Transcript
[0:03] [bell]
[0:13] A moment of stillness is always a good
[0:15] start to anything
[0:18] that you
[0:21] do any activity.
[0:29] So
[0:32] it's important to become comfortable
[0:34] with
[0:36] stillness.
[0:39] There are many humans in this world
[0:43] who are made extremely uncomfortable by
[0:46] stillness. They can't stand it.
[0:58] So we are here at a
[1:03] higher education establishment
[1:07] which means you've already been through
[1:09] lower education and have arrived at
[1:12] higher education.
[1:18] and higher education of course in most
[1:23] fields.
[1:25] Uh it requires you to
[1:29] sharpen
[1:30] and to constantly use the conceptual
[1:33] mind
[1:40] and that's fine because the conceptual
[1:42] mind is a wonderful tool.
[1:45] Conceptual mind means the ability to
[1:47] think and to apply thought.
[1:54] And so that's a wonderful thing. It's
[1:56] been an incredible evolutionary
[1:59] development this evolution of the
[2:03] ability to think.
[2:09] But as in anything in this world,
[2:12] there's always a downside.
[2:17] And uh we can clearly see the downside
[2:20] of the conceptual mind
[2:24] because millions of humans and not just
[2:27] in the in higher education.
[2:31] Millions of humans are
[2:35] not so much using their mind
[2:39] as being at the mercy of their mind.
[2:44] So humans say things like
[2:49] I think
[2:52] and that sounds reasonable.
[2:56] Uh [snorts] they don't say things like
[2:59] I beat my heart
[3:03] because
[3:05] the heart the beating of the heart is
[3:07] something that happens to you. You're
[3:09] not actually doing it. But people think
[3:12] that when they think they do it. But in
[3:16] most cases that's not true. It happens
[3:19] the same way that your heart beats.
[3:21] Thought happens to you.
[3:25] Thought suddenly appears in your mind
[3:27] and there it is.
[3:30] Where did that come from?
[3:34] And so
[3:36] the current state of human consciousness
[3:39] is one in which
[3:44] with the exception of those humans who
[3:46] are already going through a spiritual
[3:48] awakening an awakening of consciousness
[3:50] and I will come
[3:53] I will talk about what that actually
[3:55] means tonight in case you have some
[3:59] doubts is what what I'm talking about
[4:00] when I say awakening of consciousness.
[4:02] iousness
[4:04] with the exception of those humans who
[4:06] are already going through the process of
[4:08] a shift in consciousness.
[4:12] The millions of others who are still
[4:13] totally identified with the conceptual
[4:18] mind, totally identified
[4:21] with thought, this continuous stream of
[4:24] thinking that incessantly arises
[4:27] and that they mistake
[4:30] for who they are. And that's why people
[4:33] say I think.
[4:36] Of course,
[4:38] especially with certain types of thought
[4:41] like so-called worry,
[4:44] you can see very clearly
[4:46] that it happens to you.
[4:49] So you the mind goes and you cannot stop
[4:52] it.
[4:53] You wake up at 3:00 in the morning and
[4:56] you start thinking
[4:58] fearful thoughts,
[5:01] bad possible bad outcomes
[5:04] and it goes on and on and you're
[5:06] trapped.
[5:08] Thought
[5:10] arises in you.
[5:14] So the beginning of spiritual awakening
[5:18] is to
[5:21] see
[5:23] a thought arise. To see a thought and
[5:30] not be completely identified with it to
[5:34] recognize thought as thought.
[5:38] The awakening of consciousness. Then
[5:40] when we talk about awakening,
[5:43] people might say, well, I'm awake
[5:47] already. We're using awakening in a
[5:50] different sense here.
[5:52] As you probably know, like when we talk
[5:56] about the Buddha, the word Buddha was
[5:59] not not anybody's name. It was a title
[6:03] later given to this person. And the
[6:06] meaning of the root meaning of the word
[6:09] Buddha in Sanskrit is buddh which means
[6:12] awake. So the Buddha is somebody who is
[6:16] awake.
[6:18] And in other many other spiritual
[6:20] traditions the term of being awake is an
[6:23] important one.
[6:26] So what does that actually mean to be
[6:29] awake
[6:31] when we think we are awake? We are are
[6:34] we not awake here? Now
[6:37] in ancient spiritual in Indian spiritual
[6:40] philosophy there's a term a Sanskrit
[6:43] term called ta
[6:46] uh t u r
[6:50] y a ta. Um
[6:54] we're at a by the way we at an institute
[6:56] of higher learning. So I'm I'm just
[6:59] mentioning some Sanskrit terms.
[7:03] Tia means the fourth.
[7:06] The fourth in uh they divided uh human
[7:10] consciousness into four stages.
[7:14] One is dreamless sleep which of course
[7:17] you enter every night. One is the dream
[7:20] state. That's the second state of
[7:23] consciousness.
[7:24] Then there's the normal or state of
[7:28] wakefulness. That's the third state of
[7:30] consciousness.
[7:32] And then there is the fourth tura which
[7:35] is the state of
[7:39] wow. This is this is a state that is
[7:43] beyond the conceptual mind.
[7:47] It is a state of
[7:51] being disidentified
[7:53] from the stream of thinking.
[7:57] And in modern terminology
[8:01] uh we may call this
[8:04] awareness or presence.
[8:08] And this state is
[8:12] arising already in many of you. And
[8:16] that's why you are here. So what you
[8:19] experience here tonight
[8:22] may be perhaps
[8:25] a deepening
[8:27] of that state of awareness that's
[8:30] arising.
[8:33] If you're not aware, if you're not
[8:36] present in your daily life, then you are
[8:41] identified completely with the
[8:44] conceptual mind.
[8:46] And your entire sense of identity is a
[8:49] conceptual one. In other words, you
[8:53] derive your sense of who you are. And
[8:56] this is very important. Your sense of
[8:57] who you are is very important because
[8:59] that determines how you relate to this
[9:02] world. It determines how you react to
[9:04] things, how you interact with people.
[9:08] Your sense of identity is very
[9:10] important.
[9:12] So in the absence of awareness or
[9:15] presence, your sense of identity, your
[9:19] sense of who you are is derived from the
[9:23] conceptual mind, which means you inhabit
[9:27] a conceptual reality, which basically is
[9:30] a narrative in your head that tells you
[9:33] who you are. [snorts] And it is derived
[9:37] from your past. It's a way in which your
[9:40] mind has been conditioned by your past.
[9:44] And these are stories that you tell
[9:46] yourself. And basically what you when
[9:49] you uh think or talk about your life and
[9:53] you say my life
[9:56] that is the conceptual mind that is a
[9:59] narrative in your head that is derived
[10:02] from the past and it has emotions that
[10:06] go with it. And that's fine. There's no
[10:09] doubt that there is a certain reality to
[10:11] that dimension in you. And you remember
[10:15] your past. You remember things that have
[10:18] happened to you, things your failures.
[10:20] So your successes, things that people
[10:23] did to you, what you did to others. You
[10:26] identify with things. You incorporate
[10:28] things into that conceptual sense of
[10:31] self. You incorporate possessions. You
[10:34] incorporate uh what other people think
[10:38] of you. You take that on board. You
[10:40] incorporate those concept into your
[10:42] sense of self. Uh this is in spiritual
[10:46] terms the egoic sense of selves or the
[10:49] ego spiritually speaking. The ego is a
[10:52] sense of self that arises when there
[10:55] when the mind is completely unobserved.
[10:59] The unobserved mind brings about the
[11:03] ego. In fact, the unobserved mind is the
[11:06] ego. These are mental structures
[11:10] uh which are energy formations because
[11:12] every thought is an energy formation.
[11:15] Energy formations in your head that you
[11:19] that say that's me. That's
[11:21] [clears throat] me and my life.
[11:24] And there are certain characteristics to
[11:26] this egoic state. Uh one characteristic
[11:30] is that it exists
[11:34] uh
[11:35] in a state of uh frequent
[11:39] dissatisfaction,
[11:40] discontent and and there's an underlying
[11:44] an undercurrent of something vital is
[11:47] missing in my life. I have not arrived
[11:51] yet. There are some people or many
[11:54] people who feel they haven't started to
[11:56] live yet. They're waiting for that
[11:58] moment when it's really going to take
[12:00] off.
[12:02] When when sometimes they have certain
[12:04] expressions that say one day I'm going
[12:07] to make it.
