The conflict between what is and what is not

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

The conflict between what is and what is not. Recorded on april thirteenth, twenty twenty.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

We are in the verse twenty-seven of the Atma Buddha of Shankara and the Shloka say Rajusarpavatman Jivamatu Bayam Vahet Naham Jivahaparatmati Natam Chenirbayobhavat the soul regarding itself as a jiva is overcome by fear. Just like the man who regards a rope as a snake, the soul regains fearlessness by realizing that it is not a jiva but the supreme soul. This verse that is a classical Vedantic example of the snake under rope is very known in Vedantic circles. It is about a person, can be you or you any one of you who go for a walk in the evening and in that walk in the forest when darkness begins you see a rope and he say it's a snake. You know fear you know how a snake can attack you or something, and in that fear become, as you say, frizy. Of course the rope doesn't move, but still he's very afraid. In these kind of stories, always will be a sage, and a sage appear. And a sage with his light, always sages have light, his own light. And he showed to him, Come my son, see, this is not a snake, there is no snake there, it is only a rope, and then the fear disappear. Meanwhile, that person can think about a lot of solutions to the problem of the snake, can bring a weapon, a stick maybe, can bring something to kill the snake. Maybe the solution can be simple to escape, to run, to call somebody who can help you, etc. etc. Like so many methods and techniques, how to eliminate the snake. But as long as you deal with the snake, you are wrong. Because why? Because there is no snake. The light was the only way to go out of the fear, the suffering. If we analyze this example, we will see that there are two aspects the rope and the snake. The rope is consciousness or awareness. The snake is what we superimpose on the rope. A snake. The snake was superimposed. This world is a superimposition on consciousness. Consciousness is only one. But we go and superimpose individualities, you are here, she is here, I am here as a different entity, etc. etc. Only a sage with his own light will be able to take us beyond it. But if you analyze, we have the rope and we have the snake. They symbolize much more than the absolute in the world. They symbolize what is and what is not. The reality is the rope. Was there, is there, and will be there always a simple rope. What can go appear and disappear is the snake. The illusory, the fantasy, the superimposition. Never was a snake. The fear was real. The problem was real, but the snake was never there. So we have what is and what is not. What is real and the fantasy. Our attention, curiosity, can be always only on the rope or on the snake, but never can be in both of them simultaneously. I mean that our attention we can be concentrated only on the real, on what is, on the truth of this moment, or in the illusion, in what is not. When we are in the moment we perceive simple things. Our breathing process, how we inhale and exhale, our back with the chair. We perceive trees, tea, air, wind. Simple things. That is the real, these are facts, and then we feel relaxed, we feel open. The focus of our attention it is open, it is like our attention rests on the now, accepting the now. But at the moment that we begin to, because our survive mechanism, begin to think or direct our attention to how things should be, how I wanted to be this moment. The different idea of what I have about how this moment should be, from that moment I step on the world of what is not. I begin to move in what doesn't exist, in dreams about what I don't have: Lamborghinis and houses and people and the blue prince and the princess and the perfect love story and things and food, pizzas, whatever. But all the things that don't exist in this moment, and in some way or other, I want to bring to achieve, but then arise fight. Conflict. Obviously, conflict between what is not and what is. That is clear. Or I accept what is, or I try to achieve what is not, and dream about what is not, and always what is not will be in conflict with what is. Conflict creates disorder, and disorder create blindness. It is impossible to watch, to observe, to see when there is disorder, you have to follow slowly, step by step. As long as you are accepting the present, as long as you are in the now, you deal with reality as it is. At the moment you begin to look what is what is not, and you begin to dream about it, you enter into the illusion of what is not. You want it, how to achieve it. In that moment, you create the antagonism between both what is and what is not. We have a very useful survive mechanism that pushes us how to have better food, better house, how to protect ourselves better, how to be secure, etc., etc. And when we any situation we are, we have the feeling that if we are happy with this