Q&A

The Self and the "world"

Yannis: In order to know the "world," one forgets the Self. In order to know the Self, one forgets the "world."

Question: Isn't the self connected to the world?

Yannis: The "world" is perceived through the limited perception provided by the five senses.

The physical-mental organism that we usually call "self" is perceived in the same way.

The Self (with a capital S, which some call Spirit or otherwise the true Being, the Is) is the One who perceives "behind" these.

In order for the Self to experience its true nature, it needs direct perception (or "intuition").

The ancient Greeks called this way of perception "myo" (mystery, mystery, etc.), meaning "I perceive without using the five senses."

In this state (or state of meditation), the "world" does not exist in the current sense.

About Enlightenment

Question: It is said that the last delusion of the student is Enlightenment.

Yanis: The so-called "Enlightenment," or Self-Awareness, is the state in which that which IS experiences its true nature.

In this state, there are no distorting lenses of identities, nor, of course, those of the "student."

Now, it simply IS.

The spiral staircase of Self-Awareness

Question: Is the cessation of desires achieved through "indifference"?

Or is it that as the "drops" in the "glass" increase, we automatically experience a reduction in desires?

Yannis: One helps the other.

With the "drops," that is, with Awakening, the duration of the Presence of the actual Being increases, as does the way of perceiving Him, which is Intuition.

This results in an ever-expanding View, understanding, as a result of the now increased Energy of Presence, and therefore less identification, i.e. more "indifference."

This, in turn, creates more Awakening, more "moments."

This is the wonderful spiral "ladder"; the Path of Self-Knowledge.

Is there a feeling of loneliness when you ARE?

Question: When you are with the Essence, don't you feel lonely?

Yannis: There is no such thing, neither as a "feeling" nor as a concept.

When you ARE, you are complete.

Also, you cannot be "with the Essence."

You can only be the Essence.

Question: It requires thought, I don't understand...

Yannis: As you will have noticed from our discussions, or by watching the group's posts and videos uploaded to YouTube, during meditation, the personality, i.e., the lower mental and emotional (and therefore the identities related to form), is completely passivized, and Consciousness, my true nature, THAT WHICH I AM, is activated. Then MY way of perception is through the "instrument" of Intuition.

In that state (meditation), "I" as a body-mind do not exist.

The meditator no longer exists.

Or, in other words,

meditation has occurred when there is no longer a meditator.

Self-awareness and God

Question: When you talk about "let my will be done," I get confused and don't understand it because it's completely contrary to my beliefs.

Because I don't feel like God.

Γιάννης: Αυτό που συζητάμε εδώ, αυτό που λέμε Εαυτογνωσία έχει συμβεί όταν πλέον υπάρχει ελευθερία από κάθε “πιστεύω”.

Because everything you "believe," even that you are this particular mental-emotional form, represents what you think you are.

You, the personality, are not God.

But YOU, who give LIFE to this personality, ARE God.

And THAT which YOU ARE has its own Will and acts accordingly in each different case.

Personality and Self

Question: Yannis, I don't know how necessary it is to use the ego in such a non-egoic experience...

Yannis: What is very easy to understand is that communication through the five senses and cognitive-emotional translations is extremely limited.

Usually, for the sake of broader understanding, when I use "I am," I am referring to the physical-mental organism, that is, the personality that is usually considered to be me.

However, when I use "I AM," I am referring to my true nature, to what I really AM, to the formless, impersonal "Spirit," to the multidimensional IS, to the SELF.

And as you understand very well, I AM when what I "am" is passive.

To whom does "pain" belong?

Question: Man should be proud of his pain because every sorrow is a reminder of his higher Essence.

Yannis: Very soon on this Path, it becomes clear that Man is not a physical-mental organism.

Man is the multidimensional Being, the true Being.

The Path of Self-Knowledge represents the Experience of this reality.

This Being is not touched by pride, nor does it feel pain or sorrow.

However, we often confuse Man with the "human being"; the physical-mental organism and the qualities that each ego has.

Thus, the ego-seeker (mystic, spiritual, etc.) has its own rules-filters with which it interprets events.

