Your Struggles in Life — A Pathway to Freedom

Your Struggles in Life - A Pathway to Freedom Previous Retreat Excerpt (with subtitles) Q: Hi. Can you hear me? M: Yes, I can hear you. Yes, yes, Danny, welcome. Thank you. Q: Mooji, thank you. Thank you so much. Well, I'm just tired of entertaining the ego. I just cannot handle it anymore. I don't want it anymore. I'm ready. I don't care about the consequences anymore. I don't want to wait for years till I get to ... M: This is the winner's attitude. This is the freedom attitude. You've come to a place where the ego mind will try many things, but now something inside is already waking up, 'Actually, that's not the way for me'. Now because of this, the grace is already supporting your existence. So tell me, what have you found? What is happening that you can be saying what you're saying now, 'I can't entertain the mind anymore'? Something must have happened for you. Q: Yes. A lot of suffering, depression and anxiety. I was hearing the other person who spoke before saying that he was so joyful at work. And it came to me that I was joyful at some point and then something happened. Maybe it had to do with that thing you said, that your mind starts to feel bad and throws out everything. And I feel like I cannot believe it any longer. I don't want to live any longer with this ego. M: What a fortunate state. Maybe it's not so totally enjoyable right now, but you are in your home run. You're coming into the very heart of your discovering. So I feel very, very happy for you, actually. Have you been listening to the satsangs? What is the best thing you've taken from what you've heard me say? What has really supported you? Q: To watch who is the perceiver. M: Yes. Q: Who is the seer. M: Yes. Q: That's what I always do when I meditate, I always see who's perceiving. M: Yes. Okay. Before we go into who is perceiving, because asking who is perceiving is good, but sometimes the mind will rush in to try and answer who it is. The greater fact is that whatever is happening is being perceived. Because it is being perceived. Meaning that whatever is perceiving it cannot be the thing it's perceiving. Because the thing that it's perceiving comes and goes. And it's witnessed, it's observed to come and go. 'Now it's here. Now it's gone.' So if the one who is perceiving it was the thing it's perceiving, when they go, it would also be gone. But something is here to say, 'No, that part is gone'. So that perceiver is not carried away by the play that is going on in the mind. Is that clear for you now? Q: Yes, but sometimes I wonder if it's really that I am with my real Self or it's my imagination. I'm not sure sometimes. M: Yes, well actually, while you have the doubt and while you have the sense of a unique personal entity, those doubts will still be there. And it's okay. It's okay for now. In a way, it's better like this for now so you don't make some false conclusion about something which you're going to have to correct later. You say, 'I'm not sure if I'm with my true Self as yet. I'm not sure if I'm with my true Self.' There's also awareness of this doubt. So the awareness of the doubt is not the doubt. Can you accept that? We can slow down, we can slow down. The awareness of, 'Now there's some doubt and now it creates a certain tightness', that is also watched. It's just showing up in the watching. There's a field, not a person, there's a field of awareness or consciousness that every movement registers in. It is seeing them. But it is not them. So rather than saying, 'You are seeing', I'm saying, The consciousness is seeing. Does it feel more okay? Is it more spacious? Now there's a doubt. There's a doubt if this is truly me or I'm just imagining that. Okay? So this is coming from the perspective of an entity that's not sure about whether it is in the mind or in the heart. So it hasn't landed yet. That is also witnessable. Whatever is witnessing it ... When I made one point, and maybe you may have heard me say, Can the perceiver be perceived? The perceiver is perceiving everything. Thoughts feelings time breath life, movement, comings and goings. Everything shows up on the screen to the perceiver. But can the perceiver itself be perceived? Q: I think so. M: Okay, can you go beyond thinking? Because the intention to think about it is also perceived. M: I know it sounds like a riddle, 'But when is the end of this game?' Whatever is showing up is in the mind, actually. Even the sense of yourself, like, 'I don't know if this is me or not', it's a conceptual shape. And all of this is showing up in a space I'm calling awareness or consciousness. But consciousness is not a person. And I'm knowing you more and I'm speaking to you through consciousness, as consciousness to consciousness. What you are as a person, I don't need to know that because that fluctuates. But the ground of our communication is in consciousness. I'm speaking from consciousness to the consciousness you are. And it doesn't have to be in the form of a person or a particular race, religion or culture. It is consciousness. It permeates all variations. And yet, it is not a variety, it is the ground. So when I say, Can the perceiver be perceived?, here the perceiver is not a person. The person can also perceive, but the person's way of perceiving is very complex and very personal. All of that is seen in a deeper, wider space of perceiving that is not personal and doesn't suffer. Can you see that? Underlying the sense of the person having trouble, intuitively you know that there is a space of just existence. But it's not a person. But it