Sailor Bob - Nonduality - Beauty of sadness 05 05 2019

Same old, same old, same old. Don't teach you anything here and we don't tell you anything. Understand that right from the start. What we do is point toward and ask you to look to where we're pointing to, to see for yourself. Nobody can ever do it for you. Nobody can ever give you anything. And there's nothing to get. So in the pointing out, you recognise or re-cognise what they call in Buddhism a cognising emptiness. Another word of a knowing emptiness. And the Buddha pointed out that emptiness is form. Pointing out it is this cognising or knowing emptiness that patterns, shapes and forms all this manifestation or cosmos, whatever you like to call it.

Turned it round the other way and said the form can be nothing other than the emptiness. So you and I and everything in this room and outside of the room are that emptiness. That's why I can't teach you anything. How can emptiness talk to emptiness? Like an analogy of the reflections in the mirror. You see, look in that mirror, what do you see? You see nothing but reflections. You can't say they're not there. Go up the mirror and try and grab a reflection out of it. You can't because all you'll do is grab the glass. So it appears to be something substantial and subtle. It's solid in the mirror but it's really no thing whatsoever.

And they say that this manifestation is a phenomenal manifestation. It's made up of phenomena and the dictionary definition of a phenomena is that which appears to be. So everything is appearing. Patterning, shape and forming, it's all vibration. Of what I call, I don't, intelligence energy. I don't use the term God here because you can get confused with that term. Purely and simply we all come from different backgrounds, different religions. Some of you could be atheists. Some of you might be agnostics, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews or whatever. So I start talking about God, well you do. You're related to whatever your traditional belief is and so miss out on what we're pointing to.

Get confused with what they're... I call it intelligence energy and that's not it either. But you've got to use words and that's the label we put on it. And when we're talking about intelligence, we're not talking about your intellect. We're talking about the same look at nature and see it's a natural state, the same intelligence as patterning, shape and forming and manifesting this universe. And then space, you'll see all that. It's all that vibrating. It can all be broken down to a vibrating energy. Energy vibrating into form. And any energy is an activity. It's a movement. So we call intelligence the activity of knowing. Anyone who is not knowing right now, who knows I'm knowing, so you must...

that vibrating energy that's pulsating or throbbing through that pattern is the energy that's vibrating it. And that is exactly what you are, the intelligence. The way it's patterning, shaping, forming, just the way it's forming planets, stars, Earth, sun, seasons, tides, trees, flowers and everything else. It's patterning that shape and form we call the human being. And when you look at that and see we understand, we call ourselves human beings. If you believe in this thing called God, you call God the supreme being. What happens if you take that label supreme off and take the label human off? Try and separate the beingness in this room.

And you'll realise there's nothing but being in this room. That's being a chair, being a carpet, it's being you, it's being me. Go outside, it's being the tree, it's being the flowers, being the spaces. Everything is that pure being without the label. And what are the labels? Words. When did you begin? You can't remember your birth. You didn't begin until you learnt words. At about two, two and a half. Some might have been earlier, some later. It doesn't tell you that in the Bible. In the beginning it was the word. That's what began, was the word. The word was with God, the word was God.

Nothing was made without him, without the word. All things that were made and are made are through the word. And that's what we've done. We've put these words or labels that we've learnt onto everything and take them to be the actuality rather than just labels we put on everything. And when you look at that, and realise that every word you've ever spoken or ever liked to speak has been learnt, been picked up along the way, you weren't born with it, and investigate that and you'll see that the word's not the real, the word's not the thing. Take the word water. Can you drink the word?

Can you swim in the word? Can you drown in the word? You can't. Or wash yourself in the word. Does the word fire? Burn your mouth? Can you cook with the word? Can you eat yourself? Burn yourself? You can't. So then what's this word I or me? We've taken to believe this pattern, shape and form we call the human body, which our parents have put labels on. I'm Bob, the Australian, the good fellow, and we've learnt words. Before you had the word, nine months you were in the womb. What words did you have then? You didn't have a brain, so how could you have a brain?

How can you say nobody remembers your birth? And the next two years or so before you learnt words, you were functioning quite alright as a little baby. You were seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, breathing and the functioning was going on, but you hadn't learnt any words. But about two, two and a half, the capacity of reasoning developed in you and that's a useful capacity. That's also, because it vibrates in the opposites, it's also a destructive capacity. Because that same word that says it's good will tell you this is bad, I don't like it, or I'm no good, or I'm fearful, I'm anxious. And we've got this conceptual image about ourselves.

We are that image. All based on concepts, words. And the word is not the real. So you can't say you're a beginner. When did you begin? Well, go back and have a look at that. Investigate and see. Well, first of all, we'll have a look, are you this body, mind, that you believe yourself to be? Are you this person? Where did that word person come from? Doesn't it come from persona, the mask? Pointing out, instead of seeing as we are, we've got a conceptual image, or a mask, a label of words. I'm Bob, the Australian, the good fella, not so good, I'm unhappy, a bad child, and we've got all these concepts we're taking ourselves to be this conceptual image.

An image. That's all that... Image is based on thoughts, concepts, ideas. Are you the body? Innately, you know you're not the body. You already know it innately, because don't you say my body? Don't you say my house, my car, my coat? Are you the house? You're not. Are you the coat? You're not. Are you the car? You're not. Maybe you're not the body either. And you say my mind. Well, if you think you're the mind, show me you think you're a mind. Can anyone say something, this is mind, show me something that's seemingly some sort of substantial. That you can say is mind? You can't.

And you realise there's no such thing as mind apart from thought, a concept, the word mind. And we say my mind. And worse than that we say my self. And don't all the scriptures today, all the ones that are sprouting the truth and the reality, that there is only one self. Not a personal self. It's the one self that's patterning, shaping, forming and expressing and appearing as everything. Or anything at all, it's one. It calls in Advaita non-duality. Non-duality meaning one without a second. And point out it's not even one. Because there couldn't be one without a second. As soon as there's one there's got to be two.

And there's no one, even. It's got to take on the pattern, shape and form and believing it to be this one. And I am this one. So you can't say you are the body. The body's made up of elements. Earth, fire, water and space. If you believe you're separate from those elements, stop breathing, yeah. See if you can separate yourself from that. Take the water out of your body. See if you can separate yourself from the water. Without the water, it's 80% water. Take the body temperature, the fire. You'll soon get hypothermia and die. Get off the earth. Get out of the space. And you look at it simply, see it quite simply, inevitably, you've never been separate from anything.

You can't possibly be separate. There's nothing separate can stand on its own in this manifestation. And there is no static point to anything whatsoever. This body's made up of elements. All those elements can be broken down into subatomic particles into energy. So the whole manifestation is just vibrating patterns of energy. Somewhat, and it's a spontaneous manifestation. There's no duration to it whatsoever. So we... recognise the concept of time and see there's no such thing as time. No such thing as body. Mind, what's mind? Mind is nothing but vibrating into thought patterns. And thoughts are concepts or words which we've learnt. Just vibrating patterns of energy.

So the basic space in which it all appears in, that's what it appears in, the basic space, the cognising emptiness and the silence, the stillness. That's the basic space. The vibration, the movement, comes and causes sound. And we learn what's the words, they're sounds. Along with lots of other things is a sound. They pattern, shape and form into different things. And this manifestation is made of nothing but things. Carpet is a thing, that chair is a thing, the tree's a thing, you're a thing, I'm a thing. And they're all things can be broken down into no thing, into the emptiness. Because can something come from no thing?

It can't. So all these things we've taken to be solid, substantial and real are actually no thing. They appear to be, seemingly so. That's why they call us, that this manifestation is Maya. It's illusion. It's vibrating patterns of energy appearing. It's a phenomenal manifestation. Look up your dictionary, look up the word phenomena. The definition of the word phenomena is that which appears to be. So you mightn't believe it at this stage until you investigate and see for yourself. But you'll recognise that all appearances, all the manifestation is Maya. It's all illusionary. Just like a dream. You have a dream at night. All sorts of things can appear in your dream.

It can be in the city, it can be in the country, it can be up in the hills or down in the ocean, or anywhere at all in that dream. All sorts of activities going on in that dream. Yet, when you wake up you realise your body hasn't moved off the bed. No words have come out of your mouth. And the whole lot disappears. There might be a little bit of resonance of some of the things that appeared that's soon forgotten. So the dream is just like this manifestation. When we wake up, we wake up to this dream and not realise this is a waking dream.

And the only difference between the dream you're dreaming at night it disappears next day. And this waking dream seems to continue from the night where it left off, the night before you went to sleep. It seems to continue on. It seems to have a continuity about it. And that gives it some sense or concept or idea of reality. That it's real. Yet it's like everything else. It's constantly transient. It's constantly changing. You mightn't recognise that until you've investigated it. But you haven't got the same body you walked into this room with. There are thousands of cells dying in it right now. And being replaced. And so it doesn't...

You notice the change in this and that, you see. But go back a year or two, or 20 years ago, and you've got the same body you had then. But there's some... That essence there that knows that you were there then. It doesn't recognise it wasn't in the same pattern, shape and form and the understanding of the words you had about it were different. There's something there that resides and you know was there from childhood. It's still there. The same essence that you are to this day. You can't say you are this body. You can't say you are this mind. When did this body begin if you still think you're a body?

It began at birth. You don't remember your birth. Well, go back and have a look. Investigate then. Go back as far as your father and your mother. That animating life essence you call your father. Through the prana, through the air he's breathing, the food he's eating. Enabled in that pattern. The food he's eating. A little microscopic particle called a sperm to form in that pattern. That sperm, you mightn't realise, was suffused with intelligence. It knew what to do. The same thing in your mother. In that pattern you call your mother, the same intelligence energy. Enabled in that pattern a little microscopic particle called an ovum.

An egg to form. And that ovum was suffused with intelligence and intelligence energy. It knew what to do. It attached itself to the wall of the uterus. And the sperm knew what to do. It swam to the ovum. It had the capacity of swimming. They weren't two just blobs of goo. They were suffused with an innate intelligence. The life essence that you are to this day. And that cell doubled and redoubled. And through the food and eating through the mother and the prana again and the genes, the little embryo, the little fetus began to form. What were you doing about it then if you think it was a person?

A separate entity? Would you be saying, oh well I better grow a heart or a lung? Or ears or eyes? Those things weren't formed then. And you had no words for start off. They didn't form. But the innate intelligence knew what to do. And it pattern shaped and formed you and grew you. And you mightn't realise. You might think you're running the show. But it's grown you ever since then. And it's the one active life essence that's within you now. It's the one that's responsible in the thoughts, feelings and emotions and everything else that happens. So you're not the thought up entity, the individual or the person you take yourself to be.

You are that life essence. That's what you are. Take that life essence out of the body and what have you got? You've got a corpse. Now all the organs are still in that corpse. The eyes, the ears, the heart, the lung, the kidneys, the liver. But what use are they to you without the life suffusing that pattern? Just like your computer. You've got all that information in it. A wonderful lot of information. But if the power's not turned on, what are you going to get out of the computer? What's doing it all? The information that's there or is it the life essence-y energy that enabled it to be utilised?

So what are you? Are you this miserable little human being or who are that life essence? The same life essence that's rolling the earth around the sun causing the seasons to come together, coming and going. Tides to come in and out. Planets to form and move around. It's beating your heart. It's growing your hair and your fingernails. It's digesting your food. It's doing all those things for you. You are not doing anything. That's what we've got to realise and recognise. And it's all doing it naturally, effortlessly and spontaneously. Personal effort is required. If any effort happens, it's that life essence. It's progressing through that brain or body or mind and enabling it to do things.

But without that, it's nothing whatsoever. Do you recognise this body, mind as fiction? How does that work? Have a look. Well, something comes up in the first place. You don't learn any words until you're about two, two and a half, through your parents. Parents fussing around you, start to teach you words. You're a little Johnny. You're a good little boy or you're a bad boy. You've done this, you've done that to behave yourself. And you learn words from that like I and me. And you start to reason. The capacity of reasoning develops in you then. And that capacity of reasoning is a very useful capacity.

You mean it's reasoning, yeah. Very useful. So when you learn these words of reasoning, when you look out there, I am Bob. I'm the Australian. I'm the good fellow. Put all those concepts. Look out there. That's not me. Or that's not I. As soon as that idea, that resonation, that idea comes upon you, that's not I or me, what do you do? You naturally feel separate from it. And with that sense of separation comes insecurity. When you see something out there, you don't know what it is. You feel very insecure and vulnerable. Insecurity and vulnerable come about because of that. And that's when the search comes about because when that insecurity and vulnerable comes, then comes the fear, the anxiety, the stress.

You've got to try and find out more about it. And we learn words onto that I because you can't do much with I or me, just I or me. But when we learn words like I'm Bob, I'm Australian, I'm a good fellow, I'm a bad child, I'm fearful, I'm anxious or I'm unhappy, I'm depressed, I form a conceptual image, an image made up of concepts, ideas, thoughts. And that's what a believer is. That's what a believer is. That's what I want myself to be. It seems they give some substance. Where does that work? Well, something comes up and everything I relate to this I or me, this me, Bob, something comes up and I like it.

How do you know? Well, if these things I like, they're good. This thing that comes up, I like it and I want to keep it there. We don't want the good things to go. Not recognising or realising that the trends are going to change anyway. No matter how much you love them, no matter how much you want to keep them there, they're certainly going to change just like your body is changing and everything else in this manifestation is changing. We don't want it to go, so what do we do? We resist it. Trying to keep it there, we resist it, stop it from going. And don't you realise that resistance, any resistance you are in, you are in conflict.

Resistance is conflict and any conflict you are in makes you fearful anxious, uneasy, depressed, guilty, shame, remorseful. Conflict makes you uneasy. Another word for that is disease. Not at ease. So there's resistance, conflict and disease going on in this body all the time. What happens if something comes up that I don't like? I try to get rid of the things I don't like. I do like, I try to keep the things I do like there. And the things I don't like up, I don't want this one, I don't want to have that one, so we try to get rid of it. So again, we resist it.

Again, conflict and again, disease, unhappiness. That's constantly going on in our life. Resistance, conflict and disease. Because we're constantly relating to this conceptual image. See, Bob, when your psychological suffering comes about, then that's resistance. Relating it to a concept or idea which I call me. And that concept becomes a reference point. The self-centre or the ego. That's all that the ego is. That's all the reference point we relate to this I or me. The reference point was the other one. The self-centre or ego is related to this me. And relationship, relativity, is dualism. There is absolutely no duality in non-dualism. They say it's not even one.

There's nothing separate. So you see, we're constantly relating to a conceptual image, an ego. We don't realise it's conceptual. It's only a not-too. We take it to be real. Because our parents, school, society and everybody else tell us, you're little Johnny, you're little Lily. And you start believing it yourself. And you go to school and in schools, nobody who hasn't investigated this thing will go from that point of view that they are this persona. Until they put them down through the ages. There have been people that recognise that they weren't. That's where the big traditions of religion come from. People started from. People realising and recognising their true nature have pointed it out to somebody else.

And somebody else has got a taste of it. And some that haven't quite got a taste of it have tried to formulate it with a concept. And your religion is formed around it. And what do we do? We join one of these religions. We encase ourselves in the concepts and ideas that they've put on them. And the people that form the religions, we set them up as saints, saviours, sages and seers. And we worship the man. And we worship the messenger. And lost sight of the message. And it's the message which is important. And as I pointed out earlier, I can't teach you anything. And I can't tell you anything.

And nobody can. Investigate it in self. And you'll read and resonate with what's been pointed out. Take it on board and recognise it and utilise it. And you'll see the same as what they pointed out. And there's always been a few that have resonated with it. And passed it on. And these days when the ways of communication... In those days, there might be a fellow in the tribe somewhere or a little group of people who would understand this and point it out. And one or two might hear it and point it out. And somebody from outside would hear it. And so it grew from there on.

These days we've got this means of communication. And it's there for everybody to hear and grasp it. So many people don't want to listen. Don't want to hear. And don't recognise the art of listening. When you were trying to listen to me, you've got a concept of what I am. Or who I am. And you've got a concept of what everybody else is in this room. And you've got a concept about yourself. A mental construct or a mental image. Which concept would be right? Don't be a Rhodes Scholar to work that out. You realise that there's no concept, right? What does it tell you about the great perfection?

It's non-conceptual awareness. It's awareness without a concept. And anybody in this room who is unaware right now? No. You'll say, I'm not unaware. If you're not unaware, you must be aware. You don't have to look and try and find something called awareness. You're naturally aware if you're not unaware. As long as you're not unconscious, you must be conscious. But we put labels on these things. We try and grasp something we call awareness. Try and get something we call consciousness. And I label them. I'm losing the train of thought. So, as I say, we can't teach you anything. Can't tell you anything. And another way I put it, I'm not speaking to any body.

I'm not speaking to any mind. I'm not speaking to that body-mind that's sitting there. I'm speaking to that I am that I am. The same I am that I am is the I am that is there. It is the one I am that is patterning, shaping, forming, expressing, it's everything. That's what Moses, when he realised on the mountain, when he had to take back these tablets to the people, what shall I tell them? The inner voice came to him, tell them I am since you. And Moses realised there and then, I am that I am. So that I am is there. That I am is not the thought.

That's a word. It's the sense of presence. Anybody who is not present right now, that sense of presence is that I am-ness. And that's what the Sagrada tells you when he says stay with the I am-ness. He's not saying to stay with the thought, he's saying what it represents. That represents that thought, I am. Stay with that sense of presence. And again, going back to Advaita, they call it Sat, Chit, Ananda, Nama, Ruba. The five factors. Sat is existence. Chit is consciousness. Ananda is loving to be or bliss. And the other two factors, Nama, Ruba, name and form. They tell you the Nama, Ruba, the name and form are Maya.

They're appearance. But the Sat, existence, Chit, consciousness, and Ananda are the real. Anyone who's not existing right now? No. I am existing, so. Anyone who's not conscious right now? No, I'm conscious. Anyone who's not happy to be, loving to be? We all love to be. None of you want to be dead right now. So you are that Sat, Chit, Ananda already. But what have we done? We've learnt the label, the name and form, and we function from that point ever since. And we will continue to do so until you recognise it, just as it, realise it, make it real, because it is the reality that you are.

And as I mentioned before about the listening. Listening is an art. Trying to hear or listen to what I'm saying. It's coming, these words come to me, and you're labeling them. Coming from me, you've got the concept about me, and you've got a concept about yourself, and you're not hearing what's being said. You're not recognising or resonating. Because you're looking at this conceptual image, and you've got a conceptual image you're relating it to. When they say, listen from the heart, and when they say listen from the heart, they're not talking about your physical heart. That's not a bit of good to you. But the resonating, intelligent energy, heart used as the core, the centre of the spirit, or the core of your being.

And you know what heart to heart is. When somebody tells you a sad story, and you feel an empathy towards them, and you'll be relating to somebody else, and you'll say, in those moments my heart went out to them. And when your heart went out to them, you were really hearing what they were saying, and you were able to respond. The resonating or the response would come about. And words might sound like a lot of crap to you, but if they're responding, they're resonating with something that's there. And the work will be done. We don't do that. We go into some convoluted story about this, that, and the other, what the psychologist, what all the other sort of psychiatrists, and this one and that one's told us.

Try and work out the answer in the mind. You'll never find the answer in the mind. Look at your mind, the so-called mind, and it always continues with another story. And you've been trying to find the answer. If you've been on this so-called path for any length of time, you'll realise all the things you've done on that path have been in the mind. And you'll never ever get peace of mind. Because it is the nature of this thing we call mind to vibrate. And it can never be at mind. And that's why the ancients called it the peace that passes all understanding. Because it can't be grasped with a concept or a thought.

But it can be understood and resonated when the mind is not. The peace is when the mind is not. Now, you've been looking for all these years in the mind, trying to find the answer. It might not just dawn on you, we're in telepathy, we're intelligent people, after all this time I've meditated, I've done this, that thing, I've learnt this word, I've read this book, tried this out and tried that out. Oh, give me a little bit of relief, but never found the answer there. Might not just dawn on you, well maybe I've been looking in the wrong direction. I've been looking in this mind all the time, and I've never found the answer.

Maybe the answer is not there in this thing. And if I ask myself that, then I realise what way is there out of the mind? You realise there's no way whatsoever out of the mind, through the mind. Because it'll be the mind trying to kill the mind, and it won't happen. All the meditation, all the satsangs and everything else I do won't do it. It might just dawn on you, the answer's not in the mind. And in that dawning, I was recognising without that mind, ask what is wrong with right now if I don't think about it, and try and look at that for a moment without the thought, you can't say anything at all about it without a thought, but have a look at the other thing.

Without the thought, I haven't disappeared, I haven't stopped breathing, my heart hasn't stopped beating, I haven't stopped seeing, hearing, tasting, all that's happened is thought has stopped. But life is still flowing. And then you've got the clue. Without the mind, I still am. I can't even use the word I am without the mind. But I cannot negate my beingness. I cannot negate the knowingness. I cannot knowingly say, I cannot negate the loving to be. There's that in an end. The nama rupa, the name and form, I can drop. Can't let go, nobody can let go. But not hanging on. If I'm not hanging on, there's nothing to let go of.

Not fixating. Not being attached to. It's just what is then. What is main. Unaltered. Unmodified. Uncorrected. No preference. No partiality. No comparison. And what happens? Does it stop there? Or does the vibrating go on and it changes? What's your next thought going to be? You do not know. But doesn't another thought happen? And you'll realise and recognise there's no thought fixated in your head. If you had a head, all your thoughts were fixated in your head. If you had a head bigger than this room, bigger than the house, couldn't accommodate them all. The thoughts come and go. Vibrates. When you realise how they come and go, when you inspire, you breathe in.

And what's another word for inspiration? Isn't it a good concept or understanding that's come up, but a great inspiration? So you bring it in with the breath. And what happens when you respire, expire? Well, you should let the thought go out with the breath, when the anxious tell you, let the thoughts ride out with the breath, we don't. We let the thoughts stray there, we keep it there and continue on with it. And let the thought that's there now, will you just breathe it out? Let it just... Where's the thought? Until another breath happens. So let your thought be free. That's what they say. Thought free.

And when we say thought free, we think we've got to push every thought out. You don't. Let the thought be free. Let it come. Let it go. Use the analogy like the sun and the cloud. You go outside on a cloudy day, would you say the sun's not in the sky? You wouldn't, because you've investigated. You know the sun never leaves the sky. Well, investigate that a little bit further and you ask yourself, what forms the cloud? And you realise the sun itself forms the cloud. Now the cloud, the sun doesn't know anything about the cloud. The vastness of the sun is so great that the cloud is infinitesimal to it.

Yet in certain parts of it, it blocks the... To us, it blocks big areas out. And what forms the cloud? You realise the sun, it forms the cloud, yet the sun doesn't know anything about the cloud. All the sun does is shine. And the radiance of that shining, the heat or the radiance, what does it do? It evaporates water. It condenses. And as it condenses a bit, it's not so... It becomes seemingly something... It's there. It's a cloud that blocks out the sun. And that cloud, the wind, the sun keeps radiating and can cause a wind to stir as it blows the cloud away. Or it'll cool it down and it'll form water.

