So,
What tends to happen is that We.
.
.
We go through like an up and down process.
And the up and down process is essentially our it's our internal battle between people.
Genuinely being interested and desiring.
Understanding.
You know,
Like the same type of vibe that a scientist would have for just wanting to know what's inside a molecule.
And the same type of intention that Socrates would have,
Trying to understand knowledge,
That type of artistic,
Genuine interest.
And we battle between this artistic genuine interest and this desire to remove suffering.
So what happens is.
We get whenever we have understood something.
Whenever we understand.
It's because we're in a moment of that artistic genuine interest.
And every time that we're in that,
Artistic,
Philosophical,
Scientific interest.
That is the moments where we have a realization or an understanding.
And whenever we can't understand something,
If something doesn't make sense,
It goes in one ear and out the other.
Um,
We we we feel stuck.
It's because we are.
We have this kind of double-edged sword and one side of the sword cuts through all the nonsense and the other side is quite dull and it doesn't quite cut through anything.
And sometimes we start swinging with the dull side of the sword and the dull side of the sword is the side that wants to remove suffering.
So the thing that prevents understanding from taking place,
Think of it like this,
With understanding which is the ultimatum of the path,
It's understanding that will be,
It's the final,
It's not just the final but it's the start,
It's the middle,
It's the end.
Understanding is the whole process and What inhibits understanding is the desire to remove suffering and the reason for that is because the desire to remove suffering It closes the mind.
It closes the mind and when the mind is closed,
You cannot.
You cannot access,
It's just like,
Can you walk through a closed door?
It's not possible.
It quite literally closes the mind.
So.
In the same way,
Like I'm sure many people here have had the experience of either yourself or somebody else,
For me,
Most cases it was both,
But mostly at the start of my life was myself,
Not wanting to be helped,
Like not being closed off to being helped.
For instance,
Suffering,
Struggling,
Wanting to remove the suffering,
And because I want to remove the suffering I don't want to be helped and no one can get through to me.
You can't get through to someone who who doesn't want to be helped.
We all know that,
Right?
We've all had that experience.
If someone doesn't want to be helped,
There's no chance of getting through to them.
So it's the same with us.
When we want to remove our suffering,
It is as though we are choosing suffering.
And I'm sure we've all had the experience of it,
Maybe many of us,
Who who we see someone and they're suffering and it is as though they just want to suffer.
I remember when I was younger I tried to have a conversation with my dad.
Who was angry all of the time.
And I said to him,
I said,
Dad,
I try to be as lovingly intentioned as possible and as careful with what I was saying as possible.
You know,
It wasn't some kind of outburst of his anger.
It was a genuine like.
Tiptoeing the question,
But I said something like,
Dad.
You know,
If you notice that you're angry a lot,
Would you ever.
.
.
Consider not being angry,
Like finding a way to not be angry all the time,
Because it's causing you so much pain.
And he just got angry at me and told me no.
And in my head,
I couldn't help but think.
It is as though he's just choosing to suffer.
And so in the same way,
When we want to remove our suffering,
When we are desiring to remove our suffering,
Basically when we're doing things that we think that can remove our suffering,
We're tricking ourselves.
It's a very sophisticated egoic trait.
The ego used to do things to perpetuate itself by doing unconscious things,
Seeking for material objects,
Relationships,
And things like that.
And then it gets very sophisticated and very subtle,
And the subtlety turns into I will perpetuate.
The separate self perpetuates itself.
By seeming to do productive things,
Like seeming to do things that are in accordance to truth.
But actually doing them in order to remove the suffering.
And that's how it lives.
That's where it lives.
And it lives there for many people for a very long time.
And this is why people can get stuck on the path because they don't see that the intention that they have with their understanding,
With the things that they learn,
With the things that they're doing is all in order to remove the suffering that they feel.
So and that will close us off to understanding.
So that's where people can get frustrated that why have I not got this yet?
I can't seem to integrate it.
How do I embody this?
You see?
These questions,
They come from a long line of history of understanding for the sake of removing suffering.
And suffering,
Wanting to remove itself,
Is the essence of suffering.
If you think of fire,
Burning itself is the essence of a flame,
Right?
That's what keeps a flame alive.
A fire keeps burning.
The separate self burns and keeps itself alive.
By wanting to remove itself.
So fire burns by burning itself,
Suffering burns by removing itself.
