So welcome,
Everyone,
To this unique opportunity we give ourselves to stop the rush and join hands and walk the path together,
Even if only for a brief moment in time,
Led by that mutual longing for the truth and for inner freedom.
And we harness that tension that hides between the question and the answer to do that.
So the more sincere you are with your question,
The more potential it carries for your own development and the development of everyone else.
So this is the time and place to share those questions,
Those concerns,
The doubts,
The fears,
Everything you feel that stands between you and an awakened consciousness.
So who would like to be the first one to jump into the waters today?
Maybe I'm just like that bunny that you need to activate in order for him to start dancing otherwise.
It's not happening.
And the way to activate me is through your questions.
Joe is saying I was let go of the last two jobs because I asked questions.
What if I guarantee not to fire you?
They say they were bullying me.
Questions ends with a question mark.
What is your question?
I love asking questions about the injustices done to me and others too.
Justice.
Let's talk about justice.
But again,
You have to be truly ready to receive the answer.
What is justice?
You don't listen with your intellect.
Your intellect is trying to figure out whether it agrees or disagrees with whatever is said,
Suggested.
You know,
This won't allow transformation to happen.
Why?
Because you only let in what you already agree to,
What you already know.
Your intellect is like a bodyguard,
You know,
The bouncer at the entrance of the bar.
It only allows in people you already know,
It's on the list.
Otherwise you're not allowed to enter.
So you have to let the intellect rest in order for knowledge to enter and actually affect your journey.
So make sure that all of us are tuning down the intellect a little bit.
Can we do that?
So just it.
What is justice?
What is justice?
Is there such a thing called justice?
What is just and what is unjust?
You need to realize this is an artificial concept,
A man-made concept,
An idea that you have about reality and the way it's supposed to unfold according to criteria that you have in your head about what's right and wrong and good and bad,
Preconceptions,
Opinions.
So everything that happens is measured in that lens.
Is it in line with my expectations,
My demands,
Or isn't it?
You need to realize that every time you have an opinion about reality,
Doesn't matter if it's pro or cons,
Every time you have an opinion about reality,
You are limiting yourself from truly experiencing reality as it happens.
Doesn't matter.
Even if your idea is actually similar to what actually happened,
And definitely if your idea is arguing with what's happened,
What happens,
In both cases you are stuck.
How come?
Because when you argue with reality,
You suffer,
Right?
That's the definition of suffering.
What is the definition of suffering?
The gap between what is and what you believe it should have been.
Your idea about it.
If your idea contradicts life,
Then,
And you choose your idea over life,
You suffer.
You are frustrated,
You are angry,
You are upset,
You are miserable.
And if your idea describes life,
And life actually somehow miraculously manifested the way you expected it to,
You know that it's going to change.
It's not going to last,
From experience,
Right?
It's a fleeting moment.
In the next moment,
You know,
You keep waiting for him to say the right thing.
And finally he does.
He does say the right thing,
And then the next sentence he says something completely horrible and it just destroys it.
How many times did that happen?
We know trying to hold on to things and keep them as they are because they suit our expectations is futile because things change,
Reality changes.
The present moment changes.
That's the definition of reality.
It's a constant movement,
Constant change.
Trying to hold on to that is what Buddha described as the origin of suffering.
Trying to generate an illusion of stability by holding on to what is by nature changing all the time.
That's futile,
Right?
So when you have your opinion about reality,
And you prefer your opinion over reality,
You're stuck.
That's a trap.
And one of those opinions belongs to that family of ideas about just,
Justice.
What is just?
And what is unjust?
You need to look at that carefully.
And I'm going to give you a proposition here.
Just,
Justice doesn't exist.
Not in the way we can comprehend with our small mind,
Anyways.
So for the sake of argument,
It doesn't exist altogether.
There is no such thing as divine justice.
How many millions of people died in the present,
How do you say it in English,
Present of defending divine justice of some sort?
Like the excuse,
How do you call it?
Yeah,
I know what you're trying to say.
You're carrying that flag,
I know what is divine just.
And I'm prepared to teach you exactly what divine just means.
This is an artificial idea.
Divinity cannot relate to that concept of justice.
Divinity manifests in the present moment,
Whether you agree with it or not.
Whether you approve or disapprove,
Doesn't matter.
Whatever is happening in the present moment,
That's a manifestation of divinity.
And you can label it as just or unjust.
Present moment doesn't care.
It only reflects on how available you are to experience it.
That's it.
Do you get what I'm saying?
