For some people, the idea of ??self-awareness is something to be practiced. That is why they use the term "practicing self-awareness." The Truth about Self-awareness, of this awareness, the direct answer to the question what is Self-awareness, refers to an approach to oneself for the direct comprehension of the movement of the "I."
Unlike studying this in books or through a system, a technical methodology, this look at our reactions, which are these internal processes that occur within each one of us, requires the presence of attention on this. This attention is looking directly at what occurs within each one of us and outside of ourselves.
And why is this fundamental? Because this is what makes you have direct contact with the form, with the pattern, with the model of this consciousness, which is the egoic consciousness, which is the egocentric consciousness, which is the consciousness of the "I." Without this approach, there is no comprehension; and without this comprehension, person's life is the egocentric life of this ego identity.
The quality of life in the ego, the life in the "I," the perspective, the particular vision of the world present in the person is one where the presence of ignorance is present. This sustains in us suffering, the illusion of a relation with the other, having, by nature, this mistake, which is the mistake of the egoic mind, of this personal consciousness. This makes us live an egocentric, exclusive, isolationist, separatist life. Thus, basically, this is the life of ego-identity.
What is this ego-identity? It is the egocentric identity. We are not in touch with the beauty of life, with the uniqueness of life, with the totality of life, because our actions are born from this background of experience and knowledge, present in each one of us, which is the result of memory. We have several unresolved issues; these unresolved issues are the problems.
The various problems present in the life of human beings are something that are present due to the lack of awareness of the Truth of Life. When people talk about problems, invariably, within these problems - and this is the basis for the problems they have -, when they talk about problems, they are speaking precisely from the perspective of someone present, having a vision of life in resistance.
We do not comprehend life and, nevertheless, we are projecting onto life objectives to achieve, to be happy. We lack the Truth that Happiness is something that is already present, being something innate, inherent, something present in life itself, when there is no longer illusion. But the fact is that we are born within a context of life in separation; this separation is established in us due to the presence of the error of thought.
The element of separation is the condition where memory has taken on this prominent place. We have given thought an extraordinary value, and since thought is the result of memory, memory has taken over our lives. See what important things we have to comprehend here; hence the need for a real vision of Self-awareness.
We need to comprehend the place that thought has in our lives or, otherwise, thought will be occupying this place, this place of command, of control. You never doubt, for example, beliefs, and the fact is that, psychologically, our entire formation of consciousness is based on beliefs, on things that were shown to us, taught to us, given to us by this context of human history, by this context of culture within humanity.
We were raised within patterns of behavior, speech, thought, language, within a doctrine of human culture. So, we have been indoctrinated to be exactly who we are, to live exactly as we are living, and the quality of life we ??have is the quality of life centered on this illusion of separation, where there is a strong feeling, a frequent thought that life is something separate from what we are. So, there is "us and life," there is "us and them," there is this "me" and the "not me."
What we have been emphasizing here with you is the importance of this vision, this new vision, this real vision of yourself. It is only when you start to look at what is happening inside you, it is only when you start to look at the world on the outside, without the interference of thought, without the interference of preconceived ideas, that you begin to perceive life as it happens, externally and internally.
We were not raised for this Intelligence, for this approach to the moment, to experience, to events, to what is happening externally, that is, outside the body, and to what is happening inside each one of us, that is, in our mind and in our heart. We were not educated to look, to see, to listen, to perceive, to know what is happening to us. On the contrary, we were raised precisely to follow, to copy, to imitate, to be like the other people around us.
Thus, this pattern of conditioning in which we find ourselves places us within a consciousness that is not this true Consciousness, that is not this Real Consciousness - the feeling that we have present, for example, of an individual consciousness. You have the illusory sensation that you think what you want, that you feel what you desire, that you know what you need.