[12:09] We don't know what they're going to make
[12:10] but they they're going to I'm going to
[12:14] get the the big breakthrough or whatever
[12:17] it is and whatever that may be uh varies
[12:20] from person to person. It could be a uh
[12:23] to achieve financial success or
[12:25] recognition or better both the two
[12:29] together
[12:30] fame. It could be meeting the ideal
[12:34] partner that is going to complete me and
[12:37] my story because right now there's not
[12:39] enough of me. I need somebody to
[12:42] complete me. And then there then you
[12:45] start looking for and sometimes you find
[12:49] it seems that you found that person that
[12:52] the egoic sense of self was so longing
[12:55] for and now there he or she is
[12:59] and you're ecstatically happy and for a
[13:03] little while the ego feels ah [sighs] I
[13:06] have arrived. the same way that would
[13:07] happen if you if you're offered a great
[13:10] job or you've just won the lottery or
[13:13] you get some kind of recognition in this
[13:15] world. Not that there's anything wrong
[13:16] with recognition,
[13:18] but it's a wonderful thing to achieve
[13:21] things is wonderful. To endeavor to
[13:23] achieve things is wonderful, but to to
[13:25] look to these things
[13:28] uh
[13:30] and hope to find a a more complete sense
[13:34] of self through it. to to hope to find
[13:37] that a complete sense of fulfillment and
[13:41] a lasting sense of fulfillment that
[13:43] doesn't seem to work because I haven't
[13:46] met anybody for whom that has worked
[13:48] except for brief periods
[13:51] that these periods are brief you may
[13:53] even though many of you are young you
[13:56] may already have experienced that the
[13:59] initial stage of meeting the ideal
[14:02] person does not last very along and at
[14:07] some point you realize that you met the
[14:10] wrong person
[14:14] and it was all a big mistake.
[14:19] And at the soon the at the latest when
[14:22] you start living with somebody, you
[14:24] realize that the person that you first
[14:26] met and that you that that was so
[14:30] wonderful when you were having dinners
[14:31] together or going for a walk on the
[14:34] beach or wherever that person was
[14:37] looking at you like this
[14:42] and then you start living together and
[14:45] suddenly that person no longer looks at
[14:47] you like this.
[14:50] >> [clears throat]
[14:51] >> So there's something uh you the ego
[14:55] longs for something to add to the ego is
[15:00] always in a sense of insufficiency.
[15:03] Remember the ego is a concept ultimately
[15:06] a narrative in your mind a conceptual
[15:08] reality
[15:09] that can never fulfill you no matter how
[15:13] much you add to it. Which does not mean
[15:16] you should not strive to do things in
[15:18] this world. But do not expect
[15:23] this world
[15:25] to make you happy. Because happiness
[15:28] does not ultimately derive from this
[15:31] world. This world is not designed to
[15:35] make you happy. It is designed to
[15:37] challenge you.
[15:39] And if you believe that this world is
[15:41] designed to make you happy, then you're
[15:43] going to get very angry because as as
[15:47] the years pass in your life, you realize
[15:50] why isn't my life working? Why why is
[15:53] this reality seems to be always throwing
[15:56] obstacles in my path? The moment I have
[16:00] say, oh, it's okay now this problem has
[16:02] been solved, another one pops up from
[16:04] behind you. You and so there you have
[16:08] these areas of your life. The main areas
[16:11] being the phys your physical health,
[16:14] your financial situation, your living
[16:17] situation, your professional situation,
[16:21] your relationship situation
[16:25] and one of these areas usually develops
[16:30] problems. So you you solve more you
[16:33] solve a problem in your financial area
[16:35] and then props up a relationship
[16:37] problem. You solve the relationship
[16:39] problem suddenly have a health problem.
[16:41] [laughter]
[16:42] It's interesting that you're constantly
[16:43] being challenged and you might have
[16:45] noticed
[16:47] one of the greatest sources of
[16:49] challenges are human beings
[16:52] because humans are incredibly
[16:54] challenging.
[16:56] And although humans look to other humans
[17:00] often for some ultimate fulfillment
[17:02] through other humans, more often what
[17:05] they find through other humans is that
[17:07] other humans turn out to be a source of
[17:10] suffering.
[17:12] And that is because you are stuck in the
[17:14] egoic mind. And you have the egoic mind
[17:17] has certain expectations of the world
[17:20] which includes whatever you experience
[17:22] in this world has certain expectations
[17:24] that the world cannot meet.
[17:28] But if you believe that the world should
[17:31] then that is a delusional reality that
[17:34] you will be continuously unhappy. The
[17:36] world continues to challenge you but you
[17:39] believe the world is here to make you
[17:40] happy. That's a terrible dilemma.
[17:44] So it means your in your entire what all
[17:48] your expectations
[17:50] are delusory but you don't know it and
[17:53] that creates an enormous amount of
[17:54] suffering because then every challenge
[17:57] that the that that you encounter in this
[18:00] world and they come one after another
[18:03] every challenge that you encounter in
[18:05] this world you then because of that
[18:08] underlying expectation that something is
[18:10] wrong when you're being challenged
[18:13] every challenge is then turned is turned
[18:16] into unhappiness.
[18:18] There's a big difference between a
[18:20] challenge and unhappiness.
[18:22] So in when you have delusory
[18:26] expectations of the world then the world
[18:28] will make you unhappy and not happy but
[18:31] you continue to believe that something
[18:33] has gone fundamentally wrong in your
[18:35] life because life does not leave you
[18:38] alone but you want some peace. You want
[18:41] someh
[18:43] You want the sense of I've arrived. This
[18:45] is it. And occasionally it comes but it
[18:47] never lasts for very long. So that's the
[18:50] dilemma.
[18:52] The this the underlying uh state of
[18:56] ignorance, not knowing that the function
[18:59] of this world is to challenge you
[19:01] because only by challenging you does it
[19:06] provide the necessary incentive to
[19:10] awaken you.
[19:12] And it is that you will you notice after
[19:16] a while that as you gradually begin to
[19:20] awaken out of the unconsciousness which
[19:23] is the complete identification with the
[19:25] conceptual egoic mind, you begin to
[19:29] realize that
[19:31] oh [snorts] a lot of the unhappiness
[19:35] that you experience and unhappiness is a
[19:37] generic term that uh could be many many
[19:41] things Even a state of irritation is
[19:44] already unhappiness. Sadness is
[19:46] unhappiness. Anger is unhappy any any
[19:49] state that doesn't feel good is
[19:51] unhappiness.
[19:53] Any any state of unhappiness, you begin
[19:55] to realize that a greater part of it is
[19:58] not derived from the situations in your
[20:00] life. And when you realize that, that's
[20:03] the beginning of an awakening.
[20:06] Uh let's say 90% of the unhappiness that
[20:09] you encounter is actually produced by
[20:14] your mind.
[20:17] And that's an amazing realization.
[20:21] There remain 10% unhappiness. You might
[20:24] be very some somebody a loved one dies
[20:28] close to you. Of course you experience
[20:30] you weep that is of course normal. But
[20:34] if you observe the various forms of
[20:36] unhappiness in your life from from the
[20:38] very the mildest forms of unhappiness to
[20:41] the more extreme forms of unhappiness
[20:44] let's say just two brief examples a mild
[20:48] very very small a little bit of
[20:51] unhappiness arises many times when
[20:54] things happen in daily life and you
[20:56] can't immediately get what you want.
[20:59] you're on the phone trying to get talk
[21:01] to your bank, but of course there's no
[21:03] human being there.
[21:06] And even that is a it's a minor form of
[21:09] unhappiness, but it is uh you get very
[21:13] irritated and you don't you think, well,
[21:16] this is caused by this dreadful bank
[21:19] that
[21:21] has no longer human beings that you can
[21:23] speak to.
[21:26] or you're you're lining up. Airports are
[21:28] a great place to observe small forms of
[21:31] unhappiness because often so many things
[21:34] go wrong and you you're lining up and
[21:37] this lineup is not moving and is and of
[21:40] course these people are just so
[21:41] inefficient and never going to fly with
[21:43] them again. It's all right and you feel
[21:46] more and more and in any of these
[21:49] situations if you you observe okay
[21:52] unhappiness is arising is it really
[21:55] coming from the situation or is it
[21:57] coming from the way in which I speak to
[22:00] myself about the situation? Does it
[22:02] derive from the mental commentary about
[22:05] this situation or is it the situation
[22:08] and in most cases you actually find and
[22:11] you begin I suggest you start with
[22:14] little small forms of unhappiness you
[22:17] will find that the un the unhappiness
[22:21] is derived from the narrative is derived
[22:24] from your self-t talk in the head and
[22:28] because the self-t talk just happens to
[22:30] you you're not doing It's like the
[22:32] heartbeat. It happens. The thinking, the
[22:35] the reactive thinking happens to you and
[22:38] you mistake it for who you are and then
[22:40] you become an unhappy human being.
