 Hey everyone, very pumped. We are still at the incredible shift into permanent alignment event of Bantinio Masaros here in beautiful Costa Rica. We are now going to be talking to another one of the epic retreat attendees, Guilad Gorbonos. Hi Guilad. Hello, hello. Pleasure, big pleasure to share this time together. Yes. I've had such a blast hanging out with Guilad. He came from Israel all the way here. It's a big commitment. Quite a journey. Yeah. And how many years have you been following Bantinio's work? Yes. Three years. Me too. Yeah. Me too. I'm really interested in many topics with Guilad. He understands the depths to the nature of reality in the simplicities of it. And so I'm pumped for this conversation. And it's also a really interesting topic that we'll refer to throughout. Free will is God. Very interesting. Guilad, tell us a bit about how you got interested in spirituality in the first place. So, you know, life just led me to seeking happiness, to seeking love, to seeking truth, basically, to seeking the harmony within, which expresses as the harmony outside also. And I was going through this pretty painful breakup six years ago and I went to India a little bit after and I just met this guy who... And just speak up because of the camera microphone. Yeah. Yeah. I just met this guy. I ended up being my teacher for a week and he initiated me into yoga. He gave me like the sort of transmission, sort of like initiation into just direct seeing of what yoga is before I even did yoga, like did the post-chess and all this stuff. So maybe I did a little bit of that, but he just told me yoga is the celebration of truth and love. Perfect. And that sort of like sent me officially to the journey of discovering, discovering within myself, verifying the natural state of experience, verifying the causeless state of being, of joy and love and freedom. So you had a seeking impulse for happiness and also you had the suffering catalyzed by your breakup. And then you traveled to India and the, which guru did you sit with? It's not exactly a guru, a guy, a very simple guy. I love it. Just a simple guy who just showed me. Yeah. Yeah. And with a big smile. Yeah. Yeah. No ashram. No ashram, just a room, just a small room. Yeah. Me and him and another baby girl was there. Yeah. And he was just sharing, was sharing the knowledge, but then the knowledge wasn't only in the words. The knowledge was alive. Yeah. Yeah. And when knowledge, and two knowledges transferred, it's awakening within your being. It's unfolding, flowering from within. Yeah. The confirmation for the truth or the relevance or the effect of this knowledge within is the bliss. Yeah. It's the feeling of happiness. It's the feeling of lightness. It's the feeling of just electricity. Yeah. The answer to the system and it's like the plug got in and now it's closed. Yeah. And what's a good point is that the way that you know about awakening is bliss. It's a good measurement is the natural state being a blissful state of just life itself. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And what was a specific, do you remember a specific pointing that was shared with you that was a very aha moment from back then? I remember it was mostly around love, around starting to discover to see what true love is about, what's the essence of this love, what everyone seeks basically in externalities, in phenomena, in experiences. And I remember he said that love is sacrifice. It was quite a mystery for me back then. It resonated. But today I see much more deeply how love is sacrifice. Does that play into the service to others idea? Not only. It's fast and foremost. It's the sacrifice of one's own ideas about oneself, about life, one's own perspectives and attachments, and perceived benefit in things. So this sacrifice has a purifying effect. And the result of this purifying effect and also the process itself is love. And also the regeneration point. Love is like the whole embracing principle. So interesting. So yoga or union with God or the absolute can be thought of as leveraging love as an alchemical tool, which then we feel bliss and peace on the other end. Yes. Cool. Yes. Yes, exactly. It's there on all parts of the journey. The beginning and the middle and the process in the end. It's the same like origination point and end point. Yeah. Yeah. You see? So totally. So yeah, that also bridges the gap that is generated in the mind between here and there. Yeah. I'm here and I'm not there. So you started tasting non-duality. Yes. Yes. And started tasting myself. Yeah. Yeah. Tasting myself. Beautiful. Yes. Yes. Beautiful. The capital S. And also the possibility. You know, because until we know something is possible, it's not on a radar. It's not interesting. Maybe it's like on the horizon or like you heard about it somewhere, but until you really know, you verify to yourself, you experience, you have the proof that it's possible and it's probable and it's likely. And then it's real. It's real once you test it. Taste it. See the reality of it. You see the