We are elements, elements are energy. Sailor Bob Adamson - nonduality

And you can't get anything simpler than one without a second, not even two. And you know that already because can you start any count with two? So until they put that belief, that one essence on it, you know, that's when it all carries on from there. So I can't teach you anything and I can't tell you anything. Know that for certain. Nobody can ever teach you anything. Nobody can ever tell you anything. Because you recognise it. We all are appearances only. Patterns, shapes and forms which are appearing in that space like awareness, that pure intelligence energy or whatever you like to call it, whatever label you put on it.

In that space like awareness, it's just what they call no mind. And when they mean no mind or the unborn mind, they call it the unborn mind. That's the pure mind or another word of putting it is pure awareness. Anybody unaware right now? No, so you must be aware so no need to get confused with that word awareness and try and grasp something that we think is awareness. Because it's naturally with each and every one of you right now. They call it Sat Chit Ananda, Nama Rupa, the five factors of Hinduism. Sat is existence, Chit is consciousness. Ananda is loving to be, the bliss of being or whatever label you like to put on it.

And the other two factors, Nama Rupa, name and form. And all the names we put up in ourselves, each one of the names we got, that's what we're giving this form. That's what's sitting here, this form, each and every one of these forms we put a name on ourselves. The same as we put a name on everything or a word. And Nama, Nama form, Nama Rupa, they say is Maya, illusion. That means that you and I are illusion. So how can one illusion tell another illusion? But you've got to recognise that. It's a phenomenal manifestation, they say. Dictionary definition of phenomena is that which appears to be.

So the appearance is all seemingly solid and substantial, out there, in the air, everywhere around. But that's all it ever is. And it's all got labels on it. I tell you that in the Bible. In the beginning it was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. That's all God is, is the Word, the label we put on it. All things were made by Him, by the Word. There was nothing made that was made without the Word. Isn't that what we've done? We put labels, we've learnt words and put on everything. And when they say the great man, I have that, we know that innately in our language.

That's the chair, before you put the word chair on it. That's the table, that's you, that's me. Everything is pattern, shape and form. The mire is there, but we've labelled everything. Nothing was made without the Word. All things were made by the Word. And what we've done is the recognition that every word you've ever spoken or ever liked to speak has been picked up. We've learnt words. Anyone here was born with any word? And you didn't have any beginning until you learnt those words. And you learnt words about two, two and a half. That means... You must... You were alive for the first nine months in the womb and then...

And then nine months after you were born until the capacity of reason developed and you learnt words. So in those first couple of years you got on quite well without the Word. You had your parents looking after you of course and helping you, but you knew... If you're hungry you cried. If you're happy you'd giggle or laugh. If you're taken in by something you'd reach for it and try and grab it or push something else. You were breathing, heart beating. Everything was functioning naturally and effortlessly without the Word. And the other analogy they used to point that out in the Bible is the... Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden which was paradise.

They were in paradise. And they learnt... They put it... They ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In other words they learnt words. That's when we kicked out of paradise. And we've battled on from there ever since. All because of this conceptualising. They tell you again the great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. Drop the words. Look around the room right now and realising you're knowing what everything is without discriminating it. Without putting the label on it. You know it's a chair without putting the label chair on it. Without that word you know it's not one homogenous blob out there. All these seeming things are separate.

Pattern, shapes and forms. All separate. Separate and apart. Which we've put labels on it. And differentiated from the totality. It's the Word is not the real. All these words you've learnt. We've taken them to be the actuality. The real. Have a look at that. What we need to do and all we've ever needed to do is investigate. And see for ourselves. Whether some of these beliefs we've taken on are real or not. Or put words on all of them. But take the word. Take the word water. See if it's real. Drink the word. If you can. Quench your thirst for the word. Drown in it.

Swim in it. If you can't. The word fire. Does it burn you? Can you cook with it? Can you eat yourself? So this word I or me. Is that what you really are? A word or a label? Have a look and see. And we got the right one. I'm Bob. I'm Australian. I'm a good fella. Or not so good. The people told me I was a bad boy. Or I'm unhappy. Or I'm introverted. All these words have been added onto that I thought. And form a conceptual image. What I believe myself to be. And look at that word belief. We've taken on all these beliefs.

And they tell you that the belief is not the actual. It's not the real thing. Look up your dictionary. Dictionary of belief is unquestioning acceptance of something. In the absence of reason. Means we haven't questioned what's going on. And around us. We've just taken it on board. Accepted it without reasoning it out. Acceptance of an alleged fact. Without positive knowledge or proof. And they put many metaphors to point that out. To see that the word's not the real. Like the blue sea. Go down to the ocean. Get me a bucket of blue water. See if the sea's blue or not. And you look at it and you'll find.

Though it still appears to be blue. It doesn't stop appearing to be blue. And that's what this mind is. My, is my, my name and form. It's appearance only. The sky appears to be blue. We appear to be these persons. These separate entities. These individuals. Investigate it and see how separate you are. Separate yourself from the air. Separate yourself from the water. Take the body and the air out of your water. Take the fire. Get off the earth. Get out of space. Not separate from any of these things. And even this mind. We really are this mind. Made up of words. Concepts. Ideas. Emissions. Because show me your mind.

Each of us claim my mind. What are you claiming? Show me it. What is it? What is it packaged in? What's the shape? What boundaries has it got? Nothing at all. So there's no such thing as mind. As they say. Apart from thinking. And if thinking is the mind. And you are the mind. You'd be a particular thought. Which particular thought would you be? Well the primary thought is. The basic thought you learn is I am. You're seeing, hearing and all of it. And you add it to this. I am that sense of presence. As aware of presence right now. Existing. You're all existing. You're all conscious.

You're all happy to be. And that's happening. What you call presence. What you call presently. When you put that word presently in the immediacy of this moment. Immediacy is timeless. No touch, tongue or time in the moment. There's no such thing as time. But we've taken it with the words again. We've given ourselves space, time and all those things. Picked up these words and learnt these words. Believe it. The other metaphors. Oh I forget anyway. I forget a lot of this stuff. I forget a lot of this stuff. I forget a lot of this stuff. I forget a lot of this stuff. I forget a lot of this stuff now.

