Transcript
[0:00] The suffering deepens you. It it it
[0:04] provides it forces you to
[0:08] be become aware of that part of you that
[0:13] is the cause of suffering that operates
[0:16] in you.
[0:21] The real inner peace and this is sounds
[0:24] almost paradoxical.
[0:27] The real inner peace comes not be
[0:31] because of something but in spite of
[0:34] something.
[0:36] When things get difficult,
[0:40] things go wrong so to speak, adversity
[0:43] happens,
[0:46] suffering arises,
[0:49] things collapse externally, loss.
[0:53] There's a chance at first of all it
[0:55] looks like this is something that
[0:57] prevents you from finding peace. So
[1:00] those situations
[1:02] that seem undesirable
[1:06] that's pro probably what every one of
[1:08] you found when you first arrived here.
[1:12] How can I be
[1:14] at peace here?
[1:16] Free of unhappiness. It's another way of
[1:19] putting it. Can you be free of
[1:21] unhappiness in a situation that would
[1:24] normally be seen as challenging and is
[1:28] challenging? So a superficial kind of
[1:30] peace comes when everything is going
[1:32] fine in your life. Everything is going
[1:35] fine in you put your relationships, you
[1:37] have a nice job, you're healthy. Uh then
[1:42] you good enough money you feel I'm fine.
[1:47] Uh
[1:48] or you can go to a resort in spa and be
[1:52] pampered and then even meditate and you
[1:56] meditate and you feel you're becoming
[1:58] enlightened because you're becoming so
[2:00] peaceful in this wonderful environment.
[2:02] You're being looked after the most
[2:05] delicious foods. Uh maybe you're on Bali
[2:09] or Hawaii in this fantastic resort and
[2:12] then you feel I'm becoming enlightened.
[2:14] I'm so peaceful.
[2:16] But it doesn't last. Then you go back
[2:18] into your normal life and very soon it
[2:20] collapses because it's like a like a
[2:22] flower that grows in a protective
[2:24] environment greenhouse. It sprouts very
[2:29] quickly and it grows very quickly but it
[2:32] has no resistance against the adversity.
[2:36] It can't cannot tolerate adversity. So
[2:38] if you take this flower or this plant
[2:40] outside,
[2:42] it will quickly uh wither and collapse.
[2:46] So the true peace comes when you're
[2:47] being challenged. When you're being
[2:49] challenged, you need to generate inner
[2:52] resources.
[2:54] The inner resources don't come when the
[2:56] challenge isn't there. So what we call
[2:58] challenge, we could also be called
[2:59] difficulty or obstacle whatever it may
[3:03] be big and small.
[3:05] Without challenges, human humanity,
[3:09] human consciousness would not not evolve
[3:12] at all.
[3:14] If I had not been challenged, I wouldn't
[3:16] be sitting here. If I had not gone
[3:19] through periods of deep unhappiness and
[3:22] depression,
[3:24] I would not be if I had had a happy
[3:26] childhood, which I didn't.
[3:28] So, my childhood was I know some of you
[3:31] had a I'm sure worse childhood than I
[3:35] did, but it was not a happy one. There
[3:38] was continuous conflict. my parents and
[3:40] then they broke up and then my mother
[3:42] had zero money or couldn't survive. It
[3:45] was a quite difficult and so my life got
[3:49] completely disrupted as an early at an
[3:51] early stage. I left school at 14 and a
[3:53] half. I could just couldn't go to school
[3:56] anymore. Uh and uh
[4:00] so everybody thought his life has come
[4:02] to an end. he's not going to graduate
[4:04] from he's not going to finish high
[4:06] school and so on and so and then my life
[4:09] developed in very strange unusual ways
[4:12] and I later realized if I had had a a
[4:15] more pleasant upbringing w with parents
[4:19] who were not they meant well but they
[4:22] couldn't help it they were
[4:23] [clears throat] they were run by their
[4:24] ego so they they didn't have much choice
[4:28] when a person is run by their e egoic
[4:30] conditioning they act out their
[4:32] conditioning. They got conditioned in
[4:34] their childhood and then they act out
[4:36] their conditioning. So for a while I
[4:39] blamed my parents but then I realized as
[4:41] I went through later spiritual awakening
[4:44] I couldn't blame the then they couldn't
[4:46] help it because there was not enough
[4:48] awareness in them to to counteract the
[4:52] negative conditioning that they were
[4:54] brought up with. So then when I realized
[4:57] that I was able to forgive them because
[5:00] I realized there was actually eventually
[5:03] really nothing to forgive. They couldn't
[5:06] they couldn't help it. They were uh
[5:08] spiritually speaking unconscious. When I
[5:12] use the term unconscious
[5:14] I don't use it in a conventional sense.
[5:16] In a conventional sense unconscious
[5:18] means you're out of completely this
[5:21] you're unconscious. But spiritually
[5:22] speaking, when you're unconscious,
[5:25] you're completely identified with the
[5:28] mental emotional conditioning that you
[5:31] grew up with. You're completely it has
[5:33] you in its grasp and and there's no
[5:36] awareness in the background. The
[5:39] awareness is asleep. The consciousness
[5:42] is asleep.