Okay,
Let's see what's after.
Andrea said,
Joe,
I can relate to you completely.
And then Andrea said,
Fairness,
As opposed to justice.
I asked what is justice,
She said,
Is it fairness?
Joe says,
I was taught to be truthful,
Just.
You said it right.
My intellect is causing me pain.
How do I tune it down?
I'd like to learn genuinely how to tune down thinking like an extremist,
Like this is right,
This is incorrect.
Okay,
Let's stop here.
First of all,
You do realize that fairness and justice are cousins of the first degree,
Right?
This is the same idea I have about life and what is right and wrong and what is good and bad.
These are just the way I allow myself to label the present moment.
And I'm going to return again,
Like I do so many times,
To that first story of heaven.
Do you remember that story?
Beautiful story about heaven.
In the Old Testament,
It says that God created heaven and then he created men and he introduced him to heaven and he said,
Listen,
I've created this for you.
You go and enjoy yourself.
This is everything here is for you.
There's only one thing I ask you not to do in the Garden of Eden.
Just one thing,
Please refrain from doing.
Do you remember what it was?
Yeah.
It was refrain from eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and bad.
That's what is written in the Old Testament.
If you don't believe me,
Go and read it back again.
Maybe one of us know the story,
But somehow missed the point.
If you want to stay in the Garden of Eden,
In heaven,
It's for you.
You just drop the idea that you know better than God what is good and what is bad.
You don't know.
That's the truth.
You don't know what's good and what's bad.
You have an idea,
You have an opinion.
That's your intellect trying to digest reality and make some sense out of it in a way that you would be able to digest it.
But the present moment is not good and it's not bad fundamentally.
The present moment is completely neutral.
He might think it's good,
I may think it's bad,
These are my opinions,
These are our stories about it.
But it doesn't come with a plus or minus sign embedded in it,
True for everyone.
There is no absolute good or absolute bad,
There is no absolute justice,
There is no absolute fairness.
These are only relative perceptions,
It doesn't really exist.
So what to do to tune the intellect down,
Like what is Joe asking?
The trick is to realize how the intellect works.
You don't need to tune it down,
You just need to wake up to realize how it works,
How it creates a barrier of an opinion between whatever is happening and you.
And that barrier is masking a clear vision.
It's like an obstacle between you and reality.
So if you want to truly experience reality for what it is,
You just need to shift your focus,
That's all it is required.
Shift your focus of attention from your opinions to reality.
You know,
It's like,
What is your attention?
It's like a telescope,
Periscope,
How do you call it?
Kaleidoscope?
Not kaleidoscope,
The one that you look through.
Periscope?
Sure.
Periscope looks up.
Does it?
Telescope.
Telescope looks up.
Is it?
No.
Anyways,
You know what I mean.
See?
Andrea says telescope.
Okay,
Telescope.
So it's like a telescope,
You know,
You don't need to do much,
You just need to shift it a little bit.
And then what you look at now is not the opinions you have about it,
But reality as it happens.
That's it.
That's all you need to do.
A five-centimeter,
A five-degree shift of your periscope,
Telescope,
Whatever.
Binocular.
Binocular.
And that's it.
Once you do that,
The intellect doesn't interfere anymore.
Isn't that so beautiful?
With magnifying glass?
Yeah.
And what you put your attention on grows.
That grows as a magnifying glass,
For sure.
If you put all your attention on your opinions,
Then you're lost in it.
You know,
You're lost in the drama that that creates.
Does it meet your expectation or contradict them?
What did they do to me?
They shouldn't have done that to me.
They should have done something different and injustice and unfairness,
La-la-li,
La-la-la.
That's it.
You're caught.
And people spend lifetimes in that circle of opinions and ideas instead of experiencing life.
Well,
You ask yourself,
How do you want to spend the rest of your life?
A slave to your opinions or free?
What is more important to you?
Last week I had a talk in Hebrew titled,
What is more important to you?
To be just or to be free?
That's a good question.
Ask yourself.
Do you want to be just or do you want to be free?
What else?
Just back to Joe,
She,
She,
He,
She,
Sorry.
Or James asked confidence question mark.
I'm sorry.
That was many minutes ago.
I'm not sure what the reference was.
James,
If you remember.
And then Joe says,
Have been in the same,
This same pain since 2017 asking again questions like why did they do this to me?
And then till recently as this week too.
How can I be when humans do this?
Nothing to do with religion or God.
There is nothing that has nothing to do with God.
You cannot break that.
God is present anywhere,
Everywhere.
