72 Hours

Everything you experience passes, changes. Only you remain, untouched by changing events. Join us to realize that insight, and transform the way you allow life to touch you and be touched by life. Add your own curiosity to the united consciousness that asks and answers and grows together, as one.

Transcript

How are you? Welcome again to this meeting on the white path where we allow ourselves to stop the ash, Take a breath, Reflect and remind ourselves what is most important to us and who we are truly and we are propelled by the tension that hides between the question and the answer. So the more sincere your question is, The more evolution potential it carries. So this is your opportunity to shine and to contribute by sharing your question, Lay it down. Your difficulty, Your doubt, Your challenges, Whatever you feel is still hanging there between you and an awakened consciousness. So who's going to be the first one to jump into the water today? Linda. My friend is near death and my heart is breaking. Yeah, It's so painful when loved ones are taken away from us, Isn't it? How do I find, Make it through the sadness? How do I make it through the sadness? Don't be afraid of sadness, That's my recommendation. Sadness is there for us to experience from time to time, Inevitable. Sadness is a part of life, Like happiness. Don't brand it as bad or something you should avoid or change for you to be fulfilled or content. If sadness is there, Then dive fully into it. It's not too much for you to experience. As deep as you go, You have the capacity to embrace it and experience it fully. Don't be afraid of your tears. That's the most humane way to experience sadness. Let them wash you from within. Allow yourselves to cry. It's painful when loved ones are taken away. But it's a part of life, Inevitable. We all experience it. Actually, If you zoom out and look at your life courageously, Everything you hold on to will be taken away from you. That's the truth. Everything you hold on to dearly, Try to protect in order to create some sense of stability, All of it will be taken away. Sooner or later. It's inevitable. Even your own body will be taken away from you. So what to do? You can try to fight that, Postpone the inevitability of it. But of course life will win, You will lose. If you put yourself in that position, It's a sure loss. The alternative way that I'm proposing here is embrace it. Embrace the sadness. Embrace the loss that sometimes occurs. And make yourself sensitive enough to experience the depth of it. Don't try to avoid it. Don't try to reject or to brand it as something that you need to run away from. It might destroy you. It's too much. It's not too much. It's never too much. And once you are truly open in that sense, You will also be available to experience the beauty of it. The grace that is also awaiting for you to be present enough to experience. Really? So know that I'm here with you in your pain, But don't brand it as something you should avoid at all. It's bad. It's not bad. It's inevitable. I'm sorry that Carly here is joining a bit later. I wasn't sure if she's coming or not, But here she is. Applause. Magda, Welcome. If it is your first time here, Don't be alarmed. We don't bite. Take some time to get into the groove. Bear with us. Regarding Linda's question, My thought was, What about in this moment before her friend has died? You talked about feeling the sadness and the grief after the loss. What about now? Appreciate. Appreciate what you have. Life gives you lemons and oranges. Appreciate that. Both are needed. If you have time now to spend with your friend, Embrace this stunning. Don't be afraid of the future. Embrace the time that you do have. Remind yourself death is a mystery. It's not something that we need to understand or avoid. It's inevitable. Embrace life when it happens, And embrace death when that happens. Bowls are there. Bowls have a part in the bigger scheme of things. And just remind yourself whatever is happening, As painful as it is, It's not beyond your capacity to experience. Receiving the opportunity to experience it because it is within your capacity. So allow yourself. Don't run away. Even if it's painful. Even if it's very painful. Many times, Just yesterday, We met someone who told me that he had a friend who was dying, And we met someone who told us a story about her partner who was dying. And ever since they received that information, They learned how to appreciate life and appreciate the time they had together. And the family interaction completely transformed. Yeah, Sometimes this happens after life gives us a terrible blow. On the white path, We receive this invitation. You don't have to wait for the blow. You can choose to wake up before the blow. Do you see what I'm saying? Wake up now. Wake up to embrace, To realize how beautiful, How graceful is the opportunity you receive to experience life as it happens. Not always pleasant, But always amazing. Isn't it? What do you say? More questions. Marcy was just thanking you for putting the depression and chronic pain recordings on and asking what the one was that we did last week. One we started early because we had to go to a different. . . I don't always put recordings of our