Awakening Through Loss & The Nature of Impermanence

It seems almost redundant, or pity, having to add words to our beautiful stillness. When we were just doing the meditation, I became aware of the air conditioning sound that keeps us cool here, sometimes too cool. But right now it seems perfect. And of course, one might think, if you start thinking, wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to listen to that sound? Because then we would have this beautiful, complete stillness. And maybe even with some natural sounds, if we could open the windows and then we could hear some birds or the air leaves. Yes, it's helpful to have that total stillness when you can find it. But ultimately, stillness is not ultimately an auditory phenomenon, although it can be the beginning of it. Stillness, when you become aware of it, when you pay attention to it, makes you still. So when you pay attention to outer silence, it's only through your inner stillness that you can pay attention to outer silence. So the moment you notice it's still here, you are still. There needs to be something in you that corresponds to that. And stillness is absence of sound. When you listen to stillness, there might be a few sounds here and there, but mainly there's no sound. So you're listening to nothing. And that's the key. That's why it's so helpful, because you suddenly become aware of nothing. And when you become aware of nothing, what's left? Just the awareness, which also is nothing. Formless, in other words. So whenever you encounter stillness, maybe where you live, or when you go for a walk in nature, or at night when most people have gone to bed and the noisy collective mind isn't surrounding you anymore, then use it, notice it. And then notice that in the moment of noticing, you become still. But here, of course, there's not complete external silence. But that doesn't matter. Anything that arises can be helpful. So this sound that's continuous in the background, you can ask yourself, who is hearing this? How is it possible for me to perceive that sound, to hear that sound. And then you notice your own awareness, I call it your own. It's not really you notice the awareness, and that's the stillness. So you don't need the external. In fact, it's sometimes the case that it's precisely when external conditions are seemingly unhelpful, that can sometimes be a great opportunity to find that true stillness. And especially that is the case when external circumstances have the appearance of actually being a hindrance, something disturbing, something happening, that upsets the status quo in your life. And those are great opportunities, because then your motivation for going deeper as you suffer when things happen in your external Life that quote, unquote, should not be happening. Then you begin to suffer. And as you suffer, the motivation eventually arises of going deeper, of finding the place where there is no suffering. And you could still suffer a little bit on the external level of your life. So sooner or later, we find in our life that life does things to us. Seemingly putting obstacles in our path, seemingly having bad intentions towards us. We experience diminishment in some form. Of course. The ego says. Or the egoic self says, that's terrible. I don't want any diminishment. Diminishment meaning loss of something that had become part of your sense of self. It could be loss of possessions, could be loss of a relationship, loss of a loved one, loss of a healthy body, diminishment of physical health. Loss of your Persona, of what other people think of you. One day they tell you that you're the greatest, and the next day they tell you you're awful. Diminishment of whatever kind is abhorrent to the egoic self. There's a beautiful saying. I believe it comes originally. I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter where it comes. It comes out of consciousness, so it doesn't really matter. But I believe it comes originally out of Sufism. And that is when the ego weeps for what it has lost, the spirit rejoices for what it has found. And those people who. There's no human, by the way, who does not experience this in life several times. Sooner or later, the next one comes. Some people experience it even very early in life. Some children experience loss of a parent, of both parents. So diminishment comes sooner or later. How do you meet it, recognize it when it comes? Not as a monster or the work of some malevolent deity or demon that wants to sabotage your life, but as an opportunity also. Now, you may not be able to be grateful for it in the moment of it happening. That would be perhaps. Perhaps too much to ask. But you will find that later, a year may pass, two years, depending on what it is. Suddenly realize that it has taken you deeper into the essence of who you are because something was removed from you that you thought you were. But it was a fiction, ultimately, you had identified with something that ultimately is not who you are. It's a temporary thing. Possessions, not status. Great physically strong body, good looks, relationship. And then retrospectively, very often, you are able to be grateful for the loss, for the diminishment, because it drove you deeper. It brought out the essence of who you are beyond any form. Now, it does not do that to all humans. It's for everybody. Diminishment is only a potential deepening. The possibility is there. Many, many humans are not able to use it because nobody has told them the knowledge. This kind of spiritual knowledge is still very limited. It is not part of mainstream culture. People are dying every day without having any true assistance. People who are approaching death, who are getting old, our mainstream culture still knows nothing. It's just, let's prolong life as for as long as possible. Even if it's totally pointless and it creates a lot of suffering. Let's just. Because we don't know what to do with death. That's one of the reasons why the foundation will hopefully be able to reach people to use the opportunity of this greatest diminishment, which is death. The greatest, as you approach death, an enormous opportunity for spiritual awakening, realization. But many humans, of course, miss the opportunity of that diminishment. And with a result that the ego becomes even more hardened through it. Or in the words of brother David, shriveled. Shriveled up to an even harder lifeless thing. Then either you carry continuous anger or resentment or despondency for years, which becomes part of your egoic identity. And the ego loves any kind of identity. If it's a miserable one, doesn't matter, I'll have it. Just give me a strong identity. I take miserable anytime over being nobody. So the opportunity of diminishment is missed. Often you see when people, they're wealthy people and suddenly something happens. They lose their money and then they jump out of the window because the entire sense of self was associated with their possessions. There are people who lose their reputation. You remember of course, the case of Mr. Madoff a few years ago, who had this scheme, fraudulent schemes, and people lost. Millions or billions of people who were investing with him on Wall street, they lost. It was a pyramid. It was a Ponzi scheme, I think is the word. So he was deceiving all these people and they lost all their money. And he had accumulated billions. And then finally it all collapsed. Now he's in prison and his sons couldn't take it. One of his sons, apparently the sons didn't know what was going on. I don't know if that's true, but they were also working in his firm, in his company, I believe. One died of cancer soon after and the other committed suicide. Would have been a great opportunity if only somebody had told them, you've lost your money, you've lost your reputation. This is a great opportunity. Find yourself the opening is there, but it's just lack of information. Nobody told them. I hadn't actually thought of this until this moment because we want to bring the teaching to places it otherwise would not be go or would not reach. And I just thought of Wall street we will donate books and CDs to. So we'll have to call Goldman Sachs tomorrow, see if they agree. Now they won't be very interested perhaps at the moment, but they may become interested in the future. Just wait.