Take advantage of the power of identification in events by "emptying" yourself and propel yourself as understanding, as what you ARE.

Is there only one now?

Question: Is there only one now?

Yannis: Yes and no.

Yes, there is the eternal Now in which intellectual and emotional translations, the "I", are absent.

It is the way in which the state of Being, What I AM, is "nourished."

No, because there are much more subtle states of Consciousness that operate on different "steps" of the Now, where primordial recordings, polarizations of Being, are made.

However, the transition to the "vertical" Path, the Path of Self-Awareness, is through the cessation of daydreaming and intellectual-emotional translation, that is, in the Now, where Life and Joy are.

Where I AM.

In Self-Awareness there are no two

Question: In order for someone to enter a state of self-awareness, for Awareness or Self-Awareness to manifest, is it not a prerequisite to be absent?

Yannis: Exactly!

Self-awareness occurs when the Self experiences its true nature.

There, everything has been abandoned.

Even the egoic desire for self-awareness.

There are no two.

There is only ME, What I AM.

Meditation has happened when there is no longer a meditator.

About the opinion of "others"

Q. How can I stop caring about the opinion of others?

Yannis: Dependence on the opinions of others is a mechanical function of the "ego-form" as it operates through the personality, which can only be overcome by shifting attention from "appearing" to "being," that is, through self-awareness.

As long as your joy is dependent on external factors (praise, acceptance, recognition, etc.), you will always be bound to others.

The Path of Self-Awareness leads to self-existent Joy (Ananda), which springs from "Being" and needs no external nourishment.

When you experience this "feeling" of Fullness, even for a short time, the need for validation from others naturally diminishes.

Q. What steps can we take in this regard?

Yannis: First, let's understand that we care about other people's opinions because we identify with our "image," with our body.

We consider ourselves to be the "shadow on the cave wall" (our personality) and we try to protect that image.

When someone judges us negatively, we feel that our very existence is threatened because we need external validation in order to feel important or secure.

The solution comes with Experience, the Realization that we are not the personality, but the "Witness" who observes it.

Society functions like a "Procrustes" trying to bring us to its standards. The people around us, because of their own insecurity, try to keep us in specific molds of behavior. If we start to change or differentiate ourselves, they react to bring us back to the "rut" of the familiar and predictable.

When we understand that their criticism stems from their own need for security and not from our reality, their opinion loses its weight.

Instead of reacting mechanically (with anger or sadness) to a crisis, i.e., "biting" at the hooks of external stimuli, you are called upon to remain detached, in a state of Self-Awareness.

I would also say that you don't need to draw negative attention from others or flaunt your differences. You can function socially with diplomacy, without letting your "inner" state depend on it.

When you feel that someone's opinion is affecting you, ask yourself: "Who is being hurt?"

Is it your ego?

Is it your identity as a "good kid" or a "successful person"?

Through this question, your attention turns to its source (the Self) and withdraws from the object of criticism.

I would also suggest that you regularly practice Self-Residence when you are alone, that is, staying in the sense of Your Existence ("I Am") for a long time.

The more you "feed" your "inner" Observer with moments of Presence, the less power the "leeches" of public opinion will have to suck your energy.

In closing, I would say that you do not stop listening to the opinions of others; you stop identifying with the image that others have of you. You become Self-Supportive, staying within your own silent Presence and not in words or, more generally, in the influences of your environment.

To fully accept and love ourselves

Q: How is it possible to accept and love ourselves completely?

Yannis: Unconditional acceptance and love for “ourselves” are not achieved by adding yet another new commandment of “love” or “acceptance,” or through “self-improvement”—that is, by changing the programmed commands of the personality—but by transcending the illusion of the “ego,” or in other words, “who I think I am,” and by experiencing our true nature.

The self with which we usually identify (our name, body, memories, hopes, fears, virtues, and flaws) is in fact a “form” or a “vehicle” and not our True Self.

True acceptance arises when we realize that we are not our bodies or our thoughts, but the Life that permeates them.

Thus, acceptance requires the deconstruction of the identities we have built. It represents the emptying of illusions and ingrained commands, so that we remain “naked” (Tabula Rasa) in the face of Existence.

