Do you know how to ride a bicycle? In order to learn, you start by using two little supporting wheels attached to the back wheel or with the support of someone holding you, otherwise you fall. Isn’t it so? Those two training wheels are there to support you, since you are neither able to keep the balance nor able to keep the pedal pace. Riding a bike is like that: on zero speed, you fall, and speed requires you to keep the pace on the pedals.
The difficulty is to pedal without balance. Without pedaling, you have no speed, and without speed, you have no balance; but if you pedal without balance, you fall. As the brain still does not have a record of the required speed and the correct way to pedal, you have to learn to ride a bike, and therefore you have the support of someone holding it or of those two training wheels. It may take half an hour, two hours or two days, but you will ride your bike effortlessly, without training wheels or anyone holding it. What does this have to do with God's Realization? It is possible to no longer fall into that egoic mind, without effort, without anyone or anything holding you, without any support.
You cannot learn to “ride the bicycle” of this full and non-dual Consciousness without training wheels. In general, people just cannot, since not everyone is born like Ramana Maharshi. After being born, the vast majority of the people is not so endowed with internal freedom, detached from desires and fears and close enough to touch this Dimension. People are not prone to that, they have not that nostalgia, that thirst, that yearning for Freedom. Even if you have some glimpses of something out of the egoic mind, your predisposition will continually push you to this “autopilot,” and your “little plane” will keep flying low over the world of names, forms, desires, imaginations, anxiety, depression and illusion.
So, you need training wheels on your bicycle, a hand to support you while you learn to give the first pedal strokes until you are brave enough to accelerate. In general, despite all this security, there is fear of riding the bike. Then the courage comes, but the training wheels are still there or there is someone behind to support us. Putting this in a simpler way: to assume this non-dual Consciousness, to enjoy this non-suffering Freedom – because you are no longer deluded by the creations of that ego-identity – is not an easy, simple and natural thing for the major part of the people, as soon the “autopilot” takes over the “little plane.”
The viewpoint of the Sage, of the Saint is extremely rare, clear and inspires us to the Truth. The Saint is the one who has the taste for impersonality, for non-dual Consciousness, for living without stories and able to move forward without “letting the bike fall.” Since it is extremely rare to recognize the Saints, they become invisible. The Saint is the one who has the taste for the Natural State, free from the “person,” and it is extremely rare to recognize the beauty of this State in such one, for they become invisible. Do you understand the difficulty? You can live for 30, 40, 50, 60 years with a Saint inside your house, with the One who has already experienced the impersonality, and even so, you may not be able to recognize or to appreciate him or her.
Generally, people’s tendencies concern the world, so they care a lot about the car manufacturer, the size of the house, the pool, the social position they assume, the status they reach, the “person” they are. So, the Saint, who has the taste for Consciousness, is extremely rare. The major part of the people is not so gifted with such Intelligence, so they need “training wheels,” and it seems that their “little bicycle” has to “move a lot” before removing those “training wheels.”
However, this is not really necessary, since according to the Sages, the entire path or each round you ride with the bike, means getting into, plunging into or establishing yourself in this Perception of Pure Consciousness. This is not about driving an imported car, about living in a huge house, nor about being an illustrious and important figure within society, but rather about establishing yourself There, in that Pure Consciousness, where what is being seen and the one who sees have both vanished.
In this Unique Consciousness, there is not a center with a circumference, there is no subject in relationship with things. If there is no center, there is no border, there is nothing to see, nor "someone" to see. There is no ego with such an organized, prepared, frightened, complex and difficult structure. Ego is an airplane on autopilot, permanently flying the same flight of dissatisfaction, conflicts, dilemmas, problems, demands and eternal dissatisfactions.
Back to the bicycle, when the training wheels, this support on the back part of the bike – that is the ego as an organized structure – is no longer needed, it reveals itself as a false, empty and illusory structure, and therefore it is dismantled. You are too afraid of this Natural State, since you believe this “structure” is the basis of sanity, and it is very typical of the ego-identity to consider itself in sanity. The ego is afraid this structure may collapse. In other words, the “child is afraid of losing the training wheels.” That is why you have so much resistance, because not only is there no risk of you going insane when that structure collapses, but also you find out that insanity means exactly that standing structure. However, when this egoic structure collapses, the Real Consciousness arises in an authentic and true way, without any distraction, dilemma or problem. Insanity is how you live inside this old and ancient structure when you do not know how to "ride a bike," when you are afraid of "pedaling."
I know some of you say you have already understood this. No! You are seeing someone “riding a bicycle without the training wheels,” but that does not mean you have understood that. It is like seeing someone playing an instrument or performing a scenic performance and, when looking at that, you say "I can do it," "I already know it," "I will do it," "I understand how to do it." You all know what I am talking about, how quickly the mind drives conclusions growing out of superficial considerations. When the mind sees something being done, it says "I know how to do it too," but when you ask the person to do it, to put it into practice, the person finds out his or her inability and how compelled he or she was by the enthusiasm, by the desire, by the simplification.
Yes, it is simple! Riding a bike is simple, but only after you know how to do it. Before, your brain cannot do this, it has neither motor coordination, technique nor skill. The ego is full of imagination, so it simplifies what is not so simple and says, "I know," but the ego does not know, because it is not enough to see someone doing it and immediately suppose you could do that just because you desire so.