[22:44] And an amazing sense the possibility of
[22:48] freedom arises when you be become
[22:51] observant. But this means a little bit
[22:53] of awareness. This the fourth state of
[22:55] consciousness. A little bit of awareness
[22:57] needs to arise to be there so that you
[23:00] can become aware what's happening on the
[23:04] level of thinking on the level of your
[23:06] mind. You suddenly another dimension
[23:09] arises in you and from that dimension
[23:11] you can observe the way in which your
[23:12] mind operates and before you were
[23:16] completely identified with it. But now
[23:18] you are no longer the thinking mind. You
[23:22] are the intelligence behind the thinking
[23:24] mind. That intelligence itself is not a
[23:27] conceptual intelligence. It's higher or
[23:30] we can say deeper than conceptual
[23:32] intelligence. That by the way is not an
[23:35] intelligence that is encouraged in our
[23:37] civilization. It is not an the
[23:40] non-conceptual intelligence is not
[23:43] something that is uh given much
[23:47] attention to in in higher education or
[23:51] lower education.
[23:53] [laughter]
[23:54] So that's uh unfortunately our
[23:57] civilization still as all knows very
[24:00] little about this. You very rarely hear
[24:02] about it but it is of enormous
[24:04] intelligence of course to get in touch
[24:08] to not only develop your conceptual
[24:10] intelligence but to develop the
[24:12] awareness behind the conceptual
[24:14] intelligence and that's another form of
[24:16] intelligence. And that's very similar to
[24:20] you can know things conceptually and you
[24:22] can know things nonconceptually.
[24:25] If you only know the world world through
[24:28] concepts then you are trapped in the
[24:31] conceptual mind. An example that's often
[24:34] traditionally given just to exemplify to
[24:38] illustrate it um [snorts] an an example
[24:42] that is often given is honey. You can
[24:45] you can have knowledge about what is
[24:47] honey. Honey you can have you can write
[24:49] a PhD about honey without ever having
[24:53] tasted honey. And then from a conceptual
[24:56] point of view you would say I know honey
[24:58] very well. I can talk about it for 3
[25:00] hours about the molecular structure of
[25:03] honey where it comes from and all the
[25:05] all you have enormous knowledge about
[25:08] honey but you've never tasted it. And
[25:12] then there's somebody else who tastes
[25:14] honey and then this person knows honey
[25:18] nonconceptually.
[25:20] And in a way as a human being
[25:23] functioning in this in this world you
[25:26] need both.
[25:28] You can't have just the non-conceptual
[25:30] because then you go uh uh [laughter]
[25:34] but but if you but if you only have the
[25:38] the con the conceptual knowledge then
[25:40] you are trapped in this is only a small
[25:43] segment of reality.
[25:45] And so it is vital for you to to have
[25:50] both to be able to move and have both
[25:53] the conceptual and non-conceptual
[25:56] intelligence operating in your life. Now
[26:00] the conceptual you already you're
[26:02] developing this you've been encouraged
[26:04] since childhood to develop conceptual
[26:08] intelligence. That's what entire lower
[26:10] and higher education is for. H but you
[26:14] have not really probably been
[26:16] encouraged. It's I mean most humans
[26:18] don't even know that it exists or it's
[26:20] confined to some uh um strange realm of
[26:24] called mysticism or whatever they call
[26:27] it esotericism or mysticism but it's
[26:31] it's something very vital and it's it's
[26:34] something that exists in every human
[26:36] being as a potential as it is latent
[26:40] in every human being. The fourth state
[26:43] of consciousness ta is a latent
[26:46] possibility in every human being. It is
[26:50] not something that you need to
[26:53] ultimately
[26:55] work hard to achieve in in some future
[27:00] moment because
[27:04] future is another concept. It's a
[27:06] concept in your head. Future is a con is
[27:11] also time itself is a me are mental
[27:14] concepts.
[27:16] How do we know that? Is that true? Yes,
[27:19] it's true because you have never
[27:22] actually encountered the future except
[27:24] as a thought in your head.
[27:28] Is that true? Yeah.
[27:34] And the strange thing is people think so
[27:36] much about the future but the moment
[27:40] they they experience it it's the present
[27:42] moment because that's all there ever is
[27:45] but be because if you are trapped in the
[27:47] conceptual mind then future and past
[27:51] become more important than the present.
[27:55] So
[27:58] but then when you realize that coming
[28:00] back to the un arising unhappiness
[28:04] that a great the greater part of
[28:06] unhappiness is ultimately not produced
[28:09] by situations you find yourself in
[28:13] but by ways in which you talk to
[28:15] yourself about the situations that you
[28:18] find. That creates an enormous amount of
[28:20] unhappiness. And you would be surprised
[28:22] or maybe not how many humans live in
[28:25] this world who live with a very very
[28:31] unhappy conceptual self. They they or my
[28:36] life is just just awful
[28:40] and then they can talk to you about it.
[28:42] And if they have nobody to talk to about
[28:44] they will talk to themselves about it.
[28:47] My life is just what's happened in my
[28:49] life. this this this has gone wrong and
[28:51] that and then I did I made those
[28:53] terrible mistakes and then what he did
[28:54] to me and she did to me. Of course,
[28:57] people do bad things to other people and
[28:59] of course there are people here who have
[29:02] maybe everybody you have experienced
[29:06] bad things in childhood. Uh
[29:10] I certainly did not have a happy
[29:12] childhood. It was it was I mean there
[29:17] are childhoods that are far worse than
[29:18] mine but I would not want to go through
[29:21] that again. Oh my god.
[29:26] But but do you then do you think back
[29:28] about it and say oh that's what they why
[29:32] did I have such unconscious parents in
[29:35] my generation all parents were
[29:38] unconscious.
[29:40] So it's nothing [clears throat] special
[29:44] but there are there are humans in in the
[29:47] present generation who have relatively
[29:49] conscious parents. So there is there has
[29:51] been a shift. There are children alive
[29:54] now whose parents are if not
[29:58] totally enlightened.
[30:00] They are at least awakening.
[30:04] So when you notice then little things
[30:06] like you you notice irritation or anger
[30:09] arising then you say is where does it
[30:11] come from? Is it the situation? And then
[30:15] the the a moment of freedom arise. The
[30:17] possibility of freedom arises and that
[30:20] is uh you can say what would this
[30:24] situation be like if I did not add those
[30:27] thoughts to it that I'm just adding to
[30:29] it that that this moment is terrible.
[30:32] Standing in this lineup is just so
[30:35] awful. I I can't stand it anymore.
[30:38] >> And waiting at the I just can't stand
[30:41] this anymore. And my life is horrible
[30:43] anyway. So uh and if you let go, how
[30:47] would you experience this very same
[30:49] moment if you did not add what is
[30:51] ultimately unnecessary thought to it? If
[30:54] you could just take the this moment for
[30:57] what it is. this moment is as it is and
[30:59] I'm not adding any unnecessary baggage
[31:02] to it and I I'm just then an amazing
[31:06] realization comes and that is you begin
[31:09] to separate
[31:11] what you what you perceive externally
[31:14] and the way in which you interpret what
[31:16] you perceive externally. When you are
[31:18] unconscious, spiritually speaking, your
[31:21] interpretation of something that happens
[31:23] in your life and the event are
[31:27] experienced as a single phenomenon.
[31:30] And that's for example uh you open the
[31:34] curtains in the morning, you look out
[31:36] and it's it's raining. Uh say, "Oh my
[31:40] god, not another awful day."
[31:43] And then you you believe that you're
[31:45] experiencing an awful day. You have not
[31:48] separated the perception and the
[31:52] interpretation [clears throat] of the
[31:54] perception.
[31:55] And as you become more conscious, you
[31:58] separate
[31:59] the perception and the mental
[32:01] interpretation of the perception. And
[32:03] then you say, okay, if I take out the
[32:06] interpretation and just look at this,
[32:09] there's the sky, there's the rain, water
[32:11] coming down, and this moment there's
[32:14] there's nothing bad about it. It's not
[32:16] good or bad. it is as it is. Or you
[32:18] could say it's it's all good because the
[32:20] trees are happy. They're getting water.
[32:21] You could say that. But without adding
[32:24] any thought, it it there's just a a very
[32:28] a peaceful clear moment. There is no
[32:33] unhappiness in it. So if
[32:37] and incredibly important later of course
[32:40] you encounter more complex situations as
[32:43] in human relationships but there too if
[32:47] you are alert you you need that
[32:50] alertness which is awareness is required
[32:53] so you can catch your mind when it wants
[32:57] to it's it tells you something about
[33:00] reality and it it takes an event and
[33:03] interprets it and says That's the event.
[33:06] No, it's the interpretation of the
[33:07] event.
[33:09] So if you can, this is a wonderful
[33:13] beginning of freedom, inner freedom.
