Monday, September 22, 2025

Peace

 



In 1970 a small booklet circulated with the basic teachings of a man called “Silo”. A man in his thirties from Argentina who just had a public gathering on the border between Argentina and Chile, very close to a tiny village called “Punta de Vacas”. His talk was titled “The Healing of Suffering” and it was an extraordinary addressing of topics nobody was talking about in the 60’s.
In the booklet mentioned before there were some points worth talking about today because, in my humble opinion, they are revolutionary. Yes, revolutionary in SPIRITUAL terms.

Here is an excerpt:
“To achieve peace you have to start with yourself. Peace, tranquility and joy are brought to one's own conscience by complying with the Precepts*, meditating every day, and always looking for the good side of people and things.
Christ said - Forgive your enemies.
Silo now teaches that it is not enough to forgive but that it is necessary to look for the good in the enemy. If another person, despite everything, continues to be my enemy, it is not their fault but mine, because I have not discovered what is good in them.
The same thing happens with ugly things and adverse events. If I worry about looking for what is good and beautiful in things and in events, I am not in resignation but in optimism and joy.”


I was surprised by these reflections, especially when I read about "Peace in the Consciousness." Silo isn't talking about peace in general, but about peace within the consciousness of every human being, and it is precisely there that the work of spiritual growth begins. Interestingly, all of this is happening at a time when the entire planet is divided, and after two enormous wars, we have managed, with great difficulty, to maintain a rather fragile peace. At the root of all the smaller wars that have occurred are the major religions we know today. All these religions have their precepts or commandments very well written in countless sacred books, and all of them consider killing to be an abomination. However, all those words in sacred books are forgotten in practice, and in the name of religion, thousands of human beings continue to be killed. No matter the pretext—it always has to do with a piece of land—even though there is enough land for everyone. In the name of the gods of all religions, people go against the very precepts they preach, turning their teachings into boundless hypocrisy.

I believe there is no deeper error than hypocrisy, and it is an error of conscience. The worst thing is when it becomes something accepted and sometimes even justified, not to say sanctified.

Setting aside all this incredible hypocrisy and returning to the topic of achieving inner peace, it seems appropriate to maintain that it is the internal violence that must be transformed, and it is this violence, with its possessive roots, that produces suffering. This violence can only recede in the face of inner faith and inner meditation. Both terms are difficult to define precisely because they have been monopolized by religions, but here it is clarified that this faith is internal and that this meditation is internal.

Much is said about faith, but little is practiced. More is said about meditation these days, but little is practiced. Inner faith is something that is built, and the same is true of inner meditation. One discovers the inner world to the extent that one observes it without prejudice and with a deep desire to become a better person. Guilt or rationalization have no place in inner meditation.
For example, one can meditate on the difficulties encountered daily and how those difficulties contribute to personal growth. One doesn't dwell on explaining the difficulties or seeking reasons for their existence. The focus is simply on the fact that they are difficulties, and how to transform them into a source of inner growth. There is a whole world of inner meditation to explore and discover. One can ask oneself daily who we are and where we are going—of course, internally. One asks questions and answers them. That is meditation. One also meditates when reflecting on the fact that life has no meaning if everything ends in death, and therefore it is imperative to find meaning—direction—in life, not as something static, but as a process of inner growth, strengthening faith in the best aspects of oneself, of others, and of the society in which one lives. All of this is meditation, and it has little to do with opening or closing one's eyes, with specific postures, or with particular goals. By meditating in this way, one discovers inner peace and experiences inspiration.
 

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* Precepts: Do not lie. Do not kill. Do not steal. Be faithful. Achieve peace within yourself and with others. Think, feel, and act in harmony. Purify desire.

Thursday, August 7, 2025

Beliefs and Faith


 To believe is very different than to have faith. To have a system of beliefs is comfortable as long as those beliefs are not ever questioned. The moment the beliefs are confronted or questioned, we abandon all logic and in some instances we may feel personally attacked.

Probably this explain why in terms of politics and religion, the more we question others, the more they defend and justify their position. It becomes a silly contest on how to defend the indefensible. There is no effective way to modify someone else's beliefs through confrontation. Why anyone would defend a belief or attack someone else's belief? It doesn't make sense but we found ourselves doing both all the time.

I observed in me a strong tendency to self affirm myself in something as fragile as a belief, and in doing so, I obviously end up in the defense when being confronted. I imagine it is the same for others.

Silo's Message doesn't care about beliefs. It doesn't work with beliefs. It welcomes all beliefs because it's essence is based on experience and faith. Not on beliefs.

Beliefs are plural. They can be attached to multiple objects. We can have many beliefs in many things. Faith is singular. It is only one faith.  It is always the same faith,

Silo's Message works the best with Faith.


I have noticed that faith is experienced when there is a need, because  needs move in a very strong direction; it is almost like a laser beam. It just moves you forward towards your goal. It doesn't stop for calculation. It just knows. It impels you with a great and joyful force. From another perspective, that goal begins to pull you into its sphere of influence, almost like a gravitational force. All doors are open when faith moves me.

It think I understand better now the meaning of the aphorism: "Thoughts with faith are the ones that produce and attract stronger actions and the thoughts repeated with faith are the ones who produce and attract the maximum of strength in my actions"

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Forever




There is no such a thing as "forever", but it is one of the most common illusions that make us suffer. There is no pain or joy that is forever. Understanding this, life acquire a new meaning. Everything will eventually pass. To work internally is to acquire permanence in the capacity to change. Permanence viewed in this way is a lot more interesting than "forever". Constant change when embraced, give us reality and liberation from the tyranny of the illusory "forever".