I forget the old. But we've taken belief that we are this person. That's another word. Where does that come from? Doesn't it come from persona? A mask? And what's a mask? It's something we cover our souls up. Our face up. I think we should put a mask on it. A hood or something like that that covers it. So we've got this mask of concepts. On this pure presence. Presence awareness. We put the mask on it. And that's what we call the persona. Persona. The mask. And that's what I just pointed out. Oh I'm Bob the Australian. The good for a little. Not so good. That's the mask I put on myself.

And I put on everybody else. This mask too. They're no good or they're unhappy. They're this, they're that. The other. And all the rest of it. We've got masks of words. Concepts on them. Images. You see I've got to tell you nothing. I've got to tell you nothing can trouble you. Except your own imagination. We hear these things. But how often do we look into them and really investigate. Nothing can trouble you. Except your own imagination. And what's that word imagination. Break it down to image in. And realise that's what we're doing. We're creating mental or conceptual images about everything. And taking the image to be real.

Like that mirror at the back of the room there. Or in these rooms. Have a look at it. What do you see? You see reflections in it. Or images in the mirror. Now you can't say they're not there. Have a look at them. They're there alright. But try, go up to them and try and grab one. See how real it is. All you'll do is grab the glass behind it. You won't grab the image. So you can't say they're not there. You can't say they are there. They appear to be there. And all these concepts about yourself. Words. Concepts are mental constructs. Nothing can trouble you except your own imagination.

What we are imaging in or imagining. And that is the fear, the anxiety, the stress, the guilt, the shame, the jealousy, the envy, the unhappiness, the depression. All this psychological suffering. All these labels we put on the sensation. A pure sensation comes up. Keep it there. We give it a feeling. This is sadness. This is anger. This is anxiety. This is stress. This is remorse. We put the label on the sensation. And see what we've done. Instead of the anger that comes up right now. If it comes up. How do you know? How do you know it's anger? Well I've had this sensation before. It was anger.

What we're told is it was anger. And ever since then, every time this sensation has come up, it's been labelled anger. And the energy of belief has gone into it. And instead of seeing it fresh and new like every thought, feeling and emotion and sensation is. Fresh and new. We don't. We put the old label on it. And go down the same old path. Anxiety, fear, distress. What happens if you look at it again and see it fresh and new? A fresh and new sensation. Have a look at it. Well, now put the old label. See what happens then. And this conceptual image you've got about yourself.

All based on dead images. Images based on past events, experiences and conditioning. Past events. The events are gone. The conditioning. What conditioning is there if you don't think about it? Is what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? Can't say it's good, bad, pleasant or painful without putting the old label on it. But if you're seeing fresh and new without the label, you might see something in it you haven't had the chance to see before. Because we put the old label on it and reinforce it before we give it a chance to really look into it. And what do we do then?

We resist it. We try to get rid of it if it's bad, if it's something unhappy. We don't want it to be there. We resist it. And resistance is conflict. Or it's a good image that comes up. We want to keep that. Not realise everything, everything in this manifestation, including you, me and everything else, is transient. It's constantly changing. There's nothing static about it. Anything static, the concept of time would be real. This present immediacy has no beginning. And no end. Because it's constantly changing. You can't grasp it. We grasp it and put a concept of time on it, on a dead image. Something comes up and we don't want the good things to go.

Not realising there's a transient. And have a look at that and see that that body you walked into the room with is not the same body you walked in the room with. It's changing. There are thousands of cells dying in it right now. And being replaced. Life, the functioning of which we call life, is going on. It's happening spontaneously, naturally and effortlessly. Effortlessly. Just the same as you effortlessly take that next breath. Expand your heart. Contract your heart. Digest your food. Blink your eyes. All happening naturally and effortlessly. But we think we've got to try and fix it. Make it. And this conceptual image that we've taken on board thinks it can do that.

Thinks it can alter and change things. And that's what we try to do. And that's when we get frustrated, anxious, fearful. And we try and keep the good things there. Not realising that transient, they're going to change anyway. Don't want them to go away. But they do go. Because everything in this manifestation is transient. Constantly changing. We don't want it to go. What do we do? We think we're running the show. We learn all these words and concepts. And ideas and images, whatever it is. We think we're running the show. We want to keep it there. We don't want the good things. We think we can choose these things to happen to us.

And we can keep them there. Not realise it's going to pass. And to try to stop it from going, we resist it. Resistance is conflict. And any conflict you are in is anxiety, is stress, is guilt, is fear, is unhappiness. Another call of that uneasiness is dis-ease. So there's resistance, conflict and dis-ease going on constantly. The other way, something we don't like comes up. To see it works both ends of the stick. But the other end, the things we don't like. We don't like it. The things we don't like comes up. What do we do? We try to get rid of this one. The first one we're trying to keep there, this one we try to get rid of.

And we resist it from being there. We do all we can to push it out. To get rid of it. Again, resistance, conflict and dis-ease. That's what our life is made up of. All this psychological suffering that comes about. And the psychological suffering is all made up of what? The psychological suffering is all made up of words. Fear, anxiety, stress, guilt, unhappiness, remorse, jealousy, envy, depression. All words, all concepts, all labels. Come out with a shirt, the label shirt, you wouldn't be too happy. You want the shirt itself, not the label. And that's why we put labels on and hang around and fixate in the labels and stay with the labels or the words.

It doesn't have to be that way. This thing we call mind. That's just another label. A vibration of energy which we call thought. Sound is a vibration of energy. It forms words out of sounds. Where does that sound come from? The stillness, the silence. Where does all the movement come from? The emptiness, the silence again. That's the basic screen in which everything appears in. All in that emptiness. That cognising emptiness. They call it a cognising emptiness. Another word for cognising is knowing. A knowing emptiness. And we take that the wrong way, we take a lot of these words and concepts and get trapped in it.