talks, But I do with those that I feel that are providing some added value that was not recorded yet. So there is a long list of recordings in different subjects. You can just browse back in history, Choose the subject that you feel that is most relevant for you and listen to that. And also there are a lot of guided meditations that you definitely are invited to practice. It's not enough just to listen from your intellect. The guided meditation is there to complement that and to transform the knowledge into an experience. Otherwise it stays philosophical. So do both. Learn and integrate through meditation. Last week was on the difference between worry and responsibility. So maybe that one is worth putting on as well. Okay, I promise I'm going to put the recording of last week on my website so you can listen to it. What else? Let's concentrate on this week. There's an opportunity now. Ask. Jen says sometimes it seems like closing, Close the gap and sometimes it seems like go deep in the feeling. Is there a difference between those? Huge difference. The feeling is not a problem. There is no gap in the feeling. The feeling is just an experience that we are invited to experience from time to time. Sometimes this feeling is pleasant. Sometimes the feeling is unpleasant. Sometimes the feeling is happy. Sometimes the feeling is sad. All kinds of feelings and emotions and sensations. It's not a problem. There is no gap. It's just a phenomenon that life is inviting us to experience. The gap is a completely different thing. It happens in a different level of existence. The feeling belongs to the level of the mind where we experience the phenomenon. Emotions, Sensations and thoughts. The gap is opening on the level of the intellect that observes that flow of phenomena and creates an opinion about it. Which is a completely different story altogether. Closing the gap is the eternal invitation on the white path to eliminate suffering. Because every time there is a gap, There is suffering. When you reject, When you have an opposing opinion about something, This is where the drama begins. So, Experiencing a feeling is not a problem. There is no gap. Rejecting the feeling, Rejecting sadness for example, When somebody that we love is hurting or taken away. This is suffering. And the fact that we reject prolongs that experience. What we reject sticks and doesn't go away. This is why pain becomes chronic. This is why sadness turns into depression. Why? Because we reject. These two are on different levels of existence. Don't mix them. If you want to live a life free of suffering, Make sure you close the gaps. Identify them and close them. The gaps between what is and what I believe it should have been. But if you're going deep into the feeling, Because you've closed that gap and are accepting what's happening right now, Is there a difference there? Between what and what? Closing the gap and going deep into the feeling. If you close the gap and you don't reject the fact that this feeling is currently experienced and you allow yourself to dive deep into that experience, Then you served your purpose. And this phenomenon has been experienced. Now it can go away. It will flow like the flow of life. It's a law of nature. Anything that we don't reject changes. It takes a maximum of 72 hours. If we truly allow ourselves to fully experience it, After 72 hours it will transform into something else. If we reject it, It sticks. It won't change. It grows and grows and grows. Why? Because what you reject stays, Sticks, Or doesn't go, Dimes. What you resist persists. What you resist persists. 72 hours. Test me. See if I'm wrong. Allow yourself to fully experience whatever is coming and see if it lingers more than 72 hours. To any emotion, Any sensation, Any thought you have, Any idea, Whatever. Without identifying with it, Just experience it. Don't run away, Don't judge, Don't brand it as bad or good. The realm of phenomena just keeps on flowing, More and more flow and change of phenomena. See if it can stay more than 72 hours in your life. More than 72 hours in your life. Again? How to come up? Out of deep healing and self-isolation. Self-isolation. I don't know if it's because of an illness or a mental state. Personal choice. How to come out? I'm imagining Maharishi sitting in the mountain for seven years. How do you come out of that? It took him a few years to come out of that. Assuming in your case it wasn't seven years and it wasn't total isolation. Anything you do with yourself, You do gently, Compassionately. Just slowly, With compassion, Choose to come back, To interact, To engage. One-on-one with somebody that you love. Let them take you out for coffee, Meet other people a couple of times a week. Slowly, Gradually build yourself a plan of how to be social again. How to re-engage with life. And even if you feel it's overwhelming, Don't worry, You can do it. You know, Sometimes we get so used to being alone that the presence of somebody else seems so intimidating. But keep reminding yourself, It's not too much, It's not beyond your capacity. That's the first important realization about ourselves. Nothing life has to offer, Nothing. It doesn't matter how intense or intimidating it may be. It's not beyond