[5:44] Basically, you can say you are asleep.
[5:47] You are then spiritually speaking, you
[5:50] are unconscious.
[5:52] What is running your life is the
[5:54] conditioning that you inherited. And
[5:57] this conditioning,
[5:58] mental, emotional conditioning that
[6:01] becomes the person, the personality.
[6:06] And you have not realized the deeper
[6:09] essence of who or what you are. And that
[6:11] is there in every human. But in many
[6:14] humans, it's dormant. It's only a
[6:17] potential dormant. It's kind of asleep.
[6:21] The it's like a seed that hasn't
[6:23] sprouted yet that lies in every human
[6:25] being. The seed of awakening of a
[6:29] greater consciousness of realize
[6:32] realizing who or what you are in your
[6:34] essence. I call it your essence identity
[6:38] that the spiritual awakening is a
[6:41] discovery of your essence identity that
[6:44] is deeper. You could also say higher. I
[6:47] usually put it deeper deeper than the
[6:50] person or the personality.
[6:52] So the personality of course
[6:55] that there's always on that level you
[6:59] even but as you awaken the personality
[7:02] is still there but but you're not
[7:05] totally controlled by that conditioning
[7:07] anymore. Gradually something else arises
[7:11] that that that begins for many people
[7:14] when they become aware of what their
[7:17] mind is doing. They become aware of an
[7:19] emotion that arises rather than
[7:22] completely being the emotion being taken
[7:25] over by the emotion. And there may be
[7:27] some of you that
[7:30] uh something happened at some point in
[7:32] your life when an emotion
[7:36] took you over completely and then the
[7:39] emotion acted through you. The awareness
[7:42] was asleep and then you you did
[7:45] something this the conditioned entity
[7:48] did something
[7:50] that later you realized that was awful.
[7:53] How could I have done that? But what
[7:55] what is that I [snorts] when you say I
[7:59] are you actually referring to this
[8:02] conditioned entity this conditioned
[8:04] person that it is not the deep the
[8:08] deeper eye or the more real eye that was
[8:11] dormant in you and and that's an amazing
[8:15] realization that there is such a thing
[8:18] as this deeper eye and I know that many
[8:21] of you here
[8:23] even though you may not
[8:26] use that terminology that I'm using
[8:28] here. I know that many of you are
[8:32] already
[8:33] awakening to to that deeper dimension
[8:36] within you. And why are you awakening?
[8:39] Because
[8:41] you are experiencing
[8:43] a huge challenge in your life. A huge
[8:46] challenge that provides the pressure.
[8:48] There's more awakening here. I'm sure of
[8:51] that than let's say uh Beverly Hills
[8:56] Resort and Spa.
[8:59] There's more and I'm absolutely because
[9:02] I've seen places like that if I don't
[9:04] know if that exists. It's a fictitious
[9:07] name. I'm giving the Beverly Hills
[9:09] Resort in Spa. There's not a lot of
[9:12] spirits. There could be some because
[9:14] some of those people may also be they
[9:17] may be wealthy and have freedom but they
[9:20] may be challenged by something else. Uh
[9:24] health challenge or a challenge
[9:26] relationship challenge
[9:29] I mean Beverly Hills is full of unhappy
[9:32] people too. So but that's another story.
[9:36] I talked about my childhood and of
[9:38] course later on I gratitude arose for
[9:43] what went wrong in my childhood.
[9:47] the I reached a point where I realized
[9:51] if if my life had not gone wrong in
[9:55] conventional terms, if my life had not
[9:58] gone wrong at that early stage of my
[10:02] life, my life, yes, it would have uh
[10:06] unfolded in a more more easier way.
[10:10] Perhaps I would have graduated,
[10:12] would have found perhaps a nice job.
[10:17] will make a good living,
[10:20] maybe have a family,
[10:23] but um
[10:27] I would not have been able to do do to
[10:30] contribute to the world what I'm able to
[10:34] contribute now. I would be just an
[10:36] ordinary person. He's doing okay.
[10:39] [laughter]
[10:39] And I would be sitting there
[10:43] having a beer and watching Netflix and
[10:46] Uh
[10:49] I mean by now I would already be retired
[10:51] for 10 years because I I reached
[10:54] retirement age 10 years ago. So I would
[10:56] be sitting there maybe in maybe I would
[10:59] would be at that golf club somewhere
[11:00] playing golf.
[11:02] >> Okay, there's nothing wrong with golf.
[11:03] It can take you into the present moment
[11:05] too. But
[11:08] >> some that was not my purpose.
