Sailor Bob - nonduality. What are you without the concept? 8 March '20

Well, the usual. We go over the same stuff time and time again until it resonates or recognises and is taken on board. That's the belief in this persona, this mass you've got to came about because when you learnt the words from your parents, you kept repeating them over and over and over and teachers and schools and everybody else put up more words and then you started learning them themselves and then you understood and took the word to be the real. But when it's investigated the word's not the real. Can you drink the word water? Can you swim in it? Can you drown? You can't. Does the word fire burn you out?

No, it doesn't. So what's this word I or me? You see, it's what we believe this person, I or me to be, a person. But where does the word person come from? Persona, the mask. Meaning we've got a mask of concepts, mental constructs that we believe ourselves to be. I'm Bob, an Australian, good fella or not so good. Had a bad childhood, I was abused, I'm unhappy or I'm fearful or I'm anxious. All your psychological problems come about from this belief in what we call the self-centred, the reference point or the ego. And you're told you've got to get rid of this ego, you've got to kill it.

And you're told you've got to get rid of this ego, you've got to kill it. And you're told you've got to kill it, push it under the carpet, drown it, whatever you can to get rid of it. But we say if you investigate and you see that there is no such thing as an ego, there never was ,never could be and never will be. It's only a conceptual image we've taken on board and believed in. So that's why I can't teach you anything and I can't tell you anything. All I can do is point towards it and ask you to look to where we're pointing to, to see for yourself.

And that's the important thing. No matter what you believe or understood, nobody's ever going to do it for you. you. They can tap you on the head or wave peacock feathers over you and do mantras and meditation, but it's something you need to recognize yourself. Re-cognize. The Buddha called it the cognizing emptiness. And we think we are cognizing the emptiness, but we're not. It's the emptiness itself that's fused with that intelligence, energy or knowing that's doing the cognizing. And he followed that statement, the cognizing emptiness, he said emptiness is form. Pointing out that all this manifestation are forms of that emptiness. Emptiness is form and he said the form can be nothing other than emptiness.

So you and I and everything in this room and outside it are forms. So we're all empty. But we've taken on the belief that we are something solid and substantial. Subtle. Subtle. Subtle. Subtle. Subtle and real. It's only the one reality that appears in many different shapes and forms. That the forms, pattern shapes and forms, are not the real. That's what they call it in Hinduism. They call it Maya, illusion. Sat, Chit, Ananda, Nama, Rupa. That's Advaita. Sat is existence, Chit is consciousness, Ananda is loving to be or the bliss of being and the form is the form. The Maya. The name you've been given and you believe yourself to be and the form is this human pattern, the body you're living in.

That's Maya. It's seemingly real but it's illusionary and it's also transient. There's nothing static about it at all. It's constantly changing, constantly spontaneously changing. And you mightn't understand it when you investigate it. The body you walked into this room with is not the same body you've got now. There are hundreds of thousands of cells going in it right at this moment. Constantly changing and being replaced. So each cell in this body is suffused with an innate intelligence, an innate knowing. A brain cell, when it replaces cells, not going to get replaced, not going to be replaced by a heart cell or a liver cell or a kidney cell.

The kidney, heart or liver cell, not going to be replaced by other cells. The cells in the body, each cell knows what to do. By that innate intelligence that's suffusing it. I call it intelligence energy. I don't use the term God here. Purely and simply we can get confused with that term. We all come from different backgrounds. Some of you might be atheists, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews. But start talking about God. You're related to whatever your traditional belief is. So lose sight of what you're pointing to. That's why I use the term intelligence energy. We've got to understand that's not it either. That's just another label.

And the label is the words we put on things. And the word is not the real, as I pointed out before. So we call ourselves, this label we've got, human being. But have a look at that. If you believe in God, you'll call God the Supreme Being. We call ourselves human beings. What happens if you take that label and you put it on your head? You can't take the label human off and take the label supreme off. Try and separate the beingness in this room right now. You can't negate your own being and you say this being a chair, it's being a carpet, it's being the tree, it's being the flower, it's being everything which we put words on.

