Sailor Bob - nonduality - relating is duality 26 Jan'20

It's the same old, same old. Very simple. They would, they've made it hard over the years by believing we are that simplicity, that person, that individual. Instead of realizing it's all one essence appearing, patterning, expressing as everything. As I tell you in the scriptures, here over Israel the Lord thy God is one God. There is none other, there's nothing other than that. And that's the Mahabeku. I am that. I think it was one of the Third Patriarch of Zen or something like that who had been a song mate about him and he was a fellow that traveled to find his master and he came to on this guru, I forget their names well, Yu Ning was one of them I think.

And he wanted to tell me he wanted to find truth so he said he gave him a job. A job in the kitchen as a cook. I think he was. And he's there for a few years and the other fellow there was a head monk and they all believed him would take over the lineage later on. He wrote up something on the walls because he wasn't going to say it himself to prove he knew more than the others. And they said oh what a wonderful thing he's written and everybody praised it. And the cook who couldn't read or write asked one of the others to read it for him.

And he read it for him and he saw it and understood it and he wrote something underneath. And it was far out than the other one. And the head of the monastery came down and saw it. They were all raving over their statement. And he knew who wrote it. And he asked him to come and see him at midnight. So he came and saw him. And they passed on the tradition. They had the robe and the staff. And I forget what the other thing was. It doesn't matter anyway. It's all a story. And he said take this but you better not stick around here. Because they'll kill you.

All the others will be jealous and they'll kill you. They had it up to the mountains. And the other monk that was believed he was the one I think took off after him when he found he'd gone. And caught up with him in the hills. And he said I want that staff and what was the other thing I said? I forget now. The robe. The robe and the staff and another thing anyway whatever it was. And he said okay you can have it. But he says first show me your original face. And he saw it. And so he didn't bother to take it. He'd taken the staff and we saw it.

And one became the head of the northern school and the other one the head of the southern school. But what's the original face? Now centuries later if you read Douglas Harding he points out that naturally. Have a look and see what your face is. You can't actually see your face. That's your original face. Now a lot of the eastern traditions. And a lot of the western traditions. People are frightened what's being said about them or to them. And they're frightened of losing face. They feel affronted or confronted. If only they had realised there is no face. It's all their original face. There is no face.

Then what have they got to fear? What have they got to dislike? And that's what we've got to look at here. That's what we try and point out. Nobody. You can't see your face. Look in the mirror you can see an imagined face or picture. But your actual face you can't see. But you know that life essence is all that we are. The cognising emptiness. They call it an emptiness. A space like awareness. All different ways they point it out. Can you show me space? Can you conceptualise and tell me what it is? It is no thing. And being no thing is empty of anything.

And there's nobody in this room who's not knowing right now. Another term for knowing is cognising. When the Buddha said there's a cognising emptiness. We've never investigated that most of us. And take it to be the we are cognising the emptiness. We're seeing the. We're not realising it's the emptiness itself that's patting shaping through all these manifestations. It's doing the cognising. It's that emptiness. It's the knowing. There's always that pure knowingness. I made the statement then that emptiness is form. We think all these patterns, shapes and forms which we are and everything around us is. Patterns, shapes and forms. We don't realise that they are the emptiness.

They're only appearing to be patterns, shapes and forms. What I call a phenomenal manifestation. And the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. So everything we see here, outside and anywhere else. And everybody is. Doing the same thing. Is that cognising emptiness. That is expressing through all these patterns, shapes and forms. Through all the appearances. How could it express all the pattern, shape and form. If there was. If the pattern, shape and form wasn't there to express through. All that patterns, shapes and forms are vibrations of that intelligent energy. The cognising emptiness. And if everything is that. And that's the Mahavacca. Mahavacca is the great mantra.

And how do you express yourself? You say I am. But we haven't taken the reality. I am that. We hear the mantra. We never look at it. We never understand what it means. I am that. I am that emptiness. And you realise everything is that. That's the chair. That's the carpet. That's the tree. That's the flower. That's the sky. Everything is that. And so it must be the emptiness. So they made the statement. So they made the statement then that emptiness is form. And they pointed out also that the form can be nothing other than the emptiness. So that you, me and everything in this room are that empty form.

Patterning seemingly solid and substantial through the vibrations and the patterns we take and they seem to express as. Emptiness is form and form is emptiness. And it's all that cognising emptiness. The one essence, pattern, shaping, forming, appearing and expressing as everything. And when you say I am that. We just now the words not realising what we're saying. We say I am that person. Or I am that separate entity. I am that individual. Not realising you are that totality. And it's only the one totality. One godliness if you like to call it that. And that's what they tell you in the scriptures. They put it out in many many different ways and we hear it in many different ways.

Very few take notice of it. Don't they tell you in the bible the Lord thy God is one God. There is nothing other. Only God. And they tell you that God is omnipresence. It's the total presence. Omnipotence the total power. And the total intelligence. Omnipresence the total power. Omnipresence the total intelligence. Omnipresence, omniscience. What's the other one? Omnipotence. Omnipotence, total power. It was pointed out in many different ways. But how many of us take notice of it? We've taken on the pattern shape and form. That we are this person. Persona. Where that came from. Persona, a mask. A Latin language. What's a mask? A mental image isn't it?

A mental construct. A thought or an image is a mental construct. A thought construct. Made up of thought. How many thoughts were you born with? I didn't have any thoughts when I was born. I didn't learn words until I was about two, two and a half. I can't remember my birth even. So how can I say I had any beginning? And again it tells in the bible. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was. The word was. The word was. The word was. That was God. That's all that God is, is a word. Another label we put on something we can't grasp with the mind.