Divinity.
If you don't want to call it God,
Divinity,
Everything to do with God.
And I tell you,
The question why is an invitation for suffering.
When you are obsessed with why,
Why,
Why this happened to me?
You know,
Why starts an argument.
Is an invitation for an argument.
Why do you do that?
Why did he do that?
How could he talk to me like that?
This shouldn't have happened.
How do I know?
I have an idea about it.
That's it.
This shouldn't have happened.
Is that true?
This shouldn't have happened?
Seriously,
Can you be absolutely sure this shouldn't have happened?
And when you keep that belief,
When you prefer that belief,
This shouldn't have happened.
How does it make you feel?
Do you feel elevated by believing that this shouldn't have happened?
Do you feel freer?
Is there any one reason to keep that belief that doesn't have anything to do with stress or drama?
What would you be without that belief?
This shouldn't have happened.
That's a work.
You know,
Byron Katie calls it the work.
That's a work,
Some work to do.
Ask yourself these questions.
And it starts with being modest,
You know.
I know what should have happened.
How do you know?
Who told you?
You never should speak to me like that.
How do you know how should I speak to you?
Did you read my book of life?
Do you have access?
When will I be happy?
When you learn how to speak to me,
Then I will be happy.
Is that true?
Can you see how you put yourself in a position of a victim?
You can never be free like that.
A victim cannot be free.
Ask yourself,
What do you prefer?
To be just or to be free?
No?
Ask yourself even deeper.
Who will you be without that story?
This shouldn't have happened.
Who will you be?
Do you know that?
What else?
Shit.
Um,
We talked about the garden and eating apples and telescopes.
Joe says,
Shift my focus from opinions to reality.
More binoculars than a magnifying glass.
Joe says,
I'm letting my intellect interfere.
Yes,
I'm lost in the opinions or how I perceive the present is interfering.
Yes.
That's an amazing revelation,
Isn't it?
And.
.
.
Cause seeking justice,
Definitely.
Joe wants to be free from it because seeking justice is definitely not helping me.
Yeah.
Stop seeking justice.
Start seeking love.
How about that?
Instead of seeking for justice,
You seek for an open heart that radiates,
Emits love.
So how does it work when you feel there's something perpetrated against you and maybe you're in a situation where that makes you feel trapped because maybe it's where you work or people you live with or something.
What's the next step there?
If we're not seeking justice,
Where are we at?
Next step is always in the vector of opening your heart to accept and then to love more and more.
Love the present moment.
Love your fellow man.
Love their mistakes and love their wisdom.
Because some people might take that as,
That acceptance as accepting that what that person's opinion or injustice towards you is truth.
And then you internalize that.
No,
That's a symptom of lack of self-knowledge,
Right?
When you are dependent on what other people think about you,
That's a symptom of not.
.
.
Getting some movement.
Being aware of who you are,
What you are.
Otherwise,
You wouldn't ask other people what they think.
Why do we go asking people what they think?
Because we don't know.
Who am I?
I don't know.
Maybe you can tell me,
Right?
So that's why we are so bonded by other people's opinions.
The spiritual path is there for us to know who we are,
What we are,
Regardless of what other people think.
That's freedom.
And then from that self-awareness,
We allow our hearts to open and embrace reality as it happens,
When it happens.
And when other people are acting because of ignorance,
You know,
People are acting because of fear,
Because of suffering,
Their own suffering.
People are acting because of their own drama,
Lack of self-awareness.
Then what to do?
You add compassion.
That's your job.
When you see other people in suffering,
What do you do?
You have compassion.
Yes,
I see your pain is my pain.
You don't ignore,
You don't turn your back,
You don't try to preach and change their minds.
No,
That got nothing to do with that.
Yes,
Your pain is my pain.
I can feel that.
That is compassion.
Fill it with love.
I accept you,
I love you as you are.
I don't expect you to be anybody else at this point.
You are an amazing individual,
Acting the best way you can.
And sometimes it's manifested as grace,
And sometimes it's manifested as huge drama.
Both are okay.
Don't be quick to judge.
Neil,
What else?
James was describing why he was saying confidence.
Our perception of justice appears to affect our confidence.
Is it a consequence of the gap?
Our perception of justice.
.
.
Appears to affect our confidence.
Our perception of justice affects our confidence.
I don't know,
I don't see the correlation there.
Maybe back to what I was saying about if you're accepting reality,
And you internalize that,
It can be interpreted as a lack of confidence because you're believing what other people are.