And how many words were you born with? When you look at that you say you weren't born with any words at all. And you didn't learn any words until the capacity of reasoning developed in you at about two, two and a half. You don't have to think about things in that capacity of reasoning. That capacity of reasoning is a very useful capacity, and we learnt words through that. And so you recognise the word is not the real, it's not the thing. Take the word water. Can you drink the word? You can't. The word fire doesn't burn your mouth. So this word I or me. Have a look at that.

What are you referring to? You're referring to this conceptual image you've got about yourself, and that conceptual image is the very word conceptual. It's made up of concepts. What's a concept? It's about a person, or a concept, a concept in general. a mental construct. And it's all the one essence, patterning, shaping and forming, and appearing and expressing as everything. And you are that. See that for yourself. Like existence, consciousness, bliss. Anyone who's not existing right now, now you've realised and got to say, well, no, I'm existing right now. Anyone who's not conscious or unaware right now, I'm not unaware, I'm conscious. Anyone who's not happy to be right now.

So you already are that existence, consciousness and bliss. But we don't believe it. We put concepts on it and try, think we've got to become something. But understand becoming is not being. Becoming implies a future time. And when you investigate that, there's no such thing as time even. Time is a mental construct. Because if you ask yourself, what's wrong with right now if I don't think about it? Can you say it's good? Good, bad, pleasant, painful, past, the future. You can't without a thought. But you'll say, I was in the past. Well, I'll say, try and live a moment ago. Go back and live a moment ago.

You realise you can't go back and live a moment ago. You've probably forgotten about it all so ever, unless you recall it. You can only recall the past. You can't live in the past. And the only actuality of giving it is when you're recalling it right now. The same with the future. You can anticipate and imagine the future, but you can't live a moment in the future. So you've never been away from this presence awareness. And that's what they call it in the scriptures. Instead of using the term God, they call it omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience. Total power, total presence, total intelligence. Not your intellects, but the intelligence energy.

When I'm talking about intelligence, I'm not talking about your intellects. Because everybody's got different intellects with different powers. And so you learn from the different words you've learnt and things like that. Some might be smarter than others. Talking about intelligence, I'm talking about the same intelligence as rolling the Earth around the sun at this moment. It's causing the seasons to come and go, the tides to come in and out, the planets to implode and explode and grow. It's that same intelligence that's doing anything. And look at it. That same intelligence is breathing you right now. It's beating your heart. It's growing your hair and your fingernails.

It's digesting your food. He's doing all those things. So there's no, it's all the one essence appearing as everything. That's why we call it, I talk about it, non-duality. One without a second. And they put that one without a second on because even the idea of one implies that there could be other than one. That implication is a wrong implication. There never was anything other than the one. But our parents never taught it this. But down through the ages there's been saints, sages, saviours and seers, which they call them, men who have understood it, or women who have understood this and passed it on. They've only been able to pass it on to a few with the means of communication then.

And so they set them up as saints, saviours, sages and seers and gods. They set them up with all these names. And what have we done? We worshipped the messenger and lost sight of the message. The message of you and I are the message. There are patterns, shapes and forms. We're not worth a damn thing. But if you've got the message, you know, the sense of reasoning in there enable you, you'll be able to speak about it in a way which resonates with others, where they'll recognize what you're talking about. Because that's all that needs to happen, a recognition. You already are that cognising emptiness, that lost sight of it.

So you need to recognize it. And have a look at this. Take fish, for instance. Can fish live without water? They can't. The fish are in the water as long as there's a lot of other things in there. But the fish, we're often asked here, why can't I know what everybody else is thinking or not? Well, those fish, there's all sorts of varieties of fish in the water, but each one doesn't know what they are. Another fish is thinking or doing or saying, if they could reason that question, they don't. Could any of the fish be there without the water? So what's the important thing?