That cloud was nothing but water. It's gone back into water in the cloud. Come down and rain and it'll become solid like ice. It'll come from a vibrating energy into substantial steam. Water and ice. Isn't that the same thing that's going on in here? Thought, feeling and emotion? Thought is very, very subtle. The thought there will bring up a feeling, or the feeling will come up and will be related to this thought. Instead of seeing it as just pure feeling, we've related this feeling as anger, this one as fear, this one as happiness, this one as depression. And then with the emotion or the fear comes the tears or the stress or the guilt.

And that's what we call the cloud. The cloud is the guilt. It's becoming seemingly solid. All based on a subtle vibration, a thought. Now this thing needs to be looked at and investigated. Here's this conceptual image. This ego. We put words onto this eye and form the conceptual image. And the memory comes relative to that eye. Now investigate and see if it's there. This ego. We say here that the ego, this thing we've taken for granted, we never, is a total fiction. It hasn't got any substance or any independent nature. See for yourself. Everybody is seeing right now and everybody is hearing. Isn't that a fact?

Say, yeah, I see, I hear. Ask yourself this. Does my eye tell me I see? Does my physical eye tell me I see? My eye can't say anything at all. It's not saying to me, look at this, Bob. Look at that. That's good, that's bad. It can't say anything at all. But it is the instrument through which the seeing is happening. And that instrument is translated by the thought. I see. Now this so-called thinking, or mind, what we call mind, is just another useful instrument. But it's self-destructive also. Because see the way the thinking happens. It's a vibration. And it's always vibrating in these related opposites.

What's your thinking? As Shakespeare told you years ago, there's nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. And as I will tell you, there's nothing can trouble you except in your own imagination. And that's real. That's true. Break that word imagine down, imagination down to image in, imagine. And realise that's all we're doing. We're creating mental, conceptual images, taking the image to be real, and beating ourselves up with the word. Good, and that's what Shakespeare told you, nothing either good or bad. See the way these words function. Always in the pairs of opposites. Either past or future, pleasant or painful, happy, sad, loving, hating, positive, whatever.

See if your mind functions any other way than in the pairs of opposites. We've encased ourselves in this cage of concepts, and taken them to be real. Don't you see that thought? The eye itself can't see, the ear cannot hear. They're translated by the thought I see and the thought I hear. And that's not a pure translation anymore, because remember what we've done with that thought I see. We've put this conceptual image on it. We're not just pure seeing anymore. That's me, Bob, the Australian, that thinks you can see. The same with the hearing. It's not a pure hearing anymore. It's me, Bob, the conceptual image, the good fellow or the bad fellow, the conceptual image of things that they can hear.

But we'll question it a little bit further. Can this thought I see actually see? Shut your eyes and look around the room and see for yourself what you can see with the thought, with your eyes closed. What can you see in the room? You'll realise you can see nothing except the darkness behind your lids. You can't see any of the things in the room. You can image them, imagine some of them, but the actual seeing them, you can't see with your eyes closed. So that thought I see is not the seeing. It's just translating it. The same with the hearing. Block your ears off and see what the thought I hear.

Your ears are blocked off. You can't hear anything with the thought I hear. The thought I am aware. Are you unaware right now? You're not, so you must be aware. So what's the thought I am aware? It's just translating what is actually happening. The may has got nothing to do with it whatsoever. But we've taken the idea it's the may that says aware. The thought I choose. We think we choose our thoughts. Why would you ever have an unhappy, a miserable, an angry or a fearful thought if you could choose them? Do you choose to be that way? I don't. So you see the thought I see, can't see.

The thought I hear, can't hear. The thought I am aware is not your ears. The thought I choose is not the choice maker. All these are happening. They're not happening to this conceptual image, me. They're just happening. They're just occurrences, events, seemingly happening. Not to a believed in conceptual image. The ego is a total fiction. That's what we point out in the Ash. Look along those lines and see these things for yourself. Some here in this room have done that and have recognised and they might be able to point it in a different way or a little bit clearer. Might be better educated and have more words to utilise.

And that's what happens. The words get utilised. They become very useful. They can be very self-destructive. Some of you might recognise them before. Some of you might have questions and unless you question and look at it and see for yourself, no, no. Some of you might think it's a lot of crap. And that's all right too. Whatever goes on. That's all there is to do. But the rest of it is up for questions. So away you go. Resistance is futile. Resistance happens like everything else, but it's no personal. That's the way the manifestation vibrates. There's no one who can be resistant. If you're falling, you'll put out your hand, try and avoid it.

It's spontaneous, resisted or can be. It's spontaneous, resisted or come up to break your fall. Things like that. Many different ways. It's not that person doing it. Look at that. What's there in, what's been there before can be utilised. Like some of these great inventions like Einstein and that. He said he worked on this problem for days, weeks, and he couldn't find an answer. One night he went to sleep. Woke up the next morning and there it was. Things like that happen to you too and me and everybody else. Working on that all that time. Have a look at the past in the future. You say, I was in the past.

But what's wrong with yesterday? Can you live yesterday? Can you live a moment ago? You can recall it. And what you call it is only a memory which you recall right now. And that's the only actual way you got it because you can't even tell me what you thought of it a minute ago now unless you recall it. And why are you recalling it? Because it's seemingly there. As soon as you're not recalling it, it's gone. It's disappeared again. So that's seemingly added on to everything else which you recall in the future. You try and live in the future. You can't live a moment in the future.

But you can anticipate and imagine what you're going to do in the future. You can't actually live with it. And that anticipation and imagination might come about. It might not. But the only actuality is going on in this moment. And it's only momentary too. It's a moment of time. It's not even that. It's not even a static point anywhere to it. When does now begin? You can say it's beginning right now. Well, try and grab that now. It's gone. But it's beginning again. As soon as you look at it again, now. Now. So it's got no duration to it. That's all the time is, is duration.

It's got no static point to it. You can't relate it to a static point anywhere. It's got no self nature to it. And we're relating to that. And as I say, everything is that one self. And we're relating to this personal self. My self. As soon as we do that, we're a problem. There's no my self. It's a persona. Also regarding past, when I was younger I used to really, I was fascinated by different ideas of changing the past or, you know, like there are people who are massively dysfunctional and if they happen to meet some genius like Milton Erickson who will go back and hypnotise them and put false events into their childhood and after the therapy that they come up transformed the past, which is the relative, the past that, you know, my past is basically the content of my memory.

If the content of memory is changed, the subjective past is changed too. And the outcome of that subjective past is also changed. So really, and the memory, the way the memory works, it is rewritten every time you re-read it. So if you think something happened that long ago and you remember it, once you check it again, you're only checking what you remembered last time. You're not checking what happened 25 years ago, but the last time the connection was formed. So really the whole past that we are creating, I mean, not we, that life is creating using the equipment that it has, right in the moment.

So the whole past, including the past, the beginning of humanity, including the forming of the planets, is just here only when I imagine it, when I think about it. Because apart from the collective thinking, it's just pure field of potentiality, there is nothing. And then also there has to be someone who states the past. Like Bob often says, whatever happened to Jesus or Buddha, has anyone who's been there, is here now to confirm it? No. It's again the collective belief that creates that experience. And even in the language of different nations, the way the language is structured, the way the words come about, that shapes the reality of people.

So the past is just such a cloud, it's nothing solid, as solid as we tend to think. When you say the miracles that happen, you know, like when we know the laws of physics, and then something happens that seemingly breaks the laws of physics. Maybe not. Maybe there are laws that we don't really know yet. Or laws actually haven't been created, they have been discovered or rather described. So if collectively some societies will decide to describe the laws in a way that would allow certain phenomena, what could possibly stop it? If the language defines it and collective actually sees it, out of existence, because we train our seeing.