We have various forms of perception of life, both externally and internally, which are based on the illusion of a belief, which is the belief of this "I" in control. For example, you see yourself as someone who is thinking about things. One of the things we have been studying here with you is the truth that you are not thinking; thinking is a process in you that occurs in the brain. It is part of the mind, of this known mind in us, the presence of thought, the presence of thinking, but there is not someone in thought.
If I ask your name, you have your name; if I ask your address, you have your address; if I ask something about your story, you have your story. But this story, your name, your address, are not the truth about you, they are just a remembrance, a recollection, something that comes from this memory. And we are living in memory, living by memory, living within memory, being memory itself: this is the life of this "I."
But what is this "I," what is this "me," this sense of being someone? We don't know it! We are identifying it exactly with the name, with the story, with the address, with all the remembrances we have from the past. What are these remembrances? These remembrances within us are the presence of thought. What are these thoughts? These memories, these recollections of the history, of this body and this mind.
But what is the truth about you? The question seems simple, but we are faced with a question that requires a depth, a dimension of vision that we do not have in the intellect. All that we can answer from the intellect will be answers given by thought, and these thoughts are these remembrances.
We believe that we are these thinkers, we believe that we are the element of this answer, as being someone, as being this "I," while these answers are coming from this intellect, from this memory, from this brain. We continue not knowing the Truth about ourselves, we continue trapped in the illusion of this "I," in the illusion of this mind. What we call the mind is this mechanical, unconscious process, this movement of memory, of memory response, these are mere reactions that arise at every moment due to stimuli, to challenges. We remain in ignorance.
What is the truth about you? This encounter with Self-awareness will reveal this Truth about you. The first aspect of this Truth is this state of psychological conditioning in which we find ourselves. As a person, you are fear, you are anger, you are someone who has friends, who has enemies. As a person, the human being is what he or she shows himself or herself to be, what he or she appears to be. This is what we are in this sense of "I," in this sense of ego, in this sense of someone present in this moment, seeing oneself as someone separate from the other, separate from life itself.
What is this look for each of us? It is this observation of everything that is happening in this moment. When you are faced with a thought, the idea of ??you being present thinking is an illusion created by thought itself. When you are angry. We all have had moments of anger in our lives, for countless reasons. There are many reasons for anger, and there are countless ways in which anger can be expressed, but anger itself, the feeling, sensation, emotion, and presence of anger is one.
We all know what anger is, we have all lived with anger since childhood, but look at how much harm, how much confusion, how many problems you have created in your life due to sudden moments of anger, due to the presence of anger, and yet you still do not know what anger is. We have lived with anger since childhood; but not only with anger, we live with fear. There are countless fears, there are many forms of fear.
Do we know what fear is? We still do not know! Do we know what anger is? We still do not know! And yet, we are victims, in this sense of the "I," of the ego, of these states, which are problematic states, which are states of disorder, confusion, imbalance, suffering, and we are constantly maintaining this continuity of anger, of fear - fear in its many forms. Envy is part of this, jealousy is part of this.
Some people associate, in a pleasurable way, this issue of jealousy with the presence of love. Love is not pleasure. Pleasure becomes displeasure, pleasure can produce irritation, insecurity, annoyance; pleasure can produce fear, it can produce jealousy: this is not Love. Note that we are living in various states of conflict, distress, suffering, disorder, imbalance, due to the fact that we do not know ourselves.
We do not know what it is like to have an approach to these reactions, to look at them closely, to come into direct contact with them, to go beyond them. This is what we are working on here together, talking to you about the possibility of a life free from all this complication, from all this disorder, from all this unawareness, from all this unconsciousness; a life free from this model of egocentric consciousness, from this consciousness of the "I," which is, in fact, unconsciousness about all this, which is the untruth, the lack of comprehension of all this.
