Sailor Bob Adamson - nonduality - 23 June 19

As a pattern, shape and form we set ourselves up, we've given us some reality in the belief we are this person, our image. When you investigate it, you'll see you're nothing but the life itself. If that life essence wasn't animating that pattern, shape and form, what could you do with it? You'd be a corpse. And all this manifestation is the same. I've got to tell you in Buddhism that the manifestation is Maya. It's illusion. It's a phenomenal manifestation. And the dictionary definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. So it's only appearing to me. So we're appearing right here and right now. Seemingly solid, seemingly moving around.

But if you break it down and look at it, you'll see there's nothing there. Are you this body? Innately you know you're not the body because you say my body. And that's why I say innately you know it because you say my body. Don't just say my house, my car, my coat. Are you the house? You're not. Are you the car? You're not. Are you the coat? You're not. Maybe you're not the body either when you're not. And you'll certainly find out that you are not that body. It's only a pattern, shape and form. The car, the house and the coat. Have all been manufactured through this capacity of reason.

Through those human forms would have the capacity of utilizing that energy and forming it. And making these patterns. But what's the body again? If you think you're the body, have a look at it. My body. What's the body made up of? You realize the body's made up of elements. It's made up of air, earth, fire, water and space. Just like the elements around you. And I say they are around you, they're all around you right now. There's space there. There's the sun and might give you the heat. There's the air. There's the water. All these things are in space. And all can be broken down.

Space can be broken down into subatomic particles into energy. The energy has no particular pattern, shape or form. It's just a vibration. A seemingly or somewhat of a movement. A pulsation. It pulsates and vibrates into all these different pattern shapes. Which are all appearances. We have this pattern, shape and form that appears to be very solid and substantial. We take it to be real. If you broke it down to the things that are just the elements that I pointed out. How real is that body? Put it under a microscope and see how real it is. And you realize that can be... Put it under a microscope, you'll see there's big spaces in it.

And all the different patterns, shapes and forms and cells. And every cell, there's millions of cells in the body right now. And every cell is transient. It's constantly changing. And your body's changing right in this moment. Not the same body you walked into the room with. And it continues to change. Same as all this manifestation is changing constantly. It's all transient. But we've taken it to be something substantial and solid. Seemingly lasts a long time. Like the Earth, they say it's thousands of years old, is it? Again, what's time? Have a look into time and see if there's such a thing as time. Time is duration.

That 40,000 years of ever beginning and an end. And they try and find something substantial while they say it begins. Give you some figment of imagination. That 40,000 years ago it had started with a big bang. Not thousands, billions probably. Well, whatever. There's still nothing anyway. It's duration. Duration. And the same, yeah. And well, look at yourself. When did you begin? You'll say, I began at birth. Yet you can't remember your birth. But did you begin at birth? Go back and look at your parents, your father and your mother. That animating life essence. Pattern, shape and form you call your father. Through the essence of the food.

The food you ate and the prana, the air he's breathing, the elements. Enabled in that pattern a little microscopic particle called a sperm to form. That sperm was suffused with intelligence energy. It knew what to do. And the same thing in your mother. The animating life essence in that, the intelligence energy. Enabled in that pattern a little microscopic particle called an egg to form. You can't see that with your naked eye. That egg was suffused with intelligence. It knew what to do. It fastened itself to the wall of the uterus. It wasn't floating around accidentally. It attached itself to the wall of the uterus. And the sperm knew what to do.

It knew to swim to the over. Look at it swim. Not another dead pattern. It has the capacity of swimming. And it knew what to do to penetrate the over. And when those two came together, what happened? It naturally doubled. That cell doubled. And doubled again through the genes and the food and the essence. And formed the little embryo, the little fetus. Which you are to this day. So did you begin at the sperm and the ovum? Or were you that essence that you are? Was it around in both of those things? Or in the very essence that the parents ate? And the prana, the air they breathed?

And when did that air begin? When did the earth? Or when did the life? When did the life begin? Can you give it any beginning whatsoever? Or is it always and ever been there like it is right now spontaneously? No duration to it whatsoever. It's all a spontaneous emanation. And look at that. When does this now begin? We call it a now. Try and grasp now. As you're trying to grasp this beginning right now, you know it's already ending and beginning again. It's all spontaneous. So it hasn't got any beginning or any ending. And that's what eternity is. Eternity is not some 40 million years ago, whatever you like to call it, which has a beginning and an end.

Eternity is this immediacy right now, which is spontaneously. Just a spontaneous vibration or somewhat of a movement. So you already are and always have been the eternal. And that pattern, shape and form that you are right now is not going to stay around forever. The pattern, shape and form will continually change. But the essence that you are has never had any beginning or never any ending. And all things, pattern, shapes and forms are appearing in that. And so they're all... All the manifestation is made up of things. You and I are things. The chair is a thing. The carpet is a thing. The tree is a thing.

The flower is a thing. It's all things. But the basic essence of which it all appears in, the emptiness, the silence, the stillness and the emptiness, the basic screen in which it all appears, is no thing. No thing whatsoever. Now can some thing come from no thing if it's all the content of that emptiness? There's nothing against posture. I think I'll be outside of that screen, that emptiness. So can something come from nothing? If it's all the content of that emptiness, there can't be anything other than a no thing. It's a hard one to look at or to believe that you think you're going to be no thing, but you always have been and always will be.

