The egocentrism and Self-Awareness. This issue of egocentrism, this movement in us from this center, this “I,” this “me” and the issue of Self-Awareness...
See the truth, the importance, and the value of Self-Awareness for the Understanding of What we are, since, in general, our action... and I want to talk about this movement of action we know. We don't even conceive the idea of the possibility of a life free from effort, from struggle, free from these goals created by thought to accomplish something. It’s always the desire and motivation to accomplish something, based on effort and struggle, and we can’t even conceive an effort-free life, a struggle-free life.
This explains why our lives are so tense, stressed, and conflicted – because a life based, as is usually the case with all of us or most of us... a life based on thinking and on that struggle, and effort is necessarily stressed, conflicted, because it’s a life based on the movement of this egocentrism, this sense of the present “I” seeking to accomplish something.
I want to work this out with you in these few minutes. Somehow, for you to accomplish something in life, something technical – you have a technical or an engineering problem – you do need discipline, focus, to attend to that problem, and, naturally, at that level, a certain effort to solve that problem.
So, in this physical aspect, it’s reasonable to understand the need for effort. And here, I don't use the word “struggle,” but “discipline” – a certain discipline, focus, and effort to solve that technical problem, that engineering problem, for example, or any slightly more complex achievement.
But here I refer to, internally, psychologically, what our lives have been like: a life of effort, of struggle. A life based on thought is a life based on the desire to achieve, accomplish, and obtain something for psychological self-fulfillment. This is where we come across the conflict, and the suffering we carry.
In general, our life… we don't even conceive a life like that – a life without psychological suffering, without contradiction, without conflict. And here I want to tell you: this is possible, yes, when you Realize your Self when you Realize your True Nature. Some people call it Enlightenment or Spiritual Awakening; it’s when the Truth of What You are reveals itself here and now, then there’s no effort, no struggle, and because there’s no effort, there is no struggle, no stress, no conflict, no suffering.
So, the possibility of a psychologically, internally free life is a reality for all those who turn to the important issue of the Revelation of their own Being. This is where the value of Self-Awareness comes. Without Self-Awareness, you’re not aware of what is here, at this moment, in the mind, producing contradiction.
Self-Awareness places you before this vision of what you are and, therefore, before this contradiction thought has produced between what you have here and now and what you want to accomplish – this is where the effort, the struggle lies. What you are here and now can be seen, understood and therefore dissolved, without struggle or effort. For example, the issue of fear, stress, anxiety present, or any form of movement in this egoic sense, any form of conflicting movement within this egocentrism, which is the proposal of the egoic mind... to look at what is present here and now and find out the Freedom without struggle, without effort.
We need a certain level of effort, discipline, and focus, as I’ve just said, to solve a mathematical, technological, or engineering problem. However, here I refer to psychologically not needing any effort for the end, for example, of fear, anxiety, stress, or any psychological disorder, or psychological suffering.
When it ends, when this movement of egocentrism, of the ego, of ego-identity, ends, what remains is You in your Being, and in your Real Nature, in your Real, True Nature, you are flowing with Life, not in struggle, in conflict, not within any effort.
We were conditioned, from a young age, from childhood, to goals, to achieve goals, always with the idea of the imperative need for effort, and struggle. Then, we end up transferring what we saw in ourselves as a child, the difficulty of performing certain tasks, such as solving a mathematical problem or any other thing... we transfer that to this internal, psychological sense, and we believe we also need effort and struggle to resolve.
In fact, we’ve just used effort and focus, and a certain discipline to solve that. The struggle arises when there is resistance within us to deal with that situation. So, when you say to a child, “Look, solve this problem!”, he or she just needs a certain effort, focus, and discipline. But, since we were little, we’ve cultivated psychological resistance when we are faced with adversity, difficulties, and problems, and we have applied this in our life.
Hence, since we were little, we have been living a life with a lot of effort and struggle and, therefore, a life in conflict, trying to solve psychological problems in exactly the same way. We come across sadness, anguish, the emptiness of loneliness, we come across the boredom that is our routine life, we come across these internal psychological frames the egoic mind has given us, and, thus, our life is unhappy and we are looking for happiness through effort and struggle.
Here, I want to tell you that, psychologically, it is exactly when there’s no effort, no struggle, that every single psychological, internal problem, every single inner suffering, every single frame of unhappiness, and this is internal, all of this is resolved when there’s a dissolution, a natural disappearance of this psychological condition, which, by the way, is sustained when there’s duality, a separateness between what is shown and an “I” that wants to do something with it.
So, people, for example, have questions like: “How to overcome fear?” It’s always the idea of struggle, of effort, it’s always the idea of a work based on a victory, the accomplishment of an achievement, the attainment of a victory over a burden. It’s because there’s always the idea of someone to win, to conquer. Then, psychologically, we’re dealing with ourselves in exactly this way: “how to overcome fear?”, “how to overcome obsessive, repetitive, negative, impure thoughts, bad thoughts?”, “how to overcome the pain of loneliness?”, “how to overcome attachment, desire?” It’s always the idea of winning, someone who will win, and this takes effort and struggle.
