Let’s delve a little further into this question of thought. Thought is a very, very important factor, it needs to be investigated.
It has taken a very, very important place in our lives – it has taken us away from Reality.
Reality is what is present here and now, and thought is what is coming from the past. Notice what we are saying to you. There is no thought here and now.
Every thought now present is because of memory, because of remembrance, because of the past.
Thought is not something real, alive. Thought is not a fire, thought is ash. What was, is not anymore. Here and now, we are dealing with Life as It is, as It appears. All thought does is intervene; it interferes. It doesn't deal with what’s here now.
Your contact with the other is here and now, but this contact with the other, based on thought, is what constitutes conflict, contradiction, inadequacy and, therefore, suffering.
The contact you have with someone is based on thought now, and when it is based on thought, it is based on illusion… in that contact, in that relationship.
We need to go beyond thought to really deal with Reality. Our relationships are all based, today, on thought and, therefore, on memory. We are not dealing with fire, we are dealing with ash. Fire is something that is here and now; the ash arrives bringing a representation of this fire.
We are, at this moment, discovering Life as it is; right now, discovering Life as It is, or we are just trying to adjust, to Life as It is, an idea, a concept, a belief – those are the ashes. Ashes no longer represent fire.
Life is happening here and now. If thought captures this and stores it in memory, in remembrance, in recollections, that is ash; it is no longer fire but ashes; it is no longer a matter of this moment, of what is here and now, but of the past.
The past is what was, it no longer has any representation here and now, at this instant.
Our relationships based on the ego, on this ego-identity, are relationships with life in these ashes, these dead ashes, these memories, these recollections.
Life requires a challenge here and now. It presents a challenge, requires a response to that challenge. The answer to that requires Presence, Consciousness, which is possible only when the ego is not, when thought is not, when memory is not.
The emperor went to the Zen Master and asked him a question. The question was as follows: “Master, what happens to an Enlightened Being after his death?” Master Gudu said, “I don't know. How can I know?” The emperor insisted and said, “But you are an Enlightened Master, a Realized Being.” And the Master said, “Yes, but I am not dead.”
“Yes, but I'm not dead.” Your Life takes place here and now; it is not something that is dead, but something that is present. It is not possible to deal with what is present, alive, here and now, with the past, with the mechanisms of the past, with representations of the past.
We are not dealing with Life as It is here and now, when the egoic sense, when the “I” sense is present. Enlightenment, Awakening is the Reality that Life here and now is everything. There is no past as being real, there is no present as being a door to the future, because the future is not real either. The only Reality is that which is here and now as Pure Consciousness, as Pure Presence – that is the Nature of Being, that is the Nature of Reality.
When someone flatters you, you keep it. At the moment of flattery, at that moment, at that given moment, you were before the fire; one didn't have an adequate, perfect, complete answer for that moment, for that fire, for that flattery, for that praise.
On account of this, thought kept flattery; it felt the pleasure and kept that pleasure of flattery in this image, in this “I.”
Your new contact with that person, from that moment on, will be the contact of the past with what is present here, at this very moment. You are always meeting something new, but always bringing the past, that which was, that which is no longer, bringing that image – that is the ego, that is the sense of the present “I.”
This sense of the present “I,” which is the ego, in this contact with the new, with what is here now, never corresponds to Reality; there is no correspondence with the Reality now present, so there is conflict, there is contradiction, there is suffering.
Spiritual Enlightenment, Spiritual Awakening, is the contact with Reality, with the Reality of your Being, which is Consciousness, which is Life. Then Gudu says, “I am not dead. “What I am, I am now. What I know, I know now. I don't know anything about the past. I don't know what is dead.” What he is saying to the emperor is: “What I know is That which I am, and What I am is Life, now. How can I know?”
The Truth of What You Are is Pure Consciousness here and now. Note that when you are in a state of Full Attention, of Pure Consciousness, you do not register. You may even have the memory of it later, at a given moment, but it doesn't bring an emotional charge to this “me,” to this “I.”
When there is this Attention, the ego does not appropriate the experience, it does not photograph the experience. This image that you have of yourself, which is the ego, doesn't appropriate it. So, if someone insults you, it’s a verbal expression, it’s a present experience. But when there is that Complete Attention, that experience doesn't change, that verbal expression doesn't change into another image within you, because there is no ego. The presence of this Complete Attention – this is Self-awareness, this is direct contact with the True Practical Meditation.
Here on our channel, we have been talking a lot about it, and with each video you watch, as well as with each meeting we have, you realize that what we consider True Meditation is becoming clearer to you.