But it's a lot easier in the functioning if you're not constantly relating it to something or taking yourself to be something which is unhappy, which is fearful, which is anxious, which is depressed, guilty, shameful, all the different labels you put on it. But it acts all the fun out of life, really. Life is ever fresh and ever free. Always fresh, always free. So in trying to become realised or liberated or free, you've got an uphill job, haven't you? Trying to get something that you already are and always have been, it's going to be an impossibility. That's the real thing. And you might understand why you've been earnestly seeking, trying as hard as you can for many years, trying to become something.

You've never been satisfied with anything in the past. You've been taught to acquire, to amass, to accumulate, to add to, more wealth and all these different things to make you feel better. Then, because it's not happening, you might be turned to the so-called spiritual thing and try to become released. Realised, liberated or free from it. It's never happened either. You might understand why it doesn't happen. How can it happen when you always are that, already are that, always have been, and always will be? We put a grip of concepts on ourselves, taking ourselves to be this conceptual image which is separated from all this and isolated ourselves from the sense of separation and isolation.

And the belief in that, you're not going to get anywhere at all. And you don't. So it's only a matter of looking into this and investigating what you are seeking, you already are. And that's many times been expounded throughout the scriptures. What I'm seeking, I already am that. And you are that. That's the Mahavakya they tell you. I am that. And you know that everything is that. That is the chair, that is the tree, that is the... all these things are that. That thing is... I am that thing, or this thing, or whatever. That's already, and already, and always have been. So instead of trying to become and get something, don't waste your time doing that.

Start with the fact that you are already that. See it in every different way, shape and form you can. Bring it back to that pure, natural state that you are. Don't add it to any concept or any belief or any idea that there is something there within you or without you that has some substance or any independent nature. If you think there's something there, have a look at it, go right into it and see what you can find. And you'll realise, like as they tell you again in the scriptures, there is no static point anywhere. Anywhere in this manifestation there's nothing that has a static point.

Anywhere in this body, bring it close to where you are, find a static point in that body. Where's this I or me that you call yourself? What is there? Where's the centre to the body? Is there any point there within you? Is it in the fear, the anxiety, the stress, the guilt? Is it in the happiness or joy or anything? Or is it where the no-thing is? Where you've taken all the conceptual images off? I ask you to look along those lines and look, see for yourself, see if you can find any sentient being there. Life is vibrating, shaping and forming, transiently, constantly changing, nothing static about it whatsoever.

And don't they tell you that? People who have investigated down through the ages, like Christ for instance, says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. People thought he was talking about himself. He wasn't. He's talking about that sense of presence, because there's no personal self. Understand that. There's no scriptural telling you that there's a personal self. They all talk about the self, but it's the one self that's appearing, patterning, shaping and expressing as everything. There's no personal self, never was. But as soon as we say I or me or my, it's my self. That's what we've taken on and that's what we've believed in.

Test it out. See if there's a self there that you can say, this is what I am, where it begins or anything. Amazingly enough, when you start looking in that direction, it starts really guiding you and taking you where you've got to go. Things are revealed, come up in the reasoning, which weren't reasoning or thinking out before. Recognise it, well, we've probably had, we've had tastes of them all through our life. We've gone back into the thinking and the reasoning again, thinking we're getting a bit further. But it comes up naturally of itself. That breath you just took, did you have to think I'm going to take a breath?

The things you're seeing in this room, the movement, the things like that, did you just have to say, well, I'm going to see that movement or anything like that? It's going to call personal self that you think's doing all those things, isn't doing anything. And you'll realise it's not a personal self that's doing anything at all. It's the one self that's patterning, shaping, forming, expressing as everything. And if it's the one and only the one, can you or I or anybody else be anything other than that one? We're not. We never were or never will be. So looking through it, when you look through things, the belief cannot stand up to the investigation because the belief is false.

Looking along these lines to this itself, you'll see the belief that you are the separate entity, this individual, that can't hang around either. And it won't. Look at that word belief. The dictionary definition of belief is an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. We've taken a lot of these things, our parents, school, society, and everyone else has told us, without investigating, without questioning. So it's unquestioned. And it goes along its very way with energy and belief going into it because it hasn't been reasoned or questioned out. But look at the things you have investigated and seen through. They're still appearing to be so, but you know the truth about them.

And you know the appearance is not their actuality. It's how they seemingly are. And you're free of the belief of all these things. And that's what we need to look at. Look at this egoic self. Everything becomes related to this reference point. We've got the conceptual image, me, Bob, the Australian, the good fellow that had a bad childhood or was introverted or unhappy or a good child or was depressed or rebellious or whatever. Whatever concepts I have or have had about myself and believed in, that sets the pattern, shape and form of what I think I am. And then our religion has put upon us, after all, you're only a sinner.

You're a human. You're a sinner. Poor, evil sinner. We've got that concept in our priests and that's drawn that into us. We believe it. Wei Weiwei says, Why are you unhappy? Because everything you say, Everything you do and everything you think, everything you do is for yourself. And there isn't one. If they're telling you you're a sinner, you're evil and all this, then there's nothing to tell. Are you gonna be unhappy? Because we take these things on board. Now we need to investigate that. Look, this reference point, that conceptual image we have becomes what we call a reference point. We're constantly referring to it or relating to it.

The self-center becomes the self-center, whether you think the static point is the self-center, is this me or I? And the ego, there are three different terms for the one thing, self-center's reference point and ego. And they all tell you in the different scriptures, you gotta get rid of this ego, you're very egotistic, you gotta get rid of that, that's the cause of your problems. And then they say, well, stamp on it, kill it, get rid of it, depress it, hold it in, struggle with it. They don't tell you, well, they do, some of the ones that really know, they'll tell you there's nothing there, there's no such thing as an ego.

