Andrew Cohen - N° 11 - LAST TEACHINGS - Dec. 24 _ Feb. 25-VEED

So there's direct experience, the immediiacy of direct experience and then there's thinking about our experience. What about this and what about that and what about this and what about that and what about this is what people do when we see reality in the form of an abstractions mental abstractions always one step away from it. God loves you anyway. Do you know that he loves all of us? And we'll re and we'll realize it when we stop thinking we know more than he does. The ego always thinks it knows better. I know more than everybody else cuz I'm so smart. So, as I was saying a minute ago, the ego is the prison. And it's a very subtle thing. Most people, they don't see it because they're they're so identified with it. This is my story. This is my my personal identity. This is my story. I don't see my ego anywhere. Do you see it? I can't I don't see what you're talking about. And then I have an experience of no mind. And then suddenly my ego goes from being just a subject. This a subject. thought I am is the subject to oh there it is object. Ego goes from being subject I am to object. When the ego becomes the object of my experience instead of the subject of my experience I can see it. It's not me. When it's the subject of my experience I can't see it. You can say Andrew you're lost in your ego. You have a big ego. You're a narcissist. What are you talking about? Then you smack me in the face and then my ego my ego falls away. Oh, the ego has become an object. Now I can see it. Now I know what you're talking about. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have figured this out hours ago. I'm sorry for wasting so much of your time. Understand? This is the ego as being the subject. You can't see it. It's the eye. Part of you believe it's the eye. Now it's the object. You can see it. It's not not I. I. Not I. Correct. So if the ego is not I, is it a problem? No. Your ego is the prison. So if you're looking for your ego to be free, you'll never win that game. The ego is the prison. The ego is the prison. The ego is not inside the prison. The ego is the prison. So the answer to your question is to be free means to have nothing. To be free means to know nothing. Be free means to know to be nobody. Having nothing, knowing nothing, being no one is the inherent and natural freedom of consciousness itself. You could chant it to repeat it to yourself. Having nothing, knowing nothing, being no one. Having nothing, knowing nothing, being no one. That's the nature of consciousness. No. Does consciousness have anything? Does it have any possessions? Does consciousness own houses and cars and things like that? Does consciousness know have information? No. It's empty. Is consciousness a person? Having nothing, knowing nothing, being no one. I have my students repeat this three times when they meditate to remember so they can remind themselves that I am consciousness. So remember the ego is the prison. So the self that everybody told you you were since you've been a little girl is the prison. The person you believed yourself to be for all these years is the prison. The ego death is the death of the prison. The prison doesn't exist outside you. The ego is the prison. So that's why there's a difference between the true self and the ego. The ego is the false self. That's why the way to moist by practicing no mind, transcending the mind, then the freedom's right there. It's always been there. When we're speaking, are you aware of the nature of your unconsciousness? Right? Now consciousness is is is the ground of your experience. Right? This room, this building is appearing in your consciousness, right? Isn't your consciousness the ground of everything? Does your kind does your consciousness right now have a beginning or an ending? The mind always thinks of beginnings and endings. So you see the mind floating in consciousness right you see your own mind floating in consciousness all the mind is telling you is about that which has beginnings and endings that which is limited so moa means you wake up and realize that the context in which you see everything which is which is consciousness is inherently liberated already it's been there the whole time you just didn't notice it because you're too lost in your own thinking so if you think less the already liberated nature of your unconscious Consciousness will be revealed itself to you. It's already there. It doesn't need to be created or is independently self-existing always. So the ego is the prison. Most people live and die. They never leave the prison. Most people live their whole life and die. They never leave the prison even for a minute. Do you know the reason why people are addicted to sexuality? Because when they have an orgasm, they have a one or two seconds where they forget about their mind. It's not the physical pleasure that's the issue. It's they've got two two seconds of relief from the ego thinking about itself. That's why that's the issue. Interesting, huh? Then finding yourself means losing your ego. Do you know what the ego is? It's a story. It's a personal story about you, about your body. So is this a happy story? This is or is this a form of self torture. That story that's about your the life of your body. Thinking about the ego, ego thinking about itself all the time. To me, to me it feels like torture. When I stop thinking about my body and my my