe to be. This “image” is the one in conflict, in trouble, unhappy, going through several ways of search. So, you may ask anyone on the street, anyone you meet, what they are looking for. They will say they are looking for popularity, power, love, acceptance, understanding, happiness in a relationship, in a marriage... People get married to be happy, but they find out they are not yet, so they start expecting the husband or wife to change. They are pretty sure that when the husband or wife changes, when he or she stops with "those things," they will be happy.
There is always that hope, the search for something, for what people call as “peace realization” or “happiness realization.” This idea of happiness and peace is based on some achievement, on some external accomplishment. Isn’t like that? “I have little money, but when I have more money, I will be ‘happy’," “In this marriage, things failed, but who knows about the next one…”
Do you follow this? Isn’t that simple? That search is based on the idea about who you believe to be, on the idea about how others and the world around you are, on the idea about what needs to be changed, set, adjusted or achieved.
Someone who sees him or herself as a spiritual person is looking for something else, something outside the world, maybe an altered state of consciousness, some kind of transformation or an Enlightenment experience. Everyone is looking for something but notice this search takes several forms. It seems people are looking for different things, but what they are ultimately looking for is actually to live without fear, without suffering, without conflict, that is, in Happiness, in Love, in Peace.
They can even ignore what they are searching for, but it is something inside, and not outside themselves. However, the mind says That is outside, and there starts everything, there starts the confusion because of the idea of future, of time, of fulfillment through external accomplishments.
So, notice that you were conditioned and programmed. You are following your parents’ lead, who followed your grandparents’ lead, who followed your great-grandparents’ lead… Everybody lives this model, this craziness! I name it as “craziness” because it actually wards you off from your very own purpose. If your purpose is Happiness and you are working under the mind’s direction and its interests, projects, longings and dreams, always connected to what is outside, you are in a crazy movement, since you are forgetting What you are or who You are now by creating an ideal future.
You want to find Happiness tomorrow, but that "tomorrow" never comes. If you do not know the Truth about yourself now, here, and you follow this crazy movement of the mind in the pursuit of external things, you are truly keeping yourself away from the real possibility of Realizing the Divine Truth, the Truth that You are, the Truth You bring within yourself, What is innate, your own Being.
So, when you long for the next moment believing it would bring you something better or greater, you are just perpetuating the continuity of the egoic mind in its old movement of desires and fears. Some are in a so-called "spiritual search" and may think they are in a better condition than others, because they are pursuing Non-Duality, non-dual Truth. However, the expression “non-dual” itself points out That, which is already present, here and now, within this experience, this moment, right now.
So, even this search for Non-Duality is still a great illusion, as This is not a goal, an objective, something to be achieved. Non-duality is the Realization of Reality, of Life as It is, as It shows itself at this moment, here and now. It is not external or in the upcoming moment. The Divine Reality is a present thing! It is not an external achievement, but rather the Realization of What is present here and now.
Only That can pose an end to this quest, break this whole fantasy that you would be happy when someone or something changes or when something external is achieved. If Reality is present, if Truth is non-dual, if there is no separation between You and Reality, then Life is perfect as It is, everything is in the right place, nothing is missing.
Then, the question arises: “But what about this conflict, all this confusion, suffering, desire, fear and search that I feel inside?” The point is you are talking about the movement of the mind, you are not talking about You. In Yourself, there is no search, but in the mind, there are thousands! There are thousands of things to be solved yet! In Yourself, there is no problem, but the mind is full of problems! In Yourself, there is no anxiety, fear, suffering, conflict of any kind, but in the mind all this is present all the time!
The mind is bombarding you with mistaken notions, with beliefs, making you believe in things, making you believe in this division between good and evil, between truth and illusion, between sadness and joy, between peace and war. The mind is producing this conflict, this duality, and you have lived within this, this is what you have trusted in. It became your model of life. What you call as "life" concerns a story you tell about who you believe to be within that model..
If I ask the question “who are you?” to any person, it will be answered from the standpoint of the person’s history he or she believes to have. This person will end up describing what he or she has lived in the past or what he or she dreams to accomplish in the future. The person will also be able to find a story about the role he or she is playing in life as a father, a mother, as someone who has just started a business up, who is working hard to get some results… He or she will literally tell a story about the past or the future.
You, like anyone else, are not interested in what is present now. You are always interested in what happened already or in what is going to happen. You cannot tell me anything about yourself now. You do this based on an idea about the past or future project.
