Hello guys! Welcome to another meeting here on our channel.
The question is: how to attain Spiritual Awakening? People sometimes comment, they ask why it is so difficult, so complicated, or why they’ve been practicing for a long time and this still hasn't happened.
There’s a very interesting story within Zen, of the monk Baso and his master Nagaju. You probably know this story.
Baso was within this process of Spiritual Awakening, within this process of practice, and one day his master finds him sitting in the practice of zazen (we’re going to talk a little about this practice of zazen).
He is in his practice of Zazen, and the master comes and says: “Your practice is very interesting, but what’s the purpose?”
He looks at the master and says: "For sure, Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual Enlightenment." This is his answer.
At that moment, the Master takes a roof tile and starts rubbing this tile on a rock. When Baso witnesses that scene, he asks his master Nagaju: “Master, what are you doing?”
And the master replies: “I need a mirror. I'm turning this roof tile into a mirror. I’ll polish it until I have a mirror.”
Baso upon hearing this starts to laugh and says: “Master, this will be impossible! You can’t transform a roof tile into a mirror by polishing, by doing this work.
To this, the master replies to Baso: "This is your practice of Zazen to attain Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual Enlightenment."
This story is interesting.
The practice of meditation, or the practice of zazen, is not for achieving Realization or Enlightenment. There's no purpose to be accomplished by practice concerning Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual Enlightenment.
Spiritual Enlightenment, Spiritual Awakening, is something already here, at this present moment. Your practice isn’t for Spiritual Awakening. It must go on, but your work of practice, the practice of sitting in zazen is Enlightenment itself, the Awakening itself. There’s no separation between sitting without mind – and that’s what the word zazen means, it’s just sitting without mind – and Spiritual Enlightenment or Spiritual Awakening.
So, Meditation, as I’ve been putting it here in our meetings, I call the True Practical Meditation, is not separate from Spiritual Enlightenment. This Spiritual Enlightenment is the practice of Meditation. I prefer to call it Practical Meditation.
In general, people get frustrated when they practice meditation because when they stop meditating, they realize that the egoic sense, the mind’s sense, is present once again. They want to meditate for the purpose of Enlightenment. The practice of True Meditation, as I’ve been putting it here on this channel, is to remain free from identification with the mind. This is not a process to do at specific times of the day, in a place prepared for it, silent, quiet, where you can stop the mind, stop this process of identifying with the mind, through practice.
I recommend here the True Meditation, Real Meditation. It’s something present here and now. In this State of Presence, in this State of Consciousness, Practical Meditation is present. This Practical Meditation is zazen – sitting down without mind, sitting down without the movement of thought, without mistaking yourself for thought.
Thus, the truth about True Meditation is the truth about attaining Enlightenment or Spiritual Awakening.
And the truth is that there’s no way to achieve what’s already here and now. Achieving presupposes the future, presupposes a movement in time, presupposes an objective, a purpose to be accomplished, while Realization is the Acknowledgment of your Being here and now.
This is very paradoxical in a practical sense because You are This, and yet, you realize that you are still identifying with all this movement of the egoic mind. Then, in a real way, This is present, but not in an existential way. And this is where you shouldn't stop practicing, even if practice won't give you that result. I’d say that practice predisposes you to become aware of What is already here; it's basically that.
This work of Self-recognition is all that is needed. It’s not about achieving Spiritual Awakening, but rather about Acknowledging the Truth of your own Being, here and now.
So, zazen isn’t a ritual practice, a ceremonial practice. Zazen is simply being present here and now… sitting without mind. This can literally mean sitting in a place and remaining there free from this identification with this movement of thought.
In this self-observation it is possible to break this identification with this egoic movement. Since zazen is to remain in your Being, settled in your Being, as I’ve been saying within these speeches here, in our meetings, both here on our channel and within in-person and online meetings, you can practice zazen walking, driving your car, watching TV.
That’s why in Zen it’s unforgivable to separate the practice of Meditation from Enlightenment itself. You cannot separate Enlightenment from Meditation. For Zen, Enlightenment is Meditation, there’s no separation, no distance.
So, our meetings, our work together, is to show you that Spiritual Awakening is possible, but Spiritual Awakening is the Realization of your Being here and now. This is Enlightenment! Therefore, it is an Acknowledgment and not an achievement, a direct Perception of this Natural State of Being, free from the egoic mind. That mind lives in that duality. Illusion consists of this sense of duality internalized in the body and mind by thought.