our capacity. So, Don't convince yourself otherwise. Take it slowly, Gradually, Come back. Life is waiting for your grace. Life is waiting for your grace. So come back. And you know this group, People like-minded people, Are here to support you, To hold your hand, Even if it's virtually. Don't feel you have to do it alone. You're not alone. Right? Who is here to support her? Send us a love. One love. Two loves. Three. You see? You're not alone. Marcy is saying, I had a traumatic event Monday and we're okay. I'm great in an emergency, But it hits me later. It's hard to keep going through crisis. I feel like I've been in fight or flight for decades. And she's never heard anybody say it takes only 72 hours. The system. Hello, My name is Yawang. I just said that. Try me. But the price you need to pay is to go all the way. Experience it fully. Remember the story about Krishnamurti and his brother. It's a beautiful story. No? His brother died. And when he heard that he died, He was so sad. So overwhelmingly sad. That his disciples just left him in his own to be alone in his grief. They couldn't handle that. See, The beloved teacher be so sad. And after three days, They knocked on his door. They were worried about him. And when they opened the door, They saw him working on his desk as if nothing happened. So they were like, Guruji, How is it that you seem so fine as if nothing happened just three days ago? You're devastated. And his answer was, If you would have stayed, You would never have been so sad. Just three days ago, You're devastated. And his answer was, If you would have stayed, You would know. That's the message. If you don't run away, If you stay, You can handle it. You will see how it manifests. And so don't persuade yourself otherwise. This is the definition of trauma. Otherwise, That's what you create. You create trauma. If you persuade yourself that this is too much and you can't handle it. So you need to run away or, You know, Fight or flight or whatever. That's it. Trauma is created. In reality, There is no traumatic event. This is a misconception. How do you say? A sentence that is contradicting itself. How do you call it in English? Thing. Oxymoron. Oxymoron. This is an oxymoron. Yeah, Debra, Oxymoron. Meaning? Traumatic event. Events cannot be traumatic. Events translated into trauma because we convince ourselves that they are too much. We can't handle it. So we close, We run away, We fight. And this avoidance is the definition of trauma. So stop creating trauma. Just be there, Available for life. Marci is saying watching someone die is traumatic. No, It's painful, But doesn't have to be traumatic. It's very painful, Especially if you love that person. Yes, It's really, Really painful. And the grief is deep. No doubt about it. But it doesn't have to be traumatic. Trauma. Remember the definition of it. What is trauma? An event that you were not willing to experience fully when it happened. That is trauma. There is a whole talk about trauma. There is a course you can take about trauma. Just look at my inside timer page. You are bigger than anything life can throw at you. You are bigger than that. You are the theater hall. And you cannot be threatened by the play that is currently being played on the stage. As dramatic as it may seem. You are the theater hall. Bigger than anything out there. Consciousness, All-allowing consciousness. The definition of your nature. Don't persuade yourself otherwise. Don't persuade yourself otherwise. Marci, If you accept your own definition of trauma, Is there a different way that you would word that sentence? I mean, Not that you have to, But I'm curious. What do you suggest? Instead of tagging an event as traumatic, Which puts you inevitably in the victim position, Turn that around. Events are not traumatic. I am big enough to experience any situation life can offer. Any. Happy or sad. Peaceful or. . . Stormy. Any event, I can definitely experience with a full heart and a willing soul. This is my new position. Okay, Life, Come. Bring it on. This is how an awakened conscience relates to life. Bring it on. Yes. So, I suppose the answer is that watching someone die is. . . Blank. Could be many things. Could be everything. Watching someone die is reality if this is what is happening. It's reality. Don't tag it with some title or a title. Don't tag it with some title or some. . . Score. Don't try to score it. This is good, This is bad, It should be, It shouldn't be. If this is what's happening in the present moment, Then this is reality. That's it. Is there a value to put a feeling on it or a sensation? There are sensations there. If somebody is dying and you don't have any feelings or emotions about it, This is, I think, The definition of a psychopath. As long as you are not a psychopath. Of course you feel. It's a part of the game. So, It's not a problem. Yes, You're sad. Yes, You're upset. You're crying. You feel lost. You feel abandoned. Yes, These are all part of our human experience. Don't reject. Don't be afraid of it. Allow it. Cry. If this is the situation and tears come, Allow them. Why do you suppress your tears? Why are you so threatened about your tears? So, What you're saying is trauma or traumatic is not a feeling. Trauma