Welcome everyone. What a great thing that we are all together.
Let’s begin by saying how welcome you are at your home. You are welcome in this meeting, in Satsang. You are welcome to your own Self. This is the only place where you can not be distant, where you can not get far from. It is a place where you also can not be close to. Not close and not distant. Welcome to your own Self. To your own and only place. To the place that always Is. This is what we deal with in Satsang.
In Satsang, this only place. The place which always Is. There is an idea that remains, an idea happening in this instant. An idea of an external world, and of someone present in this world, perceiving this world through his senses. The touch, the vision, the sense of taste. And this idea of an external world being experimented by someone inside the body is an idea that happens in this instant.
In Satsang we are telling you that your own Self is the only place not close, and not distant. This Self is the only reality that You Are. And even this idea of an outside world being felt by someone inside the body, even this idea is not something separated from this Self. It is also an apparition in this Self. Nothing is separated from this place, the only place which always Is. But here we face a situation, once there is a belief, a belief of someone thinking this external world, feeling this world from inside the body, then we see all these apparition becoming a prison. The prison of this supposed present entity, this supposed thinker. I hope you can follow this.
This is how the “I” illusion is born. Of the “I” in the world. And of a world for this “I”. There is only the Self present, now and here. The Self is the only place that is not close, nor distant. And however, an illusion appears there, the illusion of a thinker, from the impression of inside the body. Here inside. This creates the separation. The world outside for a supposed person present inside. This person experimenting the world. And for this person, for this thinker, there is not this Real sense of unity, of non separation. On the contrary, everything is a great multiplicity, of things, of feelings, of emotions, of thoughts. And a little “I”, as a thinker, as an experimenter of the world.
And here I dare you to notice this illusion. Notice this that we are telling you, this “I” is this illusion, this experimenter is this illusion. Sometimes you write me things such as “I am afraid”, or “I am confused”, “I am like this or like that”. In fact in this moment you are just with an experience. There is not an experimenter there, it is just an experience. Any experience is separated from this unique place, which is you in your Self. And this experience is not you. It is an apparition that does not separates from this place, from this space. As an experience, there is not an experimenter, confined, identified with this experience.
Therefore this is the ego, the identification with this experience. The identification with the experience of the confusion that creates that confused person. The identification with the though creates this thinker, the identification with the feeling creates someone who is experimenting this experience. What I am telling you is that this Self, this place which always Is, does not chance. The experience changes, but your Self does not change, your Real Nature does not change. This Presence, that is the Self, does not change.
So when we talk about the “I”, we are talking about an illusion. The illusion of someone experimenting, taking hold of a thought as something that is his. We are talking about the illusion taking hold of a feeling as something that is his. The point is that the illusion does not need to be destroyed because it is just a belief, it is just an idea, it is just a fantasy. The problem emerges when this fantasy, this belief, this imagination wants to do something to get rid of this thought or feeling. Then it makes this experience stronger each time. The ego is being fortified, moment after moment, after moment. Is that clear?
We are saying this in a very simple way. If you stop reinforcing the experimenter, if you stop feeding a sense of an “I”, if you stop feeding the feeling and thinking of self importance in the experience, this “I” disappears. And one beautiful day you find out that there is not more fuel for this fire.
They call this enlightenment. The end of the ego, the end of the sense of someone to experiment the world, to experiment the mind. When there is not anyone to experiment the mind, the mind disappears. When there is not someone to experiment the world, the world disappears. It does not disappears as an apparition, but as a sense of someone in this apparition. Then everything is present in this Presence, which is Self, which is Consciousness. And there is not the sense of separation anymore. And when there is not the sense of separation, there is no more suffering, no more fear.
That requires some work, that you surrender. You need to let the world to be in peace. As I have said many times, it is not about you being free from the world, but to let the world be free of you. If you let the world in peace, the world leaves you in peace. Because the world does not disturb you, it is you that disturbs the world.
You say: “Master I have decided to spend the next 3 whole days without making any complains. Is this a good exercise to begin?”.
I would say that a good exercise to begin is not to begin! It is not to ever show up! To observe each experience and let it stay there, let it be what it is. Do not touch it, do not get evolved with it.
And here, by my side, Cacau says that that is something difficult, especially for someone who is beginning in this work.