[11:12] You reach a point where you become
[11:15] grateful for the suffering that has that
[11:18] has taken you here because you would the
[11:21] suffering deepens you. It it it provides
[11:25] it forces you to
[11:28] be become aware of that part of you that
[11:33] is the cause of suffering that operates
[11:36] in you. And that is I call it sometimes
[11:39] the the surface I because everybody says
[11:43] I but usually when they say I they refer
[11:47] to this conditioned entity the the sum
[11:49] total of their conditioning is the
[11:52] person. So this eye that when pe people
[11:55] refer to when they say I it's the the
[11:58] person this conditioned person
[12:01] and this can be a painful identity for
[12:05] people. If this conditioned person went
[12:08] wrong somewhere seriously wrong or did
[12:11] something seriously wrong, it can be
[12:14] this identity with a conditioned eye,
[12:17] the surface eye can turn into a painful
[12:21] identity. So that you carry with you a
[12:25] sense of self or an identity that you
[12:28] feel is there's a heaviness in there and
[12:31] you carry this past. I don't know from
[12:34] talking to one or two people he here and
[12:38] the other day in a man's prison oh by
[12:41] the way you are lucky to be a woman to
[12:43] be here.
[12:45] My god, [laughter]
[12:51] if I ever get convicted
[12:54] which uh [laughter]
[12:56] I will access my feminine side
[12:59] [laughter]
[13:01] and I will identify as a woman. You
[13:03] can't do that these days. [laughter]
[13:07] And I will come here.
[13:18] So we have the the surface eye this
[13:23] entity and then your identity can become
[13:27] all many many people in this world car
[13:31] car carry a fairly painful sense of
[13:34] identity.
[13:36] Not just you may have experienced that
[13:39] but the world is full of people who
[13:42] carry the burden of their their sense of
[13:45] self and then when you hear them speak
[13:47] they say well I never imagined my life
[13:51] would go like that when I was 20 I
[13:53] imagined something different at some
[13:56] point something went really wrong they
[13:58] carry the burden the burden of what they
[14:00] call my unsatisfying life where
[14:04] relationships collapsed and then I did
[14:06] that and then people did that to me and
[14:09] then you they complain continuously in
[14:11] their minds out aloud or in their minds
[14:14] about what life did to them. They carry
[14:17] a burden a burden of the self.
[14:21] This is the fault ultimately a false
[14:25] self. The self is a spiritual term that
[14:28] is used in Buddhism. But um even Jesus
[14:33] talked about the self uh when he said
[14:37] interesting statement by Jesus deny
[14:41] thyself.
[14:43] That's an interesting what does he mean
[14:45] deny thyself.
[14:47] If the self is real
[14:50] doesn't make sense to deny it. So when
[14:53] he says deny thyself, the implication is
[14:58] that that self is not ultimately real.
[15:02] And that's exactly what the Buddha said
[15:04] also. The Buddha said you are trapped in
[15:10] an illusory sense of identity which is
[15:13] called the the self.
[15:15] And that self is a superficial self.
[15:18] Yes, it's it's there. You can't get rid
[15:21] of it completely as long as you're here
[15:24] in a physical body. But the question is,
[15:29] have you discovered
[15:31] within yourself something deeper and
[15:34] more real than this self, the
[15:37] superficial self? The whole teaching of
[15:40] the Buddha could be encapsulated in one
[15:43] quote or something that he supposed to
[15:45] have said to describe his teaching. He
[15:48] said, "I teach suffering and the end of
[15:51] suffering."
[15:52] That said the Buddha literally I believe
[15:55] that's a genuine quote. You never there
[15:58] are many scriptures you sometimes say
[16:00] did he really say that probably not. But
[16:03] here I feel he really said that I teach
[16:06] suffering and the end of suffering which
[16:09] means I show you how suffering arises
[16:13] and I show you how suffering can end.
[16:16] And the the Buddha shows your suffering
[16:19] arises. It suffering arises by complete
[16:23] identification with this the self, the
[16:26] false self, the conditioned entity, the
[16:29] person, the personality.
[16:31] How do you then how do you transcend
[16:35] that? How you how do you awaken to the
[16:38] deeper identity which I call the deep
[16:40] eye? These terms didn't come to me when
[16:44] I was writing the books. They came later
[16:46] when I was talk I gave a talk one day
[16:49] and suddenly I heard myself say the
[16:52] surface eye and the deep eye. I said oh
[16:55] that's interesting.
[16:57] A lot of things that are in in my books
[17:00] came originally from
[17:02] u sessions I had with people counseling
[17:05] sessions and I found myself saying
[17:07] things that I didn't know that I knew
[17:10] them
[17:12] they came from that deeper place and
[17:14] said wow and often I said [snorts] I
[17:17] said that that's so interesting where
[17:19] where did that come from it didn't come
[17:22] from the self it came from the deep eye
[17:25] and and that's a wonderful realization
[17:28] so that
[17:29] the the most important thing in a
[17:32] person's life
[17:33] no matter what happens uh in the more
[17:37] superficial dimension of life the most
[17:40] important event in your life is the
[17:44] awakening
[17:46] your awakening to this deep eye even if
[17:50] it first comes at a glimpse at first
[17:53] little glimpses at first glimpses This
[17:56] come for example when you give attention
[17:59] to the present moment just what you're
[18:01] doing in the present moment and take
[18:04] attention away from the past instead of
[18:06] dwelling on mentally and things in the
[18:09] past you take attention into the present
[18:11] moment.