is the. . . How do you call it? After-do? Is there a word? After-do? No. No. Trauma is the. . . After-effect? After-effect. The residue. The residue of me not believing I can handle reality when it happens. This creates a scar on our mental, Emotional, Energetical, Physical body. It creates a scar. And this scar slowly joins other scars and creates an identity. And creates an answer to the question, Who am I? Who am I? I'm the one that this happened to him, That happened to him. Let me tell you my story. And that's it. There's no freedom there. Once I'm identified with those scars and with the story, That's it. This chair is not big enough for both of us. I'm lost in a confused self-identification. So. . . Don't put yourself in that position. How? When reality happens, Make sure you're available to experience it. That's it. Don't try to tag it as good or bad. Preferable or. . . The opposite of preferable. Unpreferable. Unpreferable. Unpreferable. Just be there. Allow yourself. Debra says, It seems that I've needed the traumatic event for me to learn to let go of my resistance to letting it go and acceptance. Yeah. Sometimes, Again, Don't tag events as traumatic. But sometimes life slaps us in the face. It's a kind of a wake-up call. And it really hurts. It really hurts. Especially if we're not ready and it comes as a surprise. And also if we are ready, It still can be very, Very painful. And sometimes people wake up after these slaps. Slaps. Many, Many stories. You don't know. People, They were told they only have six months to live and then they wake up to realize how amazing life is and how precious is every moment. Why? Because they only have six months more to live. We live in this illusion of eternity. We try to suppress that. Suppress that knowing of our permanency. Impermanence. Intermanency. Suppress that. It's not something we wish to deal with. As if our presence here is eternal, But it's not. That's the truth of it. So, You can wait for life to slap you in the face so you wake up, But you don't need to. It's not the only way to wake up. You can wake up just by hearing this invitation and choosing to stop avoiding, Stop resisting, Stop running away, Stop being afraid of life, Stop putting yourself in a position of victim or circumstances. Wake up to realize you are the silence behind that noise. You are not that noise. Things happen, Things begin and end. Phenomena flow. You, The ultimate observer, Are not affected by that. Not really. You cannot be destroyed. Just like a theater hall cannot be destroyed, Even if the show on the stage is one complete mayhem. Space that holds that cannot be affected by it. Do you see what I'm saying? This is who you are. Stop being afraid of life. I just want to acknowledge, I think it was Michelle, Who said she was confused on the meaning of closing the gap. Great, Great. So I'll just say, Go back to my talk about suffering. Listen to it in detail. How to live without suffering. It's there. Listen to it. No reason to repeat that. And then Deborah says, I'm learning to separate the story from the event, Back to the traumatic event. Yeah. It's important. The story is just our interpretation. And our interpretation has two basic functions. First, It decides if it's good or if it's bad. And if it's good, We know from experience that it's temporary and it's going to be taken away. So we try to hold on to it. This is called craving. And if it's bad, We don't like it. We want it to change and be good. So this is called aversions. Cravings and aversions are the basis of human suffering. Craving and aversions. So stop tagging life like that. It's not helping. Life is not good. And it's not bad. Life is happening. Whether you like it or not. It's happening. That's it. People are born and people die. And everything that happens between. So Marcy says, Yes, I'm wondering what I'm supposed to learn. I feel pretty knocked down. I'm a survivor, But I'm not the same. So much pain. Stop avoiding the pain. Let's start with that. Yes, There is pain. Life is painful. This is why you receive the body. To feel the pain. Imagine as a pure consciousness, There was no pain. But there was no pleasure either. You couldn't experience life on the physical realm. Now you have a body. So instead of embracing the opportunity you receive to experience pain and pleasure. Now what you do, You avoid. You reject. You create a drama. Don't. If there is pain, Be with the pain. If there is pleasure, Be with the pleasure. And know this is all temporary. It won't go away if you don't reject it. It flows and changes. 