When you're angry, sad, anguished, depressed, or worried, what are your reactions? What do they represent there, at that moment? What does it mean to be someone angry, worried, or depressed? What is the truth about this person? What is the truth about you at that moment? It's the direct vision, you see, not theoretical, not conceptual, not a mere description of words, but the direct vision of yourself in that moment, the comprehension, in practice, in a practical way, of Self-awareness.
So, Self-awareness in practice is the presence of learning about Self-awareness. And you learn about Self-awareness when you learn about yourself, about how you, psychologically, internally, are functioning. At the same time, this contact is Meditation. When people bring up the topic of meditation because they have a purpose, a goal, an objective... It's quite curious how people seek meditation. They imagine the practice of meditation for themselves.
We do not comprehend the Truth of Meditation to the question: "Meditation, what is it?", the truth to this answer about what meditation is, is that Meditation is the Revelation of the awareness of your Being. Here, the first obstacle or difficulty lies precisely in the illusion that Meditation is something like a practice you do, like an exercise you perform for this or that purpose, including the purpose of finding God. For spiritual seekers, the question is: "How to find God?"
So, here, the first obstacle or difficulty lies precisely in the illusion of a separation between the one who practices and the practice, between the one who seeks and that which is sought or searched. This separation, this division, is the first obstacle. And, in reality, the first obstacle among many others, but the basis of every difficulty in the Truth revealing itself here and now lies precisely in this separation.
There is no clear vision of Truth about the awareness of this being-this psychophysical being in its background of psychological expression, its mental conditioning, its egoic conditioning-and the Reality that is present beyond this psychophysical being-which is this body and this mind-which is the Truth, the Reality of something that is present here, beyond the body and mind, which is the Reality of this Divine Being, this Truth of God.
We place this Truth of God as something "there," somewhere. You are here and this Divine Reality is "there," somewhere, waiting to be found; found by someone who is here. The foundation is completely illusory, a mental fantasy. What we don't realize, what we are not aware of, is that the present mind, the mind within us, this mind we know, which has its truth in thought, ideas, concepts, images, and beliefs, is that this mind is laden with illusion.
There are countless illusions present in the mind, and the truth of this gaze upon what we are here, in this moment-just looking, becoming aware, knowing ourselves-is to know the world of ideas, opinions, beliefs, concepts, images, of what is happening within us, superficially and also deeply. Knowing ourselves means knowing how we are dealing with others in this relation to them, how we are dealing with ourselves.
Knowing ourselves means becoming aware of how thought within us is creating images of situations, of people, how thought within us is predicting the future and trying to escape the unpleasant past it has lived. It is thought itself in the form of a person, an idea it has constructed. This idea is you. This person is the "I," the "me."
When we have a direct gaze toward practical vision, in life, within relations, in contact with the world around us, the condition in which we position ourselves begins to become clear. We position ourselves as someone present: someone who likes, someone who dislikes; this someone who loves, this someone who doesn't love, this someone who hates; this someone who distances oneself from, this someone who approaches. This someone is the model of thought, the structure of thought within us.
Life within a person, the life of a person, is the presence of thought. Is life possible without thought? All your contact with the present moment-see-you don't need thought, and yet, thought is present. When you meet someone, why meet them based on a memory you carry of them? Why do this? Why do we do this? We do this because the sense of "I," the ego in each of us, seeks security in relations. But it only seeks security because fear is present. If there were no fear, we would have no idea of ??any need for security in relations.
Note the trick, the old model of continuity, of egocentric movement present in each of us, how this "I" seeks continuity. First, thought constructed this "I," this image-the image you have of who you are-and then this "I," which is thought, made present, within this relation of the moment, the past, when it wants everything to be the way it wants, which is basically fear, insecurity.
We haven't investigated the nature of thought, so we know nothing about the "I," about this whole game that occurs in life, in the life of the person, in this "my life." Therefore, I return to the question: is life possible without thought and, therefore, without this insecurity, without the presence of fear?
