Updated: September 9, 2024
Continuing on our series on Freedom
from Suffering. In my last video,
I spoke about freedom
from suffering initial steps which come from getting rid of false identity. And I think we can
continue on this theme today,
what is false identity? It is mistaking appearance
for reality. It is mistaking
perception for seeing. It is making the mistake that that which is transient,
ephemeral, momentary,
ungraspable, dreamlike
fluctuation, perceivable, knowable as form, as phenomena… is real. That's the basic mistake
of the intellect. And it creates
all kinds of issues. The first issue
it creates is that perception gives us
the impression of me and other.
There's me and there's
everything else. When this is
an expression of whatever
everything else is, this is
a moving expression. So perception tells
me I have a body, but I can't actually
grasp it. It's a moving, non-thing. that which I call my body
is a movement. It's a movement
of existence.
As appearing as this in what we call now. But it's been
moving forever and it moves in
relationship to everything else
that is also moving. Inanimate objects are also moving at a very
fundamental level. Particles
are popping in and out
at lightning speed. So to have
empty space here, this is a result
of the electromagnetic
forces and ultimately gravity
and everything else that is moving
in the universe. So this is the same non-thing, moving
whatever it is, and the same
universe moving, but buffeted by
forces and elements and apparently not moving through
its own choice. On the other
hand, this moves as a result
of choice or thought or whatever, when I set
intention. But this moves too. And all is movement and what is moving? What is moving is nothing
that is conceivable or perceivable.
It appears
as the conceivable and the perceivable. But who
you really are, really, you know,
the fundamental mistake
of the intellect is that you're
not a body. And that is
an appearance, a changing appearance,
along with every other
changing experience or appearance that we call
the universe. Rocks and plants and and rainbows
and sun and moon and sky and stars and galaxies
and bacteria and animals
and trees. All is in the matrix of the one movement. And that one that is moving is
neither conceivable nor perceivable. And it is the real
you appearing as this
and all of this simultaneously
correlated in every moment as the freedom to move, the freedom to
create, the freedom to love, the freedom
to be, the freedom to evolve,
the freedom to imagine, the freedom
to have insight and the freedom
to have intuition and the freedom to know reality.
So freedom from suffering
is knowing reality and freedom
from illusion. In other words,
we don't have to impose my illusion onto your illusion. My illusion includes this body-mind,
and everything else that goes
with this body-mind. And your illusion goes with that
body-mind that is listening
to me and everything
that's happening with its own
body-mind. And it's
all entangled in a matrix of infinite, infinite knowers, infinite
modes of knowing, infinite objects
known.
Infinite observers,
infinite modes of observation,
infinite objects received. Infinite lovers,
infinite modes of loving, infinite
entities loved. Infinite
seers, infinite modes
of seeing, infinite sceneries
manifested. So just like a
raindrop can be a dewdrop on a trembling leaf with myriads
of colors, but can also be a
rainbow can also be a puddle, can also be a
stream, can also be a rivulet, can also be a snowflake,
can also be a glacier,
can also be a snow-clad
mountain, can also be a cloud, can also be
the ocean. Just as they … It's not stuck with
being only a puddle or a rainbow or a dewdrop
on a trembling leaf. It has the freedom to be whatever. If it was stuck
and identified only as a dewdrop
on a trembling leaf, then it would
suffer. But the "I
AM" in the water says I am the water. No matter what else I am,
I am the snowflake, I am the rainbow,
I am the puddle, I am the stream, I am the rivulet,
I am the whirlpool, I am the snowflake,
I am the glacier, I am the shimmering
colors shining in the evening sky as the clouds.
I am still water,
no matter what. So too, you and I, are the
inconceivable and imperceivable
constantly, ceaselessly expressing itself
as the movement that we call form,
phenomena and appearances
of things. To know this is
to rest in peace. To know this is
to rest in joy. To know this is
to rest in being. To know
this is to know that you are nothing conceivable
and perceivable. And yet without you,
there is nothing perceivable
or conceivable. And the bridge between these
two is language. As soon
as we started creating words to express meaning
to space-time events in consciousness,
and name them, then we created the so-called
objective universe. Then we identified
with it, and then we couldn't
cling to it because it was
constantly transforming,
including that which was part of the
transformation, which is
the body-mind as a system.
So freedom,
actually, ultimate freedom
from suffering, is the freedom from
the misconception that you are
a person. You are a person as the perceivable and the conceivable, but in reality
you are not perceivable
or conceivable. But by naming space and moments
in consciousness and these space-time
events are activities
of your own self, you create the idea
of an objective word,
an objective body and all these other
objective bodies. And then
as soon as that idea says, "that's
what I am and that's
the only thing I am", that leads to all
kinds of suffering. So there's no joy
in being stuck in one form
or phenomenon and/or whatever that is, that form
or phenomenon.
Every form is
a phenomenon. Every phenomenon
is the fluctuation of the noumenon, the inexplicable, inconceivable,
imperceivable appearing as all this and constantly
transforming. And if you resist
this, then you will experience what is
called "suffering". So I'm going to actually close today
with another poem from Rabindranath Tagore. It's about this
freedom. Okay? I am like a remnant of a cloud of autumn uselessly
roaming the sky. Oh, my sun, ever
glorious! Your touch has not
yet melted my vapor, making me one
with your light. And so I count
months and years
separated from you. If this be thy wish and if
this be thy play, your play,
then take this fleeting
emptiness of mine… fleeting
emptiness of mine, which is who I am. Paint it
with colors, the perceivable,
gild it with gold, float it on
the wanton wind and spread it in varied wonders. And again,
when it shall be your wish to end
this play at night I shall melt
and vanish away in the dark. Or it may be in a smile of
the white morning, in a coolness of
purity transparent.
So effortless
spontaneity. On many an idle day have I grieved over
lost time. But time is
never lost in the divine. The Divine has taken
every moment of my life
in its own hands, hidden in the
heart of things. The divine is
nourishing seeds into sprouts, buds
into blossoms and ripening flowers
into fruitfulness. I was tired and sleeping
on my idle bed and imagined
all work had ceased.
In the morning
I woke up and found my garden full of wonders of flowers. Okay. It is the pang of
separation that spreads
throughout the world and gives birth
to shapes innumerable
in the infinite sky. Do you just want to be
a raindrop forever? Or do you want to be the panorama of colors and sounds
and tastes and textures
and smells and thoughts and
ideas and sensations and pleasures
and triumphs and joy and suffering
and pleasure and pain and birth
and death? That's freedom. Freedom
is letting go of what
never existed in the first place. Reflect on this and we'll keep moving in the direction
of freedom, which is a movement without distance, a journey
without distance, the journey
from here to here, the journey on the path that is not a
path… to freedom… More later..