Isn't it the water? Now, that water couldn't be there if it didn't have land or something solid to settle in, to grow in. And all the insects and animals that live on that water, as humans, couldn't be there at all without something for it to live in. So the water and the land are not separate. If that didn't have space, Earth, where could any of it reside? It's in the land. So the land, the water, and the fish and everything that live in it, humans that are living on this Earth and all the other animals, birds and insects, if that land wasn't there, could we live in space?

We can't. That's space. If it wasn't vibrating patterns of energy, could there even be any space? And if that silo didn't vibrate patterns of energy, could there be any space? If that silo didn't vibrate into sound, could there be any words, noise, or songs, or anything else without it? So try and separate any of it if you can. There's nothing separate. As they say, it's the one essence, patterning, shaping, forming, and expressing as everything. And the Mahavacca, the great mantra, is I am that. And you've probably meowed those words thousands of times and never really looked into what they mean. Well, innately you already know what that is, because you say, that's the change.

That's the chair. That's the carpet. That's the tree. That's the flower. All those things are there we put labels on. It's all that. That's the body. That's the mind. Everything is that already, which we put labels on, more labels on, and differentiate them, different patterns. So you see, it's always the one essence that's patterning, shaping, and forming, and expressing as everything. And it's quite easy to recognise and understand and look, but what have we done? We've taken on the habit patterns. We've taken on the mind, and the body. We've taken on the habit patterns. Go back and see, when did you begin? You'll say, I was born.

But can anyone of you actually remember your birth? Investigate it, because they say the false cannot stand up to investigate. And you realise, no, I can't remember my birth. Why can't you remember your birth? Because you had no words at that stage. That's why. You know, you were functioning. Where did you... had no words. And the words are not the real again. When you learnt words, at about two, three years old, you were able to remember your birth. And you were able to remember your birth. And you were able to remember your birth. At about two, two and a half. The capacity of reasoning developed in you.

And that's the capacity these human forms have. Which other animals, birds, insects don't have that particular capacity to the extent we have. But they have other capacities that are more developed than our capacity of reasoning is. Like a bird has got eyesight much better than yours and mine will be. And has that capacity of flying. We can't do that. But through the capacity of reasoning, we've learnt to build ourselves eyeglasses, their binoculars or telescopes which enable us to see better. And we can't fly but we've built ourselves airplanes, kites, balloons, helicopters, things like that that will enable us to fly. A dog has a sense of smell, it's much more developed than what ours will ever be.

Chameleons and insects like that can change colour, we can't do that. Look at a peafowl's eggs, it's got yolk and white like any other egg. But put it under a bit of heat and a bit of warmth and look what will develop out of it. A bird with all those amazing colours in it, things like that. Caterpills and things like that will form a cocoon around themselves and that cocoon will metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly with all the colours on it. So that innate intelligence that's patterning, shaping, forming and functioning and everything is expressing everything. And you and I are that but we've lost sight of it in the belief we are.

We are these human beings, these separate entities, these individuals. Shakespeare told you three or four hundred years ago, it might have been a bit longer, that there's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. When you investigate that you'll see it's true. And the saga tells you nothing can trouble you except your own imagination. And that's true also when you look at it and investigate it, they understand that. Nothing at all is ever going to trouble you except your own imagination. Nothing at all is ever going to trouble you except your own imagination. Break that word imagination down to image in. Take the word imagine down to image in, imagine.

Image in. Well they will look at that word imagine. That means we've got these images and taken the image to be real. Now look at that mirror in the room or behind you, there's mirrors there. What do you see in them? You'll say, you'll see, I see, you know whether they call it reflections or images in the mirror. Now you can't say they're not there. They look real and they seem to be there. But you go up and try and pull a reflection out of the mirror or an image out of the mirror. You can't. All you do is grab the glass. You can't say they're not there because they're there before your eyes.

