Translation New Acropolis - “Voice or Echo?”

   Hello, welcome to my home, after a few weeks apart. I have missed you a lot. I hope that, wherever you are, you are ready for a great Christmas that's coming up. 

   Today we have a very special conversation. Which is a good moment to have it, actually. A moment the nerves have cooled down, the passions. And now we can think of a very important question. 

   The title is: "Do you own a voice or an echo?" But basically what this title is trying to create is an incitement. Voice or echo? It means, do you have your own ideas? Or are you simply just copying what you've heard around? This is the element I brought so we have a little chat, reflect a little. Because it's essential you know not only not to let yourself be manipulated, but also because you came here with the essential task of building yourself. And that task implies having autonomy, having a self-identity, building your own feelings, your own thoughts, your own action. To be capable of becoming self-responsible for your actions in the world. "It is mine, it was thought through, it was reflected upon..." If it was badly reflected upon, okay, I'll learn from that and I'll correct it. But it is mine. It was not a copy from someone else, I don't transfer the responsibility to anyone. I take the bridle of my life. My thoughts are mine. Wrong or not. Because both are valid. If you are in a process of self-construction, on top of a wrong thought, you learn. As much as on top of a correct thought. You learn and you renew your posture. Enough it is only not to feel like the owner of the truth. 

   And then we have again an important dichotomy: not to feel like the truth owner versus not being lazy to think. On many occasions, I have commented with you in some of our chats, that the worst kind of laziness is mental laziness. We fight a lot against the type that prevents us from getting out of bed in the morning. That's ok, laziness must be fought against in every dimension. But there, that place is not its root manifestation, it's not where it is born. Laziness is born in the mental realm. It generates disattention, dispersion... a constant habit of checking what everyone else is thinking so we tag along. Always to adopt ready-made ideas, to be always "trendy". This is the element that starts projecting itself towards denser levels... and makes us become a repeated "card" in life's deck.

   Let's not say what we came for. And that doesn't harm only us, it also harms humanity. And that's precisely the point that we'll start talking about today. About the human puzzle. Something interesting, imagine, that we are all part of a world, a unity, a cosmos. However, we are not the same part. It's as if the universe had divided itself like a puzzle, where part of the "one" mystery is in each of the unities that parted. A body wouldn't be the same if it was missing one cell. The universe is not the same when I'm missing one single being. That didn't play its role, that didn't do what corresponded to it. 

   Now listen well, we are the only beings, that we know until now, that have this freedom of not fulfilling our role. No plant rebels against its own plant nature. Or the animal against its animal nature. Man, because of having a reflexive nature, has the choosing capacity. And suddenly he opts not to be a human. He's as inert as a rock. He is as stingy as a plant looking to conserve energy. Or he is as instinctive as an animal. And his human construction is left to be worked on. We end up being a Frankenstein, of Mary Shelley. A piece of each thing. None of those pieces are really ours. 

   So think in individual terms, but also think in terms of society. Something is missing in the world when a human being lets go of occupying its place. Like Marcus Aurelius used to say: "the loss of a single human being that I haven't met means a unique, non-repeatable universe that I didn't manage to know" That means, a piece of that puzzle will make it not so beautiful, not so harmonically. The universe harmonizes itself. Planet Earth harmonizes itself. Humankind that we know of harmonizes itself. Each one occupying its place. Everything fits, everything goes into a flow. 

   Many times I gave you this example, that beauty is a clear sample of this. Beauty is made of the harmony of differences. You wouldn't have a song with a single note. Not even the "samba of a single note" has really only one note, it harmonizes different notes. And a beautiful painting harmonizes different colors. And from there you get beauty. Beauty is a result of the harmony of differences. 

   Therefore we don't find beauty in humanity, and consequently, we don't find happiness, we don't find brotherhood, if you, individually, haven't found yourself. 

   Understand this idea. Having individuality is something for you and for the world. All nature awaits this from you. It's a mystery that you came to the world to unravel. The mystery of your own identity. It is the sacred word Buddhism used to say "if you don't pronounce it, no one can pronounce it for you". Your identity is a mission. For this, we came. That's why we are in the world. And only this assures the harmony of the whole.

   Don't let yourself be dragged by this story that, in order not to have conflict, we all need to be the same; which is the argument of mas production. If we are all the same, we will be half men, that haven't found their own fullness. Consequently, men by the half are not happy.  And with a bunch of men that are not happy, it's not possible to work out. It's as if you had only ill people on earth, no doctor. Everyone just wanting to receive, no one willing to give. Logically, that won't work. 

   So the fullness, the self-development, self-knowledge... they are all for yourself and for humankind. It is a fraternal work. Find yourself. It's what nature expects from you. 

According to Plato, which is a foundation we use very often, there would be a realm of ideas, where all ideas are based even before humanity was created. Even before the universe was manifested in the way we know today. Things are born first as ideas, in nature's mental realm, in God's mental realm, if you prefer. This Realm of Ideas (Forms) that Plato used to talk about, when the material universe is created, these ideas start to manifest down here. 

   And, logically, suffering the resistance of the matter, when traveling down, these ideas are deformed. They become imperfect. And evolution is not but “running after that original idea”. Running after to corresponding it the best way. And that, plants, rocks, animals, do in a tutored way, through nature's law. 

   Now men, as he has reflexive consciousness, as he has freewill capacity, he has the obligation to it for himself. To comprehend that there's a human idea, and to run after it. And as you incorporate this human ideal, your turn yourself each time more into a worthy representative of this ideal in the world. A faithful representative of this idea in the world. That means, he came into the world and didn't grow apart from his original idea. Which is the etymology of the word "symbol". Meaning he was thrown away from the world, but he remained united to the idea that originated him. Otherwise, he splits. This division would be represented by the "dabolos", that is, it's divided into two worlds. One thing, a very deformed reflex, the other thing what nature expected from him. So evolution is nothing but to run after to corresponding to your celestial model. 