Because we think it's the... We are cognising the emptiness. I'm cognising the emptiness, me. But I'm not. It's the emptiness itself. It has that capacity. Or ability. Or whatever you like to call it. To cognise. And the Buddha told you that when he said emptiness is form. It is that cognising or intelligence emptiness. That's patterning, shaping and forming. All of this manifestation including me, you and everything out there. Or in there, or higher or lower or wherever you like to put it. It's forming the lot. And those forms, the emptiness is form and the forms are nothing. Other than the emptiness. So it's never changed its true nature from that basic screen in which everything appears.

Though all sorts of multiple forms, patterns, shapes and forms and variety and diversity of patterns, shapes and forms appear and express in it. The realisation or the recognising must come about that you are that. You are that life. You are that emptiness. You are that form. You are that formless. Emptiness. Or cognising emptiness. Already. That's what they call the great mantra. I am that. That's what they tell you all the time. I am that. See it. What do you do with that? Oh you say that's a good one. We say I'll keep that one and try that. But we don't really look into it. And see innately we already know it in our language.

Because you say that's a chair. That's the carpet. That's the mirror. That's the space in the room. That's the room. We put labels on that. And I am that. I am that. We believe body, mind, entity. But instead of saying I am the reality, I am the actuality. I am the totality. I am the self. There's only one self. Not many selves. But essentially what do we do? We say my self. And we've formed our self, each one of us, my self. That makes us multiple selves. When it's only the one self. Because it's self aware. It's self shining. It's self knowing. It's self breathing.

It's self seeing. It's the one cognising emptiness. It's selfing. It's doing all these things. But we put the self on. My self on it. We've separated it. It thinks this individual, this person, is the self. The self they're talking about. Because they tell you to realise the self. Keep realising this persona. Keep being trapped in it. It doesn't have to be that way. Realise it's the one self that's appearing and expressing, patterning, shaping and forming as everything. And you are that. Anyone who is not existing, you'll say I am existing. You'll know it immediately. You'll know it. Anyone who is not conscious or unaware. You'll know I'm not unaware.

So if you're not unaware, sitting right here and there, you must be aware. You must be existing and conscious and aware. Are you happy to be? Everybody wants to be. Nobody wants to be dead or recogs. So you're happy to be. So you are that Sat Chit Ananda. And what do you do? We need to discard the Naama Rupa. The name and form. No need to discard it even if you understand what it is. It's just labels. It's just words. It's just concepts. There's no reality into it. Basically, you're only that. Sat Chit Ananda. Another way of putting that is being. Knowing and loving to be.

You can't negate your beingness right now, can you? And you can't negate knowing that beingness. Knowing that I am. And again, the loving to be. We love to be. Another way of putting it is have an affectionate awareness of being. Affectionate is another way of putting love. Affectionate is awareness of that awareness, knowingness. Not with the body and mind, but the awareness of that. So warm towards yourself. Warm towards that being. I love to be. It's good. I don't have to put up with all the shit that goes on in there. Don't have to listen to it or take it on board. And love is life.

Life is love. And have a look at that. Aren't you this life right now? And that's what the Sargadatta Chant. He says there's nobody who lives a life. Nobody. So all these body, minds and lives we put on it are really nobody. It's really the life itself that's living and expressing and appearing, patting, shaping, forming as itself. I don't use the term God. Because we can get confused with that term. We all have a different concept of what we believe God is. Depending on whatever your traditional belief is. Whether you're Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Atheist or Agnostic or whatever. That's the concept you take on of what God is.

Or what religion is. My God is a Christian God or a Muslim God or whatever. I don't use or believe in that. I use the term intelligence energy. And that's just a concept too. Don't take that I am intelligence energy. It's just another label. But it sits better than what this traditional religious belief is. What's intelligence? I'm not talking about you anyway. I'm not talking about your intellects when I'm talking about intelligence. I'm talking about pure intelligence. The one intelligence that's patting, shaping, forming and everything. Look out there in nature. It's causing the earth to roll around the sun. The seasons to come and go.

The tides to come and go. All the tsunamis to happen. Everything. The fires that are burning right now. Patterned by that innate life essence. Intelligence energy. And the same intelligence is breathing. It's breathing right now. Are you the entity breathing? Wait a minute before I take this breath. I've got to read. If it's me, I'm going to breathe. Are you doing that? Are you the entity that's beating your heart? Contracting it. Are you the entity that's digesting your food? Replacing the cells in your body? There's no entities doing any of that. It's spontaneously, naturally and happening. Just the same as you grew in the womb.

What were you doing about that then? And you had no words to say, I'm doing this. The innate intelligence. That's the intelligence I'm talking about. That forms galaxies out there. Planets, stars and everything else are formed by it. Breaks them down. Explodes, implodes. Does all the things out there in nature. And it's breathing and beating your heart. Doing all these things. It's the one essence that's patterning, shaping, forming and experiencing everything. And you can't be anything other than that. Take your stance there. Realise it. Recognise it. And the mind is not the enemy. There's some useful words there that can be used. So you don't have to throw every word out.

But you recognise and intuit the ones that are useful. Intuition. There's a natural inner teaching. That knowing. Another word. Intuit. And that spontaneous intuit is to guide you. You are the life. As Christ told you. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. People thought he was talking about himself and set him up as a saviour, sage or a seer or a god. And then worshipped the messenger. And lost sight of the message they were pointing out. That's what we do. Take the message. Recognise the message. Test it out. Try it for yourself. And that's the only thing. You can only do it for yourself.

No one's going to do it for you. See if the words are real. See if these things are something. Look at time. Look at all these concepts. Look at this persona. Question it. Investigate it. Stay with it. And recognise or realise that you are that intelligent entity. You are that life. Another way to look at it. Take the life essence out of that body. And you've got a corpse. And look at that corpse. Before it gets too old and rots down and breaks down and sits too high and puffs up. Look at that corpse. It's got eyes in it still. It's got ears. It's got a mouth.

It's got a heart. It's got lungs. Kidneys. All the organs are still there. What's stopped it from functioning? The very life itself. The animating, intelligence energy has taken out of it. And it's not a bit good for you. And a good thing about it is that it's not a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. And it's not a bit good for you. And a good metaphor for that too is the computer. Look at that. It's got a lot of information in the computer.