.
.
Confidence can be the result of only one thing.
True confidence can be the result of only one thing,
And that is self-awareness.
That's it.
It's got nothing to do with circumstances,
Or what other people think,
Or what is happening.
It's got nothing to do with the realm of doing,
Of phenomena.
True confidence can only be the side effect of you maturing.
That's it.
Once you know yourself,
You know who you are,
What you are,
As a divine being currently having a human experience in a human body,
Then confidence is an outcome of that.
Natural outcome.
Don't try to build your confidence based on what you achieve or lose.
This is bound to fail,
I guarantee.
All of the diplomas that you've collected throughout the years,
All the certifications,
They are just a facade.
Don't build a persona around it.
It's just a way to play the game,
But it's not who you are or what you are.
People hide behind their diplomas and certifications.
Do you see what I'm saying?
There is no freedom there.
What else?
Back when we were talking about the next step after you accept the reality of somebody's unjust behavior or actions,
Andrea,
I think,
Around the same time,
Wrote forgiveness.
So I'm not sure if that was in relation to the next step.
So where does forgiveness play into this?
Don't bother to forgive,
Because forgiveness is based on the idea that somebody made a mistake.
And now you are graceful enough to forgive him for his stupidity.
Don't bother about that.
You just let go of the idea that there is a mistake in the first place.
Reality doesn't make mistakes.
The reality is not confused.
You are confused.
So don't be quick to judge other people for their doing or their saying.
Same for yourself,
You know?
Don't be too quick to judge yourself.
Yeah,
Mostly.
Mostly,
Don't judge yourself.
Yeah.
Don't be quick to judge yourself.
You are doing the best you can in any given time.
And sometimes you wake up to look back and say,
How could I have been so stupid?
But remember that you did the best you can at that time.
That was the best you could do.
I always think how boring life would be if we just never made any mistakes We never make mistakes.
It's not a mistake to begin with.
No,
But the fact that you think of it that way actually,
You know,
Livens up your life.
Yeah.
Let go of the idea of mistakes.
Then you don't have to forgive anybody or yourself.
Stay open.
Full heartedly.
I mean,
We call it a mistake because we don't believe in the perfection of life as it is.
Life is perfect.
And we have this romantic idea of a perfect life.
Let go of the ideas you have about life.
Do yourself a favor.
Life is much more mysterious than your ideas about it.
Your ideas about it are just masking your capacity to experience life fully.
Drop them.
Put your focus on life instead of on your ideas about it.
A mistake is there because you believe something else should have happened.
It's the same gap.
No,
And because it didn't happen as you expected or demanded,
Then it must be a mistake,
No?
Somebody has to be found guilty and punished.
Many times that someone is you.
People are punishing themselves.
And they build a persona around that.
Who am I?
I'm the one that made that mistake.
Therefore,
I must pay the price.
That's who I am.
That's it.
But what if we were all just like inventors?
Of what?
Of life.
And we're going along,
You know,
Experimenting and inventing things.
And,
You know,
It's like,
Oh,
OK,
Well,
That didn't work out the way,
You know,
You sought or whatever.
And then you keep going and you build on that.
You know,
Theoretically,
Throughout your life,
You rise up to some sort of level of knowledge and maturity and education.
And then probably you,
By the end of your life,
Try and lose everything that you built up.
Yeah.
This is what's happening anyways.
That's what happens.
This is the,
Our life story is always we invent our path.
But I'm just saying to do that efficiently and to accelerate your journey towards an awakened consciousness,
Prefer life over your opinions.
That's it.
Joe is saying,
I remember your teachings and kept an open heart.
And despite this,
I was asked to leave.
So why?
Don't ask me why.
Why is not the right question,
Joe.
Don't ask me why.
Remember,
When you ask why,
It's because you are arguing with reality.
I'm not teaching you another sophisticated way to manipulate life.
You need to let go of that.
OK,
Oh,
I used to be manipulating life because of ego.
Now I'm manipulating life because I'm spiritual.
No,
That's not what I'm talking about at all.
Let's try Yaron's and see if I can get better results with Yaron's teachings.
No,
No,
You let go of the idea that there's supposed to be a specific result.
That's not the point at all.
It's not another sophisticated way to manipulate life,
To match your expectation.
On the realm of doing,
Whatever you choose to do,
You do 100%.
You give everything you have.
You do it full heartedly,
With a willing soul.
And you let go of any specific expectations about it.
You don't do A so B would happen.
You do A in order to do A to the best of your capacity.