But something that is actually the mind that's pressing through us. And it can't know itself as that. All things were made by him, by the word. And there was nothing that was ever made without the word. And isn't that so? Everything you see, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, we put words on to label it. And if all things If God is the word and all things were made by him. God, that's all we can understand. God in a better way than fictionalising some big daddy in the sky. That's going to beat you up if you do the wrong thing and it's sinful. Or it's going to grant you this rather than that.

We are already that. And the sense of separation and dividing it into an individual is the only problem we've ever had. Taking on board the belief we are all the same. Taking on board the belief we are this person. We are this mask of identity. The conceptual image. And that conceptual image is a dead image. Because you're not talking about what is right now. We're talking about what we were yesterday, last week or when we first remember going back. That's dead. And a dead image can't keep up with life. And that's why we're always suffering and in fear, anxiety, stress, guilt, shame, remorse, unhappy. And that's why we're always suffering and in fear, anxiety, stress, guilt, shame, remorse, unhappy.

Because we're trying to keep up with life with the belief we are this dead image. We've got to look through this and see for ourselves. But the pattern, shape and form is not the reality. That's why I say at the start of most of the meetings, I'm not speaking to anybody. I'm not speaking to any mind. I'm speaking to that I am that I am. That sense of presence that expresses through the mind as the thought I am, just as this, nothing else. Remember that's what we told in the scripture. Be still and know that I am is God. You can get these words again.

When did you first learn words? When you were about two, two and a half. So you must recognise if I'm living till two, two and a half without the words, I must be prior to the thought. If I'm prior to the thought, how am I going to find the answer in the mind? Because it's thought made up. These concepts, words, can't teach you anything, can't tell you anything. I can only point and ask you to look to where I'm pointing to and see for yourself. And in the pointing, you'll see the pointer is like the signpost up on the road. Bourke Road, this direction. But you're not there.

Until you look, follow the pointer and reach it. So that's all the pointers are that we point to. Grasp it yourself and go to where it's pointing to. Look within and find where it's pointing to and see the truth. And know the truth, that's the other scriptural statement, know the truth and the truth will set you free. What will you be free of? The only thing you can ever be free of is the bondage of belief. The belief that you are this person, this mask. This conceptual image. I'm not talking to anybody, I'm not talking to any mind. I'm talking to that I am that I am.

The sense of presence that expresses through the mind as the thought I am. How would you express to somebody what you are? You say, I am. Instead of just recognising for what it is, you say, we've got this conceptual image, I'm Bob the Australian, the good fella or not so good, I'm unhappy, I'm sad, I'm depressed. I'll give it. I'm not taking into it its bare natural essence. I am that. I am that intelligence. I am that energy. I am that sat-getter-nand. Existence, consciousness, bliss, loving to be. Never look at this body-mind. We've taken on the form instead of seeing what we truly are. We've taken on all form that we are this limited person, this individual.

The good fella, the bad fella, the unhappy. And after all, I'm only human. Take ourselves to be human beings, and you are being right now. You can't negate your beingness. And if you believe in God, you'll call God the Supreme Being. What happens if you take that word human off? And take the word supreme off? Try and separate the beingness and the shroom. Look around and say, well, that's being a chair. That's being the carpet. That's being you. That's being me. Everybody in that room and everything in this room is that beingness, the pure being, which is not separate, but we're separating it with the conceptual image, believing in the word.

So remember your birth because you didn't have any words. You didn't learn words until you were about two and a half, somewhere around that age. You were functioning without the word. And have a look, investigate. Are you this body? Innately, you know you're not the body. Appropriate. It's a lot of joy. Because don't you say, my body, my mind. And you know you're not the body. And you know you're not the mind because you say, my coat, my car, my house, my shirt. Are you the coat? Are you the car, car? Are you the house? Are you the shirt? You're not. So maybe you're not the body either.

But we've never looked to see that. You know very well you're not the car. Because you see, that's something separate and apart. But we don't see ourselves as. We think we are that essence, that person. Because we say, my self. Not realizing there's only one self, only one Atman, that's self. That's the self shining, ever fresh presence awareness. It's the one self. That's patterning, shaping, and forming, and expressing as everything. And that self, if you like to use the term God, is the godliness. It's pattern shaped and formed and expressing through you as you. And if it didn't have that pattern shape and form, what would there be to express through?

Through that, learning the words, we've discriminated with the words. But we've got to look through them and see again. To recognize our true nature. The same with the mind. Show me a thing called mind, if you believe it's my mind. And realize, is there such a thing as mind? Well is there? Have a look. If you can't show me a thing called mind, and you realize, break mind down and realize it's nothing but thought, and thought is nothing but a vibration of energy, how can you say it's my self? You think that's all you are? A vibration of energy? Or are you that one essence?

That's enabled all these pattern shapes and forms to appear or express through. So realize that an expression is happening through that life essence that you are. And that's what Christ told you, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. People thought he was talking about himself. He wasn't, he was talking about that sense of presence, pattern shaped and formed as that Christ, was the way, was the truth. It was the self. Realize that every word you've ever spoken, or ever liked to speak, has been picked up along the way. Because you had no words for the first couple of years of your life, did you?

So when the words must have come about, well and truly, after you were born, and whoever they learned from, your parents. Parents fastened you around, you spoke words, didn't they? And said, you little Bob, you're a good boy, you're not so good, or you're a little Johnny or a Billy, and then what happened? That innate intelligence, the capacity of reasoning develops at about two to enough reasons, this little Johnny they're talking about, this must be me. This must be I. So then we take it on board, I am little Johnny, or little Billy, or little Bob, or little Kathleen, or whatever. And from then on, we've taken ourselves to be that's believed in separate entity.