It can do amazing things. Which the intelligence energy functioning through it, through these patterns of able to form, utilises it. It's got a lot of information to it. But without those power turned on, you can punch those keys forever and run the mouse over it. You're not going to get anything out of it. It's the same as that corpse. You're not going to get anything out of that life. And what does it do? It's just a normal life. It mustn't have told you something. It mustn't have told you that I'm not this body. This body's an instrument which I'm functioning. I'm that life itself. And in the eye of Christ I can say, I am the life.

That's what I am. And he says, there's nothing, there's only life. There's nobody or no thing that ever lives a life. There's only life, patterns, shapes, forms and expression, in all its variety and diversity, amazing and wondrous intelligence of it all. Intelligence that it can pattern in so many, in such a variety, in such a diversity, so many things. Take your stance there and see. Stop racing along trying to work it out in the mind, which we continually do. We get this idea or this concept, this theory, we take it and try and work it out, trying to find the answer in the mind. But we're intelligent people, you've worked on it for a lot, many years now, why haven't you found the answer there?

Might that just dawn? Well, I've looked hard in all this direction of my life and never found it. Maybe it's not there. Maybe I've been looking in the wrong direction. There's so many other things you've looked at and you've turned away from because you know, it's found in you the answer wasn't there. But the main answer, you've looked in the mind for the answer and maybe it's not there. You've got to look, well, I've looked in the mind all this time, I've looked in the mind all this time, I've looked in the mind all this time, what way is out of the mind? I've looked in every way I've always looked, it's always in the mind.

What way is there out of the mind? Because if I look in the mind with the mind, you'll still be looking in it. What way is there out of it? It must dawn on you, then there's only one way out of the mind. Full stop. Don't go there, don't encourage it. And you can't pause and stop because again, it's the mind that will pause the thought, it's the mind that's closer to letting. But you might be moved to look, try and look beyond it. What's beyond this thought? What's the next thought going to be? What's the next appearance? Look beyond it, you might get a taste then of what's prior to thought and what is prior to thought is that life essence that you are, the pure intelligence energy that vibrates as the thought, that causes the thought to be there.

Without that, it couldn't be a thought. And everything else. Won't get the peace of mind, they tell you you'll never get peace of mind. And they point that out by saying the peace is when the mind is not. They're giving you a clue again. The peace is when there's no thought going on. There's another clue to look beyond. And that's what needs to happen. Investigate and see for yourself. As I usually mumble it all here. I can't do it for you. I can't do it for you. I can't do it for you. It's happened here and continually re-happening again and again and again that I am not this body, I'm not this mind.

And so what used to come up and cause all sorts of problems now comes up and I can let it go before it takes hold. Or sometimes I can get caught. But I can no longer invest the energy and belief into it. And there's nothing in this universe that can live without having belief, energy being invested in belief, making it seemingly real. Because it's all that one essence, patterning, shaping, forming and appearing and expressing is everything. And you and I and everything else are that, always have been and always will be. And the patterns, shapes and forms appear, play around and disappear. And that's the wondrousness of this manifestation again.

It's constantly transient, constantly changing. Look at that and see if you can find a static point anywhere. A point that there's no static point here. There's no no self nature to anything. I mean by that there's no personal self nature to anything. Because it's the one self that's patterning, shaping, forming and appearing. That's not my self. Which I've taken on and believed. We took that on because our parents taught us words and they'd never looked at it and never pointed it out to us. We go to school and they teach us more words and more language and never pointed it out to us. And it goes on.

We start reinforcing it ourselves. But down through the ages there's always been a few that have recognised it. And that's what the Scriptures and that's formed around. But today in the ways of communication today it's much more people taste of it. But they take it and want to add more to it or look it around, put a different concept, different label on it, split it up and go on with the word. And the words go on forever and ever. Of the writing of the books there is no end. So, there it is, it's up to you now. Question, doubt, look into it. Investigate. See for yourself.

If I'm wrong come back and tell me I'm full of shit. But I won't believe that. I can't believe it anymore. I might have believed it one time. But there's still a sense that it's on the centre of it. So there's still a sense even watching the thought and watching it come. So there's still a sense that it's on the centre. There's the one sense, but you take that sense to be the sense of being. Being a personal sense. Mr Gadda talks about consciousness and awareness. So that sense of I am and being the centre of it, is that the consciousness as opposed to the awareness?

How do you distinguish between the two and how do you step between the two? Consciousness is existence. Totally unaware that it exists. Awareness. Oh, I got it wrong. Totally aware that it exists. So that's what awareness is. The awareness is there, then the consciousness comes upon it. Awareness is just that pure knowing that you are. Then the conscious comes up. Or, as they say, the unborn Buddha mind. The no mind. We think when they say no mind, you've got to get rid of mind as such. But mind, no mind is the pure mind. You can't say anything about it. You can't say anything about it.

You can't say anything about no mind without putting the concept or a word on it. So that's the unborn mind, what they call the unborn mind. That's the awareness. Yes. Everything appears on that. Everything manifests and expresses in that awareness. Consciousness is just how to put labels and everything on it. What can you say about awareness? Nothing. What can you do with that? Nothing. It is the background, the basic screen in which everything appears in. It's separate. But it is. It's an existence. Utterly aware that it exists. The content might be different, but is the consciousness itself different than anyone in this room? When the pattern breaks down, it's so-called, that's where the consciousness goes.

It goes back into pure consciousness, pure awareness, which is seemingly formed. This pattern is utilised and expressed through this pattern. It separates, and it's gone. And it needs a vehicle to express through. In its pure consciousness, there's nothing going on in the world. There'll be no world. And this Shakti vibrates or dances. Shiva Shakti. Shiva, the static aspect. There's no world appearance to it or anything until Shakti, his consort, his partner or consort of his, dances or moves, vibrates. And that's all it is, a vibration of energy. Only that. There is a, like Bob says, the consciousness is conscious. We can't say that awareness is not conscious.

It's neither conscious nor unconscious. It's nothing that can be said about conscious, awareness. But consciousness is conscious. And the think that you experience, the, you know, that there is a centre through which, from which the, the witnessing is happening. But if you really go into that centre, can you see? if you can tell anything about where does it end. You know, it is the one thing that you can say it is here. So I close my eyes and the experience of being is here. It's not that it is here as opposed, in the opposition to there. No, it's here. But that here doesn't really have location.