invitation that lies present in this possibility. So then it's like the incentive to keep deepening, keep seeking, keep opening new doors to yourself. And it's not like you open them just by this belief that it's possible plus the desire that starts to awaken the will to go further by itself opens up the doors that life provides with the doors, with the keys, with the teachers. Yes. With the events. All catalysts. Yes. Beautiful. Yes. And different shapes and forms. And to be able to have that subtlety to see all of those catalysts as catalysts is really important because our receptivity, our sensitivity, our subtlety to that determines how quickly we recognize the true nature. So when did you go to India? How many years ago? A bit. Quite a lot in the last five, six years. Cool. Last time was last year. Beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful. And so then you continued sponging up different spiritual teachers, Bentino being one of them. You continued picking up some of these different literatures from the mystic traditions, this type of stuff. Yes. Okay. Yes. And also teachers, the presence of, I would say, realized beings or beings that know, that know, that have seen very deeply and embodied, very deeply integrated these two, these teachings. So in my experience, that's a very potent and accelerated way to sort of receive the teaching which is beyond the words. So the teacher knows, or the being who knows, has the ability to radiate the knowledge and to secure the student who is open, who is willing, who is ready to receive, can very instantly see, see for himself, not to the words, to the concepts and the filters, but see directly. So this is how it unfolds. And it's beautiful because that's the exchange that we experience here on the planet of teaching and learning and learning and teaching. And so they're all in the sense, teachers of each other and students of each other and of life. Yes. So, yeah, in my opinion, that's a very, maybe the most effective way to, to receive this knowledge of yoga, of tooth. Directly from other realized beings. Yes. Or to a beings who has embodied, integrated to a high extent. Yes. Rather than in books and stuff like that, which is also a good way. Beautiful. But it takes a very high degree of commitment and practice, like assistance, determination to get it sort of like by yourself. Yeah. It's very, it's very possible. But it takes. Totally. It takes a lot of will and readiness through it. Yeah. Yeah. And also exposure to the right teachings, the potent teachings. That's right. Decement. Decement. Yeah. Yeah. Discernment, earnestness, which has to do with that seeking impulse, dedicating oneself full time to that. I like how you prioritize being in the presence of fully realized beings that have it very deeply radiating from their essence. So it's not just the words, but it's also the bliss and joy and peace. Yes. You can feel eternity emanating from them. But that's the thing. Once you are there and you sit and you feel it, you are being it. So it's not from them. Correct. Correct. It's from you. That's the revelation. You are that. Yeah. You are that serving yourself. Yeah. Yeah. So the being, there is a lot of appreciation, gratitude for this being. And there is like relationships or connection or love, great love for this being. Yeah. Yeah. But it's seen very clearly also. It can be seen very clearly that actually you and the teacher, the essence is one. I love it. There is one dominator. There is one force. There is one. Yeah. Which you could say is truth. That's one way to put it. There are more like also direct and practical ways. The most practical is just presence. There you go. Energy. Also another way to put it, a bit less direct. Presence energy. Yeah. That's a combo that you can put like this. I like the idea of it being like a radiating sun. As though the truth when it really is anchored inside of the realized being, it radiates like the sun, the bliss, peace, the eternity, infinity, nothingness, everythingness, compassion, love and getting it directly. It's going straight to the source. The book is in videos are good, but you're probably pointing to something really important right now, which is that it might be the best to go in for the in person. Yes. Because the teacher is embodiment is an extension is like an agent of this office of the sun is a representation of the sun within a form of a human being. Perfect. Perfect. Yes. The sun is radiating. The sun is over there. The sun is effortless. The sun is light. Yeah. It's light. Yes. Or it's essence or effect is light. Yes. So in the same way a human being can serve, can function like this principle of ever radiating sun, light. Yes. Perfect. Eminating force of enabling, of illuminating. Yeah. Perfect. Radiating. And how much illumination do you catalyze versus in darkenment? Is that the question? Just a way for people to potentially recognize in darkenment could be something like the ego and having seeking peace and happiness in the world, trying to extract it from experiences