11 - O MAIS BELO ESTADO DA MENTE E DO CORAÇÃO - SÉRIE SRI RAM, leit. comentada - Lúcia Helena Galvão

New Acropolis Chopin - Waltz no. 7 in C sharp minor Op. 64 no. two The Most Beautiful State of Mind and Heart Comments on the book "In Search of Wisdom" by N. Sri Ram | Chap. XI Lúcia Helena Galvão New Acropolis, Brasilia, 2016 Good evening everyone! Let's continue our cycle of Sri Ram. We are in the 11th chapter: The most beautiful state of mind and heart. I still look forward to reading the book. For those who don't know yet, this is the book. And the idea is that we, next year, start a new cycle. I'm

still seeing which book we're going to read. And that we can, little by little, encourage reading a good book, that is not well known to the public. So meet! Sri Ram is a relatively recent philosopher. Died in 1973, who is worth being known. Our topic today: the most beautiful state of mind and heart. ... remember that I have the habit of making a summary, a word or a key expression, for you to leave here with her. It's interesting, anyone who works with advertising knows that, in general, we retain a percentage very little of the information

that is received. So it's important that we decide what to keep. This talk is fundamentally about something called the inner life. Which agent does not know very well what it is about. What is inner life? We wake up and spend the day looking at what's going on outside. Is there life within us? When did we stop to talk to each other? And evaluate what we feel, what we think, who we are. What is our true identity. Internal dialogue, identity, all that great philosophers in history summed up as inner life. He will say: "what is the

most beautiful state of mind and heart". That is, what is the internal state in which we should be permanently, so that the external life would come out to us in the best possible way. In general, when we have problems of any kind: sadness, depression, loneliness, whatever it is, we thought about changing things out. And this conception of ours is a little curious. Because it's like a teenager doesn't like their pimples and changes the mirror. It's more or less the same idea. If we don't like our face, It's not the mirror's fault. Something that has to

be changed in the face itself. And in general we plan external things: "I'm going to change my life!" It gets to be a little funny. I'm going to travel, I'm going to change my address, I'm going to change my car. And evidently the satisfaction that is in that inner emptiness, that nothing and no one outside can fill, goes with you wherever you go. I had a friend a few years ago who worked in psychiatry, and he said that he assisted a large number of depressed people, and that there was a very strong insistence of the

family for these people to travel, and he used to say: if a depressed person is going to travel, take the psychiatrist along, because at least one has fun. Because it's no use! You will take with you what you have as an internal factor. Which is your response to the environment. And the environment will change, but your response remains the same. That is, what would human happiness be? What would human balance be? What would be the ability to not depend on circumstances to be well? Because deep down we have to do this. Because circumstances will always

be changeable and unpredictable, this is the law of the manifested world. As long as there is hot, there will be cold. As long as there is soft, there will be tough. High, low...the laws of the manifested world foresee duality, and from it, multiplicity. But no one knows what will be on the other side of your door tomorrow, and maybe even before that. We do not know. And, therefore, we have to have a capacity to respond to circumstances that does not unbalance us. That guarantees our state of peace, happiness, emotional balance. One of the hardest things

we have at the moment, for example, and a complete inability to deal with certain feelings, certain emotional reactions such as fear. We fall into panic, which is the fear of being afraid. Have you noticed this? When the feeling of fear manifests itself, we lose control. Panic is fear of being afraid. Realize that, in public shows, when an accident happens, more people die trampled, sometimes, than burned, or intoxicated. People don't know how to deal with their own fear. He turns into a mindless herd. So this knowing how to guarantee yourself, knowing how to maintain yourself in

circumstances where a reasonably balanced and happy life is guaranteed, it does not depend on circumstances. Throughout the history of humanity we have had many forms of life, very different. From time to time I wonder that for most of human history we didn't have, for example, electricity. When the light goes out one day at home, we are tied hand and foot. There was no electricity. You walked with a candle inside the house, in absolute darkness. And everyone had to manage like that, and a lot of people were happy like that. We didn't have many of the

amenities we see today. And also many of the risks. Life has been different in countless ways, and there have been people who, regardless of circumstances, they remained human and were happy. That is, where does happiness, balance and human stability actually come from? If it depends on the circumstances, we are lost. Because circumstances will never be homogeneous. They will vary, they will fluctuate. This is the law of life. We would have to find a way to guarantee ourselves. Build from the inside out. Logical! and I want to make this very clear to you. There is a

very well established human trajectory. Which is ignorance, wisdom. And, in the middle of the way, the love of wisdom, which is philosophy. If you turn to me and ask, have you already achieved this? no, but I'm fighting. A philosopher is not perfect, he has the spirit of improvement. What differentiates a philosopher from an ordinary person is that he has a goal of wisdom. And don't give up walking towards her. But don't think we have ready-made solutions. We simply know where we want to go. It makes us fall a thousand times and get up a thousand

and one times. And we know how to keep walking. This is the difference of philosophy. It gives us a goal and a spirit of improvement. So we're all looking for that. Including myself. Let's talk a little, then, about this aspect of the inner life. He will say, "There is a desirable state of mind and heart. Where you can act, inside and out." With freedom, harmony, life and joy. Peace and inner rest.. Interesting that, as we said, the world is dual. If you have a highly mobile outer world, you have to have a fixed center. Otherwise

you get lost. Think of that compass you used in high school. Who fixed the dry end in the center and turned the movable end and made the circumference. Carl Jung even talks about this psychic structure of the center and the circumference. You act very freely and safely on the circumference. You don't miss the center. When the center is lost too much, that is, the identity, you keep oscillating and identifying yourself with different points of this circumference. And, therefore, feeling the world in a very different way. Very unstable, it is very painful. You don't feel the

