Be free from all prior knowledge in this moment.
Come to this moment completely naked and open,
Unburdened,
Uncertain.
Sometimes truth given in a moment of openness can change our entire life,
Listening to it,
Allowing it to grow in us.
What I want to share today is somewhat radical,
Earth shattering,
But not in an information way or a new technology way,
But instead in a way we have been seeing things and interpreting things versus the possibility of doing the same from a perspective of love for truth.
So yesterday I was asked this question,
What do you do outside of work?
And without hesitation I mentioned that I either meditate,
Or to be more specific,
I am either exploring truth for myself,
Reading about it,
Or talking about it.
But I didn't use the word truth,
I used the word meditation for common parlance.
The follow up question was,
Is it helping?
And that is the seed for today's discussion.
If I were to speak for myself,
For a brief period of my journey,
Especially at the start,
I did use meditation to help me in my darkest time.
And after a few weeks I did feel as if I am better than how I was a few weeks ago.
But when I met my first teacher and was introduced to inner peace,
Happiness and truth that precipitates that,
Within four days I felt like I was transformed.
I went from I didn't know what I was doing in my life to oh,
I get it.
That's why we are here,
That's why we are doing what we are meant to do.
But this question,
Is it helping,
Exposes a deep assumption that most of us,
If not all of us,
Know how to live this life,
Why we are here in life.
It would be very judgmental and critical of me to say that most of us don't,
Most of us don't know.
But if I go along with the earlier line of thinking that most of us know what we are doing and occasionally we need help to manage the stresses of life,
The obscurities of life.
The uncertainty in life,
The uncertainty in life,
We need help and meditation is there to help us.
But what is true in my experience is that I didn't need help.
I just didn't know how to live.
I was running like a headless angry chicken for a good 23-25 years of my life and even now,
I don't really have a full idea.
So the discussion that I want to have today is,
Why are we here in this session?
Is it to get help,
To feel better,
To get some reinforcement?
Or are we here to radically change,
Transform our lives?
Because my initial instruction of standing in this moment naked and open,
Only applies for a radical transformation.
And what I mean by radical transformation is the understanding that some,
Most or all of what I have been doing needs to be investigated.
Why?
Because I'm unhappy or because I'm not happy most of the time.
I'm checked out,
I'm lost,
I'm unaware,
In conflict externally or internally most of the time.
And the reason many people,
And this is true in my experience from all the retreats I have done in the last decade or 12 years,
Is that older people have always complimented me for coming on this path of peace and happiness early in my life.
So I always wondered,
Maybe,
You know,
If I had been exposed to this in my teens or even before in my household,
My life would have been different,
Much better,
I would have lived a lot of what I talk about now.
But the reality is that I wasn't ready.
I was too interested in finding happiness,
Peace,
Outside.
So the sooner you exhaust all possibilities of getting peace and happiness outside,
The sooner you come to this realization that I think I have a problem,
I don't know what I'm doing,
I would like to know,
I would very much like to know.
For some,
They have to become older to realize that being there,
Done that,
And I'm still unhappy.
Or for some of us,
One or two disappointments are enough to realize,
I think it's not going to work.
And what am I talking about,
Really?
What work,
What does it work look like?
This peace that you are experiencing right now,
Or this uneventfulness that you are experiencing right now,
Sometimes it's hard to recognize peace,
But just lack of drama,
Lack of chase,
Lack of conflict is the goal.
Not once or twice,
But long term,
Continuous,
Consistent.
We could be struggling physically,
Hustling,
Efforting,
But that struggle doesn't translate to internal struggle.
What we have accepted,
And again this is an assumption on my side,
Based on my own experience,
Is that we have accepted that struggle is inevitable in life.
That's what being human means,
And it is true.
Struggle is inevitable in life,
But only physically.
The physical life is a jungle and a temple at the same time.
Survival,
Vigilance,
Protection is necessary at all times,
Or most of the times.
But there's also beauty,
There's also fun,
Laughter,
Enjoyment,
Celebration.
That's what gives it a temple aspect to our physical life.
But in the idea of struggle,
We have added mental,
Emotional struggle as inevitable as well,
And only when it becomes too much to handle,
We need quote-unquote help.
In my opinion,
This life is like an ocean.
You can dive in it,
Knowing exactly what you want,
And you will find exactly what you're looking for.
You could dive in this ocean to find footwear,
Clothes,
Your phone,
Some exotic animal,
A treasure,
Peace,
Or anything else.
Because what you're looking for blinds you from whatever else is around it.
That's why when we are trying to look at our phones for any notifications,
We only check for notifications and turn away.
We never look at the time,
Because that was not what we were looking for.
And everyone is free to look,
Struggle,
Find,
Enjoy,
Or not enjoy,
Whatever they want.
That's what makes it a free life.
But for you and I,
We expect a lot from life.
Inner peace and happiness is a privileged demand.
To be able to want that in life is an act of grace.
So what we are really doing here is seeing what is true,
What is true in my experience.
Why is struggle present in my life?
Internal struggle that results in restlessness,
Unsurety,
And struggle outside with other people.
And is it inevitable,
Both the inner and the outer struggle?
Or can we use our minds,
Our bodies,
To design something where struggle is mitigated outside?
And to use our intelligence and freedom,
Along with the power of discrimination between what is true and what is not,
To design a beautiful,
Peaceful,
Inner environment.
That is based on truth,
Reality,
Beauty,
And love.
For the one who is still looking for peace and happiness outside,
And has not had an epiphany,
A glimpse or a recognition that,
Wait a moment,
I've been doing this for 20 years and I still haven't been happy.
If this epiphany hasn't happened,
You cannot convince them.
No matter what you tell them,
They will never be convinced.
And they shouldn't be,
To be honest,
Because you need to completely exhaust that external search.
Otherwise,
You will be distracted later on.
But for us who are here,
It should be so clear to us that this truth is not going to merely help you.
If you allow it,
If you are open to it,
It will transform your life.
The unnecessary internal struggle can start dissolving.
The conflict with people can become not so serious.
For that,
When I say allowing,
For that the power of discrimination needs to be active.
We need to be open to consider the truth of my words,
The truth of your own experience,
The imaginary superimposition of your mental ideas,
Assumptions,
And beliefs on what is true.
Camouflaging it in such a way that it appears like what it has always been for you.
That's why many artists have created these three-dimensional,
Four-dimensional art on canvases to shatter our beliefs about what we see,
How we interpret.
I guess I am that artist trying to shatter your beliefs by showing you or rather pointing at what is true and what is a superimposition of what we want it to be or what we think.
As my teacher likes to say,
The map is not the territory.
No matter how beautiful and realistic,
It is just a map.
Similarly,
Whatever interpretations,
Superimpositions,
Ideas we have about how things are,
What things are,
What people are,
What their intentions are is purely imaginary.
You don't have first-hand experience or a deeper experience of any of those things and that is why there is constant,
Consistent struggle,
Internal struggle.