and other people and substances and wealth and sex and all that type of stuff versus enlightenment in many ways. The illuminating aspect of the sun shining through a being is very much like not only the service to other but it's the essence of love itself. And so it's kind of interesting putting it into the perspective of the dual enlightenment versus in darkenment. Yes. So as you said, it's dual. And as I said, the sun is the enabler of what you call in darkenment or darkness or shadow. So this shadow aspects of ourselves, of the human being, the mind, enabled by the sun existing only because of the sun. The sun is what's giving birth, what's giving existence to this shadow, so this darkness. So the sun is like the background. And when the light is on, the shadows can be seen too. You have the context of the light. The darkness is like a spot, a point on the sky or like a cloud appearing in the sky. Yeah, the sun is the ever-present undercurrent. And then there's the, which makes also the in darkenment possible. The light is what makes the in darkenment possible in its little journey in this creation. We have much more to talk about. We have so many other subjects that I still want to talk about. So let's actually jump. Is that okay? Yeah, sure. Okay. So I want to lay out, I want to lay out something here and I want then for you to hit the tennis ball on it. So the magic stick. Yeah, the magic stick. Okay. So we're both passionate about the love one. And in many ways it gives a very clear distillation on our metaphysics on the nature of reality. And so we as the creator go through a process of play with this creation which undergoes this ascension style process in getting to know itself better. And we are at a point in that process. And so we're eternally doing this, but we're just talking about this one that we're exploring right now where we're at a point of very clearly a matrix that is captivating consciousness in the dynamics that are visibly absent that we've been talking about throughout this conversation. And then there's also the juxtaposition or the contrast of that which are the dynamics that we've been talking about which can be thought of as the next density of evolution that service to other style mentality rather than the service to self style mentality. And free will plays a big role in that process. The role in that process. Yeah. That's a key element. That's the, I would say the ultimate bridge or even the one and the only bridge in that process of awakening, individual awakening and collective global awakening. So that's the sweet spot. That's the essence. The will. The will. And many people have confusion or have a misunderstanding because of the quiet and the knowledge information about this concept. But actually the will of free will is, as I said, is very simple and practical, direct and also intuitive and experiential reality. It's a concept that points to and it enables a direct, penetrative experience of freedom and truth and of more of ourselves, of harmony, of healing, of shifts within ourselves, in our state of being, in our mental makeup, in the manifestation of our lives, other events and circumstances. So will, choice is the dominating factor to more pure levels of understanding, through way of being, of interacting, of knowing oneself in this life. So will, the will is inherent within ourselves. It's inherent within creation. It's the very substance which is, we can say, things are made of, things are enabled by, things are possible through by this will. This desire of creation, of itself, the creator to manifest, to appear, to experience itself as everything, as the monkey, as the human being, as the cell phone. But within human being this will appears as a choice, something that can be conscious, that can be used, that can be cultivated, that can be activated and can facilitate a greater awakening, greater accumulation of consciousness, density of consciousness of light within oneself and therefore of truth and liberation. So the will is the gateway to the natural state, the natural state. And you can define natural state. Natural state is the state of life as it is, of life as it is, of some call it the doubt, the effortless manifestation which is totally aligned with the central intelligence, with source, with the original logos. Logos or love, which runs the show, the show of manifestation. So the will is the gateway back to the natural state. The natural state is already the case. But we, because of programming, because of conditioning, that apparently, apart from this natural state, we've been taken to a distorted state of mind, a different state of being, which got a momentum and became a reality, became solid, became the life, the world, myself and others and society and all of that stuff. So this is a very powerful momentum. This is like, this is a river of ignorance, of samsara, of the matrix, which just runs. And it takes, wherever it's connected, it takes it with, everyone knows it's the conditioning, I should do this, I should do that, all