Silent Retreat
Take the Bullet of Understanding
30.05.2014 session 1 (with subtitles)
Don't Be a Person - Be Your Self
[Mooji] The real understanding and discovery of the Self,
in fact, neutralises this seed of identity in us
that functions as a person.
I say this because when that happens, or as it is happening,
you will find that whatever situation or environment you find yourself in,
without any preparation, you will relate at the appropriate level
without feeling that you lose anything of your essential being.
You have not compromised yourself,
simply because you understand that
the world is going to perceive as it does
and you have no power over that.
You have no power to say,
'Look, refer to me as 'I', as 'I am''.
No, they are going to see you in the way,
they have always perceived you. Like that, no?
And something inside knows this and has space for that, understands that.
Like some people, they have taken a new name,
and then they accept, they are enjoying their new name.
They go and say to their family and their friends,
'I took a name and as from this day, my name has been like this,
and I am happy if you use that'.
Many people say, 'Oh, this is very nice, very good!
We will try and use it as often. Forgive us if we forget sometimes.'
But some people say, 'No, as long as you're there I know you as this,
and that is what I'll ...' So you have no power to ...
You understand that's the way that society has always functioned.
Everybody regards themselves as a person. 'I'm a person.'
When we leave our home, when we get out of bed, when you step out,
sometimes, unconsciously, you already present yourself as a person.
'I am this person.' When you already accept your own personhood,
then you send a kind of psychic signal to the world, 'I am a person!'
And I am stepping out into a world presently of eight billion persons,
and so it is all very personal.
And of course, people will treat you like a person.
As you discover your own divine Being,
something changes, even without saying anything to anybody at all.
You don't require of them that they treat you in any way.
You don't require of them, even if they call you,
'Hello, come here doggy, come, come.' Something goes ...
It is almost as though, something becomes so innocent in it.
Then somehow, you find people saying,
'Oh, yes, yes. We're having a birthday.
Please come. It's fantastic.' You may feel, 'Why not?' You can go.
And they may ask you a question like,
'I like your personality', or, 'What do you think of this person?'
You don't enjoy and somehow in your power, you're able to say,
'You know what, I don't really have any interest in that'.
And you will not feel strange about it, even if they do.
But my feeling is that, if you are comfortable in your own skin,
people will be comfortable with you.
Even if you have to say things that are unconventional,
but if you are certain in your own place,
you are not trying to promote anything,
you're not trying to demonstrate any spirituality.
You are simply being true!
And you don't mind if they say, 'Really?'
I say, Yeah. 'Oh, wow.'
They may just say, 'Ah, interesting!'
But you expect they are going to say, 'My God, where did you come from?'
Even if they said that, you would still be okay.
You say, 'Well I don't know actually, where I come from'.
[laughter]
'What are you speaking about old boy?'
But something is grounded in that and you are fine.
And it is much more stressful to feel that,
'Look, I don't feel like I am somebody.
And I would like people to be less 'people',
and be more 'nobodies'.'
No you cannot do that! You just be grounded in you,
and continue like you are. Like this.
But it is not something that you do.
It is not like, 'Today I am really being completely nobody!
I am not a person, I am a non-person.'
No, it is a consequence of your seeing. It is not an attitude you have.
Truth is not an attitude.
Truth is just what is.
And when you move in 'what-is-ness', nobody argues with you!
Nobody argues with the Truth actually. They don't!
But they will argue with something pretending to be true.
But with the Truth ...
When you and what you say are the same, nobody argues with you.
In fact, the power won't come in them to do it.
They have to 'gang up' to do it.
By themselves, they won't have the power to do that.
Such is the power of the True.
And you cannot fake the Truth.
You may fool a few,
but it comes back on you.
Just be yourself, as you find out.
Something feels here like,
'I don't see where the person is. What is the person?'
This may even come up for you in your inquiry, naturally, you know!
When you question, 'The sense 'I' comes, but, what is 'I'?'
And you look in your stillness to see what comes up.
You punch in 'I' in your own inner Google,
and what comes up?
Nothing is coming up!
If you go to the upper Google, the attic Google, he has a lot to tell you,
'Yes, you know you are the super-consciousness,
you are this, you are the absolute.' But it is nothing, it is still dry.
