Hello guys! Welcome to this meeting here on our channel.
We are always talking to you about the importance of this Recognition of the Truth about who You are. This is something… very constant here, which represents the end of the illusion about who you are. So, what happens… At first, I tell you that you don't know yourself, you don't know the truth about yourself. All the knowledge that you have, each and every knowledge that you have about who you are, comes from this background of psychological conditioning that you carry.
So, when you come across this work, this channel, this meeting here, our purpose is to show you how to attain Spiritual Enlightenment or how to attain this Spiritual Awakening... and we use this terminology because this is more commonly known – the expression “how to attain” or “how to achieve” – but, in fact, we are always dealing here, when we refer to this Awakening or this Enlightenment, about this Realization of What You are, What you truly are.
But here we are faced with a situation. First, I tell you about it, make statements about it, I present it to you, I doubt it, I question all the beliefs you have about who you are, and I keep insisting that all the knowledge you have about yourself, based on this background of conditioning, is completely false.
To put it another way: every idea you have about yourself is just an image constructed by thought, it's just a background of present conditioning supporting an image. So, the idea you have, the image you have, is the “person” you believe you are, and that's not real.
So, your first challenge here is being shown this, I have to introduce you to this, I have to question you on this. Your second challenge is to investigate this for yourself, to become aware of it in a direct way – you yourself realizing it.
So, here we are faced with the possibility of seeing this in a direct way, that all this background of mental conditioning, what I have called mental consciousness, all this perception of reality of itself, in relation to others, in relation to the world around, is based on the wrong foundation.
Your perception of reality is not true. Your perception of who you are, who the other is, about what the world is, is completely distorted, it is completely false, in this background of psychological conditioning.
So, the first challenge is to hear that and to be able to put yourself in that position to investigate it. It's no use just believing what we're saying, or, also, disagreeing. So, this agreeing or disagreeing thing is not going to work. Your pressing need, your urgent need, your real need, is to examine this deeply, is to be able to look at it and realize in yourself what we are saying here.
So, this view of who you are, this perception of your world has to be investigated by you. It is necessary for you to realize, when I say that you, within this condition, are living an illusion, the illusion of the sense of separateness, the illusion of the sense of duality, the illusion of the sense of separateness...
You will have to examine this for yourself; and for this to become possible, you need something that I've been talking about a lot here on our channel: you need Self-knowledge, an approach to yourself. This approach is the approach of the one who looks inside oneself, the one who looks at what is happening inside... looking at thoughts, feelings, emotions, perceptions, having this approach to yourself without trying to alter, change, reject, without also welcoming in a passive, identified way.
The perception of reality of the world, based on this mental consciousness, which is this egoic mind, is what makes you perceive the world, so you are only aware of the world, but you are not aware of yourself. So, there is an identification with this whole process of what the mind reproduces, within this background of conditioning – with that, you identify. This awareness is the limited awareness of this ego-identity.
Our work together is for you to become aware of this Pure Consciousness, this Boundless Consciousness, which is your Being. This is not this mental consciousness, this is not this limited consciousness, this is no longer within that conditioning, where there is the story of a character that you identify with. There is no longer this image that thought has constructed about itself, and it has given to this image the name of “I,” “me,” “myself.”
This “me,” this “I,” this “person” is an image constructed by thought, within this structure, this mental consciousness. That's ego identity.
So, the mind lives within this conditioning project, within this conditioned system – this is the egoic sense, this is the “I” sense, this is the structure of the egocentric mind, of egocentrism. Egocentrism is nothing other than this sense of identity present in this experience that is life here and now, in this present moment. This has no reality and this can be verified, perceived, in a direct way by you, through the Self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is this approach in this self-observation of the movement of mental consciousness. Here and now, in this instant, you begin to observe yourself. Ramana called this self-inquiry.
Here, the question is “who am I?” It's not that you're going to ask yourself that question; you will become aware of the sense of it in this self-observation, the observation of this movement of mental consciousness.
The observation of this movement of the egoic mind, this observation of feelings, thoughts, emotions, sensations, this will make you see the images that thought builds, the image that thought builds about you, which is the “I,” the image that thought builds about itself, which is the other, be it the husband, the wife, the boss, the employees, the children, the friend, the neighbor, everyone around.
When faced with these people, immediately thought creates a photograph, forms an image. Maybe this contact takes a few minutes, a quick contact, but it's enough. In just a few seconds of contact, a thought already makes a map, reads that person, creates a photograph, and that photograph is stored there in your brain. In the next meeting with that person, the feeling of this “me”, this “I”... and there is a reason why it does this, it needs that feeling of psychological security in this new contact.
It is natural, in this egoic structure, to be afraid of the unknown, and now it is facing someone that it knows, that it recognizes, which is completely false. Everything you have there, is just an image, a mental representation of that person. You don't know her!
In reality, you don't know yourself. Everything you have of yourself is also an image. The image you have of someone is an image of a photograph of a few minutes, or a few days, or a few years, but the image you have of yourself is an image that you have been carrying and adding to it new memories, new frames; you've been amplifying that image since childhood. What you have of yourself is a very intimate image, that you protect and defend, and the image that you have of another is for your safety.
