About thought… How important it is to understand thought, because thought is what has become the basis of our life of relationships with others, with the world, with ourselves, with everything around us.
Thought is not free, it is a conditioning of memory, a programming of the past, something mechanical. The memory in us is something mechanical.
Note that thought is associative. You're faced with a scene and suddenly a thought pops up about it. That thought is a memory reaction, a mechanical memory reaction.
Remembrance is that, and when that remembrance arises, another thought immediately follows it – a thought associated with what is being seen or what is being heard. Then, an internal movement takes place, which is this movement of thought, in a mechanical way.
Thought is associative and mechanical, not free. Notice how interesting this is! It is not you who decides on the thought, it is the thought that decides on the next thought.
Life, at this moment, presents something to the senses. You see something, you hear something, and at that moment, life itself determines the appearance of this or that thought – this is automatic, this is something mechanical. There is no entity present here and now with the freedom of thinking. This “thinking” is psychological conditioning, it is psychological programming. In reality, it is a prison in time created by thought. And this is the time that we call here “psychological time.”
Our life is based on this condition, the condition of psychological time. There is no Freedom, because there is no Self-awareness. Freedom arises, it appears, it emerges, it is recognized, when the known disappears, and the known is this process, which is the process of psychological conditioning that has sustained this movement of thought in each of us.
So, it is necessary for thought to cease, for this psychological movement to disappear, because as long as there is this movement there will be a prison – the prison of psychological conditioning, the prison of psychological time.
Notice, your mind works like that. Note this! You see this – that the mind works with memory. Mind is nothing but memory. What we call “being aware” is thought, it is memory.
Seeing something, thought names it. When thought names, it is aware of it, so what we call consciousness is just the naming of thought.
I want to invite you to Recognize the Truth of your Being, which is Presence, without the need for naming and therefore without the need for thought, without the need for this psychological time. So, when we talk about the possibility of Spiritual Enlightenment, of Spiritual Awakening, we are talking about the Recognition of your Essential Nature.
And here, we have to go into the use of words carefully, because the word here – “recognition” – is not the right word. Recognition presupposes that something is already known, and when we are dealing with the Nature of Being, we are dealing with the Unknown. So, it is Recognizing the Nature of the Unknown, and when there is this “Recognizing,” what is present cannot really be recognized by the mind, because it is not part of it.
So, Spiritual Enlightenment is the Awakening of Wisdom; it is not awakening of knowledge. We cannot confuse knowledge, illustration, theories, beliefs, all this accumulation of words, of experiences, of everything that we have lived in the past and remember here and now – the books we read, the life we live, the people with whom we live, we come into contact with, what we have learned over the years – we cannot confuse this knowledge, this “knowing,” with Wisdom.
Wisdom is in the Realization of the Truth of what is here and now. This Realization is not recognition. Recognition needs memory, it needs experience, it needs the past, whereas Wisdom, the Realization of Reality here and now is not something that is part of this psychological time, therefore it is not part of thought.
Our difficulty in dealing with Life as It is here and now, is that we are always trying to adjust this present moment, this moment that arises here and now, to an idea, to a belief, to a concept, to an experience.
When we do this, we present the illusion of an identity; yes, the illusion of an identity, the identity of the “I.” This “I” is an illusion acting in this moment, moving in this moment, speaking, listening, working, relating…What is present at this moment talking, listening, relating, is Life, Life happening, and Life does not encompass this belief, this idea, the idea of “I.”
The difficulty in dealing with Life as It is, is that this idea of "I” is present, separating itself from the experience, from this speaking, from this listening, from this “relationship” with what is here and now present. So, we're always trying to adjust a pattern of belief, a pattern of ideas, a pattern of psychological conditioning, to this challenge that is Life here and now.
Thus, our relationship with family is a relationship based on memory, on experience, on all the years of life that we had in this relationship with them. This also applies to society, to the world in which we live. The business world, the sports world... Our whole relationship is based on memory, based on experience, based on conditioning.
Our relationship with family is like this, our relationship with work is like this, our relationship with the sport we love or that we like to interact with, to participate, to cheer, to be entertained with, to have fun...
Our whole life based on this psychological conditioning is a life grounded in a pattern of ego-identity. And this relation, at this level, is a relationship of contradiction, of conflict. It is where boredom, annoyance, nuisance arise, it is where desires arise, it is where fears arise, it is where conflicts in our relationships with the world arise, because there is always this sense of “I” present in this experience.
What I want to tell you is that Life happens without this “I.” Self-awareness is needed. So, the approach of thought becomes real when there is Self-awareness, because in Self-awareness, you can recognize the illusion of this duality, of this separateness between you and Life as It is showing itself here and now, in these different relationships: family, sport, home , job...
Self-awareness is to become aware, it is recognizing the presence of separation, duality. The separateness is “the experience and me,” “the feeling and me.” Understand this! How important it is to understand this! When you are with someone, all you have from that “someone” is experience, memory, remembrance, knowing, knowledge. Perceiving this and seeing that there is the illusion of this “I” and this image that thought has formed through knowledge, experience, remembrance, memory in this relationship, to see that what you have is an image, to recognize this is to perceive the sense of duality, the sense of separateness – “I and the other,” “I and knowledge,” “I and the remembrance,” “I and the memory,” “I and the experience,” “I and the image.”
Is it possible to get rid of this “I” and just be with the experience? That’s the question.
It is possible here and now to become aware, aware of ourselves and therefore to recognize the presence of duality, of separation. When this happens, you immediately realize that you are nothing but memory. This “me” is just memory! This “I” is just memory; this “I” is just a set of memories, a mechanical reaction. They are stories built by thought, in this relationship with this present moment, with Life happening here and now.