ground under your feet. It does not feel a fixed point of support. There is even a very beautiful oriental poetry that talks about it. The mountain does not move, troops advance along its slopes. It already shows the whole world in motion, and the still mountain. We have to have within us a fixed point. Extreme eccentricity can even lead to loss of reason. It can generate a kind of mental alienation. And in general, in our current society we are even encouraged to be a little eccentric. And for us to lose control of this eccentricity and it

oscillates and we never find the center again can happen. Because it is fashionable, so to speak, that human beings vary according to circumstances. Our current society proposes this as a way of life. It emotionally weakens you in a terrible way. Then he speaks: There is an inner peace and rest... By the way, Sri Ran, in this book and all his books, repeats this a million times. If you're going to take anything away from these talks, take this: Human happiness is inner peace and serenity. Everything else is a consequence. That from that fixed point of the

compass you dominate the sphere of your life. And he dominates with confidence and makes a perfect sphere. All points equidistant from the center. Otherwise you will have a misshapen stain. Your life will be a misshapen blur. If you guarantee the center, the periphery will be harmonious. Human happiness, the starting point, is inner peace and serenity. And everything else will be given to you in addition, as the biblical tradition says. So, you can act outside, projecting that point of view from the center, which is your identity. In all things. I remembered that phrase we spoke the

week before last. The more inside, the more outside. I have freedom, I have daring, I have the imagination to act outside, when I have my feet very well planted in the center. It has an identity, well established and well known to me. Has the habit of internal dialogue. I know who I am. He has an ability to work out my responses to circumstances. And not a ready-made template that society gave me when I was born. I live, I am not lived. This is a fundamental element that he will talk about. Otherwise we are discontented and

agitated, always... In one of the previous Chapters, he said that even in sleep we are not calm. We transfer our waking agitation into dream consciousness. Even in sleep we are not calm. It's an anguish of looking for something we don't know what it is. Which is the worst of anguish. We don't know exactly what we're missing, but we are absolutely sure that we are missing something. We're always looking for that something outside, and he is nowhere out. Nor could it be. We live in a state of anguish, agitation, which sometimes we don't realize because there

is no contrast. A minute of peace to give you the contrast. You'll realize: "wow! what the hell is my life normally". That's the problem with you having a moment of deep awareness; that you compare and your life is never the same. I was playing with my students once and I said a curious thing: it's a problem to prove something of great quality, because afterwards everything you taste is no longer of the same standard. Have you seen this? A good wine, a good coffee, a good olive oil.... Everything you have at home is gone. It no

longer works for anything. Never again is it of the same standard. And you didn't feel anything, you thought it was great. But now there's a contrast. It's not like this? These Gourmets that make us taste very good things are terrible. Because, automatically, everything we have at home sucks. So the contrast generates this state of consciousness. A moment of peace and I have a reference; I know what it's like, and I want to go back there. And this hectic life of mine, and this constant state of anguish and lack, is no longer enough. That's a philosopher.

And people say: poor philosopher, he is always looking for himself. At least he knows what he's looking for. Because everyone is looking for it, and they don't even know what it is. And the philosopher has a goal. He will say: "we just want more of what we already have" Because since we don't know what it is... Since we don't know what we lack, we take a list of what we have, and we think we have to have more. Because they are the only values ??we know. So I'm distressed, it must be because this apartment is

very tight;. It must be because my car is not new. It must be because my salary is not up to par. It must be because Brasilia has terrible weather, and I have to go to a better city. That is, I put more of what I have. This is funny and curious. There is an oriental parable that talks about a fish talking to a turtle. Turtle is amphibious, that is, it lives in two environments. She goes there, walks on the land, and goes back into the water. And the fish is very curious to know where it

is going. How are you going to explain to a fish what land is? She says, that it won't be possible to understand... no! try, i'm smart, i'm a smart fish. Explain to me! Then the turtle: "look! it, the earth, isn't that wet. It's dry. Then it keeps trying to imagine dry water. No! it's not like that homogeneous, it's made of little pieces. He imagines a water full of cookies. He has to work on what he has. So he says: if you don't experience peace, you won't know what peace is. A moment of being with yourself

will introduce you to a new dimension. That you will have a reference there, and you will always want to go back there. Do you understand? Reference is required. Then later you will be able to find that path again and come back to that point. So this is the serenity that we have to conquer. I even told you, in one of these lectures, which was already done, some time ago, by a Research Institute whose name I no longer remember, what they call the "happiness curve". There was a time when we talked about this subject. When the

Button established that index of happiness for the population, then they made a "happiness curve". It was a Cartesian graph, where they put: a person has zero material goods, you give one, give two, the happiness curve goes up... there comes a certain moment when you give three. Example: I have two cars, the third doesn't add much to me anymore. The room will already start to generate existential anguish. Because I don't know what to do with so much car. He is not adding anything to my life. I'm just paying more IPVA. There comes a certain moment when

the goods increase, it goes like this: it rises to a certain point, stabilizes, and starts to fall. There it is common for you to have people who have a certain level of very high material goods, and it starts to be depression and existential angst. Because you don't know where to run anymore. What he can imagine quantitatively, he already has. And the qualitative has not changed. So where do I go now? This generates a wall, with virtually no alternatives. And he will say that these people, when you enter this existential anguish, with no prospects, it is

the drama of today's society. One day I still believe that medicine is already starting to touch on this... It will go round and round and round, and it will get there. One day you will conclude that most of the physical ills we have, it comes from an endless psychological anguish, which hangs in the air in today's society. A lack of perspective, a fear of stopping and thinking. Think about yourself, think about your own life. And not find anything. It's a constant leak out. And then, the circumstances do not correspond to what the person expects. And

