The difference between the menu and the dish. When we bring up the subject of Self-realization, it is about God Realization. This is Something to be realized, not something we have to learn about endlessly. You realize This now, or you can study it for many, many years, until the end of your life, without Realization.
So, what’s the difference between the dish and the menu? When you're hungry, you don't want the menu, you want the dish. The food solves your problem; the menu only adds something else to your problem. If you are hungry, seeing pictures of food, or reading about it worsens your problem. Then, that’s how studies are: people love to study, they want to learn, so they listen to lectures, attend a conference, a lecture and they leave the place being the same. They read the initial book, and then the second, the third, they read many books; after the first, they move on to the second, the third, the fourth. Some of you have already read at least a few dozen books, or half a dozen books, but that doesn't work.
We can’t study Self-realization from books or listening to lectures. We study Self-Realization in Realization, here and now, in ourselves. This is how we approach this study of Self-realization. There are those who tell us: “Study!” We don't have to study. We have to study ourselves, understand ourselves, the Truth is within you, not in books. Books only talk about the Truth we already carry within us.
So, what can books tell us? They tell us, “God is the Reality of your Being.” You read the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita and they say, “You are the Self, you are the Consciousness of God, this is your True Nature.” That’s what the books tell us, but it’s when we study ourselves that we see this, not when we read about it in books.
So, the work of Self-Realization is the work of the Realization on yourself, not in the study of books. What I consider very important in these meetings is that you experience these words on yourself, then this is really valuable. Hearing these speeches has a certain value, but you find powerful and real value when you apply it in your life, when you verify for yourself the Truth, or not, of what is said here.
It’s not about approaching these meetings to believe or disbelieve this. Here, it’s about approaching these meetings in order to listen, and this listening is not a simple thing. Listening is a very, very delicate art, we don't have this art. Since we were little, we’ve learned to argue based on ideas. When we hear something, we compare what we hear with what we already know, and when you compare something you hear with something you already know, you're not actually listening, you're drawing conclusions. And then you draw a particular conclusion from what you are hearing, based on what you already bring within. Listening is not that. Listening is this attention given to what is heard. This attention, when present, doesn’t have “someone” present to compare, judge, and evaluate. That’s when you actually begin to experience what is being said, and then it touches you on a level beyond intellect, beyond feelings and emotions.
True Wisdom is born of Self-awareness, and Self-awareness is not possible without the Art of listening. And this Art of listening... We are not born with this predisposition; we need to discover it present. We carry within us this Truth of the Art of listening, but we don’t have this predisposition to this Art of listening, because our psychological conditioning is always to discuss, to opine, to believe or disbelieve, to agree or disagree with ideas we’ve read in books, which we’ve heard others saying. And that’s not listening. This is not part of Wisdom, of the Awakening of Wisdom. What is part of this Awakening of Wisdom is Self-awareness. Self– awareness is possible when you learn the art of listening, and listening is to experience the moment the speech happens free from that background of judgment, opinion, agreement, disagreement, there is only the listening, and in that listening, the experiencing is revealed straight from that. If I say something here about Meditation, for example, if you listen and compare it with something you understand by meditation, you will come to a conclusion. Usually, we do this to put it into action later, so we try to learn. That’s why people take notes. When you write down what you are hearing, first, you are not fully present there in that hearing, then the chance, the possibility of experiencing what is being said is zero when that happens; secondly, when you write, you write in this idea of putting it into action later. There’s no after, not for the Awakening of Wisdom.
The subject here is not a technical learning you’ll make use of later. You don't learn it in theory to later put it into practice. Here, learning is practicing. There is only real learning when you experience what you are hearing, here and now. So, if I talk to you about Meditation, you just listen, and when you listen without judging, evaluating, giving an opinion, disagreeing, or agreeing – here when I talk to you about Meditation – what is true is revealed in that Intelligence present in you in this art of listening. Maybe what I say about Meditation is completely false, but it’s not what I say that matters, but rather this art of listening since it reveals Wisdom to you. You can see without the need to interpose an idea, a concept, a belief to what you hear. You see the illusion of what is said here, and seeing the illusion is to see the Truth. So, it’s not about what I say, it’s about the understanding that emerges, that awakens in the art of listening.
I believe that this is one of the things of great value to all of us: the uniqueness of the art of listening. We have no difficulty hearing a bird singing, we can’t disagree with what it is doing, we can’t disagree with that sound. Then, there’s a bird singing and you just listen to the song or put all your attention, your heart, your whole being into that, into that listening. And this listening is something simple, it doesn't challenge this egoic background, this background of the “I” in you, this background of knowledge, experience, remembrance, memories, and opinions. Thus, you listen to the bird, either you place yourself fully to listen to it or you don't listen to it. But when we deal here with issues related to ideas, words, and thoughts, we have a great difficulty, for we haven’t learned that in our relationships.
