Pedagogy of Learning How to Live

Well, we will begin our talk for tonight. First of all, my respected brethren, it’s necessary to know how to live. This is something we must understand.

When we speak with someone, this person recounts the different events of his life, he speaks to us, we could say, about events, of what happened at certain times in his history, as if life were just a chain of events.

People do not realize that, in addition to the circumstances of life, states of consciousness also exist. The capacity to love is based specifically in the way one knows how to combine conscious states with the circumstances of existence.

It may be the case that a circumstance that could have been happy wasn’t because we didn’t know how to combine the conscious state with the event in itself.

When we examine the world we live in, we can verify the conclusive, clear, and definitive fact that there are people who ought to be happy and are not. We have known many concrete cases of people who have a good house, a beautiful car, a magnificent spouse, lovely children, and enough money, and yet, they are not happy.

On the other hand, we have been able to see, to corroborate the case of poor individuals, that are needy, possibly humble ditch diggers, who neither enjoy a beautiful mansion, nor have more money than what is needed to live daily, nor do they use expensive cars of the latest model. Nevertheless, they are happy in their homes with their children (poor but clean, neat), and their caring and sincere wives.

So then, it’s not money in itself that can give us happiness; everything depends on the way in which one knows how to combine conscious states with the events or circumstances of practical life.

If someone who is placed in magnificent conditions is not on top of the circumstances, if he doesn’t know how to intelligently combine conscious states with the environment in which he unfolds and lives, unquestionably he will be unhappy.

But even though another person may be in difficult circumstances, if he knows how to combine the facts of his practical life with states of consciousness, he will attain well-being, prosperity, happiness, etc.

So, it is urgent to know how to comprehend the need to learn how to live wisely.

If we want a definitive change of life’s circumstances, it is necessary for that change to be verified within ourselves first; if we do not modify anything internally, externally life will continue with its difficulties.

Before all else it is necessary to become masters of ourselves; as long as we do not know how to govern ourselves, we will not be able to govern the difficult circumstances of existence either.

When we contemplate the different events of life, when we see this order of things, we can prove that people are true machines that do not know how to live. If someone insults them, they react furiously, if someone greets them, they smile happily, it is really very easy for any perverse person to play with human machines, making them go from sadness to joy, and vice versa, only by saying just a few words.

It’s so easy, isn’t it? It’s enough for someone to insult us, for us to be reacting; it’s enough for someone to pat us on the shoulder for us to smile happily; we do not know how to govern ourselves, others govern us, and in fact, that is lamentable (we are incapable).

It’s necessary to comprehend what the mind is and what sentiment and sentimentalism are. If we study the Being judiciously, we will see that the mind is not the Being.

In Theosophy they speak a lot about the mental body, the different schools of thought refer to it. In mentioning that, we do not want to say that all humanoids already possess the mental vehicle; they have manas, as it is said in Sanskrit, in other words, mental substance deposited in each one of us, but that is not to truly possess the vehicle of the mind.

In any case, the mind—whether human beings already possess such a vehicle, or are beginning to create it, or do not yet have it—is nothing more than an instrument of manifestation, but it’s not the Being.

Sentiment is not the Being either. In the past, I felt inclined to believe that sentiment, in itself, truly corresponded to the Being; later, after severe analysis, I saw the need to rectify that concept. Obviously, sentiment comes from the astral body in human beings.

You could object to me saying, “not everyone possesses that precious Kedsjano vehicle” and we’d be in agreement about that; but emotion exists, the corresponding substance in each one of us; and what comes from that (whether one has the sidereal vehicle or not), clearly, is what we call “sentiment.”

In its negative aspect, sentimentalism converts us into quite negative entities, but sentiment in itself is not the Being either, it can relate to the emotional center, but it’s not the Being.

The mind has its center, the intellectual center, but it’s not the Being. The intellective center of the mind is in the brain, that is obvious, but it is not the Being. Sentiment, that corresponds to the emotional center or emotional brain, is in the region of the solar plexus and even encompasses the sympathetic nerve centers and the heart, but it is not the Being. “The Being is the Being, and the reason of the Being is the Being itself.”

Why do we have to allow ourselves to be taken away by the centers of the machine? Why do we allow the intellectual or emotional center to control us? Why should we be slaves to this machine? We must learn how to control all the centers of the machine, we must become masters, lords.

There are five centers in the machine, that is obvious. The first is the intellectual; the emotional is the second; the third is the motor; the fourth is the instinctive, and the sexual is the fifth. But the centers of the machine do not constitute the Being; they can be at the service of the Being, but they are not the Being. So then, neither mind nor sentiment are the Being.

Why do human beings suffer? Why do they allow thought and sentiment to intervene in the diverse circumstances of life? If they insult us, we react by immediately insulting; if they hurt our self-love we suffer, and we even get angry.

When we contemplate the whole panorama of life, we can clearly prove that we have been logs on the ocean, we could say, precisely because we have always allowed our minds and feelings to intrude in the various circumstances of our existence.

We have not given opportunity to the essence, to the Being, so that it can express in us; we have always wanted to resolve things on our own. We react before any harsh word, before any problem, before any difficulty; we feel hurt when someone hurts us, or happy when someone praises us, we have been victims of the whole world, everyone has played with us; we have been, we could say, logs on the raging waves of the great ocean, we have not been in control of ourselves.

Why do we get preoccupied? (I’m asking myself and I am asking all of you.) “Because of problems,” you will tell me. Preoccupation, my dear brethren, is a habit of very poor taste, it is useless, it resolves nothing; one has to learn how to live from instant to instant, from moment to moment. Why should one get preoccupied?

So, before all else, do not allow the mind and sentiments to intervene in the diverse circumstances of life; the human personality must become tranquil, passive; this in fact implies a tremendous activity of the consciousness; this means to learn how to live consciously, this means to set the foundations for the awakening.

Everyone would like to see, hear, touch, and feel the great realities of the superior worlds, but naturally, how could those who are asleep become experimenters of the great realities? How could those who have the consciousness in dreams, be investigators of life in the supra-sensible regions of nature and the cosmos?

If we awaken consciousness, we would be able to verify the concrete fact that the world is not as we are seeing it.

I have said many times, and I am repeating it today, that all those marvels that are featured in the book One Thousand and One Nights, all those prodigious magical phenomena from ancient Arcadia, all those miracles from the Primordial Earth (of those times in which “the rivers of pure water of life flowed with milk and honey”) have not concluded, they continue occurring from instant to instant, from moment to moment, here and now.

You could object that, “If that’s so, why don’t we see it? Why don't we witness the extraordinary? Why aren’t we given the chance to experience those wonders?”

The answer is the following. No one has prohibited the capacity of experimentation, no one has impeded us from seeing and hearing what happens around us, if those phenomena are not perceptible in this moment for our external senses, it’s due to one single reason (which by the way is very serious): we are in a state of hypnosis, asleep. The person that’s in a hypnotic trance, becomes incapable of perceiving those phenomena.

A lot has been said about the abominable kundabuffer organ; the fatal organ humanity had in ancient times. Not all of it has been lost; we know well that a boney residue still exists in the lower base of the dorsal spine; no one ignores that. That residue belongs to the abominable kundabuffer organ and possesses, among other things, a formidable hypnotic power; that general, collective hypnotic current is fascinating.

If we see someone in the streets, for example, who is extravagantly dressed, we don’t feel shocked, we simply say, “What an eccentric person!” Someone else who is with us may say, “That’s fashion!” Someone further away will say, “Here’s a hippie!” And an old man who goes by across the street will simply think, “That’s how the people of the new wave are!” But all of them are in a state of hypnosis and that’s all.

Submit any person XX to a deep hypnotic sleep, tell him he is in the middle of the ocean, and to undress because he is about to drown, and you will see him undress, tell him he is a great singer and you will see him singing, even though, in reality, he would only be shouting; tell him to lie down on the floor, and he will lie down, tell him to stand on his head and he will do it, because he is in a state of hypnosis.

Recently I took a little trip to Puerto Vallarta, there is a boat (like in Acapulco) that’s for visitors. I had no problem buying a ticket that took us to a nearby beach; the journey was enjoyable, delightful, to sail in the Pacific was nice.

There was a certain gentleman there who was a hypnotist. When the instruments of the ensemble resounded, he told the people to dance, and they danced; he told them to hold hands, and they all held hands; he told the lovers to kiss, they kissed; the only thing that man, (that makeshift hypnotist) failed to do was to tell them to stand on their heads, but they did everything he ordered them to do.

The idea was to laugh, and at the same time to admire, to see all the wonders that the hypnotist did. How he played with the passengers, how he made them laugh, how he made them jump, how he made them spin around, etc., etc., etc.

Obviously, as I am a person who is accustomed to being in a state of alert perception, alert novelty, I limited myself, exclusively, to watch those foolish people in a state of hypnosis.

Observe the propaganda, “Buy such and such a remedy, it’s infallible against coughs!” Each advertisement gives orders to the hypnotized people to go to this or that place, to buy this or that soap, this or that perfume; to visit this or that office, etc., etc., etc., and the people move under the orders of the hypnotists, who, in turn, are also hypnotized by other people and by other multitudes; like the crowds themselves, they are all in a state of hypnosis, a hypnotic trance. It is difficult to know that one is in a state of hypnosis; if people proposed to do it, they could wake up from that lamentable state, but unfortunately no one is proposing it.

It is therefore very difficult, I repeat, to discover the state of hypnosis one is in; one comes to realize that hypnotism exists, when the hypnotic force flows faster, when it’s concentrated in a certain place, when a session of hypnotism is done. Outside of that, outside of a moment like that, one doesn’t realize he is in a state of hypnosis.

If one could wake up from that sleep he is in, he would then see the marvelous phenomenon that have been occurring around him from the beginning of the world.

I know of phenomena so simple that anyone can see them; they are physical, material, they are in everyone’s plain sight, and yet the people seeing them do not see them.

You could say to me, you could ask me with just reason (or you could demand that I speak more clearly), “If this is so, why doesn’t even one person mention it to us?” Reasons? One: because if I were to mention to you any of these phenomena which are perceptible with the naked eye, you would see them immediately, but you would die, because as it turns out, all these phenomena, actually, that correspond to forces and prodigies, are jealously guarded by certain very strong elementals, which upon feeling discovered, will provoke the immediate death of the curious, and since I do not have an interest in creating a cemetery on my account, I see the need to keep quiet.

So, my brethren, it is necessary to awaken, if you want to perceive the great realities of life, yet it is only possible to awaken by knowing how to live.

How could someone awaken who is a toy for others? If I were to insult you in this moment, I am sure that you would not tolerate me, you would violently protest, and the best of you would retreat immediately.

You can see just how easy it is to make you change! It’s enough to say one little harsh word and then you would be flushed and furious. Now, if I want to flatter you, all it takes is for me to say some sweet words to you, and then you’ll be content. In other words, you are victims of circumstances, you are not masters of yourselves, and that is lamentable, true?

So, brethren, the one who wants to be a master of himself must begin by not allowing the mind and sentiments to intervene in the matters of practical life. Obviously, as I mentioned already, this requires a tremendous passivity of the personality, and an enormous activity of the consciousness. This is precisely what we need, to activate the consciousness. When the consciousness becomes active, it comes out of its lethargy, and then, it is obvious that the awakening comes.

Before all else, we must begin by not doing what others do. When I go to the restaurants, and I go with all my people, when it comes time to eat, I can verify the fact that everyone goes to the bathroom to wash their hands. They can see me as "filthy," "dirty," but I don't go to wash my hands.

When I am asked about the reason, why, I answer, “Simply because I don’t like to do what others do, in other words, I don’t like being a machine.”

So, if others stand on their heads, do I also have to stand on my head? If others walk on all fours, do I have to walk on all fours? Why? No brethren! We need to become individuals, and that is only possible by de-egotizing ourselves and not allowing the mind and sentiments to intervene in the different circumstances of existence.

When we begin this work, when we learn to become tremendously passive, to give opportunities to the great activities of the consciousness, we will see that everything changes.

I only want to cite one concrete fact: I was in a house, it doesn’t matter which; one of the “good kids” of that house, walking around, through these streets of the world, turned into no less than a Don Juan Tenorio, he did his thing, out there, with a young girl.

Conclusion: Well, of course, her relatives showed up at that house, looking for the “mama’s boy,” the “good kid.” Naughty? Of course, but in love. A partyer and player? I don’t know; I only know that he is a true Don Juan.

The lady's father came, naturally, with the intention of “shooting” the young gentleman. No one dared to go out; only I, who was there, intervened; since I was given the opportunity to mediate, I took advantage of it.

The furious head of the family called that young man to the house; I detained the young man and I let the offended head of the family in. With great sweetness and love, I invited the offended and Don Juan to sit down, and of course, they both took a seat.

A lady came together with the head, I comprehended that it was the girl’s mother. There were terrible words, the only thing left was to pull out the pistol and shoot it. With good manners, I said to the gentleman, “It’s possible to fix everything, everything can be solved through comprehension; no problem is solved by killing.”

That man felt surprised; he didn’t think there was anyone in that mansion who was so serene and so tranquil.

There were conversations, friendly exchanges that took place between the head of the family and the Don Juan, everything was sorted and the offended left taking his pistol with its five bullets, he did not shoot any of the many he wanted to shoot.

Everything was sorted, why? Because I put forward a superior state of consciousness to that event, by serving as a mediator, but if I had advised those people to proceed with violence, if I myself “spurred them on” as a very good friend, he would have responded with harsh words, the circumstances would have been different and Don Juan would have ended up in the cemetery, and these two families would have been filled with mourning and pain.

So, the circumstances of life depend on our states of consciousness. By changing ones state of consciousness, the circumstances change, that’s obvious. We cannot change the circumstances of life, if beforehand we do not change our states of consciousness.

I invite you then to reflect more deeply. As we continue to allow the consciousness to become active, as we continue to control the mind and sentiment, so they don’t stick their noses where they shouldn’t, the result will be marvelous, because as the consciousness becomes active, the process of awakening is accentuated.

And not only do the circumstances change around us, but in addition, we begin to note that during the hours when the physical body sleeps, we work, we live, let’s say, outside of the physical body in a more conscious way.

Therefore, as the personality becomes more passive, as the mind and sentiment are being restrained so that they do not go where they shouldn’t, the awakening will become greater and greater; and thus, we will end up becoming great investigators of life in the superior worlds.

Whoever wants to awaken, must do it here and now; the one who awakens here and now, awakens in all corners of the universe.

Well, my dear brethren, that’s the end of this talk. Yes, we will give an opportunity for those who want to ask, to ask with the most complete freedom.

Lecture by V.M. Samael Aun Weor