It's the perpetual cycle.
So this opening arrives at seeing that there is one thing to see We have to be devoted to the truth for the sake of the truth or to happiness for the sake of happiness.
Happiness is the purest desire along with truth of the same thing.
They are pure because there's no intention to them.
Nobody can answer the question why they want to be happy.
We could ask everybody on earth,
Why do you want to be happy?
And we could ask why,
Why,
Why,
Why,
Why?
It would just end up being the same answer.
Well,
Because I just want to be happy.
I don't know why.
Happiness is nice.
Well,
Why is it nice?
Because it feels good.
Why does it feel good?
I don't know.
Because I'm happy.
It's just like a,
You can never get to an answer other than I just want to be happy for the sake of being happy.
I don't know why it feels nice.
I don't know why that particular thing seems to be good.
It just seems right.
It just seems true.
And that is an example,
And the same with truth.
Why do we want truth?
Well,
Because it's true.
Well,
I don't know,
Because I don't want to live in a lie.
Well,
Why do you want to live in a lie?
No,
Because I want to live in truth.
Why do you want to live in truth?
It's just on and on and on.
Truth and happiness are the only two desires that have no cause,
So we don't know why we want them.
The reason we don't know why we want these things is because the reason is transcendent of the realm where reasons exist.
Think about it.
Reasons imply,
I have this cup because I bought it from the shop.
I bought it from that shop because that was the one that was there,
Right?
Because the CEO built the shop there.
Like,
We can answer a reason for everything.
Why do I have this shirt on?
Today I felt like wearing black.
Why did I feel like wearing black?
Because yesterday I wore color.
Why did I wore color yesterday?
Because color was yesterday because I felt different.
You could just answer on and on and on.
But you cannot answer the question as to why do we desire truth?
Why do we desire happiness?
I can't say because yesterday I desired suffering,
So today I desire happiness just because I fancy to change.
That's not the reason,
Right?
We never get answers like that.
They're not genuine.
Truth and happiness are the purest desires because they're causeless and causeless desires.
Do not come from a cause.
And if something doesn't come from a cause,
What does that mean?
It means it doesn't come from the separate self.
The separate self is the entity that lives in cause and effect.
And any desire that does not come from the separate self,
Well where could that come from?
It comes from the universe.
It comes from life.
It comes from the natural expression of God.
So any desires that come from the universe are always going to be pure desires.
They're always going to be desires that are collectively sound.
Collectively sound meaning completely coherent with not just ourselves,
But with the world around us.
Not just the world around us,
But every single possible variation of reality that there could ever be.
Complete coherence.
Now,
The paradox is to see that,
Well,
That means that,
Well,
If I make decisions out of alignment out of that,
Then I'm not in coherence with reality,
And therefore reality must be random,
Chaotic,
And it's hit or miss.
Maybe I'll have a desire that's not the universe.
Maybe I'll desire that is the universe.
Have to see that the universe is mapped out.
So when I say the universe,
It sounds like such a limited word to say because it almost points to just this physical universe.
When I say universe,
Bear in mind that I mean just whatever there is.
So when the universe is set up in such a way that It's evolving,
You could say,
To greater and greater freedom.
And in order to access greater and greater freedom,
One has to first know that there is a possibility to be limited,
Then experience the freedom.
Otherwise,
There's no sense of freedom.
And what happens then is that in order to have that freedom,
We must therefore have autonomy.
Imagine freedom with no autonomy.
That's not freedom.
You couldn't comprehend freedom.
How do you know autonomy?
Right,
You could only comprehend.
Because if let's just say you've never had autonomy,
Well,
Then you wouldn't have any any decision-making power to even comprehend that you didn't have autonomy.
You may as well just be an inanimate object,
Right?
So.
What we see then is that in order to find this,
In order to experience freedom,
You must you must essentially have autonomy.
How could you have freedom without autonomy?
Like,
I mean,
A prison would have more freedom than that.
So what we're seeing is to have autonomy,
We must have the experience of individuality.
And in the experience of individuality we must have autonomy of making our own decisions and having free choice.
Imagine you were an individual that had no autonomy and no free choice.
No experience of free choice.
You would just be a puppet.
And we all fear being the puppet.
Nobody wants to just feel like they are a mechanical expression of something else.
And they're not the something else,
They're just the mechanical expression.