But when you come to that seeing, like,
'But when you refer to person,
what exactly do you perceive as person?'
Yes, my conditioning has a certain way to express itself and so on.
But does it necessarily come with the label 'person' even?
Certain behavior, certain flavors of expression
are unique to your form.
We enjoy the uniqueness.
And yet at the same time, fundamentally,
you are this unchanging Awareness at the same time.
So don't worry for that.
In fact, it is good that,
life sometimes throws you out into the great sea to then swim.
Swim your swim,
so that you find people who treat you like a person,
it's because that is all they know. Do you see?
And you in your own universality,
will know perfectly in the moment,
how to deal with something.
Even this is too late and too much for me to say.
You don't know how to deal with something.
It somehow just unfolds in you, spontaneously.
Do you know what a freedom it is,
to move into any place, unprepared?
Not 'unprepared', like you're going for a job interview
and you just show up not knowing what you're going for.
I don't mean 'unprepared' like that.
I'm talking about somehow unprepared,
that you don't need to prepare to be what you are.
And in your own natural juices,
whatever is required, somehow something arises
that is completely appropriate to the needs of the moment.
And with such freshness, that you yourself,
might be watching it, or hearing it, for the first time also.
This is life! This is aliveness!
If you are already going and everything you do
is the outcome of some rehearsal,
some old tired story you are telling again
for the seventeenth thousandth time!
So in the real life, something is even beautifully surprising yourself.
I'm saying these things but I don't want to say too much about it
because it is not a big deal.
Life takes care of life. It is happening. Who are you in it?
This is going to be your beautiful discovery.
But to live a life without having any fundamental expectations of anybody,
this is a great freedom also.
Then you find that you are almost totally ... You are almost unshockable.
Because something inside has switched off the button
of how things should be.
Do you follow?
If you don't have, 'This is how things should be',
then your life exudes such space and freedom,
that every being, even conditioned ones,
they have an intuitive response,
unexpected,
involuntary response,
when they come into the presence of Presence.
Who knows these things? Yes.
So you don't have to go ahead of yourself preparing things.
You simply move in your own way.
Something is just like that.
[Mooji] Our inmost being yearns for this freedom again.
[Mooji] Not life by numbers.
[Mooji] Somehow it just moves, or not move.
Whatever the life force expresses
in terms of the dynamic expressions of life, let it be there.
What does it do to you? Nothing at all.
Except somehow through the expression,
your physical and dynamic expression,
the joy that arises out of the heart,
somehow infuses your activities also,
are touched by them without any technique.
You don't need any technique.
We don't want somebody who is meeting someone with any technique.
Why you want to learn 'how' to meet people?
How to be in this type of company.
This is not good.
You are not fresh. You are just a sardine.
You are going around, 'No, no, yes'.
When people talk to you, you learn how to act, 'Oh yes'.
And it's all a practiced thing. You are so ...
You are life itself! Not just living life.
You are life itself,
and at the same time, the witness of life.
So it is good that you have to go out
to be in the space where people move
and have a certain dynamic-ness,
and to be in this world and be comfortable also.
The Buddha is comfortable in every environment.
You may have to go to hell and meet Mr. Beelzebub,
have a cup of hot coffee, [laughter]
and still hold your ...
Be resting in your own presence.
Don't be, 'Oh, sorry I can't go there. They don't like people like me.'
No, no, no. Throw this out. Throw this out.
Don't define yourself.
To define yourself is to confine yourself.
This is why I say, nothing is greater than Emptiness.
In Emptiness, all-ness is there.
Every word I say to you, it is true.
If you follow, you will see.
I don't even ask you only to believe.
Follow and see what you discover inside.
To live a life
without having any fundamental expectations of anybody.
This is a great freedom.
You find you are almost unshockable
because something inside has switched off the button
of how things should be.
Our inmost Being yearns for this freedom again.
Don't get ahead of yourself preparing things,
you move in your own way.
Whatever the life force expresses
in terms of the dynamic expressions of life,
let it be there.
A video extract from the Satsang DVD 'Take the Bullet of Understanding'
Zmar Silent Retreat, Portugal 30th May 2014
Videos with Subtitles in many Foreign Languages http:/www.mooji.org/videos_foreignlang.html
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