Learning from life versus learning from a teacher || Acharya Prashant (2020)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Video Information: 7th August 2020, Open Session, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh  Context: Learning from life versus learning from a teacher Tools and techniques for awareness What is awareness? What is meant by self awareness? What is meaning of 'Awareness alone is'? What is self-awareness? What is the use of knowledge in self-awareness? What is the importance of the knowledge?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Atesh Sharma is here, 25 from Bilaspur. He says, If I am the first man and the only one,

00:19can I disregard all your teachings and learn first hand from life? Can I forget all the

00:27theories I have heard from you? Those theories might be holding me back against enquiring

00:36on my own where I am as I am. Atesh, what is this mysterious thing called life you are

00:45referring to? What is life? We talk of life as if life is some vague nebulous thing happening

01:01in some other mysterious or mystical dimension. What is life? This breathing, this eating,

01:12these day-to-day interactions, these relationships, the food that you eat, the work that you do,

01:19the people you come across. Isn't all this life? So, how am I outside the purview of

01:30your life? I repeat, how am I here outside the purview of your life? You are talking of life as

01:43if life is something totally separated from anybody who can help you out. And this in itself

01:59is quite interesting. All the trauma that you experience on a daily basis, that you happily

02:09call as life. All the nonsense you remain mired in, that you happily call as life. Your interactions

02:22and your relationships with all the foolish and unworthy and mediocre people that you will

02:29gladly accept as life. You will say, you know, life brought me in contact with this girl and

02:36I just fell for her and then this thing happened and that thing happened. And you will willingly

02:40say that was life. So, life can bring you in contact with a girl and that is life.

02:49But if life brings you in contact with a teacher, that is not life. That you take as something

02:57outside of life. I just failed to understand this. People say, I will not learn from the

03:05teacher. I will learn from life. Is the teacher situated in some other dimension, some other

03:11universe, on some other planet? How is the teacher not a part of your life? If you watch my videos,

03:18which you probably do, aren't the videos a part of your daily 24-hour schedule? Or are you watching

03:26the videos in some specially, artificially, mystically created 25th hour? Let's say,

03:36once a week you watch my videos. Is the time span not within the span of your life? Is the

03:45duration not within the domain of your week? Then how am I outside the life? So, really,

03:57it cannot be about learning from life versus learning from a teacher. This is fishy, very

04:05fishy. All the nonsensical conditioning and influences, you are very prepared to absorb

04:18from your so-called life. In your 24-hour daily schedule, if the media, the TV conditions you,

04:30or a book that you are reading conditions you, that you will call as life. But if in

04:38the same 24-hour schedule, I speak to you, then you call it as something outside of life. That

04:47tells me about your definition of life. What you are saying is, only nonsense and trash of

04:56the highest order can be called as life. Anything high that is available, that you will not call

05:05as life. I mean, did I meet you in your life or have I met you after your death? Are you not

05:12alive right now as you are listening to me? Then what is this insistence on, I will not listen to

05:20you, I would rather learn from life. I mean, fine. Who can have a problem with that? We all can

05:29learn only from one source and that one source is called life. The question is, what is it in

05:36your life that you are choosing to learn from? Rephrase your question. You do not know what to

05:42ask. The question is not whether you will learn from life or you will learn from a teacher. This

05:48all is fictitious. The question is, we all learn from life. There is no other place to learn from.

05:54As long as you are alive, what else will you learn from life? The question is, what is it

05:59within life that you are choosing to learn from? An ass will deliver you a solid kick from its

06:11hind legs. That you can call as life. And you say, I am very prepared to learn from that. That

06:19is called life. But if a person meets you and tells you a few things that are sublime, then

06:28you say, no, no, no, this is outside of my life. Then what is within your life? Only the ass and

06:33its powerful kick? You surely are one person who doesn't care for his teeth. More than a teacher,

06:42you will require a dentist then. And this is a very commonly heard refrain. No, you see, I learn

06:53from life. You met Champu, you met Manku, you met Tony, you met Sony. All those interactions

07:04and experiences and relationships, you accepted as part of your life. Oh, this is life, you know,

07:11one keeps meeting people. Don't you say that? You know, I was there in the flight and I met

07:17this beautiful woman who later on turned up a real witch, but that's life. So that is life.

07:26But if you come across a Krishnamurti or a Krishna or a Kabir that you say, you know,

07:39this is not life. This is not supposed to be life. This is outside syllabus. We will not attempt this.

07:48What? Then there are those who say we will listen only to ourselves. We learn by ourselves. Why

08:02should we listen to some other person? Sir, when you say you are listening to yourself,

08:06even then you are listening to some other person. The true self that you are really doesn't speak.

08:13Anybody who speaks to you, whether from inside or outside, is somebody else. Now,

08:22this is a bit complex. Many of you will just not grasp this. So take your time. But still,

08:31listen. Whether somebody speaks to you from within, calling itself as you, you are Atesh.

08:44Somebody talks to you from within, doesn't he? And he says, I am Atesh. Or somebody could talk

08:51to you from outside and you could have some name. Both of these entities are outsiders. The real

09:00you just doesn't talk. Its nature is silence. It's just that when somebody is talking to you

09:07from outside, you being body-identified and sense-identified are quick to get alerted and

09:16declare, oh, somebody is talking to me from outside and probably trying to influence me.

09:19But when a voice rises from inside, you call it as your own voice. You say, this is me. No,

09:25that's not you. And that's the entire effort of the teaching. The teaching is needed because

09:34left to yourself, there is almost zero probability that you will figure it out on your own. That the

09:42one talking from inside is not you. It's all the internalized influences and voices that are now

09:50speaking through your mouth. Are you getting it? So you are anyway absorbing stuff. The question

10:03is from whom? The choice to not to absorb stuff at all is not available. I am sorry. There is nobody

10:11who is not conditioned. The question is, given that we all are conditioned, given that we are

10:19born conditioned, given that we are born with a great tendency to soak in even more conditioning,

10:24right now what am I doing? So what is my current state? My current state is that I am a product of

10:30my past. That unfortunately is my state. And in my past, what have I done? Like a sponge,

10:37I have just sucked in a lot of worldly influences. That's my state. Now this being my state,

10:45what am I to do right now? Not listening to anybody is not an option. So even right now,

10:52I'll have to listen to somebody. Now am I listening to somebody who will help me get

10:58rid of my baggage of conditioning or am I listening to somebody who will further my

11:05conditioning, make my baggage heavier? That's the right question. First of all,

11:11learn to ask the right questions. The question is not whether you are learning from life or

11:18learning from teacher. The question is not whether you are listening to your own voice

11:21or to some other person. The question is, what is happening to you as you are listening to someone?

11:32That's the choice to be made. Listening to someone, if it is enabling you freedom from

11:42your shackles, then that person is good for you. Whereas if you are listening to someone

11:48who is himself conditioned, himself in dark ignorance, what would that person bring to you?

11:56Ignorance and more ignorance. Are you getting it? So you are free to learn from life. But

12:10then learn from life wisely. In life, you will meet a great teacher or a few great teachers

12:21and you will meet a lot of stupid people. Be very judicious. Who is it that you are

12:32listening to? This answer will decide your fate. Don't remain open and available to everybody.

12:43Are you getting it? Now if you say, Sir, what if I refuse to learn anybody who has come to me

12:54with the intention to teach? What will happen? And that seems to be your assertion here. That's

13:02the hidden intention you are carrying. Sir, what if I refuse to listen to anybody who is coming

13:09to me with the intention to teach? Then you can listen to all others. Even in that there

13:19is some chance that you can learn something. But then the learning will come with a great

13:25deal of suffering. The teacher can tell you, don't go near that ass. It's not a question

13:35of that particular ass that you love. Asses, by their very composition, are known to kick

13:50strongly anybody who is approaching them from behind. That's their primordial nature. That's

14:02what they have been doing since the dawn of humanity. Rather, if there is a word called

14:13asanity. So that's what the teacher can tell you. And you can say, why must I listen to the

14:22teacher? You can go to the ass, as most people do. Take the ass route and get kicked. So life,

14:33as you define it, will certainly teach you. But at the cost of great suffering and there is no

14:41guarantee that you will be able to learn in a lifetime. Because when your so-called life teaches

14:49you, life sans the teacher. Life minus the teacher. When life teaches you, then life has

14:57no conscious agenda to teach you. Life just operates on the principle of result of action.

15:07You do something foolish, you get hit in the teeth. That's how life teaches you. When there

15:21is a teacher, the teacher has a conscious agenda to uplift you. Life has no conscious agenda to

15:27uplift you. Life's principle is, be wise, get rewarded. Be stupid, get kicked. That's how life

15:37operates. So life just does not want you to learn. Life does not want anything from you. Life is

15:45just like an input-output box. Garbage in, garbage out. Unfortunately, we are born with garbage and

15:55as garbage. Therefore, life will keep heaping more and more garbage over you. Sir, your theories

16:15might be preventing me from enquiring on my own, where I am as I am. I mean, it's quite strange

16:26because the entire teaching is, kindly keep enquiring. And why does the teaching say,

16:35son enquire, son enquire? Because people do not enquire on their own. Why don't people

16:42enquire on their own? Because our conditioning does not allow us to enquire. Now, look at the

16:50weirdness of the situation and the question. The fellow does not enquire because he is deeply

17:00conditioned not to enquire like any other person. When you look around Atesh, what do you find?

17:07People are very inquisitive towards the truth. People are very eager for self-enquiry. Is that

17:21what you find? No, you find people who know zilch about themselves and aren't eager either. That's

17:30what you find, right? Now, these people, has their inquisitiveness been killed by the Upanishads,

17:38by Krishna? Why doesn't the common man really enquire into life? Has some great teacher and

17:48the great teacher's teachings prevented the common man from enquiring? Because the common

17:57man is too afraid and too ignorant to enquire into life. That is the reason the teachers have

18:07to continuously encourage you and prod you to keep enquiring. So, this is the situation. The fellow

18:19is not enquiring because he is deeply conditioned. A teacher comes in and keeps saying, son, look

18:28into life, see what is happening, watch your actions, watch your intentions, watch your

18:32thoughts, see what you just did, look at your relationships, watch your questions. The teacher

18:40encourages in all possible ways but the fellow still does not enquire and after a while, what

18:49does he say? Sir, it is because of your teachings that I am not able to enquire into my life where

18:55I am as I am. I am quoting you, Atish. Now, when this humble teacher was not there in your life,

19:04were you very zealous towards self-enquiry? Have I come in and blocked your natural tendency to

19:16self-enquire? Is that so? Maybe you are listening to me since three years. What was it before these

19:25three years? You were a great observer of life. Really? You were not enquiring then. You were not

19:34enquiring now. If it proves something, it is just that you have successfully resisted all my attempts

19:42to uplift you and now that you have successfully resisted my attempts to move you towards self-enquiry,

19:50you come to me with the allegation that it is because of me that you are unable to enquire.

19:58Now, this is tremendous. But that's how Maya operates, you see. Getting it?

Category

Transcript

Recommended