It's only a fictitious idea or label you take it on. But see how strong the conditioning is. But what conditioning, you know, what conditioning is there if you don't think about it? What does conditioned belief, you say, oh, no, I can't go with that. I've been told this and told that and I believe it. Ask yourself then, it goes back to what Shakespeare says, nothing here to good or bad, but thinking makes it so. What, how strong is that conditioning right now? If you look into it. What conditioning is there if you don't think about it? Pause the thought. What conditioning is there? Without a thought, where does it leave you?

It leaves your thought free in the moment. That thought be free out of it. And we need to investigate this ego, and see, and see for ourselves. I'm seeing right now and I'm hearing right now, are you? You'll say, yes, I'm seeing and I'm hearing. It's just natural. But ask yourself this. Does my eye tell me I see? I ask myself that and I know my eye's not saying, look at this, look at that, boom. Or that's good or that's bad. My eye can't say anything at all. But it's what we see this manifestation through, is the eye. But yet it can't say I see.

The eye, which you're seeing through, is not translating the seeing. The seeing is happening, it's translated by the thought. I see. But the thought I see can't see. Eye's not telling what I see. The thought comes up and tells what I see. So that takes the purity out of the natural seeing then. Because when I'm relating to this eye, what am I relating to? Me, Bob, the Australian. The conceptual image. But that thought, I see. Can a thought see? Can this conceptual image I've got this label on, can it be made up of thoughts? Can it see? Well, the thought can't see at all. We need the eyes to see through.

The thought can't see. The capacity of reasoning might work things out with the thoughts, with the words, but could you have that capacity of reasoning there if the life essence wasn't there, if the life essence wasn't there, if the life essence wasn't there, to give that thought some reality? So the thought I see can't see. The thought I hear can't hear, just like the eye can't see and the ear can't hear. The thought I'm aware, anybody who's unaware right now, you realise no, I'm not unaware. So you must be aware. The thought I choose, can that choose? Would you ever have unhappy or miserable or fearful or anxious thought, if you could choose them.

You choose to be that way. And even if you did choose to be that way, who would it be that's choosing? Would it be the conceptual image? There's no choice maker. But seeing and hearing are happening, and choices are made. And the consciousness is there, or awareness is there. All these things are going on. They don't need to be related to the conceptual ego of the entity. It's just natural, spontaneous happening, which is this manifestation is made up of, these concepts and images. All vibrating into different pattern shapes and forms. Nothing's ever been contaminated or corrupted, like we believe it is. It's all functioning naturally and effortlessly.

The space and stillness, the basic screen, has never been corrupted or contaminated or touched by any of the things that appear in it. Now, there couldn't be any appearance if it didn't vibrate into pattern shapes and forms. So this manifestation, quite a wonderful manifestation, the way it pattern shapes and forms. But it vibrates, being a vibration, it vibrates dualistically. It vibrates into all the fears, anxiety, stresses, guilts, and everything else that happened. The wars, and the rapes, the murders, the killing, and all this happens in that vibration. But actually, nothing's ever been contaminated or corrupted by any of it. They call it, in Hinduism, satjita nanda nama-rupa, the Five Factors.

Sat is existence, jita is consciousness. Nanda is love of being. They call it bliss of being, but people get to, a big idea they think there's bliss of some ecstatic state, some great state we've got to achieve, we're getting around from then on with a big smile on our face, living happily ever after. Not believing that, not recognizing that. that it's transient, no matter who or what or how or why or where it is, it's constantly changing. Satyajitana nama rupa and nama rupa is the name and form. Now that label you put upon yourself, whatever your name is, that's the name you put on yourself.

And the form it's expressing to is the body. The name and form are the body-mind. But they tell you the nama rupa are maya. They're illusion. This name and form we believe it is really illusion. It's the essence that's expressing through it that's the reality. And see that too, take the life essence out of the body. How many thoughts, how many feelings, how many stresses or guilts or anxieties can the corpse have? It's got all the organs in it. Still before they've rotted away. It's got the heart, the lungs, the brain, all these useful instruments, the eyes, the ears, the skin cells, all there. But what good is any of it without that life essence approaching through it?

And what is that life essence? Can you grasp that with the concept? Can you say what it is? Can you give it any shape or form? It is no thing to the mind or the body. No thing. No thing. As I said, everything in this manifestation is made of things. But what they are is no thing whatsoever. It is the one essence that patterns, shapes and forms and expresses as everything. And because that life essence is coursing through this body and the earth, you are that life. It's the same life that's enabling all the birds, animals, insects, trees, flowers, all very sentient pattern on this earth to express as life.

And you are that. And you are that. And you are that. This pattern, shapes and forms, each pattern is a unique expression. No two fingerprints are the same. No two patterns are the same at all. That is the wonderment and amazement of it, how it can express. But know the truth, recognise the truth and as they say, abide as that, rest in it, abide in it, live in it, live as that. See how your life changes then. See what comes about. It doesn't mean to say, oh, you are this, you are that. So it won't continue to age and break down, but it's just as well it does.

I wouldn't like to be what I was 50 years ago, 60 years ago or more, or even a few weeks ago. I'm not. It's changing. And it continues to change. But you can enjoy it though, looking forward to how it's going to function. All of the stress can go out of it if you wanted to. It can never be very severe at all if you're not putting the energy of belief in it. Nothing can live without energy. Any fears, stresses or shapes or forms going on are fed with energy. Any anxiety, any guilt, fed with this energy. Or life. Energy is life. Life is energy.