Another important point that I have emphasized and, in general, I have not noticed this even in those who share the possibility of Awakening, is that there’s no possibility of this Spiritual Awakening without work in this mechanism, in this organism, in this body-mind.
And this is the work of Consciousness, bringing Awakening, bringing the Perception of the Reality of What You are; and what You are, transcends body and mind. So, if there’s no work of disidentification from the mind and body, there will be no Spiritual Awakening, Spiritual Enlightenment.
You can believe This, study a lot, read a lot about This, learn a lot about This, and existentially, Spiritual Awakening won't happen, because without a change in that mechanism, This doesn't happen. I refer to this Acknowledgment – It doesn’t show itself. It presents itself when there is this break of identification with the body and with the mind, and this is a work of the Awakening of this Energy, which is in a potential state in the body, ready to Bloom, ready to Awaken, ready to Manifest Itself in this mechanism, in this body. I refer to the Power of Kundalini, which is the Power of Consciousness itself in this body.
Therefore, the Acknowledgment of the Truth of your Being presupposes the actualization of this Divine Potential, which is the Potential of Kundalini. I never dissociate Kundalini Awakening from the process of Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual Enlightenment; it’s something that goes hand in hand, something that happens simultaneously, and it’s in this organism, in this mechanism, that this Acknowledgment takes place.
Then, this whole process of practice must go on – and here I mean Real Practice. Real Practice is in Meditation. You need to discover the art of Meditation. You can also continue within a so-called "meditative practice" or "meditation practice" for ten thousand years, and what I’m telling you is perfectly based on the principle of Awakening, according to Yoga.
Meditation requires Consciousness, Presence. It’s not what is known as meditation out there – meditation for calming, meditation for de-stressing, meditation for a therapeutic purpose. This is a wonderful thing, but it cannot bring you this Acknowledgment of the Truth of your Being. This requires disidentification with the egoic mind; it requires the breaking of this sense of duality internalized in this supposed egoic mind, in this supposed “me.”
As long as there is this sense of egoic mind, which is this sense of an identity, which is the “I,” there will be the world out there. So, this internalization of duality needs to be broken, this illusion between the observer and observed thing, between thought and thinker, experience and experiencer. Reality is What is here and now. There is no “I” thinking. Thought appears, but there is no “someone.” This duality needs to be undone; this illusion needs to be broken. In feeling, there is feeling, but not “someone” feeling; in emotion, there is emotion, but not “someone” in emotion; in thought, there is thought arising, but not "someone" thinking.
Therefore, a real basis is important, and the real basis is in the True Practical Meditation. Here on our channel, I have a playlist on it. In the True Practical Meditation, it is possible to break the identification with this illusion, which is the illusion of the egoic mind, the illusion of this false center, this false “me.” I call the egoic mind this state of mental consciousness for this supposed identity present here and now. This is not real.
Thus, our meetings are for the investigation of the Truth of this false “me,” this false center; our meetings are for the breaking of this illusion of duality, for the direct Realization of Non-Duality. Non-Duality is your Being, it is this Real Consciousness. Acknowledging This occurs because of this work of Real Meditation. This is possible when there is Self-knowledge. So, the mere practice of meditation, without the Self-knowledge, will not represent a transformation, a change; it will not represent the Awakening of this Divine Power. So, there is no way for this internal movement which is Kundalini Awakening, which is the Flourishing of Consciousness, to take over this body and this mind.
Then, this Acknowledgment takes place, the Acknowledgment that What You are is already here and now. However, a process is needed in that body, in that mind, and that’s why Real Practice is needed – and here it refers to Real Practice. It is necessary to find out what is Real Zazen or True Meditation.
So that's the subject here for you. In your life, in your daily life, you put this in evidence through self-observation. The observation of the movement of the mind breaks this identification with this movement of the egoic mind. So here, the art of Meditation is the art of self-observation, which Ramana Maharshi called “Atma Vichara,” self-observation. Self-observation is Atma Vichara, and that is the True Practical Meditation.
So, this Realization is the Realization of Zazen, which is Enlightenment, Spiritual Awakening, Awakening in Consciousness, your realized Self, free from the illusion of all psychological suffering, from all this confusion that the egoic mind represents. This is Love, This is Peace, This is Freedom, This is Happiness.
If this is something that touches you and you still haven't subscribed to the channel, take the opportunity now, subscribe to the channel, leave your "like…" Reminding you that we also have in-person meetings, we also have online meetings. If this is something that touches you, let's work it out together! Ok?
Thanks for the meeting.
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