This Full Attention leaves no record. When there is this Full Attention, there is no “'I,” the observer, the experiencer, so that image does not appear, the sense of ‘I’ does not appear to register the insult or the praise, the flattery. So, it dies at that very moment; it disappears, it dissolves, it is not registered, because there is Presence, there is Consciousness – that is True Meditation. Dealing with the world around you, dealing with the other, dealing with each and every experience, without registering for this self-image, is getting rid of the past, which means letting the past die. Even if a remembrance occurs, it is a remembrance that I have called “the remembrance of facts;” not the memory of psychological subjectivity.
We have two levels of remembrance – I've already talked about it here inside the channel with you, in some videos. We have thought… There are two levels of thought: we have thought of facts – knowledge, experience, memory of facts – and we have knowledge, experience and psychological memory.
The experience, the remembrance and the memory of facts are not at the service of the ego, it is something that works in practical life. Your name, for example, your address, your date of birth, technical or professional knowledge you possess, the ability to drive, all this is part of the thought or memory of the facts. But we also have this subjective, psychological memory, which is the memory of the “I,” of this observer, of this sensor, which is the ego. And it lives cultivating these remembrances, these memories, recording and living on it, living on it, being “somebody” in it.
So, our relationships with each other, in the ego, are all based in this psychological memory, in this condition of ego-identity. Our life is just memory.
Here, if you intend to see the ego clearly – and it is only when you are able to see it clearly that it falls away – you need this Attention to yourself, this self-inquiry, as Ramana Maharshi said, this Atma Vichara; you need this approach to Self-awareness, you need this approach to the True Practical Meditation, then there is an end to that duality. This is directly dealt with in Advaita Vedanta.
The word “Advaita” means “the first without the second.” The sense of duality is the sense of “me” and “not me” – I as the experiencer and that experience happening to me. So, when the insult comes, that “me” comes along and registers “I don't like you.”
When the compliment comes, this “I” appears and says “this person is a wonderful person! Yes, I liked her!”
Our whole life in the ego is grounded in the past, in memory, in this condition. Our response to this moment is never adequate, complete; it never ends. When there is a complete answer, the experience ends, because the experiencer is not.
So, there is an end to the experience... But when there is no end to the experience, you are still hurt for two years, for fifteen years, for twenty years, still resentful...
We, human beings, have friends and enemies; and longtime enemies! These enemies are only in our imagination, it is an image that we have of these enemies. The person we believe exists only exists within this memory, this imagination, this “me.” So, this “I” exists for this “person,” and this “person” exists for this “me” – that is the condition of ego-identity.
This way, we are cultivating suffering, cultivating the state of separateness, of illusion. If our interest is in going beyond suffering, going beyond illusion, going beyond the “I,” the ego, discovering the Truth of Love, Happiness, Peace, a completely Free Life, Full of Divine Reality, of Pure Intelligence, Wisdom, Compassion; if the interest is in going beyond the illusion, the ego, it is necessary to get closer to that, to get closer to this investigation, to get closer to this Perception of the Reality about who we are here and now.
So, our contact with this present moment will be a direct contact. We are not concerned with what was but with what is here and now, in this Full Attention. What is here and now is important.
Then all that is illusory can show itself and be seen, and naturally be undone; each and every impression still coming from the past can now be seen here, within this Vision of Non-Duality, and therefore, this may end.
That is our purpose here within this work – to show you the possibility of that.
We need Silence, we need Attention, we need Presence, and This is possible when there is this real interest in looking at what appears and not judging, not comparing, not rejecting, also not clinging to what appears, to what is shown, as in the example here of the compliment.
OK... you look, you don't give identity to it, so there’s no record, so there’s no this inflated “I,” full like a ball, feeling the best; you are cured of it, cured of this “me,” of this “I.”
When it is criticized, when this “me,” this “I,” is criticized, it has nothing to do with That which You are; it’s an image being criticized, it’s an idea someone has about who you are being insulted. That’s none of your business, that’s his or her business. So, you are beyond suffering, beyond flattery and beyond insult, beyond criticism and beyond applause, beyond this “me,” beyond this “I,” beyond this ego.
Then, like Master Gudu, the Zen Master, the time will come when you will say, “I'm just alive, how can I know? How can I know about the past? How can I know about what was? I don't understand ashes, I only witness the present fire here and now.” OK?
If this is something that makes sense to you, leave your “like,” subscribe to the channel... Reminder: we have online and face-to-face meetings to deepen and realize This in this life.
If that makes sense to you, let’s work it out together. OK?
See you soon.
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