What we have placed here for you is something very basic, very simple. The human being lives alienated from the truth about who he is. He does not become aware of what he trusts, believes, and demonstrates to be in his relationships.
So, there is no understanding of this. So, we have two aspects here. The first is this ignorance.
There is an Indian expression for this ignorance in the human being that keeps him in a condition of life, of existence, in suffering. This comes directly from the vision of the ancient sages of ancient India. Here, the expression is Avidya.
Avidya is an expression with different words; all the religions of the world deal with this same issue, which is the issue of ignorance. And the word Avidya, for the question: what is Avidya? Avidya is this expression, within the context of the culture of the Vedas, for ignorance.
It is the ignorance that sustains the human being in a life of suffering; it is what imprisons, what maintains, what establishes, what provides the basis for a life in suffering for the human being. So, this is the first aspect.
Ignorance is what is present due to the absence of truth about ignorance. And the truth about ignorance, the understanding of this ignorance, the clear vision of its meaning, brings us to this second aspect that we are investigating, studying, and deepening here with you, which is the aspect of divine realization, which is the aspect of the Awakening of Consciousness, something present when there is Self-Awareness.
Thus, Self-Awareness, the truth of what you are in your essential nature, in your real nature, is this second aspect, it is this vision of the truth about you. And what is it that sustains us, maintains us, guides us within this psychological complexity of problems in life, where anxiety, depression, anguish, fear, and the various forms of suffering are present within this context of relationships with the world around us?
What sustains all this is the way we psychologically respond to life as it happens. We have a way of responding to life. Life is an event at this moment.
Life is not something that happened. Life is not something that will happen. Life is something that is here and now, in a mysterious, inexplicable, unprecedented, unknown way, revealing itself at this moment. And you have no way of responding to life.
That is the point. You have no way of responding to life. Only life can give itself an answer.
Because it is too mysterious. It is beyond this person, this "I," this "me." The person, the "I," the "me," is exactly Avidya, ignorance.
Here with you, we are making it very clear that there is a present truth, and this is not the truth of the person, the "I," the "me." It is life itself. The presence of this very life, the awareness of this, is wisdom, intelligence, and real knowledge.
This is a playlist here on the channel. Wisdom, intelligence, knowledge. We have knowledge for objective and practical purposes in life.
Now, even here, the use of speech requires knowledge of language; words are learned. So, we have a way of approaching life as it happens, at every moment, in this unique way, and we are extracting from life a level of knowledge and experience.
This occurs based on the model of thought. So, at a certain level, knowledge, experience, and thought are fundamental for this action or movement in life. But, see, this remains only at a very superficial level, at a peripheral level, at the level of a dream, at the level of surface existence, of so-called human existence. So, knowledge, experience, and thought are something present in you that enables you to deal with the trivial matters of life, of surface, of appearance, in an efficient way. You need this. You need knowledge. Driving a car requires knowledge. Speaking a language requires knowledge.
Writing requires knowledge. Working in a certain profession requires knowledge, which is experience, which is thought. The problem with the human being is that he is trying to apply this to the totality of life.
See, we just gave some examples here. To work in a profession, to communicate, to carry out a project, to do something or not to do something on the periphery, on the surface of this so-called life or existence, thought is necessary, knowledge is necessary, experience is necessary. But from an intimate, internal, deep point of view, from the point of view of the totality of life, thought is not necessary.
This level of knowledge is not necessary, nor is experience. Here, we are touching on something beyond this periphery, beyond this surface; we are touching on something more intimate, profound, significant, far too mysterious, which is the contact with life as it happens, here and now, at this moment. For example, in our relationships with people, thought, knowledge, and experience are a disaster.
It is something that creates confusion, disorder, and all forms of suffering. See how simple it is to have clarity about this. We just need to observe this.
We just need to look at what happens to us in our relationships. When, for example, I am in contact with him or her, my contact with him or her is based on the thought, knowledge, and experience I have already had with him or her. See, all this I have already had with him or her.
It is something that comes from the past. An experience is something that comes from the past. Knowledge is something that comes from the past.
A thought is something that comes from the past. But I am with him or her now, here, for the first time. Notice that this escapes us-the truth that life is happening now. And I am always bringing from the past this element that is thought, experience, knowledge, to deal with life at this moment.
By doing this, we are giving an irregular, inadequate, incomplete response to this present moment, in this contact with him or her, or with situations or events. But this is exactly how we are structuring, have structured, are structuring, and will continue to structure this story of a person, of identity, which is the identity of the "I" within life, within relationships. So, this explains all problems, all confusion, all suffering, all disorder present.
This is the presence of Avidya, the presence of ignorance. Because life, at this moment, is a challenge. When you meet your husband, you are meeting an idea you have of him or her, if it is a wife, of the child, of the co-worker, of the boss, of any person you recognize.
This recognition is an element present due to the presence of thought. And thought is nothing but a memory that comes from the past. Therefore, your contact with him or her is just a memory, a recollection, a photograph present at this moment.
This photograph, this memory, this thought is a curtain between you and him, between you and her. Thus, we do not have contact, notice, true contact with life here and now because there is an element within us that functions as a curtain.
This element is always bringing a curtain. It is as if you were trying to know what is happening outside the house but only by listening. Instead of simply removing the curtain and opening the window, you are trying, from inside, without opening the curtain, without opening the window, to guess what is happening outside.
Why don't you open the curtain and open the window and become aware of what is happening outside? Why keep trying to guess what is happening in life through thought, beliefs, opinions, ideas, concepts, judgments, and personal evaluations?
Our contact with the other is exactly like this. This is how we are trying to guess what is happening outside the house. We are trying to guess whether it is raining or sunny, or if it is snowing, whether there is fresh air outside or not.
