New Acropolis INTEREST, ATTENTION AND LOVE Comments on the book "In Search of Wisdom" by N. Sri Ram | Chap IV Lúcia Helena Galvão New Acropolis, Brasilia | 2016 Well, people! Some here are familiar faces of mine. Today I'm meeting some others. Be welcome! The idea is to share in this cycle of lectures, a book that I like very much. This is actually an old project. To pick up those books that I love the most, that I consider, that were very significant to add to my life, as a philosopher and for many other New Acropolis philosophers,
and pass them on to the public, chapter by chapter. We've already done that with "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibran. There are 26 lectures that have been filmed. They exist on DVD's, they exist on You Tube. And now we are working on that book. Which is far less known than "The Prophet". A book called "In Search of Wisdom", of a philosopher named, Sri Ram, Nilakantha Sri Ram. Less known, but no less important. In some places where I have given this lecture, people already joke with me, because I talk about my bedside books. They say I'm making
an encyclopedia at their bedside and it's almost there. But in this encyclopedia, this is an indispensable book. I would say that, is interesting, because it has a similar feature to "Prophet", which can be randomly opened and read any chapter. I would say it is essential. We've already had seven talks. Sorry, we had six lectures, today is the seventh. And it doesn't matter much If you have not seen the other lectures, because this is a book that is a conjunction of lectures by this author. So each chapter is pretty self-contained. But he who has an interest
in the previous chapters, will also be released on YouTube in due course. Today we're talking about this chapter seven, which by the way is one of my favorites. Obviously, the theme is very beautiful. Interest, Attention and Love. For those who already know me, I usually teach the study techniques course, and this course put me in a craze, which I consider a very good craze. Which is the mania of summarizing everything. Anything, synthesis. And it becomes so automatic that I even read newspaper news and I'm already doing the synthesis. The summary of this is such a
thing. And it's good, it's a good habit, I think. Because at the end of the day, it prevents us from being so dispersed. I have the impression that at the end of life, you will look back and you will have to summarize your life. What he learned from her, what he added. So I think a mania, in quotes, very valid. So I always start the lectures, making a small synthesis, a word, What that chapter teaches, what this particular conference had to teach. This is a conference that talks a lot about observation. Watch yourself. You will
say: - How strange, it has none of that in the name. It doesn't, but it is. That's what he's about. Because really, we had a bunch of stuff inside of us with random names. And you have to look inside and find out what true love is. What is the real interest. What is true attention. It is no longer a definition. What Sri Ram does is almost an investigation. For you to discover what you already have of these things inside you. Those who are arriving now, we still have some places ahead of us. So the idea
is that in the end we can talk a little about it and say: - Well, this thing inside me is love. - Such a thing inside me is a legitimate interest. recognize. Intelegere, choose among. Among the things we have inside us, which are true, which are legitimate, which have to do with our true identity. Interest, Attention and Love. It starts with a placement which sounds very simple, but it's not so much. What is the story of that human transformation it is only done through love. It even seems commonplace on the internet. "Oh! My love for
you transforms me". It's pretty, but overall it doesn't have much depth. First place, because few people really want to transform. This is where he starts. The true transformation it is done through true love. But who really wants to change? Places a hierarchy of priorities within the life of modern man and see who considers transforming himself as an important thing. Transform what? Transform my apartment, transform my car into the newest, transform my profession into one that gives more psychological comfort. But myself, being a better human being than I am today would imply having a notion of
what good is to get closer to him. It would imply a notion of values, which sometimes we do not stop to think about. That is, transforming oneself is not such a common expectation. And it's a difficult thing. Here between us. Let no one, except this group that is here, quite adult, but that will not spread. Just between us. you know many people that throughout life, from the knowledge you gained throughout life, do they change that much? Or do people look a bit alike, just biology operates? And psychology is kind of frozen. It is not? In
other words, change is not easy. That is, if you perceive it as necessary and ardently desire it. But if you don't want it my dear, forget it. It won't change anything. Sorry, 30-second electrical failure. Can we continue anyway or are you going to be too traumatized? So let's go! On one occasion I even had a student. Including the times when I taught here at headquarters. He was a young man. And I was telling him about a Hindu novel, a Hindu epic, called the Bhagavad Gita. Which is an inner struggle of man seeking improvement. He turned
to me and said: - What an improvement, I'm happy the way I am. He was an 18 year old young man. I said: - My God in heaven! What are you going to do with the rest of your life? So don't want to transform, already makes our class a little useless. If there is within you the burning desire to transform yourself, true love will come in handy for that. He says that not only will it be useful, but only he is capable of it. Of operating a true transformation in man. (which he will operate when
power point returns). Sorry, but there is a lecture with emotion and without emotion, they must have paid more for this one. Look how beautiful this placement he will make in the next chapter. "Love without possession or selfishness. All virtues are included therein. "Regenerates from the roots (nothing else can do it!)". Nothing can regenerate you from the roots. A curious thing. We have the impression that life is static and given. And what Sri Ram puts in this lecture, in this conference, which he gave some decades ago. It's just that you can change facts that have already