perceives person. Whatever is in the person is supplied from this consciousness. But the consciousness itself is not a person. Q: I can see it, but I wonder how long it will take until I can actually live it, be there all the time. M: No answer will satisfy you. Only experience will satisfy you. I say that if you keep on seeing ... Why do I say that whatever shapes come, don't hold them, don't stick to them? They're just another movement. In the form of a person, the person is attached and attracted to shapes. And then it takes a shape and says, 'No, I don't like this. Oh, this one I want.' That's the nature of person. And we have registered ourself, we as consciousness, which is a limitless field, have shrunk into the form of a person. This is the play of God. And so we're experiencing, in a very unique way, on the basis of, 'I am this person and this is my life. My life looks like this right now.' And all the books in the world are written from the perspective of one person writing about this, another person writing about that. But from the pool of consciousness, it is that ground in which all the sense of personhood has been created and manifested. You are this ground here, also. But the attachment to being a particular form has created a desire and also fear in you because all forms are limited. You're seeing and understanding this, not just within the limitations of your person, but in the field of consciousness underlying the person, in the great space of consciousness. Something feels, 'Yes, okay, I can see that'. But there's still the need to anchor yourself into the position of a person. But the consciousness doesn't need that, actually. And this transitioning from the seeming safety of being a person to the huge expanse of consciousness feels, 'Oh, I'm not sure. I don't want to be lost. I'm going to be lost. I don't want to be so big that I lose my specifics.' But it's not like that, it's only from the mind's perspective. Your struggling with life in the mind is itself a call from consciousness. It's to integrate in the deeper awareness you are. And it is a beautiful homecoming. If you listen from the mind, you're thinking, 'I don't know where I'm going and how long it's going to take'. It doesn't matter. Because actually, you are coming back into a place of timelessness. But with time. You'll still be aware of time. You'll still be aware of shapes. You'll still answer to your name and all of that. But now a much wider ground is behind this. Are you still attracted? Q: Yes, I actually do want that. I just want it fast and now, because I don't want to wait anymore. But I'm still attached to the person. But I don't want to be. M: All that you're saying through the person are impulses that are arising from the consciousness. Because you're saying it through the person, it means that the instrument will merge into the greater consciousness without delay. Because you're showing that, 'Actually, could you wait a minute? I still have some other things I want to finish in the world.' But the consciousness in the form of the person is saying, 'No'. It's already ... You're not apart from consciousness. But we've very much been living in a bubble of consciousness. And something is feeling, 'No, I'm too limited, I feel frustrated. I just want to be free.' So these are already the signs that you are entering or re-entering your original nature, so to speak. Okay? And you say, 'But I can't wait. I just want to do this.' Then you're going to see, it's okay, don't worry. You needed to feel this, but at a certain point, you will not feel anxious about it. Now, right now, if I can take this time with you and say, all this that you say, and your emotions in this moment, your feelings and so on, are appearing in your consciousness, in the consciousness you are. If you don't hold onto any shape or to any image from the past, don't define yourself by shape. So understanding is still here. It's fine. If the shape you presently associate to be yourself was lifted up and put in another place, from the place of knowing and experiencing, has anything happened here, in the space behind the person? You don't have to imagine, you don't have to imagine. Q: I'm still living, I'm still life. M: Yes, yes. Yes, you are life! But also, the play of life, you are aware of it also. There's an awareness in which, just like you can remember how you may have been a few years ago, you remember, M: that memory is still inside the consciousness, but you're not that. And so the present idea of yourself will be seen soon as, 'Well, actually, I used to have such strong feelings about these things, but that's actually gone now'. But the underlying consciousness that allows that to be experienced, that simply just is. It's not jumping about like the person. It's not like the mind. The mind is moving in it, but it is like the space itself. I gave the example earlier, that all the thoughts and feelings are like the sky and the clouds moving in that. Everything is coming and going like that. But the sky, the immensity of the sky is not moving, but the clouds are moving. And the sky is not against the clouds. It doesn't say, 'I'm going to be more sky when the clouds go'. That space that I'm calling like the sky is your consciousness. And your person is like a cloud in it. But in the sky of consciousness, it's not like the sky you see where a cloud can hold its shape for a few moments. It is always changing. But in the sky of consciousness, it's like all your changes are going. What keeps something consistent in you, is your consciousness. Your shapes are changing. Your