of the structures and ideas and social agreements. So in order to wake up, to disconnect from this, from this grid, from this matrix to awaken, one needs to start swimming against the current. And the swimming against the current is the awakening of will, of choosing otherwise. And it starts with a mental decision, but it gets much deeper, it gets to the deepest place within oneself, which is the consciousness, the deep awareness, the essence of oneself and of life. So the will is being cultivated, the choice, and it's being revealed to be much deeper than the regular way. We perceive will as like, I want this, I don't want that, I go here, I go left, I go right, and the will which is filtered to the mind, to identity. And in a very intuitive level or so. This is an important clarification. There's a will that's filtered through the mind versus a will that's used with consciousness. And is consciousness. And is consciousness. Yes. Okay. Yeah, the will that is consciousness is different than the will filtered through the identities of the mind, the layers of the mind. Because that will is more impure. It's also more limbic or primal or algorithmic. The weight of the mind. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's more like a machine. Like a machine. Yeah, there's input and output. And then sort of. And then so once you start getting Bintino in the last days been using this analogy of these 10,000 little ice cubes of will that are shipped into little freezers across the planet. And then we go over time and acquire more of these little will ice cubes. And then as we sort of melt that down, we become more error-like. And we become more water-like. We activate more of the consciousness will. Yes. Exactly. Okay, keep going. Exactly. Breaking the automatic conditioning, the automatic mind. And bringing light to the unconscious. The bed which operates as much as collective individual. It's being acquired. It's been acquired in the society from the parents from experiences throughout life. So that usually runs the show of one's life. The reactions, the motivations, the desires and the fears and all of that. So will is actually the willingness to see through that, to win the light. Yeah. To oneself. To start inquiring into oneself. And. Okay, so self-inquiry creates more will. Yeah. It generates, it generates. It's like. Spiritual mass is what Bintino has been calling it. Yeah. Yeah. It builds energy, generates space for this work, for this process to continue deepening. Yeah? So it's like creation cannot be stopped. Everything just goes on. No pause button. No pause. No way out. And this is the will. It's anyway the case. The will anyway is anyway the case. We can only sync with it. We can only be more like it. Like this inherent intelligence and creation which operates everything. You can see in nature, you can see in the plants and animals. Okay. Let me play with the analogy that Bintino has also been using. So you have the little stake in the ground. And then you have the little rubber band attached to the stake. And then when you're very far away in the illusion, following the primal limbic algorithmic will with the mind, the rubber bands way out here and you're getting these suffering sort of snaps. And then when the rubber band is right next to this stake in the ground. This is when you're flowing more with that dow. You're flowing more with love. Yes. With light. With center intelligence. With the central intelligence. So just to clarify. Yes, please. Because to give a little context, the stick represents the human being in that analogy. And the rubber band is the distance from the source of this intelligence. So distance is basically the distance of the of the wheel. When the wheel is given a way to the force to the answer to the program. It generates imbalance, this harmony distance from this truth, which is balance and harmony. And this intelligence to emotions, which in this analogy, the rubber band, the tension in life, it's emotions. What we call emotions, this energy, this emotion, energy in motion, the contracting emotions. The pain is a signal. It's an alarm system. It's like the guidance system. The guidance system, a messenger. It's benevolent. It comes for us to let us know something in a painful way sometimes, but with a very loving foundation and causality to wake us up. To wake us up to the fact that we got strength from this source, from this intelligence. So then we can choose otherwise. We can see it, understand it and choose otherwise. So that you don't get so far the rubber band from the source central intelligence and get the snap of suffering repeatedly. Yes. And choose otherwise. So the choice, it begins again with the mind, but with the deepening, it's being revealed that this free will is actually another word for free awareness. Free awareness. Free awareness, free will in that case in the deepest sense and essence of this concept. Free will is free awareness. Interesting. So non- Equals free awareness. Equals free awareness. Non algorithmic, non primal, non