[33:17] When you when you separate the
[33:19] interpretation from the actual thing, it
[33:22] could be a person, it could be an event
[33:25] or just a simple sense perception. And
[33:28] suddenly you experience the very same
[33:31] thing that before was an unpleasant
[33:33] experience
[33:35] as actually not bad at all. You let's go
[33:39] back to the simple you're standing in a
[33:41] lineup in the supermarket and it's just
[33:44] not moving and you get very irritated
[33:46] think all the things that you should be
[33:48] doing and you you shouldn't have come at
[33:51] this time and why are these people so
[33:53] inefficient? Can't they
[33:56] h and suddenly you you're just standing
[33:59] there
[34:02] and you're breathing and you're looking
[34:04] around. Is that so bad? No.
[34:09] It's no longer bad because your mind
[34:10] isn't telling you that it is bad. It is
[34:13] as it is. Now you might say that's very
[34:17] that's very little. But what happens if
[34:19] something really bad happens? What
[34:22] happens if you come home and suddenly
[34:24] see the house that you live in has gone
[34:26] up in flames?
[34:32] What happens if you suddenly lose your
[34:34] home and you sit on a park bench?
[34:41] What then? It still applies. The same
[34:45] still applies. Are you adding a
[34:48] narrative to it or are you taking this
[34:50] one? Oh, there's the house. that burnt
[34:51] down. Now this of course an advanced
[34:54] more advanced lesson
[34:57] but you have to master this little
[34:59] simpler lessons first and then you get
[35:02] to the more advanced lessons because you
[35:05] will experience everybody does big loss
[35:08] at some point in your life of whatever
[35:10] kind whether it's loss of a relationship
[35:14] loss of a loved one financial loss loss
[35:18] of your job loss of reputation Who knows
[35:21] it's easier with the internet these days
[35:23] to lose your reputation. One wrong tweet
[35:26] you can destroy your whole life.
[35:30] So you could experience all that and you
[35:33] will all these things will happen in as
[35:37] you remember life is not meant to make
[35:39] the world is not meant to make you
[35:41] happy. It's meant to make you conscious
[35:45] by challenging you and by challenging
[35:48] you at first
[35:50] the challenges become unhappiness. Then
[35:52] you begin to realize it's your the most
[35:55] of the unhappiness uh is derived from
[35:59] unconscious thought processes and then
[36:02] suddenly gradually you awaken. Oh, and
[36:06] then the mind, the world continues to
[36:08] challenge you. But now the challenges
[36:11] actually help you and they intensify
[36:15] the awakening. They no longer bring
[36:18] unhappiness. Occasionally you might
[36:20] still fall back into unhappy reactions,
[36:23] but you're no longer drawn into
[36:25] continuous re unhappy reactivity.
[36:29] Uh the world is here not to make you
[36:33] happy on and that's oh my god that's so
[36:36] good to know because I'm uh if I hadn't
[36:40] told you that maybe you would have gone
[36:42] through the next 40 years thinking the
[36:44] world would here to make you happy and
[36:46] it didn't happen.
[36:48] Very frustrating.
[36:51] The world is here to it's the world
[36:54] challenges every life form continuously.
[36:57] Its life is precarious and challenging
[37:00] even for a blade of grass that that
[37:02] grows. It's challenging for a tree. It's
[37:05] challenging for an animal. It's
[37:06] challenging for the cat, for the deer,
[37:09] for for every every life form is
[37:11] continuously being challenged. It so it
[37:14] needs but what that does for example to
[37:17] to a bird it brings about an an
[37:19] alertness in that life form. The
[37:21] challenge brings about an alertness.
[37:24] Have you observed how alert a bird is? a
[37:27] a bird goes, there's an incredible
[37:30] alertness there. Why is the a bird so
[37:32] alert? Because he needs to be alert
[37:35] because otherwise thing could suddenly
[37:38] pop up and eat it. So the bird goes
[37:44] [laughter]
[37:53] enormous. enormous
[37:56] alertness and this is how gradually
[37:59] consciousness grows through the through
[38:02] being challenged and the more you suffer
[38:08] 90% be coming from your mind then
[38:12] gradually you are being forced into
[38:15] awakening because you can't stand
[38:17] yourself anymore.
[38:19] You can't stand living with this unhappy
[38:22] self anymore.
[38:24] And suddenly and then you realize what
[38:27] the Buddha was talking about when the
[38:29] Buddha said uh the self is the is the
[38:34] illusion. The self is the ultimately is
[38:38] an illusory entity. And the Buddha said
[38:41] there is no self. It's just an illusion.
[38:44] And as long as you live, as long as this
[38:48] self, what in Buddhism is called self,
[38:51] which is the conceptual self, the
[38:54] mindmade self, as long as you derive
[38:56] your identity from that, life to again
[39:01] quote the Buddha, life is suffering.
[39:05] All life is suffering.
[39:08] So the basic teaching for example of the
[39:10] Buddha is life is suffering. But the
[39:14] second part of the teaching of the
[39:16] Buddha is
[39:18] the the possibility
[39:21] of the end of suffering.
[39:24] That's the whole of Buddhism is there in
[39:26] that. So the Buddha said I teach
[39:29] suffering and the end of suffering.
[39:32] Which means I show you how suffering
[39:36] arises
[39:37] and I I show you how suffering can end.
[39:42] And when he talks about suffering, he
[39:44] was not talking about
[39:48] uh challenges. He was talking about
[39:52] what I have just described as
[39:55] unhappiness. I use the term unhappiness
[39:58] arising
[40:00] from your mind.
[40:02] So you practice with situations and then
[40:06] with small ones and you will en
[40:08] encounter incredible liberation when
[40:10] little things that before irritated you
[40:13] or made you angry or whatever they did.
[40:16] You no longer confuse the interpretation
[40:19] with the actual thing. You remove the
[40:22] mental interpretation from it and you
[40:25] are just present with it. And that is
[40:27] you grow in consciousness. awareness
[40:29] grows and and you feel situations don't
[40:34] make you unhappy anymore less or
[40:37] gradually it happens that you can you
[40:39] can then be okay with situations that
[40:41] before created unhappiness. That's
[40:44] already a wonderful relief. You're and
[40:46] it also means you're no longer at the
[40:49] mercy of what happens or does not happen
[40:54] around you. your inner state is no
[40:57] longer at the mercy of either something
[41:00] happening I need this to happen or
[41:03] something not happening
[41:06] and that's an enormous liberation let's
[41:08] say you you booked a vacation and you
[41:11] arrive at the airport and suddenly the
[41:12] whole thing is canled and you are
[41:14] looking forward it so much I really
[41:17] needed a vacation I've been working so
[41:19] hard for a year haven't had a moment's
[41:21] rest now this has been taken away from
[41:23] me too why has this happened to me
[41:28] and you go, "Oh,
[41:31] it's you're not adding thought to it."
[41:35] And there you are just present and
[41:37] you're actually fine. This is a little
[41:40] bit more advanced. And the other
[41:44] the other one is when something really
[41:47] drastic happens. You lose your home. It
[41:49] could happen. You lose a loved one. you
[41:53] lose a relationship, somebody leaves
[41:55] you.
[41:57] Uh or you could be involved in some
[41:59] collective disaster. Who knows what's to
[42:02] come? Life is challenging.
[42:05] And then you too can practice. Well,
[42:10] like I am I unhappy in this situation
[42:14] sitting on a park bench not knowing what
[42:17] you're going to live on the next day
[42:20] or can you be totally just totally just
[42:24] be here and watch there's the sky,
[42:29] your breathing, [sighs and gasps]
[42:31] the birds,
[42:34] people walking
[42:38] And this moment is actually fine.
[42:44] This is why I often ask people people
[42:46] who think they have their life is
[42:48] burdened with problems. And of course,
[42:51] every life is problematic. Everybody in
[42:54] your life situation of course you have
[42:56] sets of you have problems. Everybody has
[42:59] whether they be physical, financial,
[43:02] relationship, professional, you have
[43:04] problems.
[43:06] If you don't I mean
[43:10] ju just wait a few days and
[43:23] so they they will come. So if they
[43:26] become you could become a refugee
[43:30] that's a
[43:35] and what then because the what I'm
[43:38] saying now applies in every situation
[43:41] but the more drastic the loss or the
[43:44] situation the more intense your presence
[43:47] needs to be and if you let's say you
[43:50] have lost everything and it has happened
[43:52] to people who not only lost one thing
[43:55] They lost everything. It has happened.
[43:58] This can either mean terrible, terrible
[44:00] unhappiness up to sui including
[44:03] possibility of suicide or it could mean
[44:08] that the entire
[44:11] structure
[44:13] of the conceptual sense of self
[44:17] that had lived on
[44:19] identification with this and this and
[44:21] this and this collapses. the entire
[44:25] structure of the ego in certain extreme
[44:29] extreme
[44:31] situations or say sometimes in
[44:33] existentialist philosophy called limit
[44:36] situations.
[44:37] The entire structure of your conceptual
[44:40] sense of self in a limit situation when
[44:44] everything has been taken away
[44:46] and collapses and now what's left the
[44:51] entire self collapses.