There is just a homogeneous blobs of dancing particles here, and we kind of learn throughout life to say what is an object and what is a space next to object. So that part of the training of the mind creates the apparent reality. So that apparent reality could potentially be created in any other ways. And it is when you look at the societies that have different languages. In a language that they don't have numbers, or the language they don't have relative directions, and things like this, the experience of reality seems different. But we don't know, because we only know descriptions. But it's a fascinating idea, actually really mind-opening, that things are not as solid and as rigid as we used to think.

And there is absolutely nothing impossible in the way that consciousness of life expresses itself. Like the stupid meme, the memes on Facebook would tell you that sky is a limit. Well, imagination is a limit. Really, the concept is a limit. Without the concepts, there is no limits. And then you are that unlimited, without the concept, unlimited life consciousness. Because when you put the limit on yourself, I'm the body, I'm the person, well, then your wish is my command. The universe will tell you, OK, that's what you are, that's what you experience itself as. It's only the belief, really, that separates us, if it does, from experiencing the totality as it is.

Only the belief that I don't experience it yet, I didn't find it yet, I have to keep going, keep searching, there is a me who wants to get something that is out there. That story is the only cloud on the sky of pure awareness, of pure existence, of pure being, that is there all the time laughing. It's not really laughing, it's just what it is. But it is a good joke, it really is. Enlightened people can perform magic. They can take a glass of water, they can drink it, and it becomes part of their body. Amazing! Amazing! And that proves that you are an enlightened being.

Yeah! Absolutely! You might be a different one. Probably a bit younger, to you. Well, that belief, the definition of belief, have a look at that, an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. Acceptance of an alleged fact without positive knowledge or proof. Put your belief to that test. See if it works. Then you realise the belief is not the actual, it's not the thing. My very limited understanding of what it is, it is what it sounds like, and I'm paraphrasing here, the limitations fundamentally begin when language comes into the equation. Because language is a limiting force in articulating the experience, which is pure potentiality.

The language is governed, if we want to use a scientific term, by this so-called thing called ego. Because it creates an identity, us versus outside of us. And when you can see through the illusion of Maya, what you're fundamentally tapping into is a state of no thought. Because once thought is taken out of the equation, then there's no distinction between I and you. Correct. And all of the things. However, ego is also a pre-existing, reproductive mechanism, in at least keeping us alive in this world. Really? How's that? How's that? I mean, it exists. We all have it. It doesn't. It doesn't. Yeah. But it appears to.

It appears to. It appears to, yeah. It appears to, yeah. But do you think because dogs and cats, they don't have a language, do they have ego? Do they have idea that they are separate? Yeah, so, okay, so that's a really good analogy. So if we are to compare ourselves to animals, they seem primal, they seem operational to survive, but without, I mean, we can only speculate, without the thought of, a lion says, I'm going to kill, it just kills. Yes. And if we are to get to that base level of primal action within ourselves, and to no thought, is there the potential that we would, deprive ourselves of functioning within what is normal society?

Like civilization? Yeah. Because, you know, you see a lot of mystics that will remove themselves out of this world. They'll go into caves and they'll meditate for years on end. And yes, the work that they're doing is obviously ridding themselves of the tension within themselves. And so by function, they're doing the service a good by, by bringing peace to their own being. But I always am upset by the idea that these awoke people are not using, bringing their knowledge back out of the cave and into this world, because then we need to fight what is not that. And that's something that I'm wondering. So it sounds like you have got to a state where it's no thought, you're in no thought.

Yeah. But when you are at that state of no thought, how do you then... Well, everyone embodied and whatever you're embodied, unless you get Alzheimer's or something, you're going to think. Yeah. And you're going to think in the same way, in the interrelated opposites of it. It's good or bad, it doesn't matter. But if you see it fresh and new all the time, what comes up spontaneously and naturally, as you say, the potential is always there. And the potential keeps going on. Look at, look how the world is constantly changing. It's still evolving. It's a lot different than it was, what, 90 years ago when I came around and appeared and...

Yeah. Thought can be very useful, but you've got to recognise it's a belief to the separate entity, the persona. That becomes the problem. Like I say, without a concept, everybody will have a concept about you, you've got a concept about yourself, and you've got a concept about everybody else as well. Which concept would be right? You know, none of them, because they're all a mental construct. So from that point of view, who can be superior to you? Who can be inferior to you? And what would you want of the other person? You know, without that concept, would you need to take something from somebody? Would you need to go with them?

And this ego is all self-gratification. What would you rape somebody for? What would you murder somebody for? What would you do with one for self-gratification? If there's no self to gratify, wouldn't you just go with the flow? Like what nature is doing, respond to that. Like put a seed in the earth, you can't see the centre of it, or the core of it, or whatever it is. It's just a plain little seed, put it in the earth, get a bit of water, a bit of sunlight, a bit of heat, and then what happens? The potential that's already in that seed will sprout. Become a tree, with the potential in that tree, to cover the earth in trees.

Because every cone or every seed in that tree, there's enough there. So that's how it goes on. You rephrase it in different words, because what Bob says, that's brilliant, perfect. But I wanted to relate to what you were saying, because it was just a beautiful way of presenting the possibility that some people can hear non-duality as invitation to become, to retreat back to the animal state. That's not, totally not what we are advocating, and that's absolutely impossible, because that life is, it's expressing through the dog as barking, through the cat as meowing, and through the people as creative, you know, like creating civilizations, creative thoughts, music, all that stuff that animals cannot produce the way we can.

But coming back to the state, to below the thought, below the conceptualizing anything outside, and particularly conceptualizing what we are, or who we are, it's enough if you do just for a couple of seconds. You don't really have to stay there for a second. You don't have to stay there forever. You don't have to become an animal and live in a cave of the earth. You can if the nature calls you to do that. In that way, nature does it, not you. But to actually recognize, like the question Bob often asks, what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? Or who are you if you don't think about it?

If you don't construct that costume of thoughts to become an ego? If you see that without the thought, you are still here, you are still alive, the content of seeing is changing, the sounds are coming and going, the thoughts are coming and going. Everything spontaneously, naturally happens, and you're still here as the presence without the thought that I'm the body or I'm the mind or I'm a person. You're not the body, thought, or person. You're just the pure presence. And as that presence now, if you understand this is your true nature, not the image or ego, but this pure presence, the thought is being utilized now, not from the perspective of the limited, discontented, unhappy, not good enough individual who needs to steal and rape and do everything to actually help himself to feel a little bit more complete.

Because that's ultimately what the ego feels like. Limited, you know, tight, costume, not good enough, not, you know, have to work on itself, has to amass, accumulate, do something to pacify that angst, that anxiety. But when you recognize yourself as that awareness or consciousness or pure presence, pure being, now from that perspective, life is still expressing through that pattern as it does. And if that pattern happened to be an artist, it will create paintings. Animals can't do it. But, you know, if that body is shaped to do it, it will be doing it. Or design bridges or high buildings or movement to change the class.

Or climate or anything. But now, falling below the level of thought, not identifying with the image that I constructed as myself, now that capacities are utilized in much less selfish and much less sabotaged way. Because if I believe I'm a self, that thinking is predominantly wasted on obsessing about myself. Why am I not good enough? Or what am I going to do tomorrow? Or what do they think about me? Or I had such a bad childhood, so many traumas. It's all constantly obsessing about myself. Now, if I recognize that I'm not that image that I thought I was, that thinking drops off. But creative thinking is part of the machinery.