Here, with me, you hear that and say: “It is so simple what he says, it is so real. I have already understood." Isn't that true?
The difficulty is to pedal without balance. Without pedaling, you have no speed, and without speed, you have no balance; but if you pedal without balance, you fall. As the brain still does not have a record of the required speed and the correct way to pedal, you have to learn to ride a bike, and therefore you have the support of someone holding it or of those two training wheels. It may take half an hour, two hours or two days, but you will ride your bike effortlessly, without training wheels or anyone holding it. What does this have to do with God's Realization? It is possible to no longer fall into that egoic mind, without effort, without anyone or anything holding you, without any support.
You cannot learn to “ride the bicycle” of this full and non-dual Consciousness without training wheels. In general, people just cannot, since not everyone is born like Ramana Maharshi. After being born, the vast majority of the people is not so endowed with internal freedom, detached from desires and fears and close enough to touch this Dimension. People are not prone to that, they have not that nostalgia, that thirst, that yearning for Freedom. Even if you have some glimpses of something out of the egoic mind, your predisposition will continually push you to this “autopilot,” and your “little plane” will keep flying low over the world of names, forms, desires, imaginations, anxiety, depression and illusion.
So, you need training wheels on your bicycle, a hand to support you while you learn to give the first pedal strokes until you are brave enough to accelerate. In general, despite all this security, there is fear of riding the bike. Then the courage comes, but the training wheels are still there or there is someone behind to support us. Putting this in a simpler way: to assume this non-dual Consciousness, to enjoy this non-suffering Freedom – because you are no longer deluded by the creations of that ego-identity – is not an easy, simple and natural thing for the major part of the people, as soon the “autopilot” takes over the “little plane.”
The viewpoint of the Sage, of the Saint is extremely rare, clear and inspires us to the Truth. The Saint is the one who has the taste for impersonality, for non-dual Consciousness, for living without stories and able to move forward without “letting the bike fall.” Since it is extremely rare to recognize the Saints, they become invisible. The Saint is the one who has the taste for the Natural State, free from the “person,” and it is extremely rare to recognize the beauty of this State in such one, for they become invisible. Do you understand the difficulty? You can live for 30, 40, 50, 60 years with a Saint inside your house, with the One who has already experienced the impersonality, and even so, you may not be able to recognize or to appreciate him or her.
Generally, people’s tendencies concern the world, so they care a lot about the car manufacturer, the size of the house, the pool, the social position they assume, the status they reach, the “person” they are. So, the Saint, who has the taste for Consciousness, is extremely rare. The major part of the people is not so gifted with such Intelligence, so they need “training wheels,” and it seems that their “little bicycle” has to “move a lot” before removing those “training wheels.”
However, this is not really necessary, since according to the Sages, the entire path or each round you ride with the bike, means getting into, plunging into or establishing yourself in this Perception of Pure Consciousness. This is not about driving an imported car, about living in a huge house, nor about being an illustrious and important figure within society, but rather about establishing yourself There, in that Pure Consciousness, where what is being seen and the one who sees have both vanished.
In this Unique Consciousness, there is not a center with a circumference, there is no subject in relationship with things. If there is no center, there is no border, there is nothing to see, nor "someone" to see. There is no ego with such an organized, prepared, frightened, complex and difficult structure. Ego is an airplane on autopilot, permanently flying the same flight of dissatisfaction, conflicts, dilemmas, problems, demands and eternal dissatisfactions.
Back to the bicycle, when the training wheels, this support on the back part of the bike – that is the ego as an organized structure – is no longer needed, it reveals itself as a false, empty and illusory structure, and therefore it is dismantled. You are too afraid of this Natural State, since you believe this “structure” is the basis of sanity, and it is very typical of the ego-identity to consider itself in sanity. The ego is afraid this structure may collapse. In other words, the “child is afraid of losing the training wheels.” That is why you have so much resistance, because not only is there no risk of you going insane when that structure collapses, but also you find out that insanity means exactly that standing structure. However, when this egoic structure collapses, the Real Consciousness arises in an authentic and true way, without any distraction, dilemma or problem. Insanity is how you live inside this old and ancient structure when you do not know how to "ride a bike," when you are afraid of "pedaling."
I know some of you say you have already understood this. No! You are seeing someone “riding a bicycle without the training wheels,” but that does not mean you have understood that. It is like seeing someone playing an instrument or performing a scenic performance and, when looking at that, you say "I can do it," "I already know it," "I will do it," "I understand how to do it." You all know what I am talking about, how quickly the mind drives conclusions growing out of superficial considerations. When the mind sees something being done, it says "I know how to do it too," but when you ask the person to do it, to put it into practice, the person finds out his or her inability and how compelled he or she was by the enthusiasm, by the desire, by the simplification.
Yes, it is simple! Riding a bike is simple, but only after you know how to do it. Before, your brain cannot do this, it has neither motor coordination, technique nor skill. The ego is full of imagination, so it simplifies what is not so simple and says, "I know," but the ego does not know, because it is not enough to see someone doing it and immediately suppose you could do that just because you desire so.
Here, with me, you hear that and say: “It is so simple what he says, it is so real. I have already understood." Isn't that true?
*Online intensive meeting transcription originally held on September 26th, 2020 – on Zoom app – First published in Portuguese on November 12th, 2020. Access our agenda, please click here.
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