This individual. This persona. This mask. And we suffer accordingly because of that. We've separated ourselves from the totality of the reality. Trying to live as a separate entity and as an individual. And that's what the cause of all our anxiety, all our fears, all our stress, all our guilt, remorse, guilt, shame, jealousy, envy, all our psychological suffering comes about because we're related to this conceptual self. And believe it to be real. Not the reality. It's that which never changes. And isn't this body you call you, the separate self, this entity that you believe yourself to be, isn't it transient? Like they tell you in the scriptures?

It's constantly changing. And see that right now. When you look at it and realise you haven't got the same body as you walked into this room with right now. And you won't have it in the next five minutes. And might notice it when it's seemingly so fleeting, in the moment. But look back on it. Is it the same body you had ten years ago, or five years ago, or last week? It's not. Take for granted we are that static body. That's the reality. But it's not. The reality is the essence that you are. A vibrating intelligence energy. Look out there in nature and see how it's functioning.

The earth's rolling around the sun, isn't it? The seasons are coming. The sky's going in and out. It's constantly changing out there. What's doing it? Isn't it the vibrating intelligence energy that's doing it? Which we call God, if you like. And you can call it that if you like, if you know what it represents. Not Big Daddy in the sky, or somebody we think is going to beat the hell out of us if we do the wrong thing, or make us whole or complete. But it's the same life that's rolling. The earth's rolling around the sun, causing the seasons to come and go. And it's that same life that's breathing you.

It's beating your heart. It's growing your hair and your fingernails. It's digesting your food. And that's why it can be translated as, I am that already. I am already that. I'm not this persona. Never was, never will be, or never could be. So we've taken on the belief, and we suffer from that belief. Look how that works. The capacity of reasoning, we say it's I or me, and believe it to be this persona, this mask. Everything becomes relative to that belief in me. We're related to that conceptual image. And it isn't relationship, reality, duality, it's relationship. Reality is duality. Relativity. Relativity is duality. A problem is relationship.

Relating to this, relating to that, relating constantly to the state of which we are. Not seeing everything as it is, but all related to. And relationship is dualism. And what we're trying to point out here is there's absolutely no duality in non-duality. There's only that one essence. You are that. You've always been that and could be anything other than that. But you are that. You are appearing, in the pattern, shape or form, as something seemingly different. But the difference can only come about by the thinking. Dualism can only come about by thinking. Past and future, what's the way the thinking's happening? Good and bad. Pleasant and painful.

Happy, sad. Loving, hating. Positive, inevitable. Me and other. Relationship. Relative to. Duality relates to the me and the other. Me and other. That's all that so-called karma is. Relative to me. Everything is related to me. And what's other? Karma is cause and effect. That's all it is. When you're relating to this me, you realise that me is the cause. And ask yourself the simple question, can there be an effect if I'm not relating to a cause? If I'm not seeing it as either bad or good, what is it? Just as it is. If I'm not seeing it as pleasant and painful, what is it? Just as it is.

What is its constant change? Like the body is constantly changing. That change, that transience, there's thousands of cells dying in your body right now and being renewed. That's what the change is. Constantly changing. But it's breaking down ever fresh and ever new and ever moment. Time is a mental concept also. If me is the cause, if I'm not relating to the cause of me, see me's books. False. Can there be? An effect if it's not related to a cause? There can't be. So all the psychological problems we take on, all this karma, it's all the one essence appearing as everything. It says good, bad, pleasant, painful.

We don't want the bad. We try to stay with the good. Not realise that the good's going to go and the bad's also going to go. How many bad states you've been in before and have passed, how many good states there's been for a little while. And they've passed. Constantly changed. That's the transience of this manifestation. The reality of it is the changeless, static screen on which everything appears. When we take my self, we take that my self to be the screen. But we're relating to the personal self. That's why we never get it. The self is the pure self. The one essence. Not the personal self.

Take the personal out of it. Take the pure self out of it. And you are that self. See how it functions? Something comes up and I like it. We don't want the good things to go. We want to keep them there all the time. Not realising they're constantly changing and they always will be changing. We don't want it to go. So what do we do? We try to keep it there. We don't want the bad things. We want the good things. Trying to keep it there, we're resistant from going. Try to stop it. Not realising no matter how much we try to keep it there, it's going to change.

When you look at it and see it's constantly changing and it always has. And always will. You're going to continue to believe it. You'll be a bloody idiot if you do. Something comes up and I like it. We don't want it to go. So we resist it. And don't you realise that any resistance you are in is conflict. You're fighting it. Trying to keep it there. Not realising it's the way the functioning happens. Vibrates dualistically in the appearance. It'll always will. But knowing the truth about it, you're set free of it. The belief. We don't want it to go. We resist it. Resistance is conflict.

And conflict makes you unhappy, depressed, guilty, uneasy. Another word for uneasiness is not at ease or dis-ease. So there's resistance, conflict and dis-ease going on you probably right now. Something comes up that I don't like. I don't want this to be there. You mightn't like what I'm saying here. And you don't want it to be there. So what do you do? You resist it and try to push it out. Again, conflict and dis-ease. That's what our life's made up of. Because we've taken the wrong tack, the wrong direction. And locked into the false. And left the belief, left the real behind. When you start looking at the real, you realise it's never been contaminated.

Never been corrupted. Things have appeared on it. They've come and go on it. The things that come and go on it, the expressions that come on it, are not it. But look at a movie screen. Have a picture on it. There's all sorts of activities going on. When the film finishes, what happens? Has the screen been ever contaminated or corrupted by the picture that the movie's been on it? Is that body you believe yourself to be? When the life drops out of it? Or even when the life isn't, when you understand what it is? Have you ever been the sinner you've taken on yourself? Have you ever been the fear-based essence you've taken yourself to be?

