Hello guys! Welcome to another meeting here on our channel.
Our work together, our purpose here, as you know, is the Recognition of the Reality we are. We are within this channel looking closely at this issue of Spiritual Enlightenment – some call it Spiritual Awakening.
So, the emphasis within that channel is the work of that Awakening, which is the Recognition of the Truth about ourselves.
The point is, no one can give us that. No teacher, no philosopher, no psychologist, no scripture, no book, no teacher... All these can be helpful. That which can give us this, is the Presence of this Consciousness itself, it is the Presence of the Divine Grace.
The point here is that… the truth here is that the Manifestation of this Grace passes through Self-awareness. The truth is that the Manifestation of this Grace occurs due to a surrender to That. So, Grace, according to Ramana Maharshi, is a mysterious movement.
What I have been telling you, within these talks, is what will make this surrender possible, so that this Realization can happen.
So, all the teaching that you receive here on the channel or any teaching that you can extract from the scriptures are aids for this Grace to find Its way in you, for It to realize this work.
So, everything that we put here seems very conclusive, as what you find in the scriptures seems very conclusive.
We have, for example, the question of the Vedas. People look for Vedanta… and I want to talk a little bit about this issue here with you – the issue of Vedanta. We have been working to show you the importance of the Sages’ view of this Reality, this Truth, but whatever you have in Vedanta or Advaita Vedanta, whatever you have there, is a mirror for you to see yourself, but you have to look at yourself in that mirror.
You cannot extract from the Vedanta scriptures, specifically from Advaita Vedanta, which is the last part of the Vedas, the clarity of your Realization. The clarity of your Realization is in Realization. That Realization is something that no one, no book, no scripture will give you.
As I'm saying, an aid doesn't solve. When you meet a beggar, you help him, but that doesn't solve his problem.
Here, we are facing the scriptures, the words of the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, we are facing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but the Recognition of the Truth about who we are requires self-investigation.
When you realize this self-inquiry, you have an approach to yourself in that direction; that’s when you can really look at yourself and see that what the scriptures say, what we have in the Bhagavad Gita or in the Sermon on the Mount or in Advaita Vedanta is That which You are here and now.
Therefore, our focus here, our emphasis with you, is for you to have an approach to the Truth about who You are, looking inside yourself, perceiving in yourself what it is that that is happening, in this instant, at this moment.
Our psychological background – whether on the surface or in depth, whether in what we have greater access, greater contact in ourselves, psychologically speaking, or in what we have most hidden, most secret, psychologically speaking – all this background needs to be observed, needs to be investigated. This is Self-awareness.
This Self-awareness is the door to this Presence of this Divine Grace, which is that Manifestation of Consciousness itself, providing that body and mind with a change.
So, see the importance of Self-awareness. And here what I´m referring to what you realize in this attention to yourself, in what you perceive in yourself, in what you see in yourself here and now. Observing your desires… Desires that, by the way, are very conflicting within us, because they are desires that contradict each other on this psychological basis.
In this mental consciousness, we live within this contradiction – the contradiction of desires. Suffering sits within this contradiction. The foundation of psychological suffering is in contradiction, in the conflict created by desire. These desires opposing each other, these opposing desires.
You have something and you are not happy with it, and then a thought arises, and that thought says that it does not give you happiness, but something else will. This other thing is prohibited as a matter of morals, of social ethics, by a self-imposed discipline, so there is a conflict, there is a contradiction.
You want what you internally believe you can't have, because it’s not ethical, it’s not moral. If you desire, for example, someone’s husband, or someone’s wife, that is an example of desire in contradiction – the conflict of desires!
Your neighbor has a car, and you look at your car and say, “I wish I had a car like his car.” Notice, the presence of envy is based on desire. You want what the other has, but what the other has is not yours and what’s yours doesn't satisfy you, so there’s an internal conflict. In that desire there is a contradiction and therefore suffering.
Looking inside yourself and perceiving the different nuances of this suffering… Desire is suffering, envy is suffering, ambition is suffering, anxiety is suffering, guilt is suffering. There is the pain of loneliness, the pain of this existential void, at the same time thought is producing innumerable opposing desires.
So, there is an eternal inner conflict within each of us. All this is because of the presence of this mind consciousness, this egoic mind.
Our work is to show you that it’s possible to go beyond suffering. Going beyond suffering means going beyond this “I.”
“I” is another name for this psychological complexity. Human consciousness is very, very complex. This complexity is this internal confusion.
Our life has been like this for a long time, and this is the condition of being human. When you look at the world and you see all the mess, the confusion, the disorder that we humans have made...when you look, you perceive that all that is on the outside is, in fact, already inside each of us.