[44:54] And then it's been reported by people
[44:56] either they committed suicide. So they
[44:58] didn't report it. They they committed
[45:01] suicide or just spend the rest of their
[45:03] life in bitter
[45:06] bitter and unhappiness,
[45:09] resentful at everything in the world and
[45:12] everything.
[45:16] or the structure of the egoic self
[45:21] dissolved and what was left was
[45:26] just
[45:27] presence. Suddenly you experience
[45:30] yourself no longer as a conceptual
[45:32] entity but you experience yourself as
[45:36] just a pure sense of presence.
[45:40] Now the wonderful thing is you don't
[45:42] need a disaster.
[45:47] No, that's a secret that not many people
[45:49] know yet.
[45:51] You don't need a disaster for that. It's
[45:55] uh when you when when you become present
[45:59] and this the the presence arises, the
[46:01] awareness arises,
[46:03] then the conceptual sense of self which
[46:07] is the ego
[46:09] is no longer
[46:11] I'm sorry, let's say loses its density.
[46:15] The conceptual sense of self is no
[46:17] longer as dense. The conceptual self
[46:19] being the personality the person the
[46:22] conditioned person conditioned by the
[46:24] past and in people who are completely
[46:27] unconscious between completely
[46:29] identified with that the personality of
[46:32] the person is very heavy. I can
[46:34] sometimes observe people and I can see
[46:37] how they carry this burden of their own
[46:39] personality around with them and they
[46:41] don't even know it. So they are and and
[46:45] often it's it's a there are many
[46:47] negative more negative than positive
[46:49] elements to that heavy personality
[46:52] and some of them may be successful in
[46:54] this world. They might be chairman of
[46:57] the board or the managing the CEO of
[47:00] this company and yet there's just
[47:06] just to totally identified with the
[47:08] conceptual structures
[47:12] or maybe even professors had
[47:21] could be
[47:24] not necessarily early
[47:26] and there could be CEOs who are
[47:29] relatively awakened too. So not so
[47:35] who am I is the ultimate question. The
[47:38] question of identity is fundamental.
[47:42] What
[47:44] where does your sense of who you are
[47:46] come from?
[47:48] Does it come from the story of me in the
[47:51] head that you call my life?
[47:55] Or does it come from a deeper place? And
[47:57] that deeper place you can access at any
[48:00] moment.
[48:01] But for you to access that deeper place
[48:05] where you are just a conscious presence
[48:08] rather than a person.
[48:10] For that to access that for a moment you
[48:14] need to enter a uh this moment of
[48:19] sensation of thinking.
[48:22] For example, now
[48:27] it's just a tiny moment. It's just
[48:29] that's fine. Doesn't need long for the
[48:31] time being. This is just a tiny moment
[48:33] of
[48:35] in this moment.
[48:38] this moment.
[48:41] You don't remember your problems. You
[48:44] don't remember your past. You don't
[48:47] remember your name. You don't remember
[48:50] your email address. And you don't
[48:53] remember your latest Facebook post in
[48:56] this moment. And now what does that
[49:00] mean? When you don't remember
[49:04] your name in your mind, your your past,
[49:08] your problems and all those other
[49:10] things, does that mean you disappear or
[49:14] does it mean something very fundamental
[49:17] is still present? But it is not
[49:21] conceptual
[49:24] and has no particular form. There is a
[49:27] formless presence that underlies
[49:32] the personal sense of that is deeper
[49:34] than your personal sense of self. And if
[49:37] you can sense that formless presence in
[49:40] the present moment, the only place where
[49:42] you can sense it, it's inseparable from
[49:44] the present moment. It is the present
[49:47] moment ultimately. If you can sense this
[49:50] formless presence
[49:52] then that's at first it's very there
[49:55] seems to be nothing there and in a way
[49:57] you could say it is nothing because it
[49:59] is formless
[50:03] just a glimpse of that is enough to see
[50:05] wow I haven't disappeared
[50:09] when you start thinking again so you you
[50:13] haven't disappeared and you know there's
[50:15] a knowing in this in this moment of just
[50:18] pure awareness. There is a knowing but
[50:22] it's not conceptual.
[50:24] And you can in that state you can look
[50:26] at a tree, you can look at a flower or
[50:29] even a man-made thing, a humanmade
[50:31] thing. You can look at that and perceive
[50:34] it fully without imposing an
[50:37] interpretation on it. You can look at a
[50:40] flower and observe it and in the
[50:42] background there's a stillness, an alert
[50:44] stillness. You can practice that. You
[50:47] can medi meditation helps of course but
[50:51] it is more important in daily life to
[50:54] bring in these brief moments and you may
[50:57] be surprised they actually sometimes
[51:00] arise in your life spontaneously but you
[51:02] don't even know it. They arise in your
[51:05] life sometimes when you look at
[51:07] something very beautiful in nature for
[51:09] example or you look into the eyes of a
[51:12] baby and the baby looks back at you one
[51:15] year old baby looks back at you and the
[51:18] way the baby looks there's no thought
[51:20] yet in the baby there's a consciousness
[51:23] but conceptual thinking hasn't arisen
[51:26] yet so the baby looks at you like that
[51:32] and for a moment you look into the eyes
[51:34] of the baby and for a few seconds the
[51:36] baby frees you from your conceptual mind
[51:40] and you experience that as a moment of
[51:42] deep love into aliveness and you say oh
[51:47] why and what you what you don't realize
[51:50] is you experience this moment because of
[51:54] sensation of thought and something
[51:57] deeper has come up from that is has been
[52:00] in underneath the noise of thinking in
[52:03] You this potential this latent potential
[52:06] of awareness has come up and you
[52:09] experience as a moment of and you then
[52:12] you might remember it as a oh that was
[52:14] so beautiful or you might might you
[52:17] might witness a sunset and for a brief
[52:21] moment you go wow
[52:24] and in this wow there's no thought. So
[52:27] you you perceive it without thought but
[52:29] you're fully conscious of course very
[52:32] conscious you perceive it without
[52:34] thought and then you remember it and
[52:37] says oh when I when I climbed this
[52:39] mountain that was another reason why you
[52:41] you're not thinking anymore because you
[52:42] had to concentrate so much on the
[52:44] present moment with one step after
[52:46] another and then you're climbing up this
[52:48] mountain wall and finally you arrive at
[52:49] the peak and it happens to you the
[52:51] moment of sunset and then you your mind
[52:53] is already become quite still because
[52:55] you had to focus on climbing up this
[52:58] dangerous mountain, it forced you to be
[53:00] present in every moment. So you forgot
[53:02] your problems, you forgot your
[53:04] personality, you forgot your person and
[53:06] there was only presence and then you
[53:08] stand on top of the mountain and you
[53:11] [gasps]
[53:11] and there's the vastness of the sky and
[53:13] the sun is going down and you go, "Wow."
[53:17] And then for many years later you say,
[53:20] "Well, that was so great. dealt with
[53:22] this. So, but you don't realize the
[53:25] magnificence of this moment. The the
[53:28] what really happened there was the
[53:31] sensation of thinking and the arising of
[53:35] awareness complete just complete
[53:37] presence. You as a person were not there
[53:40] in that moment. You as a person had
[53:43] subsided and what was there instead was
[53:46] an intense conscious presence. And that
[53:50] in that conscious presence is who you
[53:52] are essentially. That conscious presence
[53:55] is who every human being is essentially.
[53:59] That conscious presence is not
[54:01] ultimately yours. It is the presence of
[54:04] universal consciousness that pervades
[54:06] the entire universe and manifests
[54:08] temporarily as a fleeting human being.
[54:13] human beings. The way I interpret this
[54:15] term is for a long time I thought isn't
[54:18] it sad that the English language doesn't
[54:20] have a word that means both man and
[54:22] woman as for example in in German you
[54:25] have mench which is means human being
[54:28] but is one word but here in English you
[54:31] have to say human being but now I I'm
[54:33] very happy that in English you have to
[54:35] use human being because I chose the two
[54:37] dimensions of who you are the human is
[54:40] you as the physical body and the person
[54:43] or the personality.
[54:45] The being is who you are essentially
[54:49] underneath that as you are consciousness
[54:53] and you are consciousness the
[54:54] consciousness of the universe
[54:56] experiencing itself it experiencing
[54:59] itself briefly because human life is
[55:02] brief experience itself briefly as
[55:07] Mr. and Mrs. or whoever so and so
[55:10] whatever you experience so to [laughter]
[55:17] the freedom to to realize who you are
[55:20] beyond the person and you can still
[55:22] operate as the person because you need
[55:24] that kind of thing to operate in this
[55:26] world because when they ask you
[55:31] what's your name
[55:33] and what are your qualifications
[55:36] it's Not enough to say
[55:39] my name is illusory.
[55:43] Don't ask me about it. I'm I am
[55:47] conscious presence.
