The 'Concept' of Awareness Doesn´t Remove Suffering - 7th Sept. 2016

So for the last couple of days, we've been trying something new. The feeling here was that there's sharing happening from here for about three years now, and almost non-stop. So for a while, it feels like we don't want to do the typical, the same question-answer format where you bring all the questions and I do all the work, basically. I've been working very hard the last three years contemplating all the topics, so now I feel like for a while I can ask the questions. It's been very nice the last couple of days, and I've been asking the questions. For the new ones, of course, when the question is there and someone is new to Satsang, I'm happy to answer. But mostly, for most of you who have been with me for a while, it's been very good because when you are put in that hot seat of answering the question, you see a lot of concepts, a lot of ideas get looked at and they get thrown away.

Like yesterday, we saw that because we have been in Satsang, it's very natural for us to create an idea about awareness—a visual replica of awareness. And we see that when the rubber hits the road, when the day-to-day life and the seeming problems of day-to-day life come, then it seems like the concept of awareness is not really helpful. In fact, it can be even more troublesome because when the feeling of suffering, the feeling of anxiety, the feeling of fear is coming and we're trying to hold on to the concept—'No, no, no, I am awareness, I'm not this'—when it is only conceptual, it doesn't really help, you see? So in the light of this questioning, you're shining your own light on: What is it that I really am experiencing? What am I really seeing? You see, because this is not the kind of Advaita which says that, 'Yes, yes, even suffering is fine because suffering is also part of the play.' You see? 'So let suffering happen, it's okay.' You see? Because that is a big fallacy. That is just mental.

It cannot be that we come to the discovery of who we are and for there to be the sense of suffering that still continues. Because when we see that I am this awareness, you also see that it is untouched by any phenomena in this world. So if there is suffering, then there is a false belief, you see? No matter what Advaitic concept we know, you see, this basic fact still remains. So this is not that type of way that says, 'But it's just there's nothing I can do, there's no doer, it's all true.' You see? But here, if most of you are not becoming free of your suffering, you're not coming to a point where the ideas which make you suffer are not becoming more and more laughable, then I must say that I might not be doing my job properly. Because I don't want to give some sense of mental Advaita, you see? I don't want to make you a sage in your mind.

As you're discovering your true life, you will find that not only is it becoming impossible for you to suffer, but all those who come into your presence, your light, will start laughing at their ideas of suffering. You see, this is the light that will be ignited in Satsang. So suffering for us is an opportunity to inquire. Mental conception, mental interpretation can help us be rid of our suffering on a consistent basis, and therefore suffering is not something to be looked down upon, but it is a great opportunity. It is great grace to inquire into that which we are still believing. It is the provocation; it is the invitation to open up. And the more we resist suffering, the more we say, 'Yes, yes, suffering is here but I'm not experiencing it,' these are just mental Advaita.

If you're truly open, if you find that you are not a person, you cannot show me a way to suffer. And remember that I'm not speaking about pain here; I'm speaking about that which we call suffering. If your fist is open, you cannot hold on to suffering. So suffering is an indicator of how open we are. And if it is still experienced, then use that as an invitation to inquire and to see what is still being held on to which is false. And don't try to push it under the carpet. I said I won't speak, but so many words are coming out and there's nothing really that I can do about them. This denial of suffering Advaita can be the best excuse, the best way to deny what is our living experience, what is our living truth. So better not to be in denial of these things as we shine our light on them. Then, as I like to say, sunlight is the best disinfectant, you see?