Ho Which means,
Seeminglyiture.
Hello!
This is Jacob Watson again for another one of our many satsangs.
These are spontaneous spiritual teachings interwoven with periods of silence for meditation and reflection.
When we were young,
We often were encouraged to develop our character and we were encouraged to develop a personality.
Other people were invited to show us their personality,
Their character,
And it was highly regarded.
People had good character and people had an outstanding personality.
Those were valued qualities.
So as we were struggling to socialize ourselves and be approved of and accepted by the family,
Whoever was taking care of us,
We tried to do these things,
To develop a personality,
To develop a character,
And indeed,
They may have served us those qualities early on as we were growing up.
However,
Now,
However old we are now,
They are of the past.
Perhaps a personality served us,
Perhaps a character,
A characteristic served us.
Whether it did or not,
Whether they did or not,
They are in the past,
Gone,
Vanished,
Disappeared,
No longer present.
Or are they in some different form?
Are they in fact baggage that we carry around,
That we struggle to walk with,
Weighed down by our characteristics,
By our personality?
What was it that floated to the surface when I invited you to consider the personality and the character?
Can you identify a personality,
A character,
A characteristic that has been with you,
That has in some way defined you in the past?
Maybe even up until the present moment here now.
Identify that.
It is a concept.
That's all it is.
Very often when we're young,
It's a concept that other people promoted,
Invited,
Sometimes even forced us to take on.
Now it can feel like baggage,
Extra weight,
Not who we really are,
This personality,
This character.
So here we are in the present moment,
Inviting ourselves to be free of those qualities,
To be ourselves in this moment without the baggage,
Without often somebody else's idea or even a society's idea of who we are supposed to be.
No,
We can leave them behind.
And though it perhaps is unknown and the unknown can be frightening,
Here we are welcoming a more pure state.
I invite you now to imagine yourself standing under a cleansing waterfall.
Water drops on you,
Falls from above,
Touches you first in your hair and your head,
Drops down to your arms,
Your shoulders,
Your fingers,
Drips off your fingers,
Touches your back,
Drops down onto your waist,
Onto your legs,
Your feet,
And splashes on your toes.
Here for now is an endless waterfall and the temperature is just right,
Just a bit cool as it washes,
Cascades down over you,
Cleaning and clearing all the old patterns,
All the old character qualities,
Characteristics,
All the old personalities,
Splashing,
Bubbling,
Cleaning,
Clearing out,
Washing away.
Enjoy the process of being cleansed as the water continues to fall on you,
Cleansing,
Clearing,
Seeking out even the tiny little rubbish in the corner.
Out it goes,
Down it goes,
Washes away.
Until you stand clear,
Now clean,
Certainly refreshed,
Now pure in this present moment.
Now,
In this new purity,
In this new cleanliness,
There may be some moments of fear as if,
What do I do now?
I don't know what to do.
I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
I don't know what other people want me to do.
I don't know.
Let that be.
If that is true,
Let it be.
It is part of your purity.
You're being cleansed.
You're being clean.
You're being pure.
And the you that may be new as well.
It's not like you can rely on the old baggage,
On the old prescriptions,
On the old forms of knowing what to do,
The old personality that knew what to do,
The old character or characteristics that knew what to do.
So you may be saying,
Feeling perhaps saying out loud,
I don't know.
I don't know.
Allow that to be all right in this present moment that you can say,
You can feel,
I don't know.
And that's fine.
So now when we drop our personality,
When we drop our character,
We are suddenly fresh.
We carry no baggage,
No characteristics,
No personality from the past.
We are solidly here in the present moment.
As you enjoy this,
Beware of the temptation to be concerned about the future.
For it is true that we do not know what the future brings.
We have no idea.
We can speculate.
We can even hope.
We can even think,
Oh,
I hope this doesn't happen.
But that's all in our imagination.
We are now entering a new place.
It's not really a place,
A new form.
It's not really a form.
We know we are in the spiritual realm when it's hard to find words.
The definitions elude us,
But we are here now.
The sentence I am is accurate.
It doesn't need a subject.
We can say I am.
It is of the present moment,
Not past.
Not future,
But here,
Right now.
I am.
Now,
Having identified the characteristics,
The character,
And the personality that we used to be,
There is emerging a new purity.
We are washed by the waterfall,
Cleansed,
Stripped of our old baggage that no longer serves us,
And newly arrived here in this present moment.
Be sure you breathe.
Breathe in the spacious energy of the universe.
Breathe out all that you have used up and no longer need,
Which could include bits and pieces of the old personality,
Remnants and rags of the old character,
So that you do indeed arrive here in this precious present moment,
Washed,
Cleansed by the waterfall.
I am.
I am.
I am.