We may be here, inside, with the window closed and the curtains drawn, just imagining something about it, without knowing what is actually happening outside.
Our contact with life is like this. Our contact with the other is like this. We are looking through thought, and thought is the curtain.
So, what is thought? This is a playlist here on the channel. What is thought? Thought is memory, remembrance, recollection, idea, imagination.
No thought deals with what is. Notice this-it does not deal with what is here. Because the principle of thought is memory, something that comes from the past.
So, thought always deals with what was, not with what is. Thought projects itself into the future, into what should be or could be. Or it deals with the past, with what was or what should have been.
But it does not deal with the present moment. See how basic this is. Two people talking are not talking about what is here.
They are talking about what happened. We cannot, at this exact instant, at this exact moment, in this exact second, have a vision and a verbal descriptive statement of what is. Everything we can describe has already happened, has already passed a minute ago, five seconds ago, two seconds ago.
Notice that life, at this moment, is indescribable. It is beyond description at this instant. It is not subject to being described.
Thus, our contact with life as it happens, in this relationship with the other, in this relationship with situations, when we bring this element that comes from the past to engage with it, what we are doing is placing the presence of this curtain, of this window.
In this way, we do not have the awareness of the truth about who we are. In our real nature, life is what is present, being life itself.
Only with this presence of what you are in your essential nature can you have a complete response to this moment. Thus, the contact we have with the other is not the truth about him or her. It is the idea, the thought, the imagination about him or her that I have, that this "me" has, that this person has.
Here, we are together seeing the possibility of going beyond this ignorance, which is this condition where thought is the main element that dictates the rules.
We have just placed this for you. From a practical point of view, in this model of dreamlike existence, this contact with thought at this level is fine.
But at the level of reality-and here it encompasses the totality of life, this awareness of relationships, where a new action is necessary, which is this action of wisdom, of this divine intelligence, of this real knowledge-this old model of thought does not work, does not apply.
Here, we are with you investigating what the awakening of wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge is. So, knowledge, based on thought and experience, for practical purposes, in this relationship with work, with some specific areas of life, is something perfect.
But the presence of thought-we have just given an example-in these relationships with people, with ourselves, with events, with everything that happens in life, does not work.
Here, we are working with you on the awakening of this wisdom, of this vision of divine reality.
Here, our emphasis consists of this self-discovery, this approach to ourselves, the discarding of this model of thought-something very close to this issue of thought.
It seems to me that it is becoming clear to you here, within this very discourse, that thought in you is nothing but acquired knowledge and, therefore, a memory stored in you.
And your contact with life as it happens here and now-this element that is thought-will not work.
Thus, our great challenge in life is the challenge of life itself, of the response to be given to life itself.
And in this format of thought, as we have been educated to live without understanding the truth about thought, we cannot attend to this.
The real way to attend to life is free from thought.
This is where this other issue comes in-the issue of what thinking is.
Thinking, in you, is a mechanical functioning, the remembrance of a memory, of a recollection, of an image. This remembrance occurs due to this process of thinking.
So, when you are having a remembrance, the brain is giving a response. It has received a stimulus, an impulse, a challenge, and is giving a response.
So here, the question now is to be very clear about this difference between thinking and thought.
What is thinking? Thinking is a response that the brain reacts to based on memory, bringing this response. That is thinking.
When you remember someone, that remembrance is thinking, but it is the brain bringing that remembrance because Avidya presupposes this ignorance, the lack of vision of reality, and therefore, this illusion.
This is Avidya's proposal in this ignorance, and in this ignorance, the idea is of someone thinking.
There is no one present in thinking. Thinking is an activity of the brain itself, of the very mechanism, bringing memory, bringing recollection.
So, when thought arises, it appears due to this thinking. But there is no one in this thinking.
You are not the person, the thinker of this thinking.
Thinking happens in response to a stimulus, to a challenge. Then, remembrance appears, memory appears.
You look at a photograph and remember another person.
That person has facial features similar to another person.
And at that moment, the brain processes, brings, expresses, manifests this image.
There is no "you" in this.
But here, we encounter this illusion-the illusion of someone being present in this thinking.
There is only thinking, just as there is only thought; there is no thinker.
This is a cerebral mechanism, a process of recognition by the brain itself based on the background of remembrance, of memory.
Here in this work, we are deepening this with you.
Approaching a vision of yourself, becoming aware of your reactions, is going beyond the illusion of someone present in these reactions.
It is when, at this moment, we eliminate the illusion of this curtain of thought, where we eliminate this window, where we eliminate this separation.
Then, at that instant, there remains the awareness of observing without the thinker, without the observer.
It is when life, at that moment, in this relationship with him or her, or with situations, or events, is life happening, where there is this experiencing without the experiencer.
This is the end of Avidya.
This is the end of this illusion of separation.
Here, the direct way of approaching requires the presence of this self-study, of learning what it is to look, to perceive, to become aware of the moment, without placing this element present, which is the "I," which is this "me."
This is what we are working on here, presenting to you.
So, the truth of wisdom is what is present when there is this divine intelligence, this real intelligence, in this true understanding of life, without the sense of someone in it.
So, the truth of this blossoming, which is the blossoming of your divine nature, is the end of ignorance, the end of this separation, of this curtain that thought has established within relationships, within this totality of life.
So, this is our work here on weekends. On Saturdays and Sundays, we are together, deepening this subject with you, approaching this revelation of the truth about who we are.
You have our WhatsApp link in the video description to participate in these online meetings on weekends. Besides that, we also have in-person meetings and retreats.
If this is something that makes sense to you, here is the invitation. Leave your like, subscribe to the channel, and comment here: yes, this makes sense. Ok? See you. Thanks for the meeting, and until next time.
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