This present energy, which is this energy of Consciousness... We are talking about the Freedom of dealing with the experience, whatever it may be, without resistance, conflict, or seeing yourself separate from it. So, whatever is happening, as far as this Intelligence is concerned, here and now, I want to talk about Consciousness in this sense. I have often used the expression “the consciousness common to all,” egoic consciousness, or mental consciousness. However, I want to talk about this Real Consciousness. This consciousness of the perception of the world, for example, is mental, you and that chair. The difference between human beings and animals is that human beings are very clearly conscious of themselves, and animals are externally conscious. Human beings are conscious of themselves. This “consciousness of yourself” I have called self-centeredness or self-consciousness. This self-centeredness, which we call “self-consciousness,” is just a thought about “who I am” – in this sense, it seems that psychology has not yet delved into or does not have this very clear yet.
The awareness of this “I,” this “me,” is called self-consciousness. This self-consciousness is nothing more than an idea of thought about the existence of an “I” within this body experience in perception, sensation, and experimentation. So far, this is what we know in the world as self-consciousness or consciousness. I have called it egoic consciousness, “I” consciousness, mental consciousness, or ego consciousness. And what is this Real Consciousness? What is this Truth of Consciousness? It is what I have called Pure Consciousness.
Now, at this moment, what we have present is not this element “I” separating itself from the experience of perception, sight, touch or taste. What we have is this Consciousness, but it is not the consciousness of objects separated from the subject; it is Consciousness. This Consciousness is not the consciousness of the “I;” it is the Consciousness that does not separate itself from whatever is arising to see itself as an element separate from it. Putting it simply: when you look at a tree, a bird, or a cloud – these are very simple examples – when you look at a cloud, you can't have any personal result from it, to particularize that experience and place it within your world, unless you are a painter painting a picture, looking at a landscape and transferring that image to a painting or a photographer photographing a bird, a tree or a group of mountains, because at that moment you are capturing that moment within your very particular and personal experience or trying to capture it. Other than that, when you look at a bird, a tree, a mountain, or a mountain range, it is just a look free from an identity present. In this looking, there is no personal interest, no self-centeredness, no self-consciousness, it is just the Consciousness of seeing without “someone,” looking without “someone” looking. And note that these moments in your life are the most precious; they are the moments of the absence of the “I.” A mountain range has nothing to give you but its presence. So do the clouds, and so does that bird singing in the tree. At that moment, the self-centered sense of “someone” present is not there. Thus, this is an example of what I have been calling Pure Consciousness here.
When the sense of an “I” is not present, What is present is Life. This moment is so simple, natural, and real that there is no idea, image, or memory of yourself in the experience. You cannot even say, “I'm seeing it, I'm feeling it, I'm living it” because, in fact, there is no “I,” there is no “someone.” We enjoy these moments so much that we travel to be in new places, to be on a trail, to be by a lake sitting there doing nothing, looking for nothing. There is no thought; you don't even think about material or spiritual things, and there is no “I” at that moment. It is when the Reality of life is present and “you” are not. That is Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Everyone appreciates the absence of the “I” and everyone lives This, so it is not strange to point it out here.
We want you to discover this quality of Consciousness of Being-Bliss in living, in everyday life, talking to people, looking at people, and relating to business, the world, and life. So, this moment is the one when the sense of “I” is not present. It does not matter if you are driving, once “you” are not present; if you are talking, once “you” are not present; if you are listening and “you” are not present; there is a listening, a seeing, a talking, a doing without the “I.” That is the Reality of Buddha, of Christ, of Ramana Maharshi, the Presence of your Essential Nature free from psychological time. Can you get what I call psychological time? It is this self-centeredness, this identity, the story of a character who is a set of memories, remembrances with which you mistake yourself, and this character – the “I” – is translating and interpreting everything the way it wants to, which is totally false.
So, what is this Reality of Being-Consciousness-Bliss? It is what is present here and now. “Oh, but I feel anger, fear, desire.” What you feel is a feeling, a form of energy present in the body, expressing itself in this model. Follow that. Anger is an energy present in the body; fear is an energy expressing itself in the body in a way; it is an emotion in the body. We reject it, we reject anger, fear, and desire, or we identify with desire and anger; and then, we take pleasure in expressing anger – this is a way of identifying with anger, not of rejecting it. The pursuit of the sensation of fear can be for us to reject or seek. It is hard to recognize how much we also appreciate the sense of fear in some very particular moments. It is not just rejection. The rejection or acceptance of it is the false intervention of this self-centeredness, this self-consciousness, the consciousness of the “I,” which is energy. When you reject or identify with this experience, you place an identity present. When you do this – you give identity to the experience – the sense of egoic self-centeredness appears, and there is a complete alienation from life as it is; it is when you separate yourself as being the “I,” the ego, and then all this perception of Reality, of Pure Consciousness, and Happiness disappears. But the presence of experience itself, on an emotional level, is only an energy present when the sense of “I” is not there.
