Is a life completely free, totally free from suffering possible? The answer to that is: yes. It requires a mind free from all this contradiction, something so common to the vast majority of people around us. We need a brand new mind, a new view of life, a new view of ourselves, of who we are. Hence, we need to study ourselves.
We are too attached to knowledge, to books knowledge and also acquired from what others are saying, talking, teaching, and showing us, since intellectually, they know something and can explain it. And we acquire, absorb that, and we enjoy that kind of knowledge.
Here, my proposal to you is a new way of knowing. The common way of knowing we have is this way of accumulation – we read something, listen to something and keep something inside us so that we can then act, do based on that knowledge, based on that background. So, our knowledge, in general, is that.
Here, I want to show you another way of knowing, of learning – the knowing free from accumulation, free from words, written words and spoken words, the experiences of others and the own experience that you acquire and keep within you; this, by the way, also becomes part of knowledge you have acquired. Is there another way of knowing, of learning?
We're going to talk about that in the next few minutes here with you. The first kind of knowledge gives you “knowing;” however, the Knowledge I put here for you, gives you Wisdom. It is one thing the action born from knowing, from knowledge, from experience, but the action born from Intelligence, born from this new learning, this new knowledge is quite another.
Everything you need in your life, for the real end of suffering, for every form of psychological suffering to occur... all you need in life is Self-Awareness, knowing yourself, studying yourself, getting closer to yourself, and finding out how you work. Why do you feel what you feel? Why do you think what you think? What are these thoughts inside you? What are these feelings inside you? What are these images that arise here in the vigil state and also at night, while you are dreaming on the bed? Why do these dreams appear? Why do these thoughts appear here and now? Why are these feelings present here? What is it that I feel and think? What is the truth about me; about this “me” I believe to be? Who am I?
So, here we are addressing to you, on this channel, investigating with you, on this channel, the extraordinary issue of Spiritual Awakening, of Spiritual Enlightenment, of the Realization of the Truth of your Being, of What You truly are. This channel has this proposal. The proposal here is to Awaken Wisdom, the Clear Vision of Life, the Real Vision about Yourself, about who You truly are – your Natural State, free from the ego, from this sense of “I.” Notice how essential this is for each one of us.
We are aggressive, possessive, violent, self-absorbed, jealous, anxious, bored, depressed, and melancholic human beings… We carry the agony of fear, the pain of loneliness. Along with that, we have some moments of pleasure, joy, fulfillment, satisfaction, and peace; however, it’s a peace that comes and goes, a joy that comes and goes, a satisfaction that depends on circumstances, people, happenings, of events. And all this is on the outside, outside of What we are, something completely beyond any control on our part, and we have an illusory identity, an ego, which demands control.
The fact is that we don't know ourselves and that’s why we suffer. So, people ask “how to stop suffering?” or “what is suffering?” or similar questions, always trying to find a way to go beyond this tedious condition that is life, which has been their life.
Here, on this channel, we are working with you, as well as in online meetings, we also have face-to-face meetings, including retreats… we are working on the end of the illusion of this “me,” this “I,” this ego, we are working on this Spiritual Enlightenment question, saying This is possible, and This is the end of suffering. This occurs when the end of that “I” occurs, because it is the illusion of that “I” that sustains suffering. Curiously, it is suffering that sustains this “I.”
We have a duality here. In life, psychologically, and internally, we are always living within this duality. Unless Awakening, Enlightenment happens, from birth to death, you will continue living within this condition of duality: joy and sadness, love and hate, peace and war, stillness and restlessness.
The psychological states within us are conflicting and contradictory. The state of mind in each one of us is of restlessness; there’s no serenity, no peace, and we don’t know a mind free from the weight of psychological conditioning, a conditioning that includes all these situations of unhappiness: insomnia, depression, anxiety, fear, desires, and various contradictions.
There’s an internal chatter within the human being, a complete lack of control regarding movements, for example, of thoughts. They are happening all the time! You spend the whole day with thousands of thoughts. 99% of these thoughts are completely a waste of energy, they are useless.
You have some thoughts during the day… some practical thoughts. The memory of an appointment is a thought. Apart from that useful and functional thinking – this one takes up only 1% or a little more of that psychological structure because the rest of the day is of useless thoughts, a constant chattering inside you… It is of such quality that when I sometimes say to people “you think a lot!” they look at me and say “How come?” When I ask “do you have a lot of thoughts?”, they say “no, I don't.”
We are not even aware of how much we think, the volume of thoughts we have during, for example, 5 minutes. You are just sitting in a place… there’s no need to be psychologically occupied with thoughts and yet there’s an enormous number of thoughts happening. And you are not even aware of the volume of thoughts you have, for example, for 5 or 10 minutes. And a whole day?
This is a huge waste of energy, Presence, Consciousness, and Intelligence. So, we are superficial creatures, human creatures involved in thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations, which we are not even aware of the presence of them.
And when you lie down to sleep, then dreams arise, which, in turn, also happen without being noticed. There’s no awareness, no understanding of the importance of what these dreams are saying, as well as what thoughts during the day have said to you, because you are not even aware of their presence.
So, we live, psychologically, in a state of restlessness and, naturally, in suffering since we are giving identity to this experience, which is thought. So, thought… It’s thought itself that creates this identity, the identity of the “I.” So, this “I” identity upholds this unconscious, mechanical, automatic, exhausting manifestation, which is this psychological movement of thought within us, within you.
