Alright!
Our work together is to investigate the nature of the “I.” What we've been saying, here, in these meetings is that this sense of “I” in you is not real. This sense of “I” in us is a creation of thought itself. In reality, it consists of internal conditioning, of psychological conditioning within each one of us. So, what we do in these meetings is to investigate the elusive nature of the “I,” which is this “me,” this ego. This person you believe to be is not real. And how does this person appear? How does it come about? In the next few minutes, we're going to look at this here with you.
We have a perception of the world, it’s a simple perception, I’d say it’s a natural perception. When we look at objects, people, and places, there’s a perception of the senses. That experience is a sense-perception experience, and it’s something simple, something natural. The senses in us work in a very simple, very direct way, so there’s this perception of experience. This perception, this way of approaching whatever is present at this moment is not at all difficult to understand. When you see a house, there’s a visual, sensorial perception of that house. When you go down the street and see people walking, on foot, you have a sensory perception. When you hear a sound, you also have a sensory perception of an auditory nature. Then, we are always in direct contact with all experiences from this sense perception, and this approach is very simple and quite understandable. However, when looking at certain things, when listening to a certain sound, we also have a verbal, that is, intellectual, sentimental, and emotional approach to that experience.
When we see or hear something, this form of intellectual, verbal, emotional, and sentimental approach is something that needs to be understood, since we have then the presence of identity within the experience. When, for example, we look at something, we look based on prior knowledge, on an idea we have about that, at this very moment we place an identity within the experience. Your perception is not simple now, it has become complex, personal, particular, and it has a background. That background is the experience from the past. When you look at a tree, you know the name, you classify that tree, and you name it. When this is done, there’s no longer a simple and direct perception of the tree, now you have an idea, an intellectual and also sentimental or emotional frame of that tree, and you report it to other people or you tell it to yourself. At that moment, you are no longer in that direct, simple contact with the experience of the tree, the house, or anybody that you are dealing with, because at that moment there is the “I” arising.
The “I” is the one within us that is the result of experience. This experience is past knowledge, ideas, concepts, and beliefs about that thing. So, the beliefs, the knowledge, the naming, and the experiences from the past within us are what determine the identity of the “I” within that experience; it’s when we are not in direct contact with the perception. What we are saying within these meetings here – and this also occurs in online and face-to-face meetings, and also retreats to work on this together – is the possibility of looking at life simply as it appears, without this sense of an “I,” of identity, of a person present. That person is a belief, an idea, an imagination.
The whole point is that when we have such an approach to life – and here life consists of all forms of experience in this living of each one of us – we have this element which is the present “me” and the “not me.” In this separateness, we internalize every form of contradiction, conflict, dilemma, psychological distancing, and, therefore, problems and suffering. The sense of the present “I” is the sense of the ego. The ego is the one that is the center of all life experiences. The expression “my life” is interesting, because this idea is grounded in: that life is personal, a private life. So, every form of perception of life centered on this “I” is a false center, an identity that separates itself from life, that is, separates itself from perception. Either you have the perception of what IS, of life as it appears – and when that perception is present, that sense of the “I” is not present, then you are life itself without any separation – or else the meaning of that “I,” that “me,” that ego, will always be creating complications and problems.
What does this Realization of Truth, this God Realization, this search for the Divine Truth consist of? It simply consists of stripping ourselves of the illusion of a present identity. When that identity is gone, the present Truth is the Truth of non-separateness between you and life. In this direct perception without the “I,” there’s not this “me,” this “I and the other,” “I and life,” “I and God,” “I and Reality.” What’s present is the Divine Reality, the Reality of God. Thus, Spiritual Enlightenment, the Awakening of God’s Nature, which is the Nature of your Being, is What is present when the sense of “I” is not, therefore when there’s no longer this division, this separateness.
We have some interesting aspects here about this. The first is that we separate ourselves from the perception of life as it appears. When we hear a sound, we place an identity present in that experience, except for a simple sound, like a bird singing, this is not a complex sound for this psychological perception of complex conditioning we have, but when someone is saying something to you, this gets much more complicated, because we make that sound, that saying, that speech someone is addressing us, as something very complex. We internalize ideas, concepts, and images of what they say. There’s no simple listening, there’s a background of conditioning present, that background of conditioning is the “I.” It’s always based on past, on memory, on an image that we relate to others when listening.
When we look at someone, we don't stay in that direct, simple look. We look with an image, an idea, a memory, or a remembrance. When we hear someone tell us something, we interpret, evaluate, accept, or reject it, there’s no direct listening. When we hear a bird, we don't have that problem, we don't want to understand, to adjust that song, that melody to something we already know, and we simply listen. When we look at a mountain range, we just look. When we look at a tree or anything around us, we just look. Unless that awakens in us an interest, a desire, a motivation to obtain that, possess that, there’s this direct and simple look. When that interest or desire appears, we are no longer looking at that, there’s already separateness between “the one who sees” and “that which is seen.” At that moment there’s no understanding of what is there.