But you can't say they are there either because they have no reality of themselves. And the mirror can't, it's always full of images. You never see a clear mirror. But look at that one again. You'll see even the so-called space in it is appearing in the mirror. It's just an image in the mirror also. It's all that imagination. So when we imagine these words, concepts and ideas, and look at the way this mind functions. Mind is thinking. You say, we take my mind. Indictly you know they're not the mind. Because you're, you're thinking. Because you're, you're not your house, your car. You don't say my house, my car.

My shirt, my hat. You know, you're not the car, the coat, the shirt and that. Maybe you're not the mind either. The same with the body. You say my body. Well maybe you're not the body. You say my coat, my car, my house. So when you see that, if it's my body, whose body is it? Well it's my self. We say it's my self. Now have a look in the scriptures again. How many self's are there? How many self's are there? I'll tell you, it's one self. The Atman is one self. There's no personal self. But we made this my self into a personal self.

A persona, a mask. A conceptual image. We've got our, we've got this conceptual image. We believe ourselves that conceptual image. And suffer accordingly by relating it to that image. Dog has a sense of smell. Other things go on. You have a look at it, you'll see. Oh, I'm going to go into a mental pillow. They're all there in different ways. When you look at it, a bit of an investigation, you'll see. But you see, you'll realise that me is the cause of all your psychological problems. Nothing can trouble you except your own imagination. When we relate it as me, we've got this conceptual image. And it's a dead image at that.

Because it's based on past events, conditions and experiences. Your image is always relating about the past. What can you say about yourself right now without a thought? Without bringing the image into it? You can't say anything at all again. But you're breathing, your heart's beating, your hair and your fingernails are growing. The food's functioning. Without any concept of food, food is, just to your food, is all happening. Without, without putting any belief into those concepts. The natural, spontaneous functioning. Which we're not relating to the past. But to describe them, you've got to put the word on. And you go back and further, you think, at the beginning it tells you in the bible.

In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. That's all that God is, is a word. A label we put on this intelligence energy. We don't understand what it is. All things were made by him, by the word. And isn't that so? Look at it. and things that are appearing out there that have got labels on them. We put labels on them all. They're all the Word. All things were made by Him. There was nothing made that was made without the Word. So we've got these words about ourselves, about everything going on in us. So when you investigate the Word, you realise, when did you begin?

You say, I began at birth. You can't remember your birth, so how can you say you began then? Go back and see when you began. How did you begin? Well, go back as far as your father and your mother. Have a look at that, and you can go back as far as you like after that. You realise that intelligence energy, the livingness, the intelligence energy that you are, in that pattern, shape and form, which you call your father, enabled in that pattern through the prana, through the air he's breathing and the food he's eating, a little microscopic particle, called a sperm to form. Now that sperm was suffused with intelligence.

It knew what to do. The same in your mother. That animating life essence that pattern shaped and formed your mother, enabled in that pattern. Another little microscopic particle called an egg, or an ovum to form in that pattern. And that egg was suffused with intelligence. It knew what to do. It attached itself to the wall of the uterus. And the sperm, knowing what to do, swam to the ovum. Put it under a microscope and you'll see it can swim. And it knew what to do. It penetrated the ovum. And those two came together. That cell doubled and redoubled. And the little fetus, the little embryo began to form.

And that's what you are today. But you've lost sight of that. You believe you are this person. That's all you are. You're that intelligence energy, that life essence, that's patterning and growing into that, what we call this pattern, shape and form, this body, mind, that we believe you are to be now. And that's what we've taken ourselves to be. We've lost sight of our true nature. We've lost sight of the essence, which is the life essence, the life itself which is animating. And that's what Christ told you. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. He wasn't talking about himself, which people say, oh, he was the way.