   Many times people ask me, when I talk about mission, ideal.... “But how will I find my ideal?” And I always give that answer which I'm not sure is pleasant (for me it is, very much, I don't know it seems the same way to you). No one has to find the human ideal. The human ideal is already thought by nature, since the origin of times. The human ideal is to be a human. With values, virtues, wisdom. Only we can bring this into the world. 

   We know that vegetables, if they don't do photosynthesis, the base of the food chain falls apart, there's no life. Nature expects this from vegetables. It expects animals to be efficient in perpetuating the species, in their own survival. Because if not, they get extinguished, stop performing their role. And nature expects human beings to perform their role. Values, virtues and wisdom, that's a complete human. It is as if a pyramid's apex: you get there by many sides... your professional nature, your calling, whatever is, but the goal is set by nature since the beginning of times. If Plato is right, it's set even before men were built. So evolution is looking for a human model, is looking for the wholeness of the human condition. What about the roads? Yes, those you'll look for, the ones suit you the most. However, don't forget the biblical phrase: by your work you'll be known. Check if that road is actually good by the direction it's taking you. If it gets you closer to the pyramid's apex, it's good. If not, be careful. 

   So when we sometimes think (and I find this a very fair thought, I share it) that we have to take care of nature because there are animals in extinction. Then we take care of the capuchin monkey, panda bear, and many others within Brazilian fauna... what we notice is, there's no point taking care of this animal, at this moment, if you don’t take care simultaneously of the human extinction. Because what causes the forests extinction, animals, flora, fauna... what destroys the planet is the extinction of the human condition. If you search for human beings in the wholeness of their condition, with values, virtues and wisdom, everything else will be given by addition. Like once again, says the bible. That means, we'd have to do a little of “ecosophia”. Seek not to let be extinguished the wholeness of human condition. 

   Because a true human preserves the panda bears, preserves capuchin monkeys, preserves Amazonian forest, preserves everything! Now if you conserve all those animals and let the men perish, you'll see what the next generation will do to all those animals and all others. Nowadays we already see certain things that are symptoms of barbarianism. Certain behaviors that even some animal species would be ashamed to do to their own cubs. Watch out, because that's already a complicated symptom of animalization. And there's no point preserving the animals, but not preserving the human condition. It'd be a vain job. 

   To preserve the human condition by, firstly, preserving yourself. With your characteristic, with your ideas... but keeping at sight the human ideal.. which is a single one, for all human species. Therefore, this makes me better; this makes me more whole, this makes me more coherent... then necessarily it's a good thing for me. Don't let yourself be dragged by passions, by trends, even within the terrain of identity. Often we let ourselves be dragged. 

   Often, we ask our youth, in a very early age, what do they want to do of their lives. When they don't even have a basic self-knowledge. And what will they choose? Whatever is trending, whatever they saw in a movie, except really rare cases of a higher maturity. In general, the kids don't know a lot about themselves to know what they'll do for the rest of their lives. 

   Then we follow, even older people, we follow the trends. And we create this identity rooted in the collective. Which doesn't correspond, at all, with what we needed to be to achieve the wholeness of human condition. We follow social models. 

   How many times, let's be honest here between us, don't you talk to someone in the streets, at work, anywhere, and have the impression you are hearing for the thousandth time the same thing on the social network, the same thing everyone is saying. I mean, you don't find a life on its own, you only find echoes. And that's very sad because we keep searching where is there a human being, legitimate, available to reflect on things?

   When Gibran talks about the conversation, this is one of the elements he approaches in the "Prophet", the chapter of the conversation... How sad it is, because it starts being an exchange of repeated stickers, there's nothing original. How isolated we become when we are in the middle of people without ideas of their own, with life of their own. Starting with ourselves. It's a big silence, it's a repetition of the same. With different voice tones, but the same. 

   Continuing... I've already told you that, in the eastern tradition, there's a specific definition, a specific concept, which is the idea of the inner name. They say the following: human life has a goal: to be a bridge between heaven and earth. Each one of us has as mission to grab some of these ideas and - within the Realm of the Ideas - and stamp them in the world, bring them to the world. And this message others wouldn't see with their own eyes, they begin to see with our eyes. Every man that has legitimate human life is a pontiff. He has the head in the Realm of Ideas and the feet on the earth. And through him humanity can see things that otherwise wouldn't see. 

   So there can be someone that gets to you some day and says: "look, I was addicted to thinking like everyone else, but that day you told me that thing, you ended my day... you made me see things upside down" Don't be sorry for this person, you made him a huge favor. You added into his menu of options something different And you proved him that it's possible to have identity and individuality in the middle of the crowd. It's possible for you to find yourself, even if it's not the word of the day. Even if it's not what everyone is looking for. 

   I remember that, many times, I gave you an example of something that happened in my life and marked me a lot. It was when my daughter was five years old and was in kindergarten. In the music subject, the project was to perform this regional ("baiana") song, very trendy back then, extremely erotical. And I went there to tell them I didn't want someone of five years old doing that. And the pedagogic advisor told me that I would harm my daughter because she'd be different from the other kinds. Pay attention to this, it was a pedagogic advisor, and I got really impressed to see the fear on her face, the fear to be different. I had to be very delicate and patient to explain to her that, what I wanted the most was that my daughter was able to be different from everyone when everyone was wrong. It was not "just to be against"... if everyone is following the correct path, good, I'm with them. But if they are going to an abyss, one must have courage to save himself, even if it's alone. And through your own example, maybe some would come after you and save themselves also. 

   So it's very important to notice that, this person's fear, which was a children pedagogic advisor, is very present in all of us. The fear of individuality. So we self-boycott out of fear of being secluded from social groups, fear of loneliness, fear of aggression, rejection, we... we practically forbid ourselves to set a date with ourselves. Out of fear of the consequences. When in reality you'll know that these people that guide themselves by social groups where everyone thinks alike, when they face a big life challenge, they won't find answers in those "echoes" around them. They'll look for someone who thinks, they'll look for you. 