So, the way to approach whatever is going on externally or internally, that is, in the external world, in that mountain range, the clouds, nature, life, people, externally or internally, to approach it and realize that there is only a false identity appearing in this background format of psychological conditioning, which is the way we react to experiences, to look at it, to see it, to become aware of it, is enough for this “I” not to achieve the continuity it seeks, this is enough. You do not react; you just look. When you look, that energy that previously had this presentation of anger, fear, jealousy, envy, producing this conflict of separation, this pain of separateness, this suffering, this unhappiness, cannot continue to sustain itself when this looking is present, when there is this break in identification with the experience of emotion, sensation or perception. It is easy to look at a mountain range like this – but difficult when someone says: “You idiot, stop it, you donkey,” because this triggers a very quick mental, psychological, and neurophysiological reaction of anger within us. This anger is energy, the same energy as the perception of Consciousness that sees and contemplates the mountain range, the birds singing, and the clouds in the sky. It is the same energy. There is only one energy present, the energy of this Pure Consciousness. When it temporarily loses itself in this identification, which is the “I,” that suffering arises.
Let us find out here how to dismantle this mechanism, okay? Let us discover how to abandon these mechanics, malfunctions, and psychological disorders. Let us realize God, the Truth of your Being.
Then, he calls you an idiot, so you listen, you pay attention to it. In that attention, if something arises, it can only be from conditioning. You look at what appears, and now, what you must see is that reaction. When that reaction arises, it comes with a set of thoughts: “The idiot is you!.” It is so fast, so fast, that it is when... In anger, you are overwhelmed, so you express it, but it takes a second for a response to form. The “asshole! You idiot!” That moment is pure energy; there is not the “I,” there's no “I.” It has to take a second to have a reactive response, or two seconds to feel the pain and want to cry. Either you react by crying: “I don't deserve it…,” or by throwing it back at him: “You are the idiot, blah, blah, blah...”, and some very “kind” words – “son of a watermelon, of a pineapple.” That is very quick and fast, but it took a second to form. But the instant of anger is pure energy, something processed in the body because of psychological conditioning. You cannot hit Ramana, a Realized Being, by calling him an idiot; I guarantee it won't come out because there's no longer the conditioning in the machine to respond like that.
When you look at this energy without giving an identity to defend yourself, you are listening only with Full Attention. People use the expression “mindfulness” without knowing what it means. Mindfulness is being aware of the instant, and that does not come with some practice, a system, or a method; it comes with Full Attention. You cannot learn it; there is no technique and no courses. People take “mindfulness” courses and then leave the place inattentive. Attention is Consciousness and presence, and you cannot learn that. You have Full Attention looking at a mountain range; it does not hurt you, offend you, upset you, sadden you, it does not touch your “I,” your ego. What you need now is Full Attention because he called you an idiot.
In general, we do not know what this is because, since childhood, we continually react to experiences totally unaware of the moment, of what they represent and mean; this unconscious response is going on all the time. But when you look at this without putting that “I” element in, that egoic consciousness, that self-consciousness, that personal identity separating itself from the energy that is taking over... “anger.” It does not have a name; it is an experience in the body, and it is so interesting that anger, for example, is not personal. The energy itself, the movement it makes in the machine, has nothing to do with the individual. It only becomes personal and under the name of anger when you go into it to tell someone what happened because in the moment it happens, there is no “someone.” In no experience is there a “someone” at that moment – it takes one or two seconds to particularize, to personify the experience and then tell others, swear, react, and say: “I was so angry.” But it is an emotional experience of the machine, a physical thing; it is energy. You now put Consciousness in that moment, Full Attention, and you hear “Idiot,” you just hear it.
This Real listening requires the Presence of True Consciousness to hear “Idiot.” It is a word; it does not hit anyone. And then, you particularize the experience. If you read that in a book, you will not be offended. So, this art of Being Consciousness, which is Full Attention, is very important because you will discover how to live moment by moment without being present in the experience by being a person, actually looking at all this inner movement of the “I” arising when challenged, without giving identity to it. It is possible when you are fully aware of all the internal moves of the “I” in yourself.
This energy, which is the energy of Consciousness, begins to work in the machine, in the body in an entirely new way. Now, you do not need a mountain range, a journey, or a walk in the woods. You are in your life, in your daily life, attentive to yourself, observing the entire movement of the “I” within yourself and your relationship with others, without putting an identity on this experience. This energy begins to work in the body, assuming an entirely new and unknown place, which is Kundalini Awakening. The word Kundalini is Consciousness. It is not an esoteric, mystical experience, something you have had and then tell everyone about, it is not that. It is the simple verification of the absence of an identity present here and now when you look at the mountain range, the clouds, that bird, and also when you look at a person without an image. Looking, a look free from that sense of “I,” of ego; listening without the sense of ego, so people say whatever they want to say, and you listen, you notice that they are ideas, concepts, opinions. They have every right to have their concepts, opinions, and ideas, to gesture as they wish, and you just look at them without the sense of “someone” condemning, criticizing, or judging them because they are what they are. This Presence, this Consciousness, the Truth of what you are is this energy of Full Attention, of Full Acknowledgment without the one who acknowledges.
So, notice the difference between “being conscious” and Being Consciousness. “To be conscious” is to be conscious that you are “someone” and I am “someone,” “to be conscious” that this is a chair, that is a table, that is a bird, and I am giving names to everything, I am having my ideas, my opinions, my judgments, my comparisons for everything, that is “to be conscious.” That is the condition of life common to all, this “being conscious.” That is living within a constant waste of energy that when there is this Full Attention – and this is part of Self-Awareness, this is part of Real Meditation in practice – it brings about a change in this body and mind. The brain and the body change, this mechanism, this body truly becomes the expression of that Pure Consciousness, your Natural State that someone calls Enlightenment, Awakening, and Realization of God, okay?
That's the subject, and it's up to you to look at it, to approach it experientially.
No comments:
Post a Comment