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Objects

 


If happiness has not arrived despite the efforts made to convince us that it depends largely on the possession of material objects, I'm sure no one feels that way. In other words, we all get offended if someone tells us we are "materialists." But if material things are destroyed by accident or intentionally, we become depressed, violent, we complain ,we get angry, etc. And it's no wonder. When our entire lives are oriented toward and dependent on material progress, it's quite tragic to experience that "loss," and at the same time, it's a source of reflection on why it affects us so much.

The truth is, we don't need to be offended or defend ourselves because we are essentially matter and spirit. But if that balance is disrupted, especially if we are disproportionately oriented in one direction, then we suffer. That suffering isn't because the objects are broken, but because of the relationship we have established with them.

Curiously, when a "natural disaster" occurs, we suffer much less because that "relationship" is a little different. We know that we don't control nature, despite the intentions of some, and we know that with "collective" effort, we can rebuild and improve what has been destroyed. That is our history as a species, after all. It's good to reflect on our relationship with objects if we truly want to understand what is happening around us.

Friday, May 30, 2025

Self Censorship

 



When I first heard the concept of self-censorship, I was deeply struck by the fact that I had never heard it from anyone before. The first time was through Silo in 2006, and the context was a conversation about how the Message expands in an attack against censorship and self-censorship, and that attack against self-censorship is the development of a willingness to abandon this system and create a different vision of how things are and how one should act toward them. At that time, it was just a word, and some years later, it's much more than that and has a deeper and more expansive meaning. I imagine the word has been used before, and Silo himself probably used it before, but the important point is that my recognition began that day. I'm talking about an internal recognition of my self-censorship, and as he rightly said, censorship has weakened enormously over time, but self-censorship hasn't. This whole context is interesting, even though it's a bit redundant. Sometimes a word or phrase can change an entire behavior, or at least produce an internal shift and an observation that's initially superficial and then more internal. That's more or less how my study of self-censorship began. The hardest part has been the effort not to judge, criticize, or degrade self-censorship. Yes, it's clearly useless at this moment, but it's more important to understand it than to judge it. And in that effort, I've been able to see and experience that this is actually the best way to open up that "disposition" to change. By sometimes only momentarily suspending the tendency toward judgment, an opening is produced within me, and I was able to see that what was most repressed in self-censorship was the potential for intuition and the potential for unbiased and free observation of external and internal phenomena. Let's see if I can explain this a little more poetically. 

“Cafet completely abandoned himself to the experience he was having. Thousands of miles from where he had started, in a strange, wonderfully real, and incomprehensible dream. On a journey to the highest desires that had not been at all what he had imagined. Cafet followed Graciela, connecting with the intuition that she would take him where he needed to go. There are times when the absurd and the extraordinary blend in an impossible-to-predict way, and all that remains is to follow that tenuous thread without too many questions, without too much caution, and with enough confidence that one will arrive where one must go.”

This paragraph is from a story I wrote based on a dream. Dreams are absurd and special precisely because there is no censorship, because there is no guardian of the contents; they just flow, and one participates in the most extravagant, extraordinary, immoral, inspired, etc. situations, and self-censorship disappears…

This is only an approximation of the subject, and I have used the dream only as an example. It's neither possible nor advisable to transfer it to waking life, but it is important to understand how this mechanism operates and how, little by little, without being extravagant or extraordinary, or immoral and/or inspired, one can gradually release one's own censorship, especially regarding one's own content, especially regarding one's own conceptions, especially because intuitions are more interesting than schemes. And by letting go of all this, insights emerge about how systems are set up. If one notices the tendency and observes it without compulsions, it tends to not occupy the central space of our actions in the world, and by not occupying that space, something different begins to manifest. In the best of cases, a void is created, and that void gives meaning because it comes from the deepest part of the human being.

The attacks against self-censorship are not warlike in nature but rather efforts to silence great compulsions that distance us from that sacred thing within and around us. Undoubtedly, the efforts in this direction are worthwhile.

Friday, April 11, 2025

Working internally




The idea of "working internally" is not a new one. In different forms and in different times it's been somehow constantly present in our world.
The starting point is to work with what we have and this is probably a new proposal. It is commonly accepted in societies that we work trying to "obtain" something within ourselves. We want to "become" someone better or smarter or more spiritual, etc.
The simple idea of "obtaining" goes contrary to this process. 
We can at best transform what we already have. 
To work to "become" is a waste of energy. 
To "liberate" ourselves is a lot more interesting.
To liberate ourselves from fears
To liberate ourselves from prejudices
To liberate ourselves from internal violence and judgements
To liberate ourselves from ignorance and internal suffering
From that perspective, to let go is a good approach to start this internal work.
Learning to let go is the first step of many more to follow.



Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Talking about experiences

 



Who really wants to listen to someone else experience? Practically no one.
In general we can't wait to talk about our own experience and hardly listen to what the other is saying.
And we finished talking and the other person is not even listening, in the same way we don't listen.
It is a peculiar exercise on monologues.
Not often it happens that we can actually exchange experiences.
Not often and it only happens if we are very open to really listen.
I would like to really minimize my talking about myself.
I found it not very interesting and it doesn't help my internal process.
I rather listen and ask a lot of questions.
It makes the other person happier and I feel more connected.
It is a backward way to treat others as I would like to be treated.


PHOTO BY RAFAEL EDWARDS

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