You cannot be happy living someone else’s life. We don't understand ourselves, we don't observe ourselves, we don't study ourselves, we don't know who we are, we don't know who we present ourselves to be, how we present ourselves to be, how we seem to be in our life in relation to people, with the world, with ourselves, and we don't even know the truth about the other. We are weaving theories.
We want to know who is the best among us so we can follow suit. Who was the best among us…
We have this religious bent, for example; if the ideal of virtue, purity, morality, spirituality develops within us, then we want to know what Buddha has to say, what Christ has to say, what Ramana has to say.
We're not looking at what we're saying. We want to know what Buddha did, what Ramana did, what Jesus did. We are not looking at what we are doing with our lives, how we feel, what quality of thinking we have, what feelings and actions we have. There is no Self-awareness.
Always studying yourself in this contact with the external world and with this internal world – what happens inside is the internal world, what happens outside is the external world –, looking at what we are, perceiving this, understanding this… Not what someone did or said or what kind of thoughts they have or had about life, but what is happening with ourselves, with ourselves right here and now.
Our goals, our purposes, our dreams, our desires always have, as a principle, as a basis, the example of others. What another did, we want to do; what the other has achieved, we want to achieve; what the other said, we also want to say; what someone else has been feeling, we also want to feel.
We don't realize how envious we are, how much we copy, imitate. We don't have a word of our own, a thought of our own, a feeling of our own, we don't have a move of our own. That’s because we believe we need examples.
This is based on a very false basis in our culture: the illusion that someone can teach us something, someone can give us an example, someone can show us something. And we alone are not able to see that. This is our mistake.
When there is a direct approach to Self-awareness, we begin to discover, by ourselves, in ourselves, what suits us, what is real and what is not real, without this model of envy, of trying to imitate the other or to follow someone. We look at A, B, or C, we believe he is happy and we need to be happy as he is happy. First, we don't know what the Truth of Happiness is in us, but we have the ideal of happiness, because we believe that this one or that one is happy – this is something false, absolutely false!
It is contact with What we are here and now that gives us a vision of what Happiness really, truly represents for us. It has nothing to do with the other. The other may seemingly be in happiness because of our wrong and mistaken perspective. The view we have of the happiness of others, based on the confusion we live in, is a false view of happiness.
The human being is ambitious, he is envious, he lives in an unconscious way and does not know what he is actually looking for. We are looking for a single one “Thing”: the Intelligence, the Truth, the Wisdom that we carry within ourselves. This is enough to show us what the Truth of our life is in this relationship with the world, with all things, with others.
When there is Wisdom, when there is Intelligence, when there is Truth, you don't need to follow, you don't need to copy, you don't need to imitate, you don't need to idealize a life similar to that of A, B or C. The Truth of your Being, the Truth of your Real Nature is Intelligence, is Freedom, is Consciousness.
A question arises, doesn't it? What will make you happy? What will give you Peace? What will freedom give you?
Those who have conquered something externally or done something or left a legacy, are they really of interest to us? Is it worth for us looking outside? The work of Self-realization is to look at “you,” not what is out there.
People look for inspiration in others, but they cannot live off inspiration, example, the model of others. Inspiration in someone else’s model is just an inspiration, it is not Realization. Your real interest in Truth should be Realization and not inspiration. So, this model of external inspiration is a mistake, an error.
It’s important for you to look at what you are here and now. And when you do that, you leave the models, you start to learn from yourself, you start to realize what makes you unhappy, what makes you sad, what makes you dependent, what makes you fearful, what makes you discouraged, which makes you unenthusiastic, without joy, without freedom. You look at yourself and you see it here and now. You're not going to look at a model out there and try to be inspired to motivate yourself, to objectify, to have from this example, this model, a path, a direction. You will look at you!
The beauty of Self-awareness – and, here, Self-awareness is staying in that “look” at what I am without any model, without any idea, without any belief, without any goal, without any need for inspiration… look at what you are here and now.
We don't do that! It is very important for us to understand what is being said here.