What I am saying is that every person lives a story created by memory, by imagination, that is, by thought. People say: “I am a businessman,” “I am a doctor,” “I am a lawyer,” or “I am a spiritual seeker.” Some people are interested in things of this world, others are interested in the things out of it, and I keep on asking: “Who are you?” It is not what you were or what you intend to be, but who are you now! It is not the story you can tell me about who you believe to be or who you want to be. I keep on asking: “Who are you now?”
It seems everyone is living like this, just with a belief, with an idea. I call this “image” as the image of who you believe to be. This “image” is the one in conflict, in trouble, unhappy, going through several ways of search. So, you may ask anyone on the street, anyone you meet, what they are looking for. They will say they are looking for popularity, power, love, acceptance, understanding, happiness in a relationship, in a marriage... People get married to be happy, but they find out they are not yet, so they start expecting the husband or wife to change. They are pretty sure that when the husband or wife changes, when he or she stops with "those things," they will be happy.
There is always that hope, the search for something, for what people call as “peace realization” or “happiness realization.” This idea of happiness and peace is based on some achievement, on some external accomplishment. Isn’t like that? “I have little money, but when I have more money, I will be ‘happy’," “In this marriage, things failed, but who knows about the next one…”
Do you follow this? Isn’t that simple? That search is based on the idea about who you believe to be, on the idea about how others and the world around you are, on the idea about what needs to be changed, set, adjusted or achieved.
Someone who sees him or herself as a spiritual person is looking for something else, something outside the world, maybe an altered state of consciousness, some kind of transformation or an Enlightenment experience. Everyone is looking for something but notice this search takes several forms. It seems people are looking for different things, but what they are ultimately looking for is actually to live without fear, without suffering, without conflict, that is, in Happiness, in Love, in Peace.
They can even ignore what they are searching for, but it is something inside, and not outside themselves. However, the mind says That is outside, and there starts everything, there starts the confusion because of the idea of future, of time, of fulfillment through external accomplishments.
So, notice that you were conditioned and programmed. You are following your parents’ lead, who followed your grandparents’ lead, who followed your great-grandparents’ lead… Everybody lives this model, this craziness! I name it as “craziness” because it actually wards you off from your very own purpose. If your purpose is Happiness and you are working under the mind’s direction and its interests, projects, longings and dreams, always connected to what is outside, you are in a crazy movement, since you are forgetting What you are or who You are now by creating an ideal future.
You want to find Happiness tomorrow, but that "tomorrow" never comes. If you do not know the Truth about yourself now, here, and you follow this crazy movement of the mind in the pursuit of external things, you are truly keeping yourself away from the real possibility of Realizing the Divine Truth, the Truth that You are, the Truth You bring within yourself, What is innate, your own Being.
So, when you long for the next moment believing it would bring you something better or greater, you are just perpetuating the continuity of the egoic mind in its old movement of desires and fears. Some are in a so-called "spiritual search" and may think they are in a better condition than others, because they are pursuing Non-Duality, non-dual Truth. However, the expression “non-dual” itself points out That, which is already present, here and now, within this experience, this moment, right now.
So, even this search for Non-Duality is still a great illusion, as This is not a goal, an objective, something to be achieved. Non-duality is the Realization of Reality, of Life as It is, as It shows itself at this moment, here and now. It is not external or in the upcoming moment. The Divine Reality is a present thing! It is not an external achievement, but rather the Realization of What is present here and now.
Only That can pose an end to this quest, break this whole fantasy that you would be happy when someone or something changes or when something external is achieved. If Reality is present, if Truth is non-dual, if there is no separation between You and Reality, then Life is perfect as It is, everything is in the right place, nothing is missing.
Then, the question arises: “But what about this conflict, all this confusion, suffering, desire, fear and search that I feel inside?” The point is you are talking about the movement of the mind, you are not talking about You. In Yourself, there is no search, but in the mind, there are thousands! There are thousands of things to be solved yet! In Yourself, there is no problem, but the mind is full of problems! In Yourself, there is no anxiety, fear, suffering, conflict of any kind, but in the mind all this is present all the time!
The mind is bombarding you with mistaken notions, with beliefs, making you believe in things, making you believe in this division between good and evil, between truth and illusion, between sadness and joy, between peace and war. The mind is producing this conflict, this duality, and you have lived within this, this is what you have trusted in. It became your model of life. What you call as "life" concerns a story you tell about who you believe to be within that model..
*Online meeting transcription originally held on August 5th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on September 19th, 2020. For further information about our meetings, click here.
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