It will still be coming up. Because I'm not doing the creative thinking. The life just produces whatever it can produce through every pattern. Mmm. Flow state. Yes, yes. Natural state. Yeah, I'm afraid it's about the flow state and getting into the flow state more regularly. And there are three functions that help meditation, psychedelics, and going into the flow state more often. But you are the flow state. Yes. But so, yeah, no, I completely get that. But it sounds like what is happening is that you, whenever you find objection or obstacles, you just recognize that the obstacle is just a construct. And then you sip into, well, I'm not that identity, so I don't need to over-worry about that.

Yes. But I guess from where I'm sitting versus where I feel like you're sitting, the difference is that you're in the easeful state of pure potential. You're in the ease of pure potentiality more often than I am. And that's the craving is so that I can be more like that. Mmm-hmm. And I suppose I want to know if you still do stumble into an environment of thought. Or do you not? Is that just a... Yeah, that's a valid question. Bob, you want to answer? Yes. It's still, as I say, you're going to think. But when you understand the word is not the thing or all the rest of it, you know, then what do you do?

Instead of trying to react to things, let that natural spontaneous response come about, which I don't know. Like I say, people have had all sorts of ideas and invented all sorts of things. It's just come up of itself in a lot of them. With the help of previous memories and things like that, it might get better. But it's growing all the time. Going on all the time. Something else. Like the thought related to the identity, like self-obsession, I'm not good enough, I have to work on myself, or what am I going to do tomorrow? Those thoughts, they don't come up. Once you know that the identity is false, it's just, you know, even if they would come up, they would be completely ignored.

But I didn't really see those thoughts for the last few years. It doesn't mean that the other thoughts, like it doesn't mean that if you stub your toe, you're not going to say, you know, that comes up. When you look at the nature, look at the animals, they, you know, there are two cats here. Sometimes they play with each other. Sometimes they lick each other and hug each other. Sometimes they fight. And they meow and they run. So those type of, and this is very helpful to actually see what Bob says. You are already that pure presence. To see that if you are having a reaction, you know, like train is getting late and you know the whole set up of the day is going to be bad or someone offended you or someone slapped you in the face and there is a reaction of the body.

It's just the same type of reaction that the cat or dog would have if they got, you know, someone step on their tail. That reaction is natural. And this is probably never going to go. But now what happens if you are considering yourself an individual, you're going to be obsessing about it for hours. You're going to be having a dialogue in your head with a fictitious person that's stabbed your toe or someone. Oh, what should I have told him? Oh, what am I going to do if they do it again? Whilst with the animal, you know, even if the animal had a fight, five minutes later they shake off the energy and they find they're present in the moment.

So this is what I've noticed between me and Bob. We occasionally would have a little outburst, sometimes very rarely, every few months. But it lasts a few minutes. And then the next moment is completely gone. It's completely in the past. Like we have natural responses to cold and hot and then, you know, spicy food and stuff and people offending, you know, that natural healthy response, like instinct, part of the body. But it doesn't hang on. It doesn't stay there. And there is no dialogue. And there's no one to respond to. Yes. So you are already that. Because if you have healthy emotional reactions, it means that's just part of nature.

And now if the chatter goes on and analyses it forever and ever for ages, that recognition, that natural recognition, because you seem to have really good grasp on it, a natural recognition will come. Maybe it will come in five minutes. Maybe it will come in a couple of hours. But if it comes, that's the moment of awakening. And those moments of awakening, these quick moments where consciousness comes back from the trip, from that train of thought, from that illusion of being something else than itself, those thoughts are the most precious things. And as you say, that could be, you know, induced. For some people it could be meditation.

For some people it could be psychedelics. For some people it could be, you know, even guidance that they receive in the dream or books or inspirational music or just anything. I mean, the inner guide, the sad guru will lead you, will guide you. So whatever is sad, so whatever is required for that remembering or for that moment of awakening from the identification, it's just going to show up. But the longing, you also mentioned the desire to be more of it. You know, that desire is just another obstruction or another obstacle. Another illusion. Another illusion, yes, because that desire is saying that here there is a me and I know better than the consciousness how this moment should look like.

I'm not happy how the consciousness presented this moment right now. So there is obviously a very strong sense of separation. Desire just as much as the repulsion when Bob says, I like it, I want to keep it. I don't like it, I want to push it away. Those are the same sort of, that pull-push is the same sort of a resistance. Desire is a resistance to not having something. And resistance is a resistance to not having something. It's just pure resistance. But if they are recognized, because I remember I used to love that sort of, that last desire, that desire for peace, for love, for joining, longing of the heart to just recognize the beauty of consciousness in everything.

That was quite beautiful. And once I learned that it was really beautiful, I didn't want it to go. I would see it as another object in the consciousness. Okay, so there is a content of seeing the trees or people. There's content of hearing different sounds. And there is content of emotions, the longing. And none of it is mine. In that case, I'm already giving the credit away. This is not I want or desire or long. This is just pure emotion floating in the space of awareness. I'm the awareness. I'm the consciousness. I'm the space. And that desire is not my desire. It's just plain desire.

And in that way, when I'm not taking credit for it, I'm not forming the individual who has it. And now this desire seen as a beautiful flower, just something really, a beautiful creation, because it is also the way consciousness expresses itself. When you see it as beautiful, it doesn't hurt anymore. It doesn't break your heart anymore. It doesn't create the idea that you don't have it. Which means you have it. You already have it. You already have it. So maybe I'm just going to ask to maybe repeat what you just said or elaborate again. But when we were talking just before on, I guess, what we can call equanimity, so not getting attached or resist or push away experiences, there's a concept of this concept of equanimity is conflicting for me from time to time.

Because I see so much beauty in the pain, the pain of being alive and knowing mortality and the desire, the craving, the wanting. I find that really beautiful. We make great art out of it. And I wonder sometimes if getting rid of that, being an equanimist, is that the word? Yes. Wouldn't be almost against being human, pushing away such a big part of the human being. Beautiful. Gosh, you just said it all. Nothing to add. Gorgeous. You want to say something? So wouldn't those, then we can get ourselves out of the road, wouldn't those natural talents that are there come about naturally and obviously without trying?

Be open to them. And yes, there is a magnificent beauty. And being capable of seeing it, you really, you just said it all, you know. There is a gorgeous beauty in a heartbreak, in a sadness. And it's all included. It's not that, it's only, and actually it's not really leaving a humanity when you see that beauty. Because the body will naturally be attracted towards pleasure and repulsed from pain. That's what the body does. But seeing the bigger picture, you know, is often when, there's one analogy when they were talking about the Siddhartha Gautama, the young prince who was leaving the palace, but there was a prophecy that he is going to become a great warrior or a great spiritual teacher.

And of course the father wanted him to be a warrior. So he protected him from suffering. He didn't see anyone sick, anyone dying. He was having idyllic childhood. That's just a myth or the legend. But when he got older, he ventured out of the palace and noticed a guy puking, sick, yellow, whatever, dying. And he noticed someone dead. And it shook him so bad that he started contemplating ascetic life and found the truth of, yeah, of impermanence of life. And if not for the suffering of the one who was sick, if not for the death for the one who was dying, the Buddha wouldn't show up in the picture and wouldn't help to countless individuals in the myths liberate themselves from suffering.

So when we see pain, we right away want to medicate pain. We want to shut it down. Or some people will just run away, just don't want to even be around it. Well, that pain is very often the most transformational moment of human life. That pain is very often a gateway to the awakening. And if it doesn't, you know, like, of course, we can't tell a parent whose five-year-old child is dying of cancer that this is a good thing. It's not. It's painful. It's not appreciating. But who knows in the broader scheme of things how that element of the appearance affects as a wave the whole society.

I've spoke to people who consider the worst dramas in their life the best and the most beautiful moments over the time. You know, the girl who lost her breast and became an Amazon and is leading people to the communities, to the world. To the communities. To not really fight cancer, but to find themselves around that disease. There is the simple judgment of, okay, let's get rid of suffering. Let's extinguish all the pain. Well, there is a validity in it. But you're right. It would just completely kill off the poetic beauty that life presents. This impermanence that is, it almost kind of, it feels so pointless and so stupid for the life to create sophisticated, beautiful pattern as a human being who lives for 20, 40, 50 years, 60.