It doesn't have the distance. It's not that 10 meters from me is not there anymore because that is a concept. That is an idea that there is some other distance. So the here is, as Bob was saying, the here is always here. It's the same. Every point in consciousness experiences itself here. So that here is only divided by different locations, by the images in the mind, by projecting the body sitting in certain locations. And that consciousness, being conscious of being, is the consciousness. Awareness does not have the consciousness of being because it's completely static. So it's like Shiva is static. Shakti is moving. Shakti is the consciousness.

Shiva is awareness. But awareness is a space in which the consciousness can play, in which it moves, experiences. Experiencing is the consciousness. Awareness is the background. And the here, like if you really, because it is kind of misguiding. Yeah, look, there is a self center. There is a center. I feel there is something there. So I didn't get to the point of no self yet, because there is, there is something there. That is always going to be there because that's the being. That's the here. The here now. The here and the now is never going to go. It's just that this here now is not going to be personal.

Now it is just objective, not objective. It's just there. It's there just for everyone, just for every plant and every animal and every insect. The here now. Image comes and takes it to be personal in the body or centered in the heart or head or whatever. But that's only image that locates it. The here is totally unlocated without the interpretation. So when it seems like it's here, you know, set in the heart and the body, have a look. Try and turn inward and look and see if you can find where is that spot in the body. If you've got a pain in your body or an ache in your body, you can pinpoint it.

But this conceptual image you've got, though it's seemingly solid, we've been there so long, have a look and see if you can find a point or a center to it. And it dissolves under it because there is nothing there. It might appear. And when you ask yourself, where am I looking at that from? If it's seemingly in here and I look at where it is, I must be looking at it from somebody else. If I was here with it, it would be right here, but no. Go back to where you think you're looking at it from. That can be out here or somewhere else, anywhere.

But there's no static point that you can pinpoint and say, there's something you can really hang on to. And that's the trouble is when we've taken ourselves to be myself, we think that self is the personal self. And that's the boundaries and limitations we put upon that self. It is the one self. There's only one atman or self. It's that one self, patterning, shaping, forming, appearing, expressing it, as everything. And every thing must be that. You and I are things. So we are already that. The trees are things, the flowers are things. Can some thing, come from no thing? Because the basic screen is no thing.

Can some thing come from no thing? It can't. So the things, as they say, are appearances only. Patterns, shapes and forms. Ideas, images. Nothing can trouble you except your own imagination. The mental image we've formed, the conceptual image, taken it to be real. And reinforced it with more thoughts, concepts, ideas. Isn't a pattern, shape or form still something though? It appears to be. You could call it a pattern or shape. It can all be broken down. Put it under a microscope. Yeah, okay. Microscopic level. Yeah. Yeah. It's an exact pattern of energy. It's nothing. Yeah. Just kicking the tires, haven't we? I understand. So I'm something in a dream.

...of a dream. Yeah. ...as dreams are made of. Mm-hmm. Can you repeat that? What do you mean? Can you repeat it, Bob? Oh, we are such stuff as dreams are made of. Yeah. ...are made of. That pattern, shape and form, you were. Shakespeare. Yeah. Much ado about nothing. Yeah. It's my favorite. It's a tall tale told by an idiot, pull us down and fury signifying nothing. Yeah. ...on the other side. Mm-hmm. Nothing doesn't mean a vacuum in the world. It means no thing. No pattern, no shape, no form. Didn't Ms. Righadatta say- I can't remember if he said it was knowledge or understanding as the booby prize.

I don't remember hearing that. Because it's really to the point of who wants to know. And would you rather have the lightness of being in your life or would you rather get back into the mind to stir up questions and answers, and answers of which you never get the real answer. That's right. Yeah, good point. There's no answers in your mind. Yeah. Because there's asking a question. Yeah, exactly. Just another part of the mind, the memory. The memory of me, which isn't the real. And as Banking says, everything is perfectly resolved in the unborn mind. The unborn mind is a pure mind. Again, before the culture.

The culture will work itself out. Like these fires. There's been fires like that before today. There'll be fires like that again. Like the ice ages. Nature works itself out. And we as human beings, are less than a grain of sand on the beach. We think we're going to change the world. We do, we parasites, but it's not really us doing it. It's the nature doing it through us. It's the nature giving us those patterns of greed. So it is still, it's not about blaming anyone. It's just recognising what's behind it. Label human being off. Take the label human off and call God the supreme being.

Take the label supreme off. What's left? Just the pure being. Anyone not being right now. And see that everything in this room is being. It's being a chair. Being a carpet. The discrimination, the differentiation is the word. That's what we've done. We've learned words. And it can be very useful to be able to say, and you know, when it's utilised, but very self-destructive. Because the words we've learnt vibrate. They're just a vibration and they vibrate in the opposite. It's good, bad, pleasant, painful, happy, sad, loving, hating, positive, negative. Have a look at your mind and see if it functions any other way. than dualistically. There's absolutely no duality or non-duality.

There's a one essence. Even though all these pattern shapes are formed. It's that one essence that's expressing through them. Expressing as, as, as. Everything. And you are that life. Not the body and not the mind. You are the life that's throbbing or pulsating through that body. Gives it the capacity of reasoning, seeing, tasting, touching, working things out, and doing this, doing that. All the doing of life itself. It's the life that's rolling the earth around the sun. It's the life, or the intelligence energy that's causing the sun to shine. Putting the energy through that sun. And the life is the energy that's rolling the earth around the sun.

And the life is the intelligence energy that's causing the sun to shine. And the life is the light. Light is energy. You are the light of life. The light of life. Let your light so shine before men they may see your good works. Let your light so shine before men they may see your good works. Light shining through that Light shining through that will enable the spontaneous natural functioning to happen. He moves life. And the life was the light of men. That life is the light that you're living by. Reasoning by. Thinking by. But no label fits it. The capacity for reasoning, that's like all part of the creation as well, isn't it?