Love, in turn, is the natural state, the true nature of Being, of that which I AM.

It is not something to be acquired externally or through mental commands (“I must love myself”), but something that wells up spontaneously when the personality is deactivated—that is, when the mind and emotion quiet down.

Only when the “false knower,” the “I,” is completely abandoned, is revealed what always exists: the pure Love and Freedom of that which I AM, Bliss.

Q: Is there anything I can do to achieve this state?

Yannis: To reach absolute Love, one must practice Self-Remembrance—the experiential answer to the question “Who am I?”—which gradually gains duration and stabilizes into a state of Self-Abiding.

This means to “dwell,” to abide within His Presence, where there is no separation or lack; where all is One.

In general, as a conclusion, I would say that the acceptance and Love of the “self” is not an act of reconciliation with our flaws, but the Realization, the Experience that we are the Whole, Life itself, which is by its very nature Perfect, Timeless and Indivisible.

About the Student of Self-Awareness

Q. What does it mean to be a student on the path of Self-Knowledge, also known as “Enlightenment”?

Yannis: Being a student on the path of Self-Knowledge represents an attitude that differs radically from the traditional concept of school education in terms of how deeply existential it is.

In agreement with Socrates, a student is one who “knows that he does not know.”

It is the stage where the student—the seeker—realizes that they do not possess true Knowledge but operate through “programmed commands” or, in other words, through their “psychological lenses.”

In contrast to conventional learning, which accumulates information, the journey of Self-Knowledge is a process of “unlearning.”

The student-seeker is called upon to let go of identities and roles in order to Experience their true nature.

The experiential admission “I don’t know” is the necessary “doorway” for one to open oneself to the possibility of True learning.

Q. Who can be considered a good—or advanced—student on the path to self-knowledge?

Yannis: A “good student” is not necessarily someone with a high IQ, but rather someone who has the ability to focus their attention on a goal without “flitting” off into daydreams.

Learning this skill requires persistence and repetition (“repetition is the mother of all learning”), as the student must overcome the “fascination-boredom” dichotomy to solidify their new state.

When the student masters the skill of remaining undistracted in what they are doing, they possess the “master key” (the key that opens all doors) to every form of learning.

An advanced student, therefore, is not one who has spent many years engaged in the practice, but one who

quickly returns to the Presence after a moment of distraction.

Q. What determines a student’s progress?

Yannis: A student’s progress depends mainly on their dedication.

The student “pays” for their development with moments of pure Presence, that is, with the energy of engaging in the transition to the state of Awakening.

Through this way of life, the student constantly demonstrates “this is what I want,” thus attracting the necessary Knowledge.

Q. How can one find a Teacher to help them?

Yannis: There is a well-known saying: “When the student is ready, the Teacher comes.”

The “Teacher” may not be a person, but an event, a book, or an inner inspiration (“Eureka”) that appears when the student has gathered the necessary energy of inquiry.

The student must be completely open (without prejudice), like an “empty vessel,” in order to be able to accept and attune to the Teaching however it appears to them, without distorting it through their own interpretations.

In conclusion, I would say that being a student means approaching everyday life as if it were school and exams, constantly seeking the “spirit” behind the surface of events.

Mechanical and Conscious Concentration

Q. You use the word “identification” very often. What does identification represent, and how does it differ from conscious concentration?

Τι αντιπροσωπεύει η ταύτιση και ποια η διαφορά της με τη συνειδητή συγκέντρωση;

Yannis: In both situations, there is a focus of attention, so both are states of concentration.

In identification, Consciousness becomes “one with” the conceptual translation of information—whether it comes from the senses or from the cognitive-emotional world—and essentially nourishes, strengthens, and stabilizes these specific “lenses” of translation.

The difference between them is that in identification—which we could also call mechanical concentration—Consciousness “gets lost” within the translation of information (e.g., in a movie or a fit of anger) and is in a state of self-hypnosis.

In Conscious concentration, there is co-awareness, awareness, and the intuitive recognition of “what I am doing” and what my Purpose is, where the “Witness” remains Awake and observes the action without being absorbed by it.