limbic, non reactive, non egotistical. Non contract. Non contract. Contracted. Yeah. Sense of identity. Beautiful. Okay. The free will is where we locate, we are free to locate a sense of identity wherever we want. So we can locate it in the world, in objects, in a partner, in a bank account, in the mind, in the body or we can locate it in a true nature which is Very interesting. Formless, boundless, or pervasive clarity, awareness, love, light, which is here and now always. It's that which is enabling this experience, which is enabling us sitting here and speaking and you sitting and listening and navigating in this world. It's that which is here and now in the roots, in the center of every experience, every perception. It's the very core of oneself. It's the deepest sense of oneself, the deepest sense of me, of me-ness, of highness, of existence, awareness, and the will. Interesting. The deepest sense of the very eye-ness is the free agency to identify when the emotional guidance system is creating catalysts for one to do the self-inquiry. Yeah, that's one way to use it and to reflect to it. Cool. Yeah, very important one, the emotional guidance system. In general, that's the gateway to truth or liberation, to true love, this pure presence, this pure eye, the innermost sense of eye, of me. So we can step into it now, tune into it now. Like a little example to begin with, if I tell you to raise your hand, you do it, right? Why wasn't the left instead of the right? It doesn't matter, your left hand, or to lift something with your hand. Okay, so pick up the phone. But why the phone? How do you do it? I do it. Yeah. How? No, how did you pick up the phone? Using will. Yeah, in simple words, you just wanted to do it. When you have to do something, you do it, how you do it, you don't know, you just do it. Because you wanted to do it, right? We don't think about it, but this is how it works. It's very unconscious, but how do we work? Because we want to work. We don't think about it, right? It's innate, it's inherent in us. In the same way, in the spiritual journey, in this way of knowing oneself deeply, the essence of oneself is the same principle. The way to tap into this free awareness, this innermost sense of high-emness, of meanness, of the core of a being, which there lies peace and harmony and bliss and love and confidence, the way is to simply wanting it. Wanting. Wanting it, yes. Desiring awakening or desiring one's true nature to know thyself. Yes, but also here and now, how do you tap into this innermost sense of me? You just tap into it. Will for it. Will for the I am. Yes, just here and now, you know it. You can tap into it because you know it, it's you, it's in you. It was never a part of you. It is covered by thoughts and desires and motivations and other priorities, but this is the message. It's always here and always accessible. Even if not instantly now, to pure will, your will to see it and to know it will lead you to information, to teachers, to experiences that will facilitate this deepening, this further uncovering of this innate free awareness of free will or original identity, original position of oneself. And then everything becomes light, you know, like sucks out the oxygen, the energy of. Yes, yes. The thousands and thousands of like programs that the tire runs around, you know, around the head and one morning to evening and then the center becomes more and more like the pool becomes more and more the central presence, central stability and one can tap into it with training, with also faith. Yes. By the will, by just coming into it, just knowing it is here and abiding. Abiding and yeah, and just let and just sort of like also surrendering. And surrendering. Yeah, yeah. It's like part of the journey too. Let this river, not the river of the Samsara, the river of the Dao, the river of Thuz, take you. It's anyway, it's also, like you could say it's parallel to the river of Samsara, the river of the Dao, the river of the Thuz. You choose to jump to get yourself out of this river and relocate in the river of joy. Sometimes you need to do it again and again and again because the people they can force from here and there. So the river of the Dao, the river of Thuz, the river of the Thuz is anyway the case always. So that's also all of the will to sink back with this river to come back so to speak, although we never really live it. So to speak, that's the primary functionality is the absolute GPS callback. Yes. That's a gravitational pull. The gravitational pull. Continue first to it. That's good. That's good to connect and to install this magnet. Yeah. I like that. That's beautiful. So it's almost like moving away from the scripts, especially of the matrix, especially of these most limbic or primal programs. And like you said, creating a magnet in the IM and then abiding and recalling to that, like doing the repetitions in the gym, lifting weights, or when you shoot the three pointers in basketball or you play the instrument, you do the repetitions and then it becomes a natural