This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
Could you speak a little bit about the silent mind and the thoughtful, as in thoughts going mind? And I'm asking that question because in spiritual literature it's often referred to the fact that a quiet mind, a still mind, is just beingness. Well what is this mind that we've got a still? Is there such thing as mind apart from thought? No, the mind is conceptual, it's all concepts. It's easy enough to drop a concept, isn't it? Yeah. The concept's dropped, what is it? It's then non-conceptual awareness. Well that's it, so non-conceptual awareness is awareness with no concept, which would imply the mind being totally not there.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And again, if you understand a concept as a concept, just a mental construct, there is an awareness then that's not bothered by the mental construct or anything else. You open your eyes and look at this room, what's it all appearing? This awareness. Awareness. Now can you separate the appearance from the awareness? Not really because we're doing... No, what's being seen and the seeing is all inclusive. In that seeing, and you're not conceptualising about it? No. That's why they say, you know what I'm saying? Nothing is seen, yet it is seen. Mm-hmm. What you're actually seeing is nothing, but it appears to be something.
Even ours is appearing, it's still... Can the... Can the mind then be active and engaged without thinking? Can it be a receiving tool thereby, if you like? Well, you can't... Is it... Don't call that mind. Don't come in and say, if I dropped a snake at your feet right now, you'd be up and off out of the room or away from doing something about it, wouldn't you? Mm-hmm. Without thinking. Mm-hmm. That's spontaneous, effortless, natural function. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's constantly there before it comes up. It was always a little bit later, though it seemed instantaneous, right?
Mm-hmm. There's that knowing, that immediate. That knowing is always immediate. And it's not knowing this or knowing that with a concept. You know what things are before we label them, actually. Mm-hmm. So we're actually knowing with the mind as well as other aspects of self. Well, it's translated into a concept or a word, you could say. It's the mind that thinks about it. But the knowing is that pure intelligence. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Pre-mind. Yeah, pre-mind. Yeah. I was just wondering if the mind, you know, is the activity of dividing, conceptualizing, you know, that that is the activity, the interpreting activity. I was looking to see if the mind has other advantages that we can call on, if you like.
You know, but... That's just how it translates in words and labels. I mean... I mean, there's no idea. It's like what is actually going on in the functioning. Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah. Do any more than that, because there isn't any more. Yeah, there is. It's just... Yeah. Yeah.