And then it dies like a sand mandala just swept off, out. Like being created with such a depth, whole new universe, and then wiped off of existence. How crazy. But there is immense beauty in that craziness because that is the impermanence is what brings such an appreciation. Everything that we are witnessing right now is not going to be here, either in five minutes or in 500 years, but it's not going to be there. It's only here now. So it's right now is the moment to actually appreciate it, to really love it. And regardless if that's a toothache, or if that's a drama, or if that's a famine, a war.

Like, it's such a beauty in this. So what you say is really, that's the freedom, that's the freedom that we want. It's not the freedom from negative sensations. It's not the freedom from, oh, okay, we don't want to have winter anymore. We only want to have summer. Or we don't want to have night. Or we don't want to have, you know, it's not. It's a freedom in which everything is totally allowed. Everything is welcome. Whether it is a childbirth or it's a child death. It is welcome. If that's what the consciousness is being, the consciousness is presenting in the picture, that is what consciousness is appreciating.

And if I am, through this eye, the consciousness is witnessing it, there will be a witnessing of absolute shattering drama and tears and tragedy. And that's also part of the picture. That's also welcome. You know, crying with those who are heartbroken and hugging those who experience a great loss. This is part of the beauty of the beauty of the drama. Like Bob often says, if not for the extremes in duality, there would be nothing. Like there wouldn't be a day if there wasn't a night. There wouldn't be a white if there wasn't a black. It's just, it has to be that everything playing out. And the freedom is not to hang to the good and reject the bad.

The freedom from suffering is not only to experience pleasure and never experience pain. The real freedom is just allow, be free from both of it. Just be that space for all of it. For pleasure and for pain. For joy and sadness. And all of it. And find that depth in which they're equally precious, they're equally beautiful. It's wanting to know itself. So it's constantly, it's turning to itself to know itself. And if that includes pleasure and pain, it's all aspects of itself. So the deeper it goes into the pleasurable states or the painful states, it's more that it knows about itself. And each time it's a facet unfolding in on itself to know itself more.

And I think that's all we're ever doing as consciousness, is wanting to know thyself. It's a continual unfolding. Beautiful, you say. Yeah, beautiful. That's good. Point that out, so no one has its stick. Each stick's got two ends to it. But we try and suffer. We like the good, we don't want the bad. This is all the one anyway, and they're both going to matter. How could you experience one without the other? Not just to wait late. Any more? Or had enough? I'm not that. So I'm not my thinking, I'm not my body, I'm not any of that, right? So I go right back to the nothing, to the emptiness before I start talking, before I have words, before I have consciousness or any of that.

So I'm not any of that. And at that point, and then we speak about I am that. I am that, I am that. But in my experience, as I've gone so far, I'm not any of that. So right back to the point of the mind, right back to the point, right at the very, very beginning, I claim I am. Then I own all my feelings and that. But right at that very beginning, straight away, I am. There's a claiming that I am having these thoughts, and da-da-da-da. So I catch that, and I'm not that, so I'm not me, I'm just this. Okay, so I am that.

Oh, okay, now it's done. So yeah, interesting. Everything is that. We know that in our language. That's the chair, that's the carpet, that's the tree, that's the flower. That's all that, which is no thing, no shape, no form, no. We should put labels on, discriminate them with the word. Allergic to cats. Allergy to cats is just an object in a consciousness. It's just a passing. Yeah, it does, because you see, we are talking about that infinite intelligence. Whatever it fakes, it feels so real. Look how real that room feels. It's still Maya, it's illusion. It's a bundle of particles dancing together and kind of sorted out by our trained eyes.

But it looks real, it feels real. The sickness feels real. It's just a magnificent intelligence. It doesn't really, it's not so easy to look through because it is, it intends to fool itself. Like what we're talking about, Belinda was saying that this consciousness, it cannot directly experience itself as everything. So it dives into different forms. It touches different aspects of itself. And then as Mel is saying, okay, as it touches different forms, it realizes I'm not that, I'm not that, I'm not the form. I'm, you know, like I'm not my allergy to cats or I'm not. And at the same time, if I'm everything, it is, it's a paradox.

On one hand, you are absolute nothing, the space in which forms appear. But on the other hand, every form is emptiness itself also. So you are the forms also. So ultimately, the mind can't grasp it. There is no logic for the mind in here that, okay, am I this or am I that? None of it and all of it. That's the paradox. Because when the thinking stops, when the differentiating between the form and emptiness stops, between that, I'm that or I'm not that, stops, when this one is gone, there's no questions. There is no problem. Am I emptiness or am I form? Am I every form?

Am I looking for myself, for a glimpse of myself in every form? Or, you know, when the conceptualizing drops off, all of it drops off right away. Yeah, and I'd just like to say that, you know, we're that presence. And then we have, ever since we were very little, we were the narrator about what was going on. And so what happens is, the narrator is, you know, you're not identified with your narrator, but the narration keeps going, you know, at times. You know, so, but you are just here, right here, right now. You are being. There's no separation. So, just bringing it back to who that narrator is.

Who is that narrator? It's just a story. Just a story about you. But when the story stops, you don't stop. You just are. You know? And it's just interesting to see how we get caught up in the story. You know? But it's all appearing on that presence that we are. That never, has never left, you know, and then we were taught a story about ourselves. We were taught a story about others. You know, all conflict arises between a story about ourselves and a story about another alleged persona, or person, place, or thing. But it's all appearing on that presence that we are. There's no separation.

What Bob's saying here is there's only one. Not even one. Not even one, because that implies a two. So there's just one. So there's just consciousness. It's like the mirror, you know? The objects in the mirror aren't real. They're just images. But, you know, whenever there's a conflict that arises within yourself, or a question, you know, it's usually coming from an image you have about yourself. You know? Because that's what you've been taught since you were a little baby. You're separate. That's you. That's you in that mirror. You know, you're that image. You're the body. So you were saying the allergy is a fabrication? No, I'm not talking about the allergy specifically.

I'm just saying, you know, I have allergies too. I don't have a specific allergy to a cat. But, you know, the right action will be taken if there's something physical going on. But I'm saying there is not someone to take action. So you would take action. I don't have allergy medication. You know, I use nose sprays all the time because I get allergies and sinus. That's what's happening, you know? And the right action was taken. But I didn't take it. You know what I mean? But if you're allergic, you know, it's an actual, you know, physical reaction. Yeah, animals get allergies too. So I get it.

I put it quite simply. When I know that I am nothing... There's wisdom. There's wisdom. When I know that I am everything, that is love. And between those two, my life is continually flowing. So it's going to continue to vibrate in the opposite. But the love and the wisdom are two ends of the one stick. I will just add one word regarding the allergy because that is a good illustration. See, if this is I have the allergy, that becomes really personal and that becomes really debilitating and it becomes... And it's connected with some sort of maybe whatever. For some people, maybe inferiority. For some people, maybe a reason for suffering.

But if I am the space in which everything is welcome, love and the sadness and childbirth and child death, everything, including the body and including whatever the body has, the allergy or whatever the body has, I'm the space in which everything is welcome. I'm the space in which that happens. In which my car also happens and my car doesn't like diesel, it likes fuel or whatever. That stuff is just a content of the awareness and I am that awareness. Now the allergy is not as personal anymore. It is something that the body has. Like the body has curly hair. It does it. It's not me who have it, it's the body.