body is changing. Thoughts are changing. But something is continuous in you and that is consciousness. Q: It's just hard to remain in that place where you say the sky ... M: Yes. Don't worry, it's happening. Q: You know like ... M: It's happening, and I feel out of our conversation, even things you think you don't understand, at the moment, it's OK. The person cannot command the consciousness. But it's still that your urge, the urge in you, attracts me to say, Ah, I want to talk with you. M: Just to see how much space there is to say, let go of any identity, for a moment; don't hold on to any identity. Someone asked me one time, I was talking to someone and he said to me, 'How can you ... You use the words awareness and consciousness but we're not used to those words or their meaning. How could you explain what awareness is to some children between the ages of seven to ten? How would you do it? So I said, Oh. So it came suddenly, I said, OK! I have shown this already before. I said, If my hands were moving like this, is my awareness of my hands moving like this? You can follow. OK? Suppose my hands are moving like this. Now it's going like this. Has my awareness of them changed? Is awareness moving about? You can answer this. Q: No. No. M: No, it's not. OK? In the same way, your thoughts and your ideas about life are moving about. But what is aware of them is not moving about. Do you understand? Even the idea of yourself, your intentions and desires, are like this and like that. But the awareness itself is not moving. That awareness or consciousness is actually more true than this movement. OK? It doesn't fight the movement. So those thoughts may happen for a while, but now I've shown you that your real place of being is not running about; it's not trying to be still. If suddenly I start to do this, is awareness going faster? Q: No. M: No. M: And now, has awareness slowed down? Q: No. M: No. M: Why you can understand that is because that's something very true in you that you have not been aware of before. The awareness, the space of your true self, is like this. Everything is happening, but 'it' is not happening. Yet everything is perceived by it. At the moment, you are identified with this, the identity. And the identity is saying, 'I'm really tired, I'm really tired of the world. I just want to be This.' M: But that is seen in This. But the identity is saying, 'No, I don't see it! I don't see my stillness yet. Can I get this stillness?' M: Do you follow what I'm saying now? Q: Exactly that. Exactly that. Yes. M: So does it matter now? 'This, this ... When am I going to just be This?' Are you disturbed now? M: When are you going to be This? M: When are you going to be This that perceives all of this? Is there going to be a changing over from this to This? M: Or just a change in understanding? Q: I think I have to practice more, maybe. M: OK so now the hands are going to practice just to be more quiet. The hand is going [moves quickly]. 'Now I see that the awareness is very quiet, so I'm going to start to slow down.' Does that affect the awareness? Is awareness more happy? 'The hand is slowing down. It's becoming me.' You are already that awareness, you see. But because so much attention is put on the mind, you say, 'How can I get it to just be more calm? I want to just be more calm. So eventually I can just be awareness.' But even that effort is already perceived in awareness. M: You've always been this awareness. But you want it to be produced by an action. And grace has come in the form of a pointer or teaching to remind you, 'But you are already here!' But a voice comes and says, 'If you practise for another six months, you will become more like the stillness'. M: Can you see the trick of this? M: 'If you practise a bit more, if you spend a bit more time like this, you'll become the stillness.' But that's not the stillness. That's not the awareness. Q: Yes, and the fear of ... It's also not only the attachment, but the fear of not getting to live a happy life, like being my real self. It's always there as well. Like, 'Come on, you have to meditate more, because otherwise ...' M: From the example I give, if this is the mind saying, 'You know, I really just want to be aware. M: I just want to be still. Can I practise stillness? OK, let me stop breathing.' I said, No, just stillness. But there's a tension in that. Because afterwards, 'I can't do it!' So there is still this feeling, 'Will I ever, one day, just be the stillness?' But it's from the stillness that you're watching the mind and because of habit, you're thinking, 'I hope that I really am going to get it. Because maybe I'm not destined to be the stillness.' But all of this is just a voice arising in the stillness, M: because the stillness is everywhere! The beingness is everywhere! Does that sound like just a new idea? Or a recognition? [Q nods] Q: It's a recognition. M: It's a recognition. M: It's not that I'm going to give this new teaching. No, it's a recognition. And so from the recognition, where do you need to go? Q: Nowhere. M: Does that feel disappointing? Q: No. M: Right. Because it's not just a thought in the head. It's a realisation! It's not a teaching in the head that the hand has to learn. It's a seeing. 'But wait a second it's not about this. It's just this was a belief that if I keep still enough, and I try hard enough to be still, I would just be the stillness.' M: But that is watched in the stillness! [Q nods] M: And then another hand comes and says, 'Yeah, you're not sure. You don't get it. You think ...' But that is also seen! Q: Yeah, that voice comes all the time. M: Yes. Now, watched in the stillness, what is the impact of this voice coming? 