72 hours max. You are bigger than everything life can throw at you. Way, Way bigger. Bigger than what you can even dare to imagine. What else? We have 10 more minutes. Come on. Linda is saying we are meaning making machines, Yes? Yes. But we can only give meaning to what we experience. Otherwise we don't experience what is happening. Our consciousness, Our focus is not on what is. But on what isn't. What is. Our focus is not on what is. But on what isn't. What should have been. Do you see the difference? Or may happen. So if you truly are sincere in your intention to be a meaning machine, You need to be in the present moment to experience life. Otherwise what are you giving meaning to? Your stories? Nobody cares about your stories. Give meaning to life. Life happens when? Here and now. Come back. Linda says we are. . . I think that's where my issues arise. In the meaning making. Filling life with meaning doesn't mean judging life. Don't confuse the two. Fill it with meaning of grace, Of beauty. Wow, This is happening. This is how sadness feels. Amazing. This is how happiness feels. Wow, Fantastic. This is how boredom feels. Wow, Yeah. I can see that. This is how excitement feels. Amazing. This is how loneliness feels. This is how togetherness feels. This is how togetherness feels. Wow. Life has so much to offer. Isn't it? Be there. Allow yourself to experience it. And don't give too much attention about your opinions about it. Nobody cares. A dozen a dime. A dime a dozen. A dozen. A dime a dozen. Nobody cares. You shouldn't care about it either. It's not important. What is important is that you are available to experience the is-ness of things as they happen. Curiosity, Linda says. I like that word, Curiosity. Curiosity is a sure feature of an awakened consciousness. Always curious. Always fresh. Always available. Liz said pain is also a motivator to learn to heal and transcend the pain. Transcending the pain. Look. You need to be conscious about your motivation here. Okay? Transcending the pain can have two meanings. One is stop identifying with the pain. Stop identifying with the pain, With the realm of phenomena, And realize you are much bigger than that. This is one possible description of transcending. The other possible description is now I find a new tool, A sophisticated spiritual tool to avoid the pain. Don't do that. Spirituality is not there to create bypasses for you so life will be more comfortable and convenient. The opposite. It throws you back into life, Defenseless. Realizing you don't need to be defended because you are indestructible. So life is there to touch you whether it's painful or pleasurable. And you are there to experience it. So don't try to transcend fear or pain because it's inconvenient or unpleasant. Pain is just an invitation from your body to put your attention in a specific area. That's it. Give it the attention it requires. Yes? Marci says back to no one wants to hear about your problems or your story. You said story. And Marci said that's true. No one wants to hear about constant problems. There are people you can find that you can, You know, Talk about the drama and all the problems and all, You know, People around you that agree that things are so terrible and this and that and the other thing. What does that do for you? People don't want to hear about your problems because they are too busy with their problems. They are waiting for you to finish your sentence so they can start talking about their problems. But in a way to feel connection and belonging. Yeah, Let's all join hands and suffer together. Complain about life, Be a victim of life, You know, And at least you feel the warmth of not being alone in it. But you don't feel elevated. Do you? Satsang meaning finding a company of people that can help you elevate. The energy rises in their presence. It's not holding hands and bitching about life together. The opposite. It's reminding ourselves how beautiful this opportunity is to share our journey. To find deeper meaning more than the personal. To find a transpersonal meaning to our life. Find that group of people. This is unique. Marcy says, Yes, It's not elevating to commiserate. Unless you come up with solutions, She says. What else? Um, So Linda's asking, Can one have too much curiosity? Only if you're a cat. I always think about being a cat. If you're a cat, You can't have too much curiosity. Marcy asks, What do we do in the 72 hours besides feel the pain? It's not necessarily a pain. It could be anything. What do you do? You are there with it. Without identifying with it. Without creating a new story about yourself because of the phenomena that you are currently experiencing. You're just there to experience it. If it's sadness, You experience the sadness. If it's pain, You experience the pain. I'm not telling you to ignore the pain. If there is an intention required by your body on a specific area or organ, You give that attention. If you need to go to a doctor or to examine something is wrong, Let's see if we can resolve this. Maybe there is an imbalance. Maybe something with your diet. Use the export to help you resolve the issue. Don't reject it. Don't tag it as bad. Don't make the assumption that only when the pain goes away you can be happy. That is an illusion. Even when a loved one dies, Yes. Be with the pain. Be with the pain. Be with the sense of loss. There is a whole talk about dealing with loss. Go back. Listen to that. Loss is a part of life. I said on many occasions. The reason we are here is to learn how to gracefully let go. Gracefully let go. This is why we are here. Think about it. Thank you very much, Guys, For your beautiful questions and your presence here today. Your donations. We look forward to meeting you again. We meet on Tuesday. If you are interested, Touch base with me. I will explain to you how. We meet also next Saturday. Love you very much. Bye bye.