Maybe your question is: “After all, how to live well or how to live life well?” The answer to this lies in understanding what we are. There is another question similar to this one: “How to live life?” An approach to ourselves gives us the view of the Truth about who we are. This understanding places us in this life, in this existence without conflict with it. Life is something very mysterious for this “I,” for this ego, for the person we believe we are. So, when we want to find out how to live life or how to live life well, what we are really looking for is how to live life without suffering, without conflict, without problems. Now, look at this right here, let’s look at this right here together.
Life is this mystery, life is this magnificence thing, this unknown thing, and for this “I” already within a program, a planning, an idea, a set of conclusions and beliefs, trying to get closer to it, naturally, there will be conflict, because if we already bring an idea of how life should be, of how life needs to be for this “me,” for this “I,” naturally, we are getting in touch with life from a separation, a division, a demand which is the demand of the “I.” So, when we are faced with situations here, at this moment, in life, we are faced with this background of desires, projections, anxieties, and fears, because we are always expecting something to happen here and now that aligns with what we believe, fits what we expect, so we have problems, we have conflicts and we have suffering; and it is simple for us to verify this in examples, such as, for example, your contact with someone. In this contact with a person, you already have an idea of him or her, an image, a belief about who he or she is, and you hope that, in this contact, this relationship will adjust. In fact, you are coming across someone who is new, what you have of him or her is a portrait, it is an image, an idea; He or she is coming with new responses, with new reactions, also from his or her background for this contact with you. So, you have this background, you have this image of him or her. He or she, in turn, has an image of you. When you meet each other, there are two images meeting and each projecting onto the other what one believes in, what one seeks from the other, what one expects from the other. In life, our relationships are all like that.
We do the same thing with all the experiences we come across. We are getting in touch with this experience that, in fact, is a happening now, it is a new moment; and in this contact, this experience is already an idea that we bring, already a belief that we have about what this moment here and now represents. So, we are not in contact with this instant, with this moment, with what is here. We are in contact, yes, with an experience from the past, a set of memories, beliefs, and remembrances, something showing itself here, at this moment, naturally in conflict, because there is this division, there is this separation, there is this resistance, there is this projection, there is this desire, there is this background, too, of hope and, naturally, also of fear.
Our life consists of conflicts, problems, and suffering, because it is that particular life. Not understanding the mystery that this life is, not welcoming this unknown that this life is, not accepting the new that this life is, puts us in contact with people, with situations and with whatever is happening, reaffirming again and again this “I.” Thus, our life is a personal life, a private life, centered on this “I,” on this person we believe ourselves to be. There is life as it is and there is this “I” as we see ourselves, as we believe ourselves to be in this confrontation, in this clash, in this attempt to adjustment, so here we have problem, here we have conflict, since all this coming from each one of us comes from a personal, particular, self-centered center – this is the sense of ego, the sense of “I” in us. The idea in each of us is the idea of a life taking place for this “me,” for this ego. Life is as it is, it shows itself as it shows itself, something new, something unknown, something that doesn't take into account this “I,” this “me,” this ego, and yet we are confronting that. There is no understanding of the Truth of life because we don't have an understanding of the truth of “I.”
The question is: is it really possible to discover how to live life, how to live well or how to live life well? As long as this sense of “I” is present, as long as this attempt starts from this conditioned intellect that we have, which is the result of training in society, in culture, in the world that we receive; our intellect is something that is conditioned to think, to judge, to evaluate, to analyze, to accept, and reject what is here, and we do this because we have a conditioned brain. Internally, our mind is conditioned, so that conditioned mind facing this instant, this present moment, this extraordinary thing that is life, this mysterious thing that life is, new as life is and naturally challenging as life is, when we come across that, with that conditioned brain, with that conditioned mind, in that conditioned intellect, having that center which is the “I,” when we do that, we come across problems. So, we have problems with people, we have problems with situations, we have problems with ourselves, all of this is present because of this division, of this “I” and the “non-I.”
Life is the “non-I.” This center of internal conditioning, of psychological conditioning, of programming on how we work, is the center, this is the “I.” So, Life is or “non-I,” and here we have this “I,” this background, this way of acting in the world, in our relationships, in our relationships with objects, with people, with ideas, our beliefs, our intentions, our motivations, hope, hopelessness, desire, fear, all that is part of that background that is the “I” in this contact with Life at that moment, so conflict, suffering, and problem are present. Looking at this movement of the “I” in us, becoming aware of what is happening here, becoming aware of everything that is here, of all this confusion that thought is building in this relationship with this instant, with this present moment; becoming aware that your relationship with the other is a relationship that you carry this sense of “I,” the other carries that same sense of “I” as well.