Human beings don’t listen to others. In fact, they don't even notice what it is to listen to themselves. They are always internalizing a discussion, a dialogue with themselves, with the ideas that arise; they interject other ideas and argue with them. We live in such a complicated, delicate psychological situation. We are so neurotic human beings, most of us live like that. There’s an inner dialogue within you, some chatter, and you don't notice it. If you don't observe, you don't listen. When this appears, it produces internal states along with these thoughts, feelings, sensations and emotions come, and you don't listen to it. Listening means looking without getting involved with the experience, so you're not going to argue with it, you're just going to listen. Thus, you don't listen to yourself, to what goes on inside you in terms of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You're always mistaking yourself for it because you're arguing with it, separating yourself to reject, fight, argue and therefore to experience within that sense of a “I” struggling with it. That inner resistance has been going on, so you don't listen to yourself, and that’s why you don't understand yourself, that’s why you suffer.
As far as the other is concerned, the exact same thing happens. Someone is speaking, inside you there’s a voice too. In general, human beings are so self-centered and interested in what they have to say that they don't listen to what the other has to say, it’s very interesting. I don't know if you've noticed this, that when you talk to a friend, he’s more interested in what he has to say than in listening to what you have to say to him and vice versa. You are usually so eager to say something that you don't listen to him while he says something to you. That’s because of this: we don't have this art of listening because we are in a huge internal noise within us. There’s extraordinary internal noise inside each one of us, it’s the condition of the egoic mind. Then, Wisdom never reveals itself since there’s no art of listening. If there’s no such art of listening, there’s no basis for Self-awareness. You can’t understand yourself if you don't listen to yourself, that is, if you don't observe all the internal movement of the “I” present within yourself. As you don't know anything about that, you don't know anything about life, others, and everything around you.
The condition of human beings is one of ignorance, of alienation from their Real Being, their Divine Truth, their Divine Nature, because they don’t know themselves. So, the art of listening is one that allows you to directly experiencing the Truth. Seeing the Truth means seeing what is not and what IS. Seeing what is not, is the Truth; seeing what IS, is the Truth. But identified with this false “I,” involved with this egoic background, with this internal movement of chatter, of self-centeredness, in this not listening to themselves, human beings live in complete blindness, in complete deafness. All right?
So, what are we talking about here on the channel? We deal with the art of Happiness, the art of being Happy. Yes, the art of being Happy. The art of being Happy is the art of Being, and Being is based on understanding What you Are, here and now. This requires this art of listening to yourself, to the other, to life, to the feeling, the emotion, and the sensation that arises. And now it’s clear: listening is not arguing with it, it’s not getting attached and identifying with it, or rejecting it. It’s listening. This Real listening puts you in an entirely new internal state, free from the sense of “I” because that “I” is the one that comes to argue, that comes to not listen, to impose, judge, and evaluate; the sense of “I” loses its importance, its value. “My opinions,” “my conclusions,” “my ideas,” “my doubts,” “my certainties,” “my fears,” “my desires,” this loses importance because the sense of “I” disappears, and when it disappears into the art of listening, of hearing, of being present, the presence of that is the presence of Love. And here, Love is something that is outside the “I.”
When you find a flower, it has a peculiar, its own, singular, unique perfume. The perfume is there, but it’s not moving towards you, you can move towards or away from that flower, and the perfume is there. The presence of Love is not personal, it doesn’t go forward, it doesn’t deviate from its direction, it doesn’t move, nor does it cease to move. The presence of that perfume is present. Such is the presence of Love. It’s present when the sense of the ego, of the “I,” “me,” is not present, and this is based on Self-awareness, on that beauty of listening to what is here and now. Then, what I’ve called Meditation reveals itself, the True Meditation, in moment-to-moment living. Then, with the Presence of your Being, there is the perfume.
The wonder of Grace is Love and that’s Something present when the ego is not present. People say, “I really want to feel the Presence of God.” Understand what you are saying. The present Reality is God. When you say, “I want to feel or I need to feel,” what is that “I"? The unique Reality present is the Reality of God. This is not absent. You are idealizing the future, putting an identity on this experience. God is not an experience, it’s not a sensation, not a feeling, not an emotion for that “me,” that “I” to feel. The Reality of God, which is the Reality of your Being, is Something that is present here and now, as the only Truth present when the “I” is not. So, it’s not about reaching God, going to God, realizing God. We use the expression, but that doesn't apply, it’s not about realizing What already Is and never ceased to be present. Here, it’s about discarding the illusion of an “I” separating itself from God, seeing itself in need of God, wanting to reach God. God is the only present Reality.
Thus, our meeting here has the purpose of showing you that – in meetings here on the channel, we have online, face-to-face meetings and even retreats to work on this together – the unique present Reality is the Reality of your Being, which is the Reality of God. This is revealed when you flourish in this art of listening to yourself, which gives you Self-awareness, the vision of the Reality of Meditation, which is the acknowledgement of What is the Reality of your Being.
Therefore, this is the subject we work together here with you. If this is something that makes sense, here’s a direct invitation for you. Leave your “like,” subscribe to the channel, and let’s work on it. We have online, face-to-face meetings, and also retreats where we can work on this together. Ok?
Here’s the invitation and see you next time. Thanks for the meeting!
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