I would say that a good measure here is the observation of the one there who is disturbed with this apparition, with this experience. Because when you say “you complain about a situation”, you only complain about an unpleasant situation. So you make the exercise for 3 whole days and when an unpleasant situation comes you do not complain, but when a pleasant situation comes, you are cheering with it, identifying yourself with it. So those pleasant situations are welcomed and you identify yourself with them because they do not give you any problem. But on the difficult situations you make the exercise of not complaining, or try not to identify with these situations.
Do this for all and every experience! Do this for this thought that is coming now, in this instant. It is just a though. Let it loose. Do not jump on it. Do not identify yourself with it, so you do no feed this sense of “I”, feed this thinker. If an opinion comes up, an assessment, a comparison, do not identify yourself with this. You just observe in an unidentified way. It does not matter if they say the party A is good and the B is bad, because it is just a thought. Can I keep myself unidentified with this thought? Can I just bee an observer that does not identifies myself with this thought?
So here the point is, not to get identified with whatever is appearing there, in this instant, with the experience, either of pleasure or of pain, either a pleasant or an unpleasant situation. This is not something to be done for 3 whole days; it is something for this instant. If you can do this for just 30 seconds, for one minute, it is already very good. Do not think about 3 days. Look at these 10 or 30 seconds this way. Do this in this instant, always in this instant. So a good exercise to begin with is this one, start now! Do not make assumptions, do not hold yourself into illusions, do not judge, do not accept or reject, do not choose… Just stay unidentified. In the next 30 seconds, in the next minute, do not identify yourself.
You keep saying, “Master, does it help to make the question ‘who is afraid?’ Because it seems to work with me, because I can not find it…”
Great! Perfect! There is not someone there, with fear. There is not someone there, sad. There is not someone there, anxious. There is not someone there, thinking. So who is here? Who am I? If you can stay with the question, without a verbal, intellectual answer, you can allow yourself, I mean, allow yourself, to go deep with the unidentification with this experience.
You say “I can not find someone”…
That is what we are saying, you are Consciousness, you are Self, you are Presence. It is the only place that always Is. But it is not someone, it is not inside the body, it is not in this experience as an experimenter. Therefore it is not possible to find someone, there is not anyone to be found. So this question “who am I” can help, if it does not become intellectual, if it does not demand an immediate answer to get rid of the pain. Make this question without even formulating this question! Unidentify yourself with the painful experience and do the same with the pleasant experience. The question “who am I” is not a bargaining chip! You do not change the “who am I” question! With it you can not buy the freedom of the pain and at the same time keep the identification with someone in a pleasant experience.
Here we are talking about the unidentification with the sense of being someone. Someone in this experience. There is not anyone present inside this body. You do not live in your head. The mind has the illusion that you live inside your body, specifically somewhere between your ears, somewhere inside your head, behind your eyes... (LOL). This is very funny, because it is just a belief. You are identified with the body. The sense of being someone in the body is something very, very strong. And this sense of being someone wants to get rid only of its suffering, not of its pleasure. And the mind keeps its whole life trying to grab this absolute pleasure. Absolut pleasure is what the mind would call happiness, absolute satisfaction, absolute security, absolute peace. Peace in the mind is impossible! Because the mind’s nature is conflict, desire, fear, it is this dual sense, this sense of choice. I speak of the ego’s mind, this belief, this illusion, the illusion of the Self, of reaching the Self, of seeking the Self.
My invitation in Satsang is to this emptiness, the emptiness of Consciousness, the emptiness of Presence, the emptiness of Plenitude. There is nobody there, just mystery. This something that is beyond all comprehension, all definition, all absolute pleasure, all absolute happiness, all absolute peace.
Pay attention in what we are saying here, you need to find out what is to listen, to listen from all your heart. You can not gain something with this. This is the end of this you that you believe you are, that you desire to be, that you think you are. We can not accumulate this. We are addicted to accumulating, we accumulate knowledge, we accumulate acknowledgment, we accumulate name, we accumulate prestige, we accumulate money, beliefs, concepts… We are full of things that we accumulate to become better people!
This simple joy of the Self, of Presence, of Consciousness, is something that is over casted by these beliefs, by this accumulation, by this search for something more, something bigger, better… You need to go back to this simplicity, to this absence of search, of desire. So the Real Peace is possible, the Real Freedom, the Real Love, the Real Happiness. This, which is beyond the mind and its imagination. To be free is something totally without effort. It is something very very natural. It only requires your absence! If you disappear, you in your Self, your Real Nature flourishes. If you die you are Real Life.
Ok? Let’s stay here?
Thank you for this meeting.
Namaste.
*Transcription from an online Satsang via Paltalk on 18/03/15