You haven't. Because that screen's never been corrupted. We've taken the belief that I am, this is myself. The separate entity. Leaving yourself open to take on all these things, which we never investigate. So when it vibrates in the opposite, it's all the one essence. Two ends of the one stick. So when it comes up, instead of trying to get rid of it, that I don't like it, leave it as it is. And it's transient. It's changing. Like everything else in this manifestation is transient. And it'll move on. But we try to get rid of it, or we try to change it, and the good that comes up, that's not going to be there forever either.

That's going to change. If there wasn't any discrimination, how could you discriminate or believe any difference? It would be the one essence, that total essence that you are already. And pattern, shapes and forms to express through, and pattern, shape and live through. When you're in tune with it, recognise it, and abide as that, as they tell you, life's going to be much simpler. Much more ease. The ease of being. Not in the conceptual imaging all the time, and the constant vibrations, patterns, shapes and forms. When it breaks down, what happens? That life leaves the body. And you've got a corpse. Now that corpse doesn't, can't see, can't hear, can't be aware, can't choose, can't think, can't do anything at all.

But all those organs are in the body, but they're no use at all without that life essence. So what are you? Are you the conceptual image? Are you the life essence? That pattern, shapes and forms is all these things. Recognising that, and then you can be like, as Christ said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. I'm not this body-mind entity. I am that. I am that one essence. That will be pointed out here. If you've been investigating, look in the right direction. You'll never find the essence. You'll never find the essence. You'll never find the answer in the mind.

I tell you that right here and now. Because the answer is not there. It is the nature of the mind to vibrate. Or what we call thinking habits. We break the thinking down to I think. And that's the I think, or it's the conceptual image we put on it. But the thinking is the constant, it's changeless. The changing changes. It's constantly changing. And in this change it must vibrate into the opposite. So it's only like a change. Have a look at your mind. If you're not past, it must be future. If you're not pleasant, it must be painful. If you're not happy, it must be sad.

Why fixate on one, forget the other? Try and make it one-sided all the way. Know that it's going to vibrate into your screen. That's what the manifestation appears as. And knowing the truth about it, you're not going to take it on board and reinforce it to the extent where it drives you mad or silly. It'll come. It'll come and it'll go. So that's what we point out. Ask and look along those lines. Probably a bit all forgotten. It will come out in your questioning. Or those that listen to it, heard it, they can point it out in a different way. But the pointing is all that's necessary.

Like as I said, the signpost is not it. The description cannot be the described. Not the set of times. Yeah, the map's not the trinity. Not the set of times. Not the set of times. Not the set of times. But you can use the map. You can use the signpost. You can use the description to point. It's that you're not there that with the description. See what it's pointing to and take your stance there right with that. And get into it. Doesn't anybody want to take it on board? Stay in your thinking if you want to. But if you say to them, doesn't anyone want to take it on board?

Stay in your thinking. Stay in your thinking if you want to. No, I think it's so quiet there's no words. It felt really good just hearing you, Bob. It's been a couple of weeks since I've been here and I've been exposed to a kind of a whole new approach to a few things and just hearing you cutting right through to what's real just felt really comfortable being here. Why would it do that? Why would what do what? What would do what if there wasn't a recognition of it? Yeah. Recognising itself. So naturally you're going to feel comfortable. Yeah. Because it is the comfortability itself. It is an ease of being and that's another term.

It's been pointed out many different ways. You know, I was like, that'll take it to heart. Make it heartfelt. The answer is not in the mind. That's right. The mind is just another instrument. It can be used for them but it can be self-destructive because it vibrates dualistically. What do you mean by make it heartfelt? What do you mean by make it heartfelt? In the heart as the spirit or the core of being. Take it into your core. Re-cognise it. And try to not think what it means because that's where we get lost. You know, like when you love someone, you don't really think what it means to love or when you see the beauty and it moves you somewhere within, you don't think.

But when you try to kind of go to the head and see what the love is, it's not going to work. Take it to the heart. It means kind of just sink it in, breathe it in and just let it, yeah. Natural sense of being. I heard that example which is not exactly the greatest but it is the sense of certainty that comes with the idea that in duality you have with, let's say, your sex. Like, I know I'm a girl. Like, I won't wake up in the morning and thinking, oh, am I a woman or a man? Or put some... It's not. It's just something that is completely certain.

I don't have to think about it. It's there. That sense of certainty is an analogy to the certainty of presence, of being. You don't have to think about it. What does it mean? Like, take the being to the heart. It's already there. You don't even have to take it. It's just step out of the head and what's left is that sense of being, that certainty of being that doesn't need questioning or convincing or remembering. Yeah. Or anything. It's effortlessly there. And everyone is already there. Why make it difficult? The only thing you know for sure is that you are. It's the only thing you know for sure.

Yeah. Hmm. And nobody needed to ever tell you that. Your story about the original face I think really helped. It was like, well, of course there's no... There's no one identity. There's no... Well, if you know that... If you know that, losing face when we're affronted, we think, well, that's what we believe ourselves to be. And we think, well, we're frightened of losing face. Especially the Japanese, they don't like to lose face. You know, and the rest of us don't either. When there's no face to lose, who cares? And that's what was helpful because there's a subtle me wanting to be a better version. But there's no me.

Come about it. And when you realise that nothing can trouble you except in your own imagination, all your desires and fears just dissipate because they're all relative to a me. And so all the improving and the becoming and the thising and the thating, it's all relative to a me. Yeah. We got up with a friend yesterday. She couldn't come this morning. But? She had the epiphany at night when she suddenly saw her life in a way that is completely impersonal. That all the wounds and abuses that she was going through were absolutely perfect, taking her to the place of realisation, the place of compassion and gratitude.