And you let go.
And you offer the result to the divine.
The result is not in your realm of perception or responsibility.
You offer that as a gift,
As a,
How do you call it,
What you bring to the temple.
An offering.
You bring it as an offering.
And you let go.
That's it.
What do you do with offering?
You let go.
You don't keep the offering.
You don't hold on to the offering.
That's not an offering.
You let go.
And whatever happens with your action,
That's for God to know,
Not for you.
Liz called it a dedication.
Dedication.
Those are not the words.
James said awareness is more important than confidence.
Definitely.
So Joe kept going,
All people of the creator are same to me.
I know no bias,
But I'm being tested in life,
At home,
At work so much.
Yet I stick to truth and never give up on integrity that I believe to be sacred.
When someone did wrong to me,
I didn't report them.
But the same day I was asked to leave.
So this is beyond my understanding.
Surrender.
Surrender.
It's not for you to understand.
Yeah,
It's an important sentence there.
It's beyond my understanding.
Work with that.
Surrender.
Surrender.
Life is not for us to understand.
Devotion.
That's the word I was looking for.
Not just dedication,
Devotion.
Be a true devotee to life.
A true devotee doesn't doubt.
Doesn't doubt life,
Doesn't doubt his master.
A true devotee is surrendering fully,
Full heartedly.
You know,
Your intellect can understand only so much.
Life is much more mysterious than what your intellect.
And it's not because you are not intelligent.
Our intellect as human beings is way too limited to grasp the mystery.
And I always say,
You know,
The pinnacle of human intellect,
The most profound understanding you can ever make,
You can ever achieve,
Is the understanding that you are not here to understand.
That's it.
Then you let go.
What happens when you realize that?
You let go.
You surrender to life.
You devote yourself to life instead of trying to get the point.
There is no point.
Good.
If you needed to hear this,
I'm happy that you are here now with us.
What else?
DM was saying their spiritual teacher used to explain,
Why is not a spiritual question?
Yeah,
Why starts an argument?
Jacob says,
Hi,
Ron and co.
I'm digging this discussion,
Teaching,
Guidance,
Simplification of goals and means,
Et cetera.
Thank you.
DM,
Surrendering is one of the most.
I need some glasses,
I think,
Or be closer to the screen.
Surrendering is one of the most challenging concepts,
As the devotion can be used to manipulate for the benefit of a business owner,
For example.
I had something similar and lost so much time and money in the process.
However,
I can always build something new.
And Lucy asks.
Just a minute.
Go to my track on Insight Timer called Finding the Right Guru.
And listen to that recording.
Finding the Right Guru,
This will help you to direct your surrendering in the most efficient way.
Don't be lazy.
Go there and listen.
What else?
Lucy asks,
Do we understand after we transition?
No,
We don't.
At least not with our small minds.
So don't wait for that.
Enlightenment is not about understanding.
Yeah,
I was just going to say that demonstrates that it's not about understanding.
Enlightenment is not about understanding life.
Enlightenment is all about surrendering.
It's not an intellectual endeavor.
It's an endeavor of the heart.
My teacher says,
The only journey you need to make is from your head to your heart.
It's like 30 centimeters.
That's all.
And then Joe says,
Thank you.
When something happens,
I surrender.
I let go.
I will not ask so many whys.
I'm learning that life is too beautiful to comprehend it with my limited intellect.
Beautiful.
Beautiful job.
And DM,
Finding the right guru,
Surrender in the most efficient way possible.
Yeah.
Search for that recording.
What?
And remember,
The most important thing we mentioned today is prefer life over your opinions about it.
This will pave the road to awakening for you.
Always.
Good,
Good,
Good.
So guys,
Thank you very much for coming.
Thank you for your beautiful questions.
Another one?
Jacob says,
I have no idea about gurus.
So listen to that recording.
Can awakening be described?
Yeah,
That's what we're doing here,
In many,
Many different ways,
At least with our very limited vocabulary.
At some point,
It requires poetry.
Mere words are not enough.
You need to be a poet.
My internet has been down for three weeks.
And as much as I've enjoyed it,
I have truly missed these talks.
Oh.
So thank you guys for coming.
Do come again next Friday when we continue our journey.
Bring your friends.
Let's make it a party.
You know?
Think about sanity is like a plague.
It's infectious.
Let's spread sanity around us.
Good infection.
Yeah.
And thank you for your donations.
They are very helpful.
So do put something in the pot.
Have a beautiful weekend.
Love you guys.
Bye bye.
