First of all I apologize, because I will use the google translator, since I write in Spanish, I hope that the translator does not distort the message too much. Taking into account the suggestion to comment something on the biography, I will refer to my apparent person to give a brief detail of how I came to write this: I am Louis Grecco from Argentina, Latin America (37 years old)
In the course of my “apparent life” I have always had the sensation of observing or perceiving everything that happens around me, not only what happens in the apparent outside of this body, but also in what happens in the “inside” , as an observer of the thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions that came to this body-mind.
However, despite that feeling of internal presence that sees everything, this life passed within the apparent normality of the world, always an outstanding student both at school and at university, outstanding at work, a good athlete, good at almost everything. What did I do, even in things I had no prior knowledge of, like building my house or making plans.
I have always had everything that a seemingly happy and totally blissful person would want to have. I have 2 incredible children, also a wife, good parents, a good job, good health, good looks, everything that any “normal” person would call being happy and lucky. All based on a lot of effort though. But here is the point, I always had the feeling that nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, of this universe could fill the existential gap that there was, nothing of this world could give me real happiness.
That feeling was always there, and around the age of 30 approximately, from here on, times become blurred and memories vague. Here arose that feeling that always was but with more force, I was no longer interested in anything about the experience, but WHO had that experience, who I was.
I did not want experiences, I never cared to obtain siddhis or any transcendental and divine experience, it would still be only on the phenomenal plane all of it. I wanted to know WHO would have those siddhis, WHO would have the divine experience.
That force has been getting stronger and stronger and although on the outside I appear to be the same person as always, inside all the pillars that supported this individuality and this world outside, exploded into the air, my breaks have always been internal, few Sometimes they were reflected in the apparent action outside.
The search began with books by Eckhart Tolle, then others of the same nature, of more superficial spirituality, I don’t know how I got to Nisagardatta, and from here it was like a blast, everything happened very quickly, I don’t know how to specify times, but I read everything related to him, after Ramana Maharshi, Atmananda Krishna Menon, Balsekar, Ranjit Maharaj, J. Krishnamurti among others.
Despite the differences in their ways of expressing each of them according to their “configurations”, all the teachings pointed towards the same thing. I read almost everything there is about each one of them, that stage was very fast and intense. I even came in the middle of all that to read Neo-Advaita, like Tony Parsons, and although Neo-advaita is very erratic, it gave me the feeling that they take the final conclusion that Vedanta reaches, and with that final conclusion , that movement was armed.
It would be like reaching the correct conclusion but on the wrong path, then when you get there you find yourself lost, you have the treasure in your hands but you don’t know what to do with it. It would be like giving the results of an exam to a person to pass, but when the teacher asks him how he got the result, the person does not even know what he is talking about, he only has the result of the exam, not the procedure.
However, I do not want to digress about it, at the end of the whole reading, the interview with James Swartz appeared talking about the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, and I read about him, he seemed to me of all the people who exposed the truth that we already are, like the one who He had his feet more on the ground and also the most logical of all, with little use of embellished phrases, but with more direct and blunt phrases.
Despite all the readings of the teachers, I never felt idolatry by any of them or by anyone, deep down I know that the conscience is speaking to the conscience about conscience. So although there is an apparent respect of my person towards the one who exposes the truth, there is no idolatry. Just a deep thank you. I think that someone who exposes knowledge like James Swartz is like a character who appears to you in a dream and tells you, “calm down, you are dreaming, everything will be fine” and exposes you the tools to calm that agitated mind that is lost in the dream and take it as the REAL thing.
At the end of the day, that character who exposes you to know him without expecting anything in return, is also THAT that you already ARE, you just don’t know it, but he DOES.
Anyway, I just wanted to give that thanks to James, for imparting these tools to serious seekers of the truth, to serious seekers of finding WHO is the one they are looking for and why. Here in Latin America it is strange to find someone interested in these topics, even more so in Argentina, so reading is the only tool to awaken the knowledge of what you already ARE. so thanks again. I hope this sincere thanks comes to you.
Louis
Dear Louis,
Thank you for shaning your story. I enjoyed it very much. Appreciation is always appreciated. I particularly liked this statement about Neo-Advaita, “ It would be like giving the results of an exam to a person to pass, but when the teacher asks him how he got the result, the person does not even know what he is talking about, he only has the result of the exam, not the procedure.” Vedanta is all about the “why.” When I was travelling around in Incia a long time ago I mer a jnana yogi who trained a parrot to say, aham brahmasmi, which means “I am pure awareness.”
You will probably do well with just Vedanta and that strong forcé inside but if you feel the need to discuss any tricky issues that may arise henceforth, you are most welcome to chat with me on the internet.
Love,
James