Through identification, we nourish and strengthen the “ego”; we move on the wheel of mechanical repetition, on the wheel of Samsara,

whereas through conscious—or volitional—concentration, we nurture awareness, the intuitive mode of perception,

and the possibility arises for liberation from the bonds of mechanicality,

the possibility for the Awakening of That Which I AM

Who am I, really?

Q. Who am I—the one who thinks I am this form?

Yannis: So who are you, then? The truth is, you can’t come up with an intellectual answer to that.

If you answer with words like “I am a soul,” “I am energy,” you’re simply building a new mental “bar” in your prison.

The true answer comes when the mind falls silent and you reach the point of “I know that I know nothing.”

In that void, in that state of emptiness, the intuitive recognition of your existence emerges.

It is the moment when the prisoner in Plato’s cave turns his head and realizes that he is the Being that is Beheld, and not the shadow that is made to be Beheld.

In short, You are the primordial Consciousness that dreams of being a form.

Delving deeper into “who You are” means “dying” to Your identification with the “costume” of personality, so that You may be resurrected as the self-existent Presence that You have always been.

What is a concept?

Q. We often hear that everything is a concept, that everything is mind.

What is a concept to you?

Yannis: A concept is a mental tool we use to communicate, but at the same time, it also limits our direct perception.

On a physical level, a concept is something transmitted through a sound pulse, such as speech, or a visual pulse, such as writing, an image, or a video. This signal is then decoded by the receiver based on their own internal archetypes and records.

A concept offers a partial idea of understanding or an “illusion of understanding.” When we say a word, it brings up an image already stored in the brain, which, however, is not reality itself, but a translation of it.

Every concept is filtered through each person’s psychological lens. For example, the concepts of “freedom” or “love” mean something different to each person, depending on their experiences and ingrained beliefs. This often leads to a “Tower of Babel” situation, where we use the same words but mean different things.

Concepts are necessary for us to communicate while we are in a state of “forgetfulness”—that is, when we have forgotten our true nature. We use words and concepts such as “Truth,” “Self,” “Being,” or “I” to describe situations that are, in reality, beyond words and their mental interpretations.

Q. So what we understand in a conversation are concepts, and depending on the stimulus, we project our own.

Yannis: Exactly! Everything we discuss—the Path, Self-Knowledge, Intuition, even “Enlightenment”—are mental concepts.

They are “fingers” pointing toward the Truth, but they are not the Truth itself.

We shouldn’t get hung up on the “finger,” but rather look where it’s pointing.

In our search for Freedom, we often use certain concepts that act as a second thorn—one we use to remove a thorn that is already embedded in our skin—that is, our old, entrenched beliefs.

Once the thorn is removed, we discard both. In other words, we use the “correct” concepts to nullify the “incorrect” ones, until we reach direct Experience—where words are no longer needed—and which represents what we usually call meditation.

In other words, a concept is a cognitive-emotional representation that replaces Experience.

True Knowledge—what I usually call Silent Knowledge—begins where concepts (and thus intellectual translation) end, allowing direct perception, the intuitive approach to Reality, to well up.

The Experience of Reality

Q: Can you give us an example to illustrate the fundamental difference between the personality and the true Self?

Yannis: Let’s take the example of a computer.

The personality is likened to software programs (Word, Excel, etc.) that run on the computer and consist of recorded commands, memories, and social roles.

The Self, the Spirit, is the electrical current that brings these programs to life.

Self-knowledge is not about correcting the programs, but about Experiencing the Energy behind them.

Q: You used the word “Experience,” and you often tell us that “to experience” means “to sense.” What does this mean to you?

Yannis: It means that true Knowledge does not come through the five senses or mental processing, but through an intuitive mode of perception.

Experiencing is the ability to perceive Reality directly, without the “translating lenses” of preconceptions and the past, and in some cases without the limited way of receiving information through the five senses.

When I am in a state of Experience, “I” and the object of my seeking become One. When asking “what does the poet mean?”, I do not speculate, I do not interpret, but “I” become the “poet,” I AM the “poet,” the tree, the mountain, the sea…

Now I AM the abstract core, the Spirit of any situation, whether it is perceived through the five senses or not.

