We are going to investigate this question. The question is: what is thought? The question is: how to get rid of suffering? The other question is: how to go beyond unhappiness?
The investigation of who we are, the observation of the Truth about ourselves, is something that can reveal to us everything we need for a Life in Love, for a Life in Peace, for a Life in Real Happiness.
Yes, we need to go beyond suffering, beyond unhappiness, we need to Realize the Truth that we are, the Truth of our Being. We have to find out how thought in us gives continuity to the pain – I mean psychological pain.
For example, when someone criticizes you, at that moment, you don't receive it in a total, complete way. Already within you is a reactive, self-protecting image response. Internally, a thought arises and says, “Who are you to criticize me?” This reaction, this reactive response, is a response to the self-image, to the image you have of who you are.
Maybe you don't verbalize it in that moment, but, in that moment, you register it inside, you take that photograph, you keep it.
And from that moment on, when you look at that person, when you meet him or her at other times, that image is there, and it is an image of pain. Deep down, you don't like that person anymore.
Our liking depends on praise; our disliking depends on indifference or criticism. This is how we function; that’s how this “I,” this “me,” works.
We are working with you on the importance of Self-awareness, the Understanding of the Truth about Yourself. This is discarding the illusion of this “me,” this “I,” this ego.
So, this is the game. This is how this movement of suffering takes place and continues in each of us; that’s how this egoic movement continues in each of us. It is based on memory, on the image we keep within ourselves about the world, about the other. The different people you know…
You have, of each one of them, a huge number of images, because this happens now, the next day something else happens and a new photograph is taken…
Our relations with others are based on these images. This is the cultivation of psychological pain. This is the cultivation of the ego. So, our relationships are all based on this “me,” this “I.”
We are proposing the end of the “I,” the end of the ego and, of course, the end of this condition of ego identity, which represents suffering. All psychological misery, all psychological suffering, in us, is present because of this unconsciousness.
We don't know the Truth about who we are, but we identify with these images that thought builds within us about who we are and who the other is. We live in this like and dislike.
Some we like, while they treat us… they treat our “I,” our ego, this “me,” this “person” that you believe you are, in a way. Praise creates an impact, criticism creates an impact, censure creates a psychological impact, within each of us, and we are automatically reacting when we come across that person again.
So, if there is an insult, you become my enemy; if there is praise, you become my friend. As long as you hold the praise, you are my friend; if you insult me, you become my enemy.
Our friends, our enemies, the people we love… What is it that we call friendship in our relationships?
Notice how much this is mixed with images. Those we hate, those we love, those who are friends, those who are enemies… Whose friends are they? Who is this “I,” here, who has this friendship, who has this love, who has this hate?
From birth to death, our life has been this way. We are sustaining this psychological condition of a present ego identity, and we carry that to the end of our days.
So, there is no the Awakening of God, Awakening of Truth, Awakening of our own Being, because we live within this principle of duality.
Advaita Vedanta addresses this issue of Happiness, this Happiness possible for each of us. This possible Happiness is the end of this duality, of this principle of “I and the other,” “I and the world,” “I and God,” “I and my thoughts,” “I and my feelings,” “I and my imaginations” ... It is in these imaginations that the images are moving.
What you have of yourself is an image. That “I” is that image. That “I” is that center, that reference. We can go beyond the ego, beyond the “I,” beyond this “me,” and therefore beyond these images.
Therefore, this is how thought sustains the continuity of the egoic illusion, the illusion of pain and the illusion of pleasure. Love is not pleasure. In relationships, those who give us pleasure… The illusion within each of us says that they are giving us love. The ego asks for pleasure, satisfaction, appreciation and recognition, and that is not Love.
And we are continuing this pleasure and this pain, sustaining this self-image, when we don't observe this movement of psychological duality within each of us – this sense of “I” that in that instant, in that moment, doesn't realize that, in that experience, there is no identity.
When we place an identity present in this experience of thought, feeling, emotion, the relationship with the other, with life... when we place this element of the “I,” we place – in an unconscious, mechanical, habitual, addictive way – this condition of duality and therefore of separateness. And so we live our lives for thirty, forty, fifty years.
The point is that thought, in our relationships, is always demanding, asking, demanding. There is always this need for self-fulfillment. That is what the ego, the “me,” the “I,” this sense of “I” is demanding and, therefore, it is always separating itself – that is the sense of duality.
Non-Duality, your Being, your Natural State, is the end of it all. Thought is always warping, altering, changing, shaping things as it wishes. With thought, we get confused and lost, and because of that, we suffer.
The work of Self-awareness, in this approach to the Truth about who you are, puts you in direct contact with the True Meditation, the True Practical Meditation, here and now, in living.
This contact with That which You are is the contact with the Reality of God, of your Being, of your Divine Nature.
Notice what we're saying. We are saying that thought is the creator of this duality, but there is also in us the intention to find Love, Peace, Freedom and Happiness.
You are here on this channel because you are actually looking for this contact with the Truth that you carry within yourself. This is possible when there is this approach. As long as you are moving in this world in this unconscious way, turned to externalities, towards the search for satisfaction, fulfillment and accomplishment in external things, you will remain lost.
It is necessary to turn to yourself here and now and look at this. It is very important to observe your reactions… to observe and ask yourself “who am I?”, “what is the Truth about who I am, right now, here?” Ramana called it Atma Vichara, self-inquiry – looking at yourself, self-investigating, verifying that sense of separateness, of duality. This is the end of this duality, then the Recognition of the Truth of your Being takes place.
Our emphasis here is on the True Practical Meditation, the only Meditation that shows you the illusory sense of duality between the thinker and thought, between the observer and the observed thing, between this experience and the one who is here claiming to be the experiencer. This True Meditation is unique – only in the sense that it is no longer a means for you to escape, for you to escape this opportunity to recognize yourself as Pure Consciousness.
This is present in this full attention, which is also called Mindfulness. The moment of being here and now, with what is, not running away, not rejecting it, not fighting it – that is Meditation. To observe every reaction, every thought, every feeling, every emotion, every sensation, each and every image that arises when there is criticism, when there is flattery, when there is offense…
You are aware of yourself, without giving yourself identity, at that moment.
When there is no identity given to this “me,” to this “yourself,” this experience leaves no record, leaves no mark, leaves no image. This is dying to this image, to this “me,” to this ego. That’s the end of the past. That which is not registered, that which is not part of that psychological memory, cannot come back. This is a relationship with what is, without the illusion of “someone” present in it. OK?
That’s what we've been talking about on this channel. We're delving into that here with those who approach.
If this is something that makes sense to you, leave your “like,” subscribe to the channel… I want to remind you: we have online meetings and face-to-face meetings, including retreats, to work on this Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual Enlightenment.
If this makes sense to you, let’s work it out together! Leave your “like” and subscribe to the channel. OK?
Thanks for the meeting and we'll see you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment