No such thing as a personal failure

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Thank you for being here today for spending your time like this when you could have believed for the rest of your life as you have until now that peace will perhaps never be an option for you. That you might be one of those people who just cannot be at peace. And you might have spent your time thinking that you need to plot and scheme and take peace from others to have it yourself. You might have spent your time thinking that others have peace and they don't even deserve it when you don't have it, although you deserve it. You might have spent your time distracting yourself from truth because it feels so painful, not realizing that truth can only be painful to the ego and not to you. And as always, you might have spent your time instead of being here gossiping, thinking about the opinions of others, the beliefs of others, resenting other people's false beliefs and their ignorance, and even resenting yourself for resenting their beliefs. Instead of doing any of that, today you were here engaging with timeless and universal ideas and not allowing distraction, not allowing worry, regret, shame, any of these things, but to say I give myself to truth, no matter what may come. I am starting to trust truth. I'm starting to trust everything that is good. I'm starting to trust love.

SPEAKER_04 1:49

So ever since I discovered philosophy and like especially I've been grappling with this question a lot, and I I can't seem to come close to the answer that I'm looking for. So I'm hoping you might have an answer on this one. When does uh philosophy start to trigger a kind of repression of emotion? For example, you said in one of your videos it is always important to act upon reason, which is logical, right? But there are many situations in life where reason itself by its own is kind of out of place. Many many situations in life require a lot of passion, a lot of emotions to make them work. And for me, it's been very difficult to balance at what point exactly do I start, does it start to get dangerous, and I start to repress my emotion? This this has been really hard for me, and I also try to think to myself, okay, what situations in life uh have almost only passion and almost no reason? There are quite in every sense of being a human that are an integral part of life that are almost 100% passion and almost no reason.

SPEAKER_06 3:42

What can you do with passion that you cannot do without passion?

SPEAKER_04 3:49

For example, making love. You cannot do that without any passion. That's just not possible, in my mind at least. Also maybe singing, performing, uh any types of art first things that come to mind.

SPEAKER_06 4:15

Okay, well, uh I'll have to I'll have to refer to you refer you to some of the videos that deal with love. Uh, but shorts long story short, love making has nothing to do with love. Okay, so uh and you can disagree on that, but that's that's what I would tell you on that. So we can we can move to the second point of um art. In terms of art, we we have noticed before that we have noticed before that um art has nothing to do with the passion that we're talking about. Passion is a so-called motivation for things that can never really trump reason and clarity of vision. Whereas we might say that um imagination is integral to art. We've actually oftentimes seen that the artist, the one who is making the most uh amazing and and cherished artworks, whether this be sculptural or or a painting or something like poetry, writing, whatever it may be, any form of art. And this includes also um forms of art that are not necessarily um regarded highly by the so-called art market. You know, this could be also things like architecture or what people usually refer to as the crafts, right? Anything you might uh think of there. We see that the most inspired artist is not the artist who goes into their passion, into their imagination to create a work of art, but the most inspired artist is the one who always speaks of receiving their art. Not coming up with it, not inventing it, not imagining it, but receiving it. They always say, This came to me. It came to me in the shower, it came to me while I was sleeping, it came to me while I was walking my dog, it came to me while I was sitting in the studio doing nothing because I was not ready to do yet. And it just hit me, they say. The some of the most skilled music composers say, it came to me, I can hear it in my head, and all I need to do now is to make it. The most inspired, skilled architect looks at an empty valley, an empty piece of land, and says, I can see the house, I can see everything about it. Now I need to just make it. Uh, it's the same with painting, it's the same with writing. The words just came to me. I received them. All I had to do was write them down. And that might take long, it might take years, and you might wait for another reception, and you might not receive it all at once. But that's what we commonly hear from the uh most inspired and the most inspiring artists and and again um people like any kind of makers. That's what we often hear from them. And so I would challenge that uh idea that art and so many things in life are not possible. Not only not um not only that they cannot be done just with reason, but that the that they're not even possible without passion, without uh ambition, uh some of which is greed, without emotion, certainly, without um in without the imagination. I challenge that. And I find no evidence of that. And and we see it repeated time and time again in uh everything that we find to be true, good, just, loving, and beautiful, that everything that is truly good is wholly good. In other words, everything that is really good is entirely good. Now, we don't find that to be true with passion. Passion is not entirely good. You might say that a lot of art comes out of passion, and in fact is not possible without passion. What else is not possible without passion is violence, deception, greed, jealousy, hatred, any single vice, any single so-called thing that we want to stay away from because we see its destruction from far and near in every other angle. It is those things that I would argue is not possible without passion. Uh, envy, jealousy, resentment, uh, and an unforgiving nature, a malicious nature, a vengeful nature, these are things that are not possible without passion. But when I look at art, it is not only possible without passion, those who are most inspired and most inspiring in that so-called world of art, makers of any kind, receive every single thing they have ever done. They have never had to suffer for it. They never had to ask someone else for it, they never had to pay for it, they never had to get uh emotional for it, they never had to get so-called passionate for it. It wasn't necessary. They might have done it and also received it and gotten to that result, and they might think it was because of their passion, some of them. Although I don't hear that so much actually. Um, but really the key was they were open to it. They were receptive to it, they um put an end to all the activities that are not right in their lives, that is, that are not conducive to this kind of reception and to this kind of knowledge and vision. It is not so much imagination that allows them to see their artwork, but a but a very um skilled kind of vision. Vision is not something we come up with, vision is not something we work ourselves up to. Vision is effortless, vision is clear, vision is right in front of us. And again, that is exactly what um some of those most inspired and most inspiring artists say. It is a vision rather than an imagination. So that's how I would uh at least start to approach that question.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

But about that, wouldn't you I would argue that the the the receiving part, I agree with that, but couldn't one argue that the execution of that vision requires a certain amount of passion, whether it be for example, let's say the artist Prince, you know the rock star prince, he had a huge vault of many, many thousands of songs that have been unreleased till today. And he also said that he he envisioned them, he received them, but the execution itself was very, very passionate. Isn't that required to actually create something?

SPEAKER_06 12:29

Us looking from the outside, see someone working in their studio for five hours, ten hours, fifteen hours, I don't know, however many long many hours. We see that as passionate looking from the outside. But to them, there is no other option. And they don't need to fall back to passion. They don't say, I have all these ideas, I have all these visions, but I don't have the energy. I need to somehow motivate myself. And then they go to imagination, to passion, to all these things. Um, it is not necessary. They have no other choice but to do it, they cannot stop doing it. Now, does that come from their passion, or does that come from the very divine vision that they have uh experienced and that they know they they must make come to fruition? Uh they will use all their energy to do that. And the source is not passion, the source is reception, that which they have received in itself, the very creation in itself, is giving them that energy, that focus, all the uh components that is necessary to receive and execute uh a so-called work of art or whatever it is that this might be. So once again, I do not find passion for that. Not only is do I find it to be not crucial, I think it is uh entirely extra. Yeah, I'm not saying it might not be there, of course it might be there, but it's an extra, if anything. It is not the source, it is not the origin, it is not the core, it is not the center. Um it is not anything like that.

SPEAKER_04 14:14

Uh okay. Um what about in the case of intimacy? This is like probably the maybe the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about being passionate. What about in that case?

SPEAKER_06 14:32

Um again, uh people use all kinds of things. People do use their art also, people use their careers, uh, they use all kinds of things, and uh perhaps especially relationships, as you said, to get thrills. To feel alive, as they themselves say. This makes me feel alive, and so you can call that passion, uh, and and perhaps that is exactly what it is. That doesn't make it a right thing to do, it doesn't make it a necessary thing to do. Uh, none of that. You can say it is necessary for the human race to procreate. Yes, but that's not what those people need passion for, they need that for something else, they need that to get a thrill because they don't really know what else to do.

SPEAKER_04 15:19

Okay, that's very interesting. Uh, well, in that case, I'm not sure if this is a silly question, but what is it for then? Or do we just have a different definition of passion then? Because I've always found myself a little bit confused when you talked in your videos about uh passion. And I think I maybe I might not understand fully what the stoic what the stoic um definition of passion even is.

SPEAKER_06 15:55

Uh passion is essentially emotion, but not the way we use the word now. Uh the word emotion, the way we use it now, has only been in use in that way for I think 100, 200 years. Before that, emotion was uh pretty much equal to the word passion. It it it meant essentially emotion out of control, right? A life dominated by emotion rather than reason. That's what passion is.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

Aha, okay. Then I might have misunderstood it. I did not know until now. Thank you for the explanation that that actually meant emotion out of control.

SPEAKER_06 16:42

So when Seneca and Epictetus and all these so-called Stoics, when they use the word emotion, uh they they mean what we now call passion. And sometimes I also use the word passion, but again, to them, it seems to have been the same thing. The the use of emotion as something positive, as something beautiful, as something controllable, as something as part of life, that only is, like I said, 100, 200 years old. You you might have to look that up. But uh it's always interesting to look up word origins because you see these trends changing and these things happening, especially someone interested in um philosophy, uh a lot of which has been written before 100 years, 200 years. It's always good to look that up. And um uh this is not to say to deny the emotions, to repress emotions, or to repress anything, actually. There's no need to repress anything. Everything can play within life, everything can dance, whatever it needs to happen. It does not affect the true self, it does not uh penetrate there for good or worse. It does not penetrate there. And so, as we talk about every now and then, uh, there's nothing wrong with emotions. A life-led, dominated, completely master the master of a life, that's what's wrong. That's what's genuinely harmful. But um, any other than that, the the emotions can come up. For example, anger, resentment can come up. There's nothing wrong with that. And we can't control that, by the way. So anyone who says um anger is wrong in the sense that it at all appearing within you is wrong, that's wrong. Right? It is wrong to be led by anger. It is it is wrong to at all communicate with anger. But the coming up of anger, that is not at all in our control. But even that we use to our advantage. Even that, because when resentment, anger, which is the same thing, comes up within us uncontrollably and without our without us being responsible for it at all, because it's just going to happen, we use that as a um unmistakable sign for the fact that there's identity in that area that anger has come up in. For example, if if I'm uh sitting in a car with someone and I'm driving, and that person uh criticizes my driving, and I feel any kind of resentment towards that, I can be 100% sure that in that area I have an identity. Perhaps I identify as a good driver, as a safe driver, as a whatever driver, better than most people, right? We all say that everyone thinks they're a good driver, right? So that's an identity. And when someone um directly confronts that and says, No, you actually uh I don't feel so safe. I don't feel that you're so competent uh driving this car right now. That's an attack on the identity. And an identity is what? Something that is not us, but that we have identified with. And so anger can only come up in terms of identity. When you don't have an identity, in other words, when you do not care about something, it cannot anger you. Never has anything angered you, disappointed you, made you jealous, made you envious, made you anything if you didn't care about it. An identity is the ultimate care, the ultimate care. And so uh that the emotions come up, and this also goes for the so-called good emotions, such as pride, right? When I am proud of something, I can be a hundred percent sure that I care about something very much, that I'm attached to something. And that attachment, that identity, is our entire and full cause of suffering always. Because one can drive a car, one can open up a business and have it be very successful, and one can do each and all of those things without any kind of attachment, without any kind of identity, without any kind of pride or anger about it. One can do everything in life, and in fact, so much more than one can do with identity. And so this is how we use emotion. When anything comes up, from pride to disappointment to anger to hatred, anything, we say, uh-huh, look, this is your sign. This is reality speaking to you, telling you that right here you have an attachment. And every attachment, no matter if it's doing well right now or not so well right now, always has the potential to bring you down. And in fact, it will bring you down. Because nothing that you can identify with, be it your career or some physical thing, is immortal, is untouchable, is undamageable by other people or by chance and luck and random events. And so any attachment you have. Have to anything is either your direct and current suffering or your future potential yet inevitable suffering. This is why they say detach. They don't say deny, suppress, repress, and run away from everything. That is not what they say. Or at least that is how it's misunderstood sometimes. But what it's really means is detach and carry on. It's like it says uh before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. It's the same thing. Nothing changes. You can do everything and then some without identity. And so no repression, no resentment, no rejection, no abandonment, none of that. None of it is necessary. Does that make um uh a bit more sense in that way?

SPEAKER_04 23:00

It makes total sense to me, but there's there are certain uh there are certain online communities, for example, that uh you know try uh try to to uh live out uh stoicism or claim to live out stoicism. I'm not saying it is this community, not at all. I'm just saying in general, there are certain communities that do that mistake in which they misunderstand stoicism in certain ways, in a way to repress emotion completely and just uh go through life to gain arbitrary goals, such as make as much money as possible, or get all these kinds of women. This is just an example of these types of communities. In your opinion, uh what mistake are they doing? Because they are repressing their emotion, and certainly they are chasing worldly things. Yes, what is the main mistake that these communities are doing?

SPEAKER_06 24:19

Um, well, it's not for me to say, you know, it's uh I don't know, and I and I don't really uh look at others because uh I don't have the need to look at others. We we all um need to, in my opinion, and that's just my opinion, that changes from everyone, just need to look at ourselves. We don't need to look at anyone else. Um, but you know, at least whether they are making a mistake or not, it is not for me to say, but at least they are seeing that they are not their emotions. All of us, and uh in fact, uh all people who have ever lived, I think, at least at some point in their lives, and I think most people, most of their lives, think that they are their emotions, that they are their thoughts. And so uh we never question these things and and we are never challenged about these things. No one ever says, hey, do you really think you are your thoughts? Everyone always says, this is how to fix a thought, this is how to feel better, this is how to think more positively, you know, by setting one thought against another, by uh setting one emotion against another. Oh, you're feeling sad, let's do this thrilling thing, let's forget, let's, let's, let's do this um distraction, and you'll feel better. Okay, but why communicate with the emotions? Why communicate with the thoughts? Is it really necessary? Is it really um our responsibility uh to uh be responsible, so to speak, of the thoughts and response the emotions that come up within us? Are we responsible for creating them? Because if we're not responsible for creating them, why do we hold ourselves responsible for getting rid of them? Or for trying to change them or for trying to better them? How how how was this mess dumped in our lap and we for some reason have to figure it out? We're not responsible for our thoughts and emotions. They come up. If we were responsible, we would also be in control. And if we were in control, we would never have a thought that we don't like. We would never have an emotion that we think is destructive. And so, if we're not in control of them appearing, why do we think we're in control of uh being able to repress them or change them or get rid of them or make them better? We're not. And so um maybe that is something for for people to think about who try to repress their emotions, who try to get rid of some, uh enhance some others or whatever they're trying to do. Uh maybe this is something to think about. But overall, uh again, I I say at least they are aware that there is nothing good in passion, that there is nothing good in uh so-called ambition and greed and pride. At least they're becoming aware that that's that's a massive, massive step. There is no way to come to this further realization that emotions can't hurt you, thoughts can't hurt you, and they can just happen and play. All you have to do is just not communicate with them. You cannot come to that understanding without first coming to the understanding that you are not your thoughts, you're not your emotions, and that there's nothing good in the so-called um uh passions, which are, by the way, uh the same as vices. Every single vice is an emotion. Greed is an emotion, anger is a vice and an emotion, jealousy is a vice and an emotion. So that's always interesting to see. So it's it's a gradual process. We don't need to we wish them well, we wish everyone well, we wish ourselves well, uh, but we don't need to go and fix other people or try to understand even uh where did this person go right, where did this person go wrong. We just need to look at ourselves, really.

SPEAKER_04 28:18

No, absolutely. The the reason why I spoke about these other communities is not necessarily to talk about them or to to try to fix them, it was more in a sense of uh I see that I make this type of um, I see that I make this type of mistake myself sometimes. And I'm trying to see if I have any sort of like a misunderstanding about the concept of ego because I find myself sometimes mistakenly um um suppressing suppressing my emotions in certain ways, or maybe mistaking it as suppressing my emotions in certain ways, in uh in trying to live out uh stoic philosophy in the parts of my life that I need them. That's why I am asking this question is um is suppressing certain emotions itself maybe a vice? Or uh I I don't know. I I I'm not even sure how to how to ask this question in the right way because I've been thinking about this question for for a long time now. When when um when do we when is the when is the correct timing of catching ourselves and recognizing this might not be a healthy way of dealing with a sort with with any sort of emotion? Does the question make sense?

SPEAKER_06 30:08

Yeah, but I I I think we touched on that by saying um there is nothing wrong with an emotion coming up. There's nothing wrong with it. It is not a personal failure that an emotion comes up because it's not in your control. What you do next is in your control. And like I advised, uh, because I find it helpful, I advise that what you do next with the emotion after it first comes up is to use it to your advantage by saying, uh-huh, why did this emotion come up? What just happened? It was related to this. That means I have some attachment there. And since the human uh is a creature of reason, the human's nature is reason, as soon as it sees something that is unreasonable, such as an attachment, it will naturally, just by the observation of it, fall away. Maybe not instantly, maybe it needs repeated observation. But the method does not change. Um, the emotion comes up, nothing wrong has happened yet. Nothing wrong. I am receiving information. So let me see where that information is leading me. Uh-huh. It is leading me to this attachment, which I was unaware of prior. If I was aware of it before, I would have known it before, but I wasn't. Emotion intuitively showed me. I didn't need my intellect to do this because the intellect cannot do this. It intuitively is showing me you have an attachment over here. So now reason can come in. Now you can decide do I want to follow that information? Do I want to get into it? Or do I want to distract myself from it? Do I want to pretend like it doesn't exist? Do I want to repress it? Do I want to do other things now? Or do I want to go to it and deal with it? And if you go to it and deal with it, again, all you have to do is observe. There's nothing else to do. And to the reasoned mind, an observation of something that does not make sense, that is harmful, that is destructive, that is simply has no place there, naturally will detach itself from it. Um, and then what's wrong in this entire process? What was the need for resentment? Resentment came up again, but in this process, why do we need to increase resentment towards ourselves, saying, uh, I'm feeling resentment again. I promised myself to be kinder, gentler, more understanding. Yet here I am again feeling resentment. It has nothing to do with you. You are the one who interprets it that way, but you are not actually that. It is not a personal failure, failing for emotion or any kind of thought to come up. What you do with it after, if you start communicating with it or not, that is up to you. And I advise everyone to not communicate with emotion, to not communicate with thoughts that are not of reason. There are logistical thoughts. There's the thought that says, I'm hungry right now. That's a good thought. Follow that thought. There's the thought, today is kinship. I want to speak there. I have something on my mind. I want to take care of this. Uh, do you deem this a good thought or a bad thought? What does reason tell you? It tells you it's a good thought, right? Nothing wrong with that. So you go pursue that. But when the thought tells you to take something from someone else because they don't deserve it and you deserve it because of all the suffering you've been through, you can discern just by the fact of the presence of resentment within that thought, that it comes together with emotion, you can see there's something not right about this. Something not right about this. So I'm gonna, am I gonna follow what it says? Or I'm gonna follow, am I gonna follow it to its source and find some attachment there, some identity there, which I then once again, without any shame, without any emotion, in fact, can simply detach myself from. It is my nature that will do the work for me. It is effortless. Just like art, it is effortless. It might take a lot of physical energy, certain things to do certain things, but the motivation, the inspiration, the vision of it is effortless because it's our nature.

SPEAKER_04 34:42

I guess like I I agree with that, and thank you for thank you for that input. I guess what I have learned regarding this topic is this is for me personally at least a bit easier with uh logistical thoughts. For example, eating, sleeping, um, uh doing something that I have planned for it for the day. These logistical thoughts are easier to deal with. Um, for interpersonal relationships, whether it be family or everything else, it is not it is not always clear if you have the choice that you're working with.

SPEAKER_06 35:29

I don't want to interrupt you, but this is an it's an important part here. Um, you're saying it's clear with logistics, but it's not so clear with some other things. That too is not a personal failing. Okay, you are developing a vision. All right, it starts with logistics because logistics are so clear and they have an immediate effect, and you can immediately discern if they are right or wrong, right? And so um it starts with logistics and and stay there and just build out. Build out, out, out, out, out. Soon interpersonal relationships will be part of logistics. It'll be so clear. Every time I do this, this happens. Why would I do that again? Or this happens and it's a good thing. So I will just do it more. It will become easier, clearer, effortless. And then from there, you perhaps you you'll move on to other things. Wherever you wish to go, again, there is no requirement, there is no forbidden place. There is no, it's all about reason finding a base and uh building out. And of course, logistical at first uh is the clearest and the best. And so from there, it just starts developing and developing and developing this vision. It becomes clearer and clearer. And you don't need anything. This vision is already inside of you. Uh, if things are not clear to you, it's not because you are lacking something, but it's because the vision is obscured. It's obscured by what? Identities, attachments, all those roles in our lives that are not really us, but that keep demanding things from us or tell us that we've done good and that we should be proud of ourselves. And if we're proud, well, then we're gonna seek more of that. But it was never proper to begin with. It was just an attachment and identity that we are unaware of that is driving us, and it is driving us in the wrong way because uh it's not reason in the driver's seat, it's identity, emotion, passion, greed, ambition, whatever it may be, right? It changes from case to case. But find your base in reason, which, as you said, is the clearest and best at first in logistics, and uh don't add anything to it. Whenever it tries to, whenever a thought or an emotion tries to take you out of it, you say, Who's speaking right now? Who's speaking right now? Is it reason that which has never led me wrong? Or is it emotion that which when I gave into it fully and didn't listen to anything else always led me wrong?

SPEAKER_03 38:11

I'm just laughing because it seems like a lot of people have to learn the hard way. But I mean, that's also part of life, right? But one can make it easier for oneself.

SPEAKER_04 38:24

Uh just some final words because I don't want to take up too much time.

SPEAKER_07 38:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

Because there are other people who want to speak too. Um, I guess for me, a good practice is revisiting my vision every once in a while. Um, one can cling to certain visions, which in my opinion is also not always healthy. I think a lot of visions, as you said, so too, come naturally or are received. And uh this has been a very uh enlightening conversation. This has helped me a lot because I've been grappling with this question for several years now, and I think I just arbitrarily put uh an immense amount of pressure on myself um regarding this puzzle. So this uh makes life uh very much lighter in many different ways. Um thank you for that. Um, that was a very nice conversation. Um and uh one last word. I wish you a very nice uh rest of the kinship session. I also wanted to say uh these last couple of weeks I've had some challenges. I revisited Stoic philosophy again after facing those challenges, and I must say it has helped me a lot, especially some of your videos regarding roles and identity have uh helped me to alleviate a lot of uh a lot of uh thought patterns that have not been very helpful. So I want to thank you for that too. Please continue what you're doing and also to the rest of the community. And I wish you all a beautiful rest of the evening. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_06 40:32

Thank you very much for your words and uh for everything that you brought here because, as you said, it it really was a very edifying discussion. It's very important to see these things. Uh, and I'm just gonna put you uh to the audience real quick so that you can just listen at this point. Um, but yeah, thank you for everything. And and like you said, this is something that everyone's dealing with, and we put so much pressure on ourselves. But I hope you've seen a little bit today that that pressure is entirely unnecessary. Entirely unnecessary. Just like the passions trick us by telling us that they're necessary for us to do all these beautiful things in the world, art and science and achievements and everything, everything really, they'll try to get into anything. Just like that. Pressure, too, is just another attachment, it's just another thought, and it's a thought pattern, and it's a reaction to the world. And in truth, every emotional reaction is an over-reaction. Reason has the proper reactions to everything else we often see end up seeing down the road is an over-reaction. And so um I'm telling you, everything can happen. Everything can happen. Disappointment, anger, sadness, pride. Anything can happen. It is not your personal achievement or your personal failing for these things to happen. They're just things that happen due to your existence. They could not happen without you. You do happen without them. You don't always have a thought, you don't always have an emotion. You are asleep a lot of the day. And uh you do not know yourself in that time. But you are still there. So those thoughts and emotions take life from you, you do not take any kind of life from them, and uh we should not take any kind of direction from them either. They can be good pointers, like I said, anything can be used to your advantage. Anything, and I truly believe that. And so everything is allowed to happen, nothing need be repressed, nothing need be denied, and certainly nothing need be battled. That is one of our biggest mistakes. Okay, with that being said, I will uh invite our next speaker immediately.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

In terms of chronological order, I'll start by answering the question of the week, and then I'll go ahead and share what I wanted to share with you.

SPEAKER_06 43:36

Okay, so the question of the fortnight, which is what we're calling it now, right? Because a fortnight, because the questions go for go for two weeks, yeah, and the fortnight is 14 nights. So I thought that was a good name for that. So the question of the fortnight for this week still um the last week of it, what will be the signs? That you have arrived. What will be the signs that you have arrived?

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Great question again, because it's it puts the spotlight uh on the key, I would say. The key, because in my opinion, the sign is when it clicks when we realize that we have actually nowhere to be, nowhere to go. We're already here, we're already there, you know. We have nowhere else to be, we have uh no other uh time, we'd rather be. And that uh even the goals or uh the um uh objectives we we uh set uh for ourselves in our lives, uh they have uh nothing to do with uh us being complete and uh whole and fulfilled. Uh most importantly, yeah, fulfilled. So I linked arrival to fulfillment, and in my opinion, it's it's like a homecoming. So and indeed, when we realize that we are uh fulfilled uh regardless of uh what's going on in our lives, I used to think that uh uh when there's conflict, there can't be peace. Generally, okay, we might agree that when there's conflict, if somebody is conflicted within themselves, like they can't have peace. But the the conflict I'm talking about is the external conflict with uh whether be it with uh other people uh or um I don't know, people with people or countries with other countries, or but I realized that peace is peace is there even within conflict. And if I have peace within me, even if I carry myself into a conflict of any sort, or by my own control in my own knowing, uh if I have peace and reason and love within, if uh my actions are being led uh primarily and absolutely only by uh those things that even if the other parties involved uh will uh escalate uh by me going about that conflict from that place, eventually uh the de-escalation will eventually take place, and not only that, the other party will uh have the opportunity to uh fix that uh conflict within themselves, just like I had the opportunity to figure out that I've been conflicted and I was uh not aware of certain things through the hard conversations and through the conflicts. But uh it's funny that I used to think uh, you know, whenever I'm uh like in a situation that is conflicted with um certain people, uh I would say, Oh my god, I just want to have some peace, you know, not realizing that uh we don't have control over that. Peace is not that the absence of conflict not doesn't necessarily mean peace. Uh also um um so yeah, yeah. So uh I just want to end by emphasizing that uh arrival, homecoming, whatever we want to call it, uh it's uh realizing that uh we have nowhere to be, the peace uh uh is uh here, is within us, and once we realize this, we see the fruits uh for ourselves within, and for uh everything else um that we that is that is uh that in uh we involve ourselves in. Um and that um it's this is completely individual, and uh again uh I very much like to emphasize that I agree with you so much, and I really like it when you bring it up and you say um uh it's a personal uh work, you can't change nobody. And we go about these interactions not with the aim to change the people, but with the aim to give them uh like a present, like a gift, give them the opportunity what life has gifted me. I I'd like to gift it and and and they're uh not attaching myself to the outcome. I used to be so attached to my dad, to my mom, to my aunts, and whenever they have to leave and go somewhere, I'd uh cry and get even sick, I'd get sick. Um, and I have uh carried this, not uh I wouldn't get super sick as I used to do when I was young, but I still carried this uh until very recently. And only when I sat down and I realized uh what was happening that I realized it was uh it had to do with uh me attaching myself to the expectations of the people that I care uh about and I love, but I was like they I don't have to do this.

SPEAKER_06 50:28

I still love them, even if they're gonna exactly this is this is how we see this is how we see that identity really is the root of all our suffering. Because um when we say attachment, I was attached to this person, I was attached to my job, I was attached to whatever uh that necessitates an identity. Because when you're attached to a person and to their expectations, as you say, well, then you're gonna be in your mind the person who lives up to expectations or the person who's just disappointed those expectations, etc. etc. Those are identities, and all our suffering comes from that identity not being able to live up to itself, meaning I am the good daughter, I am the good friend, I am the good worker, I am the ambitious uh artist, whatever it is. And uh that's not none of that is in our control. The expectations of others are not in our control, what the world sees uh or approves of is not in our control, all these things. And so, truly, you know, I've taken away three things from what you're saying. One is uh truly identity is the root of all suffering. There's no way around it, attachment, rather, however you want to call it. And and two, that all the solutions to all our problems appear to us. It is a vision, like we talked about earlier. It is not uh something that requires us to go into our imagination and to stand be there and to imagine countless scenarios and to try to pick the right one based on what? Based on speculation, of course, uh to go back into the past, to try to project into the future. Solution, truth, reality never requires this from us. It always comes with the situation itself. And it's received, it is seen, it is not made up, it is not invented, it is not constructed. And the third thing is uh that goes along with that is that every single situation, every single event, everything that has ever happened to us, is happening to us, or could ever happen to us, can be turned around to our advantage. Every single time. If you look long enough, if you've developed that vision also, and if you haven't developed it yet, this is your education to develop it. Every event, and what and this is exactly what I mean. I'm not saying every event immediately brings its own solution with it, but every event brings something to your advantage to it, to your advancement, even if that is just the realization that we are ill-equipped to deal with such a situation. Now we know. Before we didn't, or it wasn't clear enough, or it wasn't quite obvious enough, whatever it may be. In some way, in some form, it brings invaluable opportunity and the very material itself for advancement. And uh these three things can be seen in every event, in every situation, even retrospectively. I'm not telling you to go into the past and to try to analyze the past, not at all. But if you did, no matter where you look, I'm saying, you will see this truth. And uh it is demonstrated to us in one way or another every week here, either by things like you just told us from your personal experience or any other thing that we see in the world. If we know how to look, we can see it. And so uh I will put you back to the audience only because uh we still have five people, uh, and I I feel like I I should give them uh time to speak as well. So thank you very much for that. Because again, invaluable for us to see any one of those things, but three things were in there and more that I probably didn't even pick up on, right? Um and that's exactly my point. If we develop this vision, we're gonna see more and more. Not create more and more, but see more and more of what there already is. And uh you talked about peace as well, it's the same with peace. We do not create peace and we do not get closer to peace. All that we do is we see it more clearly. We are taking away the obstructions that make us think that we are not already standing on peace, that make us look somewhere else, that make us look for something else. But truth is, reality is that peace is your nature. Peace is you, it is your mode of being. You cannot exist without peace. Peace is your nature. And so we are, you know, whatever metaphor, analogy, or way of thinking you want to use, we are always standing on peace. All our struggles, all our battles, all our planning and scheming take place on the ground of peace. And we're making up all these plans of saying, Oh, where might peace be and how might I get there? That very thinking you are doing while sitting on top of peace. And so it is the vision we are developing here, not peace itself. Peace doesn't need anything from us. Peace is complete, and peace has always been there and will always be there. And I will take our uh next speaker immediately here.

SPEAKER_02 56:18

Hello, Patesh, how are you?

SPEAKER_06 56:21

Doing well, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 56:24

Excited to be here.

SPEAKER_06 56:26

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

Uh I hope everyone is is uh is okay, is having a nice day, and uh happy Easter as well.

SPEAKER_06 56:36

Um so relating to the question uh yeah, so the question is uh what will be the signs that you have arrived?

SPEAKER_02 56:46

So my first point is like a ceasing of restlessness. Uh and for me, I think it is in the moments when I release the pressure and just let my days unfold naturally, free from the relentless struggle for achievement. I think it's my main point in the answering. What I personally find the most challenging in uh preserving that um the peace that comes with that's that that seizing of restlessness is uh external interference, which is something I I s I I find um it's like a trigger for me that uh hinders me to uh achieve that state of uh that that peace, profound peace.

SPEAKER_01 57:46

Those triggers disturb my peace of mind.

SPEAKER_02 57:51

Um but then I kept thinking about strategies to uh for when we have that uh external external events or people, whether it be people or circumstances which might um disturb our inner peace.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

And I I thought about um to think of our minds like a house.

SPEAKER_02 58:21

So I may have to open the door to those disturbing things in real life, but I don't have to give I us don't have to give uh to give them a room inside. So to think of our minds like a house. And another strategy would be um just to accept acceptance of what it is, acceptance of real life, acceptance that people do not change, we don't have that power, and why would we want them to change it's their life? We just have to to uh have inner peace and don't let that uh those externals interfere with with uh our sense of peace and uh to not let to not let that disturbance win. And then I I thought about a second point, so those would be the signs that I have not yet arrived. And I thought about hope. Hope it's it probably is according to my point of view, of course, uh the main the main sign that I have not yet arrived.

SPEAKER_06 59:39

Because is hope uh if I hope a sign that you have not yet arrived, or is hope the very thing that is keeping you from realizing that there is nowhere to arrive to? I think it's the the the second so then why do we say because we all do this, I'm not just talking about you or with you? Why do we keep hoping? Why do we say that hope is a sign that I'm not there yet? Because it's absolutely true. If we are hoping, we're not there yet, otherwise we wouldn't be hoping. But why do we not ask ourselves this? Is peace something that requires effort or the cessation of effort?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:31

The cessation of effort.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:33

So then why are we letting these thoughts and emotions such as ambition tell us if you secure this, if you achieve this, if you overcome this, and if you destroy this, you may have peace. Why do we agree with that? And then why do we implement the plan that they are suggesting to us?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:59

I'd say our mind plays tricks on us, uh and so we have uh we tend to like uh assign certain importance to uh outside or uh outside circumstances, achievements, uh personal goals, and then we get fixated on those on the uh on those goals and uh we keep on uh finding strategies to get there and along the way if something goes goes uh against planned we we s like self-sabotage our inner peace.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:40

But here again it is important that to to always ask who's speaking when we think that we have once again let ourselves down, when we think that we have once again self-sabotaged, who is letting down whom? How many people are inside of you?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:05

Like I said, I can think of my mind as a house and I won't let I I there is a strategy strategy I I I'm trying to to um take control of, so I don't let so I don't let uh you cannot take control of your mind okay but not of maybe not of my mind but my my reactions and uh to control my emotions.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:36

You cannot control emotions either. Have you ever uh achieved have you ever achieved controlling an emotion in the sense that it never even came up for you because of your control?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:51

No, they came up what I can uh what I can uh control, let's say, is my my reaction to those emotions that come.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:02

Maybe, yeah, that might be true, and you're right. Sometimes we achieve to do that, but sometimes we don't do that, are not able to do that. Now, what if we said that our ability to not fall for, not go with an emotion or a thought, what if we said that is not an achievement? And what if we said it is also not a personal failing if we do sometimes go with it? If that were true, if um our ability to get better at controlling our reactions to thoughts and and emotions, what if that ability getting better was not a good thing, and that ability not getting better was not a bad thing? What if it didn't really matter for peace?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:58

If it didn't matter, we would have peace without any doubt.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:02

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:02

We would be like uh we would be we'd be um at world at peace.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:10

I am telling you this is in fact the case. This is in fact the case. Realize this. When you are first waking up in the morning, right? You're barely, you're barely conscious that you are conscious. You're barely conscious that you are alive, and things are slowly coming back. Slowly, slowly you remember uh who you are, what day it is, and you remember, you start remembering what you have to do this morning and this afternoon, and even next week, as all of that is happening, before all of that is happening, the the first realization of I am, I am the feeling of being, the feeling of existing, clearly, I am, right? There's no doubt, but there's no thinking going on, there's no thought coming in and telling you, you exist. Look, I'm gonna prove it to you, like this and this, do this and this and this, and you will see you exist. Or an emotion that comes in of bliss and says, Wow, how wonderful to exist. Before any of that happens, if it even ever happens, you already know without a doubt and without a thought and without any emotion that you are you exist. To that that which is the fundament of your existence, and in fact, which is your complete existence. Everything that happens after that is an addition, it's an extra, but it is not. Completion. You were complete before the thought of what I have to do this morning. You were complete before the bliss of what a wonderful day it is today because the sun is out, or the disappointment that it is yet again another gray day before all of that. Before all of that. To that one, does it make that one any better or any worse if an emotion comes up and they are able to control their reaction or not? Does it make that one any less fully existing? Yes or no?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:48

No.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:49

Interesting. But let's just, without adding thought to it, without, without, without becoming intellectual once again. We're we're all in a way intellectuals here, right? Because we read and we think and we do. Let's put that aside. Just just for now, let's put that aside and just rest in that, in that realization, which takes no proof, no effort, no approval of oneself or approval of someone else, and that even the disapproval of oneself or the disapproval of other people cannot change. This cannot be changed. This is fact. This is the ultimate and fundamental fact. That the one who is truly you, who gives existence to all else, and which comes prior, prior to every single activity, every single thought, every single emotion, every single belief, that which is prior to all of that, is full, complete, untouchable, unchangeable, and has no moods, has no beliefs, has no feelings, has no thoughts, has no regrets, has no desires, has no worries, has no goals, yet it is fully complete and fully there. We can realize this, we can see this in our own experience, as you have just said. You didn't have to go into the past or into your opinions, into your beliefs, into your beliefs, into your past memories or into your uh information. You knew, knew, not in the kind, not in the information sense, but in the knowledge sense, intuitively, you already knew this. And this knowledge you didn't learn. If I had asked you uh as a three-year-old, I don't know if you could speak then, but if I had asked you this question and you were able to answer, you would have still said yes. You would have still given the same answer. You would still, yeah, I sense I am, I am here. And I am full and I'm complete. So why do I need to be able to get better at reacting to reactions? Why do I need to get better in being able to control my reactions to thoughts and to emotions better? Who is the one who needs that? Is it the true self, the one who gives existence to everything else and the one who is prior to everything? Or is it just yet another identity that views itself as getting better? Oh, and it's struggling, oh, and it's going down, oh, but now it's going up. This story, this expectation, this changing being that comes after the true self, isn't it? Is it that who is doing this, or is it the true self, the one prior to all else?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:12

Yeah, I think uh it's like we tend to construct to our own identities, and then uh that uh that is what uh ultimately leads to those expectations and uh if something fails then what did I get what did I get what did I do wrong? What must what must I do right next time?

SPEAKER_06 1:10:42

Um all of that, all of that comes after. All of that comes after the one who is full and complete and gives life to all of these thoughts, all of these beliefs, all of these expectations, all of these opinions, all of these identities, all of these attachments are not possible without this prior one. And that prior one is full and complete. So what are we trying to add to it? What are we trying to fix about it? What lack does it have? What desire does it have that it demands to be satisfied?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:22

Well, that is very, very freeing.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:24

Well, answer the question though. What lack does that one have? And what desire does that one have? And what demands does that one make?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:34

No, we are we are all whole and complete before having any kind of identity.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:41

Exactly. So let's why don't we just stop there? Why don't we always stop there? Why don't we every time when a thought, an emotion, uh uh, an identity, an opinion, or whatever it is, we don't need to know what it is and we don't know what it is at the time. Why don't we every time just ask ourselves, or raise the question rather, because again, who's asking whom? But why don't we just raise the question? Who is speaking right now? Who is speaking right now? Is it that true self that comes before all else, not only in the day, but in life, in existence that is prior to everything? Or is it something posterior to that? If it is something posterior to that telling me that I lack something, I can know for a fact that it is lying to me. And again, uh, nothing's evil, nothing's bad. We don't have to say it's a lying to me, but it's incorrect. So wouldn't I just naturally rest in the knowledge of what or who I truly am and say, this isn't that? This is insignificant, this is not real, in effect. Wouldn't I just intuitively know that rather having to battle with my thoughts and my emotions and to try to prove something to someone, even if that someone is myself? That true self that is before all else and that is complete and lacks and desires nothing, that one has also never asked me for proof of anything. It has never asked me to prove itself, again, since it is me, there is no such conversation taking place. But I have never felt a desire to prove anything to that true self. And again, here language fails me because I'm saying I am trying to prove something to the true self. Since I am the true self, there's only one, so they this conversation cannot take place. But for just means of language, you know, we have to use it. It's not perfect. But um that one has never asked for proof, that one has never demanded a desire to be fulfilled, that one has never um wanted someone else's permission or approval or favor or anything. That one has never hated because it knows not what hate is. That one has never yearned for peace because it knows not what the lack of peace is. It is everything that comes after the attachments, the identities, the ego, which are all synonyms, by the way. It is those who keep demanding things, and it is those who are allowed to live by this prior true self, because everything comes out of it. Without that true self, there is no electricity to run thought, there is nothing to run emotion, there is nothing to run belief, there is nothing to run disappointment or pride or jealousy or anger or happiness or anything. All of that comes after. And everything that comes after, the one prior is not dependent on. Everything that comes after the one that is prior, is not dependent on. So that true self, I tell you, does not ask you and is certainly not dependent on. It does not even know of your activity to make yourself better in how you react to emotions or thoughts or other people's opinions or whatever it is that you're trying to get better at. Now, your activity in trying to get better in reacting to your emotions and thoughts is not an illusion. It's not a wrong thing for you to do because you are someone who exists in a physical body. You are someone who exists in this world, which is real. You are someone who has physical needs. You are someone who is not independent of the physical world. And so there are things that you need to operate, there are things that you need to service. But none of those things can make your true self better or worse. It is just your activity that is posterior. It comes after the true self. The true self you are doing this with, so to speak. The true self is the one who's able to service these things if they uh if the true self wants to. And what is the guide of the true self? What is the guide of awareness? It's reason. This is why we say, let our guide be reason. We are not reason and we are not emotion, we are not thought. Let our guide be reason rather than emotion. Let our guide be awareness rather than unawareness. Let our guide be what detachment shows us, not attachment. But to do any of that, first we need to know what is there before all else? What is all of this activity for and from, for and from. And once we know that, can we not, in each situation in which we are confused or or in any way need any kind of guidance, can we not come back to the simple, intuitive, undeniable knowledge of what the true self truly is and take guidance and rest from that intuitive, undeniable knowledge that is always with us, always accessible to us? Why do we ever need to do anything other than that to gain clarity, to come back to a state of peace? Peace is always there, but to a state of peace. What else do we need to relax into peace? What else do we need to rest in truth? It is all about knowing the true self and then not getting distracted. And to know that even getting distracted is not a failing of the true self. It is a distraction from the true self, fine. But the true self did not fail. The true self is what it is. It cannot be made better or worse by any activity that comes after it. And so if we see ourselves distracted, let us come back to that intuitive understanding. Let us come back to it. And if we lose it, so to speak, if we get distracted a thousand times a day, let us come back a thousand and one. And let us not call each distraction a failure, and let us not call each coming back to the true self to awareness a success. Because these are identity judgments of what has happened. The true self doesn't look at it that way. The true self simply is, just like reality, right? Reality has never said this is good, this is bad. Reality is, period. It is not good and bad or uh advantageous, disadvantageous, disappointing, uh motivating, none of that. It is. And much like that, the true self simply is. It has never asked anyone to deliver successes and to avoid failures. So when I say, wouldn't it be nice that each time we go with the thought and with the emotion and we fail to control our reactions to them? What if that was not really a failure? What if it took away nothing from what the true self is, what oneself is? We say, ah, but wouldn't that be nice? It is in fact the case, and it is undeniable that it is the case. That is in fact the reality we are living in. And this is why I always say we need not fix anything, we need not fill a lack. All we need, if anything, is to develop this vision that this in fact is already the case. And that everything else that seems to be real is it is what obscures this vision of reality. If I cannot, if I put my thumb in front of the sun, am I to say that the sun now does not exist as long as my thumb is in front of it, or am I to say that it is abstracted, obscured to me right now? Reality is that it is merely obscured to me and not even to everyone. If I put my thumb on it, it doesn't obscure it for anyone else, it obscures it for me. And so my personal, the work of life, as we call it, is not to create the sun, is not to make all the clouds go away. It is to know that behind the clouds there always is the sun. Always. Even at nighttime, it is just behind the planet relative to where we are, but the sun is always there. And even the sun will implode one day and go away. But this is what we're talking about, the true self, not only the true self of this human being that is speaking right now, or the human being that is listening right now, but the true self of all of humanity, every single animal, every single planet, every single movement in the entire universe or universes, however many they potentially there may be, the true self of that too there is. And the true self of all of that, even if they themselves go away, the true selves of them remain. There's one true self of everything of the entire universe. You did not invent yourself. You did not create yourself. When you make a child, you do not invent a child. You set a process in motion that is ready to go. It was ready to go. You only set it in motion. That which you set in motion you did not make. And that which you use to believe in false beliefs, that which you use to become angry, that which uh uh takes its existence, such as disappointment, where does it take its existence from? Where does it get its life from? Where does it get its energy, its activity from? From the true self. And the true self is you, it is not a part of you or a mode of you or a feeling or a a state that you are in now but are not other times. No. This true self is always there. Even when you are sleeping, it is there. You are not the one who turns it on, who turns it off, or any of that. And is any of this deniable? There's nothing there to deny. Even the act of denying something takes its life from the true self. Without the true self, there can be no denial. Without the true self, there can be no acceptance. And so this is the vision of what we're developing here. The vision, not the thing itself. And this is why when we say no one can harm anyone, this is what Socrates meant. No one can harm another. How can another person harm this of you, this true self? You can't even touch it. You could be angry your entire life, you could be fighting your entire life. It all happens from the true self. And the true self takes no color from it whatsoever. And so, who can make you better? Who can make you worse? Even your own actions, your own activity, which stem from the true self, cannot make the true self better or worse. This is what I'm trying to point out to you. And the and peace operates much the same way. Peace is there. Peace is it is not waiting on you, it is not disappointed with you, it is not about to leave, it is not about to be someone else's, it is not about to be destroyed, and it is not about to become better or more patient or anything like that at all. It is complete, whole, and round in a timeless space, always there. And in fact, you're sitting on it. And so even when we are at battle and we think we are fighting for peace, we are doing this from a position, from a nature of peace. If we finally stopped and relaxed and gave up all effort, all ambition, all activity, what we would fall on is peace itself. Effortless and without any activity. And uh no ticket required, no achievement needed, no proof required. Because it is your nature. And so once again, this is the vision we are developing here, and it's already happening, by the way, and you cannot stop it. Because it is something you already are for something that already is a certain way to operate in that way is inevit inevitable. It is not something that needs to be learned or to be achieved or to be um made and created and and worked on. It is only the vision of it. As long as we don't see it, we won't see it, but it will still be there. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:19

Yes. All that you said made uh made uh perfect sense, I guess. Uh it is like I said before, it is very very freeing to think about not not having to do not having to to do any activity to achieve certain goal to just be to be in the moment, to live in the present, to appreciate.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:48

This is what this is also part of it. We need to switch because we're so used to it, and it's okay. It's again not a failing, and it's not gonna make us any better. But it is going to allow us to see it more clearly. Clearly, we need to switch from a state of doing to a state of being. We need to switch from activity to existence. And again, existence you are operating everything with existence. So existence takes no effort. You already are that. Effort takes effort. Activity takes activity. Rest only takes rest. And so this is this is what we're seeing here. This is what's becoming more and more obvious, right? And um again, I want us I want to end this by by addressing the ego real quick so that the ego doesn't stand in the way of this appreciation. And when I say appreciation, I mean this understanding, this vision. The ego is now telling some of us, right here, right now, that oh, am I supposed to just stop doing anything and and uh repress everything and retire to the forest? I have responsibilities, I have a family, I have friends, I have things I need to achieve, I have things I want to do in this world, I want to participate. Go ahead. Now you can truly do these things. Now you can truly participate. Not for a reward, not for salvation, not for achievement, not for a prize, not for peace, but out of peace, not for love, but out of love, not for knowledge, but out of knowledge, you can now do these things. With that, the final argument and the final resistance of the ego falls. This is the last argument that the ego has. Yes, rest rest is effortless. Yes, peace is beautiful and effortless and requires no proof or achievement or ambition whatsoever. But we live in a capitalist society. We have family, we have friends, we have things we want. Now you can do those things even better.

unknown 1:30:24

Okay?

SPEAKER_06 1:30:24

Complete reversal of what the ego is worried about. Complete reversal. And uh no one achieves better than the one who's at peace. No one understands better than the one who has understanding. No one sees clearer than the one who has clarity. We are fighting for peace and complicating for understanding. And the more we fight, the less we see it, the more we complicate, the less clarity we have. It doesn't make any sense. And so uh that's I think a good place to leave that particular uh idea, because I also don't want to complicate it too much. It all comes from that intuitive, undeniable knowledge that I am. And again, the intuitive vision that that I am is not only there, it is full and complete, it lacks nothing, desires nothing, has no goals, and has no regrets. It knows not what those things are. That you can access within you from everywhere and at any time. And the ego will continue to to um try to instill doubt and to question this. Let it do it, because we turn everything to our advantage. We want to hear all the criticisms and all the arguments, so that one by one they can fall away. And as they fall away, the ego doesn't know this, but the more arguments and the more doubt it supplies, the more it strengthens us in this understanding and this vision. Because as a false belief falls away, its opposite is proven. As a doubt is cleared up, clarity becomes clearer. We resent nothing. We need to kill nothing, we need to fight nothing, we need to battle nothing, we don't need to break anyone's legs. Everything can happen, everything was fine. Everything is only uh happening in the space of understanding, of seeing, of vision, and everything is used, can be used, to the furtherance of the very thing it seems to be attacking, seems to be attacking. It is not so. And the more we see it, the more we can't help but see it. And the more clear it becomes, the more obvious it becomes, and the more obvious it becomes, the more effortless it becomes to see and to live this way and to so-called resist. See? The idea of resistance is going away too. There is nothing to resist because there is no danger. When my opinion of you cannot change who you truly are, what are you resisting? If you are as honest as you are, just an example. If you are as honest as you truly are, and you are in the knowledge of this exact thing, my opinion of you being more or less honest, the knowledge that that opinion does not make you more or less honest shows you that there's nothing to defend your honesty against. We're fighting all day other people's opinions, but can't you see? I did this right. I've always told the truth about this. Don't believe anyone who said you can say that, but to what end are you saying it? To prove your honesty? Honesty has never asked you to do that. To increase your honesty? You cannot increase your honesty that way. To protect your honesty from being destroyed? Your honesty cannot be destroyed that way. So what are we resisting? What are we g getting better at not giving into? There is no such thing. No need. Effortless. Effortless. And so let's leave it there for now. Any other uh things you want to share or questions or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02 1:35:20

No, uh it was once again very insightful. I will treasure your your words and your insights and replay all of that in my mind and also when uh you already video. And I will let other people talk then. Thank you very much once more. You are doing a great job.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:40

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:41

Uh every day. Also, the people here, all great. Thank you very much once more.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:48

Thank you for speaking here because uh just like everything comes out of the true self, everything that we talked about here came from your own self. You brought it here, you gave it life, and I participated in it, and everyone else here is participating in it. But it can only first be brought by you, and you have done that here, and this is what I'm saying. This is why this community. Well and truly, I don't need anyone of you. Well and truly, none of you need me. Well and truly, no one needs anyone else in here. But this is why we do it anyway. This is why we want, not need, want, because we are developing our vision. It is conducive to truth, it is conducive to this vision or developing this vision. That's why we do it, and that was your part in it today. You brought this here, and um that's all there's to it. So I appreciate you. Thank you very much for for everything and for the honesty, the openness, all of which are crucial for any of this to be able to happen. This is why I say everyone who's who wants to speak here, not no one needs to speak here, but everyone who wants to speak here and is held back by anything. Well, you already know. It is your own resistance that does not quite trust truth yet. It does not quite trust peace yet. It does not quite trust after a whole life of complication that it can really be this simple. This is not being trusted yet. This is not what's being trusted yet. And that's okay. That too is not a problem, that too is not a failing of yours. It is reality speaking to you, and it is making it more and more and more obvious to you, I hope. Uh, but again, nothing changes about the true self. It is only your your vision of the true self of everything that is not quite yet clear enough for you to want to engage with the rest of the obscurity. And that's okay. Um we all need to take as much so-called time as we need, while at the same time also realizing that tomorrow is not guaranteed. And so it is this thing I talk about often, right? The relaxed tension or the tense relaxation that we need to have about this. There is no deadline, there's no pressure, but at the same time, tomorrow's not guaranteed. So it is up to us. Truly. Well and truly, it is up to us. This whole world is our so-called playground. You make of it what you want. And so I will take our next speaker.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:08

Okay, so I will go in and answer the uh question of the fortnight.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:14

Yes, once again, the question of the fortnight is what will be the signs that you have arrived? Arrived, however you want to define it, whether that's peace or happiness or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:26

So changing, for example, changing the location can often help soothe us. Um, but it might not bring fulfillment, it might just be a temporary fix. And this is just my own notion. Uh, as children, we often look forward to arriving to a desired location after a long journey. Uh, yet when we get there, we may still feel that something is missing, even though the days uh even though the day's original plan is complete and we're there. Um also uh, and I I strongly believe this is a fact, the wealthy people, uh, to us, to uh regulars, I guess, um they may seem that to us, they may seem they arrived, yet they might still cry at night uh on their own time, not in front of the cameras. And um to wind that notion down is that there are prisoners serving life sentences who manage to reach inner peace, even though they're confined to a single place for decades or the rest of their lives. So to me, um the sign of arrival is a simple gesture, just basically being able to sit down, look at the horizon, open skies, and not feel distorted by current hindrances we might face. Um I call them hindrances because I truly believe uh we rarely have colossal problems, and often our problems seem much bigger in the mind than they actually are in real time. And um yeah, and then my fear of arrival, uh, the question I have is basically like once we get there, and in my opinion, once we are given that responsibility, like then what's next? And we speak. Once we get to the arrival arrival, the finish line, then it seems like okay, so yeah. And I I I I'm aware that this was discussed in with prior uh speakers, and thanks everybody that spoke today. But I'm just I want to braze braze over that question.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:44

It's not a responsibility, peace is not a responsibility, especially being at peace is not a responsibility. Notice peace is effortless. Responsibilities are not effortless, they're quite the opposite. Responsibility takes effort. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a responsibility. It's just something that happens, right? Breathing is not a responsibility of yours. It's effortless to you. But if it wasn't natural, if it wasn't happening automatically, it would be a responsibility of yours, wouldn't it? You'd say, Oh, uh, I need to breathe. I need to not forget that every five seconds I need to take a breath. Um, so it would be a responsibility. But since it's automatic, it is not a responsibility. Since it's effortless, it is not a responsibility. But it is even more so with peace. Peace is your nature. And look, this is uh I can say that all that all day long, but it is proven to you every single day by its opposite. Every time you are disturbed, and again, however you would like to define that, whenever you are disturbed, whenever you uh a thought disturbs you, emotion disturbs you, the actions of another person disturbs you, a memory disturbs you, a future worry disturbs you, literally, whatever you might want to call a disturbance. What does it take you out of? It takes you out of peace. It takes you out of effortlessness. It says, look, there is a problem, come deal with it. And then you say, Oh, okay, and you get up and you go deal and you go fight and you go struggle and you go work and you go be ambitious and all these things. It's proving itself to you. Peace is being shown to you because nothing that's effortless, nothing that's at peace, nothing that's at rest can raise its hand. The things that raise their hands, the things that say, hey, I'm here, look at me, look at me, don't look at that, look at me. Those are the distractions. You are made to notice motion because I'm talking in physical terms here, right? When when something catches our eye, it's usually because of motion. Something moves on it and our attention goes there. And it's the same with peace, but the same with the spiritual nature. We are trained to look for motion because motion is what's unusual. Stillness is what is usual, peace is what is usual. See what I mean? It's just a little analogy, a little metaphor for you to think about. But ask yourself that. Every time say, oh no, and now I have to deal with this, or oh no, I thought this was gonna hold on for a little longer, but no, it's I I already need to deal with it. What am I coming out of? It's so uh enticing to keep paying attention to the thing that is calling our attention, right? But what is that that never calls our attention? What is that that never demands our attention? What is that that never demands a struggle or an achievement or proof or anything like that? It is peace. And it's it precisely because we are so conditioned and so trained to deal with so-called problems and distractions and uh things like that, it's it's hard to notice what our nature is, because the nature is what we're coming out of, not what we're going to. And we're always looking at what we're going to. But it's so important to notice that the going points out the staying, the activity points out the stillness. The disturbance points out peace. This is an irrefutable thing that happens every single time you say I'm struggling. Every single time you say I'm working really hard right now, I can't be at peace right now. Every time you're saying that, what are you coming out of it? It's proving it's negative to you, it's opposite to you. And so, once again, it's just the vision of this that we need to um work on, so to speak. It is not peace itself. Peace is not asking you, life, reality is not asking you to assemble peace. There's no peace in your life. You need to go find the little pieces of peace all around your life and all around the world, and you need to put it together. And uh, until then, there's no peace for you. And we're struggling and working and dreaming and achieving and falling back, advancing, retarding, all of these things from this quest of trying to put together peace. It's an illusion. The world's not an illusion. The disturbances are not an illusion. What we are allowing them for is an illusion. What we are why we are giving our attention to them often is an illusion. Peace you always have. Peace is your nature. Peace cannot be taken away from you. You can only be distracted from it. Distracted from it, right? Gravity is always there, but you're not always aware of gravity. But try to deny gravity, right? And it's the same with that. Peace is always there. You're just distracted from it. And what is distraction? Distraction is something that uh deals with attention, not with the thing itself. Right? So we just need to realize this. And if we pay attention, if we look at it, if we observe this happening day and day again and time and time again, it will become clearer. There is no other option. It will become clearer. And eventually you'll say, why should I get up? Why should I deal with this? Uh because it uh endangers my peace. Because if I don't deal with it, I will lose peace. No, I know the peace doesn't work like that. I am doing this out of peace. I'm sitting in peace right now. All we need to do is realize that. Okay. And I'm not saying that's uh easy, but it is simple. It is simple. There's nothing complicated about it, right? We're so conditioned. There is such a thing as habit. Are we denying habit? No. All our lives we've been ambitious, all our lives we've been told that complication is the way to great things. Great things do not come simply. Great things are complicated. Great things are difficult to achieve. If it wasn't difficult, it wouldn't be worth having. Isn't that what everyone says? But they're only able to say that about money, about reputation, about a house, about whatever. But what stands above all of that, what perceives all of that, what is the one that that gives its energy to that desire, to that motivation, to that achievement, to that ambition, even itself. It is the true self, and that true self is always at peace. So we don't trust it yet. We just don't believe it that it can be so simple. That uh peace already is ours. You know, all our lives we've been we've been uh preparing our tools, and all our lives we've been packing the big backpack full of gear, a tent, and all these tools and things like that, because we're going on an expedition, right? We're going to achieve something big. And then uh right as we're about to leave, it seems like, uh, reality comes in and says, uh, you already have all of that. You don't need to go anywhere. And we've been preparing for so long that this is. Somehow disappointing to us. We say, Oh, really? I I was so ready to go and I was gonna do all these things, and now all of those plans are for nothing. Okay. It should be a point where we say, Oh, great. I mean, what's better than that? Isn't this what we're we're going to get go out and try to achieve with all this gear and all this preparation? Wasn't it all for peace? You are not going to peace, you are going from peace. And so um, you know, this is, I guess, the the really the theme here today, this time, where we're talking about it's not about making peace, it's about seeing it, right? It's about the vision of it. So I hope that helps a little bit. And again, uh, don't listen to that in your head that says, uh, that didn't make fully sense yet. I don't, I don't fully understand it here, fully see it. That's okay. That's okay too. Come next week, we'll talk about it again. Or uh by yourself also, right? Read a book that seems to be related to that. Go back to our friends, go back to Seneca, Epictetus, Socrates, whoever, right? Uh, whatever gives you this, whoever is a friend to you in this sense, right? We feel this kinship with people who we've never even met, these people that we call friends, this these people lived 2,000 years ago or whatever. Yet we call them friends. Why? Because they remind us of something. And as we said before, uh, friends are not those people who make us forget. Friends are those who make us remember. Yet, most people, that's what they seem to be looking for in a friendship. A distraction. Right? Let's party together, let's uh watch sports together, let's let's get away from it all. It's a distraction. We don't need to get away from anything. I mean, watch your sports, do whatever you want to do. I'm not saying don't do it, but don't do it to forget. Do it because you want to do it for whatever reason, right? Do it in awareness, not in unawareness. And so a true friend is not someone who comes to us uh and says, uh, let's spend some time together because I'm trying to forget a few things. I'm trying to distract myself. We're not being a true friend when we do that. Right? It also doesn't mean let's confront them and let's solve all their problems because we can't solve anyone else's problems. But we can do things that are neither making them think of their problems as well as at the same time, though, they're introducing them to truth and to this vision and to this reality and to say, look, peace is within you, peace is with you, peace is your nature. We don't need to talk about your problems to talk about that, right? And we also don't need to do uh often harmful things, at least to the body, just to distract ourselves from truth, because truth, if you realize, has never hurt you. Truth has never hurt you. It might have offended the ego, right? And it might take some time to adapt to it because your whole world's changing. But truth has never hurt you. Never. And someone who truly knows that is just gonna seek truth no matter what. They're not gonna try to distract themselves, they're not gonna try to forget anything. They're gonna take uh almost enjoyment, almost enjoyment, enjoyment is not right either, but almost enjoyment in being offended, in seeing that their beliefs did not match up with truth, did not match up with reality, because now they could they say, well, now I'm freed. What's the point of being consistent when someone is just consistently worrying, consistently ignorant? There's no point in that. So I'd rather be wrong. I'd rather be inconsistent than to be with this false belief any longer. Okay, does that make sense a little bit?