Experience, then, is the state of attunement—what we usually call Love—where personal identity is lost and the transition to Unity, to the One, to Knowledge, takes place.

The Self and Personality

Q: Can you give us an example to illustrate the fundamental difference between personality and the true Self?

Yannis: Let’s take the example of a computer.

The personality is likened to software programs (Word, Excel, etc.) that run on the computer and consist of recorded commands, memories, and social roles.

The Self, the Spirit, is the electrical current that brings these programs to life.

Self-knowledge is not about correcting the programs, but about Experiencing the Energy behind them.

Q: You used the word “Experience,” and you often tell us that “to experience” means “to sense.” What does this mean to you?

Yannis: It means that true Knowledge does not come through the five senses or mental processing, but through an intuitive mode of perception.

Now I AM the abstract core, the Spirit of any situation, whether it is perceived through the five senses or not.

Experience, then, is the state of attunement—what we usually call Love—where personal identity is lost and the transition to Unity, to the One, to Knowledge, takes place.

The Fundamental Problem of Humanity

Q. Mr. Dousias, what do you consider to be the fundamental problem of humanity?

Yannis: When someone focuses on this question, they will soon realize that the answer is “the anarchic state of their mental and emotional world”—or, in other words, the dormant attention that “snaps,” that is, that is driven and guided by the needs and priorities of each “ego-devil” (devil from the Greek word for “to slander”).

The degree of control and organization of this world also represents the corresponding real value acquired by the entity called “human.”

In Papazoglou’s well-known song, Rasoulis describes this chaotic state that prevails in the priorities of everyday life through the lines: “Sometimes Buddha, sometimes Koudas, sometimes Jesus and Judas—I’ve already figured out the game of my life.”

This is a very important step—though rare to achieve—to understand “the game of one’s life.”

Jesus also commented on this, saying, “You are like tombs that have been whitewashed—clean and white on the outside but full of filth, bones, and worms on the inside.”

Q. Can this change?

Yiannis: Yes, it’s possible, but they also need help. The “human being” has infinite potential but lacks “inner” strength.

Q. How could they do something that is within their current capabilities?

Yiannis: Through Will and, as mentioned earlier, with help. By consistently demonstrating that this is what they want—that they want to break free from their current situation. As a result of this dedication, help follows.

It begins with the will of a self-seeker until a sufficient amount of free Consciousness is created to take over the journey from there.

In any case, at the beginning, self-discipline is needed, along with a supportive group that will bring the seeker back on track and remind them of the priority they have set as their Goal, when the influences of daily life and identification with them lead them away from it.

Q. Does the Teacher play a role in this journey?

Yannis: The greatest one.

He represents stability, the unwavering commitment to the Purpose, which is the Experience of the Real—that is, of the Self.

He is the Heart of existence for any group or school.

Essentially, he represents the closest approach to the Self.

Harmony with him is the initial form of devotion to the Self—what in the East is called Sat-sang.

In fact, the Spirit, operating freely through the Teacher’s “pure” body-mind organism, draws those who are attuned to Him toward the Goal, toward the Self—whether through actions perceptible to the five senses or beyond them.

As has been said, there is no birth, nursing, protection, or support in any form of development without a “mother.”

Consequently, at all stages of development leading up to the Awakening of a student-being, the Teacher is, in almost all cases, indispensable.

The Teacher helps the student to “strip away” all labels, all identities—all veils—so that what truly IS remains bare.

The Real.

Regarding Awakening

Q: Can you give us an example to illustrate the relationship between who I am now and what will happen with Awakening?

Yannis: Imagine that you are a piece of ice floating in the ocean.

As long as you are ice (identified with the body and the personality), you feel separate from the water around you and fear dissolving.

Awakening is the moment you realize that your essence is Water.

When the ice melts (when the personality is deactivated), you are not lost; you simply return to your True Nature, which is the entire Ocean.

The Knowledge of the ocean is already within you, because you are made of the same substance.