state. Yes. It becomes effortless then. Yes. And so you're just constantly then in the natural state. Yeah. I would say with practice and integration, it's usually like you shift back and forth from a more natural state and a more conditioned state. But yeah, the wheel is the IM, essentially. Cool. Cool. And which is God. And is the pull. Yes, which is God also. So the wheel is God. God is this omnipresent, omniscient, omniscience, omnie, like all-pervasive, eternal and infinite, force, power. Perfect. So the wheel — and don't take my word, I invite you to go and to experiment. And to explore. The wheel also stands for this principle. the will when seen as awareness, as free awareness, as this formless point of focus, which is not really a point, it's everywhere, it's everywhere and it's timeless, but it is, it can be seen also as a point of attention, although it's also the whole field, the whole view, not only the point of view, it can be a point of view, but it can be the view itself, the vastness of infinite potential. So the timeless and the formless will is what is the navigating force in the creative process? Yes, both the navigating force and the enabling force, the origination point of all perception and all times and in a human being that's the precious faculty, that's the precious gift and tool, so to speak, to establish in this truth to be an example to others to cultivate compassion and wisdom and balance them and just have fun also in a harmonious way and start lessons and valuable experiences, not only chasing them and just losing oneself within them. So we'll, we'll, this has been so beautiful, we'll wrap here, let's just wrap by saying that we'll hear your tennis ball back on this. Endlessly, we undergo a process of play, of exploration, of creativity, where we place ourselves into this dream that serves us in getting to know ourselves better through an endless possibility of ways to play and that we use will to enable that, to navigate it and to be, as we become more vigilant, we can navigate it more harmoniously, more in love, more in light, more in the natural state. Exactly, and more in acceptance, which is another key element and that's a, perhaps a subject by itself, but that's also a gateway to acceptance. That's a good point, accepting self. Yeah, seeing like, I am choosing, I am inhabiting whatever I see, whatever I experience and you and everyone, it's like taking responsibility, not as a burden, not as like, or I'm responsible for it, like with my conscious mind, but as, as the awareness, as this enabling factor, it's helping one acknowledge and see that you are always choosing what to experience. Yeah, maybe not consciously, maybe it's not what you prefer, with your conscious mind, with your personal mind, with your separate mind, but essentially free will is free awareness enables all experiences, nothing could be experienced without it. So when it's seen directly and clearly, that generates an automatic acceptance of oneself and of experiences of certain processes, events, and then freeze the energy and freeze the attention to focus on growth, on learning, on expansion, on service, on opening up for more of oneself or love. So, so yeah, acceptance here is another key element that, that this understanding, this more balance into understanding of free will helps us tap into acceptance of oneself, it's a crucial, crucial, yeah, that's like, it's number two, know yourself, accept yourself, become the creator, yeah, acceptance is mission critical from, yeah, it's the dance, I love it. Very last quick question, what is most beautiful? What is most beautiful? To open the heart, to the possibility, the absolute perfection of this reality, of this life, of this existence and to our role in it, of every action, of every move, of every thing we do, the significance and the beauty and the the base of it, which is love, so one, to open the heart to it more and more and more step by step, yes, that's beautiful, that's amazing, you see it within myself and in others, it's, so this dance, this transformation that cyclically plays, yeah, so all you can say very, what's really important is dance, the dance, the dance, in the transformative process, opening the heart itself to that infinite perfection, I love that, you're right, like these masses and the universe, yeah, yeah, because you're right, the heart opening has been just, thank you for the show, the episode, thank you, thank you, you're beautiful, I'm calling myself beautiful, this was so nice, I'm so grateful we got to meet and do this, we love you all very much, thank you, thanks for tuning in, we're so grateful, we would love to hear from you in the comments below, let us know how you feel, feel free to like the video if it brought your value, subscribe if you haven't already, share the video with people that you feel like it would bring value to and that's all, we adore you infinitely, thanks for tuning in, leverage some of the things that your lad was sharing with us, the show goes on, the show goes on, the dance,