   You need to have it clear in your mind what you want to be remembered for. Do I want to be remembered as part of the happy hour group? Or do I want to be remembered as someone who has legitimate opinions when someone needs me? This doesn't mean you'll not be part of the happy hour, but that maybe you'll have to look for a group that had affinity with the latter. It’s not that you’ll walk away from people, it’s just that you are available for other things. And whoever has a good conversation and wants to exchange true ideas, yes, with those, yes, with those the happy hour. 

   

   To put each thing in their place. It's the platonic concept of justice. But I'm available for everyone. Only that, regarding sharing all that I am, I’m not coming down to reach someone. 

   There's a maxim in oriental education, which I find very interesting, that I always share in my talks, about what an educator should tell a learner, a father to his son. They should turn to them and say: "To go up, always count on me. But to go down, go alone".

   Do you realize this takes courage from us, to enforce to the social groups we are part of? Do you want to have a good conversation? Do you want to reflect? Do you want to find answers for your life? Count on me, always. But for massification, for repeating trendy jargons, no, go alone. Or with those who like it. 

   And accept this position of ours in the world! You'll notice that, through this acceptance,  others will admire you, they maybe try to place themselves as well. And to be respected for what they are. Respect, that comes from "respicere", meaning “know how to see, look once again”... cannot be practiced on others if first you don't practice on ourself. Respect yourself. Find yourself. And if you don't find what you need, build it yourself. Start reflecting upon every life event and gather, by definition, all the things you consider as part of your identity. 

   Remember, we didn't come to the world to build things, the universe didn't need it. It didn't need flying machines, it had already built the comets. It didn't need very fast things, it had already built light-speed. What it need is for us to build ourselves. Because this the universe cannot do. For that, there's a law, called the freewill law. Therefore, it has to respect our autonomy. Even if we don't want to put it into practice. So the biggest work is the construction of the self. And with that you bring up yourself and humanity - as we said at first. 

   "To conquer inner meanings and see the wonderful reality behind the shades"

    This is very interesting, I always use a sentence that seems a little enigmatic, it seems to make no sense, but actually makes all the sense. It says the following: "the more inside, the more outside". If I'm a person that seeks each time more, I find myself in the middle of all those things that I'm not. Remember the definition of intelligence, which is "intelegere", choose from. Choose from the things that tell me who I am, who I really am, who I really am. The more I search to go deep within my true nature, the more I deepen myself in the nature of things from the outside. In the objects around me, the realities around me. If I am superficial relating to my own self, I'll be superficial when it comes to all things. I know, technically, how they work, but I don't know what they are. I know how, but I don't know “why”, nor “where to”. And then we become utilitarians, we know how to use things for out own benefit, but we don't understand things in depth if we don't understand firstly ourselves. To dive into the realities and to find the mystery behind them is a very interesting and common practice once you acquire it. Once you start putting discipline to look at things while searching for answers. 

   One of these days I published on my Facebook page that I left my house and I saw the lamp in front of my house on, in the morning. And it's a very strong light, but with the sunlight (and it was an early morning light, weak, still starting, it was dawn), with the sunlight it didn't stand a chance, you couldn't even see that it was on. You had to look well to notice if it was on or off. And that's interesting because I started to think about this inner sparkle of vanity, of pride, when the sunlight comes those turn into nothing. And the sunlight, classically according to Plato, is the idea of Good. All other elements lose value when the dawn of the idea of Good comes inside us. When we search the good in each thing. The right direction of each thing. The essence of things. And that stands out to all personal interest. 

   Well, then, I went to drive my car... I maneuvered without finding a way to get out... then I look and I thought how many times, during my day, I do this. I beat around the bush and I don't take one single step towards the exit. The exit of my problems. One step towards my dreams, I beat around the bush, moving a lot, but not advancing at all. 

   What I found interesting about those two very silly reflections, after them there were others, was that, it was not even 8 am and I had probably already done about half a dozen  philosophical reflections. Look, I'm no great philosopher, I am an apprentice. But this is a habit you acquire. To look at life and ask "what do you have for me today? What do you have to offer me? What can I learn from you now?" And this makes you have a deep dialogue with things, be mind and body together, as Jung used to say, to be present at each moment. Extracting whatever life has to offer to you now. A pedagogical life. And this is a habit one acquires. When the men is willing to know, when he's willing to go deeper. When he loves this mystery which is life. And starting there, he begins to make reflections that he didn't clone from anywhere, they are his! They began with his life's point of view, his reflections. 

   Logically they are not perfect. They can go through perfecting in the future. But you have an axis already, around of which, like a tree, it already has the stem around of each it generates its crown. This center is fundamental. None of us is the truth owner, but having a center, a reflection capacity to learn... starting with it, then you perfection yourself. You establish an apprenticeship. If we don't have any reflection and we don't know what things are, nor have the curiosity to know, how are we going to perfection it? Based on what others said? And what if that's not? What if it's a simple impression of someone else? A mere opinion? That soon will be surpassed? We guarantee the base when it comes from our observation, clean, uninterested, moved only by the love for knowledge. Then you guarantee the base. 

   I have studied for so many years Logic and even today I like this subject a lot, it was one that taught me the most, Logic grows from a correct premisse to establish a series of correct thoughts. The thoughts can be wonderful, if your premisse is false, you are building a castle in the air. You have nothing. 

   So the main premisse is "I saw", "I felt", "I reflected and I extracted this juice out of life". Starting there I can get to know more, but this foundation is solid, on top of which I can build my identity structure. Of "I am". A "I am" always under construction, always perfecting itself, but now I have an axis. There are roots. 

