What we have investigated and explored here with you, what we are seeking to comprehend together, is the truth of real knowledge. There is an expression in India for the presence of ignorance, spiritual ignorance, lack of comprehension, lack of vision of life; they call it avidya. Avidya is ignorance.
Our interest here lies in comprehending what this comprehension, this knowledge is; it is a quality of knowledge, it is the truth of a comprehension, different from what we intellectually understand as comprehension or knowledge.
Some people dedicate themselves to this search through jnana yoga. The word "jnana" means knowledge, it is the path of knowledge within this tradition. So, in the Vedas, the truth of this jnana yoga is the revelation of this comprehension, this knowledge, which requires the presence of discernment between what is real and illusion.
Therefore, we start from a principle here; the principle is: Who am I? This gives us a direct comprehension or direct knowledge of Divine Truth. But there's something here I want to draw your attention to, so you can investigate it with us: it's the no need for an intellectual approach, as we generally believe we need.
We believe that by reading many books, studying a lot, we will gain insight into this Reality. Whereas, in reality, what we need is discernment between what is false, so that the Truth may be revealed.
So, what is false, the discernment of falsehood? It is clarity about falsehood that reveals the Truth, and this doesn't come from intellectual studies, from reading books. It comes when we learn to let go of the false, to reject the false; here, rejecting not as a positive action, but as discernment.
By discerning the false, there is a comprehension and, at that moment, naturally, a distancing from it. It is when the false is denied, when we let go of the false, when we relinquish the false. We, here, with you, are investigating this question of encountering God, in the question "How to find God?", as well as in the question "How to find Happiness?", and this requires the presence of this quality of knowledge, this quality of comprehension.
Here, when we use the word "knowledge," it is in the sense of comprehension, and not in the sense we generally employ for this word. For us, knowledge is something that is acquired, it is information that is received. When, for example, I can pronounce your name, it is because I know it. Yes, this knowledge is something I have acquired, it is learned knowledge. Thus, I keep the information within me.
In general, we call knowledge the information that is stored, that which has been learned. Here, contact with the truth of comprehension, of the real perception of life, is what we call knowledge. It is not something that is acquired, that we theoretically have within us as words, as memories, as stored experiences.
Contact with life is comprehension. This comprehension is the real knowledge of Truth, of Divine Truth. So, how to find God? By embracing the Reality that is present here when there is discernment between the Real and the false. That which is false, that which is illusory, detaches itself, shifts, and dissolves.
This is a Real vision of life, this is the true comprehension of what is, without the idea, without the concept, without the model of thought about how things should be, about how life should happen. This "should happen," this "how it could happen," is within the realm of thought.
Thought does not portray Reality. Thought is a photograph of the past; it does not deal with the present moment. Thought is something present within us that deals with the past. See, it is something present, that arises in this instant, but bringing a representation from the past. Thus, the presence of thought distorts the Reality of the moment. It is not a portrait of Reality, it is an interpretation.
Look at yourself and you will realize that the evaluation you have, the comparison you make, the discrimination you make of the present moment, is revealed now because of a moment that has already passed. That moment is the past; that past is the thought arising here, at this moment, making this evaluation, this comparison, accepting or rejecting, liking things or disliking them.
We don't know what it means to have contact with the present moment when we look at it through thought; and that's what we've been doing. This prevents us from having a real encounter with Life. This encounter with Life is the encounter with Happiness.
For us, Happiness is something to be found tomorrow. Here, the encounter with Happiness is in this instant, when there is no longer the illusion of what should be, when we no longer have the illusion of the model of this portrait, which is thought evaluating, judging, comparing this moment with some moment that has already been or with some moment that will be. The moment that will be is the imagination of thought. The moment that has already been is the memory of the recollection, which is thought.
Therefore, how to find Happiness? Your encounter with Happiness is your encounter with Life, when there is no longer the illusion that distorts the reality of the moment, when this false is abandoned, when this idea, when this conclusion, this evaluation is no longer present.
How to find God? The presence of this encounter is the presence of Silence, of the Revelation of Life without the "I." The truth of Meditation brings you closer to this moment, this moment of Revelation of That which is real.
Therefore, what is Meditation? It is an encounter with the instant, without the past; it is an encounter with the moment, without thought. The revelation of this moment is this encounter; this encounter is the Revelation of God, and here lies the awareness of Happiness. All this requires the presence of a clear comprehension of who we are.
Therefore, the question is: Who am I? Thus, in jnana yoga, or in the vision of discerning Reality, we have this question to discern the false, to comprehend illusion. The comprehension of illusion, the discernment of the false, is the end of the false, is the end of illusion. This requires the presence of self-comprehension.