Most of humanity lives these internal states of unhappiness, and we have countless internal states of this type; they are innumerable! They have several names: depression, anxiety... They are present because we do not look at what we are, at what this “I,” this “me” represents. Why don't we look into it? Why don't we look at all this? Because we always have a way of looking and mirroring ourselves, or seeking to mirror ourselves, in something outside. So, we are always in this alternative of running away from what we are, because we now have (this is totally unconscious, of course) … we now have an ideal, a purpose, a goal, a dream. We don't realize that we are just running away.
There is no Intelligence, there is no Freedom, there is no free action when we, at first, do not understand the present unhappiness, the present pain, the loneliness, the melancholy, the sadness, the boredom, the bitterness, the negativity, the pessimism, the psychological restlessness, the inner chatting happening within us.
If we don’t know to see this, to run for an objective model of external achievement is completely meaningless. And people want to achieve something outside before they understand who they are here and now. Then, to feel motivated, they go to lectures of self-help, consult books to find motivation, enthusiasm, how to achieve their projects…
All we need is to look at what we are here and now, clear this first, coordinate this, understand this pain of this ego identity, which is anxious, worried, envious, fearful, and unhappy. So, I keep asking the question: What will make us happy? What will make you happy? Is it an external achievement, like a blanket over this bitterness, over this pain, over this suffering, over this unhappiness? We put material fulfillment coverage on movable, immovable property, and put sentimental fulfillment – it’s a “new love,” if such a thing exists. We take a blanket and put it over the illusion of the “me,” the “I”, the ego.
I want to invite you to go beyond this “me,” this “I,” this “ego,” to understand the Truth about Yourself here and now, and not to put a blanket of external fulfillment over all this pain, this pain of being” someone,” that pain of mediocrity of being always attached to motivation linked to egocentric purposes, desires and fears. To realize the Truth about Yourself is to understand the Truth of God. The Understanding of God’s Truth is the end of needing a blanket of external fulfillment to be happy.
So, what is Happiness? It is the Realization of That which is You. So, what will make you happy? Absolutely nothing! Your True Nature, your Real Nature, doesn't need anything to be happy. So, questions like “how can I be happy?”, or “what will make me happy?”, “how to make my dreams come true?” All these questions are completely absurd! They are all based on the illusion that you are someone who needs something that will come one day; it’s absurd!
It will never come, because nothing has gone! Even things which already have left your life, you haven't let them go, you are still holding on to them. Psychologically, internally, you continue to cling to your small world of apparent fulfillments which never brought you Happiness; they are gone and you still miss it.
So, we don't let anything go, because nothing went away and nothing will come! As long as there is, as long as the illusion of “someone” present in us, here and now, remains to be, to do, to accomplish or to cease to be, to undo, to abandon something, illusion will be present, ignorance will be present, and that is lack of God, lack of Truth, lack of Happiness.
All right, guys?
So, what is Reality here and now? Not “what will make me happy?” or “what do I need to let go of to become a happy person?”, “what do I need to get rid of?” It’s not what you need to get rid of and it’s not what you need to achieve that we're talking about here. We are talking with you about the freedom to understand yourself in the context of everything that is here and now, which You are not. It does not increase who You are, nor does it diminish who You are.
Wanting to get rid of, for example, fear, guilt, loneliness, that sense of existential void or abandonment... wanting to get rid of it won't make you happy! Because who is it that wants to get rid of it if not the state itself? And achieving something to replace one of those states won't make you happy either! Because who is this that wants to move to achieve something?
People say “you need to be brave!” For what? To put courage in place of fear? Who is this that needs courage? And why does he need the courage if he has no fear? And what is fear if not courage in a new guise? From courage to fear, from fear to courage: we remain in this condition of duality, in this misunderstanding. “I am unhappy, I need to be happy.” Who is this that is unhappy? Who is this that wants to be happy? And what is it to be happy? What is it like to be unhappy? What does it mean to be “somebody"? The question is, “Who am I?”
Master Ramana Maharshi dealt with this in a masterful way. When you went to him, he would ask you “who suffers?” “Master, my wife died.” He [Ramana] would say “yes, and?” He [disciple] said “I am suffering!” He [Ramana] asked “but who suffers?” “My wife abandoned me.” He [Ramana] would say “who has been abandoned?” Then the person said “I.” “Who is this ‘I’?”
We, here, are working to end the illusion, the illusion that there is a world out there that is hostile, or that there is a world out there to make us happy. OK?
This is the subject here with you.
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