SPEAKER_05 1:54:25

For sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:54:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:27

For sure it does. I don't I don't know if we have time for one more thing, but if we don't, we can put it in the case. Yeah, let's do it. Go ahead. Um so and thank you, that's very refreshing. Uh I I like to keep reminding myself, and um I often journal in the morning before I um I try to avoid going to the phone right away because that's uh to me, that's like a I I know I'm gonna have an odd day if I just start mindlessly scrolling.

SPEAKER_06 1:54:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:58

So uh, but sometimes I do have um this notion where I have a level of peace. I wouldn't say it's at hundred percentile, but it's about at like 88%. I'm feeling you know things are going um like a subtle pond, not too disturbed. And then it's almost like I missed that feeling of like, oh, but some something needs to be off now. Like, why is I'm I'm almost trying to find some some some kind of like a needle or some kind of like a stone to mess up that pond and make it more, you know, uh agitated. That's the ego.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:38

Because the ego doesn't know how to sit still. Have you noticed that? I mean, this is how you're noticing it, I'm telling you. Uh, the ego does not know how to sit still. The ego is very good at pursuing peace, but it is not good at all at having peace. Right? All our lives we've listened to the ambition, the identities, the false self, which is all synonyms for ego, uh, which come and promise us if you achieve this, if you do this, uh you're gonna have peace, or at least a large, large part of peace you're gonna discover and you're gonna uh conquer for yourself. Uh and I'll show you how to do it. It's gonna take some time, it's gonna take a lot of effort, it's gonna take a lot of sacrifice, it's gonna take a lot of struggle, and the whole world might be against you. But I think we can achieve this. And then if you uh don't achieve it, the ego says, Well, it's just because you couldn't achieve it. Um, here's a new plan. Let's try this one. And if you do achieve it, the ego will say, Oh, you know, I didn't see this before, but there's actually this problem. We we need to go take care of this too. And so this is why you're saying I have 88% peace. And then uh the ego will do its best to reduce that as much as as much as it can. Because uh the ego does not cannot feel itself when there's no motion, when there's no struggling. It needs to be needs to be pushing against something to feel its own existence, to feel alive. Right? That is why so many people, when they're fighting, either physically or emotionally, spiritually, that's when they feel alive. They say, okay, this anger, this ambition, this resentment, this hatred that I have to the opponent, it's giving me life. It's making me feel alive. Now I know I am alive and it feels right, and that's why they do it. But truth is that's just a form of resistance. That's just a form of it's giving the ego life. And because that person is so dominated by ego, uh, they like feeling anger and hatred and that the whole world is against them because it gives them uh a battle, it gives them an enemy to go and engage with. When there's no enemy, there's nothing to do. And when there's nothing to do, the ego realizes, oh no, I am inherently flawed. Inherently flawed. There's nothing out there preventing my happiness, it's in here. And so it can't accept that because that means it needs to go die. Right? Because there's nothing good in the ego. So when the one which gives it life, which is the true self, the ego is a false self, right? And the true self is the true self. The true self is giving life to the false self. You are the true self, right? The one who wakes up in the morning before all thoughts and emotions come. The one that exists then is the true self. The ego comes after. The ideas of what we need to fight and what is right and what is wrong, all that comes after. And so the true self is giving the false self life. And the only way the false self can keep receiving this donation is by making the true self believe that it is necessary. I have a reason to exist. I show you how to do all these things. I come up with all your plans, everything you've ever achieved in your life, I came up with. And I gave you the motivation to do it, and I gave you the strategy to do it. And so, this is my purpose for you. This is why you need me. But the true self will eventually realize that the ego is inherently flawed, that it will always look for problems, always look for enemies, because otherwise it cannot justify itself. And so, this is what you're seeing every time when you are uh when you have more of a vision of peace, you are seeing the ego fighting, you're seeing the ego screaming. And um I bet you now that you uh know about that, or perhaps you knew it before already, either way, you're gonna say that's a good thing. Everyone is trying to avoid the screams of the ego. That's why they distract themselves. But the one who knows that they are not their ego, they are not their identity, they are not their ambition, their greed, their dreams and goals and regrets and worries, they will know every time I offend the ego, it's a good thing. Every time the ego screams and makes me feel bad, I know that that is because it is dying. And it is throwing everything it still has left at me, and that's what feels bad, and that's its only plan to get me to back off. But now that I that I know what's what, I'm certainly not going to back off. And I'm gonna, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better, right? Because the ego is gonna throw everything, it's gonna get really desperate, right? And I don't want to keep talking about the ego uh as if it's a real thing. It's not an entity, it's not a it's not a real thing. It's it's a it's a uh behavior pattern, it's a conditioning, it's a habit. That's all it is. It's not a real thing in itself, right? There's no part of the brain that's ego or anything. Um, but that habit, that pattern of behavior has been driving us all our lives because that's what we've been taught early on. And it does, in a way, make sense, right? But not really. And so we're seeing that more and more now. And so that habit is gonna start screaming and screaming and screaming, and we're gonna we're gonna feel like, oh, I must be doing something wrong. I'm feeling worse and worse. But no, every time I feel worse, afterwards, I feel better than I ever have before. And so the more we see that, the more we're gonna keep trusting that. And the more we trust that, the more it's gonna happen. And eventually there is nothing to fight. You're gonna look around and say, wow, even if I wanted to, I can't see any enemies. I can't see anything that's wrong right now. Wrong with me, wrong with my partner, wrong with my life situation. It is what it is, and it's it doesn't need to change. If I want it to change based on reason and and because it's simply logistically a good thing to do, I'll go do that. And I'll do that more effectively and without emotion and without false beliefs now, actually. Uh, but other than that, it doesn't need to be done. It doesn't need to be done to make me feel better or to uh increase my uh reputation or my opinion of myself, which is another crazy thing to even say. My opinion of myself, crazy. This is all ego stuff. You see that?

SPEAKER_05 2:02:52

Yeah, that's very helpful. Well, um, Tasha, I don't want to take I know uh it's been a long session, so thank you so much for the feedback, and I wish everybody a peaceful and lovely Sunday, and I hope you're not rushing to your arrival, and and I hope for everybody to get to that arrival at some point and some time, and we can all meet there, hopefully.

SPEAKER_06 2:03:23

Exactly. That's that's a great way to put it. Uh, no rush, because there is no rush in this, because there's no time in this, and I'll put you back in the audience because I also uh still owe us the um question of the new question of the Fortnite. But like you said, uh there is no rush in this, because a rush comes from the ego, pressure comes from the ego, all deadlines come from the ego because all goals come from the ego. A goal is an attachment, and again, we can have goals physically, logistically, but not spiritually, not to make ourselves better and not to um prevent ourselves from getting worse, whatever that might mean. There's no such thing. And so, yeah, great points made there, and I I'm glad we were able to discuss those things, uh, thanks to that, those questions. And I thank everyone for answering the question of the fortnight here again this week, which uh has been once again an amazing opportunity for more and more insights. As I always say, we could explore these questions forever every week. So the new question of the fortnight is what is the very best thing that you can do against ignorance in the world? What is the very best thing that you can do against ignorance in the world?