And you are that. You are that. Live as that and see. Instead of that pattern, shape and form which each of us are, breaking ourselves down to these little habit patterns which are fearful, God knows what more other talents are there that haven't been brought out yet in this manifesto. Brought out and utilised, or displayed and expressed as they should. The lure it is. So it's up to you now. You can get in it, question it, add to it. Do whatever you like. Who's had enough? I can't answer that. I'm not going to take delivery of it. What would you like to take delivery of it?

Drop it on the floor and I'll clean it. Stop breeding in my mail. Clean it off there, it'll be much easier. Questions, maybe insights? Maybe someone had profound insight which, if you share with others, will wake them up? I think we all are. I'm not going to take it. It's the best thing in the world. This is the only thing I can do. This is the only thing I can do. This is the only thing I can do. Not on a daily basis. This is the only thing I can do. This is the only thing I can do. This is the only thing I can do.

It'll be much easier. Questions? Maybe insights? Maybe someone had profound insight which, if you share with others, it will wake them up. Can I, please, about the image in the mirror. Can you please repeat that again? About the image in the mirror. Can you repeat the image in the mirror? Look around. What do you see in the mirror? I see, I don't know if I should say I see myself, but you know, I see exactly the same images in the mirror. What about I? Yes, I just, everything is the same, exactly the same. Aren't they reflections? Yes. Or images? Images in the mirror. You say you see yourself, that's an image of you.

It's not you in the mirror, is it? Well, not neutral. Is it literally? Or not literally? Well, it appears to be so, doesn't it? It appears to be. Have a look. You can't say that image is not there. Not erased it. No. You can see it. You can see it there. But is it real? Try and grab it. Touch something which is solid. Yes. The image in the mirror is not the mirror. Or it is the mirror. It's not the, it's not the pattern that's in the mirror, is it? It appears to be. Yes. So that mirror, you break it down, you investigate the mirror.

See it's only a piece of glass with a back put on it, it reflects. Now all these patterns of reflect in this space are weird, but they seem very solid. Very solid. Yeah. How they appear to be. It seems that. How can I get something out of this? When you say everything appears in space. Yes. Space is no thing. That's right. No thing. Not nothing, because it is the life itself. But no thing. No. That pattern, shape and form is sitting there. Right now you call you. It's a thing. Just the same as the one here is a thing. But we are broken down into pure energy, into emptiness.

So you are really no thing. Neither am I, I think. And neither is anything else in this manifestation. The mirror is a poor analogy because the mirror needs something outside itself to reflect in it. But this basic space, it's all within itself. There's nothing to appear outside of it. Try and postulate or think of something that would be outside of space. What would it be in? You can imagine you say, oh God, it would have to be in space, wouldn't it? It's got to be in something. You can't put anything out there that's not in anything at all. For anything to appear at all, it's got to be in something.

It's got to be in that space, emptiness. But there is a nice analogy to dream. Dream is quite nice. It's everything that you stumble upon in your dream is reflected in the space of mind. There's nothing that, you know, the space in which consciousness expresses things is totally, totally imagined. It doesn't exist when you wake up. And it still feels so real. If someone is chasing you, you may have the, you know, your heart is racing and you feel fear. When you pass the buildings or nature, they all exist. They seem like they've always existed. You know, that house, it probably is 100 year old, isn't it?

In the dream. But it is all reflected in that space of mind. It doesn't have any surface like a mirror to reflect in. And when you wake up, it's gone. It disappears. And the person who was watching it also disappears because the person who is watching it, it has some sort of a body and some sort of an eyes. But your eyes are lying on bed and are closed. They don't see anything. Everything that is witnessed in the dream shows up, is reflected in that space of creative space that is constructed while you sleep. You have to speak louder. Bob is a little bit deaf.

Bob, I have to confess that I had a lot of ups and downs. And because downs were much more than ups. And even ups are, came from the mind. Their energy source are not the truth. It is the illusory self. I just want to confess that this question raised from the downs of my experience. Everything is a vibration. A movement of energy. Have a look at the way you think. Good, bad, pleasant, playful, happy, sad, loving, hating, positive, negative. See, it's always vibrating in the opposites. And the boundaries we put upon the other. As I say, the ups. The ups are good and the bads are down.

And the pleasant is good, the bad is bad. We put the concept on. We divide it conceptually with thoughts or words. You like a swing, up and down. Where is it neither up nor down? At the fulcrum, at the centre, isn't it? Where is the medium? Where is the equilibrium? Where is the centre? Probably something. Yes. Pause the thought for a moment. What happens when I... Pause the thought for a moment. If a thought stops for a moment? You know, I think that's the best moment that I can experience. But, you know, thoughts are very strong and they're locked in quantity. Guess what? You don't love.

I already knew that. That's exactly right. That's what everybody thinks the same way. Now, all right. We'll use this one. If you go to the South Pole, how much further south can you go? It's a street. It's not a... You're not going south, are you? Yeah, you're going north. You're going north again. Yes. When you get to the North Pole, you can go no further north. You're going south again. Where do they meet? Where's the equilibrium? Somewhere... Equator. You already know. The equator. What do they call it, the equator? Equal. The left side. Equal. Equal. The left side and right side... Sorry. Right side and left side or upside or downside have...

From that centre to downside and outside, it's equal distance. So that means the equality is something exactly in the middle of up and down. So this is my understanding. When you take all those words, you say this side, that side, upside, downside. But no words. Where are you then? You're right here. You're right now. Right here. Right now. Present and aware. What's wrong with that until you've started conception? You know, there's nothing wrong with that. There's something wrong with all of it. Something other than that. That's all how it appears. That's all how it appears. It vibrates into opposites. Pattern, shapes and forms. But it's still the gap.