Therefore, learning about Self-awareness is studying how the mind is functioning for each of us, the way the mind works, the way it processes itself in each of us, sustaining its old model of continuity from the past.
Life is something here, in this instant, revealing itself. There is no encounter with life here, at this moment, when we confront what is, what is showing itself here, with the idea of ??what should be showing itself here. So, we confront what is with what should be, because we are sustaining this old model of thought present in each of us, of mind present in each of us.
It is the vision of discernment, it is the vision of comprehension, it is the vision of knowledge that is the end for this condition. But I continue to say here: It is not knowledge that is acquired, it is knowledge that is born from the discernment of what is false, of what is illusory. We cannot approach God through thought, because thought is based on what has already been.
This approach to Divine Reality, this approach to God through discernment, is the discarding of falsehood; then there is comprehension, there is knowledge of God. To know God is Being. There is no separation between the Reality of this Being and the Truth of God. There is no separation between the comprehension of God and the Reality of that which is present here beyond this "I," which is this Presence of Being. I am referring to the Nature of the Truth about You.
Therefore, the comprehension of God is Being, knowing God is Being, just as Happiness is Being; this is the presence of Life, this is the presence of Reality. Our focus here, all our work here, consists in studying our reactions to discard the illusion of this thought model. This thought model is the thought that comes from the past and sustains this identity.
Note that every thought in you is just a memory, even the thought of objects. Objects are only recognized based on remembrance, memory. When you recognize an object, you recognize it because you remember; you remember the shape, the name. The memory of that object is the presence of thought.
But there is a quality of thought that gives structure to the false, to this illusory center, which is the "I," the ego, and it is this quality of thought that keeps us in ignorance, in avidya, in the illusion of an identity that sees itself present, separating itself from the moment, separating itself from life, separating itself from God.
It is belief, it is suggestion, it is the hypnotic condition, it is the sleep-like condition of an identity that sees itself present, a suggestion given by thought, by this quality of thought, which is psychological thought. It is not thought about facts, it is not thought about memories of events, occurrences, objects, places.
It is not thought that gives us the memory of him or her. It is the quality of thought that makes us see him or her as a person, as an image that I have of who she or he is. It is the quality of thought that gives us an image, the image of who we are to ourselves. This quality of thought is psychological thought, it is psychological memory, which sustains this "I," this ego, this person.
Therefore, this encounter with Divine Reality, this encounter with the Reality of Happiness, of the Truth of Being, consists in the disappearance of this "I," this ego, this illusory model of identity that sustains itself in this psychological thought.
On an objective, practical level, thought is interesting, it is functional, it is practical, it is something objective. Thought is as objective and clear as an object before your eyes. We are dealing with something material. But when we deal with the model of psychological thought, we are dealing with an abstraction, with a model of imagination, of ideation, of fiction.
The presence of the person that they are for me, that is an idea, a fiction, an imagination. We are not dealing with something practical, we are dealing with a mental abstraction when we are dealing with people based on the person I believe myself to be. Follow this calmly.
There is no present person, unless the model of thought is here creating this image, this fiction, this imagination, this abstraction. We don't need the psychological thought model to deal with life, to deal with the present moment, to deal with him or her, to deal with the Reality that is here, which is the Truth of God.
We place this self-image to do this, we place this person, and, in this way, we are imagining all kinds of things. We imagine God, we imagine happiness, we imagine him or her, we imagine life. They are mental images, they are ideas, they are beliefs, they are abstractions. It is the model of psychological thought that is feeding this.
Can we free ourselves from this illusion? Can we break free from this psychological condition for a life free from thought? It is when thought ceases. We don't need thought, except to deal with very practical matters in life, in this dream we call life. So, yes, thought is there.
In reality, thought, like any other phenomenon, in this dream of existence, is something that continues to appear. But can we, internally, live free from this idea, this suggestion of a present identity that looks at life from the past, from this psychological model of mental representation, which is thought? That's what we're seeing here with you.
Your true encounter with Life is the true encounter with God, it's the Revelation of this Self. That is Love, Happiness, Freedom, that is the Awareness of God, something present when this vision flourishes, which is the vision of Self-awareness. So, we encounter Reality, that which is beyond the "I," beyond the ego, beyond the mind. Okay?
That's what we're working on with you in these meetings. We have online meetings on weekends, Saturday and Sunday. I want to extend an invitation to you to participate in these meetings. You can find our WhatsApp link for these meetings in the video description.
In addition to the online meetings we have on weekends, Saturday and Sunday, we also have in-person meetings and retreats. So, if this makes sense to you, here's an invitation. Leave a "like," subscribe to the channel, and comment below: "Yes, this makes sense." See you soon! Thanks for watching, and until next time!
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