   One of the things is also repetitive in my talks, I say look, life will have difficulties, the wind will blow. And it's essential that you know that, when it's windy, only survives the trees with deep roots, the others are dragged. Don't you think that, particularly on your life the wind won’t blow. Wind is part of the meteorological conditions of the planet, therefore, there will be wind. Grow roots, deep, dive the roots within yourself. In the mystery of self and in the mystery of life. Today we have a curious habit of not thinking, and obtaining happiness based on the sensorial satisfaction that things bring. Which is not happiness, is a very short term pleasure. It's not transforming, it's not aggregating, it's not solving our problems. 

   I always illustrate this with the example of the movie theater. Everyone acts, the actors go through that dramatic situation, everyone is crying at the audience, having intense emotions. And in ten minutes time all those same people are having popcorn at the foodcourt. 

   That means it's always passion, withering emotions, that go away with the same speed they came. They are not built, they are not based in the consciousness and in the will. Therefore, you don't retain them. They don't have depth. But they give an amusing taste, at one moment you cry, at one moment you laugh... it's fun. Listen, emotions and thoughts are not entertainment. They are tools, they are building materials that you'll use to build yourself. You cannot lay out those tools (that were made for you to become a whole human being) only to have a moment of pleasure. You cannot sell yourself for so little. I'm not saying that once in a while you won’t have a silly emotion here and there, I guess it's all part. But what I'm saying is: don't have only that. Work on building deep thoughts, work on building your own thoughts. Life is not a game, it's not a movie. It does have many painful moments, many pleasant moments, but our duty cannot be put aside. Remember that sentence, of a philosopher I really estimate, Sri Ram, "I walk towards my mission. If it comes a light breeze, I enjoy the light breeze; if there's a searing heat, I suffer with the searing heat. But neither one, nor the other remove me from my path."

   We, nowadays, don't have a path. So we run away from the sun, we run after the breeze, with a trajectory with no meaning, that brings only angst, emptiness. And we cannot stop to think, we are scared of this date with own selves. So it's a constant get away from the self - it's today's society favorite sport. There are several external calls, so he never gets to look inside and notice this big emptiness of not even having started to build the foundations of his own identity. 

   And it's unbelievable how all society is built on top of that, even the crimes. People know how naive others are, and sometimes with deceitful arguments they fool a bunch of people. Sometimes with absurd ideas. It's enough for you to go on a social network so you see absurd things, for example, that are mentioned as being Shakespeare's, Miguel de Cervantes. And thousands, sometimes millions of people shared that without stopping to think if something like that (in a contemporary language, without a deep content) could actually have been written by Shakespeare. People, certainly, of all cultural levels, they share, share... and nobody in the middle of this way, stopped and digested it, understood what it was saying and concluded "no, this is not something Shakespeare would write, it couldn't have been him". I mean, this impulse of sending forward without really thinking about it. Throw here and there a lot of superficial elements because, even if they are not true, they bring some kind of pleasure. It's curious, this is one of the elements I find curious the most. It's that story of the popular saying "I don't know, I don't wanna know, I hate who knows". You know what this means? I suspect that, amongst these millions of people who send this kind of thing forward, with no base, some suspect also that's not true. But that is pleasant. It's something cute, it’s a cheap self-help, but  it looks good, fits well on your page. I suspect that some have doubts about the authorship of that, but they prefer not to know. It's like getting someone who gossips... if you want to tell him the true version of facts, he won't want to know. In general, the true version is far less interesting than the version he made up. 

   There's no love for the truth. There's love for entertainment, for hobby. It's incredible to think about what is a human being who doesn't love the truth. Who doesn't love knowledge. I mean, he gets attached to the masks and he wants the masks. It makes us remember that movie "Matrix", of that citizen who wanted to go back into the machine, even knowing it was an illusion. How many of us would like to know? How many of us would like to get out of the machine? How many of us would ask to go back, even knowing it was an illusion? 

   This disconnection of men with the truth, with the knowledge... do you realize that behind it there's the idea "I can make things up that are more interesting than the truth, and I don't even know it!". I'm capable of inventing more attractive, mysterious things than the truth. Even if I haven't even touched the truth's doors. And there's nothing more mysterious and attractive than the truths about the universe and about ourselves. 

   So there are many elements. One element that I put here in the sequence, which I also find interesting. Consider the inner world, we came to the world to manifest a little of the Realm of Ideas into the concrete realm. It's as if we are a glove, through which the divine's hand act in the world. And while we don't do this, we don't do this, it's as if this hand inside the glove wanted to come forward, but the fingers are all stuck. It's a steel glove. And it's there, distressed, wanting to break free of that resistance to send its message to the world. It's like a baby in the mother's womb. Can you imagine what's like a baby that wants to be born, the time has come, and the mother is trying to stop it? Certainly, both will die. There's inside of us this identity. There's this "whathisname" inside you that wants to be born, now! So it gets to a point where he reaches a desperation level that brings this unbearable pain, this emptiness, this inner anxiety, that you don't know where it comes from. 

   Many times (I don't like generalizing because it wouldn't be philosophical), but I see not even one year goes by where a new syndrome of something is not created. Empty nest syndrome, whatever syndrome, psychological syndromes that created some kind of desperation. I believe many of them are legitimate. But I think that, even among those legitimate ones, there must be many that are just your identity that wants to be born and you don't want to give birth. I suspect that, behind many of those diseases that come up, that are created all the time, there's your inner self, your true identity that wants to be born, but you don't let it. This ends up on killing both. It ends up turning the angst into something unbearable. And it's unbelievable how there's a raising number of anxious people every year. Getting into dead-end corridors. It's unbelievable, whatever name you give it, it's very likely to be a birth that you are not letting happen. The birth of the self. You were born as a body, but you were not born as an identity, you didn't perform this second birth. 

   Just like the oriental traditions used to say, there are two deaths, there are also two births. And the second one is to be born with your inner name, be born as yourself. It's not just the birth of a body, it's the birth of a soul, of an identity. Of that what stimulates you, moves you legitimately as a human being. And this has several names nowadays. 