It's all the imagination. It's all part of that creation. So that's not the end. Again shows a wondrous Look at all the different patterns sitting in this room right now. Different ideas, images and concepts that are going on. Through those patterns. Yeah, think of the word shoes or whatever you want to point to. And each one of us will have a different picture in our head. A different version of the word. And where's the common stuff? I mean I Yeah, one of the things that I find interesting is that you know there's that phrase seek and you will find. But most of what the mind the conditioned mind does is seek to find another thing to try to find the thing that you already are.

And it gets But that's a game. It's almost like that's how it survives, if you want to say. Survives is to keep seeking something instead of just being what you are in the beingness that's right here right now. And as some of you know I brought this thing. As some of you know here last year I severed tendons before I came to the meetings and I've been here a year ago. So I We're talking about we're not the body or anything else but I brought I think then that I was going to put in my arm. Humor always goes well in a serious thing but here's my other arm.

Which is to show that if I were to have lost the arm and had it repaired and everything this is not who I am. I am not my body and stuff. But you know if anybody needs a hand with anything just let me know. Lightness of being. Different ways of explaining it. The body as well like some therapy that they use. Use a mirror if you've got a damaged hand. You can see the good hand. And it gets you to move the good hand. That's very cool. And helps heal the damaged hand. And they do things like they've also done experiments where they have a false hand and you feel the sensations of tickling or pain when they actually stimulate the false hand.

And they're curing phantom pains with that. And to cure phantom pains. If someone had amputation and they still experience tingling or itching or something. And they of course do experiments on the real hands. They put a mirror or they put a... How quickly brain takes...assume that something like if you're tingling a hand that is fake and at the same time behind the mirror or the wall you tingle a real one the brain very quickly makes a connection. And the next thing they do they come with a knife. And the brain comes up with the response of scream because it's already assumed that the fake hand is the real one.

It's really all assumption. The assumption of ownership of the body. The assumption of ownership of the entity in the body. This is all assumption that hasn't been questioned. Which can very very easily be we can be easily disillusioned when it's investigated. But you're right. It's quite interesting phenomena and it's quite well researched and presented. The belief in this is my body. Absolutely. And the reality. Changed the reality. And you can see also this is really funny phenomena especially I've noticed that with men you know how they get really attached to their motorbikes or cars. They get so... If the car gets broken they start actually looking for the place where it mirrors their own situation.

The electricity in the car is broken. Oh this is all about me. You know this is...it's a story. But it is how the ownership extends you know. I'm not just my body. I'm my car. I'm my house. This is my identity. If this starts aging or breaking that actually hurts me personally because or the style of hair or the face or the job. Yes. Even the aging. I know people who are totally suicidal because they're aging. You know I don't want to be aging face. That's identification. To the point of real suffering. Oh yes as you say identification with the job and losing it. And then who am I without my job?

Who am I without my career? It's just so many ways we find to torture ourselves. And of course we are not guilty of it. It's a pattern that we learn by observing parents and teachers and everyone. It's a set up. Oh yeah. On my tribe on my country, on my group, on my football team. I was thinking about to be re-elected and there's this tribal response you know. You know like the enemy and I was thinking about how rudimentary the mind is. You know it wants a villain. It wants a villain. And then I was reflecting on my life how people I've cast as villain I have been unable to sustain that resentment and now they are friends.

Or they are lovely family member. You know like it's just so primitive to label stuff good and bad. And yet you know there's this rise up of people wanting to form a tribe because of the threat. That's what creates all the wars. And the thing is my Jesus is better than your Jesus has caused more deaths. The thing is being part Irish I'm just always fascinated that you have Northern Ireland Protestant and then Catholic. Everything else can be the same. And their lifestyle and what they do. The way they eat. Everything else except if you're Protestant and you're Catholic you could potentially have been killed beaten to death or whatever.

Hated. And yet religious. I'm just about to go there in August and my friend she's from Northern Ireland. And you know she's Catholic from Northern Ireland. And yeah. And we were going to book a place to stay. And she said oh I can't stay there I'm a McCormick. And that's an Irish Catholic name. And I wouldn't want to stay there because you know if it's run by a Protestant even though the trouble is over I wouldn't take the chance. And it's almost embedded and ingrained cellularly because it's the BS of the mind. It's the belief systems of a mind. And you have to be taught that behaviour.

You can't do a behaviour that hasn't been programmed into you. And so all of us and the way we act and do has been programmed since we were a little bundle of love coming out. So yeah it's all BS. It's all construction isn't it? It's all a construction of the mind. And everything here that we can perceive is mind made. Yes. We can make our own world and people it. Someone was saying before thinking how the word is a collective hunch. Like I don't know if you see yellow the same way I see yellow. Yeah it's just a word like juice, like a scarf. It's so many different versions.

So there's not a similarity but it's just a word. But there's certain things, you know love is something that most people can relate to more as a feeling and an energy and as a description and stuff. It's different than a thing. I like the way with love. Yeah, life love. It's just presence awareness. Everything else is bubble and froth like consciousness or yeah it's it's um like I like that thing my aunt did with this form of things. This is true and yet my sister who's now in Canberra gasping for breath in the fifth week of fires is suffering. And it's sometimes difficult to allow compassion to be sitting alongside these beliefs and these ideas because suffering exists somewhere or apparently.

So I think there's almost a danger of becoming somewhat elitist about this and sort of saying look it's all Maya doesn't really matter. When someone's bleeding to death at your feet. Yeah. It's a different Again if you focus on that it won't become some conceptual idea you'll be acting spontaneously what is naturally your move to do in that situation. Just don't ignore things. Yeah. She's also saddened unfortunately because it's such a tragic thing I've flown in just two days ago is that the there is a situation which has an incredible physical suffering in the situation. It's just that if the story of the mind can make her suffer even tenfold in terms of what's going to happen when the fires die down.

What's going to be left of me? How are we going to survive? That mind will never have an answer on what's next in anything. Whether it's ten minutes from now or two days from now. But all you can send to somebody which I do would be prayers and love and not get into a story and just be able to do what reality required for her own safety or her own peace as best you can get it. And that's really where I mean I'm not on that level but I had a cancer issue last March I had severed tendons in my shoulder but whatever for whatever reason I did not talk story about it.