[55:51] And if if I had to fill in a uh an
[55:56] application form for a job, I don't have
[55:59] many things qualifications. So I don't
[56:02] but if it asked what is your main
[56:03] qualification I would have to say
[56:07] I'm I'm able to not think
[56:13] which is true it's my main qualification
[56:17] but it wouldn't get me a job probably
[56:20] unless it's a meditation teacher.
[56:24] So you need to be able to operate in
[56:26] this world but not be trapped on that
[56:29] level so that you have access to the
[56:32] other.
[56:33] And so life continues to challenge you
[56:37] and uh that will only
[56:42] accelerate your awakening.
[56:45] Let's ask some questions now. Um in case
[56:48] uh the conceptual mind still is a little
[56:51] bit active
[56:54] I think uh we have a few people have
[56:56] already sent in a few questions
[57:01] the uh
[57:03] this is really what we're talking about
[57:05] is the essence of all spirituality and
[57:08] when you can look at Christian true
[57:10] Christian spirituality or mysticism you
[57:12] can look at Sufism you can look at
[57:15] Buddhism you can Hinduism
[57:18] all all of them are uh
[57:22] point to this.
[57:24] >> Hi,
[57:26] >> thank you so much for that. Um we asked
[57:29] some students to send us questions ahead
[57:31] of time um via social media and so I'll
[57:35] just start.
[57:37] >> Yeah. Um, John C asks, "With so much
[57:41] divisiveness and trauma in the world,
[57:44] how can we maintain a sense of peace and
[57:46] also work towards transformation?"
[57:50] >> Right?
[57:52] Well, the main thing of course is
[57:56] not to become part of the divisiveness
[57:59] so that you don't contribute to it. And
[58:02] that requires you to be nonreactive.
[58:06] that requires you to see the
[58:08] divisiveness for what it is. It's
[58:12] produced by human beings who are not
[58:16] evil or dreadful, but the human beings
[58:20] who don't know who they are.
[58:23] So they need the divisiveness because
[58:26] the egoic sense of self
[58:30] thrives
[58:32] on
[58:34] having
[58:36] enemies.
[58:38] It defines its own identity as per by by
[58:44] uh emphasizing the otherness of others.
[58:49] Whether the other is one single person
[58:52] or whether the other is a group of
[58:54] people, the ego loves to emphasize the
[58:58] fact that these are totally other. It
[59:01] doesn't want it. The ego does not love
[59:04] the sense of oneness because it would
[59:08] dissolve in the oneness. It loves to
[59:11] emphasize the otherness. Now that means
[59:13] it needs enemies. [laughter]
[59:16] Now that applies to in part of politics
[59:20] and even religion when religion is an
[59:23] ideology because religions are in part
[59:26] ideology. Although there is a deeper
[59:30] truth hiding hiding somewhere in every
[59:34] religion but on the surface many
[59:38] religions are actually used by the egoic
[59:41] mind to strengthen itself and then to
[59:44] fight the other. As you can see in many
[59:46] religions they're fighting not not only
[59:48] other religions they're fighting within
[59:50] their own religion. They're fighting the
[59:52] other.
[59:53] If they didn't have the other, their
[59:56] sense of identity would suddenly
[1:00:00] collapse. Then they need the other. So
[1:00:02] the divisiveness is an unconscious e ego
[1:00:06] device that nowadays unfortunately
[1:00:09] because of the the way in which
[1:00:11] technology has given us has given every
[1:00:15] human the opportunity to uh put out all
[1:00:19] their their mental um chaos out into the
[1:00:24] world. And uh before all a human being
[1:00:28] could be he could he or she could stand
[1:00:30] at the street corner and shout
[1:00:32] something.
[1:00:33] But now you or they could they could
[1:00:36] maybe make photo copies and and stick
[1:00:40] things on trees or whatever they used to
[1:00:43] do and you can't reach many people that
[1:00:46] way. But nowadays, no matter how weird
[1:00:49] or your ideas are, you are on your
[1:00:52] computer and you tweet out into the
[1:00:56] world and then many others will suddenly
[1:00:58] react
[1:01:01] but you feel great because these people
[1:01:03] are reacting and so you feel you're
[1:01:05] suddenly your sense of identity is
[1:01:08] growing.
[1:01:09] uh so the divisiveness is created by
[1:01:12] humans who don't know who they are and I
[1:01:15] think I believe you can see what what I
[1:01:18] mean by that who have no not yet had
[1:01:21] access to the deeper dimension within
[1:01:25] themselves. So they are trapped in in on
[1:01:29] the realm of the conceptual mind and
[1:01:32] they create their enemies.
[1:01:34] Many even conflict between nations,
[1:01:37] conflict within nations is ultimately
[1:01:40] produced by that that unconsciousness in
[1:01:44] humans. So for for for you your
[1:01:48] responsibility is not to contribute more
[1:01:51] to it but you have that requires a
[1:01:54] certain alertness because it's very easy
[1:01:56] to get upset by things that you read on
[1:02:00] your device
[1:02:02] and then you go
[1:02:06] and then you wait for that reaction and
[1:02:08] then you and you don't even know that
[1:02:10] you're talking to a human being because
[1:02:12] you've never met these people with whom
[1:02:14] you have a violent argument. You've
[1:02:17] never even met them and they to you can
[1:02:21] see it's totally operates totally in the
[1:02:24] realm of concept. this human being and
[1:02:26] you haven't you probably wouldn't even
[1:02:29] though you might be unconscious. You w
[1:02:31] would wouldn't say this to this human
[1:02:33] being if you actually were
[1:02:36] confronting them. But since the human
[1:02:38] being has been even more reduced than
[1:02:42] into to just a string of letters on a
[1:02:45] screen
[1:02:47] and then you attack the human being that
[1:02:49] sent out this string of letters and
[1:02:53] completely insane the whole thing. But
[1:02:58] so you have to don't get trapped in
[1:03:01] that. You have to it requires a certain
[1:03:03] alertness not to get drawn into that.
[1:03:06] Make sure that your communications
[1:03:08] are relatively conscious when you when
[1:03:12] you send out communication whatever you
[1:03:15] Facebook tweet don't create an don't
[1:03:18] create
[1:03:20] a pseudo identity for yourself on
[1:03:23] Facebook as many people do. Look how
[1:03:25] great my life is. That's another just a
[1:03:28] conceptual picture that you send out
[1:03:30] into the world. That's completely wrong
[1:03:34] as you probably know but everybody many
[1:03:38] young people and others do it. Here I am
[1:03:41] in eating this wonderful meal
[1:03:45] [laughter]
[1:03:50] and then of course that will strengthen
[1:03:52] your delusory delusion that the world is
[1:03:56] here to make me happy but it's making
[1:03:58] everybody happy except me.
[1:04:00] And then you also have to pretend that
[1:04:02] you're happy.
[1:04:10] That I think is the end of the night.
[1:04:12] That was [laughter] great. Um
[1:04:13] [snorts and clears throat]
[1:04:14] so uh one Justin Y asks, "How do we
[1:04:18] manage loving a person and feelings of
[1:04:21] attachment? It feels that it makes it
[1:04:23] hard to be in the pres. It feels like
[1:04:24] that makes it hard to be in the present
[1:04:26] moment."
[1:04:26] >> Okay.
[1:04:28] Well, um if you are experiencing the uh
[1:04:37] the temporary stage of intense
[1:04:41] attraction,
[1:04:43] uh that is sometimes called falling in
[1:04:46] love.
[1:04:48] If there's not much you can do because
[1:04:50] that's like a drug and it has you in its
[1:04:54] grasp and it gets a hold of you and it's
[1:04:58] like a some addictive
[1:05:01] pull you and you can't let go of it and
[1:05:04] you call it love. But of course it's not
[1:05:06] love because you know it's not love by
[1:05:09] the simple fact that it can at the flick
[1:05:12] of a switch turn into its opposite. Just
[1:05:15] if the other person says to you, okay,
[1:05:18] um, I've decided to be be with someone
[1:05:22] else.
[1:05:28] So, was that love? If suddenly from one
[1:05:31] minute to the next you go
[1:05:34] no there was an intense neediness and
[1:05:39] there was a all you can I can recommend
[1:05:42] if during that time period and it
[1:05:45] usually doesn't last that long
[1:05:48] uh if you can be a little bit aware you
[1:05:51] have this awareness in the background
[1:05:53] that this is happening to you have some
[1:05:56] awareness in the background there's not
[1:05:58] much you can do about it compuls
[1:06:00] responsively. You you you sent out your
[1:06:03] text messages. Did you get my last
[1:06:06] message?
[1:06:08] You haven't replied. You've been waiting
[1:06:10] for 2 minutes already.
[1:06:13] [laughter]
[1:06:14] And if you can have a little bit of
[1:06:16] awareness in the background, okay, I can
[1:06:18] feel this compulsion.