the person starts to victimize himself. And, in general, it is a constant psychological cycle. And spend, spend, spend. Seeking to be distracted by things of the world. Or addicted to a lot of things, so you don't have time to think about yourself. A lot of leaks. Which then leads to physical and psychological harm. Sooner or later we are going to conclude that modern ills, most of them, are psychosomatic. For existential angst. And one of the things that comes out of that it's you starting to attack others, because you're unhappy with yourself. Consciousness, as it does

not want to assume its own responsibilities, was outsourced. You'll start finding guilty. There is an escape valve mechanism that you may have already seen. That person who breaks out fights with everyone. Stay calm, calm, unloaded. Then you look at her and say: Well! Wasn't she pissed off just a little bit? Then he put everyone in the house irritated, and it was calm. Have you seen this? It happens very often too. Fights, causes confusion, makes everyone feel bad. Then she will mess with the birds in the house, with the dog. It's okay, I've done my part.

In other words, it discharges by attacking. This is a more common outlet than we realize. Aggression that comes from having to hit someone because you are very unhappy. That someone was supposed to be you. So it outsources, mirrors, plays outside. These are the roots that lie beneath the ground of our problems and which, in general, we do not see. We express qualities that merge reciprocally, without compulsion. And that's another thing! A little list of things I want you to take away from these talks. If this one fits more, in the memory bag, put it! A

human being does not have one, two, three qualities. In general it has a quality that is: inner life, and is at peace with himself. And this is expressed, depending on the circumstances, in countless ways. Can you conceive of a person who is deep, serene and at peace with his own conscience, and express yourself with generosity, but not with justice. With love, but not with kindness. How could that be? Doesn't it look weird? Deep down we know that all these things are simply faces, like a prism. Faces from a single center. Manifestations from a single center.

As man conquers himself, he leaves a mark on the world, which is the mark of his human identity. And the human identity is very beautiful. When it manifests, it manifests in beauty and in myriad forms, like a prism. In numerous colors. But they all emanate from a central white. And he will say: peace, be careful, because peace is not indolence, peace is not passivity. Think of something complicated, as my dear people from Paraíba say. Complicated thing is this confusion we make between peace and passivity A peaceful citizen is one who does nothing. No! that's a

liability. Peace is like life. Life is very peaceful. You imagine a cell. She is extremely well organized. You try to place an aggressor element, what happens? Immunity goes there and puts everyone out. Peace demands order, it demands harmony. Therefore, she requires immunity, she there is defense. Peace has an aspect of tension in life, which is guaranteed according to principle. She doesn't let anything in. So peaceful is not a liability. Peace is not idleness. Does not block action or changes. It just resists the middle. Peace is like the immunity of our conscience. She guarantees that we

will leave marks on the world. And not the world deform us. It's out of here. It's like if you imagine a writer who is writing, and that, suddenly, the content of what he writes is determined by the type of paper, the type of pen and the ink. No! with that grimace I can't write a book, I'll just write a chronicle. Because the ink runs out. Like this? These things serve you. You came to leave a mark on the world and you are the one who tells them how to serve; and not the other way around.

Imagine if pen, ink and paper determined the content of literary works for humanity. That is, we came to shape the circumstances. If the circumstance does not exist, I create it. It's not like this ? Where there is a will, there is a way. Shakespeare would not stop writing what he wrote because his pen was low on ink. Turn around, I do it, I invent ink. But what I came to say to the world, I will say. Even when there were no pens, or feathers, or anything else, men left their message to the world. They gave

it a go and left. That is, man is a builder of circumstances. And not a construction of circumstances. Because otherwise he has no way of manifesting his identity to the world. Neither collective with humanity, nor individual. You don't say what you came for. Who are you? What message did you come to the world? We have to say what we came for. And for that to be master of the circumstances; and not her slaves. So this resistance to the medium is something he always talks about as well. A finely tuned violin string. There is a passage,

even in Buddhism, that when the Buddha becomes enlightened, he will see this. A young woman playing a vina on a boat passing by the river The string cannot be too loose, otherwise it will not sound; not too stretched. Because when you sound, it vibrates so much that it bursts. ... a neurotic, a maladjusted person who, wind, he vibrates very violently. That is, on the one hand, a person who is static; and on the other side, a person who does not act, only reacts. Depending on how things go in between, he reacts. It vibrates according to

the wind. It vibrates according to what passes through it. Do you remember Forrest Gamp? The first scene of the film is exactly a feather flying. And he spends the entire movie trying not to be a feather, despite his intellectual limitations. That is, a feather does not own itself. She is a slave to the wind. We are not feathers. We are free to steer our boat in the chosen direction. So man did not come to remain static, nor to react. He came to act. He has a message he has to discover, he has a message he

has to deliver. So dive inside yourself, discover your identity. And go out and communicate that identity to the world. You act, not react. Your performance in the world cannot be just a response to what they did to you. I remember that once I was in line at a bank. Bank queue is also philosophy.... I was in the bank queue and there were two gentlemen in front of me. I don't know exactly what they were going to do, they were already quite old. I know the conversation went something like this. They were talking: "look!, you know

when I was young I wanted to go abroad, but my parents didn't want to. Then, soon after, I got married and I wish I had done that, lived in the countryside. But my wife didn't want to, the children came, there was school, there was the hospital. Then, soon after, I started working. I wanted to take a university course, but my boss needed something else. So I did what he needed. That is, his life was what they had done to him. There wasn't an action that he reported as the protagonist. His life was what they had

made of him. Do you know the story of the billiard ball? You aim at a pocket. She's not at liberty to come in and say, "I'm going to roll into that pocket." She rolls where they push her. And if I'm wrong, it's the bat's fault. It's not like this? Victimization, transfer of responsibility. And that's what life boils down to. And what did you have to say to the world? I don't know. Leave it to another. No one will tell the world what you had to say. Your identity is unique. And he goes on to say:

"Action must be a free expression of the inner being". I also remember another movie, which I really like, called "1492, the conquest of paradise" This film deals with the life of Christopher Columbus, which was written, at the time, by his son. Has anyone watched this movie? The film begins in a very beautiful scene. He was peeling an orange with his son by the sea. And he says: "my son, one thing I want to teach you is to be able to see with your own eyes, hear with your own ears". "You'll hear all the people saying

the world is flat. Now look at that boat pulling away at sea." "You realize that if the world were flat, it would get all tiny and become a dot and disappear. See what happens" And he shows the orange. "First add the hull, then add the rudder, the lower sails and, lastly, that pennant that exists up there". "Do you realize that this is a ship moving on a spherical surface?" And the son looks, "That's right!" "Well, look. For yourself, with your own eyes. That's why you have eyes." "Listen, with your own ears, that's why you have

ears". Do you think the Christian message, when Jesus Christ says: "Whoever has eyes to see, let him see. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear" Was he talking about physical eyes and ears? Probably not. He is a very high degree Master to talk about such simple things. Probably not. So he says: "we came to express what is in our being, to give our message to the world". External stimuli are like electrical stimuli in a guinea pig. In scientific experiments with animals, sometimes needles are inserted, or electric shocks are given to the animal's brain so

that it has certain automatic reactions. He doesn't like it. But, in the name of science, the fact is that transferring this to us is not much different. The stimulus comes and we give an automatic response, even predictable. In such a way that outsiders can even predict what someone will do under certain circumstances. It's bizarre, but criminals, bandits, they have a good dose of psychology, you know? Because a person walking down the street, the way he gestures, the way he walks, you can see how standard he is. How massive is she. And it is much easier

to act on a mass person than on a person who has some degree of individuality. Because you know exactly what she's going to do. And you are prepared. Either she gets hysterical and you eliminate it right away, or she gets catatonic and you take everything out of her. Even take her along. And for both they are prepared. But they are not prepared by a self-controlled, lucid, and looking for opportunities to get out of that situation. There is no answer to that, because human intelligence is multifaceted, anything can come out of there. It's a very high

risk. And, sometimes, walking down the street by, by the way you handle your belongings..., they have a little knowledge of human psychology from observation. This one is easy. From time to time they are wrong; but it is very rarely. In general, they know how to observe and know where they have easy prey. Because they are reactive people; and not active. Professor Michel Echenique, now deceased, who brought Nova Acropolis to Brazil, he told us that when these lightning kidnappings started to happen. There was one in São Paulo, where they tried to rob a bank, the police

surrounded and an old man and his grandson were taken hostage to negotiate the escape of the bandits. Two bandits negotiated a car and put the young man in the front seat, like a bandit, and the old man in the back seat. And he said, he told, that this old man, he went out to the car with the bandits. And it looked like he was going for a walk in the park. He waved to the press, and gestured, and spoke with the utmost naturalness. When they sat him in the back seat, he started talking to the

bandit as if he were talking to a colleague in a bar. With the greatest naturalness in the world. And when this bandit least expected it, he simply made this gesture: grabbed the barrel of the revolver and fired through the window in seconds. And then the police controlled it from the front, and that was the end of the story. He was a war veteran, and with the posture he was in, he could do anything, which the thug had no way of predicting. Do you know why? Because he was lucid, he was in control. And this is

an impossible thing to predict: what a lucid person will do. A mass person is easy. But the one who is able to manifest her inner being in the world is unpredictable. It's a spectacle, you can't assume what's coming. It is the spectacle of human nature, very rich in unthinkable possibilities. If not, we're puppets, like that guinea pig over there. It depends on who handles the wires. We have no individuality. In India, Sanskrit has this word, which he quotes a lot, which for them is a synonym for happiness. Vairagya. Vairagya, in fact, the most perfect translation

of it would be serenity, impartiality or detachment. A person who knows how to deal with all things, as if it were a loan from nature to him. Treats all things in the best possible way, but he has a true and profound awareness that the only thing that is his is himself. And this one himself, nothing and no one can steal from him. Your Essence, your identity... By the way, Sri Ram has another book where he says something that is so beautiful, I have to tell you about it. Look! I have nothing to do with this

video, sorry! I have nothing to do with this story (laughs!), but it has everything to do with it. He says this: when you have a word, a concept, something you are sure of... If seven billion human beings come and say to you: No. It won't shake you because within you it has deep roots. Are you sure. You are sure, for example, that true love exists. That it's not just a mechanicity, it's not just instinct, it's not just manipulation. This has roots of insight deep within me. I already felt something from him. I've already smelled it,

I've already seen more or less what it is. I have a deep experience of love. If seven billion come to me and say that there is no love, I answer: Ah! it's OK. I respect your opinion, there are many, I'm not going to fight with 7 billion. But they don't change. He says that when you have this, it can be anything (a word, an idea...), you have a boat. Remember that Egyptian symbolism of the boat of Isis. You have a boat through which your consciousness can travel through eternity. When your conscience loses that boat, that

vehicle, you have a boat. Your conscience will not lose its base, it will not get lost in time. Because she has something that transcends time. A certainty, a truth. And you are guaranteed. You already transcend time. Can you imagine this? The waters of eternity will shelter you if you have a boat, something you have concluded through deep experience, and that nothing, and no one, can steal from you. No more getting lost. The waters of eternity will receive your boat, and you don't sink, you don't sink. Isn't that interesting? And he says, in a highly poetic

way: build your baca. In short, his life isn't much more than that. Build your own boat. One thing whatever. You have to have a deep, inner experience of yourself. intransmissible, impossible to be taken away from you. Eternity is open. It is the million-year-old barge of the Egyptians. He then goes on to say that the reaction to pleasure, and we can see this, automatically generates a desire that attaches us to the object. And this reaction is what will make us fragile. Because we can, perfectly, take pleasure in things, but not think they are ours, not be

afraid of losing. Because when you have this idea: it's beautiful, it's mine; the object has arrested him, and in a certain way he will be his slave. And now, wherever he goes, you will follow. And if you lose it, you will suffer. Realize? Automatically, he enslaved you. When you deal with things, it's normal that they give us pleasure, that they give us satisfaction. But when they generate possession of you, they automatically enslave you. Possession or fear; no way, such a panic that I wouldn't survive living something like that. somehow it tied you down. That is,

something that is more important to you than your essence. Not anyway? If and I have to give up my essence for that, I won't. It's good that I'm going to avoid this as much as I can, but if I have to live this or I get corrupted, I don't get corrupted. I don't know if you understand this. Again, I repeat. We are putting this as a wisdom benchmark. We are not saying that no one here has achieved this. I always tell a case in my classes, because it is a tradition that I like very much,

which is the tradition of the Inca people. You know that the Incas were defeated by the Spaniards. A few hundred Spaniards, with Francisco Pizarro, defeated millions of Incas. At the time the empire was still very strong. And they were playing, using foul play, attacking the civilian population, massacring women and children, when the warriors had gone to battle, destroying food, burning crops, doing things that the Incas did not do. Making alliances, sowing discord between them. Playing dirty anyway. And, in the end, when the Incas were already under siege, in a city called Vilcabamba, which was never

known exactly where it was, the Spaniards sent an ambassador to negotiate with the Emperor, the Sapa Inca, which was the Emperor's name, Tupac Amaru. And there was no deal. They didn't want to surrender. But, before leaving, the Spanish ambassador made a point of asking is this Emperor: Look! I have a curiosity, since I'm here. When we fought with you for the first time, our method of battle, European, Spanish, was new, it's okay that you were defeated. The second one is fine. The third, come on! But the tenth, the hundredth time you were defeated, why didn't

you do the same thing? Why didn't they start burning our supplies, killing our horses. Why not play the same game? Then it is said that this Emperor said: Look! we Incas only want the land if we are going to stand on it; to crawl, we prefer to leave it up to you. Then, I always remember when Sri Ram says: fear, we are all afraid, but to what extent can we exchange everything for fear? Desire, from time to time, we all have. But to what extent can we exchange everything for desire? If we are really human

beings, we have to have a central touchstone that nothing can be exchanged for, which is our own Essence, our own identity. If I say to a plant: if you don't photosynthesize, I'll kill you. And it will do photosynthesis. If you say: if you carry out photosynthesis, I'll give you a little present. She will not let herself be corrupted. Because her identity, plant, cannot be negotiated. Now she has no choice; we have. And we would have to do the same thing. Whatever you do, I will react in the world like a human being. The plant will

react like a plant, an animal like an animal. I can't be anything else, I came into the world for this. And being human is values, virtues and wisdom. If you want something else, ask another being, another category. You can't ask a lemon tree to give you an apple. Human being, human behavior. And he says, then, that: when we react in a way that objects enslave us, we lose our happiness. That things, and external circumstances, enslave us, we lose our happiness. Understanding this allows you to see its opposite. The total absence of greed. He talks, and

I think it's so beautiful, because he's one of the authors who gives the most detailed recipe. He says: watch the moment you see something you want. You'll realize that, first, you go there and then the emotional comes and says: I like it, I want it. Realize this chain reaction, and you will realize that you are trapped. You can feel it. It's just a matter of blurring your psyche's awareness a little and looking from the outside. You will notice: mind, vi. I saw emotions, taste and want. And you realize you're trapped. If you perceive it, from

the outside, you can get out of it. You have to become aware of that. You have to realize that, in our psychic mechanism, it has two speeds. The mind is faster than emotions. And easier to clean because it's more subtle. So when you have a thought, for example, of criticism towards something or someone. I don't know, fractions of seconds later, an anger, a hurt, a sadness will come. It gives you time to cut off that thought before the emotion arrives. Because after the emotion comes, it's much more difficult to clear an anger than a thought.

Emotional is spilled paint, it's difficult for you to clean it up. It permeates, sometimes it takes our day. If you mess up, it takes your whole life. Emotional is like spilled ink. When the mind pushes, it takes the glass. So he talks a lot about this issue of having mental discipline as if it were a law. That kind of thought: No. It came up: No. It will cut, shovel, shovel, shovel... Instantly, like a process of discipline that we put in ourselves. You have to practice this. I know I know it's not easy. Because once emotion

arises, it's over. It's a whole day, sometimes a whole week revolving around that... , but So-and-so did it..... but he said such a thing..... Poor us! It's a lot of energy, it's a lot of energy. And he says: if you see this process happening, you can see it, like the process a child in the laboratory planting a little bean, doing those things that we do when we are little, You can see it happen. And you can learn to deal with it. It has to be seen, as if it were a laboratory object. Put the magnifying

glass, see. You have to observe the mechanical processes that happen inside us. So that we are not mechanical, we are not a robot. Sometimes we enter those bank sites, shopping sites, and they tell us to type in some letters and numbers, and ask: are you a robot? I think, what philosophical question?.. Is there space for me to write a text?. haha In these cases I ask myself: my God, could they give me a space to write about it... lol It's a disturbing question...lol Do you think that only with these letters and numbers they will reach

this conclusion? I haven't made it yet! hahaha Buddhist precept: do not steal. It's interesting because he quotes: There are precepts within Buddhism for the general public (the common man), and for monks, where he is much more demanding. For the common man there is this precept: do not steal. But even this precept is more subtle than we think. Because it's not just not stealing physical things. It's not stealing attention, not stealing time, not stealing the other's peace, not stealing the other's merits to want to be seen at any price. You know that story of the person

that anything you do... "but it was my idea". "Ah!, but if it wasn't for me, it wouldn't have come out". "Ah!, but he learned that from me". That is, you always, always need the world to revolve around you, to take your share in everything. An unusual need to project your personality above others. This is a theft. This type of theft that happens on several levels, the more subtle, sometimes the more intentional, the more complicated. That comes from a desperate need to be above others. This need makes us take from the other, so that I have

more than he does. In some plan I will take. If I want to project myself at any price, on some level I'm stealing from someone. For my personality to be above, I have to steal the other's stool. Otherwise it's the same size as him. And what is this stool? A thousand possibilities. And even that concept, for the general public, is a more subtle concept than we realize. And he says: that monks are required to do this, within the Buddhist tradition. Relate and be interested in everything that is good and beautiful. Without wanting anything. Where there

is beauty, I am interested, but it is not mine. I am hers. I follow beauty. I want to leave a trail of beauty in the world. Beauty is not mine, I am hers. There is an interesting French film, quite old: "the master of music". The whole movie is very beautiful. In it there are two lyrical singers who compete with each other, and one of them becomes famous, becomes successful. And the other does not. Then, in the end, his disciples ask him: why did you succeed, and Fulano didn't? He says: for one reason only, he thought

that music was my slave, but I am the slave of music. I serve music, not music to me. I've spent my whole life serving music, I never intended for it to serve me. And that's why I got it, and he didn't. I found this scene interesting, very beautiful. Philosophers have this mania for picking things up, moments of beauty. I thought it was beautiful because it's really like that. Why don't I want things? because I don't own anything, I serve the world, not the world myself. Remember that division of love, which I always tell you: stop

looking at things and asking what is it for me? And start looking at things and asking: how can I serve this? That is, to leave a trail of beauty in the world. I serve beauty, not the other way around. It is very common for a great artist, a singer for example, that it is something that requires a physical structure of the body. A 60-year-old singer hardly ever sings like he sang at 40, 30 years old. They begin to lose their voice. And they generally don't. They fall into depression. Because they thought the music was theirs,

not that they were servants. If they had that notion, I would teach others to sing, and serve the music. I served one way, now I serve another. Maria Callas, a singer I really like, is suspected of having committed suicide when she lost her voice. So imagine: music is my slave. So we serve beauty, therefore we do not own it, on the contrary, we belong to it. It is a great body where we serve the good, the beautiful and the just. I serve, not she me. How well could it serve me? the beautiful serve me? I,

this insignificant particle, beauty serves me! It's the opposite. And that gives a man a lot of security. Because always, somehow, it can serve. Until the last moment of your life and, perhaps, even after. He can serve. "Spiritual man owns nothing, though Karma may have given him the use of things. Giving up everything material is a spiritual truth, materialized and degraded. And that, what he says, is heavy. Including because he was born in India. And he says: those sannyasins, those monks, who, in order to show that they are very spiritual, give up their house, the clothes

on their back, everything they go to a desert to beg for food, there is nothing, and they think that this is spiritual. This is a degradation of a spiritual truth. What that person gave up was the responsibility of taking care of things. The others have to take care of him. But if you step on his toes, he'll get mad at you. Because he didn't give up his own pride, he didn't give up his own vanity. He relinquished the responsibility of taking care of things. A detached person is not one who has nothing. She knows the

things that, by Karma, she has and needs to have. Because we weren't the ones who programmed the human body and its needs; it was nature. So we need shelter, clothing, food. this was not chosen by us, this was borrowed from nature. That our good karma allowed us to have. There's no reason for us to give it up. Nor is this what people need. He says: it's a facade of generosity. That you simply become a burden to others. And, in general, it hasn't compromised on subtler levels. More subtle levels are full of pride, are full of

vanity, are full of psychological needs, which are much denser than having a roof, a bed and a plate of food. And the spiritual man knows that these things are not his, but they were given for your use. And he uses it, and he has no fault for it. It is not a question, as Voutaire said, "of having or not having things" , but of things having or not having you. See one day, and put everything you've got in front of you, to find out who owns who. I find this passage very interesting. So beware of

this deterioration of spiritual teachings that begins to take things literally. Because being very deep, having a lot of inner life is difficult, but throwing my house and things away is relatively easy. In minutes I do. I give everything to everyone and now you guys turn to support me. And in the end, he does not relinquish more than my responsibility. It is logical that there must be a level of very spiritual masters, up there, that this has a purpose, but not at our level. Each thing in its time. This, at our level, turns out to be

a kind of vanity. Freedom of ownership of objects, people, countries and race is a clear Insight that manifests itself in a simple and beautiful life. Understand this. Sri Ram, he says: a person who has some degree of wisdom, he likes the land where he was born, he likes the values, he likes the culture, he respects it, he is grateful. He likes his family, the race he belongs to, he respects everything. But it's not attached to anything. I wouldn't put that above your principles in any way. And you perceive this Clear Insight, this moment of deeper

identity that he has, which is above race, family, time of birth and perceives it by the trace of what he leaves in the world. He is a very calm person. A person you look at and you know they're steady. Because it's not just any wind that will drag it there. Lao Tzu used to say that when you look into the eyes of a sage, it is a deep look, which is not only facing outwards, it is facing inwards as well. And, deep down, you realize that there is an impenetrable internal dialogue. A dialogue between a

man and a God. So he respects all the things around him. To look once more, to know how to see. Knowing how to see God in all things. So he has a respect for things that the common man doesn't have. Respect for an object, for a plant, for an animal. And he is even grateful to belong to that place, that family and race. But your identity is not based on these things. He would not kill, nor would he die, for that. It doesn't limit you; it enriches you. I was born in Brazil, and the whole

