This article presents the whole content of the public talk Cico gave on June 27 2022.
If the mind is quite busy, it might be good to stay silent for a while to empty the mind first. (Silent audio guides)
It's an occasion for us to meet, to set aside everything else human beings have created, so we can learn now, look at ourselves, and find out what we are actually.
In most of our life, the mind is constantly escaping. It is always chasing pleasure, pursuing fulfilment, and wanting to achieve all kinds of things to be rewarded, encouraged, praised, and become something.
Life is a constant seeking activity. The mind is always seeking something, always wanting to possess something.
In that seeking, the mind is escaping. And in the escape, all kinds of issues are accumulated and re-enhanced.
And look at life's daily grind, all kinds of things that take place daily, most of which is escape.
The mind is trying its best to keep itself busy. And this world is busy. But what is beneath this superficial “busyness”? Is this escape?
And beneath this escape, the mind is afraid. The mind is scared of being nothing. So the mind is always chasing and pursuing to be something which can bring a sense of fulfilment, satisfaction and gratification. That is most People's Daily activities.
But the fact is very, very simple.
When one is living fully now, one is nothing, which is a fact.
As long as one wants to be something, pursue something and achieve something, the mind is no longer at this moment.
And this mindset of this whole world is trapped in becoming something, which is a constant struggle.
When the mind wants to be something, the mind is afraid of being nothing. The fear is there, crippling the mind and life.
And the mind is compelled and driven by fear to seek more, to have more. The mind is trapped in an illusion that the pleasure, the fulfilment, the momentary satisfaction can let the mind forget the fear for a moment, which becomes another escape, another trap.
And not being able to fulfil, to get satisfaction brings about extra fear. So this escape and this seeking which means achieving, wanting, desiring, is a web of traps -- traps by traps.
And that is what is actually taking place. Can the mind see it, perceive it?
There's only fear, fear mounts. And a life crippled by fear is meaningless.
Being knocked by fear, the mind can't enjoy life. It is merely busy escaping, but the escape brings about extra fear.
Can the mind see this pattern clearly and actually? Not through the speaker's words, but you see the issues for yourself. See this pattern, this vicious circle.
When the mind sees that such a living, crippled and destroyed by fear, has no meaning, I can't find the meaning for the achievement, the fulfilment, because it only leads to more fear. Life becomes chaotic, empty, meaningless, and ugly.
To a clear mind, ending fear is the top priority, not to achieve more, get more, which is rather childish and immature.
So is that possible to live a life without fear, without any sense of fear? Please don't answer it immediately; your verbal response has no meaning. You must test it out, find it out for yourself in the actual living, whether it is possible to live a life without being crippled by fear at all?
And this inquiry is meditation, not those methods, practices, or different circuses.
Understanding oneself to eradicate the fear totally is part of this true meditation, which requires you to give full attention to the issues -- not condemn them, not justify them.
Just look and observe without being filtered by the words, the views, the theories or conclusions, which are meaningless for a mind that is eager to inquire, observe and understand.
Can the mind see this fact clearly and actually: one only belongs to this moment? Our living and existence only belong to this moment.
Just like everything else on this planet, it is only existing now. And each of us is only existing now, which further means that at this moment, we are nothing -- actually nothing.
And this is a fact, an unshakeable, immovable undeniable fact, but why does the mind resist this fact? Perhaps that's the beginning of all the neuroticism.
When the mind is resisting the fact, the mind is already neurotic. When the mind functions based on this resistance to the fact, the mind must be trapped in illusions, creating another virtual existence in thought to escape from this hard fact that we are nothing at this moment.
In this virtual existence created by thoughts, it is the activities of the ego -- this psychological concept of “me”. This becomes the existence of most people on this planet.
And because this existence is a thought product, it is always something, and it can't stand being nothing because being nothing means this virtual existence is gone.
And being gone embodies death. And death is the most dreadful topic for the ego, -- the ultimate fear from the ego, fear of dying, which is actually the fear of being nothing, the fear of losing this virtual existence, which also has no meaning at all.
The mind creates nonexistent existence to escape from factual existence.
Can you see this pattern yourself - this constant struggle full of conflict, contradiction, confusion, and numerous issues?
And this Western civilisation is based on this nonsensical and nonexistent existence. The mind is always conforming and imitating, so this pattern has been spread to each individual.
Collectively, the mind is seeking; everyone is chasing their own dream, their own illusion, seeking their own fulfilment. Can you see this collective pattern in yourself? Can you see it actually, not playing it as an idea?
When the mind regards what is being said here as an idea, the mind has ceased to see it actually. You see, the escape continues in different forms. So this individualistic society shares the same pattern, trapped in the same circus, constantly struggling to achieve more to have more.
The pattern is the same, but the content of the thoughts is different.
You want to achieve this; you want to have this. You want to seek this. He wants to accomplish that, seeks that. You see, the same pattern, but it creates numerous fragments.
When we are seeking, we don't meet; we are trapped in our own ambition and desire. And we don't see each other, but we are all isolated by our own dream and desires.
And I immerse myself in my personal experiences. When I am seeking, my experience becomes important to me, and my life is based on this personal experience, which belongs to me.
And you do the same. He does the same. She does the same. But we are all isolated, creating such an individualistic and fragmented world.
None of us sees the fact that at this moment, we are nothing because none of us is at this moment.
We are all trapped in different fragments in our thoughts, which is actually happening in this world.
But do you see it actually? If you see it actually, it means that you have this emotional response to this fact. You're concerned; you are serious about this. There are emotional elements inside.
Or else you don't feel connected with the fact, which means that you don't see the facts.
You may know it from someone else, for example, from the speaker. “It is a wonderful idea.” It is a thought, but you don't really see it in your life. Therefore it has no meaning at all.
Can the mind stay with the actual fact? When the mind functions based on fact, there won't be any conflict or contradiction at all. It is another fact.
When the mind is living with facts, that's only what is. There's no division, contradiction, or conflict, which also means that the mind can stop seeking now? Can the mind live a life without any seeking, without wanting to be something, wanting to have more, without being trapped in numerous desires?
Can the mind live with the fact totally, with the fact that you are nothing at this moment? Can you live a life anonymously which means that kind of mind negates the ego completely?
The negation is not to cut off something, but it is from this total understanding of the structure of the ego.
Can we live life without making any efforts, without seeking?
When the mind is not seeking, the mind is at this moment. The mind stays with the fact that it is nothing.
But when the moment is chasing something, wanting to be something or become something, achieving something, the mind can't stay with what it is now, which is nothing.
Such a mind is neurotic. It always wants to prove, to show that it is something, and can't stand being labelled as disabled or not capable because the mind always has an image about itself. “I must be something.”
Can the mind negate all that totally and stay with this moment? At this moment, it is nothing.
When I actually see this non-existent existence created by thoughts and illusions and further enhanced by distorted perceptions, I see clearly that I'm nothing at this moment. I have shed away all the burdens; I'm free.
I don't need to struggle to make efforts to be something to escape from the fact that I'm nothing. What a relief!
But can you see it for yourself actually? The speaker keeps emphasising “seeing it actually”, not treating it as an idea, which is pretty easy. But when you see it actually, you need to get all the energy to look, to understand and apply it to your life; you must live in that way,
If you don't live that way, you don't understand it and only think about it, which is still at the level of ideas, words and thoughts.
So the mind must stop being lazy, go beyond the words, and get the meaning behind the words. The mind must act to find out to test it out for oneself.
And then, what one can find out is much more than what we can discuss here verbally; this requires your diligence and tremendous observation.
Please do it.