When we’re dealing here with the ego-sense, which is this sense of “I,” it takes no effort, no struggle. All problems in us, internally… An engineering problem is technical, a math problem is a logic problem, and a problem that occurs with your car is mechanical. I don't mean problems on that level; I mean these internal, psychological problems. If your body is sick, it needs to be treated and cared for. This is a problem in the body, for the specialists who take care of this type of problem, the doctors.
However, internally, we’re creating a condition of contradiction and conflict when there’s a struggle, an effort to solve psychological problems. When we want to solve problems at this level, we come across an impasse: fear, thought, the pain of loneliness, and the pain of separateness cannot be overcome. The understanding of a sense of an “I” present in this experience resisting what is, Life as It is showing itself here and now, trying to do something against that… that is what is sustaining the fear.
Fear is present when the sense of “someone” in fear is present. Fear doesn’t exist in itself, for itself; fear is always something present for “someone” present – the “I” in fear. Sadness doesn’t exist in itself; it’s a sad “someone.” If there is no “someone,” there is no sadness; if there is no one, there is no fear. It’s the same for anxiety. Anxiety doesn’t exist by itself, without this “I” with thoughts formulating frames of fear.
It’s always the sense of the “I” present in the experience that gives continuity to the experience; it’s the experience for the experiencer. So, this resistance to what is, is what sustains this psychological condition of the “I” in its movement of egocentrism. Then, the psychological unhappiness is an egoic movement. This is within this egocentrism, this sense of “I.” It’s this sense of “I” that reinforces the continuity of the experience for this “me,” for this experiencer.
So, I want to invite you to understand what is, is there to be seen. If it’s not seen, if it’s rejected, if you fight against that, you create an idea about that, you resist, in this resistance, conflict and suffering are sustained. That’s why we have this false idea, which is the idea of overcoming. Overcoming how? By effort, by struggle. The result of this is that it never happens; we’re never definitively free from fear.
Fear has different aspects. Human beings live in fear. This can become so serious that we need, because of that, medical help, we reach a condition where we need help to deal with that fear, to deal with that, because it completely disorganizes the body and mind – the issue of fear.
There’s the fear of the wife, of the dark, of failure, of not being loved, of being abandoned, of betrayal, which causes jealousy, aggression, and violence. In short, the psychological life of this “me,” this “I,” this “ego,” in its egocentrism, is very complex. And we can’t deal with it from this misunderstanding, this illusion, thinking of effort, of struggle. Looking at what appears here and now and not resisting this movement, looking without the sense of “someone” wanting to do something with what is shown, what is presented, is the end of it, it is the end of this experience.
It’s the thought inside you, the feeling inside you, it’s actually this marriage between thought and feeling inside you, something that comes from the past... Thought is something that always comes from the past; it’s something that always comes from memory, creating negative expectations of defeat for this “me,” for this “I,” of suffering for this “me,” for this “I,” which is upholding the fear. To look at what is presented here and now… to look, approach it without effort, struggle, without putting the sense of “someone” to triumph over it, to overcome it… We don't have, we don't receive this kind of teaching.
Since childhood, we were always motivated to fight, strive, to try to win. And here I’m telling you: just look at this, welcome what is here and now without resistance; see that it is a thought, a feeling, an emotion, a sensation; just don't put the present identity to judge, to reject, to fight against it, then there will be no effort.
This approach is Self-Awareness. Without it, you have no real, true basis to approach Meditation. Meditation is contact with the Reality of your Being, your Essential Nature, which is free from what is, free from that experience with its experiencer, free from that thought with that thinker, free from this fear with the one who feels that fear, free from the ego, from the sense of “I,” and therefore free from egocentrism.
Contact with Meditation is contact with the Reality of your Being here and now. So, in this approach, when looking at what arises without imposing anything, no volition, no want, no desire to be different, to do different, to become different, this Liberation happens – this is the end of fear.
You see, it’s not to escape from fear, it’s not the solution to fear, it’s the end of the illusion of identity present in this experience. And, as this experience can’t be sustained without this identity, there’s a discontinuity to this experience, because the “I” no longer exists. When the ‘I,’ that ‘me,’ that sense of ego identity is not, there is no longer a sense of separateness, therefore, there is no more suffering.
So, a life free of stress, fear, and anxiety, free from every psychological frame of suffering, free from any frame of inner unhappiness, is possible, when there is this Realization. Thus, Self-Awareness is to approach what is here. You approach this and you approach True Meditation at the same time.
Here, on our channel, we have an extensive playlist explaining this issue of Self-Awareness and True Meditation, the True Practical Meditation. It’s this contact here and now with what is, with what presents itself. Unlike the various known forms or practices of meditation, you now have the opportunity to be here in direct contact with True Meditation, and when there is Meditation, because of this Self-Awareness, there’s no effort. This psychological conditioning, this psychological programming of resistance, of effort and struggle, all of this disappears. When this is realized, your Being is Realized, the end of suffering. Some people call this Spiritual Enlightenment or Spiritual Awakening.
That is the subject of this channel, the subject we’re talking about with you: the possibility of going beyond the sense of “I” and, therefore, going beyond suffering. Ok?
If this is something that makes sense to you, leave your “like” there, and subscribe to the channel... I want to remind you: we have online meetings and also retreats... retreats to work on this together. There’s the invitation. Ok?
See you next meeting.
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