Each of us is self-centered, interested in ourselves, busy with our own things, our own intentions, motives, each one busy with one’s own desires and fears, one’s own internal conflicts in this relationship with oneself, in this internal contradiction of being “someone.” In ourselves, each one of us feels, thinks, speaks, and moves within a self-centeredness, in this self-interest.
A work on ourselves is necessary; the work of recognizing this psychophysical condition of disordered thoughts, feelings, emotions, and disordered perceptions. This sense of reality is not real, it is something imagined, projected, idealized by thought, by this background of conditioning. Becoming aware of this is the work that is necessary. So, for a happy life, for a free life, for the answer to this question of how to live well, we need to understand the nature of the “I,” the nature of this separate identity, this sense of separateness, the nature of illusion, the nature of ignorance.
Our work here consists of the investigation of the “I,” the investigation of that identity that separates itself from the other, separates itself from life and thus lives in this internal contradiction and in this external conflict with the world. Self-Investigation, an approach of Self-Awareness, puts you in direct contact with your own Being, with That which is beyond that “I,” that ego. That’s when all that inner contradiction, that’s when all that suffering, that’s when that whole confusion, that’s when that whole psychological condition of being “somebody” trapped within that conditioning, disappears. The awareness or observation of the movement of the “I” is the end of this “I,” it is the end of this ego, it is the end of this sense of “someone” present within this experience and this relationship with the world, in this relationship with the other, in this relationship with life. So, our work here is to investigate the nature of the “I.” It’s not about making life pleasant for the ego, it’s about ending that ego, that sense of separateness, that illusion that there’s this “I” and “non-I.”
Our work here consists of the awareness of the Truth about who we are and that gives you the understanding of the illusion of this “I,” of this background of psychological conditioning, of this programming, which is the programming of this ego-identity that is always in conflict with what Is. The point is that there will never be an understanding of life as it is without first understanding the Truth about who we are. The illusion about who we are gives us an illusory sense of perception of reality, so we can't know who the other is, what arises in front of us, what is happening in life, because there is this illusion, the illusion of this ignorance. We have a “truth” about who we are, which constitutes ignorance. We are not aware of this ignorance. Ignoring the Truth about who we are by having a belief about it, having a set of ideas about it and moving in life from this ignorance, from this illusion, represents problems, conflicts, and suffering.
So, our work here consists of that self-discovery, discovering the Truth about who we are requires Self-awareness, the Truth of Self-awareness. Here on the channel, we have a playlist about it, how to work on it here and now, and it’s always here and now. Getting in touch with what goes on inside each one of us, observing ourselves, perceiving our motives, reasons, intentions, and all that confusion that thought has engendered within each one of us. So, to approach oneself through Self-Awareness is to approach the Truth about Meditation. Meditation is an approach of oneself, of yourself where we discard the illusion of that “I.” This Self-Awareness, this approach to the Truth about Meditation, True Meditation, correct Meditation, brings about an end to this illusion, to this ignorance about who we are, so we have a present Truth, the only Truth in all of this, which is the Divine Truth, which is the Truth of God, which is the Truth of our Being. That’s when there is no longer this “life and I,” this separation, this idea of "my life,” “personal life,” “private life” no longer exists. This is what has created questions like these within us, because we are experiencing the confusion of the “I,” the confusion of the sense of “someone” present in living, while there is only Life, there is no “someone” in this living. This “someone in the living” is an illusion. Our mental conditioning, this conditioned mind in us, gives us the illusory feeling that we are creatures separate from each other, individuals separate from each other, it gives us this illusion which is the illusion of a separate entity, the illusion of individuality living life.
There is only Life, and in this Life, there is no such sense of “I.” This sense of “I” is a collection of memories, remembrances, beliefs, ideas, and many conditionings within each of us, within that conditioned mind. That’s what has sustained this illusion, the illusion of individuality, this sense of separation. This duality ends when there is a clear perception of the Reality of Being, which is Consciousness, which is the Truth of God in us; that is Non-Duality. Indian sages call this Advaita, Non-separation, “the one without the second.” This is the only Truth. The Truth of Life is the Truth of God, and in this Truth of God there is no “I.” So, it’s not this “my life,” “your life,” “his life” or “her life,” there is only Life. Thus, this invitation to this understanding of the Reality of Being, which is the Reality of God, which is the Happiness of Life as it really is, is what Spiritual Enlightenment or the Awakening of Consciousness consists of.
So, that’s our job here with you. We have online meetings, face-to-face meetings, and also retreats where we're working on this with you. If this is something that makes sense to you, here in the video description there is our WhatsApp group – we have online meetings every weekend. Here’s the invitation and let’s work on this together. Please, leave your “like” and subscribe to the channel. Thanks for the meeting and we'll see you. See you soon!
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