And all in just one epiphany. That's just the way that it sometimes unfolds and shows itself to itself. And the innocence of her and everyone else involved in that. And I think that's what's so profound. That she just kind of mentioned and laughed. And I say, now you know what the self-love is. Because once you see what the self is, you can't help but love it. You don't have to improve it. You don't have to make it shiny or make it socially acceptable, whatever the, you know, the values in society are, you know. Here it's mostly wealth, which is very sad. But maybe not everywhere.

Not in this room. Yeah. But seeing the true nature of everything and loving it for what it is without needing to perfect it. That's the love. It's not forcing myself. I, you know, I can compare myself to others. I'm not so bad. You know, I don't hate myself. You know, it's all right. That's not. But I have to try to love myself more. That's not the way. The recognition that this is a dawning again. When that is so obvious. That that brilliant intelligence, that nature which shaped and form that pattern, that personality and every single action that happened and experience that happened in life is so much more than any story could say is so much deeper and more profound and beautiful and in place and intelligent than any interpretation we can give it in the moment.

And that brilliance totally blows your mind. And then you just stay in. Oh, wow. That's brilliant. That's that's when a self-love doesn't need to be taught and a self-improvement is not necessary. And from that place, when you actually see that everyone else is in the same situation, they've been through darkness and they've been through light and they've been through shame and humiliation and all of it. And you can see how how there is no difference between you and them. So the the love for that and the recognition of the other. As the same. Brilliant intelligence and a love for that intelligence in here and that intelligence in there is just as inevitable.

An improvement may still take place as I say sometimes, you know, when the eagle is flying to the other side of the of the planet for the summer or whatever, or is is every single flight it takes, it gets better. It can't help it. If if a driver is driving and it has 10,000 kilometers this year and 100 or 20 hundred. Next year is going to get better. It is the improvement is I mean, the change is the rule. The changes is is the rule of life is the only constant to change. But the change to better comes with the practice of like cooking gets better.

The more you cook, the better you cook. You don't have to have the story of of improving yourself. That improvement happens effortlessly. And if it comes from the humble place from the place. And of gentleness and and that natural recognition of not forced love. I have to be kind. I have to be my own friend. I can't be against myself. That's the story. But if it comes from that place where where that sweetness and that warmth is already there, the improvements not really that necessary because the compassion that it every action comes from a different place and not different places already good enough. It doesn't.

Have. To be better. It doesn't need to be compared with any possibilities. That's anyway. That's that's how I see the self improvement. How about you. What do you think about self improvement. To improve. Yeah. Where is the self. Yeah. I love what my saga says because I've been reading that again every night. And he just says there's the slow. Ripening fresh and then there's like your friend had sort of killing you know sort of a big bang or big breakthrough. And then there's a then there's this not slow ripening sort of just gradually sort of saying things quietly and then there's a big sort of epiphany.

Yeah. But all of it's good. All of it's love. Like you say all of it's happening as it should. And there's. There's absolutely. You've got absolutely nothing to do with it. You've been exposed to the truth and the truth eats away the lie. I love that. Yeah. It's a way to lie. This is. There is only love. And this is when I know that I am that love. That living love. I said no one I know that living love is as people will come to your door. I'll recognize it in you. So it's the love that is alive for the love that's living. It's a life in you.

They come to my door too. Yeah. No wonder. Which stands true when we're talking about that all is well no worries and all is love. I mean even you know when you look at the songs of a lot of great artists or people that are inspired or had downloads if you want to call it of inspiration the Beatles. All their you know their songs. Love is all there. Is love is all there is. And yet you know all stimulus or neutral to you give it meaning from the mind and the mind is the one that's the storyteller that can make you suffer. And again as you said go from the good.

Oh that's a wonderful thing or that's terrible. But it's still a story. And when you take away the story you're just left with what is. And that's where the love is. Yeah. Story is the lie. Yeah. And I love. Is the. Story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I was thinking this morning and again I'm leaving soon so I'm going to miss all of you. I'm heading back to the states but I went to get extra shampoo at the for the place I'm staying at City Temple and I was thinking God somebody should invent mind away. You know. You can wash out all that bullshit. You can just you know all of a sudden probably sell but some people would go no I want the better mind away.

But it really is. It's all about going. You know it could be called full stop shampoo. You know just one rinse and you're done and you're back in the present moment and back in the love that you are the joy that you are in the peace that you are. Yeah. Right. Exactly. The Beatles. They'll never be another year. That's what a little ram jumped over the cliff. I think it's that same love that expresses through people with their art like Marika. Yeah. Beautiful art. I love what you say. Isn't that actually absolutely beautiful thing to know that there never was a you. Yeah. What an incredible liberation.

I wonder. It's called a great liberation. Mm hmm. Just being liberated from. Person. Who. Mm hmm. What could be more beautiful than to know and to live that. Mm hmm. And at the same time to know that you are this totally impersonal force that is the action and that action is forever alive and forever changing and it's forever evolving. So it's really fantastic because all we have really done is become much definitely not this little tiny. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I would love to have a marketable shampoo. That gets rid of that illusion. The action figure. Yeah. The action figure. That action figure.

Yeah. Yeah. The action figure. Yeah. Yeah. The action figure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That action figure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Always evolving. Mm hmm. Never stagnant. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Always changing. I know people who use alcohol this way but it backfires. Yeah. Yeah. It's not recommended. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I could call that bad too, alcohol, but it brought me here. Yeah, that's right, yeah, that's right. Me too. Or not. The whole universe conspired and used available means. Well, they call it methylated spirits. I was a methylated spirit for a while. Infinite creativity of that one. The words joy and aid is love are running through my head now.

Incredible words. Yeah, can't go wrong with love. You can't go wrong with love. Although it seems like there is again the division good and bad. Love is good and lack of love is bad, but there is no lack of love. It's just a little bit of clouds in the sky. Yeah. My son started teaching me that on guitar yesterday. Really? How amazing. How amazing, yeah. Yeah, good timing. Yeah, good timing. But it's interesting when you think about those words because they're like the pairs of opposites. Nothing that you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung. Nothing you can learn how to feel inside.

It's easy. All you need is love. So it's basically pointers to who you really are. To who you really are. The words to that song. Yeah. They definitely got down low. I think they were doing a lot of drugs. Yeah, but they also did Maharishi Mahesh Shrogan. Right, they did. After they did all those drugs, they went to India and did Maharishi. They got down low on it because even Nowhere Man is a great song too. Yeah, yeah. You know, making all those nowhere plans for nobody. Yeah, that's right. You have to have the Beatles in the Legend show. Yeah, we had one once. Oh, did you?

Yeah. Oh, okay. But it's true. I mean, you know, all these things are so profound in a way that we, you know, were, they hit us and then all of a sudden it's a different understanding of it. That's the key. Aside from music. It's amazing they were turned on to that then. Yeah. Incredible. Back in the 60s. Yeah. Yeah, pointers are everywhere. Like if you have the eye to look, you see them everywhere. In the poetry. In the poetry. You see them in the nature. You see them in every birds song or piece of art because this is all expression of the same one. It's just to have the eye and keep recognizing it and keep, yeah, appreciating it.

Once you know who you're not, yeah, it's revealed everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. recognize it. Again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Yeah, you know who that at this point is because you're at 70. Yes? Yeah. Driving. Yeah. Yeah. You're driving. There is no write-down and very little dash. Mm hmm. You get exercise and that's what you're doing. That's the thing about it. It's just, you're finger and toe and your feet are certainly the, this, today's story. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Yeah. I couldn't experience anything at all. If I couldn't hurt myself, there would be no feelings whatsoever.

So there would be nothing. So it was almost like a joy in stubbing my tongue. I remember once when I worked for Bob in a health food store years ago and I cut my finger on a bolt on this shelf and there was like a piece of my finger sort of hanging off and Bob said, just watch it, just watch it, just watch it. You're not the body. Just watch it, just watch it. See the sensations, see the, you know, and just... And then watch it heal. Yeah, it was just a sensation. Yeah. On day three, I was sitting there and it was last year actually, nearly a year ago, I had an excruciating pain here and in my butt.

Because you're supposed to try and sit as still as you possibly can. And I thought, this is insanity. What am I doing? I'm just going to physically injure myself. This is just stupid. You know, there's no point sitting here and getting physically injured. But it was on day three where they did that. They said, put this place awareness. So you're putting awareness all around the body. So for one day, you just focus on air going in your nostril. That's it. And the next day is focusing on this little triangle here, just the sensations here. And then eventually day three, going around the body and just putting your awareness in different places.

But the idea was to put the awareness on any particular spot. So this bit's calling out for attention because it's painful. But I'm only focusing on this bit here. And then when you eventually get to this bit, you take away any words. So there are now no words. And so you place your awareness there. But it's not even the idea of awareness. It's just your attention is there. And basically the pain disappeared. It disappeared on that day. Totally. Put the concept on it. And I think they didn't want me back either. The dispassionate. I was a reject. And they said I couldn't come back because I did hypnotherapy and I had my own meditation.

Like I taught meditation at the time. So they said, when you're ready to stop teaching meditation and when you retire, you can come back. Wow. That's not usual though. Yeah. It's a little group there doing their own thing. Yeah. And then of course it was going to take lifetimes to get it. Like you might have to go back. You're supposed to go back two or three times a year. And meditate one hour in the morning. Yeah. And I was thinking a lot. And it might not even be this lifetime. And if you ask the teacher if they got it, they say no. Do they? No, even going to admit it.

Oh really? Yeah. Oh wow. It doesn't mean that there isn't hundreds that did. Yeah. I didn't realize that. It wouldn't go on at all. It's nothing to get. Yeah. You're right there. Yeah, I remember when I did a few vipassanas. I did I think four of them. And I loved it all. I loved the struggle. I loved the commitment because I was so desperate to get it. But I would do anything. Not four hours sitting with a strong intention. I was sitting all ten. Because I was so committed. But then I went to the school in India when I learned different techniques of meditation. And I realized that if I sat those twelve hours or ten hours per day.

And actually turned the attention back of who is placing that attention out there. Turn around and see who is doing all that doing. Who knows? Perhaps the moment of expansion. This is what happened to me when probably a year after my... Second vipassana when I got to the non-duality retreat. And I got that question asked. And suddenly everything stopped. Suddenly the world opened up. Just listen to a few sounds and then check who is listening. Or look what you're breathing and then see who is watching. Just turn around and see who is the action figure. Is there anybody there? Or the good thing is to just keep the mind completely busy with whatever it is doing.

Is it watching sensations? Is it watching the mind? Is it the sensations? Fine. Just hold one sensation on your leg. Another one on your back. Just hold sensations so mind is busy. And then turn inside and see is it anyone doing it? What's happening? And that if you can locate someone somewhere. Good. Okay. Check where are you locating it from? Oh there is someone in the head watching the food. Okay fine. How do you know there is someone in the head? Where are you looking from? And then it is inevitably the attention is just going to completely drop any shape any form. Now you are just pure field of awareness.

The mind will quickly come and tell you, Oh no, no, you are here. You are the body. You are in the body or whatever. But then you can see where are you looking at that thought from? That thought is again another pattern in the field of awareness that is completely unbound, unlimited. So this one was I was surprised. I loved every Vipassana I did. I loved it. But I was surprised that that little component, if that was included, what a difference. So that wasn't from their instruction at all? No. No, no. That was I went to India and I found I went to Pune and I met the magic of awakening, the non-duality school there, which got me ready to listen to Bob, whatever he had to say.

