All this difficulty we have in dealing with human suffering, with this suffering within ourselves, is because our internal conditioned response to the presence of the experience of suffering is a response based on separation. We haven't learned to welcome life as it happens, and that prevents us from investigating the nature of suffering, the truth of suffering, what it actually is, what it represents at that moment.
Notice, it's not about learning something from suffering, but about discovering the truth of the element present in suffering, which is the "I." There is no real separation between the suffering and the one who suffers. However, our upbringing, our education, the way we've been taught, has been exactly that: that there is a separation between suffering and the one who suffers.
So, we already have a built-in conclusion, shaped by the model of thought we've inherited, that suffering is something to be rejected, not something to be seen, observed, investigated, and comprehended. Here, contact with the present moment must naturally be a contact of discovery, of verification, and that requires the presence of observation in order to learn about it.
We go through our entire lives experiencing suffering in different forms. When we lose a loved one to death, suffering is there; when we are rejected, suffering is there; when we don't get what we want, suffering is there; when fear is present, when anger is present, when worry is present... This is how we've been functioning.
We function in this mode: the mode of "someone" suffering. That's the shape, the model of the existence of the "I," the existence of the "person." And yet, we don't know how to deal with suffering, because we haven't learned the truth about it. The truth about suffering is that its presence requires the presence of the sufferer.
It's the way we deal with the experience that gives rise to an entity here at this instant, resisting life as it unfolds, resisting experiences as they arise, and then we have the presence of the sufferer. The one who suffers is suffering because of the image they've built about themselves, about what they deserve or don't deserve.
Our frustrations, disappointments, conflicts with people and situations are established in us due to the presence of this image, this self-image that thought has built within us about who we are - an image built by thought. Therefore, you, as someone present here, are this image.
You are this self-image, the person who sees itself rejected, unloved, the person who feels lost when lose someone it loves, the person who sees itself undeserving, the person who needed to succeed and didn't, the person who was abandoned, forgotten, the person whom others dislike, the person that people don't want to talk to. So, the image we've built about who we are separates us from the experience and puts us in this condition of suffering.
Can we eliminate internally, psychologically, within our minds, inside ourselves, this inner condition of self-image? Can we look at what we are without the defense of a self-image? Becoming aware of what is present at this moment, without trying to protect an image that thought has built? This is the real way to come into direct contact with suffering, with this learning about ourselves, which is learning about the one who suffers, about the one who is rejected, dismissed, unloved, who lost things, who was abandoned.
When we learn to look at ourselves without this psychological self-defense, without this idea of someone to be protected, defended, without the illusion of someone who doesn't deserve - learning to look at ourselves without self-compassion, without self-pity, without self-sorrow - when we learn to look at it, we eliminate this separation between the self-image and what is the cause of pain, the cause of conflict, the cause of suffering.
When there is no separation between this image, this self-image, and the suffering, we come into direct contact with the experience without the "I," without the experiencer, without the "ego," without this "me," without this self-image, because we've eliminated that space, that separation; and when that happens, we come to the end of suffering, because we come to the end of this self-image.
Your encounter with Life requires the absence of image and, therefore, the absence of thought. Notice how important this is! What is thought? Thought is this structure of psychological self-defense, of image. These are the images thought has been building, placing an identity present that separates itself from the experience. So, we need to discover life happening right here, without thought.
We do need functional, practical, technical thought to deal with very objective matters in life, like fixing a machine, finding someone's house from an address - that's the presence of thought - or remembering this or that person's name. Then, here is the presence of thought.
But we don't need the kind of thought that revolves around this self-image that produces attachments, desires, fears, self-compassion, self-pity, ambition, envy, the need to control, to possess, to cling, the kind of thought that creates emotional dependence, physical dependence, psychological dependence, the need to be accepted, to be loved as "someone," as a "person." That quality of thought is protecting the self-image, it places us in life within this illusion, the illusion of separation, the illusion of duality.
Then, that's the discarding of this model of thought, this element that comes from the past, which reinforces the illusion of ego-identity. This requires real contact with Life, a real response to Life. And here we're emphasizing with you the beauty of this encounter with action, with feeling, and also with thinking - the truth about thinking.
What is thinking? Thinking is an intelligent response to this moment, without the model of the past, without the model of thought. We know nothing about the importance of a real intelligent and free contact with the present moment, which requires the presence of action free from the "I," of feeling free from the "I," of thinking free from ego, free from self-image. And this is what we're exploring with you here, going deeper with you, discovering together.
The Reality of God, the Reality of Life, the Reality of this true Being is not this self-image, is not this "me," this "I," this "person." Can we meet life as it unfolds, without inserting the presence of a thinker, of an experiencer, of this element that comes from the past and looks at the world through its preferences, acceptances, and rejections? That's the real contact, lucid, true, intelligent; we are before Life as it really is, not as the "I," the "ego," this "me" wants, expects, or seeks.
Therefore, the Truth of Life is the Truth of That which is present when thought is no longer building stories around an identity it created. Your contact with people through this self-image, your contact with objects, with situations, with incidents, with accidents, all through this self-image, is a contact based on separation. So is present, this division between you and life as it happens; and in this division, a space of separation is created, and within that space, conflict is present, suffering is present, disorder is present.
Here, together, we are looking directly at all of this, so we can go beyond this illusion, investigating this matter of the "I," of this "me," of the "person." Life is Real when there is no longer this abstraction of an illusory identity that sees itself as separate from Life, making demands, making choices, seeking to reaffirm itself again and again and again.
This entire movement of the self-image, of this center, which is the "I," the "ego," is the movement of egocentric isolation; and if this is present, no matter what human beings may have achieved externally, that achievement is still within the illusion of an identity present, who believes it has achieved, that believes it can hold on, control, possess, and thus, there is no Love, there is no Peace, there is no Freedom, there is no Real Happiness, because the illusory sense of "someone" separate from life is still present.
There is no such "someone"! We are before Life; Life is this Divine Reality, and this Reality is the Truth of your Being, this Realization in this life is the Realization of God. That's what we're working on here with you in these online weekend meetings. It's two days together: Saturday and Sunday. I want to leave you this invitation. You'll find the WhatsApp link in the video description to join these meetings.
Besides these online meetings, we also have in-person meetings and retreats. If that's something that makes sense to you, here's your invitation. Go ahead, leave your "like," subscribe to the channel, and comment below: "Yes, this makes sense." Alright? See you soon. Thanks for being here, see you next time!
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