personality, I feel so much happier. The more you think about your ego, you feel I'm more unhappy. Then you have to go see a psychotherapist, right? A psychologist, not a guru. So when you said you're in meditation, you're finding yourself. Finding yourself means losing your ego. The ego disappears, you find your true self. When the ego disappears, your true self emerges. What does the true self feel like? spontaneous joy, happiness, bliss, freedom, infinite space. What makes it enlightenment is it's infinite space. Space is one thing. But if the nature of the space has is timeless and formless and beginningless and endless, if it's infinite and then you reflect and realize it's all you, then you realize who you are is now not attached to this particular body, mind, and personality. You're everywhere in the form of infinite space. What would you say the nature of God is? Does God live in the sky or is he a particular God or goddess or is he everywhere and nowhere at the same time? Everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Are you part of everywhere and nowhere? That's why they call it non-duality. I am that. It's the essence of the dant, right? I am that. There's only one and not two. And I am that. My guru said the difference between enlightenment and unenlightenment. Listen to this. I told you this. I say this every time I teach. Difference between enlightenment and unenlightenment is doubt. Not having a particular experience, not having a particular feeling. No doubt is superior to having a particular feeling. It's very profound though. The ego has doubts. I'm not so sure about this. The ego has doubts. So no doubt is non-duality. Doubt is duality. Dualistic. But you have to be a very sophisticated, very liberated, very mature practitioner to know what it means not to have any doubt. Doesn't mean not to discriminate between truth and false. So we have to do that. But having doubt is different thing. It's very profound. Cuz like everyone else, I I thought enlightenment was an experience. Also, when he said the difference between enlightenment and unenlightenment is doubt. So what does that mean? I thought enlightenment is a feeling. Not feeling. It's a knowing. It's being doubtless. What did I tell you about the the beggar in the street? That voice is the beggar. Since you decide you're not going to give him any money, why are you listening to what he's saying? Just because he's there, so what? They can't he can't bother you if you don't have a relationship with him. The ego is that voice that's disturbing you. If you have no relationship with it, it can't bother you. If you want it to go away, it's going to torture you forever. If you say if you don't mind then it's there. It will they can't hurt you. Right. I guarantee you what I'm teaching really works. But you got to put it into practice. Which means when your ego starts torturing you, don't worry about it. Just say, "Oh, no. Oh, no relationship." Oh, that's right. No relationship. See what happens. It It really does work. Everybody wants to have a quiet mind, right? But the way you get a quiet mind is by living in a cave for a couple of years, not listening to uh television, no internet, no YouTube, no news, no entertainment. This is just just sitting in silence. Your mind will quiet down. It'll slow down and get slower and slower and slower and slower until it eventually stop moving. But that's just because of the physical circumstances. The minute you get up from the minute you get up from the cave, go out into the world, go down the mountain, back to the city, your mind will speed up again because it's getting it's getting moved, moving in a busy place. So the mind will get busy again. Doesn't mean the damn thing. Doesn't mean anything. If we constantly stimulate the mind, it's going to move fast, right? Move faster and faster because we're stimulating it. You stop stimulating it, it slows down. That doesn't mean anything about about reality. Just just a technical observation. You follow? So the presence of the mind is no obstruction to moa. You can choose to have no relationship with the content of consciousness which is thought. You can choose to have no relationship with the content of consciousness which is thought. You can choose to have no relationship with the content of consciousness which is thought by having no relationship with it. So you treat your mind like a beggar. I see you but I have no relationship with you. Therefore you can't disturb me. You whoever you are but in this case it it would be the best part of you because it's the best part of you that wants to be free. Who wants to be free? The best part of you. Now I discovered that consciousness is the best part of me and you. In a mysterious way, consciousness is always seeking for its own liberation and its own self-recognition. Consciousness is always seeking for its own self-recognition. For example, you've heard in India the expression when the when the time is right, the teacher appears. You've heard this this expression when the time is right, the teacher appears. Did you ever hear of the great teacher the saga Maharaj from Mumbai? So he said the guru is always looking for you because the guru is your own consciousness. And when you realize who he is, you realize who you are. That makes the guru very happy. Why should he care? Because consciousness when it's liberated mysteriously seems to care about its own liberations.