Brazilian tradition enriches me, but I wouldn't kill someone because he's not Brazilian, nor would I fight about it. Because I realize that everyone has their wealth and my identity is beyond that. And you see, by your works I will know you. For the trace he leaves in the world. A simple and beautiful life. Vairagya is a purification that precedes extraordinary love. Vairagya, you remember it is serenity, without possessions or expectations. Willing to let the loved one have his way. See, Vairagya, who is serenity, who is the basis of this extraordinary love, looks at things thinking:

how can I interfere in the destiny of things, in such a way that they go for your good. So, if the good of that being is there, I'm not going to keep it here because I don't want to be alone. It has no shortcomings. I guide each one in the direction of the good that corresponds to him. I push things toward the light. And not in my direction. That's neediness, that's attachment. that's wanting to be loved at any price. Extraordinary love is self-sufficient. And leads all beings to their destiny. This is very beautiful. He will

put a sentence that says: love is without needs, love is its own eternity. Enough for yourself. Deep love is your boat. It is your own eternity. This has everything to do with platonic love. Enough for yourself. The person is already full by the act of loving. She overflows with love in all directions so there is no room for lack. If she's messing with that painting, she's going to do it with all the love possible. And since she pours love out in all directions, she has no room for neediness. Now selfishness comes and takes that whole

range of 360° love that you have and concentrates it into one degree. Upon a single creature you chose to love. Imagine 360° gathered in a single degree. That's a laser beam that will end up piercing the poor guy! Nobody supports. This generates a level of possessiveness that no one can stand. It gets suffocating. Because man has a 360 degree possibility of love. Where he goes you see love. Imagine what a society made of men like that would be like?! And this man would not lack. Because that which flows does not need to absorb anything. A

fountain that always plays, will not want to absorb water. And man has this capacity for generation and happiness, due to the fact that he flows. For being human. Detachment, non-aggression, autonomy, etc. This passage is very beautiful, let's pay attention! Love is the apex of these qualifications. Otherwise frustrations, jealousy and recentness. I already told you about this. Do you want to love this extraordinary, human love? What are you going to do now? I will not take the brick. No, no, no! first dig a hole, bend the iron, put it in there, pour the concrete. And the

brick? At the right time he enters. First, he lays the foundations, then he places the iron structures, in the depth according to the height of the construction. Throw the concrete in there, and go... The foundation for one day being able to lay that little brick: love. It has a series of previous virtues to structure a human psyche so that it can really support true love. We said: little brick, little brick, little brick... Now it's tile! I can't just lay a row of bricks and want to lay the tiles right away. It does not give! There's

no room for anyone in there. So there are a series of previous feelings: detachment, non-aggression (which comes from being well with yourself). Autonomy (not depending on beings. Because if you depend on them you will mistreat them. You will not let them walk in the direction that corresponds to them. That is, love is the apex of these qualifications. If not, like 2 + 2 = 4, frustration comes, jealousy comes, resentments come Then he is that story: may love be infinite while it lasts! If it was love, it would be infinite. That is, Plato and Vinícius, in

this matter, do not understand each other very well! Because for Plato, if it is true love, it is infinite by nature, because it is a spiritual virtue. And on the spiritual plane there is no time. Therefore, there is no way for it to have a beginning or an end. He is, he is! And this is very interesting. Qualifications to love. All these things I've been telling you so far are for you to come and say: now I love you. Else, it doesn't work. It doesn't support, it doesn't support the weight of a human love. Pure,

unconditional love, not tied to memory or expectations, without regret or a sense of sacrifice for something. Simple expression of what one is. Why do I photosynthesize? because I'm a plant. Why am I instinctive? because I'm an animal. Why am I resistant? because I'm a stone. Why do I love? because I am human. Oh! because you will love me too! Because we're going to be together until eternity! Only depends on you. Do what you want I will love. You can't do anything against it. It's up to me! The reaction cannot be conditioned, because if it is

not investment and the Capital Market: you love me, I love you. This investment is not good, I'm going elsewhere. It's a private pension plan, investment, anything; less love. Love is unconditional. It doesn't depend on you to do anything. It simply depends on my being able to love. I always tell a story, something silly. These simple examples are good for recording. I remember that my daughter was very small and had a serious health problem and the pharmacist would come to my house and give her a lot of injections every day. And she was terrified of that

blessed pharmacist. And he wasn't complex, needy, sad. Be happy in life! When we passed in front of the pharmacy, she wanted to cross the street so as not to pass in front of it. And the pharmacist waved and said: "look! How cute she is! It's okay!" See, imagine if you were a needy pharmacist! "She won't like me!" The child died. Because where would someone who was prepared to be hated, to be despised, to be feared.? And save the girl's life? Can you imagine a needy doctor? "No antibiotics. No injection. The child will be mad at