   One thing that I found interesting, I put it down here to talk to you. Each time you notice a small law, something simple that makes you think "wow, this makes sense", do you realize there's a little bit of God's arm extended over the cosmos?... that you've just touched what Eastern call “Dharma” - God's arm extended over the cosmos. I mean, when you realize the universe makes some sense; that an event is trying to teach you something... there's a logic in everything that happens, you've touched a piece of Dharma, a piece of God's arm. Getting to know the universe's order means you are starting to have conditions to integrate it. It's a very valuable first step. You are not anymore insecure; you are not anymore lost in the chaotic universe. You've discovered a piece of the Logos, a piece of the cosmos. You can now blend with it. There's nothing able to give you as much energy. 

   I remember, I've told you many times about it, that in one of my classes I was chatting (in my classes, ideas are created that I then share with you. And they are originated there, in that moment, from people's honest demands). It's so interesting, how we... love, brotherhood, is one of the elements that makes us grow the most. By wanting to respond to someone, you end up diving inside yourself and finding amazing things. If alone, maybe we wouldn't have this stimulus. And one really young student asked me what could he learn from things, as things are mute, they have nothing to teach you. And I was telling them the chair example, one that I’ve told you many times. The chair is such an efficient object because it brings together stability with the four legs on the floor, and the generosity of being ready to receive a tired walker. And every time you bring together stability and generosity, you create something tremendously efficient and timeless. 

   I’ve also mentioned the ladder, that has a stability dimension for resting and a vertical dimension of tests to be overcome so you move up to the next level. Eternal horizontality wouldn't let you grow. And eternal verticality would leave you down at the bottom of the wall, not having a way to go up. No wondering it is the most efficient way to propel you from one level to the other. It gives you a time of stability and a time of challenge. And that's how life is, like a ladder. Then I added many other examples... and it was interesting how this person went into shock... looking at the chair, looking at the ladder, "wow, are they saying all that?!" yes! Stop and observe. Because something that works out, it's a conjunction of ideas. And if you extract those ideas from them and apply somewhere else, it also works. You start touching on God's arm. This provides you with such a strength, such safety, that you'll never be lost in the middle of chaos anymore. You'll never feel like a castaway in the middle of the sea anymore. Now I have a steady rope that ties me to solid ground. I'm no longer a plaything according to the flow or the wind. Now I have a direction. I am sure the world is cosmos, I am certain there are laws, therefore, I can be part of them. I have a safe haven and I'm walking towards it. One of those experiences already gives you this, you are no longer a castaway. 

   It's one of the things I also exemplify, which I found very beautiful, when you notice a bird that has a nest with babies. You see that it flies out with a clear goal, which is to fetch worms for its babies. I get amazed! Sometimes a tiny sparrow, such a tiny bird, it flies to a certain hight and looks down and sees a worm moving. God... for a human sight, which is much lower down than the bird, I wouldn't see that worm! But the bird has a clear goal: it wants to take some food to his babies. And with this goal, there's no movement on the ground that goes by unnoticed. The little worm moved over there, the bird flies down and "puf", grabs it. 

   Notice, if we walked around also wishing to feed not our babies, but our own souls, anything that moved around us would be food? If we had focus. If we knew what we came here to do. If we knew who we were supposed to feed. And starting with our own lives, we'd feed all others. Don't forget the stewardess’ law on the plane, put the oxygen mask on yourself first and only then help other passengers. First find yourself the food for your soul! And only then you have breath, you are able to give examples, you are able to lead the way. But in the first place, keep yourself alive. Otherwise you are not able to help anyone. Then fly out like a bird that knows what it wants. It wants to feed its soul. So the smallest movement, the smallest fact around you is food for your soul. And when you start finding this logic in your life you have a steady floor to step on, you have certainties. You can start walking around in a much safer way. This ground that keeps trembling under our feet, the uncertainty of not knowing the meaning of all this, this drains our energies. Be a good observer of life and it'll give you a steady ground where to step on. And you'll be safe to walk towards the future. 

   The moment we live in is the law of minimum effort. This is something unbelievable, because we identify happiness with "not doing anything!" The smaller the effort you make, the happier you are. Every technology aspires that men do most things with minimum effort. I've already told you about that TV ad, that I never forgot, where there was a boy laying on the couch and the narrator was saying "we are working each time more, so you work each time less". I'm saying, the "blessed kid" only did this with his finger on the remote control. And all came up, showed up, that was happiness. 

   I remeber one of these days this person I met, very interesting, she gave me an example which I thought it was very funny, she said "look, Michelangelo already knew about this when he painted The Creation of Adam." Do you recall The Adam's Creation, the painting where God's coming and touching Adam's finger? Or tried to touch? It's very curious, because God's a stout man, Michelangelo reflected a stout man, being carried by a bunch of angels, a tremendous effort... he, losing balance, throwing himself down, doing a great effort to extend his finger towards Adam. And Adam, who's half-leaned on the floor, super comfortable, his finger in this position. Pay attention so you see it. His effort to unite to God was just this (shows with her fingers)... and he doesn't do it. He doesn't do it. He waits so God gets to him. 

   She joked with me "look, Michelangelo knew that men would be governed by the law of minimum effort". Because is so little what concerns us to do! And we don't do it! We wait for things to come to us. And that's a very curious thing, to take this as happiness. 

   If you consider that nature worked tremendously to come from the mineral realm, to elaborate it, vegetal realm, animal realm, to reach human being, with all this brilliant capacity of imagination, creativity, intelligence... all these resources. To have as happiness the inertia, which is the rock's happiness? What a waste of energy. Why did we make nature work so much for so little? 

   So this matter of minimum effort doesn't generate only the "not doing anything", it generates the "doing the easiest". That's when it becomes dangerous the most. So within the realm of thought, for example, when something is presented to you, you have two choices: either you deny frantically without even observing it, without even having chewed it or digested it; either you adhere to you it frantically. That means, you are either falling into a hate speech or you are falling into idolatry and fanaticism. 

   You see, it's very rare to see people capable of reflecting, capable of dissecting to see positive and negative aspects of things. Something everything has, the universe is dual. The path to idolize or to reject and create hate is the path of minimum mental effort. Of those who didn't chew something, just swallowed it completely. Because chewing makes you separate what's valid, assimilate what's valid, discard the rest. Because there is nothing absolute in manifested universe. Therefore every path that accepts blindly or denies blindly is mental laziness. And we live among this all the time. Chew things, you. 

   I always remember that phrase of Professor Jorge Angel Livraga, the founder of New Acropolis, he used to say: "men do not live of what they eat, they live of what they assimilate" and the rest is discarded by the body. Now imagine if our bodies behaved like our minds, that don't separate things, just swallow them. The body would have to get rid of everything, how would it do with that? Or would it die intoxicated? Logically, what the body teaches us is to dissect, extract the valid and discard the rest. It would be very useful for our minds. Nature knows what it does. The nature's behavior that reveals itself in our biological behavior is of an outstanding intelligence. 

   Within the mental realm, our laziness, our lack of reflection creates dangerous polarization. Of collective hatred and collective passion. Without any kind of reflection. It doesn't even know how to say why, it doesn't know how to scrutinize why the hatred and why the passion. And we live amidst that. Not only in Brazil, but in worldly scale. That's the result of laziness, of the minimum effort law. 

   Well, so we can start off with a principle that's obvious, according to Philosophy's point of view. You have an ideal, which is the human ideal, and you, starting with that, choose the appropriate tools to get there. Choosing with discernment. And to choose, to reflect... it's not only to think. It's also to live those things and find out how they work in reality. Imagine I come to you and I say: "it's impossible for the human being to swim. Anything you throw inside a pool that's heavy will go down, can't you see? A lesser weight than a human being goes to the bottom, why would a human being float and swim?" And then you never throw yourself in the water. You'll believe me, depending on how many titles I have, how convincing I am, depending on how of a smooth talker I am. But, from the moment you decide to experiment, to get into that pool. Try it several times, with that agony of someone who doesn't know how to do something, then one day learn how to float, then dog paddle - the first swimming type we do when we don't have an instructor. Get out of that pool, walk down the streets, meet me and I say to you "It's impossible for the human being to swim!". Do you think I'll steal your experience? I won't! You have an evidence. You've lived it. The whole universe can come to you and say "no!". You say "yes, I've lived it".

   Don't you find strange that there were men in the past, a Galileu Galilei, a Giordano Bruno, that the whole world got to them and said "no! There aren’t countless uninhabited planets", as it happened to Giordano. "The Earth is the center of the Solar System", as it happened to Galilei. And they say "no!" and the whole world against them. How are they supported to say "no"? “Erga Omnes”. How do they have support to defend an opinion against everyone's point of view? In a mass production world no one would withstand that. Where do they get this conviction from? A deep experience of things. They not only thought, but they also surrendered to life and they lived this knowledge. And from that they took the evidence that no one can take from them! 

   Whatever it's not yours, it'll be taken from you. By time, by the mass, by your your insecurity. Try to do things that are actually yours. Because this... nothing and no one can take away from you. Not even death, according to some traditions. So this is an important reflection to do, what is it really my own? If humankind, seven billion people, got together in front of me and said "no!", what would I be able to affirm "yes! I've lived it"? It's unbelievable how you take almost everything away from people. For example, the defamation campaigns that sometimes are carried out on internet. The most convinced individuals are suddenly not anymore. It's unbelievable how the convictions are not rooted in inner life. Because then there's nearly no root, when there's wind, they are jolted. And always, I repeat, there will always be a wind blow. 

    "Do not deny nor accept blindly what you don't know. Examine and extract what's valid". This means, a priori, neither denial nor acceptance. A posteriori you select whatever is valid, valid food, and discard the rest, just like your body can also do. "Oh, but it's boring, we want quick answers". No one has to give quick answers, they must give responsible answers. And through your answers there'll be other leanings that will influence other human beings. Maybe also towards the abyss. And most of the responsibility for those people to fall off the cliff is yours, who gave them the direction. Therefore, we don't have any commitment to be faster than our reflections, when it comes to providing answers. Chew life well. And commit yourself to what you offer to others. Don't be co-responsible for all of us to march together towards the cliff. This is not being united, this alienation contiguity. Turning into mass. 

   Another important thing: "don't fix a human being into a label. "Oh, this person, one day, did one thing to me, so today I don't even look at his face because he's a bad person." You are not the same as you were yesterday, the day before yesterday, last week, and you know it. And it would't be fair if someone was still judging you today for something you did when you were eighteen, twenty years old - depending on how old you are now. It's obvious that the human being is a being under construction. One must have this excitement to look at things as if it was the first time, although you won't forget about the past. But to give things the chance to change, or else you don't even give yourself this chance. And things change. Human beings are being constructed. Don't label, don't freeze! Because that's cruel to that person, as you give him no change to get out of this stereotype you've created, and you force him to remain there. And it's not fair to yourself, because the same treatment you'll give yourself, not allowing yourself to grow. Cruelty applied to others will be also applied to ourselves. So don't freeze  people's images. Don't freeze facts' images. What "has been" has been in the conjecture of that moment. From that moment onwards, there could have been learnings, there could have been change, there could have been realization. That's the natural thing to happen. Everything frozen is not natural. Natural is for all beings to be marching and improving during the march. Give them a chance. Don't disregard the past, but don't base yourself only on it. We do this also due to self-indulgence. Which means, we create a stamp... and we don't go back to judging that situation anymore. That's cruel, including to yourself. You won't trust yourself when you try to grow. 

   The myth of Narcissus and Echo, it's interesting. I guess some of you might know it, this greek myth. The nymph Echo was in love with Narcissus, who was very vain. He was in fact a very handsome guy. He kept looking at himself in the water, finding himself wonderful. And as the Nymph Echo used to live around him, and she didn't know how to talk, she only knew how to echo, he used to say the things so she would repeat whatever he wanted to hear. So he used to say "Narcissus is beautiful", and Echo kept repeating it several times. "Narcissus is beautiful, Narcissus is beautiful, narcissus is beautiful." Watch out if you are not repeating things that feed the vanity, the interest of others. Without the least conscious of what you're saying. Watch out if you are not the nymph Echo. Serving Narcissus, who had a doubtful character. Who had doubtful interests, or of doubtful conscious levels. 

   So it's important that we know that this voice we echo must've had a sender back there in the beggining, who's probably benefiting from it, but not us. And no one will make up for our own voice left unpronounced. This is gone, lost, the life/time given to us doesn't go back, it doesn't rewind. I've spend years of my life echoing, not choosing, not thinking, not discerning. And nobody will give this back to you. Don't be an echo of doubtful interests. Think, don't make echo.

   When are we going to start to give our message to the world? The Buddhist tradition, Dharmapada, says "more than a thousand meaningless words, it's worth more a single word that brings comfort to whom it listens to". Have you already said this word? Which was it? When? This word is essential to bring comfort to someone. It's not the final word, nor the most perfect in the world, but it's your word. And the world resents this silence. Because you didn't pronounce your word yet. The world needs it. Even if it's a drop. The ground is very dry, a drop goes a long way. It'll become less dry. Something can grow from there. Don't prevent yourself from delivering your message to the world to just keep repeating things you don't know who said or what's the interest behind. 

   Epictetus used to say something I consider very interesting. Epictetus was a great logician. And he used to love the well orderly thoughts like the stoics, in general, they all did. And he used to say: "Protect your reason, and it'll protect you"

   I get very shocked when these scams come around... on the phone, those crazy chain messages that sometimes get around society, how they catch people without education distinction. It's as if the intelectual information we've received didn't create not even a drop of maturity in our souls. Because people are tremendously unprepared for all kinds of deception and manipulation. There's no memory, no attention, no reflection. 

   As I've told you many times, I had a grandma who was illiterate. But she was someone of such acumen that I haven't seen anyone fooling her easily. Actually I haven't seen anyone fooling her period. She was extremely simple, but extremely present, body and soul, in every moment of life. And wit, mature. Where did our wit go? Where did our common sense go? Where did our capacity to maintain our discernment go? Regardless of the years of school formation, which is more information than formation, people are deceived by bunch. Only few are the ones who stop and say "no, wait, let me think, this seems strange, this is doubtful". So notice this, today there's not a clear relationship between information and formation. The minimum law effort had made the school knowledge merely informative, merely quantitative, not qualitative. And it doesn't mean anything anymore how many years in school someone had. It doesn't say anymore that he's a wit person, prepared to notice life's difficulties. And prepared to find his own answers. It doesn't say anything about this, it doesn't attest anything about it. 

   So no one will do for you the work of building yourself. Including because in this historical moment, people are all finding difficult to do this. No one will take this task for you. Do it, or you won't have it. Do it, or you'll die as a stranger to yourself. 

   I put a phase of Millor Fernandes, that I find very funny, like everything Millor says, all his works. He used to say the following: "democracy is when I boss you; tyranny is when you boss me". I found it very interesting because, as you see, he says words have no meaning themselves. They get highlighted according to if they attend or not my interests. What is democracy, what is tyranny? Let me see what I'm interested in. If I boss you, then it's democracy. You boss me? It's tyranny. So watch out, because we don't know anymore what we're saying. This looks like the biblical Babel Tower. Each one speaks a language, nothing vertical will be built anymore. We don't have a homogeneous language anymore, it's all tainted by our selfish interests. And we don't stop to think about the deep meaning of the words we say. I mean, there's no knowledge transmission, because as I don't really know what I'm saying, I don't know what the other is hearing. How am I supposed to transmit the best of me, if I don't have an appropriate language, gifted with content. And I haven't even found what's best of me, that's the problem. So we love people and we want to give something precious, something nothing and no one can take away from them. We don't know how to share that. Nor even have we conquered that.

   "Understanding nature's complexity is essential", don't live the soap opera's psychology, where there are only little saints and little devils. Universe is all multifaceted. We are, as Plato used to say, the mix between one and the other. Mix of light and shadow. Evolution is trying to make light to prevail over the shadow. But there is no "absolute". Don't judge people in an absolute way. "This person had a bad moment, at this day, at this time", it doesn't mean she's bad. She has, within her, positive things. And if you get to know those positive things, you can ally with her in what she has that's positive, while helping her fight what's negative. Not abandoning her when she lost a battle. Fight with her!

   Imagine, for example, the concept of loyalty. What would you think of a soccer team that starts losing a match and its players start removing their t-shirts because they don't play in losers' teams? What would you think of this kind of athlete? Disloyal, disgraceful, not worthy to be fighting for a team. No one else would take him. I mean, don't turn your back to a friend when he's losing the game. Consider he has light, memorize this light. And help him to remember this light when he's dragged by the shadows. 

   If we were not accomplices, but truly friends, we'd work on promoting the others' light. In such a way that I'd know, when I fall into the shadows, I can count on you to rescue me, to throw me a rope to pull me up. That's the true concept of friendship. Someone is down, you don't treat the person as that moment, but as everything you know of her, of what she has best. It's as if you had split her into two: here is a complicated, stubborn child; and here is the human being that you know. Talk to him! And help him to get stronger, to hold that inconvenient child. So don't believe you'll find "good and bad people", because you are not like that either. Think about the facts of your life, the best things you've done. Weren't they contaminated by some kind of interest, vanity? There's nothing absolute. The worse things you've done, weren't they contaminated by some king of good intention wrongly interpreted? Nothing is absolute. If we cannot even find this within us, why would we find in others? Ally with the light is necessary. Not believing the other is absolutely evil or absolutely good. This has only created hatred and passions. Worship and fanaticism. Don't be like that yourself.

