Here, the question is: how to deal with thoughts? There is another very interesting question: how to overcome fear? Note the close relationship between thought and fear. Notice that these questions – like many other questions regarding problems in us, in human beings – are questions that involve this psychological matter, this matter of how we are dealing with the internal experience in this mind as we know. Or rather, in this mind that we actually don't know, that's the point.
Getting an approximation of this requires a clear vision of a principle that, in general, eludes us. We don't know the truth about how the mind works in us. How does the mind work? We don't know! We don't realize that we are within a behavior pattern in duality. Let's clarify this for you: this duality is the model of existence we have in life, where we believe to be someone within life. We are the experiencer of the experience, the thinker of the thought, the one who is feeling fear. We want to overcome fear, we want to discover how to deal with thoughts, because thoughts within us are distressing. They are thoughts of worries, they are thoughts that bring painful memories of suffering we went through in the past, we don't want this to happen again, this is fear…
So, we want to overcome the different forms of fear we have. And thoughts, we want to get rid of them – which are unpleasant, problematic, and conflicting – to get rid of them. And what prevails behind this idea is the idea of someone to do something. This is the principle of duality in us: “I and fear,” “I and thought,” “I, the thinker, with that thought,” “I, the fearful,” or the person in fear and the situation, which is pain, the suffering of fear. Then, we are living in this duality. It has been like this since childhood, since we see ourselves as people, our entire experience of life is the experience of someone within it, within existence, within experience.
So, there is this experiencer and the experience. This psychological duality is an affirmation of separate existence from the given situation, from what arises, from what appears. Thought appears, feeling appears, emotion appears, fear appears, and together with this, which is the experience, this “I” appears. Then, it is a form of center around which experience happens, this is the principle of duality. We are very sure of the existence of the “I,” the “me,” the ego. Thus, for us, the life of the person, of the “me,” of the “I,” is very certain to attend to these situations. The result of this is that we spend a lifetime involved in this condition, which is the condition of duality.
The Truth of What we are is Non-Duality. Non-Duality is the Nature of Being in us, your Being is the Divine Truth. The person that you demonstrate to be, that you appear to be, the person that you are in this experience that, at this moment, is showing itself, is an illusion! However, it is not an illusion that can be dismissed simply by a theoretical statement. There is no point in saying: “Look, this is an illusion,” because it is just another affirmation of words in a belief. We have to become aware of the truth of this illusion, then it will not just be an illusion like a concept, like a word being spoken, it will be the Truth of the Revelation that this duality doesn't exist.
The problem is that this has been with us since human beings have been on the planet. The problem is that this has been with us for millennia. The condition of the human being is the condition of psychological conditioning. This psychological conditioning is this model of duality, so we are unaware of Non-Duality. The expression “Non-Duality” is that vision of the Sages in ancient India. The expression is “Advaita,” which means “Non-Duality.” Advaita is Non-Duality, non-separation; this is something straight from Vedanta. To have an approach to the Truth of What is you here and now, is to discover Non-Duality.
Our way of looking is a way of looking where we are seeing things. I have made a clear difference here between seeing and looking; it seems to be the same thing. Putting it here, let's make it clear to you: a flower you just look at, a bird singing you just hear; you look and hear. In front of a person, you don't just look, when you look, you are seeing her. Seeing her means that you have a concept about her, an idea, a picture, a thought about who she is, so you are seeing the person. This “seeing” is, according to your ideas, this very psychological background of concept. Then, an image you make of someone is present when you see the person. She treated you well yesterday, so you see her as a good person at this moment, today.
You don't look at her, you see her. Notice the difference: you just look at a flower! Its petals, its colors... but you don't give a name to what's there. When you don't name it, there is just this look, there is no separation between you and that flower. Psychologically, there is no separation, it is just a look. When we look at people, our psychological inclination – notice, this is our model of existence in the ego, in this “me,” in this “I” –, when we look at a person, in the next few seconds we have already taken a psychological photograph of who the person is. Notice, we are giving a labeling, a conceptualization, a naming… We are placing the person within a classification: “I may like her or not.” We do this completely unconsciously, very quickly. Our psychological training in this identity of the “I,” the ego, is that we are doing this all the time in relationships, with new people we meet and with people we already know. And here, the expression “we know” is exactly that, we know according to our own particular viewpoint.