[1:06:22] It's a it's it's like being possessed. I
[1:06:25] can feel it.
[1:06:27] and then you send another text.
[1:06:31] Uh have a little bit of awareness in the
[1:06:33] background and especially be aware when
[1:06:36] it comes to an end or something shifts.
[1:06:38] It's no longer the intense infatuation.
[1:06:41] It turns into something else hopefully
[1:06:44] or it ends. And so watch yourself I if
[1:06:51] you can rather than being completely
[1:06:54] taken over. So what's happening to you
[1:06:56] is uh that intense attraction that is uh
[1:07:02] almost inevitable perhaps when you're
[1:07:04] young
[1:07:06] uh and less likely to happen uh when you
[1:07:10] are my age
[1:07:16] [laughter]
[1:07:17] >> or mine.
[1:07:18] >> I have a good time.
[1:07:20] >> That's great.
[1:07:22] >> [laughter]
[1:07:23] >> Um, well, speaking of technology,
[1:07:26] Natalie Natalia rather asks, "How do I
[1:07:29] find a balance with staying connected
[1:07:32] through technology and not feeling like
[1:07:34] I'm overdoing it? How do I know if I am
[1:07:37] online too much?"
[1:07:38] >> Right.
[1:07:42] Well, if you if you fill every moment
[1:07:46] uh when you're not doing something else
[1:07:49] like work or study or making
[1:07:54] prep preparing a meal or whatever, if
[1:07:57] you feel every moment when you're
[1:07:59] waiting at the elevator,
[1:08:01] waiting for the bus, sitting in your
[1:08:04] room, sitting in a cafe,
[1:08:07] um waiting for a to meet a person,
[1:08:11] um sitting on a bench in a park. When
[1:08:16] you fill every moment with a divi
[1:08:19] looking at a device, then you're
[1:08:21] overdoing it. When there's almost never
[1:08:25] a moment in your life when you're just
[1:08:31] that not and you would be surprised how
[1:08:33] there are many many people in this world
[1:08:37] nowadays who no longer experience
[1:08:42] neither at home nor outside home. They
[1:08:46] no longer experience
[1:08:49] these moments of just
[1:08:51] just being not even for 30 seconds
[1:08:55] when
[1:08:58] looking around. This is an incredible
[1:08:59] loss. Not being able to just look around
[1:09:03] being
[1:09:05] no immediately automatically
[1:09:10] they reach for the device
[1:09:15] only hardly aware of their surroundings
[1:09:17] and engage in all that is conceptual.
[1:09:21] It's again the the things I described
[1:09:25] the conceptual mind
[1:09:28] uh the devices that we have invented
[1:09:33] are a an amplification of the conceptual
[1:09:36] mind. They amplify what has already been
[1:09:39] there for thousands of years. But now
[1:09:43] you have in the external realm
[1:09:46] the technology has enabled you to
[1:09:50] amplify
[1:09:52] the stream of
[1:09:55] thoughts and concepts that constantly go
[1:09:57] through your mind through the devices.
[1:10:01] In other words,
[1:10:04] uh minds were cluttered before. Minds
[1:10:07] the people who can never stop thinking
[1:10:08] have a cluttered mind. If there's not a
[1:10:11] moment when you can say [sighs] ah and
[1:10:15] there's a moment of sensation of thought
[1:10:17] but aware presence ah
[1:10:23] and when there's no longer a moment of
[1:10:25] that
[1:10:26] that means there's not there's no space
[1:10:28] in you there's only clutter
[1:10:31] and life becomes unpleasant when there's
[1:10:34] only you can feel it energetically that
[1:10:37] when your your mind is cluttered uh life
[1:10:41] is is no longer joyous. It's no longer
[1:10:44] re really enjoyable. It's addictive.
[1:10:48] One of the I've been saying even before
[1:10:51] these things were invented I already
[1:10:53] said
[1:10:54] probably the greatest addiction there
[1:10:56] are many kinds of addictions in this
[1:10:58] world but probably the greatest
[1:11:00] addiction is the addiction to useless
[1:11:03] thinking
[1:11:05] that you cannot stop thinking and you
[1:11:07] don't want to stop thinking because you
[1:11:09] are the thinking. You are the thinker
[1:11:12] and the thinker doesn't want to stop
[1:11:14] thinking because if the thinker stopped
[1:11:16] thinking it would be the end of the
[1:11:17] thinker and you think you are the
[1:11:20] thinker. So you don't want to you don't
[1:11:22] want to die. So you can't stop thinking
[1:11:26] [clears throat]
[1:11:26] and that's and if you can't stop
[1:11:28] thinking
[1:11:30] your mind is cluttered and [snorts] now
[1:11:32] it's even more cluttered because you're
[1:11:34] not only thinking your own thoughts than
[1:11:36] other people's thoughts you take them on
[1:11:38] too because there's a continuous inflow
[1:11:42] of text messages and
[1:11:45] Facebook posts and emails and whatever
[1:11:48] else is there Instagram Snapchat
[1:11:52] um I'm not familiar with world but I'm I
[1:11:55] know of it. Um there is Tinder
[1:12:03] and you go you clutter your mind with
[1:12:06] the possibilities of relationships.
[1:12:11] I don't know what the left or right is
[1:12:13] but it's
[1:12:17] and there's an addiction behind that.
[1:12:20] And of course, when you are in a
[1:12:21] relationship, you have, let's say,
[1:12:23] you're meeting for the first or second
[1:12:24] time of a dinner. Um, the mind is
[1:12:28] already going, hm, maybe that wasn't the
[1:12:30] right person. Let's get out the device,
[1:12:34] pretend that it's a text message, but
[1:12:36] look at Tinder again while you're
[1:12:41] so clutter. So, you have to be really
[1:12:45] notice the how addictive these things
[1:12:47] are. I don't know what effect now that
[1:12:51] we have a generation that's has been
[1:12:54] growing up with this since early
[1:12:56] childhood.
[1:12:58] uh short attentions, very short
[1:13:01] attention spans.
[1:13:03] um
[1:13:06] ADT um attention deficit disorder so
[1:13:11] called in the past it was just they
[1:13:14] called it oh he can't he he can't
[1:13:16] concentrate he can't concentrate now
[1:13:19] it's the attention deficit disorder and
[1:13:22] we must medicate that of course
[1:13:26] uh all that arises from continuous
[1:13:29] interaction with these devices for
[1:13:31] children
[1:13:33] ex you cannot
[1:13:36] tell the child not to interact I'm sure
[1:13:38] but you can reduce the amount of time
[1:13:41] they spend with these
[1:13:43] it's so vital for a child to not at too
[1:13:47] early an age to engage continuously the
[1:13:51] conceptual mind so that the child
[1:13:53] remains in touch with the tactile
[1:13:56] reality and the sensory reality of the
[1:13:59] world especially nature uh a a child
[1:14:03] must remain in touch with nature and
[1:14:05] they don't not in nature if they are
[1:14:07] continuously on their iPad or whatever
[1:14:10] it is. Uh so it's vital for the parent
[1:14:13] to to direct the child to nature to take
[1:14:16] the child out into nature, encourage the
[1:14:19] child to interact with nature in some
[1:14:22] kind of activity
[1:14:24] uh to feel nature to smell, to sense all
[1:14:28] terribly important. And if only even
[1:14:31] having an animal at home and relating to
[1:14:33] the animal is a is a liberating thing
[1:14:36] because there's something there's a
[1:14:38] there's a living being there rather than
[1:14:40] the abstract world of the screen.
[1:14:44] So everybody needs to exercise caution
[1:14:47] and some restraint. Um, and you see the
[1:14:52] qualitative difference between having a
[1:14:54] moment of not engaging with any of these
[1:14:57] devices and just coming into presence.
[1:15:02] Ah, so good.
[1:15:05] Feel so much more alive
[1:15:08] and and encounter a moment of stillness.
[1:15:12] Take a conscious breath or two or three
[1:15:17] and bring in spaces, inner spaces or or
[1:15:22] realize that there is space in you. So
[1:15:25] that the worst thing is to have a
[1:15:27] totally cluttered mind and nothing else
[1:15:30] just it's a terrible fate and you become
[1:15:32] really unhappy. All people who have a
[1:15:35] cluttered mind are basically they may
[1:15:37] not be aware of it at this very moment.