   I remind you about something I always say, but a few are willing to do it, because there's prejudice, even, in Brazil, which is the work of Machado de Assis. We get to know this in adolescence, maybe unprepared to get to know such a work, very deep. So we get this rejection, sometimes, for the rest of our lives. I'm tired of meeting people who tell me "I don't like Machado de Assis". Wow, that's such a horrible waste, as Machado de Assis was not only a writer, but also a philosopher. He has written some wonderful things. And he has this short story, I actually recommend it, it's public domain, which is called "The Devil's Church". To sum up, very simply, because it's very intelligent and creative. The Devil asks God to give him a chance to tempt all His supporters on Earth. Without any consequence for them, any punishment. To see who'd remain faithful to Good, without gaining anything; and who'd change to the Evil side, knowing there'd be no punishment. So God gave the Devil an opportunity. So he got crowds of supporters with his church, where everyone did only what they wanted. All vices are worshipped, everything is considered wonderful, and virtues are completely forbidden. And his church becomes grandiose. 

   But some time goes by and the Devil starts noticing that his main clergymen, while hiding, are doing good deeds, are doing some charity work here and there when no one's looking. They were there helping an animal, a person, sneakingly, so no one knows. So the Devil becomes shocked, "I'm being betrayed!". So he goes complain to God. God turns to him and says: "what do you want, my poor devil.... before, we had a velvet humanity with cotton fringes; now you have cotton humanity with velvet fringes. The forever human being incoherence"

   That meaning, always... grab a velvet cape, look for it, there'll be cotton fringes. The forever incoherence of human beings. The universe is dual and we're part of it. 

    Value the bright, but do not expect perfection from nobody. Remember... everything we turn into expectation on others, when it turns to ourselves, it destroys us. If we ask something absolute of ourselves, we wouldn't stand this kind of pressure. Because we don't have it. Therefore, don't be cruel. Cruelty karma is something very heavy. 

   "Live and let live". What does this expression mean? Do not impose ideas on others, invite them to reflection. But at the same time, do not accept to have ideas imposed on you. Learn how to be discreet, sober, but set boundaries. Don't let people push ready-made ideas on you, as well as do not do it to others. Do not forget that respect towards other is practiced through self respect. Otherwise it's not respect, it's an imposition. Because then when you can do it unpunished you will massacre the other. If respect towards others is not rooted in self-respect, it doesn't exist, it's a mask. It's a moral habit, not a moral consciousness. Remember this always, these are two very different things. One is the simple habit; the other is the consciousness level that doesn't give way to anything.

   The concept of "pax", the philosophical peace for the romans, is to "always be accompanied by yourself (mind and body together). Even with self consciousness and heaven and earth (with the principles and its applications into the world), with a permanent perfecting spirit, but never thinking to be the owner of the truth". That means, this sobriety of being responsible for self construction. Not to surpass other's space, but to offer the best of you. And not letting others invade you. Meaning, the necessary dignity to support our identity in the world. This is what nature expects from you. And if humankind had consciousness to say what it expects from you, it would request, unanimously, around the globe, "be more human, because I need to see how that's like. I need to see how that works". If human beings were awake and they could ask you something, have no doubt, they'd ask "be more human", "be more yourself".

   Well, some traditions speak of, although I'm not so sure if this is real or it's a rumor, but they talk about ancient people who believed the stars were the Gods' meeting. And they put a cloth so humans wouldn't see them, and this cloth had small holes on, then the light of the Gods would show. Those were stars. I keep wondering, inside this story, that I'm not sure how true is, but it's a good example... how I'd like to pierce more little holes on this cloth. So this light coming from the Realm of Ideas would brighten Earth more. More. Permanently, if possible. And that's our mission. Don't forget, don't lose focus. A good player cannot stop focussing on the net, on the ball, on the goal. Otherwise he'll never make it. We're here to open more holes in this cloth and allow more light coming from the Realm of Ideas towards us. Through our small effort. A little hole we open is one more star in the sky. And the world needs more stars, because darkness is each time deeper. 

   "Our ideas are stars, and they are a gift, in a world each time darker."

   Well, lastly, I brought you a poem, if you allow it, my own poem. It’s from a period I was reading a book called "Viveka Chudamani", from this Indian sage, of vedanta, Shankaracharya. I made him this poetry, a poem, about his concept "Anandamayakosha". I brought a piece of this poem and I'd like to read it to you. Because it has everything to do with what we said until now. Pay attention:

"I'll overfly the world as a hunting bird

searching for the bricks of this house of mine...

Every time the soul remembers it has wings,

there I'll be, hunting, attentive, every Beauty...

Every time you, by closing a deal, becomes link, 

every time your hand forges stone cristal,

every time your voice rekindles the torch,

you'll give bricks to the house I aspire...

Every time pure gold reveals its vein,

on the open chest of a man who awakes,

there will be my soul, builder, alert,

searching for the cement required by toil...

Every time human geniality expands,

into inspired, strong, ideal voices,

audacious, by evoking God, in his footpath,

with such emphasis that God himself answers,

there will be my precious materials..."

   And the poem goes on, that's only part of it. But that's the idea, the human genius who's capable of making space so the lights of the Realm of Ideas make it to the world. And provide material to those that came before, so we build our own house, our own identity. Which Shankaracharya called Anandamayakosha. 

   Well, just a few reflections. I hope they are useful to you. They are not the ultimate truth, they are only ideas for you to take, digest, assimilate what's necessary and purge whatever you don't find relevant. But don't stop yourself from accepting this invitation. Build yourself. Take up the bridle of your own thoughts, of your own emotions, of your own life. 

Obrigada.