The sense of personhood in each of us carries attachments, the desire to possess, dominate, control the other. And, note, this is only one aspect, or two or three aspects of the "I," of the ego. But we are also envious, ambitious; there is this insecurity in its various forms of expression. These are expressions that we are completely unaware of within our relationships. Therefore, this is the life of thought.
Is there a life free of thought? Can thought cease? Because we don't need it, I repeat, we don't need thought. Here, to deal with the other, we only need Intelligence, Freedom, Comprehension, Wisdom. Then, there will be no conflict, no disorder, no confusion, no suffering. The presence of dependence, the search for acceptance, appreciation, acknowledgement from others, the inner condition of the "I," the ego-sustains separation, isolation.
The end of thought, the cessation of thought, is the cessation of fear. Look at yourself, look at the world. Fear is something that is present from the first days we become aware of ourselves, of this person. The awareness of this person is self-consciousness. From the moment we become aware of this "me," in this self-consciousness, from that moment on, we begin to become aware of this self-image, this character, this idea constructed by thought. And so, throughout our lives, we carry this self-image in fear, in the contradiction between pleasure and pain-the search for pleasure through desires, the search for pleasure in escaping pain, which is the presence of fear.
This encounter with Life, in this moment, is the encounter with Life without thought, without the past, when the "I" is gone, when the ego is no longer present. Is a life free of the ego, free of the "I," free of thought patterns possible? Without this image? An image we've been holding for thirty, forty, fifty, seventy years. Can we free ourselves from this self-image so that we no longer depend psychologically on this need to possess, dominate, control?
A life free from fear is a life free from suffering. Then, Something new reveals itself. When the question is "How to find God," here is the answer: He is not something that is "there." This is the Truth present here, when the thinker is no longer present, when the experiencer is no longer present, when this self-image no longer assumes this role, this figure. All we truly need for this awareness of the Truth about God, for this realization, in this encounter with Divine Reality here and now, is the presence of Meditation.
So, what is Meditation? What is the Truth of Meditation? It is looking at this moment without conclusions, choices, rejections, or condemnations; without the idea that thought constructs when we are in contact with others, with life, or with situations in this present moment. Thus, when we bring Attention, looking at whatever is arising here, in this Attention, in this gaze, in this perception, we nullify the past, we nullify thought, and then the mind becomes still.
You won't accomplish something with a practice called meditation. Meditation is here, in an experiential, practical way, when the looking at the present moment without the image that thought is constructing about what is here. When thought is not present, because of this Attention, this looking, this perceiving, we eliminate the separation between what is being revealed here and someone else looking at it, liking it or not, wanting more or wanting less, carrying this insecurity, this urge to control, to dominate, to possess.
Therefore, we are here, together, becoming aware of the Truth about ourselves, when we discard the illusion of this "me." The encounter with the Divine, the encounter with Truth, is the realization of Truth here and now. Unless we have an encounter with Divine Reality in this moment, in this contact with life as it happens, everything else about an encounter in future, a divine realization in future, is pure imagination.
When you sit down to meditate and wait a few minutes for your mind to quiet down and achieve, through a practice or technique, a stilling of the mind, when that meditation ends, that practice ends, the mind stirs again. Here we are inviting you to bring attention to this moment, to your reactions, to a direct encounter with the awareness of Self-knowledge. Then, a natural silence in the mind reveals itself; then Meditation occurs naturally.
The encounter with Meditation is here and now, moment by moment. It is not something for some special moment, for some particular moment of the day; it is the encounter with the instant, with the present moment, without the past. So, we eliminate time, we eliminate practice, we eliminate technique. We are in direct contact with the truth of what is here, looking at what is present, discovering what it means looking without this background, without this past, without this memory of self-image.
We are working on this together here with you. Two days: Saturday and Sunday. I want to extend an invitation to you: here, in the video description, is our link to join our online weekend meetings. In addition to these meetings, we also have in-person meetings and retreats. If what you just heard resonates with you, here's your invitation. Give a like, subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment: "Yes, that makes sense." Okay? See you soon. Thanks for the meeting, and see you next time!
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