THE MEANING OF LIFE
To gather experience over countless lifetimes.

We Realize who and what we really are, and come to behave like That.

Ignorance of That and associated bad habits result in mistakes and consequential suffering.

The accumulation of experience eventually brings us to realize that we are not separate from others, which forms habitual devotion to the ultimate welfare of all.
Categories
Western Mysticism

    (A talk given by Carlos at a public speaking platform on All-Hallows Eve, 1972, at Center Island, Toronto)

    Greetings Everyone!

    First of all, I feel I must tell you that I am not a lecturer, nor a Guru and that I have not come here to “sell” you a religion, a cult or even a method.  I have simply come here to have a heart to heart, soul to soul talk with you, about a very Important and Beautiful subject, Yourself.

    Neither have I come here to tell you how wonderful I am, but to tell you how wonderful you are.  Nor have I come to tell you that I am a Divine Being and or an Incarnation of God, and that I am special.  No, I have come to tell you that YOU, each of you, is a Divine Being, that each one of you is an Incarnation of God, and that we are all very very special.

    I have most definitely not come here to be glamorized, worshipped or looked up to but to glamorize you, to worship you, to look up to every one of you and try to wake you up to your true worth.

    Therefore, I say to you all:  Wake up, and claim your Divine Inheritance, look up to yourselves, cherish yourselves, for you are not commonplace and unimportant.  No, you are precious, valuable and Beautiful indeed.

    You are all eternal beings, immortal, without beginning and without end.

    You are not your bodies, nor are you your emotions, not even your thoughts, these things are yours, but not YOU.  You are not any of these things which are continuously changing every minute.  You are Pure Consciousness, always aware, always blissful and immortal.  You don’t die when your body dies.  You don’t burn when the body burns.  You are, I repeat, immortal, eternal without birth and without death.

    And please do not listen to those who would confuse you and demoralize you and rob you of your Spiritual Inheritance.

    Do not listen to those who would have you small, petty and ugly.  Those who will tell you that you are evil, sinful and doomed.  Those who would split you into a thousand pieces and then tag them, conscious, superconscious, unconscious, ego, superego, id etc. etc.  Do not listen, do not believe them for they will do nothing but butcher your Soul.  You are One, not many.  You are always conscious and blissful, and the Universe is One Substance, and that One Substance is Consciousness and Consciousness is the true and only god, and that Holy One sleeps in the stones, dreams in the plants, wakes up in animals and becomes self-conscious in man.  Therefore, everything is holy and everything is God.  Therefore, all things are basically Good and Beautiful and evil is only ignorance and the shadows of the One Light.

    And therefore, I say to you, please do not listen.  This does not mean that those functions of Consciousness do not exist.  No, they do exist, but they are functions, activities, even powers if you want.  But they are not YOU, they are not the immortal ever conscious, ever blissful you, no more than the eyes or ears or even the thoughts are you.  These things do exist and they are yours, but they are not YOU.

    But perhaps you will ask me:  Where is this Divine Consciousness, this Blissful Self of yours?  How can I find it?  Has anybody ever seen it, or heard it or touched it?  How can you prove it?

    I answer you:
    Is there a place where it is not?  It is everywhere, and the whole of Creation with its millions of Universes is only as a tiny sponge inside this Ocean of Consciousness.  And you can not see this Blissful, Ever Conscious Self for it is Himself the One Seer who sees through the eyes of all the millions of creatures of this Universe, and besides Him there is no other one to see.  And you can not hear Him, for He is the Listener behind all ears.  And to find Him you must become the Seer behind the eyes, and the Listener behind the ears, remembering also that He is Himself the one who seeks in all of us.

    How can I prove it?  Must you have your own existence proven to you?  Could you say that you are not, that you do not exist?  Can you deny yourself?  Can you say that you are not here, seeing me, listening to me, thinking of what I am saying, aware of my presence.
    You answer:  “Yes, of course I am.”  And right there, there in those few words is the whole Secret of the Universe.

    “Yes, of course I am.”  Wonderful words these, the Lost Word of the Ancients, the true Word of Power, the Holy Ineffable Name of God.
    “Yes, of course I am.”  I am, I am, I am;  Isn’t everyone?  Doesn’t everyone say also I am.  Isn’t this the Chant of all Creation:  I am, I am, I am; the birds singing, the trees swaying in the winds, the flowers blooming, the grass growing, the planets revolving in their orbits, the stars flying through space and billions of galaxies revolving and expanding all chanting I am, I exist, I am, I am, I am.

    And it is this I amness which is the divinity in each one of us, it is this I amness which is the eternal, immortal us.  That is your true self, your real name.

    So, I have come here, humbly and with love to ask you:  Don’t deny yourself.  Be Yourself and accept your Divine Inheritance, accept this simple faith, which needs no other proof, but your own being, your own existence.

    You need not do anything but accept yourself just as you are, trust yourself, love yourself, cherish yourself, for you are a living God and the Soul of the Universe is your soul. There are no exercises to perform, no concentrations, no meditations;  nothing to pay, nothing to do, nothing, for nothing can give you that which you already have, nothing can make you become that which you already are, let your highest virtue be self-trust and simplicity and dispense bravely with all crutches and means to and end.  YOU are the Beginning as well as the End, so do not procrastinate with Reality and take your Divinity for granted.  Do it now, not eventually, and do not fall into the error of repeating “I AM” as if it could make you more YOU.  For Realization is not by the mere uttering of “I AM”, nor by spiritual practices and meditations but by the living fact of you being it already.

    Do not even pretend to be “I”, just be the Self absolutely, wholly and in reality, now as always.

    Most emphatically there is no need for repetitious meditations or feeble imitations of Yourself.  You are alive, you are conscious, you exist, so do not rehearse reality, and thereby mock your very Existence and the Reality of the Godhead you embody.  For practices and rehearsing are nothing but simulations which in themselves are a denial of the Natural Holiness and Oneness of all things.  Such practices merely ruin the Reality by assuming a moment, even a moment when we are not the Self and already fully realized.

    Just be yourself, rise up to your true height and crown yourself with your own hands.  Let all your natural functions and actions be simple and loving celebrations of this simple fact.  And in this, remain humble and loving and beautiful with Perfect Trust and Perfect Love in your heart, remembering always that what you have heard here today is equally true of everyone else.

    And now farewell, and may you all go in Light and Peace all the length of your days.

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    Tags: Be Yourself, Carlos, Center Island, Toronto, Mariposa, 1972, Hallowe’en, Blue Paper, I Am, Divine Being, Incarnation of God, true worth, Divine Inheritance, eternal beings, immortal, consciousness, spiritual inheritance, conscious, superconscious, unconscious, ego, superego, id, Holy One, One Light, Divine Consciousness, Blissful Self, Ocean of Consciousness, Conscious Self, One Seer, Secret of the Universe, Word of Power, Name of God, I Am, Godhead, Oneness, Perfect Trust, Perfect Love, enlightenment, meaning of life

    2 Responses to “Be Yourself”

    • Kelly says:

      Thank you for this, for reminding me of who I am.
      A flow of calm, peace and awe swept through and around me and my surroundings, a feeling thought lost and forgotten.
      Keep up the good work
      I look forward to perhaps listening soon!
      😉

      “Stand bright and shine as you are seen!”

    • Joe says:

      I can’t believe what I was reading. That we are eternal. No, we are not eternal. Eternal means without beginning and without ending. We, as humans had a beginning and we will have no end.

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