Therefore, when there is Self-awareness, there is the possibility of cessation, of the end of this psychological condition. Then, thought ceases, image ceases, the image you have of someone disappears when the thinker disappears, when the observer of that image is no longer relevant. When the observer disappears, the image disappears. When the thinker disappears, thought disappears. When the experiencer disappears, the experience disappears. So, your relationship with your family is new; Your relationship with the practice of sports or leisure in sports is new; your relationship with the world around you is new; your relationship with objects, with people, with places, with activities, everything undergoes a profound change, an extraordinary transformation, because the sense of “I” is no longer present.
This is possible when there is Real Self-awareness. This is possible when that duality is perceived, that separateness is perceived, that sense of separateness, that sense of “I” separating from experience. There is only the experience, that’s the point! There is only this image, there is only this feeling, there is only this sensation! As we are always running away from it, putting ourselves in an illusion of control for what shows up, we are always upholding this sense of duality, this sense of separateness and therefore suffering, contradiction, conflict, confusion.
Notice how you deal with worry-producing thoughts within you. When they approach... and it is in this associative way: a bank slip appears in your hand, Life presents you this bank slip, somehow it reaches that mental consciousness and triggers the first thought, the second and a huge volume of worried thoughts regarding the condition of this ticket to be paid. The sense of preoccupation is present because of “someone” concerned.
Note how important this is! There is no worry without “someone” concerned, just as there is no form of fear without “someone” present in fear. There is no volume of thoughts arising, generating and producing stress if there is no “someone” in the process. It is always the sense of “I” that sustains the experience and therefore the problem.
Experience cannot be understood as long as there is this sense of “I” separating to try to do something. Life is resolved in action, not in the realm of thought. But it’s in the realm of thought that we want to solve problems, and when we do that, we don't realize that it’s the thoughts themselves that are sustaining the problems. There is no problem without thought.
You have challenges, you have situations, you have adversities, but if there is no sense of the “I” present fighting reactively, trying to psychologically deal with that, fix that...
The problem is in the psychological field, always in the field of the mind. It is always the egoic mind that upholds problems, and it upholds the problems because it carries this sense – the sense of “I.”
Can we get rid of this sense of “I?” Yes, if we become aware that this duality is present and that this duality is an illusion that sustains itself in this attempt – it is always in this attempt that it sustains itself – in the attempt to do something with what arises. There is a psychological reaction to the movement of Life present here and now. That reaction is the illusion of separateness, it’s the illusion of duality, and that’s what sustains suffering, and that’s what sustains conflict, and that’s what sustains the ego.
So, our egocentric activities, our egoic activities, which are activities that are always producing more conflict, more disorder, more complications, this is happening because of the ego mind’s attempt with its thoughts – which are, by the way, conditioned, limited, program-bound thoughts… those thoughts trying to resolve situations.
So, the understanding of thought is the understanding of the movement of the “I.” When there is understanding of thought, thought is no longer a problem, because there is no longer an “I” to try to do something with that. We resolve situations in life in a practical, experiential way, in action, and not based on reactions from memory, remembrances, thoughts.
So, Understanding the Truth about who You are ends the illusion of that “I” that you believe yourself to be, and that ends the illusion of thought. Then, thought ceases. So, there is Silence, there is Stillness, there is Serenity, there is Peace, because the brain, now, no longer works in the same way as it used to, because there is no longer this conditioning, there is no longer this repetition of memory, there is no longer this mechanical way of memory working psychologically on you.
You are Life, You are Intelligence, You are Consciousness, when the sense of “I,” attached to the old model of thinking, is no longer present. This is possible when, in this Self-awareness, True Meditation is revealed. Meditation is a very important subject.
Here on our channel, we've been talking about Meditation – I'm talking about the True Practical Meditation. What is the True Practical Meditation? It is what happens here and now in living.
When you are faced with a given situation, such as a bill to pay, or a difficulty, or an adversity, or the death of a loved one, or something that may, at that moment, be challenging for this “me,” this “I,” this ego, with its conditioning background of rejection, of struggle, of an attempt to control... when faced with this, the True Meditation is present, because it is based on this Self-awareness.
So, when True Meditation occurs, there is a Silence, a Natural Stillness in the brain, an Ability to deal with Life here and now, free from the sense of “I,” without anxiety, without fear, without annoyance, without stress, without conflict, without suffering. This is possible when there is True Meditation – I have called the True Practical Meditation.
Here on our channel, we have an extensive playlist working on this with you, showing you that Meditation is not what some call “meditation” out there.
Meditation takes place here and now. It is only real when it is not separate from this instant, from this present moment. Thus, observing each reaction, each feeling, each thought, each moment that arises, looking without this background that criticizes, that condemns, that rejects, but looking without separating from the experience, without creating the illusion of this identity, without sustaining this illusion of “someone” present in this instant, in this moment... So, that’s the end of duality, that’s the end of the sense of “I,” and when that ends, the experience undergoes a profound change, the experience itself goes through a profound change, because this experience, in this perspective of this conditioned “I,” trapped in this condition of conflict, contradiction and suffering, is only present because of this duality.
If that sense of “I” disappears, that conflict disappears, that experience disappears. This is the way to deal with fear, with anxiety, with the husband, with the wife, with the facts of life, with situations at work, in your life, in your daily life; it is always without the sense of “I.” Then, there is this real action, free from the egoic mind, free from thought; then, thought ceased.
This is the subject that we are working with on this channel and also in online and face-to-face meetings, including retreats. If this is something that makes sense to you, we can work it out together.
OK?
Thanks for the meeting and until soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment