Letting go of Desire

Earlier today I had the chance to listen to a new video by Bentinho Massaro. The video went over everything, and I don't expect it to be something you listen to and immediately become enlightened or understand everything he says. I feel like I'm just now getting to a point where I can understand the practices and concepts being set forward, and I've been immersed in this stuff for a few years now.

The main takeaway for me, at my point in understanding, was something Bentinho mentions toward the tail end of the video. That is - letting go of desire, letting go of wanting things to go a certain way, aspirations, goals, and demands on the world. It's a very subtle thing our minds do, we plot and wish. He calls it strategizing, and that kind of nails its, we try to intellectually determine what we need to do to get what we want or to change things to better suit what we think we need.

This happens all the time, even if we aren't planning our next big thing. It happens while we're walking down the street, we are never at ease, because something is either A) on our minds - we might be thinking of ways to make more money, or deciding what we want to eat, or thinking of the new things we want to buy because we need them, or regretting the past, or B) bothering us - something in our environment isn't the way we deem to be "right." So in our minds we judge or ignore those things. The opposite of B would be overemphasis on something we decide is more important to us than other things, this has the same effect.

Let go of all the things and titles and definitions, they are only temporary.
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Letting go of this and just letting things be, including ourselves, is more challenging than it seems. Our minds are the ultimate distractors using these two techniques. We are very easily convicned into thinking or judging or focusing, and in doing so we lose our clarity, we distort our perception of the world. Bentinho mentions being alright with what happens, not being outcome dependant, just being available to life and giving ourselves completely. That's where it's all at.

There's no need to strategize about the hows and ways to become enlightened, we actually have to let go of the search and the demand that we get there before it will even happen. There's no chasing it because

"What you seek, you already are"
-Deepak Chopra

So this clear view that we seek only comes up when we give up. When we stop trying so damn hard to be perfect and to figure out the way to be happy and to gain the things we "need" so badly. When we stop putting demands on ourselves and the rest of the world, the rest of the beings here, we open the door to truth and love. We disappear, and start radiating the true self.

Then it's like we're in Soviet Russia, where much like Waldo, the Truth finds us.

Check out the video below, it's long, but worthwhile.

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One other thing I'd also like to mention quickly is about doubt. Bentinho is actually the guy that got me started in non dual teachings. After a while of listening to his videos I ended up kind of discarding his teachings for a while, I started doubting the truth of them and his delivery of it. He started to seem less trustworthy than the other teachers I was learning from. I think his style of teaching isn't quite as "spiritual" and is more real, in your face, dgaf, which turned me off for a while. I ended up judging him and deeming his teaching to be off from truth, but I was wrong to dismiss him.

This type of judgement is something our egos will do in defense. The ego will make excuses why teachers are wrong and will judge them and make us question the teachings from time to time. The ego is trying to survive by instilling doubt. It's happened with nearly every teacher I've come across that I will doubt or judge them in some way, and it is very harmful to getting the most out of a teaching. Doubting the truth will make sure it never comes into our lives, and it's very easy to do when we don't understand what they are saying, and don't have the experience of relating to the words yet.

My advice is to stick with it, move on to someone or some work you resonate better with at the time. Always be courageous and have confidence in yourself that you can come to the realization you need to, that you can come home to truth.

Never give up, never surrender! And don't judge people, especially a teacher you are trying to learn from, until you truly understand.

Hope you enjoyed! I know I was kind of AWOL for a moment there, I had a rough couple of days and workload at the day job took some time away. Not to mention I was trying to assimilate some of the teachings I've been receiving, honestly I place a high value on learning this and understanding, so it takes priority, apologies for not dropping by your blogs.

@jakeybrown