And what's it like? still loving to be, before the nama rupa comes on it, or when the nama rupa, the name and form are on it. It's still only that. But it's the name and form which are seemingly conceptualising it or dividing it. Words. Sojjanensingmin. Words. The way is beyond language. For in it there's no yesterday, no tomorrow, and no today. It cancels all out without the words. Beyond language. Can I ask you something? So when you're talking about yourself in your mind, what do you call yourself? Do you call yourself me? I call myself myself. Yourself. Alright. So there's yourself in your mind, you know, because you've got to think about it.

You've got to think about that self, don't you? Yes, I think about that self all the time. Aha. Okay. So there's that self, and then that self you're thinking about, that self has a response to what it's thinking about. Right? Is that right? Sorry, can you repeat that? So you're thinking about yourself, right? And then that self you're thinking about has a response. Right? So there's this thought in your mind about yourself, because it is a thought. You've got to have a thought about yourself to be thinking about it. You've got to have a thought about yourself to be thinking about yourself, don't you? So you've got this thought about yourself, and then there's something that self doesn't like, or something that self likes.

Right? So, but all those thoughts, they're just thoughts. So there's that self, and that self feels pleasure, and it's reasonably happy. Then there's that self you're thinking about, and then it's not happy. It's sad. Right? So all these thoughts, they're just thoughts. The thought of yourself, is that really you? If all of a sudden you couldn't think about yourself, say if you had amnesia. Say if you had amnesia and you could not think about yourself anymore. Right? Just imagine if you had amnesia and you couldn't think about yourself anymore, would there be any responses? No, I don't think so. No, no, no. Would you die?

No, no, I'm not going to die. No, no, but I'm saying in that scenario, if all of a sudden you had no memory about yourself, you would still be breathing. Yes. You would still be breathing, the body would be functioning. With much less disturbance. Exactly. So what Bob's saying is that self you're thinking about is only an image of yourself. Can you please tell me how that self is? Can you please tell me how can I decrease the severity of this, both sides? By understanding you're not that. Investigate. You can't understand. You hearing what I'm saying now? Yes. Understanding? Yes. Well, the understanding's there immediately.

It's never... I don't know why I'm saying that, but I'm just saying everybody here is just... Just have a look along the line, but nobody can take you out of it. You've got to do it yourself. Investigate yourself along the lines we point to. Where do you say you begin? Can you find a static point in that body anywhere? Well, look, where do you think... Can you sense any place in your body where you think you're stuck? Are you in your head? Whereabouts inside of you? Do you realise at least if you can see... See, can you pinpoint a point inside you? Say inside you.

Whereabouts inside you? Can you point to... Where's the centre of that? Where's the point? Where's the centre of that sense of me? You know, the whole body's centre. No. Really? So your foot feels separate from the world. Your foot experiences anxiety and fear. Your foot, your right foot actually experiences shame, remorse, guilt, fear, separation, isolation. All of these emotions aren't just here. Yeah, but where... Good. Now, where's the centre? Where is it? You tried to say it's like everywhere in the body. Everywhere in the body. Is it in your right leg? No. Is it in your left leg? Forget about the down body. Okay. Okay, is it okay?

Is it in your right arm? Is it in your left arm? Is it? Seriously? How about chest? Okay, is it in your chest? You know, emotions, feelings, not sensing feelings, emotions are, you know, much feel in the chest rather than right leg or... Sure. But what is it that you're experiencing in the chest? You? Is it you that's in the chest? The body. Is it you that's in the chest experiencing this in the chest, this energy that you're referring to? Is that you? I'm witness of it. Ah, good. Ah, hello. Hello, there you go. Did you hear what you just said? I'm witnessing. Yes. Where are you witnessing from?

You know, I was always witness of everything. Yeah. Where are you witnessing from? I don't know. Simple question. Where? It's all, I always, you know, that's what I only can say. I always witness, but I don't know where is witnessing come from. Okay. All right. So that that you're witnessing, everything you just said, I always witness. Yeah. It's always been that sense of always witnessing. Okay. Everything that you've ever, ever, ever witnessed or likely to witness or even are witnessing. Now, is that not objective? It's not an object. No, no, no. Not at all. You didn't hear me. Everything that you are aware of, is that objective?

Is something. Yeah. Direct attention towards something. That's something is something. It's an object. Right. So my question is, everything that you've ever been aware of, is that objective? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So everything that you've ever been aware of, or ever likely to be aware of, or whatever it is that you're aware of now, is that not objective? It is. Yes. Great. Great. So where's the subject? Do you ever, hang on, do you ever consider and sit with or investigate that subject? Yeah. You've never considered that subject? No. No. Really? Absolutely. Yeah. You've never considered that subject? No. Because all you're doing, what I'm hearing you do, is you're pulling apart the content.

You're pulling apart the objective, which is thought. Thoughts are objective. You have to be separate from it to be aware of it. Do you understand? Whatever it is that rattles through your head throughout the course of the day, when you're up or down or whatever the case may be, you've got to be separate from that to be aware of it. Don't you? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's not objective. It's objective. You're not aware of it. Yeah. You're not aware of it. You're not aware of it. it don't you right yeah how much attention or focus have you ever given to that subjectivity i don't think any yeah why not isn't that think about it like wouldn't that be the most primary thing that you'd be interested in and i'll tell you why it's not because you've assumed your whole life that that that is aware is me and it's not and that's totally not me does not own awareness and and um jane pointed it out before if we annihilated all your memory and it was completely like gone you'd be gone i'm talking about you the person the persona the person you believe in yourself to be the idea of yourself all your beliefs all the conditioning all of it would be totally gone however there'd be a presence there there'd be an awareness there would they're not yeah and I tell you why because you're assuming that that that is aware is me it's an object and it's and that it's the me this suffering is it not I didn't get that sorry because subject is attention that the subject is that which aware of object yes so when you say you assuming that you are objects or experiences you mean the subject and object mixed together?