It is interesting you say that because I did that six months of deconditioning at Guru Maharaja because I was like, I was living with a guy who had been a preemie or a lover of truth for many years, Brendan. And you know, he said, Oh, the techniques of meditation are fantastic and you know, you should do them and blah, blah. So I went and did the six months of deconditioning, which basically shows you who you're not, basically. Yeah. And then, you know, you get the hearing, tasting, touching, smelling techniques. So your hands over your ears, focus on the breath, focus on taste. Yeah. And, and so I did that, you know, for X amount of time.

And then they sort of said, yes, you've, you've graduated. And, you know, so I was meditating in the morning using those techniques and in the evening using those techniques and, you know, and my kids were running up and down the hallway one day screaming and fighting and carrying on like pork chops, you know, and, and I just went, I just am, what am I doing? And I just got up and yelled at them. Yeah. And I never really consciously sat down to do those techniques again, consciously. And that was in the eighties. But you know, there's times when I just sit quietly and just zone out or zone in.

But yeah, it's interesting. It is, it was a path. And at that time Bob had given me I am that, which I was reading as well. I was reading that I'd read alter your life and I am that three times or something. And it clicked in. I believe it clicked in then, you know, I knew who I wasn't, but it's all good. It's all good. Cause it brought me to the point I am. Of the I am. And now I'm. So I've stopped doing it and realizing that I am. Yeah. Cause it was just an escape. Yeah. And it was beautiful. I was in that place of nothing or no person, nothing at all.

But that's just, I think it's just an escape. So now I'm attempting to sit and abide in it and just have the feeling. Every moment. Yeah. Every moment's a meditation. When you meditate on the meditator that doesn't exist. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So I think that's a great point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting to watch. It's also humor in it, in some ways, at least. I was at a zen monastery practice center that a teacher Sherry Huber had in the mountains and they were going to do a 12 hour walking meditation. So I'm like, okay, after a few hours, everyone's going around in a circle and they said, well, if you have to break off, you can go to the bathroom.

So here's everybody going around and around. And then slowly. walking toward the bathroom in the same walking meditation but eventually get into the bathroom we're going okay okay you know but it's you know you know it's it's all in the hope that you're gonna be what you already are every technique that somebody shows you ultimately lands to what you already are right here right now and when the minds out of it that's where you are you're still you're still only ever where you are and that's what people go I was trying to get back into the moment I go who was trying to get back in the moment you can't be anywhere but in the moment only the mind gives you the delusion or illusion that you are out of the moment but you never can be can't be anywhere else but right here right now the whole industry now about learning how to get into the now and a lot of people who used to go in a different direction with self-help or on now starting to preach about the same stuff that you know Bob's been talking about in this regard that I've been talking about for decades or even longer in some cases yeah you can't get out of the now no matter how hard you try yeah true for procrastinators there was another book Nisargadatta was thinking of writing called I will be that people that lived in the past I was that but they he decided no I'm not gonna do it just stick with I am that how am I gonna get it on future what am I gonna do to get it again remember Bob sometimes you tell that story when you were in the ashram and you were doing all the chanting and then routines and mantras in in Muktananda's ashram you remember you say you had all this routine trying very diligent trying to get and do everything fully and then suddenly it just all fell off well it fell off after I went to Nisargadatta and he told me something I'd heard many times and told you're not the body you're not the mind this time I saw it but you still had to do everything that you needed to do in the ashram yes and it dropped off I still did it but where it meant everything it didn't mean anything but to stay there I had to go through the routine and I didn't know didn't know what would happen I thought I'd be there forever after like being in limbo nothing to do nothing to be you know where to go nothing to say I thought I'll be here took me home I didn't take my home because she went ahead and sent me the fear home come back to the place she never left on having never left gone gone gone gone to the other shore a journey from the source to the source a parent's journey yes feels like there is a journey feels like there is a ride yeah if you like a water you always find the easiest way to level yourself there is no resistance open receptivity it's all about staying empty because when we empty the miracle uncovers yes someone said to me yesterday they're always trying to fill the void I said you are the void I like to use this word of myself talking about the little self I can do nothing use the Father in me that does the works yes I think that's probably points to something yeah absolutely you know to say of myself I can do nothing the ego is throwing in the towel but if the Father is the spirit in me or the oneness in me the self in me that does everything that's right correct there's a quote I think about Jesus this is beautiful the first beatitude I think points something to me too blessed are those who are good and those who are poor or they're nothing the kingdom of heaven is within you is within you not will be or what is the word is yeah it's all in there in the Christian mystics and the Bible a lot of that's what Christ tells in it I work but not I the Father within doeth the work he called that essence the Father most good ideas are simple but people get so caught up in the semantics don't they yeah hmm that's it let's not be religious not be religious it would all be so incredibly simple wouldn't it if we could just not everything is so utterly simple if people really let life live us that's it well the life is living us the life is living us life can be a lot but the mind is constantly complicating it yes if you have a mind that's constantly complicating it it's complicated but if you don't have one that is doing that it's a wonderful thing you're travelling lighter and this is also the question we have now from someone who is watching us what prevents us to not stay calm and always be agitated and in the mind what is preventing us from being receptive and open and empty the mind the story it's a habit it's a habit running away from feelings it's being hooked into the imagination and you know believing that you are that yeah Tony I like what she said Tony just said it's running away it's a habit of running away of feeling stuff when you think about it just what you said life lives us the mind is not needed in the present moment but it looks for something because it's got a I think I mentioned I heard once it was called the storehouse of all your files from the past the mind and it wants to have something to do it's like I have to almost as if it's an entity that says I need to do something so it starts again with the habits of going toward thinking as the answer and you eventually get to the point where we're talking about where you stop asking questions the answers will come to you in a different way intuitively instead of the intellectual thing that the mind goes let me think about that and that's what it loves to do and that's where we can suffer so yeah and it's kind of like that too it's coming to the awareness where even I can when I some stimulus comes to me and there's anger or something that shows up it's the awareness of it can't be them it can't be the person that just said that it can't be that it's a story that my mind is telling and that's the awareness that'll change everything awareness awareness awareness will make the shifts happen but again I'm not the doer of all that it just shows up that way and nothing can trouble you excepting your own imagination which is all relative to a me which is the memory like the storehouse you said of the past the memory can only be the past or be projected into the future so yeah it's that old storehouse you know well it's funny because I told Kat and Bob on Sunday after our meeting later on that night something happened with my phone a storehouse of messages and everything all my messages were gone all my text messages wiped out but there was not a blip in me going I'm so angry and so upset I did what reality required and tried to see if I could get those messages back with a program and stuff but they're gone but that's another example of if you don't pay attention to the storehouse of stuff you're just there and there's nothing in that phone now it has anything to do with this program it's just a present moment and it's just a good almost an example yeah I mean there was nothing that was crucial and if I had hit something on it I would feel it and let it go and just move on because that's just a storehouse of what was yeah and what a beautiful distinction because it's not as much a problem of habit of thinking or going to the mind as it is a problem of believing it giving it attention giving it credibility taking it seriously like the mind could probably you know the narrative at some point we were learning to speak and we needed the language so the habit of repeating in the head rehearsing before the sentence is ready especially you can see it when you learn foreign language but anyway it's the habit that later on became the narrative self and the belief in the self belief taking on board that that commentary is who I am is the problem and now whatever the commentary says it becomes important it becomes relevant and it becomes torturing if the commentary is there but there is no one taking it on board that's not a problem let it be like the sweating is there or salivating is there the commentary is also there so but yeah that's the way if there is no reaction to it there is no resistance to it and there is no seriousness in it and belief in it it's not a problem mind can do whatever it does mind is a wonderful machine there's nothing to yeah yeah nothing to be rejected a good way of slowing or being caught out is like when you're catching it in the act and seeing the nature of it yeah is a good way and like the three of us in the room the other day and each one of us had a different way of hiding from things and one was to just bolt through the hills or to another country mine someone else was to go into the cave and mine I hadn't really noticed what it was because I was just intellectually saying oh it's a cave but they said oh what you're doing you're hiding down in the bushes so there's this constant awareness oh heck somebody's gonna go up there to sort them out stay back you know so collecting information to make my whole world safe just while I hid in the bushes and then seeing that notion pops up in everyday scenarios oh god that's the bushes kind of feeling going on and then I'm sitting with the feeling for a little bit it's being caught in the act and then it just dissipates a bit and so that's showing up in various scenarios that's the feeling again of doing that and then those little phrases that go round in the head with it and it's just being caught out being caught out you're staying longer with what's there when you're not either running or going into the cave or hiding in the bushes whatever patterning a bunch of stuff arises in the context you know for you or for this immediacy it's just one way in which universe dissipates stuff and the man who was asking about what prevents us to stay calm and always be agitated in the mind is commented if the mind exists sorry?