me!" If so, everyone would die. Is this not natural? It is not obvious? So love he should expect nothing but the good of the loved one. Because expecting something else is difficult. And we know it. It's a matter of logic and common sense. And then the feeling of sacrifice: "I sacrificed a lot for you". So I shouldn't have done those things. Because now presents the bill! If he had emanated love because he couldn't do anything else, he didn't care. But since he wanted to do something else and sacrificed, now he has an account. It's a

tricky business. I didn't sacrifice. I sacrificed you for many things, because if I were me, I would be all the time loving everyone that passes me by. And I had to sacrifice to do some other things that I couldn't love yet. But if I could, I would love everything all the time, because that's my nature, that's what fulfills me. So when I loved you it was the moment I was happiest. There was no sacrifice. It doesn't have that duality. True love has no duality. I love why? because I'm. And there's nothing else to do. I'm

a plant, I do photosynthesis. It's no use asking anything else from me, it doesn't work. So there are no deals, there are no exchanges, there are no expectations, past, future. You are in the present moment, like a human being. This is very interesting. Neither past, memory, nor future, expectations. In the present moment, as a human being should be. So you look at the trail and say: a human being passed through here. Because you perceive a trail of love. And how many human beings in history have left such a trail? few. And how many human beings

have we had on the face of the earth? A state of mind/heart that is not dependent on circumstances awakens security and joy. and peace that was sought abroad. Now you are calm. What will they take from you? What you have is inalienable. It's yours. Nothing, and no one, can take that away from you. Everything that can be taken from you is not really yours. And that gives us insecurity, fear, pain, and everything in between. So what was sought outside, is found inside. And outside, simply, emanates what one is. You give the seed. "Well, the ground

could be concrete, it might not sprout". But I gave seeds. In different circumstances, different historical moments, there were very good men who did very similar things. and here the seed took and there it did not. Have you noticed? That the conditions of the environment were different, but the two are very calm and happy, I assure you! And what did they do? what is expected of a human being. And the rest, circumstances depend on things that sometimes are not in our hands. Seeking security breeds fear. So we're always looking for a solid point outside. And outside

there is not a single firm spot on the face of the earth. This is a serious problem, geological perhaps, not philosophical. It has no firm spot on the face of the earth. There's nowhere to back it up. If you don't lean in, you're lost. And that always leaves us unbalanced and insecure. Non-attachment memory meets events as they present themselves, without anticipating or fearing. The anticipation of something that we don't even know what it is, puts us in the expectation of a doubtful future and we lose a certain present. And since today is International Film Day,

there is a relatively recent, very beautiful and well-known film called Gladiator. There is a certain moment when that General, Maximus, who had become a slave, is in the center of an arena. And enemies came from behind a door. He gathers all the people around them and says: "whatever comes from behind that door, if we're united, we have a chance". I find that so beautiful. This door is the future. Whatever comes behind that door, if you have it compact, united with yourself, you have a chance. And when the time comes, you see. Responds at the height.

But what you can do for the future is to be human in the present. There's nothing else to do. "Ah!, there are some practical arrangements... I can make a pension plan... " Yes, you can, but these things are basic but do not guarantee you. If the country goes into civil war, your pension plan program goes to hell. What guarantees man is being human. There is nothing else that guarantees the man. So whatever comes from the door of the future, be with yourself. Solid, loyal. Be true to yourself. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. This phrase is very beautiful

and well known. Cowards die many times, brave men only once. When does the brave die? When death comes, he sees what it is, and he dies! The coward is dying from the moment he is born. "Ih!, I'm going to die!. I wonder if it's now, Ih!, it's coming!" " Look!, a wrinkle appeared!. Jeez!, a white hair!" How boring! Brave ones face things when they come, from the entire foundation of awareness they have built over several gifts well lived. Then the future has arrived!, he lives the future! Whatever comes from behind the door. He lives, but

responds like a human being. There is a beautiful passage from a Buddhist book called "Alita Vitara" by Siddhartha Gautama that says: "whatever the demon Mara brings, I will answer with righteousness". Whatever circumstances come through the illusions, I will respond with righteousness. That is, "Send whatever you want in the future!", I'm going to kick this ball like a human being kicks. If I'm going to score a goal or not; we see! But that I'll kick like a human being, I will. Whatever it is, I will answer with righteousness. Can you imagine being able to guarantee something

like that?! And this Sri Ham calls human happiness. And he says: from this freedom, freedom because the man who is autonomous and imposes himself on the environment, he has freedom. This man has freedom. The other is that Forrest Gump feather. Out of that freedom come love, strength, wisdom, beauty, and simplicity. He will say that the little I, which is the personal, uses these words without understanding them. Because these words, these virtues, do not live in captivity. They don't live trapped inside selfishness. Do you know those little animals, like the Panda bear, that they can't reproduce

in the zoo because they don't adapt to life in captivity? They say human virtues are like that. Captive of selfishness, the citizen who only thinks of the little "me": Me, Me... These things don't grow. Everything will be half crushed, half badly done. These virtues only grow in freedom. Require freedom man for it to expand. Trapped within the captivity of one's own selfishness, one's own "Iness", that little "I", you talk about these things without knowing what you are talking about. They are empty words. Simplicity? what simplicity? who is simple? Humility, Beauty, love... what is that? Then

comes that guessing thing: I think that's it; I think that's it. Then it becomes a toró of guesses as it is popularly said, but no deep concept. Because we have no way to try it. we don't have room for them. They're all suffocated. We only have seeds. And hopefully they don't become sterile! At some point we can give her the space for them to come to sprout. Well, today that's what I had to say. Keep this idea, of the interior life as a starting point. And everything else will be given in addition. And Happiness associated

with peace, serenity. New Acropolis is an international, independent, non-profit philosophical movement based on Culture, Philosophy and Volunteering.