Is that what you're saying? No, what I'm saying is there's the idea or there's a belief that it's me that's aware. It's me that sees thoughts coming and going. It's me that sees the body. It's me that sees everything out there. All the objectivity. It's our idea. Yeah, but if we get rid of that me which we can do really simply. It takes time. No, it doesn't. It can happen right now. Time's a concept too. If you see it, it can happen right now. If we eliminate that me completely and it's just memory. That's all it is. The me is the memory. If we wipe that out right now what's remaining?

Hello. Hello. Presence. Awareness. Just purely simply here-ness. Without any of that going on. So what you're experiencing is exactly what I experienced. And me. Exactly what I experienced. And I didn't realize that see when we first do this we become aware that okay, thoughts just come and go and I'm not the creator of them and I can't stop them. They're just there and they're just going to float through. And then we kind of also realize I've got no free will. I can't stop it. I can't control it. It just happens. Yeah. All of that. But whatever it is that just happens. Yeah. When we start to get a bit of gap or a bit of distance from that we at least at least we to some degree stop wearing the content of thought.

When there's no gap when there's no gap I become it. Whatever it is that's going on in my head I am that. Whatever it is. Yeah. Whatever it is. Like I can't see because it's here. Like you know. Yeah. But after a while when you start to investigate there is a gap that starts to get created. Agreed? Okay. So there's one more thing that you need to look at. And that thing that you need to look at is that that sense of you that you believe yourself to be has hijacked and taken ownership of that sense of presence. It says it's mine. And whilst you're doing that your me is going to feel solid and real as because what it's grasping onto and claiming ownership of is real.

That sense of presence that aliveness that awareness. So that's that's what see you're still in you're still investigating the content and assuming there's a me there. We're asked to look for that. We're asked to invest like really really investigate that. You're not. You've still got questions going on which means questions are just floating through the mind. Yep. And then they pop out of your mouth. Okay. But at some point you know you've got to see what is see I got to the point where I kind of exhausted the mind. Everything was like I couldn't understand this any better intellectually or conceptually than I had at that point that I got to.

Okay. But being there or understanding all that I was kind of left well so what? I'm still here. Now what? What the do I do now? Like literally what do I do now? With all this understanding and everything that I've come to see and I could see there was no free will. I could see that. I could see it. Yeah. But I still felt like I was here. What was here? Other than in reality presence. What was here? Presence. You can't deny that. You can't. None of us can say I am not. You'd have to be here to say it. Yeah. So there's that presence that's there.

Yeah. And there is an idea that I failed to see. It took ages to see it. There was this idea of a me which again as Jane pointed out which is still only a pattern of thoughts. There's a construct. There's a me construct. Okay. And then there's all the thoughts that float through the head throughout the course of the day. Yep. That we're kind of aware of. Okay. And those thoughts that float through our head we believe is affecting me. But all that's happening is there's a pattern of thoughts that are coming up which is your identity. And then there's other patterns of thoughts that come up that this pattern of thoughts gets affected by.

So the only conflict that is ever going on is in the mind is in and it presents itself as thoughts only. Okay. So your idea of self your idea of me and still feeling here and still feeling stuck and still trying to get this and rah rah rah rah yep is a pattern of thoughts. Only. It's not a thing. Yeah. It's not a yeah. But the reason it feels like a thing is because you still haven't seen that your me yeah this pattern of thoughts is claiming ownership of this presence this aliveness this awareness. And that's why the me feels so solid and so real and we kind of get stuck you know.

There's a background fear that comes up as well for a lot of people that my god if me goes yeah because that the whole idea is for the me to go if me goes I'll die. Why? Because I'm this presence I'm this awareness I'm told I've got to go which brings up the fear because that doesn't want to go. The aliveness if we believe that we're that yeah if there's an but we claim it that's still the duality there me claiming ownership of this sense of presence or this awareness that's still two you know if we create amnesia wipe out your memory completely which means wipe out all thought wipe out all patterns of thoughts that are going on including your me pattern of thought you'd be vacant and you'd just be present and aware without without a story yeah now that should be enough what you just heard then should be enough for you to know that whatever it is that's going on in the head is rubbish totally total like total rubbish yeah so what are you left what what's there left to do if that's absolutely seen what is there left to do one or two things you either abide as presence just abide and just abide abide yeah and everything gets resolved there I was going to say by doing that there's no one doing it but everything gets resolved everything gets resolved there okay so you either do that if that's what happens yeah or if you're unable to do that because they're still chatter you need to go look for that primary me that primary primary self that feels or believes it's been affected by all the thought content that goes on in your head or seems to going on in your head or seems to going on in your head or seems to going on in your head or seems to going on in your head or seems to going on in your head so literally what you've got to do is look for it like that's why Bob keeps saying where is it where's the centre like points all the time and and what we do is we try and go looking for it with our mind it's ridiculous it's absurd I'm going to watch this clip though all night maybe you look maybe and Bob's got something to say yeah so it's simple really you're seeing right now and the thought comes up I see I see the chair whatever it is so seeing has been divided into subject I see and object yeah but can there be the seeer without seeing can there be the subject I see without seeing can there be the scene the object without seeing so they're really not divided all there is is seeing hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, functioning, living, being, whatever.