Thus, this inner voice talking, chattering, sometimes it separates, it splits into 2, into 3, and they start arguing inside you. Have you ever caught yourself arguing with yourself, as if there were 2 people inside your head arguing, and you as a third person also wanting to interfere? That’s the ego’s movement, the mind’s movement. This is a classic sign of psychological insanity, and this is the condition of the human being, no matter if they graduated in a famous university in Brazil or Harvard, no matter the degree of culture, education, and schooling. This is the psychological condition when there is no Vision of the Truth about who you are.
A real way of coming closer to the Truth about who we are is the only way that enables us to learn from ourselves: it is Self-Awareness and self-observation. Ramana called it Atma Vichara. Atma Vichara is self-observation – “who am I?”
A thought arises and you observe that thought, you don't let that thought slip away. You have countless thoughts, they are sequential. You don't perceive… It’s a lot of thoughts, but they come one at a time.
When you start observing the movement of thought, the movement slows down, because you are bringing consciousness to this instant, to this present moment, to yourself here and now. So, it’s possible to perceive this movement, to see how you function, to see how this “me,” this “I” is positioned, to perceive that this “I” is thought itself, to perceive that thought is the “I” itself. When one of them appears, the other simultaneously appears to separate and sustain an illusory identity by passing as you, which you believe that is you.
You are now learning from yourself, discovering within yourself this movement, the movement of the “I,” the ego, “me.”
Then, it’s possible to find out what this thought is now, what this feeling is now, what this imagination is now; to see that you are always moving from the past to the future – yes, from the past to the future. Every thought inside you is just a memory, a remembrance, a recollection trying to project itself through the door of this moment, this present moment, into the future. The sense of an “I” going somewhere – this is how the ego, this “me,” this “I,” moves, this is the egocentric activity of the sense of the “I,” this is the egocentric activity of the sense of “person.”
The ego, in its egocentric activity, moves within this movement of past, present, and future, which represents thoughts. Here and now, at this instant, there is no thought. Life doesn’t require thought. Life always requires action, not thought.
However, we are continually acting from thought. Then, our actions are not free, but they are reactive actions – because they are based on thought, because they are born from memory. They don’t represent perfect adequacy at this moment. That’s why our actions are always egocentric, centered in this false center – because they are actions determined by this past, which is this egoic consciousness sustaining the illusion of individuality; yes, the illusion of individuality in speaking, doing, feeling, relating, and this sustains suffering.
So, the human being lives in anxiety, depression, and in the pain of loneliness because of this. There’s the existential void because there’s always this illusion, the illusion of a “me” wanting something, needing something, having to accomplish something, and always being dissatisfied with what is here and now. Thus, there’s this void… This instant, this moment is never satisfying, so suffering is present in its many forms, and fear is a classic form of the presence of this suffering in each one of us.
Our work here is to become aware of all this, aware of ourselves; then, it’ll be possible to go beyond “me,” the “I,” the ego, because there will be this understanding of this psychological movement. And when there’s this understanding, this psychological movement, which has been revealed as the real problem of suffering in our lives, of fear in our lives, vanishes.
Here, the approach is to get closer to ourselves, to learn from ourselves, looking at what is happening here and now, moment by moment, each thought that arises, each feeling that arises, each emotion, each memory... As you perceive this remembrance, this thought, this feeling is a memory reaction response, as you realize that there’s no identity in it, that it’s just the past without any reality in what is here and now, as you see that, it vanishes.
If you don't put an identity present, for example, in jealousy… Notice, what is jealousy? Why do humans carry this? Our relationship with objects is not different from our relationships with people. We are not only jealous of people, but we are also jealous of objects, because, in fact, psychologically, there is no difference for the ego mind in its fixations.
For some people, some objects are much more important in giving them the illusion of a dominating, controlling identity present than people. So, some people are more jealous of objects than of people. So, jealousy is not Love, it is possession, control, power, the fulfillment of the “I” in that object or that person – which, for the ego, is also still an object of its control, its dominion, which it says it loves.
I know this is shocking, but when there is Love, there is no hate, no aggression, no violence, no domination, and there is no power. Therefore, when there is Love, there can’t be jealousy. This is a fact; it is a reality.
Why don't we realize this and other aspects of the ego in our lives? Because we don't investigate, we don't look at ourselves, we don't look at what we are in these relationships with objects, people and with ourselves, so suffering remains present in this sense of “I.”
It is a suffering that “I” share with those around me – I am aggressive, violent, possessive, and domineering. I call it love, care, affection, and zeal. It’s important to understand the Truth about who we are. That’s the end of the ego, that’s the end of all that kind of behavior, of all that egocentric activity, that ego, the “me” activity, that’s the end of illusion.
Only then Love, Real Love, is possible in our relationships. When you flourish in Love, your contact with objects, places, and people is Love. There’s only Love present in that Consciousness which is your Being, your Divine Nature. It doesn't own, doesn't control, doesn't dominate, It isn't envious, isn't jealous. In Love, there’s no such thing; in Love, there is no such duality.
If this is something that makes sense to you, leave your “like,” and subscribe to the channel… I want to remind you: we also have online meetings and face-to-face meetings, including retreats, to work on this together.
If it makes sense to you, here’s the invitation, and we can work on it together.
Ok? Thanks for the meeting. See you next time!
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