'You're not quite there yet. You're just thinking you are there.' Q: It's just a thought. M: Just a thought. Yes, yes. Q: I can see it more clearly now. M: Yes. Is the stillness more clear to itself, or to the hand? Is the hand succeeding to merge in the stillness, by effort? Is the hand an offense to the stillness? Q: No. M: No. M: So, who are you? What have you got to do now? Q: Nothing? [laughter] M: You looked a bit shocked to say that. That came out. What said this? Q: It's ... M: How do you feel inside your heart? Inside your being right now. Q: Lighter. Lighter. M: Yes. Q: Calmer. M: Yes. Q: And yeah, it's great, what you told me, because now I can actually realise more deeply that that voice that was telling me, Q: 'Maybe this is your imagination, or maybe you're not doing it well' ... M: Yes. Q: 'You have never been into your real Self.' Q: It was a thought. M: Yes. Q: I was never sure, I'm not sure about what's a thought and what's real, sometimes. M: Yes. And now? Q: Now it's way better. Q: Yes. Now I realise. M: Yeah. M: Stay with this, because the mind is going to give you plenty of need to practise this. It will come and say, 'That was a nice experience, wasn't it? Yeah. But now it's gone. Let's get back to work!' M: Yeah. Q: Yeah. I think so. It will. Q: But I will remember this. Q: Yes. M: Yes. M: You who will remember this, are you different from this? Q: No. M: So what stands in the way is a certain habit that created a sense of distraction. And then you went into your mind, which convinced you that you're not this; you're away from this. And it's OK. You can ... When that happens, you can come back, just to confirm again. Is that confirmation a mental process or is it a realisation? Q: Realisation. M: A realisation. M: Very good. Q: Thank you so much, Mooji. M: No, no, no. I think a lot of people would thank you. M: When I say ... If one goes through the door, everyone can go through this door. It's only sometimes, when we hold to unique, separate differences and say, 'No, but that was her. She's young ...' The mind is going to have many excuses. But the door does not discriminate. In fact, there isn't even a door. It just depends on how much we are paying attention to see how much energy, how much investment has been given in the mind to create all these divisions in ourself. But from here, in the space of the, 'Is of Being', how far do you need to go to Be? Q: Nowhere. You are there. M: You make my time and work delightful. For this I come to be with you. Q: Thank you. M: You are not going to create freedom. M: You can only recognise and honour it. Because something will come to tell you, 'Nah. That was very clever, but that's not it!' And you're going to have to stop and check in and say, 'Whoa, which voice is real?' And is the Self ... Does the Self express any opinion? From the real place, does it give an opinion? M: No. It just Is. M: So you rest, more and more, in and as this Is-ness. And I love this conversation with you because we're not having a chit-chat. We're just looking together, exploring, and seeing things as they are, from where you are. And that's all satsang is. You can see earlier, we had satsang and we had all this, 'Yes, three years ago ...' M: And I said, Oh, God, why must I pick this up? I don't want this. Because I say, this is not going to be helpful. Tell me, why three years? Why not 1,000 years ago? 3,000 years ago? It was the same old nonsense. Why tell me again? I don't want to hear this. Tell me something fresh! Be fresh! Tell me fresh. About now. Not yesterday. Now! What is here now? Is time passing? Is the awareness getting older? Ah! Q: No. M: How old is the awareness? What is the gender of awareness? What is the religion of awareness? Q: It's nothing. M: And yet, something feels, 'No, but I need to be something. I have to be something.' M: This is the space of God, because, here, you're at peace and love will shine more and more from you. And it's not sticky. It's pure. M: I want to thank you, because I'm going to close with this, this beautiful encounter with you. And to the rest of all those who I can see, if you've been listening, is anything missing, from here? [taps heart] From here, there's always going to be next. Another episode will come. But from here [heart], in the ground of your being, where I've just been pointing to with Danny ... Do you have to be eye to eye with me to stand a chance of understanding? No. There are some of you, I'm not seeing your image at the moment. And even amongst those who I'm able to see ... I can't see everyone. And the screen shifts, and other groups ... Are you less likely to come to that understanding? Not at all. That recognition, you see. If you found a mirror that was buried in a tomb 3,000 years ago, when you looked in that mirror, you'd see your face now. You would not see a 3,000 year old face. Consciousness is like this. We must come out of this hypnosis of personhood, and it is happening. Grace is with you. The power of God is with you. Universal Consciousness is your own being. Thank you. As I said, these satsangs have been recorded. And you may go back to any part of it that you feel really relates and speaks more powerfully to you, and sit with it. Because the pointings are arising from Truth and are Truth. They will never grow old. They are always fresh, as your true being is. Ciao for now. Thank you. Bless you. Copyright 2025 Mooji Media Ltd. All rights reserved. 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