The question would be: what is the mind? What do we mean by mind? That process in us, of recognition, is what we could call mind... the simple recognition. What is recognition? What is shown to you is seen and recognized. If an object is shown to you and you recognize it, it means that the presence of that recognition is the presence of the mind.
Let’s see how this recognition thing happens. If you see an object and recognize it, it is because you have already had an experience with it. So, you have a certain experience and when the object, that given object, is shown to you, you recognize it. This is the meaning of what we call mind.
This is how we work internally. A thought within us is a simple acknowledgment of an experience we go through. We go through an experience and this experience is recognized in us, within us, in that format that is thought.
I'll give you an example: you see someone and, when you meet him again, you recognize him. You only recognize him because you have the thought – which is actually memory – of that experience you went through. This is recognition. You recognize the person, and that recognition is the mind.
The presence of recognition of a given experience is only possible because you have a memory, you have a remembrance, you have prior knowledge, you have a thought about that, about that experience, or about that person, or about that given situation.
So, what is the mind? It is this experience recognition process. How does the mind work? The answer to that is: doing it all the time!
So, the mind in us is doing this all the time; this is how we work psychologically, internally, internally.
We have the expression “my mind”... Actually, it’s the mind in You. It is this process of consciousness in You that we call mind. I have called this process “mental consciousness,” because it is the presence of mind that is consciousness.
Our whole mental consciousness is the consciousness of recognition. So, we have the experience, we have the memory, we have the thought... and that, when it becomes important, shows itself as a recognition when something presents itself. That’s basically how the mind works, how this mental consciousness works.
So far, so good, we need it for this dream life, as I've been calling this life of ours. Because this is a dream, similar to the dream we have at night. This, here, is also a dream. At night, we sleep and have a dream; we see the world and we recognize the world. Even when, in the dream, unknown people appear to us, we have the recognition that they are people. This is a recognition that is based on the experience of always recognizing people when they show themselves.
This is the process of mental consciousness. We have this consciousness in dreams at night, when we sleep, and we have this consciousness here and now, awake, in the waking state. So far, OK; so far, so good. The problem is that this mental consciousness… beyond this simple memory, of pure recognition of experiences, of memories, of images, of remembrances, we have a quality of memory, a quality of thought, a quality of recognition, completely wrong; something quite insane, quite crazy.
We place in our life experience what has no reality of a simple and direct experience of objective memory, of memory of objects, people, things and situations. I would call it “memory of facts.” Apart from this memory of the facts, which is quite natural, we have a psychological memory; that memory is the problem! That memory is the foundation of the psychological confusion we live in.
So, internally, we are experiencing dilemmas, contradictions, disorder, suffering; we are experiencing situations of insanity, of disturbance, due to the presence of this quality of memory – our psychological memories. The sense of ego is there, the sense of “I” is there.
The expression “ego,” “I,” can have different meanings. I'm not sure what meaning psychology gives to this term. Here and now, I mean the illusion of “someone” in recognition. Let’s clear this up for you.
There is that recognition. That is the presence of mental consciousness, that is simple recognition. When seeing a face, when seeing a person, when seeing an object, there is a natural recognition of this fact, of this simple and objective thing; this is normal memory, natural memory, something that we need, even to work, to function in the world, at least in this dream called “human life.” We need to know our home address, we need to have a clear memory of our name, recognize the wife’s face... because if you confuse your wife with another woman, you will have problems. So, we need to have that memory! There’s something wrong with you if that happens! So, we need it!
So, the memory of the facts is simple. But we have a problem here – I would call it false recognition, the illusion of that recognition. This is where the problems arise for all of us. The sense of “I,” of the ego, of this identity... and, here, I use the expression “ego” in this sense: in the sense of an identity present within a false recognition. OK?
If I show you an object, there is simple and direct recognition. You say “this is a glass,” “this is a table.” If I show you a picture, you say “this is my wife” or “this is my son.” This is natural recognition. It requires a perfectly functioning of the brain for this to be possible. But there is this false recognition, this recognition that I would call recognition in duality. It would be someone acknowledging the experience seeing himself separate from the experience.
The problems we have, all of them, are based on this recognition of duality, or rather, this recognition in duality, in which there is you and what is shown, you and what is presented. Our entire psychological background – which causes us suffering in our lives, in our daily lives, haunts us in the waking state and also haunts us in our dreams at night – is based on this principle that there is this “I,” this “me,” this ego, seeing it, feeling it, wanting to get rid of it, wanting to protect itself from a given thing, judging it, evaluating it, comparing it with others… This is possible within this principle of recognition (as I am calling it here and now) in duality: the sense of an “I” present in this experience.
The present feeling of fear, for example, or anger, hatred, anxiety, that craving for more, every form of present psychological discomfort in us, is because of this illusory principle of recognition in duality.
We don't just have the clear, objective, functional thinking that is necessary for a life in this dreamy, natural world. We also have this psychological set of memories, remembrances, thoughts.