An encounter with Divine Reality is an encounter with the vision of God, an encounter with the vision of your Being, an encounter with the vision of life, free from the "I." Thus, it is this coming closer to oneself, in this instant, to put an end to this inner confusion in which this sense of "I," of the ego, has placed us, that we need to understand, that we need to discover. The Truth of God is the Truth of Life, free from the "I," free from the ego, free from this consciousness, which is the egoic consciousness. Thus, this model of thought, which is the model of memory, which has become the most important part of the egocentric life, of egoic life, this is undone.
We need memory, just as we need thought, but only on a practical, objective, direct level, to deal with very simple matters in life. Your address is just technical knowledge; your birthday is all part of the story of this body, this mind; your phone number, each and every form of knowledge that you have, professional knowledge, is something practical. Here we are dealing with thought, but with practical thought.
A thought about facts is not a thought that deals with the purpose of an egocentric identity, to imagine things about it. You cannot create anything special with your address, with your technical, professional knowledge. However, the sense of "I," the sense of ego, which is this sense of psychological self-preservation, in this egocentric life, is creating a particular life for an identity that does not exist, for a being that is not real, which is this "me," this person.
Can we come into contact with life in such a way that this sense of person is seen, comprehended and, therefore, undone, nullified, annihilated? This is the end of the ego, this is the end of the "I," this is the end of this sense of identity that sees itself separate from the other, from life and from God. It is the presence of the comprehension of these reactions present in each one of us. How can we approach this? By observing.
Observing does not require the presence of an observer; it is precisely this observer who, when observing, judges, evaluates, likes, dislikes, accepts, rejects: this is the life of the "I." We are living within this observer, as being this observer, we are living as being the thinker of thoughts, as being the one who has feelings.
When you are sad, the illusion present is the idea of ??someone in the experience of sadness; this someone is "I," this "me," this person. Here, what is present is a suggestion given by thought; it created the one who is in the feeling, the one who is thinking about what one is feeling. Thought created this "I," thought is sustaining life and continuity of this "I." It is this quality of thought that we need to free ourselves from, and we free ourselves when we become aware that this "me," this "I" does not exist.
It is only the observation, the looking, the perceiving, the listening to these reactions that puts an end to the continuity of someone present in this old model, which is the model of this thought of memory, of history for this identity. Looking at life without this model of thought is to break with this conditioned intellect, with this conditioned mind, with this conditioned consciousness, with this pattern of person, of "me," of "I," of egoic identity. This is what we are working on together, here, with you.
Can we have contact with life, with the present moment, with what is here and now, without this pattern of conditioned mind, conditioned intellect, psychological memory, which is this pattern of thought that is giving continuity to the illusion of this "me"? Can we have contact with this moment without the past? See the beauty of this. Life is something now, happening here, we do not need thought - not this quality of thought.
Now, here, at the moment, we are using speech. Speech, of course, is the presence of verbal expressions; the word is part of thought. But what is the basis of this word? Does it come from this psychological background of conditioning, from this memory of psychological thought? So, notice, we can use speech, as a use of thought in our relations, without the presence of the model of an identity behind this thought. We can use speech without this conditioned intellect, which is promoting itself and maintaining its egocentric continuity, based on thought.
We can simply deal with life, in this moment, as it happens, without the weight of this psychological thought, this conditioned intellect, this particular vision of this "I", this ego. Thus, contact with the moment is the contact of life with life, this is the awareness of God, this is the awareness of your Being. This is what we are working on here in these online meetings on the weekends; we are together for two days: Saturday and Sunday. I would like to leave you an invitation here: you can find our WhatsApp link here, in the video description, to participate in these online meetings on the weekends.
In these meetings, we are delving deeper into these subjects with you, discovering the art of this approach to Self-awareness and the Truth about Meditation, which is what makes all this possible. So, we are together for two days. In addition, we have in-person meetings and also retreats. If what you have just heard makes any sense to you, here is an invitation. Go ahead and leave your "like" here, subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment saying: "Yes, that makes sense." Ok? And we'll see each other. Thanks for the meeting and see you soon!