Here, I always use the word understanding in the sense of a simple, natural, direct perception, without a background of recognition, memory, and, therefore, without desire. So, the desire, the fear, our contact with others, with the world, with life, always based on that background, which is this “I” separating itself from that moment, is what sustains us within an illusory base of separate identity, is what keeps us constantly in conflict, contradiction, fear, and desire. Then, there’s no such absence of the “I,” because we are always keeping ourselves within this condition of psychological conditioning. This background, which is thoughts, remembrances, memories, and recollections, gives us the illusory basis of identity; it doesn’t exist, but sustains itself as existing – I refer to this “me.”
Our job here is to investigate the illusory nature of the “I” and to go beyond that, abandon that, to let that go, that’s the end of this ego-identity. Sages as well as mystics have been telling us this for millennia. Those who have realized the Truth about themselves are always telling us that this is not real. Here, I want to challenge you to live it, to have comprehension. I’ve just used the word comprehension. To comprehend is not to understand, it’s not in this sense that I use the expression “comprehending” here. It’s not to follow a speech like this intellectually or verbally but rather to perceive in an experiential way all that we put here. I mean a life free from the “I” and, therefore, a life free from suffering, from all forms of ideas, ideologies, concepts, prejudices, and beliefs, all these are things that separate us from each other, separate us from life, from the Reality of our Being which is God.
A life free from the “I,” this “me,” the ego, is a life in Love. It’s only in this sense that I use the word “spirituality.” True Spirituality is the absence of “someone,” of a “spiritual someone.” So, the True Spirituality... Because people ask, “What is Spirituality?” What is this Spirituality? The Reality of your Being is the Reality of God, this is something truly Spiritual, but what’s truly Spiritual is something very Natural. Thus, to be truly Spiritual is to be Natural. It’s not about rituals, practices, or religious ceremonies, the knowledge of holy books, and recitation of Vedas, the Bible, or the Bhagavad Gita. The True Spirituality is the absence of that “me,” that “I.”
We are dealing with the Truth about perceiving life as it IS, as it appears when the “I” is not present. See this. To perceive this is to see without the “I,” and to comprehend this is to look without the sense of separateness. This is to come closer to the Truth of your Being. We’ve been talking within these meetings about the Truth, about the approach to Self-awareness, and here Self-awareness in a different sense of how people use it out there. Here, it’s the comprehension, in the sense in which we use the word, that there is no “I,” this is Real Self-awareness, the direct comprehension of the Truth of your Being, the Truth of God.
An important point within all of this is figuring out how to look at the way this “I” arises, separating itself from the experience, it happens internally. Thus, self-investigation: this looking at all this movement of the mind, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations, looking at these in this movement of perception, without giving an identity to it. When a thought arises, a feeling, an emotion, a perception, concerning an internal or external vision of perception, looking at this perception, this thought, this feeling, without putting yourself into it, without identifying with that thought, feeling, emotion, or perception. Looking like this nullifies that sense of separateness, then there’s Real clear perception, Real simple perception; there is the perception without the “I.” Perceiving without the “I” is the perception without judging, condemning, naming, or classifying, it’s just simple perceiving. Perceiving a thought arising without rejecting it, without mistaking yourself for it, without identifying with it, without giving an identity to this “I like,” this “I don’t like” – “I don’t like this,” “I like that.”
This looking free from the “I,” without this element of an identity present, is not something so simple, because our psychological conditioning since childhood has always been to place a present identity in perception. So, perception is always being named, judged, and compared, it’s either accepted or rejected.
I want to invite you on this channel and also in online and face-to-face meetings with us, for this Realization of your Being. A life free from the sense of “I” is a life free from this background of psychological conditioning. Only then are you free from the psychological past, the psychological future, and that present which the ‘I’, the ego, always sees as a door to a goal in the future. Internally, we are always identified with this “me” in life, in this experience of life, in this perception of life. The work consists of True Self-awareness and True, Real Meditation in practice. True, Real Meditation in practice shows you the illusion of that “I,” and that’s the end of it and the beginning of Something entirely new, which is Love, Truth, and God.
This is the subject here on our channel. I want to invite you, if this is something that makes sense to you, to leave your “like” and subscribe to the channel. Reminder: we have online, face-to-face meetings and also retreats where we are working with you.
Here’s the invitation and we'll see you next time. Thanks for the meeting!
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