"Life is shockingly alive"...
Jaladhi: Satto according to all the beings that have awakened the only error in the human being is the identification with their mind, creating a separation with their own being and with the source, life, everything or whatever makes sense to you. What is the mechanism, how mind and emotions manifest in all this?
Satto: Well, I would not call that an error... or the necessary one! Identification is the only way to experiment life through the body-mind, they are not separate. Otherwise we would live like vegetables or worse like some coach potato... (laughter) Identification is necessary up to a certain point but not to the point of blindness or compulsiveness!
So for me that's the other way around; Being, Source, God or whatever you like, forgets itself to make manifestation possible, it has to, there is only one! So that's the Big Story of the Genesis! That's how forms, call they spirit-mind-emotion-matter are created and manifested. The only mistake then is not to remember one true Self... but this comes by itself in due time... when we are tired enough of our mind-emotional games and lies! (laughter)
Jaladhi: How significant is to recognize?
Satto: To recognize what? Your true Self? That's the only thing significant in a life time!
To recognize that we tell ourselves stories since the beginning? That's a huge step!
To recognize that we are not the person we pretend to be? That's all goodness!
Recognition, Self recognition is all that we really need, but all the way through! Not to stop after a first step or glimpse! It has to be walked, honored, embodied in our life... otherwise it's just another mind delusion!
Jaladhi: And what about attention and to be alert?
Satto: Attention and alertness are natural, we are, or let say Consciousness is that, and we are That! Nothing we can do not to be alert and not to be able of attention... it just depends where we put it! And that's the whole question; "Where are we investing our attention?... What do we really want?"... If we want truth or reality or simply honesty, not to use or abuse those big words, we don't have to wait long, it's answering itself right away!
Check it out for yourself, what's truly your intention???? Do you want truth or honesty for its own value?... or do you want to get something out of it??? We all know the answer for our self! When this is clearly seen there is no surprise! We always get what we want! (laughter)
Jaladhi: It looks like there is a tendency to attach oneself to be happy and to deny, to run away, to be afraid of the so called negative experiences. Maybe not being able to see that everything comes included in the packet within the process to experiment what life is about, forgetting about acceptance and that everything is as it is. Could you make comments about this attitude and about acceptance of everything as it is?
Satto: Yes, life is a whole package! Life is shockingly alive! We are here to experiment everything! And to get clear about it and about one self at some point... or not! This question is about maturity. As long as we are childish, wanting to be happy and running away from what we call negative experiences, maturity has not yet come in our life. There is nothing wrong with that. If you like to eat sweets, at some point you have to realize what it does to your teeth and you have to pay the dentist price! So for a while on the individual level we can speak of growth of consciousness, this is what makes us ready for the realization of Consciousness itself!
Things are not like they appear, what we say they are is only our own interpretation, projection, appreciation and judgment about them! That's the first and only "sin"! Nothing to do with reality! And that's the invitation of Satsang, to see what is real! So I would not speak of acceptance, I rather speak of Self Inquiry, nothing to accept or to reject, just seeing through direct investigation what things are really. Then there is no question of acceptance, it is realization and liberation.
Jaladhi: Satto in your intensives you speak about an invitation, what do you mean by that and what is being shared with the participants in the group?
Satto: This is exactly it! The invitation is to, so to speak, come back to truth within your self, and to relate from this point of clarity, to welcome back all life's play! All of it! That's a huge shift! Welcoming the so called good and bad, as the Buddha that anyone is in truth and not as some kind of poor dummy victim of some good or bad circumstances. (and to welcome the "dummy" as well!)
So the invitation of Satsang, through our own realization, is the full celebration of life in all its aspects! That's the sharing, and that's tremendous! It's aliveness itself!
And I tell you --but don't believe a word I say-- it's not boring at all! Life then is seen and lived as the fabulous and wonderful Play it is! That's what you get! Then you can even more enjoy your seeming and screaming dramas! (laughter)
And if we tell the truth that's already what is... but we like to pretend heavily and painfully it's not!
That's the Great Joke! (laughter)
Thank you for asking these questions.
Spanish Interview by Jaladhi for Cuidamo de Ti 2007. 