I didn't want to go anywhere farther to see what would happen down the road. I wanted to see what would happen if I had another cancer or something would get worse am I going to be able to do it? And so that's basically she's got a reality that is really terrible and tragic and I think that compassion being sent by the human part of us is crucial but it's that sick conditioned mind that can take us even to greater suffering. I agree with that. I just think it's important to keep that in mind. Oh absolutely. We're moved to act you know and I think the less the less that we're in the story the more compassionate we become.

Yeah. Because we're not we're not caught up in a story it's just a natural functioning and when there's suffering in front of you like Bob said you'll be moved to act you know to help you know because the less we're up here the more we're in here. Yeah. It seems that there's a simple distinction between the normal way of life which is everything is suffering as the Buddha said all is suffering and then as we were sitting here quietly this morning the times where there was no no suffering evident so it's more like a the end of suffering or nirvana you experience both but habitually we tend to live in the samsara in the mundane existence but we're never really far away from that from that switch to when the mind is peaceful and there's no worries there's no problems.

Everything's perfectly resolved in that one one moment. So the suffering really stems from the perception ignorance in every perception that takes this to be duality and then you've got the duality of pain suffering anxiety physical suffering and all of that. And I thought when I understood who I wasn't that perhaps I wouldn't feel you know so there was an actual fear initially of letting go because I thought I wouldn't feel anymore in fact it's the opposite I feel more you know because I'm not caught up in a story blocking me from feeling anymore I'm just with what is right now whatever that is not that there's an actual you know name for it but there is a responding an acting to to whatever is What are feelings like without a story?

The elements that's the thing that comes up for me where the elements so sometimes it's raining sometimes it's sunny sometimes there's thunder and lightning and sometimes there's just bright sunshine and we're all of that if you use that analogy to explain feeling that's what I like to use because I don't know from any given moment what's going to come up and if there's not a big story around it all whatever's going to come up is going to come up then someone else might label it and say oh you're angry I'll go oh I've just got a lot of energy today you know but it's whatever comes up in the moment and then it's labelled so if you're not up here whatever's coming up will just flow and you can't guarantee what that is ever yes of course because to a mean we've been brought up to think oh I shouldn't be angry big boys don't cry girls should be sweetness and light at all times and not say anything you know overly assertive there's all stories around all sorts of things you know but when you know you're not the story and neither is anybody else you're basically the elements that's what you are and the elements you can't tell the sun not to shine you can't tell the rain not to pour you can't say stop that lightning right now and we're playing with our feelings with our responding whatever it is right now free, limitless and having faith that whatever that response is is right that it's not going to harm someone it is what it is even if it does harm you never know the harm may be a wake up call exactly there's no one being harmed there's no one to be harmed and who's going to have faith that's how I see it who's going to have faith there's a general trust that all is well there's a general all is well and everything is happening as it should you know they're about the only stories I like to entertain all is well and everything is happening as it should but who said that who says that all is well and everything is happening as it should how do you know that?