No person. Subject, object, a duality. And what we're talking about is not two. Also that bit that Bob always says in the spiel, like he says, how do we go about it? How do we go about investigating? He says, is the seeing happening right now? Yes, the seeing is happening. Just like he said right now, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, functioning is naturally happening. But then the thought comes, the conceptual image, which translates the natural functioning of seeing into I, see. But it's not just I. I'm Bob, I'm Australian, I'm a good boy or I'm not so good. All the memory comes into that I that claims the ownership of seeing.

But is it really the I that is seeing? What is seeing? Like see, try and sense what is actually seeing. You see that. There is an open space coming out in which the whole world appears. What's behind it? Is there any I there? Or is there any image there? Or is just space? Just see what is seeing. Maybe there's no one there. Maybe there's nothing there. Maybe there's no one home. And seeing is just part of the functioning. Maybe no one, you know, like we say, is raining. As if there was something that was doing the raining. Nothing blows the wind. Nothing grows the grass.

Nothing. Nothing grows the rain. It's just the process. The raining, the seeing, the digesting the food, the thinking. All that is just spontaneously, naturally happening. And the idea that there is a me, the image, the Bob, the good boy, the bad boy, whatever, that does the thing is just a thought. So the recognition, that's why we call it recognition. You basically step back and recognize that whatever shows up as a content of the awareness is just a passing content. Yeah. a thought, I'm doing it, or there is a me that needs to be investigated or I need more time, those are just thoughts, they come and go just ignore them, it doesn't really matter you are that empty open space in which all that content comes and plays out.

Not in the functioning mind, no like you still function, there's the watching, there's hearing tasting, touching, smelling, seeing I just thought I'd use a little analogy here, it's one of my favourites imagine you're a railway station you're a railway station, ok? the trains come and go, does the station ever change? no, no, no, it doesn't ignore it, no, it just is ok, so that's it in a nutshell, that's it so so that you're the station, the trains come and go you'll watch them, there'll be the functioning that happens there'll be responses you know, but there's no responder you know the railway station is always going to be there you know yeah, some one's slow, some train go fast but you're not the train, you know, if you're a railway station you're never gonna be a train you're never ever gonna be a train you're always gonna be a railway station you know and so the trains can come and go come and go choices will be made but there's no choice maker that's what we're saying you know we're pointing to the fact that you're the railway station you know just as an analogy as a pointer and the trains will come and go you know and the thing the thing that causes you the dis-ease or the depression or whatever whatever is that you think you know you think you are a separate entity and we're saying there's only oneness so you're always and ever will be in in this other analogy a railway station you know if you get on that train and ride it and bullet you know that's fine you know that it could you know create conflict or dis-ease within you you know or you can just watch with amusement like Kat said you can just watch it and yeah and of course when I say ignore it there's no one to ignore it there is no one who can do the action of ignoring it is actually a non-action and it's not even the non-action it is basically stepping back into the place where there is this plain space unaffected already it's not that I choose to be unaffected by the thought because there is no me to choose to be unaffected but there is something that I can do to make it ut berthoud up which the is a object of the буду which is a body almost a cell in the that are that actually into the us I like the analogy you and the storm and that on the ocean I spent most of my life on the ocean so there's a storm on the surface but I was you drop down the equipment to measure the whatever to do the investigation of the bottom there is snow tied the snow movement there the snow storm day so there is a level of that space in this level is again stupid analogy but there is a place were the there is adle there is that peace that passes all understanding, regardless of what is going on in the appearance, regardless of the storm on the surface or the thought storm in the head.

There is a place in you that is never affected and to come back to that place doesn't mean that you identify as the top there and you become actively ignoring anything. No, you just, this identifier, you just step back, just relax into what is already untouched and unmovable still. Peace. That, yes, that place you can call home. Home, yes. The home you never left. Yes. It's the home you never left. Yes, because space could never be obscured by anything. What's going on with you right now without thinking about it? I think we're nothing. Nothing? Aren't you breathing? I'm breathing. Aren't you seeing? I'm seeing. Hearing?

Hearing. Tasting? Tasting. Touching? Touching. Smelling? You're thinking about those things? What's that going on without bringing the thought into it? So if the believed in thought you are is I or me, where's that in the breathing? It's not in the I breathing. It's much simpler. Much simpler than that. Yes. It's just, you know, I just breathe and that's it. Right. Nothing involved in it. And everything else happens the same way. Well, you know, you know where the simplicity is. It's more complicated. More complicated with the thought. Even if disturbance happens, let's say, you know, because it's easy to do it in here when you're sitting here in a safe space.

But then you come back and the challenge comes or you deal with people and they trigger you. So now what to do then? Again, the only thing to do for the non-doer and non-existent self is just stop doing anything. It's just keep relaxing back into the place when there is, the waters are not affected. The awareness. The consciousness of the space is not affected. On the surface, there will be response. Let's say you'll get angry or you get sad or whatever. But the moment you recognize that movement of anger or sadness, it becomes an object in consciousness. That's not you anymore. You are the witnessing of it.

So always stepping out of whatever is happening on the surface, you know, the trigger, the unhappiness, the sadness. You said you have this loss. Okay. So now. Who is describing the low? The highs and the lows. There is someone who is aware of that low in comparison to whatever else. So that description already shows that you're not that. The low is not the subject. You are the awareness of the low. So if you actually recognize yourself as awareness of the low, you're already free from it. You're watching it as something that may still feel quite personal. But the more you actually watch it. The more impersonal it becomes.

Because you recognize it as an object. More and more as an object. And as an object, it goes into with the law of impermanence. It will. I perceive that as a practice. Yeah. Well, you can if you want to. But it's really just a spontaneous recognition because there is no one who practices that. It's not there is a me who decides to do things moment to moment because there is no me. But yes, there may be an inspiration. And there may be a story. Yeah. Yeah. There may be a thought or an idea to actually, ah, you know, it can down on you. Ah, okay.