So, the egoic sense, which is this sense of self-preservation of that center, that “me”, that “I”, that is not the Reality of your Being. You become aware of it through self-observation. In self-observation, you have the beginning of Self-knowledge. This Self-knowledge gives the condition for you to have a perfect basis for something fundamental, which is the direct understanding of yourself. You cannot go beyond this psychological conditioning, beyond this pattern of ego identity, beyond this self-image, beyond this psychological conditioning, without this Self-knowledge.
So, this Self-knowledge gives you the basis, in this self-observation, for the Awakening of Meditation, so that Meditation, as your Natural State of Pure Consciousness, appears. Because this is Meditation! Here, I refer to the True Meditation. Meditation opens that Space of Silence, of inner Stillness, of absence of movement of the egoic mind. So, this Space, this Silence, this Stillness, this absence of the egoic mind, this “non-mind” opens up. We could also call it an entirely new mind, an unknown mind, a mind where there is Space for it, the Space of Understanding, the Space for Intelligence, the Space of Intelligence, the Space of Consciousness. The Space of Truth about your Being reveals itself when an entirely new mind is present, where there is a Space. This Space is the Space of Silence, it is the Space of Stillness. So, it is possible for this Presence, this Pure Consciousness, to settle in this mechanism, in this organism. Some call it Spiritual Enlightenment, Spiritual Awakening.
Therefore, it is not about “how,” but about the realization of what is present when this egoic sense is no longer there. It is not about the achievement, the execution of something, but the Realization of this Divine State of Being, which is Consciousness – you in your Being, you in your Divine State, you in your Natural State.
So, here the first thing is to investigate the illusory nature of this false center. Then, this new space is revealed, and this is the contact with your Being, with this Divine Presence, with this Real Consciousness, with the True Consciousness, with the Pure Consciousness.
So, you are beyond that sense of separateness, that sense of a "me" present here and now, in this experience. Life is something present here and now. There is only That - Life as It is. This contact with Life as It is, is the mirror where You see Yourself as You truly are.
You need that mirror, and that mirror is born of this self-observation, it is born of the Self-knowledge. This Natural State of Consciousness reveals itself as Meditation, as the True Meditation. I want to invite you to do this in your life, in your day to day, moment to moment. We are investigating this here together with you, we are approaching it here.
We have a playlist about the True Meditation. We are always talking to you about Meditation. It is something very intimate, very close to that State of Pure Consciousness. First, this happens in this Practical Meditation, in the True Practical Meditation. I mean Meditation in practice; I don't mean a specific meditation practice, as it's known, the specific meditation practice for anxiety, for fear, for de-stressing... I don't mean meditation as some have it, meditation for sleep... This meditation just works as a temporary withdrawal from internal states of conflict, contradiction, suffering.
Here, I am referring to the end of this sense of “I,” of this real sense of separateness. This is the ultimate end of suffering, it is not a mere temporary withdrawal, as it happens in meditation, in this so-called traditional meditation, in these various meditation practices, which I have called therapeutic meditation. Here, it is about the Meditation for this Awakening of your Nature, of your Real Identity.
So, this Meditation, in practice, is the observation of the movement of the mind here and now, moment to moment. It doesn't require a specific place, it doesn't require a specific time, it doesn't require a quiet, silent space at all! Everything you need, you have it right here, in this instant – life arising, life appearing, the senses active, the thoughts appearing on the screen of the mind, this mental consciousness arising with all its background of conditioning, worries, fears, desires, anxieties, loneliness, boredom, worries, guilt, regrets, images, imagination… that constant chatter, typical of mental consciousness, inside your head, thought all the time occupied with a memory, with a story, this internal monologue, this internal dialogue that takes place, all this conflict, all this internal contradiction, all this psychological disorder being seen, being observed, being verified here and now.
You are driving your car and it appears – a thought, a feeling, a remembrance, a memory. You are walking, you are at home watching TV, talking to someone, and at the same time you are aware of yourself.
In that attention, in that self-observation, there is the Self-knowledge, and that opens the door to that Space of Silence, which is the new Space of Stillness, the Space for that Real Presence, for that Real Consciousness, which is Meditation.
So, our job is to learn that, learn that art, the art of getting closer to yourself, and looking at what appears here and now. This is fundamental – learning about yourself and not running away, not escaping, not finding a refuge, a place where you can temporarily forget what is arising in this mental consciousness. So, these various so-called spiritual or therapeutic practices can be of great help, but, on the other hand, they also become mechanisms of escape.
You cannot recognize yourself if you don't see yourself, if you don't become aware of that inner duality, that conflict, that pain, that suffering, and Meditation is contact with that here and now. And there is a way for this to happen – it is to disidentify from the experiencer within the experience. Pain arises, suffering arises, conflict arises, contradiction arises along with that thought, and that is seen. Without putting an identity into it, it is broken, it is undone, then there is a Real Liberation, there is truly an end to this internal state of conflict, contradiction, suffering, because your Natural State of Consciousness has flourished, which is Meditation.
So, that's our subject here on our channel. If this is something that makes sense to you, leave your "like," subscribe to the channel. I want to remind you that we have online meetings, in addition we have face-to-face meetings, including retreats. OK?
Thanks for the meeting. If that makes sense, let's work it out together.
Until the next time.
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