So, what we have of them is a concept, a preconception, a pre-vision. We are always dealing with the other from a center that is the “I,” the “me,” the ego here, seeing the other there. There is no such look, we do not learn the art of Being Pure Consciousness. This Real Consciousness, this Pure Consciousness is the Nature of this Being present, here, it is not the nature of this “I,” this ego, this “me” here. This “me,” this ego, this “I” is always seeing things. This Being, this Consciousness is what is in direct contact outside the mind and, therefore, outside the ego, outside the “I,” outside concepts, preconceptions, imaginations, judgments, and comparisons. In this contact of Being with the other, with life, there is this Presence which is the Presence of Grace, the Divine Presence, the Presence of Truth.
The Reality of this is the Reality of Love in relationships. We are unaware of that because all our contact with him or her is contact through this curtain of beliefs, concepts, evaluations, and preconceptions. Understand this: we talk about love in our relationships – this love filled with jealousy, possession, control, dominance, fear, is the love that, in the ego, we know in the relationship with him or her. Listen to this carefully, bring attention to listen to this. Don't get upset, listen, just listen to this: we don't know what Love is in relationships, because our relationships are burdened, heavy, within this principle of duality “me and the other,” “me, what I expect from them, what I think about them, what I expect to come from them, what I expect from them,” and vice versa.
So, is it possible to discover a life free from the ego, which represents a life free from this duality, in this Non-Duality? Is a look possible without the one who is seeing? The one who is seeing, notice, is the “I,” the ego. Is it possible to look without the observer? Is it possible to hear without this “I” that is listening? Thus, there is this difference in looking, there is also this difference in hearing – listening without someone present is hearing. From this psychological background of identity present here, I am listening, evaluating, comparing, accepting, rejecting, agreeing, or disagreeing with what comes here. This way of listening is listening through a personal, egoic, private identity. Here, we are observing together the Beauty of the art of Being Pure Consciousness, learning to hear without the “I,” to look without the “I,” to relate without the “I,” to be in direct contact with life without the contradiction of the egoic identity.
Note that this is what we have in this contact with the flower, remember? In contact with a flower or in contact with nature, at that moment there is only the hearing: the birds singing, the flowers, they are just being seen in the look without this “I.” You look at the trees, the flowers, you hear the birds, the smell of the forest, there is no separation between you and this experience. So, there is a direct experience of the perfume of the forest, of the wood, of that smell of the forest. There is direct contact, there is an experience free from the experiencer in looking at the flowers, the trees. In this hearing, there is only one experience without a background, without the “I,” without the ego. At that moment, there is an instant of great Beauty, of great Silence. The sense of “I” is as if completely swept away, the ego disappears at that instant, in this contact with nature.
We can have contact like this with the closest person, with our husband, children, friends from work, with the boss at work, with the world around “me,” without this background that is the “I,” the ego, the “me.” That's what we're working on here, with you. Some people call this “Awakening of Consciousness,” “Spiritual Enlightenment,” the art of living free from the “I,” from the ego, and, therefore, free from fear, and, therefore, knowing how to deal with thoughts. They are not the problems, thoughts are not, life is not the problem. This contact with life, from this center, is the problem, the thinker wanting to control thoughts, to do something with thoughts. Thoughts are harmless if the egoic identity is not there, if that self-image trying to defend itself, protect itself, judging, rejecting, trying to get rid of thoughts, is no longer present. So, there is not this duality; therefore, there is no conflict.
All forms of conflict are present within this principle of egoic identity, separating itself to do something with thoughts. The ego cherishes and wants to cling to thoughts – being the thinker – when thoughts are pleasant, and it wants to get rid of the thoughts when they are unpleasant thoughts; here is the conflict. In our relationships with others, the same thing occurs: “I love you, in this contact with you, in this seeing you, when you fill my ego. I don’t love you when you don’t give me what I want, which I believe you have to give me, so I become your enemy.” Our relationships are conflicting, because they are relationships based on this illusion, the illusion of duality. Becoming aware of this is the end of “me,” the end of the “I,” it is the end of the ego.
For this purpose, we have online meetings here, which take place on weekends. We are delving deeper into this through questions, answers, a weekend together, here. You can find our WhatsApp link in the video description to participate in these meetings on weekends. In addition, we have face-to-face meetings and also retreats. So, I want to leave this invitation here, with you. And if this is something that makes sense to you, go ahead and write it here in the comment: “Yes, it makes sense.” Please leave your “like” and subscribe to the channel, OK? And we'll see you! Thanks for the meeting and until next time.
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