That's not freedom.
So what we're seeing is that in order then,
Therefore,
To have the experience of freedom.
We are experiencing autonomy.
We are experiencing the possibility to make mistakes.
You can't have freedom without the possibility to make a mistake.
Yes,
You have all the freedom in the world,
But apart from you can't make a mistake.
Well,
That's not freedom.
It's just a very narrow scope of possibilities to experience,
Right?
This is where we find,
With this universe,
This world that we live in,
Is where we find the realm where we experience the possibility of all possibilities.
Which means that there's a lot of shit that's gonna happen in this world.
That seem to contradict nature,
Of course.
It's a very natural thing to happen.
Because without that.
.
.
You cannot have experience,
You cannot have creation without the possibility to have autonomous experiencing,
Therefore the possibility to make any decision,
Therefore the possibility for some of those decisions to act out of alignment with the truth.
Once we make the decisions out of alignment with the truth,
Then we realize why it is important to be in alignment with the truth.
But we come there out of our own freedom,
Not because someone made us,
Not because God said,
You know what,
All of you are just going to do what I say.
That's not what God is,
Right?
That's very Christian.
That's a very Christian God,
Right?
So It's like we learn.
It's like we are understanding what it is like to be God.
Why?
Why are we omniscient?
Why are we omnipotent?
Why are we loving?
It's like we get to experience it.
As something that seems to not be it,
And then go,
Wow,
So this is why I am so loving and compassionate.
This is why acting in alignment with the truth is the highest way to be.
This is why it grows in further and further sophistication and intelligence.
So it's almost as though we are God witnessing ourselves become God.
Witnessing how God became God while being God and never leaving God and also getting to enjoy the whole process.
So it's a very sophisticated,
Intelligent process that we're going through.
And what we're seeing is that this seeing in this way,
It kind of The reason I present this type of understanding is because we can get so lost in asking,
Why do people do these things?
Why do people not do these things?
Why did I do this thing?
And what we don't realise is that we need to go through a process of forgiveness.
It doesn't matter what level we're at spiritually,
We can throw all those out the window.
The only level is forgiveness,
Forgiving,
Giving all experience the freedom to exist completely as it is.
Now,
If you look at the depiction I presented to you,
That is what nature was doing the whole time.
What was nature doing?
In order for us to be able to have the capacity to make mistakes and do things and have freedom of choice and understand why being in alignment with the truth is a beneficial thing and a loving thing to be.
And why that's important.
Is that in order for that to happen?
Our essential nature,
Essentially God,
Must give all things the freedom to be completely as they are without any desire to disrupt it.
People sometimes have a hard time when documentary,
Like David Attenborough would see,
You know,
Like wildlife killing each other,
Like animals killing each other in the wild.
And the people would be like,
Well,
Why is the cameraman not doing anything about it?
This antelope's being killed,
Brutally slaughtered by a tiger,
Or I'm probably mixing up animals here.
Why are they not doing anything to save it?
You have to let nature be,
And so nature lets nature be.
This is the key point.
Nature lets nature be nature.
How natural is that?
That is exactly what nature is.
It lets things be completely as they are,
Because if there was any intention to make something be not what it could be,
Then we would have some type of control,
Some type of lack of freedom.
And what we're doing here is surrendering to the absolute freedom and the absolute freedom.
Is where we recognize forgiveness,
Which is to forgive,
To give all things the freedom to exist prior to them coming into existence.
Be letting them be completely as they are.
And that means letting ourself be completely as we are.
Letting ourself giving ourselves the freedom to be completely what we are at all given times at any given time.
And if we do that,
And if we see that clearly,
It means that anything and everything we've ever done is forgiven.
That's what we're doing with forgiveness.
We are allowing ourselves to have done the things we have done to give ourselves the capacity to love.
Because it's a far greater reward.
To understand love.
Than to have just blindly had it and not known what it was.
And if you notice,
Love tends to be more powerful when it is aware,
When it is coming from intelligence,
When love has known what love was not.
And this is where we find ourselves understanding that process moving through.
What we could call,
Someone mentioned,
Whether we're in heaven or hell or if we're in hell.
And We are in.
Neither.
Heaven and hell don't.
Exist but they do exist as ideas.
And all ideas can be lived,
And this is where we are.
We're in the realm of living out these ideas.