Our desires and fears, our contradictions and conflicts, our quests and ambitions have produced all this chaos – something that is already within each of us and also outside.
Access to the Reality of your Being is due to the Presence of this Divine Grace. What is Grace? That’s the question. What is Grace? What is God’s Grace? It is something very mysterious present here and now, and that you do not have access to until you work this Self-awareness in yourself.
So, as much as you study, as much as you listen to lectures, as much as you try to adjust what you intellectually learn, verbally learn, to your daily life, it doesn't work. In fact, all that effort produces even more conflict, because with it there comes the guilt of not being able to accomplish what you idealistically know you need to accomplish.
You know you cannot covet; you know you cannot desire; you know you cannot envy, and yet you covet, you desire, and you envy.
So, there is even greater conflict, because of this demand on oneself. So, the question of guilt, especially for people who try to have an image of themselves in which they can feel good about themselves, because they are people who appreciate themselves – and this is a self-image they have of themselves –, because they consider themselves ethical, moral or spiritual people, because they are in some religious practice or because they participate in a religious community; then there is guilt. And this is all suffering!
So, there is this guilt for sin, for error. So, there’s this idealism of being who you really aren't. You want to be what you can't. All of this is within that egoic mind, that state common to all of us of egocentrism, of egoic identity.
An investigation of the Truth about who we are is needed here and now. We were not taught that. We were taught to force ourselves, to force ourselves, to force a change, a transformation, based on intellectual, verbal knowledge; a change in behavior patterns, which, in fact, is just the “I” itself, the ego itself, wearing a new guise, molding itself to a new system, a new pattern and, however, the psychological basis of the conditioning continues, because the whole problem is in this background of conditioning, in this psychological, cultural, social heritage that we have received.
We are, each of us, in this mental consciousness, what all human beings are, all that human beings were, all that our ancestors were, all that those who will come after us will be.
Psychologically, the egoic mind is this consciousness of pain. To compound this a little further, we have the illusion of an individual consciousness. So, there is this illusion of this desire for self-improvement, for personal development.
It is exactly the sense of the “person” that is the problem, it is exactly the sense of the “person,” of the egoic identity, which carries all this, all these internal frames that represent unhappiness, that represent suffering.
Therefore, what the scriptures say is just a mirror for you to perceive the Truth. And you look into that mirror when you look at yourself. In this sense, the scriptures are not different from our relationships.
It is exactly in our relationships with the world, with life, with the other, that we can perceive what is here. Looking at yourself without imposing a belief, an ideal, a theoretical, conceptual, verbal objective… this is fundamental!
Just looking at yourself and seeing the envy present, the fear present, the desire present, the ambition present here. When you look at it, all you see is what thought is shaping and bringing.
Notice that desire has the thought as its motive agent, as its motivation.
As seeing something, thought creates an image and immediately brings a sensation to this “me,” to this “I,” then desire arises. This is all in the field of imagination, in the field of thought, in the field of thought-feeling.
So, looking at this is being able to break this model, break this pattern in yourself, and with that, there is a break of this ego, this “me,” this “I.”
So, the presence of this Consciousness, the presence of this Grace, can work there in that mechanism, in that organism, and that is the end of this “consciousness” that we believe is the individual consciousness in us, which, in fact, is the collective consciousness.
There is no such individuality, this is an illusion! We live within this illusion of individuality. What is present is egoic, egocentric behavior based on the lack of this Self-awareness.
Self-awareness shows you that this individuality is an illusion. This is the illusion of individuality – this sense of the “I,” of the “me,” that sees itself separate, that feels separate, and because of that, there is conflict, there is contradiction, there is suffering; and as a result, there is all this inner dissatisfaction that is never resolved. All this ends when we have the basis, which is Self-awareness.
Placing it in evidence, this self-observation opens the door to the True Meditation. This True Meditation… We have been talking here on our channel about this True Meditation, we have a playlist about the Real Meditation, the True Meditation. True Meditation is not separate from Self-awareness, and this True Meditation is what makes the Manifestation of this Divine Grace possible. This Divine Grace does the work of Realizing That which is You, gives you this Realization of the Truth about who You are. This is Spiritual Enlightenment; this is Spiritual Awakening.
So, go deeper into this question of this non-duality, that which is clearly placed within Advaita Vedanta. Just let go of the theoretical, verbal, intellectual aspect of it, see it in yourself – this non-duality – realize that this sense of “I” is not present in this experience.
Want to delve deeper into this? Take a look at the playlist.
There is no “I” present here and now, in envy, in jealousy, in desire, in guilt. There is no “I” present!
If this is something that touches you, makes sense to you, leave your “like,” subscribe to the channel… Reminding you: we also have online meetings and face-to-face meetings, including retreats, for a more direct work.
See you soon.
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