if the mind exists and so I have no perception of it existing I notice habits and phrases and I never really ego means nothing mind means nothing none of that stuff means nothing sometimes I just have to translate it back to what people might be meaning by it to have the conversation so the noticing here tends to be what is the sensation what's the behaviour what's um the phrase yeah and often it doesn't go to the next step of saying oh I must have been making a phrase or any of that other stuff you know um it's often fuzzy on that but often it comes up you know to not add in that extra those extra assumptions yeah you know there must be an identity database there must be a sense of self there must be that you know it tends to stop before that happens um and it's just a moment of nothingness you know and I love what um Krishnamurti says that all conflict arises between me and the other um person, place or thing you know so um yeah there's got to be a me to have any conflict of any sort and so when you see there isn't one you know what's happening is just what's happening you know and where the elements and you know whatever's happening is what's happening no resistance the action figures acting responding whatever and that's just what is no resistance um you know we talk about the mind but it has the one self the one self as a mind as intelligence mind no the one self well they call it the different uh different vocabulary different like zen calls it mind instead what Christianity calls God Zen some of the Zen Sanghas they call mind mind or big mind but it's just a word some people define the whole capacity or intelligence as mind and some define it as no mind this is just a question of labeling because we when we say mind it also there is different assumptions like Tony was saying that there is a database there with some sort of stored information and this is the mind now apparently the science says the mind is flat and it's a spontaneous creator in the moment whatever is required it just pops out so it is the mind we could say is just one thought or one image at the time but that's again assumption that's just a label yeah really as as as truly to say there is mind as there is no mind because there's neither in my part you know in a certain set of time I also thought I stopped the my egoic mind and be open to the whole I call it the holy spirit yeah the holy spirit to inspire me inspire to listen to the spirit and the thoughts were and it seemed that the thoughts were higher level thoughts of knowing of being able to see and to absorb so I just wondered when we call mind is the egoic separate mind that we think we have or is it it's a statement it says in the mind no mind and in the thought no thought so anything comes up and you say no mind no thought you don't have to go any further trying to work it in is there such a thing as mind apart from thought and without a thought there's neither mind or thought it's all vibrating on the screen can you pinpoint a thing called mind can you give it any shape any form spirit yes essence what are we talking about the soul the mind the spirit the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind the mind what am I getting really frustrated by but then you just brought it back to it's all appearing on the screen and I feel good now.

Yeah, well done. The point is none of them are real. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I felt like a rental. Traffic wardens, go this way, go this way.