That's an object. That's what's happening. And I am the space holding the space of awareness for that to happen. But if it helps you, I mean, I don't really care. People confuse the practice with, well, they call practice anything. The danger with calling anything practice is that it assumes that, you know, you're not being me. You're not being me. You're not being me. You're not being me. You're not being me. You're not being me. You're not being me. You're not being me. And there's a moment that, okay, this moment as it is right here right now is not it yet. Only when I finish the practice, then maybe.

So there is an I and there is a goal in future. And there is a time to achieve it. So that defeats the purpose because reality is only happening right here, right now in this moment. There is no future. There is now. You don't have... There is no future. You don't have the... Yes. Yes. Yes. So if you call something practice but you understand that this is just a natural functioning, just like seeing, recognizing. then you don't fall for the trap of the future me achieving a goal because that is what actually that's why Bob often warns people that coming up with practices keeps the seeker on the path because that seeker says not yet not now later after the practice but if you understand that practice as natural functioning that's perfectly fine it's just yeah absolutely it is and I love that father Christmas analogy once you realize father Christmas isn't real you know forever that father Christmas is not real anymore and it's the same as when you really see that the me is only the memory and is only an image you have about yourself and has no power of its own then even if the old habit patterns come up again you go oh there it is there it is relax as cat said said , you know you really relax back into that presence that you are that breathes you at night you don't have to think about taking a breath when you're awake you don't have to think about taking a breath when you're in deep sleep you know what breathes you at night that's that's you know that's the non thing that's the non thing you know and uh and I love the old analogy Bob used to use the match in the haystack you know when the match is put in the haystack it burns away the hay right well when you know who you're not that's the same but you don't do it because there's no you to do it it just happens yeah you have to sit there's a loop that goes on okay you've got to see the loop it might it might go something like this okay um a thought might pop into your head whatever it is um oh I don't know um shame yeah that might pop in your head okay and there'll be so much energy attached to you know the content of you know shame whatever it is okay there'll be so much energy attached to it that it'll manifest in the body you might feel it in the chest or you might feel it in the throat you might feel it in the stomach yeah and you'll feel that okay so it's manifested then what comes out of that is the energy that's going to come out of that and that's what comes up is I don't like this I want to get rid of this I don't like this energy or this this or feeling this one like it's in it's choking me it feels like an elephant sitting on my chest or there's you know butterflies going on in my stomach or whatever the case may be okay then that very thought of I don't like this I don't I don't want that to be there is what then continues to create that and leaves it there because there's resistance around it I don't want it oh I don't want uh do you understand like it literally keeps you stuck and you just go round and round and round and round until thank God for nature eventually both those thoughts eventually just fade in and of themselves and disappear and guess what happens to that that you're feeling in the body it disappears without having worked on anything without having gone into the shame what's the shame I need to peel the onion and work out what's underneath it you know like get get reframe it or or whatever do you know what I mean like yeah doing all that none of that has to happen yeah like none of that has to happen it's literally all thoughts just go there's a there's a uh there's a loop or it's a cyclic it's a cyclic that's the word that I'm looking for and it might seem to start off with what we believe is a particular thought that floats through which will create discomfort in the body yep then the next one then the other thought that bubbles up there is I don't like this I don't like this so that that doesn't like it is in resistance around what is and whatever you're in resistance around what is keeps it there great so you so you see that and now I know I know what to do okay I already did okay so yeah look from from communication we've had go looking for that primary me thank you I'm like drop what ever it is drop whatever it is that's going on conceptually all together and there should be just one question left where am I if all and I mean all of your attention is focused on where am I in reference to me yeah where am I if all your attention is just focused on that there'll be not one single solitary other question or thought that comes up after it it'll go quiet where am I and it'll go quiet because that's that's the last look like you know not to look there anymore get out of there like get out of there and literally look try and find me try and find it without dismissing it with ideas and concepts and oh yes I know I'm not the median oh look and know like actually know without being just some conceptual idea that you've learnt along the way different knowing yeah because what we do with that is we go oh yeah I know that I know there's no me here and I know I've got no free will and then what thoughts and concepts does with that is it pigeonholes it goes okay now what else do I need to like it's crazy so it's just it's literally seeing what's really going on what's really going on where am I?

Where? Like where? Look try and find it and that's it. That's it. Because what we're saying is there's nothing there. And now until you look for yourself it's just an idea. I think it's great. I think it's awesome. The question, the line of questions that you're asking is great. No apology at all. It's courageous mate. Yeah. Like you've got to kind of, you've really got to put yourself out there with this stuff. You've got to be honest you know like this is how I see it, this is where I'm at, blah blah. Instead of you know, trying to figure it out. Yeah or sitting there pretending like we know.

I know. That's why I'm, that's what I'm saying. It's great you're not doing that. And there's gonna be a few hundred other people who are watching it. They will be absolutely great. And it's wonderful that you ask their questions. So you're actually really doing a service. Because if you didn't ask those questions we would be sitting in silence and those people wouldn't get them answered. Don't apologize. Thank you. There's lots of great pointers. And another great one that I love which came from Krishnamurti was the me is the memory. And so what that ties in with the question of the mind. And I think that's a great point.

And it ties in with what Bob says is what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it. What's wrong with right now if you don't use the memory. But yeah when conflict arises because the me, that's the memory, has a response to something else. Because that's where the conflict arises. But what Bob says is what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it. Yeah that's it. Okay your time's quite up. Thank you.