In that quality of thought, we are “someone” special. This “I” needs to fill itself in its experiences. So here it is – this “me,” this “I” – and the experience to fulfill it. In this division, suffering is established, conflict is established.
So, when fear is there, when anger is there, hate is there, it is this present “me” rejecting, struggling, in contradiction with this given experience, wanting to do something with it. It sustains in us this false identity, which is the “I,” which is the ego, which is this sense of “someone.”
So, there’s this “observer and observed thing” illusion; the observer and the observed thing...
The thought in you says things that don't have the slightest reality. It becomes very real to you when you see yourself as “someone” who is thinking it. So, it’s not just a recognition, it’s “someone” separating from that thought, trying to deal with it, trying to do something about it.
The images we have of each other: “I like you;” “I don't like him;” “I want this;” “I don't want that;” “I really miss it;” “Without this, I can't be happy”… All these thoughts denote the presence of this false recognition, this recognition in duality. Our selfish behavior, our egocentric behavior, our behavior separating to demand, to request, to try to change, sustains anger in us, sustains hatred in us, sustains conflict in our relationships.
This behavior is the behavior of the “I,” of the ego, it is the quality of recognition in duality, the sense of “someone” present wanting to change the world, wanting to change things, wanting to change the other. So, there is always this problem in us: the problem of the “I”; that’s the ego.
Life is not complete, it is not a life where there is no separateness, where everything is right, where everything is correct, where everything is in place. There is always the sense of “someone” separating himself within this recognition, seeing himself separate from what is shown, demanding something, requesting something, complaining about something, trying to modify something to fulfill himself. This is the sense of the ego present!
So, how does the egoic mind work? Within this condition! It implies unhappiness, it implies suffering; the implication of this is psychological restlessness. So, we have a restless, chattering mind, where thoughts are uncontrolled, repetitive; where images appear without any control, without any perception on our part, because they are there creating, in us, states, sustaining themselves in emotional states and feelings in us, in this body, in this mechanism, and we don't know how to deal with this.
All this because of this lack of understanding of how the mind works.
Looking at what the mind now brings here and noticing the appearance of that separation between the observer and the observed thing, between fear and “me;” see this separateness of this “me” and fear, see this separateness between “me” and the image I have of someone, the judgment I make of them, the criticism I make of them, how much they offend me, how much they hurt me, how much she saddens me; realizing that he or she is an object and I am the passive subject of this apparent experience, receiving consequences from it; see this picture, which is the picture of the egoic identity, of this “I”... To see this is to see how the egoic mind works.
All you need is to find out how the mind works – and here I want to refer to the mind in duality, not the mind that we make use of in everyday life in a very direct way, the mind that we need to write a letter, to do any activity, but to this conflicted mind, this chaotic, disordered mind, this mind within this insanity, within this madness, sustaining division, separateness, in our relationships.
A very simple example is the relationship between people, between us. In a relationship, you have the recognition of an image: the image of the husband, the wife, the children, the boss, the employee... And when looking at someone, you like, you don't like, or you are indifferent, or you feel threatened, or sad with his or her presence… This is only possible because you separate yourself as the observer, separating yourself from that image, which thought itself is building and sustaining in your relationships.
Our relationships with people are based on these beliefs, these models. The question is: is it possible to have, in contact with someone, just the direct recognition of the face, the name, the place he occupies in our relationships, but without this background of psychological conditioning, without this background of separateness? Is it possible for us to deal with people as they are, not as thought, within us, idealizes how they should be, or could be, or would need to be, for us?
Is it clear, now, what this duality is? This is straight from Advaita Vedanta. The sense of duality has no Truth. There is only Consciousness, and that Consciousness is That which You are in your Being. There is no second thing, the world does not exist, the “person” does not exist, the “I” does not exist, this “me” does not exist. If there is this “I,” there is the other; if there is this “me,” there is the world. There is only this Consciousness! That is Advaita, non-duality.
When the mind is in the Real Natural State, of Pure Consciousness, it is like a lake, a calm lake, a placid, calm lake… I would call it the Divine Mind, the mind in its Natural State, where that Consciousness works in a real way. This Consciousness is the Truth of Non-Duality.
So, is it possible to live free of images, of these pictures, of these thoughts... live free from this psychological condition of recognition in duality (“I and he,” “I and she”)? To live beyond this “like,” “dislike,” “this is a good person,” “that is a bad person” ...? Live without this illusion of friends, enemies? To live without that sense of the “I,” the “me,” the ego?
The possibility of this is in perceiving yourself, looking inside yourself and seeing this movement of the mind and what it’s producing in this condition of psychological memory... this type of memory, right? It was clear here for you: the memory that sustains this “me,” this “I”, this ego.
This is the subject here for you, this is the subject that we are investigating together within this meeting. OK? Was that clear there?
Thanks for the meeting. See you soon!
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