So if you want hell,
You can have it.
If you want heaven,
You can have it.
But we do not exist in either.
We exist in the place where God expresses itself in its natural condition.
And we're seeing this natural condition.
And allowing it to be completely as it is.
Now what would have the capacity for that?
What could experience a world?
Which seems to have so much suffering and to still allow it the freedom to be completely as it is.
That is nature itself.
It's the highest form of compassion.
So the highest form of compassion that we're speaking of here.
If we could just say there is a goal,
It's that.
Because you cannot get to that.
Level of compassion.
Without seeing the innocence of all things and without seeing the innocence of yourself.
And in seeing the innocence of all things,
You transcend the human experience because everything in the human experience wants to punish.
Everything in the human experience wants to recreate the suffering and the hatred that is being caused.
Everything in the human experience says.
I can't accept this injustice.
I can't accept it.
This is wrong.
This is inherently wrong.
This person did something inherently wrong.
This person did something inherently evil.
And we could see it in that way.
But the premise of that perspective always comes from a deep underlying resistance to something that is inherently natural.
And anything that resists something inherently natural always comes from hatred.
And hatred is the thing that creates the thing that we're saying we want to have removed.
So in order to transcend the human experience,
We have to see this deep level of compassion.
And it doesn't mean that we allow things in the world to be there that do act out of alignment with nature.
But the most impactful thing to do is to be capable of seeing the injustice.
And still capable of acting in accordance with nature to it.
So,
If we were to be acting in the world on behalf of truth,
Truth would understand the naturalness of what the world is doing and it would respond from that place.
To respond from that level of peace,
To respond from that level of understanding will actually create any changes in the world.
Changes in the world can't be made out of hatred.
If you if you try to solve an injustice with hatred,
You perpetuate the hatred.
So action has to be taken from that place of compassion.
And in most cases,
People become aloof on the spiritual path.
They see there's no meaning.
Vincent was telling me stories the other day of his of some of his friends who they just don't have any sense of remorse or any sense of empathy or compassion for any type of events because it's just the same self expressing itself.
No one really died.
And obviously,
This is a misappropriation of the spiritual understanding.
So we don't want to fall into misappropriating the spiritual understanding by seeing that there's only one self for all the same being.
Therefore,
No one can really die.
Therefore,
No one really suffers.
Suffering is illusory,
But the experience someone's having is very real.
Right.
We have to see suffering is both illusory,
Ultimately,
Which is a good thing.
Right.
Suffering was real.
We'd all be freaking screwed.
But when someone is suffering,
It's a genuine experience and we have to give it that respect.
People comment on my video,
But what about this?
When I mention videos like this,
What about the suffering of people in Gaza and all these wars?
I'm not saying this suffering's not real.
That was the last thing I want to say.
I'm saying that this suffering when they're experiencing is very real.
We have to respect that.
It's almost like people want suffering to be real.
It's like,
Okay,
So yes,
There's people suffering in the world.
Me saying that suffering is illusory,
I'm not trying to discredit their suffering,
But by nature of countering that argument,
Are we trying to say suffering is real,
So therefore there's no way out of the suffering?
Do we want no way out of the suffering?
Would that be a nicer way to see the world,
That there's no way out?
The suffering is real,
It's there fundamentally,
So we'd all be screwed.
So we have to balance these ways of seeing.
The world is ultimately real,
But it's mostly based on an illusion,
But the illusion has reality.
Suffering is ultimately an illusion.
But when it's experienced,
It's very real.
So we want to integrate and master these two sides of the coin so that we can deepen our level of understanding for life,
For the world.
This is the direction we're going in,
To have further and further sophistication with the collective.
There's no collective,
No one's there,
There's only one being.
It's all preliminary nonsense that is misappropriated.
Yes,
There's a stage where we understand that's true,
But the real depth of this approach is in further and further unity.
Unity means coming together as two.
Which means individuals recognizing their oneness.
That's the path,
Not oneness recognizing oneness,
You see?
Individuals recognizing the duality and coming together as the dissolution of duality.
That's why the Indian traditions always talk about Shakti and Shiva and the Leela.
Shakti and Shiva,
They dance in their unity.
How can you dance in unity if there's only one thing?
You can't dance with that.
But there is one thing,
But this is the paradox and the beauty of that paradox and the mastery comes in the comprehension of that paradox.
