Om Shanti Shanti Om
Good afternoon to all. I hope that you, your families and your loved ones are all well, and that you are all taking good care of yourselves, which is what we need to do at this time. Today, and during this week-end, we will do three things — three very simple things. First and foremost, we will turn our attention around, we will stop putting our attention on the world, on all these things that are happening around us, all these things that happen all the time and which our mind tells us that they are so important, that we need to know what is happening, to be informed of what is going on. So let’s forget about all this for some time. Let’s turn our attention around, and instead look inwardly. Just as when we look at the world, we see a lot of things going on there, when we turn our attention within and we start to see, within our heart we find a great void, a beautiful emptiness, full of peace, full of love, full of wisdom. We are going to dive into this void, plunge into it entirely. The mind will pull you out, it will do all it can to pull you out of there, and then you will turn within again and dive in this great void within your heart, in this space of peace where everything is perfect. We will be doing this all the time, again and again, today and throughout the week-end.
The second thing you will be doing is to surrender, to surrender entirely, to give up everything you think you are, surrender everything you’ve been told you are, everything you’ve been taught to want, to need, everything you’ve been told is absolutely necessary in order to find peace — all of these are lies! So we’re going to throw out all this garbage that we’ve been stuffing our hearts with, all these things we thought we needed, now we’re going to surrender them, give them up, give them back saying, “Here it is, it was of no use. I listened to my mind and it was useless, and here I am, so many years later and still stuck on the same thing.” Give it up, try the one single thing you have not done in all these years. That is to say, “This is useless to me, it hasn’t worked for me, it’s of no use. So I give it up and forget all about it.” Let it go.
The third thing you will be doing is to open up, open yourself up to receive — to open a space, to let all of this garbage go, throw it out, and open up an empty space within you, so it can be filled with everything that grace has in store for you, everything you’ve earned just because you are. All the peace, the love and the wisdom that you are looking for. Actually you already have it, but first you need to throw out the trash, take it out into the container, and open up this space. Then grace will take care, it will fill it with peace, with all sorts of beautiful things, which have to do with your life, the lives of your loved ones, and the life of the universe. Open up to what grace is already giving you all the time. Everything you need, grace is giving it to you, and here you are saying, “No, I don’t want this, because I have a little plan that I made when I was a child, and I’m going to follow my plan.” But you’ve been following that plan for many years already! And the plan never gets fulfilled, it was never of any use, and it’s time to throw it in the garbage. It’s time to throw it in the bin, and to open up this gap which grace can fill. So this is what we’re going to do.
(Long silence)
In order to dive deep within yourself, to be able to surrender, to be able to open up and receive these wonderful things that are there for you, the only thing you need to do is to take the mind out of the way. Don’t let the mind get in the way, which it will try to do, as it has been doing all your life. Whenever you have something to do, the mind comes along and says, “Give it to me, I’ll do it.” But it doesn’t actually do it, it doesn’t work, it never works out. When you give your things to the mind to handle, it never works out. We need to take the mind out of the way. If you take everything I’m saying here and give it to your mind, so that your mind can carry it out, either at that moment or later, it will not work, because you’re giving all the power to the very thing that has reduced you to slavery. The mind has reduced you to slavery, and if you give it more power, it will enslave you even more. So don’t listen to the mind, don’t try to understand the things I’m telling you, don’t try to remember them, don’t try to ponder them in your head, because that amounts to turning them over to the mind. Just let it wash over you, you don’t need to remember it or follow it; whatever needs to happen will happen on its own. Just take the mind out of the way — don’t ponder it or think it over or evaluate. That will accomplish nothing. Dive into this void, let whatever happens be. This is how we turn around our attention, this attention that is looking at the world, that is right now looking at the little camera on your laptop or cellphone. That’s it! Turn your attention around, look inwardly, and you will feel a void, a beautiful void, a void that you can leap into, where you can dive right in because it doesn’t have a bottom. You are not going to hit the bottom and hurt yourself, nothing will happen because it’s infinite, and it’s what you really are. Dive in, swim, play, do whatever you want. It’s endless, it’s what you really are, and the only thing you need to do is not to think. And if you think, it doesn’t matter, just notice that you’ve been thinking and then say, “Oh, I’m thinking. Let me just stop thinking. I’m going to turn my attention back within, and I’m going to dive again in this wonderful void.” Again and again the mind will interfere, it will pull you out, but it doesn’t matter. You just say again, “Here it is, the mind came in and made me think this or that.” And then: “That’s it! Stop, turn inwards. I’m going to dive into what I really am, in this wonderful void which is what I really am.”
(Long silence)
(Sound of salsa music outside)
The neighbors must be a bit bored (laughs). They do this every day, and we’re going to use this occasion to surrender, to surrender, to make good use of the fact that we are immersed in this void, in this peaceful emptiness. From this space we are going to give up everything we thought was important, everything we thought made us what we are, because when we immerse ourselves in this void we realize that it was all a lie. None of these things were of any use, so we’re going to give them up, we’re going to accept that and, as I said before, let’s not do it intellectually or mentally. It doesn’t work to make a mental list of all the things, all the plans, everything you wanted to become but never did, and then try to surrender them. That will not be of any use, because you’d be giving the job to the mind, and the mind is not going to do it. Dive within, turn your attention inward, plunge into this void, and when you find yourself in the void you will realize that all these plans, all these things that made you feel so important, they were all useless. They didn’t even exist! You thought that all those things were so important in order to find peace, and the only thing that matters when it comes to finding peace is to turn our attention around and immerse ourselves. All these things, these plans, these ideas never gave you what you wanted. It’s as simple as turning your attention around and diving within, and right there you realize that surrendering is not difficult at all, because all these things that I’m surrendering were never of any use, they never worked, they are just garbage. So I can surrender them all to grace, and in exchange grace will give me peace. Surrender, give it up. This is like a war — in order to have peace somebody needs to surrender, and that will have to be you.
(Long silence)
Now, when we immerse ourselves in this void that is our real nature, when we give up all this garbage, all these things we were told were so important, but we realized they are not — when we’ve thrown them in the bin, then there is a space, a space of silence, a space of peace. Then the only thing that’s left for us to do is to open up and receive, so that grace can give us what it has in store for us, whatever it may be. What grace gives us is always perfect, as long as we open up and accept it, as long as we don’t say, “I’ll have this, but not that. I don’t like this; this was not on my list of important things. I don’t want that, but I want this.” If you do that you won’t receive anything, you’ll go back to your list, you’ll go back to the garbage container and take your trash again, take it back to your house, bring it in, and keep trying to do all the silly things you’ve been doing all your life. Stop already! Dive in, give up the garbage and open up: open yourself to peace, open yourself to happiness, open yourself to truly knowing. Just open up, and don’t bring the mind into it. This is the real trick: don’t bring the mind into it. Open up, open yourself, feel that you’re opening, feel how your heart is opening, feel yourself receiving, and you will always receive what is perfect for you.
(Long silence)
This is the way to discover who you are. This is the way to find out what you really are, doing these three things. The most important thing is to turn your attention within, stop paying attention to the world, stop listening to all these tunes that are trying to sell you things or convince you of things. In the end there is nothing there, nothing at all. The one important thing is to immerse yourself in your real being, in this void, in this peaceful void. Dive deep within, and from this space you can do anything — you can let things happen just as they are, and from this void you will be able to receive everything that the universe has in store for you. All these things you have not been receiving because you were paying attention to a small list you had made with everything you wanted to happen, everything you wanted in your life, for your family, for your children… all these things that never worked out! So stop already! Stop now! Are you not convinced yet that it’s useless?
So this is what we are going to do this week-end, we are going to turn our attention inwards, we are going to surrender and give up all those plans, and we are going to let grace fill this void with whatever grace wants to fill it with. Nothing complicated about it, no big ideas, no grand theories. Just turn your attention around and dive within, and from that place you will see how easy it is to surrender and to open up.
Om Shanti Shanti Om.
Luis de Santiago
Satsang in La Coruña, April 24th 2020