[1:15:41] And at this very moment they might even
[1:15:43] be ecstatically happy because something
[1:15:45] has just happened that they they've got
[1:15:47] what they wanted and then very quickly
[1:15:50] turns into unhappiness again. And then
[1:15:52] you see people that are
[1:15:55] they're they're never really there with
[1:15:57] you when you can you can look into their
[1:15:59] eyes and there's an absence there
[1:16:01] because all their consciousness is
[1:16:03] absorbed continuously by think by
[1:16:06] conceptual thinking. So they they're
[1:16:09] looking at you but they're not really
[1:16:10] looking at you. is they immediately
[1:16:12] either they're thinking about something
[1:16:14] totally different or they have certain
[1:16:17] opinions about you and mistake their
[1:16:19] opinions about you for who you are. And
[1:16:22] so that's the continuous judgment of
[1:16:24] others which egos do. And so they look
[1:16:28] at you and you
[1:16:32] or you see them walking along the street
[1:16:34] and completely absorbed continuously in
[1:16:37] every ounce of their consciousness so to
[1:16:40] speak is absorbed by thought.
[1:16:46] Just enough awareness of sensory
[1:16:48] perception not to bump into things and
[1:16:51] that's all. but otherwise completely
[1:16:53] unaware of their surroundings, unaware
[1:16:56] of other inability to connect with other
[1:16:58] human beings. Because if you only
[1:17:00] inhabit the conceptual realm and you try
[1:17:03] to interact with another human being,
[1:17:06] then very quickly
[1:17:09] conflict arises in the relationship.
[1:17:11] It's inevitable.
[1:17:14] Uh and that is how many relationships
[1:17:17] fail very quickly because you they don't
[1:17:20] if people don't know who they are to use
[1:17:22] that phrase then relationships cannot
[1:17:27] thrive. You need to have some access at
[1:17:30] least to the deeper dimension of you,
[1:17:34] the the the essence of you so that you
[1:17:37] can relate to the essence of the other
[1:17:40] and then then you can tolerate
[1:17:42] their personality a bit more.
[1:17:47] Uh if in [clears throat] some extreme
[1:17:49] cases perhaps you can't and then you
[1:17:51] just remove yourself. But it is very
[1:17:54] hard to tolerate the personalities of
[1:17:57] other people if you have no access
[1:18:00] to the deeper dimension within yourself
[1:18:03] and they can't tolerate yours of course.
[1:18:06] So because all you have is two
[1:18:07] personalities, two conceptual
[1:18:10] selves trying to make it and usually
[1:18:14] they don't.
[1:18:18] Sadly that's true. Um, so [snorts] we'll
[1:18:21] end with this question. Um, since we're
[1:18:24] running out of time sadly. Um, so Matali
[1:18:29] asks, "What inspired you to choose this
[1:18:31] path? Did someone inspire you or did an
[1:18:34] event lead you to this path? Since this
[1:18:36] isn't a traditional career that one
[1:18:39] dreams of while growing up necessarily,
[1:18:41] what made you choose this line of work?
[1:18:44] And what would what advice would you
[1:18:45] give to somebody who wants to be a
[1:18:48] global spiritual leader?
[1:18:51] I thought that was cute.
[1:18:54] >> Good career choice.
[1:18:58] [laughter] The the world needs you. But
[1:19:06] [clears throat]
[1:19:08] well, I remember what um when they asked
[1:19:11] the
[1:19:13] uh founder of psychoanalysis, Ziggman
[1:19:16] Freud, what does a person how does a
[1:19:19] person become a good psychoanalyst?
[1:19:21] And he said, well, the person needs to
[1:19:23] have analyzed their own dreams.
[1:19:27] uh
[1:19:29] really uh this is um something that you
[1:19:33] need to live. It cannot be something
[1:19:35] external to you. It is not you cannot
[1:19:39] become a spiritual teacher by acquiring
[1:19:43] uh knowledge. Knowledge may may be
[1:19:46] helpful at some point. Reading books and
[1:19:49] going to workshops. Knowledge can be
[1:19:52] helpful. Techniques can be helpful. But
[1:19:55] ultimately you have to
[1:19:58] have realized
[1:20:00] who you are so that you're no longer
[1:20:03] trapped in the egoic sense of self. And
[1:20:06] that is the main qualification for being
[1:20:08] a spiritual teacher. Know yourself. Know
[1:20:12] who you are. And when you're no longer
[1:20:15] trapped in the egoic sense of self, you
[1:20:17] are connected with that. Then then you
[1:20:22] uh you will realize that you as the
[1:20:26] person can never be a spiritual teacher.
[1:20:30] uh you as a person would never be ready
[1:20:33] and would not be I mean there are people
[1:20:35] who do spiritual teaching but they're
[1:20:39] just conveying techniques and then they
[1:20:41] may have do some good also but a true
[1:20:46] real spiritual teacher realizes that you
[1:20:50] it is not you as the person who can
[1:20:52] become a spiritual teacher but if you
[1:20:55] the person gets out of the way and how
[1:20:59] you get out of the way depends. Do you
[1:21:02] get out of the way by going to a Zen
[1:21:04] monastery for 10 years and practice
[1:21:07] meditation for 6 hours a day maybe? Or
[1:21:11] you get out of the way because life has
[1:21:14] given you so many extreme challenges
[1:21:17] that you couldn't stand it anymore and
[1:21:19] your entire egoic structure dissolved
[1:21:22] and that way you got out of the way. So
[1:21:25] life just did it to you. That's that's
[1:21:27] probably the best. Uh
[1:21:31] and so
[1:21:33] it's not you you cannot be a spiritual
[1:21:36] teacher but if you get out of the way
[1:21:39] then spiritual teaching can happen
[1:21:41] through you. Um so it's uh if I had been
[1:21:47] told when I was in my 20ies
[1:21:50] you will become in the eyes of the world
[1:21:52] a great spiritual teacher I would have
[1:21:56] said wow that's great I I'm going to
[1:21:59] make it I will make it. [laughter]
[1:22:02] So if a if a psychic had told me that um
[1:22:06] I would have probably react in that way.
[1:22:09] But if the psychic had been a good
[1:22:11] psychic he or she would have added but
[1:22:16] you have to die first
[1:22:18] and that would have been a blow to my
[1:22:20] ego. What
[1:22:23] die not not physically but die to a
[1:22:26] false sense of self. die to a false
[1:22:29] sense of self that needs to die first.
[1:22:33] Then it's almost inevitable that you
[1:22:36] become a spiritual teacher. And even if
[1:22:38] you don't become a formal spiritual
[1:22:40] teacher, whatever situation you are in,
[1:22:45] you change people around you just by
[1:22:49] this by by interacting with them. So the
[1:22:55] it's
[1:22:57] it's a wonderful career but um it's not
[1:23:00] something that the ego would ever be
[1:23:04] able to enjoy because uh it won't be
[1:23:07] there anymore.
[1:23:09] Now by the way some there people may
[1:23:12] wonder
[1:23:13] could one operate without ego. I need to
[1:23:16] just remind you again what I mean when I
[1:23:18] say ego.
[1:23:20] Ego is
[1:23:23] I have these two expressions. You exist
[1:23:26] as you may remember you exist as a human
[1:23:28] being. The human is your form identity.
[1:23:32] Form means physical form and
[1:23:35] psychological form. Who you are as in
[1:23:38] the the conditioned mind, the emotions
[1:23:40] and your physical form. You that's the
[1:23:43] human that's your form identity. And
[1:23:45] then there's your essence identity. Your
[1:23:48] essence identity is consciousness. Your
[1:23:51] essence identity is who you are on the
[1:23:55] deeper level. I sometimes call that the
[1:23:58] deep eye as opposed to the surface I. I
[1:24:02] pronoun I. When you say I, usually you
[1:24:06] refer to your personality, your your
[1:24:10] story, your your so-called life. But but
[1:24:14] there's a deeper eye. And that deeper
[1:24:17] eye, the deep eye is the is who you are
[1:24:21] as essence. And that is what when that
[1:24:26] emerges and then it can use your mind
[1:24:31] and operate through it and then that's
[1:24:34] the spiritual teaching that happens.
[1:24:38] Uh so it really is
[1:24:42] you have you cannot make it happen if
[1:24:45] you
[1:24:47] ask the universe please
[1:24:50] the universe when I say universe I mean
[1:24:52] the the one universal intelligence that
[1:24:56] pervades the entire universe that is an
[1:24:59] emanation of the one which is totally
[1:25:02] beyond anything we could talk about
[1:25:04] there's the one and there's that which
[1:25:07] emanates ates from the one and if you
[1:25:11] ask that universal intelligence which in
[1:25:14] traditionally you would call God.
[1:25:17] Uh please give me the experiences I need
[1:25:22] for me to become a spiritual teacher and
[1:25:28] to change this world for the better and
[1:25:31] make the life of you diminish the
[1:25:34] suffering in this world. Please give me
[1:25:36] the experiences I need in order to
[1:25:39] become that.
[1:25:41] Ask the universe that. And then
[1:25:46] don't complain when you get them.
[1:25:49] [laughter]
[1:25:52] [applause]
[1:25:59] Thank you so much for being with us here
[1:26:01] tonight. We appreciate it. [applause]