But because I am everything, I am also the body. Because the body contains instinct and the instinct is the way life expresses, it will look after itself. And it will feed itself. It will clean itself. It will medicate itself when it's necessary. And sometimes the story may come up, no, no, I can only change my beliefs and it will be cured. And in some cases it will be the case. It will be truth. And all the story may come, no, no, maybe I change my beliefs and it will be cured. But the thought is not strong enough. It's not fueled enough by life. And it may spend 20 years trying to cure itself by changing a belief and it may not happen.

Because ultimately the consciousness has so many ways of expressing itself that in one body it will work, in another it won't. And collectively it just touches itself in everything. So just again the sadguru, the inner guide, as little commentary as possible, and the action thought. Because the action thought may say, okay, let's go anti-histamine or something. Or the action thought may say, okay, let's go and breathe the fresh air. Or tell someone to kick that cat from the chair behind him. It doesn't have to be there. It really doesn't. I like the cat. It's okay. It doesn't change me. It doesn't like you. Yeah. Forget the person.

Take yourself as a lot. Take yourself as a life. You're the life itself. And out of life more life continually comes. Life lives on life. There's only out of life that more life can express. That's what Christ told you. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. He wasn't talking about himself. He was talking about that sense of presence, the knowing that you are. That's the way. That's the truth. That's the life. And without that life, how many allergies can you have? How many fears can you have? How many unhappiness or expressions? And it's all life expressing. And then in shape, pattern and form.

Nama, Rupa, Maya. Illusion. We are talking about the ego. Oh, is that true? And I guess maybe, so we are talking about this pure awareness that is the only thing that exists. And so I am assuming you were saying the ego does not really exist. It's a construction. Yes. Correct. We should be able to. Correct. But we hear a lot, or I hear a lot, the way, all the way to enlightenment is to not listen to the ego or destroy that ego. But as much as it seems that I'm getting so much from experiencing my life as pure awareness, I'm also getting so much when I'm trying to understand that construct of myself.

I don't know what I'm scared about, what I want, what I'm good at, what I want to be better at, all these things. That ego, that's me and that meaning is not you and I want to get to know me. So as much as I want to get to know or live in pure awareness, I also want to get to know my ego. I'm not at war with my ego, you know what I mean? But you're calling ego the personality, doesn't it? Yeah, it's very different. The cuts, you see, there are two different cuts. One is kind of more outgoing, one is more lazy and sleepy.

They have different personalities. But they don't identify, I am my personality. That's the difference. So getting to know your personality is one thing. And getting to know, believing that you are the personality. It's like believing you are your trousers and your coat. It's you, who you are, is pure awareness. Your dressing, your skin, your hair and your personality is your personality. It's your make-up. It's the way you appear. There's nothing wrong in getting to know your car as you drive it, your body or your house. But if you identify as you, you start comparing with others and you will be not good enough or things like this.

And that's where the conflict arises. The identification with the story about you is not you. But you are a unique pattern of energy. You are the pure awareness expressing as that unique pattern of energy. You are not the story about you. That's where the problem comes in. That's where the conflict arises. All conflict arises between the story of me and the other story and the response to the other. So what we are saying is you are not the story. You are a unique pattern of energy expressing. And the action figure will take actions in the appropriate way. And the dis-ease that we've... Well, I can speak from here.

The dis-ease that was felt here before I realised who I wasn't made my life heavy. You know, it was a heavy sort of travelling, travelling heavy. But when I realised that I wasn't the story, it was a travelling lighter. You know, because I wasn't caught up here. I was living from here and everything was so much more. And I was living in a place where I was not the story. I was living in a place where I was not the story. And everything was spontaneous. You know, when I was blocked by a story about me and a story about others, it blocked that pure spontaneous intelligence energy that we all are or that I am.

You know, it blocked it, you know, because it was bogged down by a story. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. So it's a difference in personality, which is a way... The way that awareness expresses itself. Or one potential way. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Beautiful. See, this is really good on the example. When you think of... Well, maybe I say about myself. When I think... When I used to think about myself and I would find certain reactions, like, let's say I have reaction to a smell of a breath of the onion. And it's like, oh, yuck! And then I exhibit that publicly and then I feel terrible about it.

Oh, my God, I'm not polite enough. I'm not kind enough. I'm not behaving this way. And I beat myself up. How am I going to get better? How am I going to enhance myself? And all the story runs about me again, the self-obsession about me. Right now, I don't really... Let's say the reaction will happen in an hour to something. And the reaction, according to the social fashion or the, you know, the current... whatever is appreciated in the group, is not really... The reaction would be called as bad. I don't have the inner talk about it. I find it the same way the cat finds it, with curiosity.

Okay, the body reacted to something. Ah, and it reacted in a way that would be called negative. Ah, okay, interesting. Now, as I'm learning about my body, I'm learning about the patterns of behavior and reactions, I'm learning with completely impersonal curiosity. I will not punish myself. I will not beat myself. I will not diminish myself. I will not go overly ambitious about resembling myself to some social role of model or saint or anyone. It will be much lighter. But it doesn't mean that I will not be curious about how this body is going to react. Like, I don't know what this body does if somebody just drops dead right now.

I can have a story of what it does, but I don't know. And then, whatever it does, it will be what I learn about this particular pattern. And I will not be curious about it. I will learn about this particular pattern. But five years ago, I would probably carry it around me for a week and think, oh, I should have done this, or I should have behaved differently, I should have said something else. So there's much more peace regarding to the relation with oneself. Peace which you could even call a sort of unconditional love. Like, because the pattern, the reactive pattern of this body are not really me, I allow them to be as they are.

And of course, naturally, I wouldn't be hurting people intentionally because I don't want anything from them and I don't miss anything or lack anything. But even if the pattern appears that somebody will take personally and feel hurt about it, I will not be punishing myself. And the learning will occur naturally. So it's not really about beautifying the ego anymore, or about pacifying the ego, or about getting rid of the ego, or about killing the ego, because that, ego, which means identification with the pattern, is a fiction. It's like a Santa Claus, it's a fiction, it doesn't exist. But it doesn't mean that the pattern doesn't exist, doesn't mean the personality doesn't exist.

But having no personal relation to the personality gives me much less, makes me much less judgmental, much more curious in a way that is, that is just pure curiosity, without, without taking it into consideration. So I think, like Jane was saying, you know, it's much lighter, it's not much, it's not that much punishment in it. Like I used to punish myself for not performing enough. I would have a list of things to do and I would do 20 out of 30 and I would be still unhappy, and always rising the bar for performing better, being better, acting better, which could, it could sound like something socially desirable But it's not because in fact that activity, which was 90% of the inner, what was going on in the head, was depleting me from energy.

I was exhausting myself by beating myself up and rising the bar. I was exhausting myself and I had not even a fracture of the energy right now to be present and available with people that I'm helping or serving. Right now when this stuff doesn't go on in my life, I'm much more present with what is really happening rather than what is not happening, what is just happening in the story. So the ideas of getting rid of the ego, who would be the one who gets rid of the ego? It's always the ego that wants to get rid of the ego. So let's say the ego managed to kill the ego and still the ego is left, the killer.

So it's not really the way. But what you say, and it seems like you're getting it really, really right, what you say, you have the loving and compassionate and unconditionally curious relation to yourself. You don't beat yourself up, you said. You don't try to kill your ego. You are in a good relation with it. So perhaps if you transfer it, being in a good relation with whatever, the body, the mind, the feelings, the personality, and just keep identifying yourself as it, the amount of freedom will be even greater. It's just life being in love with their children and you're one of it. This is all your life.

This is all the way you express. So that body is your beloved child, is your masterpiece. You are an artist. And that, and that, and every single one. And naturally, because of the instincts, you will look after this body more than that other body because that other body has its own survival mechanism. It sounds like. Yes. And once we know. We know the song, we just dance to that song. Without. Ah, gorgeous. Is that. Yes. And without commenting on the song. Without wanting it to be any different. Yeah. Changing, beautifying, or pacifying. That's a gorgeous way to say. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.