moment as it is, and we don't try to make it better, we are like stuck. Like we don't really care for our life. So always we should be, most of the time, pay attention how much time you are in the illusion and how many hours or minutes of the day you are in the present, as it is, accepting the present. Most of the time, you are looking for make the present better. But by looking how to make the now better, I have to pay attention to the problems. I cannot accept it, and in other words, I have to reject it. I have to reject the now as it is in order to look for problems that I can make it better. Always, most of the day, we live with the snake, with the illusion, with the what the Vedanta called Maya. And we have this propensity for enjoyment. So always try to make the present more enjoyable. So, how I can make it more enjoyable, but I can enjoy the senses more. So, in this, if I want to enjoy more and always more, I have to look for the problems. I have to look for what can I improve. I have to look how to improve the present. And in these efforts for improve the present, I reject the present. Here arise what Imvedanta called raga and ducha or attractions and rejections. That means we escape from whatever can be painful, discomfort, and run after a shelter from the uncomfortable. And whenever we go and we define every experience, every every happening in our life in good, bad, enjoyable, painful, etc. etc. And then we judge the present and condemn any experience that is uncomfortable, and try to reject it and to bring other experiences that they are not in the moment, and then it is our internal conflict between what is and what is not. Yes? It is clear. And then we hear about illusion, ego, enlightenment, to become what you really are, to be your real nature, etc. etc. That is when we come in contact with some spiritual books, spiritual life. And then the same mechanism arises. What is to watch what is as it is, to be now here, but in this moment there is ego, there is illusion, I don't know enough. So I have to go and learn and practice and eradicate this ego. And one more time I reject the present to go for the dream, and I step on the world of illusion, and one more time the conflict, and then the difficulty to watch, to be aware. I cannot be aware because there is chaos. As a result of this conflict between what is and what is not. If I watch, I see illusion, I see anger, ego, egocentric attitude. Miser, solitude, violence, aggressiveness. So this is not what I supposed to be if I am a spiritual person. So how I supposed to be? Oh, and then I see myself as St. Francis of Assisi or myself like Swami Shivananda, Rabbi Nachman from Breslav, Baal Shemto, I see. I should be something like that. And then my Baal Shemtov is totally against the person I see now. They are in conflict the one with the other. The San Francisco I have in my dreams is totally against the person I have now. What is this? What I see is a demon. How can be spiritual? And this conflict creates a big internal chaos, disorder. And remember, whatever is disorder, whatever is chaos cannot be awareness and cannot be meditation. What if what if you can live your life without divide your experiences, without make selection with your experiences? This is good, this is bad, this is mediocre, this is brilliant, this is stupid. What if you spiritual and material? This is a material word, this is a spiritual action that is a material activity. What if you see, look, watch? The now as it is. We the ego, we everything, and accept it. What if you can see and look, even your inclination to eradicate the present, and you don't say, oh, Prabhuji saying now that I should stop to eradicate, I should accept the present. So I will try to accept the no, don't create one more time a new illusion. How I supposed to be when I accept the present. That is what I will try. No, I talk about see the present like you see a tree. A tree is not a stupid tree, brilliant tree, intelligent tree or boring tree. It's a tree and nothing else. If you can see the present as it is. See your mechanism and accept it. And see yourself as an ego with all your solitude, suffering. You accept it, everything. It is the present, it is the reality, it is the truth. And then one thing will not be. The conflict will disappear. Like all the garbage that is in chaos will go down, down, and the clear water will allow you to see. You will see much more easy it will be for you to see. Without escaping from what is and try to escape to some dream that is not, then you will be only working, deal with what is with reality, with the truth, accepting the now. Only then you will be relaxed, and you will be able to recognize the presence. The presence or the space where the ego and all the brilliant, the weakness, the good, the bad, the negative, the mediocre take place. The space, the unlimited, infinite space of awareness. And that space, that awareness is you. That space, that awareness is a god.