I don't know that I hope it's true but I don't know that how do you know that? how does anyone know that? what is wrong with right now if you don't think about it what is wrong with right now if you don't think about it it must be well good answer good point and also even the idea of knowing that I know that everything is ok that knowing comes really from the head because the it doesn't need that assurance it is as it is end of story it isn't any other way so that's it it's neither good nor bad nothing can be said about that but the head wants to say oh I have a faith that it is alright or it is as it should be that's still from conceptualizing and also I wanted to add because it kind of sounds wrong when I say that Michael was saying that you can hurt someone and that's ok too of course it's not ok to intentionally try and hurt someone unless someone is constituted this way they can't stop it but it may happen that with the open heart and the greatest intentions you give someone a hand and you prevent them from crisis and you prevent them from investigation and you helped and did you really because sometimes you accidentally say something and someone interprets it and you will bring them down or will make them upset and that's how life has it and this can actually also create some sort of ripple effect and it can take them to the next stage it's really relinquishing all the credit for whatever happens even whatever I'm saying with the best intention or whatever the intention I'm not saying it it is how life has formed it is conditioning in me I would not be saying things that are completely out of character because I don't have networks in the brain that would let me run it and what I am saying what is ingrained in that form is not me either because I haven't chosen my parents my schools, my society past experiences they all came one after another and the outcome is this so yeah it always only is I heard a gorgeous thing from Julia yesterday I don't think she even realised when she said it when I was talking to her on the phone it was about responsibility and breaking up that word to response-ability yeah Bob was hammering it to her for three years so she's got it good but I just thought it was beautiful when you break up that word I just thought that was really beautiful and I think it's really important that we're just little pure patterns of energy bouncing along with the ability to respond so we have a response-ability I just thought it was great it is beautiful responsibility and I've been going on about responding adding hearing, tasting and listening and I've been going on about responding and adding listening and touching, smelling responding because try not responding you know it's like that guy rang up Bob and said alright if I know who I'm not if I can't do anything if I can't do anything he said try staying in the phone box we're naturally open to responding and the right action will come we don't choose the action but the right action will come I'm so happy that you're here and I'm just waiting now I'm not waiting but it's like you know like we go to trying to work something out it's like I'll just wait and the response comes up and I think it's funny lately I've been watching the mind the mind's sort of pattern is to have an idea to do something a certain way and then I watch I'm doing it in a completely different way or I'm doing something completely different and I think oh that's what I'm doing well that's what's happening you know it's like I had a certain idea to do something a certain way or this or that and then I notice I'm doing it differently I just think wow ok that's what's happening it's just interesting to watch it is it comes up sometimes that there's a belief around it sometimes the more you worry about something it gives it attention so you've got something big coming up in the future so the idea is well if I don't worry about it I'll forget about it but even that worry is not helping at all no no that's right Bob used to call that the wish fulfilling tree you know if you worry about something it's like the wish fulfilling tree it's just a long way of investing your energy because now you invest your vital energy that intelligence that creative power you waste it you put it into the drain really by kind of affecting your body because the chemicals in your body will be cortisol and adrenaline and it will be fight flight effect that's really not supportive and also that energy is spent in a way that is not being constructive and the same thing happens with Chris what you were saying you see when people are in a situation that there is a physical problem or there is a pain or there is a danger or there is someone trapped in the body with cancer or someone trapped in a house that is burning this is non duality is not going to help him on a physical level although it may relieve the anxiety or fear from dying but understanding that the situation does not require worry or black scenarios or projecting any sort of how can it get worse or how horrible destitute or how wrong or how I could have done it to me this is not helpful so this is the psychological suffering that can be put aside the physical pain yes this is something to be dealt with although in a moment it can also be seen as just a vibration of sensation without the label it's not always available to see it this way but at times it is and then you would know everything about it but yeah the psychological suffering that's what is not necessary I mean it is necessary until it isn't until it is seen through that is not necessary and as Jane you beautifully expressed that we have the tendency to run out from the raw feeling raw emotion to the story because the feeling can be overwhelming especially as children when we learn words and we constantly talk to our heads in our heads because that's the process of learning by repetition and then this voice this repeating voice becomes the identity of that commentary in the head and that commentary what a way to sneak out from that sense of incompleteness when the child wants more love it doesn't matter how loving family it has the growing the little monster there is hungry it wants more affection more love more energy more attention it constantly wants more attention and it doesn't get it and it's threatening so now distraction going to the head and the voice is a great distraction from that unfulfilled need and this develops to the point where we go to the story instead of being with what is with the raw feeling emotion and that's the suffering because that emotion is a vibration if it needs attention and it gets attention it clears out the water finds its even level and it stops doesn't need to run once it starts spinning the habit of spinning it never stops and it gets worse so really just coming down to what is staying with what is rather than with what isn't because what could be should be or would be is an imagination the black scenarios or the self-pity this is all imagination it is not the present situation what's happening right now and right now if there is a danger or if there is a pain or there is anything that is going on in the story the body is usually pretty well equipped with that survival instinct which will make the decisions without involuntary decisions just like it beats the heart the same way it will look for the way out or it will look for the or it will stay with the energy that is contracted so that energy loosens up so really just trusting that moment without running away into the story which can be sometimes that distraction can be sometimes necessary and it is to be appreciated also because that's the way life has it and also there is a greater sense of presence for anybody that is in those crises because there is basically what is right in front of them that is pure life or death survival and not a story and then there are people hopefully that can help they can help and others to survive and it's not they can't have time to get into a story and on our end we can feel the sadness and compassion for them and wish to help and everything else but they are practicing more presence than somebody who is in a story in their head because they don't have time for a story this is such a good point this is a brilliant point because our friend Bob's in mind Peter he is in the in the squad like an emergency evacuation point with all the people who have been evacuated from their own houses and they are sitting in a situation where they don't know if the house is still there or not they might have lost everything by now and there's quite a few people in Australia right now in that situation but they are quite yeah him Bill as well they posted on Facebook how blessed they are to stay in that together to experience the kindness to experience the togetherness they can actually focus in that time of crisis on the qualities that they would otherwise perhaps miss out on and not even be able to touch and I remember even more horrible story of my ex-husband's grandfather who said the best years of his life was the second world war where he was in the forest he was a partisan he was fighting for some other people seeing dead bodies all over but the friendship, the togetherness and the loyalty that was something that he never experienced before and after sense of connection and the purpose and the mission and now we are sitting here and we are imagining what they are going through and we are imagining the worst things and we completely miss out on the perils that they are experiencing in the moment some of them are, some of them may not some of them may be just through a plain nightmare and that's of course a horrible thing but can I really help them if I put myself through the same nightmare imagining how bad it is for them probably not there are probably better ways to be present and to be helpful so I hope Chris you don't I mean I totally feel your heart and the compassion for your sister gasping for breath but sitting here and going through the same thing in your mind is not helping her no I'm thinking of driving up and getting there actually so it's a bit more practical than that but there is a lot of story around and understandably so you love her, that's so understandable yeah I was in a I heard on the news that Lily Kelly was under threat which is when my cousin bought a house a couple of years ago and until I actually heard from her there was a real depth of concern there until I knew she was okay so I texted her, she didn't get back to me so the communication lines were down so then I rang her brother who is a QC at a law firm in the city and he wasn't there either and so then I left a message and then finally two days later she got back to me and said you know that she'd been evacuated, she was in Canberra um she, friends of hers had lost their houses and lost everything she didn't know when she left whether her house would be there when she got back she's going back today and um but she's safe and she's alright and she said it's now going to be the community rebuilding their lives you know but you know there was there was a lot going on here until I heard that she was safe there was a lot going on and exactly this is what I was going to add whatever is happening the easiest thing to deal with that is to recognise that this is love speaking the worry it comes from love and concern and even you know I spoke to Julia yesterday as well and she was pissed off with herself because she did she did something wrong and that disappointment in herself it was also love to actually be able to recognise the underlying motive behind everything as love and stay with that rather than divert into the craziness of the mind but just this is your concern about your friend or yours about your sister or cousin or Julia's concern about her apparent mistake that she's done with someone all of it and she was angry and the anger is love too like we were talking about anger is labelled anger you're not meant to be angry you can't tell the lightning exactly and that was really disappointment in herself because she cares so much about herself that she doesn't want to look stupid or be stupid that's love everything is love really it's all love I love it's either love or life or truth we were talking about labels for that presence love or life or truth but yeah there is only love really so that's behind all these reactions yes that's right I'm going to find that quote of Nisargadatta which is actually illustrating it in such a profound way what is it?

life is love and love is life there's only life yes life lives on life there is one more that is a little bit longer and that one goes like this does love act deliberately? yes and no life is love and love is life what keeps the body together but love what is desire but love of the self what is the fear but the urge to protect and what is knowledge but the love of truth the means and forms may be wrong but the motive behind is always love love of the me and the mine the me and the mine may be small or may explode and embrace the universe but love remains can you send me that?

I posted it a few times I'll send you the whole picture so good I mean I've probably known that but it would be nice just to have it as a you can put it on the fridge yes I put the picture of Nisargadatta on this one with the sunset thanks Kat there you go stubby holder stubby holder that's funny oh dear I should have gave one of those to my son for his birthday we've got a picture on it what's this love? God is love anyway time's caught up thank you