been passed. When you look at them from a different point of view. And you realize why, the bigger picture, when you learn something that's very basic and platonic, which he considers as a fundamental element of life: seeing through the facts. You don't see but only the surface. You see beneath the surface and discover not just the how, but the why. Your life becomes fully endowed with meaning. So I look at the facts of the past And I realize the need for all those things to bring me to the present moment. And it may come at
a certain time, that you look at a fact that seemed painful and unpleasant to you, when you lived it and say to yourself: - Compared to what he taught me, it wasn't expensive. -It was a good price. - I would pay even more. You justify your whole life and regenerate your whole life. Make peace with life. There is a Mexican poet that I admire a lot who is Amado Nervo. That at the end of a beautiful poem, he says the following: "Life, you owe me nothing". "Life, we are at peace". Make peace with life, regenerate
to the roots of your life. Justify each fact, each event. He says that true love is capable of this. As we are not so easy to do this, maybe, just maybe, we don't have that true love. We have to say things little by little. As Machiavelli said: "The good at once, the bad little by little". So maybe we don't have as much of that true love, like that. And that's exactly what you're going to propose to discuss. What is true Love and how to get to it? There is a maxim of traditional philosophy that says:
"A drop of true love justifies an existence". And that perhaps, we have many things that are slightly similar, but not true love, because it is rare and requires a certain condition of consciousness, that you have to look for it and build it, that is, it requires merit. And maybe we don't have that much. It's hard to talk about it, because admitting it, requires you to admit scorched earth, and start building from what you have. I only have a small brick, a small moment of true Love, but I already have a small brick. And I start
building from it. I'm not afraid to start over. I'm not afraid of scorched earth. I'm not afraid to rebuild myself. And consider that scorched earth, which is the realization of what we don't have, it's a good time. Not everyone sees themselves honestly. We saw that the earth is devastated, because we are in the real world. It's better than before. A bunch of castles that were absolutely illusory. Maybe we don't have as much of that true Love. He will talk about how to get to Him. "Interest motivated by the pursuit of profit, pleasure or power, contrary
to Love". No attachment to the pleasures and gains of the little "I". "Interest and Pure Love". I have a very strong hope that is almost a conviction, that you're going to leave here and everyone is going to read this book. And when you read this book, pay attention to certain things that are typical of his language. When he says "I" with a small 'e', he is talking about this dense physical structure of the human being. Sometimes he uses "I" with a capital "e", He is speaking of something higher. He works with this hypothesis that man
has an essence and an existence. And that essence precedes and justifies existence. We exist because this essence has a message to give to the world, has a mission, came here to do something. So when he talks about the little "me" like that, he's talking about this selfish, personalistic "I". That piece of organic matter that we think is our true identity. And who wants everything for himself. I want. What am I going to get out of it. I don't want. In short, a game of whims around this little artificial identity. He quotes at a certain moment,
I find this image very interesting, a beaver. This animal, which is quite rare in Brazil, we don't have it here, maybe we've been importing some. But we don't have it here. He cuts a bunch of logs and makes a dam inside the river. He could have the whole river, flowing, pure water, but only wants that little corner, that little polluted lake, which is his, and brings all the things he considers his in there. He could have the whole river and he only wants a little dam. We are more or less like that. That little "I"
contaminates any possibility of pure Love. He says a sentence that's kind of harsh for a Tuesday night. He says that a superficial person is only capable of superficial affective phenomena, does not experience true Love. Because true love is profound. In the flower of the skin you will not find it. I always quote a phrase from a Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy. He says: "There are those who pass through a forest and only see wood for their fire". Imagine? In the universe of life that exists within a forest, you see what interests me, what it serves me
for. If I don't have bonfires and I don't have a fireplace at home, this forest doesn't exist. Let's devastate it and make a parking lot. It's not that? There is only physical space that can serve me for something. I only see what interests me. I distort reality. I create an illusion. I don't touch the reality of things. There's no depth to any of my expressions. I know how to handle things, the know how. Know-how technology, but I don't know why, for what, where, how and when. Life gets kinda random with bigger meanings. But I know
how to handle things technically, utilitarianly for my benefit. This is characteristic of a human being who will not have a single deep feeling throughout his life. So it will hardly have a very deep identity. He gradually concatenates the ideas so as not to scare the listener too much. But basically it says that true Love with that type of identity is not enough. I always repeat it in my lectures and it's interesting to notice that, Because eastern and western philosophy, in general, talks about it. I dare you to show me a human problem that has no
selfishness behind it. Do you know any? It can be collective of society, it can be individual. Any human problem that selfishness is not hiding behind? Selfishness makes a projection and see things from their interests. He doesn't see things, he sees himself projected onto things. It's a bit like that phrase by Caetano Veloso, "Narciso thinks anything that isn't a mirror is ugly". That is, he sees himself propheted in things, he doesn't even touch the surface of things. Does not establish deep relationships, lives in a bubble. And logically there is no possibility of true Love. He will
continue talking. If you want to establish true love, it is logical that in the first place, you have to establish true interest, interest in the truth of things. Because if not, what will you have? Coercion. Forcing people to be interested in the truth of things doesn't work. Intrinsic interest is required. You must have watched that old movie, which they even talked about the other day, Matrix, the first. Matrix or Meitrix. As you prefer. There was a citizen who lived inside the machine of illusions, he left and wanted to come back. Because the illusion is delicious.
The truth didn't matter. There is a clear duality in that film, a clear duality in humanity, which is between he who loves truth above all things and he who loves pleasure above all things. It doesn't matter if it's a lie. If it's pleasurable, it's fine. You must have seen that story about the compulsive gossip. He doesn't want to know what really happened because otherwise the story is dull. He loses the pleasure of telling it the way he is telling it. That is, the truth is secondary. The satisfaction of the senses is fundamental. That man, Sifer,
movie character, wanted to go back to the matrix knowing it was an illusion. Because the illusion was pleasurable, whereas reality was not. If man does not want to seek the truth, he is not interested in knowing what things really are, without your projections, a vital curiosity to understand life as it is, and not like my mirror, it is very difficult for him to approach any truth in life. And this is an element that no one can force, no one can impose on anyone. It's an achievement. Are you interested in the truth? If interested, congratulations! Because
it is an achievement. If you don't have that germ inside you, nobody can give you that. Nobody. It is an achievement that must be toasted, although in our historical moment it is sometimes considered a discomfort, a nuisance. Another story that is very well known, sorry for those who already know. On one occasion they spoke to the philosopher Socrates. - Socrates, you are so wise. - If I take a politician like that here, tie him to that chair and talk to him for two hours. - Can you make this politician... It only happened at that time,
the politicians weren't very good, I'm glad we got over it. - If I take this politician and tie him here in this chair and you talk to him for two hours, will he become a wise man, a good man? Socrates replied. - I am the daughter of a midwife, my mother... You know he was a man of the people, the philosopher Socrates. - My mother, Fenarete, was a midwife and a very good one. - There's only one thing she would never be able to do. - Which is giving birth to a woman who wasn't pregnant.
Do you understand? If you don't have the germ of truth inside you, you won't want to know the truth outside. And it's no use trying to impose it, Because by imposition it will not. This is what he speaks of intrinsic interest. Do you know what intrinsic interest is? Let me give you a study technique tip that is the most important thing in the course. Intrinsic interest is you liking the knowledge itself and not what you will gain from it, for example when you are studying. Imagine you a person who studies ten hours a day. I
accept, you need it. But he studies all the time thinking: - Like this boring subject, but I'll earn well. - Wow, this is unbearable, but the job is great. - Oh! how they pay, look at the status. But this is boring. Do you think the quality of this study will be very good? A person who is interested in knowledge itself. Feel that you are growing from that. Seek to know what purpose that knowledge has in your life. What can he learn from this. This person who thought this law, is he right or is he wrong?
What social reality did she want to change? If I were to interfere with this social reality, Would you make a law like this or would you do it differently? What can I learn from this person's intention? Interested in knowledge. He sees footprints of intelligence in all knowledge. A person like that, do you think that in an hour he doesn't learn more? Intrinsic interest. Because knowledge is one of the richest things we have, that characterizes us as human beings. Interest in knowledge itself and not in what comes after. This is a sensational study. This gives fantastic
quality. Y ' all have no idea how it makes yield. Today we have many people here. But in the history of New Acropolis that I've been for a few years, not so many, I won't reveal my age because that's impolite. There were many times in the beginning, small schools, having prepared a talk like this and no one had gone. This has happened to me more than once. The feeling is that people didn't come, but I learned a lot, because it was really good to study for that. This interest in knowledge itself. If there is no
interest, there is only an imposition, a coercion, the quality of what is done will be very low. It is very difficult to have an ethical society, for example, with men who are not interested in the truth, but that they are ethical because there is a code that says that if they are not, they will be punished. Do you realize that this is very little feasible? It's like a kid who eats a salad because if he doesn't, he doesn't get dessert. The day he can buy his own dessert, what happens to the salad? That is, the
intrinsic interest is for the thing itself. For the truth itself. Who is interested in the truth itself? Without being my portrait? Other than my projection? What things truly are. He says that from this interest in the truth of life, of things, there is an interest in the truth of the other. That when you establish this contact with the truth of the other, you establish true love. There is an interesting word which is concord, which means two hearts, cordis, two hearts. It is your intimate contact with another. This requires self-knowledge and knowledge of the other. Being
able to go a little from the truth, from the ministry of the other. In fact, they say that this is one of the noblest missions of the human being. You discover the other's mystery and help him see it himself. You reveal another's ministry, because often the person himself does not see it. When you love someone, you see a hidden mystery in the other, the truth in the other, and helps to bring it out. That is, all love is a revelation of the ministry that exists in the other and in us, Because this process is reciprocal.
That is, when there is depth, there is the possibility of having that psychological contact that penetrates the nature of the other, and get deep answers. It has to be from deep to deep. Then reinforce: Superficial people can be needy; they may have, I don't know, a need for company; they may be afraid of loneliness. But a deep feeling of love requires depth. It's a question of parallelism. Don't get angry with Sri Ram. It is very likely that this is the case. And it's good that we know what is needed. Plato used to say that the
best thing we can do for the people we love is grow up. Which has a lot to do with it, grow as human beings. And then you can offer something of higher quality to that being. "Nature sensitive to one's own being: meaningful attention. Consciousness awake and sensitive, like a lens". It's interesting. There is even a very constant dialogue between this author, Sri Ram, and Plato. There's a chapter in the entire book that he quotes from Plato all the time. He constantly makes reference to this philosopher, Not without reason, because he is a philosopher who is
basic in the history of human thought. Plato in this regard says that when you see something that is beautiful, when you really have the ability to see beauty, that is, aesthetic sense, you don't see beings, you see through them. Hardly a person who sees something really beautiful wants to own it. As if you could imagine seeing Pietá. We think it's beautiful, but would we want to take it home? You realize that people don't desire, it's not an object of desire, but see through it. And it provokes what he calls nostalgia, reminiscences, self-remembering. He says that
the true feeling before something profoundly beautiful, ethical, aesthetic, It's homesick. It's like there's something beautiful inside you that recognizes itself in that. It's like remembering some place where all things were like this. There is a nostalgia, an ability to see through. By the way, Plato said that this was the culmination of life, he was a man who had symbolic vision. I didn't see things, I saw through things, their meaning, why, their role in your life. And slowly learning to see yourself too, deepening these relationships. Then that nature sensitive to your own being, your own essence,
it starts to become a lens that is able to see in depth, all things around you. Now get it right, people. Imagine that we are talking to 10 people. You are talking to 10 people around you. One of them is yourself, your essence who came into the world to manifest. The other is fashion, it is the opinion of the neighbors, it is the opinion of the media, it's a lot of intellectualism that they threw at you, Saying that whoever thinks that way is superior. It's a lot of interlocutors that your conscience has around you. It
reminds me a bit of Jung, and what he defines as Self. You have an interlocutor who is yourself. For Sri Ram it is fundamental that you learn to recognize this interlocutor. Who am I within myself. Who is that voice that comes true when it sees the beautiful, that takes place in the face of honor, justice, kindness, generosity, that feels deeper and deeper, that integrates these things into itself, who remembers himself, When you see these things. You have that reality within you, now. If I hadn't, I wouldn't be at a philosophy lecture on a Tuesday night
at eight o'clock. Realize that something within you is familiar with it. So it's about investing in what's inside you, it's yourself. Invest with a sense of discipline, order and constancy. Bringing these elements to the fore more and more. Sometimes we get the impression, when he says this kind of thing, that he is talking about very distant, very rare sages. He is talking about what we are today, than we have today. There is a beautiful book to add to your bedside encyclopedia, called "Light of Asia" which tells the story of the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the
Buddha. And at a certain point, Buddha recounting some of his past incarnations, it is a Buddhist tradition, that is, reincarnationist. He says: "What I am today finds roots back there". It is impossible for it to be realized today, something that had no seeds in the past. Nothing that will be in the future can fail to have seeds here. If not, there would be nowhere to take that life. That is, if one day we will have a mature, wise, if one day we will have wisdom, values, virtues, if one day we will be more complete human
beings, The roots of it are in the now. One of those interlocutors that we have within us in life are the seeds of it. For you to invest now, it's not a futuristic process. We are not talking about sages, we are talking about us. These things all exist within us. Fulfilling oneself in the face of the good, the beautiful, the just, already exists within us. Let's talk a little more about that. It's about you observing yourself. Do you remember the summary of the lecture? Find it within yourself. Let's go! "Detach yourself from the selfish "I"
and perceive the depth of the world from your own depth". As I said to you, I'm already a teacher... How am I going to use such a euphemistic term? Old is very ugly. I'm an old teacher. Experienced, that word is beautiful, it sounds good. And sometimes I meet some teachers who are younger, and it is normal for us to exchange experiences. People say: - How do I improve my classes? - What do I read? This is a question I get a lot. - What do I read to improve my classes? We clearly realize from a
certain moment on that it is no longer a matter of reading. It's like a person swimming in a pool, is afraid of water and decides to learn swimming to face this fear. Good technique. I swam 100 meters, 500 meters, now what do I do to overcome my fear even more? You realize that there will come a certain time that to overcome the fear of water, it's not a question of extending more, now it's diving. Do you understand? It is no longer a question of length, it is of depth. Take what little you have and dive
in. It's no use anymore. You will see that there are not so many concepts, they will start to repeat themselves. It's not a matter of length. Dive into what you have. Alive. Watch. Make comparisons. At the end of the day, talk to yourself, it is a very healthy habit. make a diary, to try to find at what time in the day you recognize yourself as yourself, and reinforce this point. Create an identity from those facts that you recognize as yourself. It is no longer a question of extension. Ours is an extensive and very shallow society.
"Attention, interest and love reveal new meanings to the usual things. There is superficial light and deep light..." He says he's like an artist, like a Michelangelo, who is able to see the potential statue within that stone and bring it out. Notice how interesting this is Sri Ram's idea: reveal new meanings to the usual things. All of you must have seen that movie, "Life is beautiful". See? When I watched that movie, I remembered something that I found very interesting. This citizen is a sensitive filmmaker, and what he realized is a potential in human nature that is
real, which is to see the same thing from a totally different angle, that makes situations that are tougher from a superficial point of view, become deep and beautiful. What he said is reality. I remembered a situation from my life when I was little. Often, for those who have attended my lectures, I usually talk about my grandmother who was a very interesting figure. Too simple, illiterate, and he had the habit of getting all the boys in the family together to tell stories. She got us together to say that when she was little in the northeastern backlands,
a citizen was passing by who was a knight, and called all the boys to give each one a drink of water from his jug. It was what he had to give. To make it more fun he would say to the boys: - Today, the water tastes like brown sugar. The boys: - I want! I want! Everyone took that sip. The other day it tasted like candy. It was what he had to give, he took a sip from his jug. I was a kid and I kept listening to that and I thought it was the most
fun experience in the world. She conveyed that in a way that never crossed my mind, that my grandmother could be a country girl who was getting thirsty. I thought it was fun, it brought me to tears, people. Saying: - I wish I was there too, grandma. - I wanted to be playing with you, drinking that water. Telling you the truth, I realized that my grandmother was suffering, when I was about 15 years old. When someone said one day: - Ms. Julieta had a difficult childhood. I said: - Did it pass? - But wasn't it a
fun thing? I thought it was fun. There was a time in my life when I was in doubt. Today, I went back to the first version. I think it was fun. This is that delicious taste that we feel from something called maturity. I know the first version was true, it was a fun. And the way she conveyed it to us was without any drama. Quite the contrary, you would die of envy of her. I remember that one of these days, someone commented that someone had interviewed Luiz Gonzaga, in his still-living days. And said to him:
- Didn't you suffer when you were little and didn't have any toys in the middle of the hinterland? He turned and said: - Children don't miss these things, young man. - You don't even know that this exists, I enjoyed it a lot. In other words, a reality seen from another angle. But it's the same fact, simple. It's nothing exceptional, it's the same facts of life. Have you ever stopped to notice how many birds sing at your window in the morning? Has anyone stopped to notice? It's exceptional! Nature is euphoric. It seems that something very special
is happening, only we are missing out. The wise ones double the trill, that not even Maria Callas would do that. It is an out-of-the-ordinary breath. It's a show! Sri Ram tells us to observe the moment. It says stop everything and watch this moment, all the sounds. The sound that comes from the air conditioner, the sound of someone whispering. The sound of a voice coming from outside. The distant sound of a car passing in the street. He says that consciously or unconsciously, all things that move in the universe, they move in search of their ideal, Seeking
in a certain way God. And if you know that and realize it, you decode all these voices and see that they all fit together. That every moment is a symphony. That all moments are voices, conscious or unconscious, of beings seeking their destiny. They seek their place in the universe. They seek happiness, fulfillment. Therefore, they all compose and you can perceive this symphony. And it says there is wisdom in this minute, in this second, if you listen. Everything is composed. Everything is harmonious. Because everyone knows it or not, they are looking for one thing. It's not
interesting? They are the same facts of life, they are not others. They are the same things. And there is superficial light and deep light, there is light that is capable of capturing this and others that are not. "It is only possible in consciousness not tied to the command of the "I". Love is a moment of freedom". True love, the one with a capital "A", it is a moment of fantastic freedom. People know intuitively. I'm sure that all that I'm saying to you, somehow intuitively he already knew. We know that love is an act of freedom,
Because he cannot be attached to anything without losing his own nature. Imagine that you know a friend who is in love and she tells you: - Look! i love so-and-so. You ask: - Why do you love so-and-so? - Because he earns well, have you seen his income? - Look! It's a good investment, I won't even tell you. You'll say: - Well, that's not love, it's investment in the capital market. It's not that? That is, if love has something to justify it other than itself, it is no longer love. We know that love is only love
when it's free. It's not like this? And justice, is it not so? - I was so fair with so-and-so. - Why? - Because he has a nice car and will get me a job. - It's going to be a big deal to get a vacancy I don't know where. Were you fair? No, you did influence peddling. It's not like this? The true feelings that humanize us are tremendously free, but at the same time they are very demanding with us. They demand a commitment where there is nothing above them. This lie we have that commitment imprisons,
When in fact commitment frees. Commitment to the human condition and all its attributes. That is, true love is a moment of extreme freedom. He only obeys himself, he cannot be conditioned to any external element. "Accumulation of past experiences that generates false identity, interests, ambition and envy". It is also a catch for those who are going to read Sri Ram. I remember perfectly that the first time I read it, I had the feeling. He doesn't like memory. He wants everyone to suffer from amnesia. He badmouths memory all the time. And you have to read and reread
to understand his point of view, which is sometimes complex. I always with a story, That some of my students already know very well. Imagine an orange juice. You squeeze the oranges and drink that juice, it's ascorbic acid, vitamin C, wonderful. It will integrate into your body, it will protect you from the flu, it will improve your health. But what do you do with orange peels? Throw away. Imagine if I went out dragging this bag of orange peels through life. Wouldn't there come a certain moment that would be an unbearable burden, that I couldn't bear to
go on any longer? And sometimes we don't even drink the orange juice, we throw it away, but drag the peels. That is, we do not express life, we extract its juice and learn from it, but it carries all the pain that situations have given us. That is, the price I paid for the experiences, I drag, but deep learning does not. There's a passage from a Tibetan book. A good book when you're feeling a little weak. Do you know what a personality electroshock is? It is the book called "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", Bardo Todol.
This one is strong. And he says so. If man learned from life's experiences and forgot how much he paid for them, would not need to die. Because when we carry such a heavy burden of negative experiences from the past, who can't take another step, You asked to die, life just performs. She likes the customer, she frees you from that burden. So the memory is positive, yes, in the sense that it extracted a content, and you are what you are thanks to her, but the price you paid, backwards. That would be positive. You approach the person
and say: - Wow, how patient you are. - What a wonderful virtue. Her: - Sit here, let me tell you what I went through to get to this point. He finished! Is expensive! Is expensive! Not worth it. So this accumulation of past experiences generates a false identity, interests, ambition and envy. He goes so far as to say that we are a mere product of the past. In such a way that anything new that comes along, we don't see it, we compare with the past and establish a pre-judgment, a pre-concept. You don't even see it anymore.
You go judging from the orange bale, of orange peel that you drag. "Moments of life fit together through a sense of harmony (perception, intelligence and reason)." Imagine that you take off all the shells, Leave only the orange juice. All the juices you've had integrate perfectly. The essence of your life are like pieces of a puzzle. Integrates right. If it's not fitting it's because there's something left. Thing you should have discarded and didn't discard. Socrates said that education educates more for what it takes than for what it gives. Life is harmonious by definition. If there's something
that isn't fitting, it's because you didn't throw everything you had to throw away. Then the pieces of your puzzle fit perfectly. Life does not pile up. It adds up. One moment does not replace the other, one moment is a step that propels you to the next. Sri Ram himself, in a later chapter, will say: "Life well lived in all its stages is nature's most beautiful spectacle". Human Life. When all the steps fit together harmoniously. Nothing left. This will develop perception, intelligence and reason. Another thing I didn't want to say so you guys don't get mad
at him, but he says that intelligence is a very rare phenomenon. At his time, he died in 1973, that's it. Intelligence is about depth, not breadth. Extension has to do with memory. Intelligence like depth he says is very rare. As I told you, intelligence comes from intelegere, choosing among. Ultimate intelligence is choosing between the things that told you who you were, who are you really. Ultimate intelligence is identity. Very rare. What is man's identity based on in our historical moment? Where superficiality is the rule. See how beautiful this is. He says that every moment of
your life can spark an insight, a deep insight, when you get the essence of it. A moment that would be meaningless. There is nothing left in life. He will speak later on about this. A painter does not consider that a paint is left over. A composer, let a note be left over. So the moment the bird lands in your garden is not left over. He has an insight to give you. And it has some depth, some mystery behind it. "Response to the beautiful without a later stain". Without you pouring it on the bird in your
garden, all of your past and all of your traumas. A clean view. And try to perceive the phenomenon of life that manifests itself. Have you noticed something interesting? What we call personality, philosophically speaking, which is our densest self, loves home. Have you noticed? When we travel there are two joys, when we go out, when we come back. Oh! I arrived home. What a relief. Evening when you come from work. Oh! House. Plane when it comes from abroad and lands, the staff: thank you! Isn't it a beauty? Personality loves home. I remember that on one occasion
I moved to the northeast, to live there for a while. The feeling I had was that I had been reincarnated. I didn't know anything. I thought it was funny because inside me there was a thought. "At least take the pillow!" It's desperate! That is, the personality is crazy about home. Now it is interesting when we start to observe this phenomenon, which is not bad. It is an interesting observation. There's something inside us that's also crazy about home And that is not the personality. It is another kind of consciousness. Who also loves home. Only, what is
home for this heightened spiritual awareness? When a person having an honorable attitude. I look and I feel that homesickness. I belong to this world. A person having a very ethical attitude: - Wow, how amazing! - I miss home, I belong to this world. There is something within us that is recognized in another type of home. Do you realize this? And it's home too. As we begin to become familiar with this other self, and with the things that are his own, we begin to see the world through it. We need to feed that core of consciousness
within us. something in us that recognizes itself in goodness, beauty, justice and reinforces what it is. It also has a sense of home, it's not a physical home. You may have already heard about a very famous character from mythology, which is Hercules. He fights a giant one day, which is Antaeus. This Antaeus had a characteristic that when he fell to the ground, he gained strength, but when he was raised close to the sky, he lost. That's more or less us, we are not identified with this heavenly home. So we only take strength when we are
on the ground. We should take even more strength when seeing beauty, goodness, justice, because it's home too. It's home to another identity that we would need to reinforce in us. Do you understand? And this other identity sees the world that way. Does not see the world, sees through the world, to yourself, your home. See the deeper meaning of things through events. This is symbolic vision. "Action that reveals harmony at the base of everything. Thinking 'outside the box'". I think it is interesting, because the Indian tradition puts the personality exactly like a box. Which is the
physical, emotional, physical, energetic, emotional and the concrete mind. Think outside the box it would be, according to the Indian tradition, to think through your essence, what you really are. I used to joke and say that Sri Ram advises to think outside the Indian box, which is the personality. See through another eye, that recognizes itself in the other world with other values and reinforce that identity, until in a moment, This scale weighs more than the other. And you start to recognize yourself more on that side than the other. "It requires humility, altruism, complete self-giving." It's more
or less the same. Instead of looking at things, if you're not thinking from the beaver dam, of the Indian box, of the selfish "I", you no longer look at things and say: what is this for me? As Plato said. You start looking at things and asking, how can I serve this? It naturally develops a realization of being a sum factor, life, The humanity. And not leave here without making a difference. You will naturally realize yourself with this. In short, it leaves a trail. By your works you will know yourselves. The trace of the man who
is like that, is depth, peace, silence. "Giving your best in everything: mystery capture." Imagine, sometimes we come to our children and ask: - What are you going to do when you grow up? We want her to answer: - I'm going to be a doctor, I'm going to be an engineer. We should teach our children to say or think, whatever I'm going to do, I'm going to do my best. I don't know what it's going to be, but whatever it is, I'll do my best, because what I'm going to be has nothing to do with what
I'm going to do, I'm going to be a human, and I will build a world a little better. What I'm going to do is just half. What will you be when you grow up? Man. With a capital "H". And whatever I have to do for it, I will do it in the best possible way. I'm going to capture the ministry that's behind it. We would have to pass on that culture. I find it interesting when he talks about this sage. There is a Taoist passage that I think is beautiful. Which says when you look into
the eyes of a sage, their eyes are deep. Do you realize that superficiality breeds a superficial view? A gaze turned outward. When you look a sage in the eye, it seems that there is in the depths of your gaze, an intimate and profound encounter An intimate and profound dialogue day. Between a man and a God, which is the very divine essence that we have within us. Within the gaze of a sage, a dialogue intimate and deep, between a man and God. It is that person who transmits solidity, serenity, who knows where he is stepping and
who has a goal that he never loses sight of. It is important for us to believe that this exists, so that we have this as a goal, because philosophy is love of wisdom. For that you have to believe that it exists as a possibility. If not, we wonder what goal we have? What does society offer as a model? The materially successful man? The famous man? The products that society generates, in general very doubtful from the point of view of human achievement. "Inventors, artists...: no note is insignificant". I already told you this. A composer does not
consider that he has an insignificant note. The bird that landed in my garden, that's insignificant. Beethoven did not consider a note of his symphony to be insignificant. A color in Leonard Da Vinci's painting, nothing. But you say: - They were painting the Mona Lisa. - Beethoven was doing the Moonlight Sonata. - What am I doing? You are making a human being, my dear. Which is a much bigger work than all that. Here between us, I give an arm for a good Mozart requiem, but he will cease to exist. Or won't you? It will pass a
time and will be forgotten. It's a shame for us to think about it. But go. Now the construction of a human being with values, virtue and wisdom, Is there a greater work than this? Will this pass? It will not pass, this is eternal. You are working on this work, it is the mega work. In a certain way, all works were made to awaken you to this. Then you are not doing anything insignificant. It is in this work that no color is negligible, no note, no moment. If there was a time when I had nothing to
teach you, would have already been taken from your life. Life is entirely pedagogical. "Without selfishness or vanity: manifests pure qualities, in regard to the value, beauty, and uprightness of things in themselves". "Beauty requires the mature observer plus a technical means". Two things for us to note. Beauty requires someone who is able to see the beauty in the essence of something and have a technical means to transmit it. Say, I'm a musician. I need to be able to see the beautiful essence in nature and master a violin, a piano, anything. Both things are indispensable. Otherwise, we
have key players, but not true musicians. Have no soul the things we do. Beauty has to have a soul, it has to have something. It cannot be, as the teacher said, Jorge Ángel Livraga, who founded New Acropolis, it's not an empty envelope, it has something to say, something precious, and says it in a proper way. You must be tired of seeing that person who sings very well, who plays very well, but that conveys nothing but vanity. Beauty requires these two elements. This first element is the most important of all. You may have already heard about
our magnificent pianist, Nelson Freire. When he moves from São João del Rei to Rio de Janeiro to study music. He studies with a teacher. And your parents, Connoisseurs that it was a talent, they wanted me to train for a long time, almost the whole day. The teacher comes to him and says: - You will only train two hours a day. - The rest of the time, you'll live to express yourself in music. Do you understand? For him to see, to have something to express in music, otherwise, it will not express anything, a mere keyboard player.
And another important thing. To know this essence of things, you have to think about the things themselves and not what they are for you. Being able to perceive things themselves. As beings, alive, important, and endowed with value as much as you are. They don't exist to meet your needs. It has a story that is very old and I love to tell it. So those of you who've heard it "three hundred" times, I'm sorry. But that marked me a lot. When I lived in the northeast, my daughter was very young and water savings were being made.
It was that time of "knowing how to use it won't run out". It was a very cynical phrase. If I know it won't be missing at all, I use it anyway, because what matters is my usefulness. I remember that one day my daughter came home from school, she was in kindergarten, and she said: - Mom, my colleague said she won't save water, because her father can pay. - I was very sad about it. It's not because her father can afford it, it's for the water. - Poor her. - The water will be so sad for
doing this to it. I kept thinking: - My God! She is thinking like water. You see the purity of a child, he put himself in the place of water, he thought like water. And not what the water was for her. How fantastic if we were able to see that. How philosophical! See things in themselves as having value, worthy of respect. Do you realize what a fantastic world? Because they are! What we do is an alienation in the little "I" that doesn't see anything. I am the one who values things. Out of my usefulness they don't
exist. This is very beautiful people, here between us. So this mature observer who sees the essence of things he is capable of transmitting them, otherwise he is an empty envelope. "Attention chained to the "I" cannot go far". I.e, without altruism, without overcoming the great evil that the Tibetan tradition calls the "heresy of separateness", which is selfishness, Our attention does not go very far. So neither do our feelings. And our identity, ditto. We are small, we are mediocrited by selfishness. "Listening with full attention to things, the other and our own internal reactions". So watch yourself with
courage. If you follow that journaling advice. The night observe, what I was during my day. Here I went! Not here! That moment when I went up to that co-worker of mine and said such a thing, I told everyone that I was being sincere, that I was fulfilling my obligation. Lie, I was being envious, I was wanting to hurt him, because he had such success I did not forgive. It hurts too much for you to say to yourself that you were being jealous. But if you saw it, now you have the possibility to dominate. Cataloging this
world, this jungle that exists within us, and finding yourself in between. Starting, as it is popularly said, "name the oxen". Putting everything in its place and finding yourself in the middle of it all. And valuing yourself for an authentic act. That's me. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be human. Put a little beauty, put a little harmony, put a little order add something to someone who needed help without anyone seeing, without wanting any recognition, so was I. I begin to find myself in the midst of what I am not. It gives you
fantastic freedom. It is a state of fulfillment which is properly human happiness. "Truth is the voice that emanates from the absolute silence within us." This is beautiful! True when you shut up all the things that aren't you. At that moment, find yourself. The Tibetan tradition, a beautiful book by Helena Blavatski, calls this "The Voice of the Silence". The voice of something inside you that wants you to recognize it. Like a spiritual hand that came into the world to do a work. Only she wore a glove that doesn't obey her. It doesn't allow it, it doesn't
give it mobility. When at a certain time, you realize the intention of that hand that is within you trying to work in the world. It acquires a sense of identity, a sense of mission. A true ideal worthy of a human being. "Focused attention, open mind and heart". "The mind is not concentrated where the heart is not. Tune in with the being that is in oneself and seek, outside, all that is beautiful, noble and dignified". That is, from what I am, I see what things are. Interesting! You open up to a friend, When do you think
he is self-serving and will manipulate what you are saying? You open up to a disinterested person who only wants your good, isn't that right? Do you think that nature is more silly and doesn't know it? Why would she open up her mysteries to you if you're a gold digger who just wants to manipulate her? If you want nothing but the good of things around you, all things open and show you their heart. He who knows the heart of all things is a sage. This is human destiny. Until we overcome this manipulative selfishness, we only see
the very superficial appearance of things. When much! Then we begin to focus from within. Then, there is a phrase from one of our professors that he likes to use, enigmatic, but I find it very beautiful, "the more inside, the more outside". Interesting? The deeper with yourself, the deeper with others. If not, you are neither inside nor outside, you are in a film, you are in a bubble. He almost doesn't touch anything, or anyone, not even himself. Krishna is an Indian God, you may have heard of it. The hero, the master, inside a very beautiful classic
called Bhagavad Gita. And Sri Ram tells me something I didn't know in that chapter, that the word Krshina means "One Who Attracts". It represents the divine within man, this one. Your essence, your spiritual part. There is a natural tendency of human beings towards refinement, for what is noble, for what is superior, for the purification of taste. Sri Ram himself says that evolution is nothing but the purification of taste. So when you know something noble within you, it attracts you. Has it ever happened to you? One of these days a funny thing happened to me. One
fine day, someone at work invited me to taste a gourmet coffee. I could have died without knowing it existed. because the coffee at my house was never the same again. Eternally the comparison. That is, he who proves something exquisite within himself, your banal, superficial life will no longer taste the same. You will need to go back to that level. You will miss yourself. You will have a demand for conscience, because you have already tasted something better. This debugs life. This is Philosophy, the need to experience wisdom and make it an increasingly constant level in our
lives. To be human for longer within our lifetime. If only one day, a lifetime. "Irresistible beauty of Being. It's like watching the sunset". We're done now, don't worry. Sunset is a funny thing, I always tell that story too. You can't take it off or put anything on. Do you think there's too much red there? No, it's too red! Change more to a yellow! No, it's too yellow! Change more to orange! There's nothing left. Nor is there anything missing. A thing where nothing is left over and nothing is lacking, it is one. This is the most
characteristic attribute of God, it is One. And whenever there is something in the manifested world that is like that, it's like a footprint of the eternal in time.. Do you understand? This being within us is like this, there is nothing left or nothing missing. He is like a sunset. He is a footprint of the eternal in the midst of time. Watching Him is like watching the sunset. "Free conscience blooms alone and brings out the depths of the heart: nature of extraordinary sensitivity and beauty". Just like the flowers that grow on a plant, these are moments
where she manifests what is most beautiful in her. The virtues, the values of the human being is the moment when it flourishes. He says there is no such beautiful sight on earth. Naturally, when you remove all impediments. You take away everything that prevents the flower from developing, the plant from developing and it blossoms. Take away everything that prevents you from developing as a human being. Everything that is not you. Purity. Purity is the greatest power in the universe. And you bloom. He talks clearly about it, almost the entire book, purity is power. Through purity you
are a channel, in which the power of the universe manifests itself in you. The power of the Whole flows into the part, when the part concatenates well with the Whole. As the power of my entire body flows through my hand, because it concatenates well with the All. And finally. "Free heart reveals the pure harmonies and potentialities of Life... and Loves them." The free heart recognizes the pure potentialities of life and truly loves them. He recognizes himself in them and helps all beings to see themselves and to bring out those potentialities that exist in him. A
beautiful oriental tradition, which talks about the tradition of masters and disciples, the one who teaches and the one who learns, says that the master looks at a disciple and does not see what he is, but what can it become. Points in that direction, reveals, that hidden Essence that exists within the human being. In a certain way, if we get that with a human being, it's worth our life. But in the first place we have to achieve with ourselves. Or have you never had that experience of a person coming up to you and saying: - Thanks
to you I overcame such a problem. I became a little better human being. Between us, it doesn't feel like if we die there, okay? Nobody wants to die, but if you have to die, that would be the ideal moment, because I did something. I added, I made a difference. I revealed. And I revealed in proportion to what I revealed to myself. Otherwise, there would be no way to do it. This is the masterpiece of a human life. Well, that's chapter seven. This is what he says about Interest, Attention and Love. New Acropolis