He's no more the life truth than what you are. But he wasn't talking about himself. He was talking about that sense of presence. That knowing that you are, how would you translate that sense of presence? You'd say, I am, wouldn't you? If anybody asks you what you are, you'd say, I am. That's the concept. I am Bob, the Australian, the good fella, or the lay one. And we lose sight of the true nature. But it's pure I am. That presence awareness, expressing as that thought. Winnisaga says, stay with the I am. People will think he's saying you've got to keep reporting I am, I am, I am, and you don't.

What that I am represents, it represents the sense of presence, the being, knowing and loving to be that you are. So he said, stay with that sense of presence. Now when you look at it, try and get away from presence. As I say, try and get out of the past, out of the present if you can. You're always in the presence. You can't get out of the presence except by going into some conceptual image about the past. You can't live a moment in the future without going into some anticipation and imagination. So when you really, instead of trying to stay in the now, which people tell you, try and get out of it.

It's always this omnipresence, omnipotence. That's the great power. Total presence, total power, total intelligence. Not higher power or God power or good power or positive power or choice power or whatever. It's just that one total. Everything is a totality. As I say, when I put out the plants, the sun and everything else, and you are that. You see, it's that life essence that's enabled that every thought you've ever liked to think and every matter of expression in your body. It's just that it's happened. If you take that life essence out of the body, what have you got? You've got a corpse. That corpse has got eyes, it's got ears, it's got heart, lungs, before it rots down too far.

It's got kidneys. All the organs are there, but what good are they to it without the life essence? Not a bit. Just like your computer has got all that information into it. But if you haven't got it switched on, what are you going to get out of it? That information is still there. There's not a bit of good to it. There's not a bit of good to this corpse if that life essence is what it is. So what does that point out? Are you the body-mind, the thinking persona, or are you the life itself? Don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to work that out.

You are the life, as Christ told you. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. And the Sargon of the Church will tell you the same thing when he says there's only life. That's all there is. There's nobody who lives a life. When we take to mind that there's no body or no thing that lives a life, that life is continually on life. For out of life, more life comes. It's all spontaneous, natural, and function. So you are that. But look at the way this mind functions. Something comes up, and we've learnt words from our parents. Parents tell you, you know, we've learnt that.

Every word you've ever spoken or ever liked to speak has been picked up along the way. There's no words when you're born with it. You know, the first couple of years of your life, you didn't have any words. That's why you can't remember your birth, because you had no words. And then you learnt words from your parents. And your parents called you Little Johnny, and you started to learn words like I and me, and you started to realise, Little Johnny, they go, this is me, this is I. And then when Little Johnny looked further out, when the reasoning continued, he said, look, that doesn't fit Little Johnny.

So that's not I, that's not me. So what happens then when he thinks that? Naturally, he feels separate from what is out that he doesn't know. And with that sense of separation comes insecurity and vulnerability. He feels vulnerable and insecure because he doesn't know what it is. And that's when our search starts. And that search we try to become from then on. And becoming will never be being. Becoming implies a future time, and there's no future time. You'll never become anything. You always are, always will be, and always are that pure being. It vibrates in a pattern in different shapes and forms, but it's still the one being.

It's being the sun, it's being the sky, it's being the space, it's being everything in it. There's no separation in it whatsoever. That's what they call it, non-duality, one without a second. So you are, and always and ever by that. So to try to get to it from the personal will never happen. See, you're starting from behind the eight ball. Because the person never existed. That's not only an energy we took on and believed in. A pattern of energy that never existed, has always and ever been the one. And we lost sight of it with the reasoning. Because our parents, schools reinforced it, and then we started reinforcing ourselves without questioning it.

And the parents and schools are still like the people, the ones that formed the, the origin of form, the people that knew the truth. Know the truth, and that's the saying in the Bible, know the truth and the truth will set you free. What are you free from? You're free from this belief that you are the persona, the mask, this individual, this person. It's all you've got to be free from. We start from that, well I've got to see through this, and then I'll start, go deeply into the search, and wonder why it never happens. How can it? And we're looking in the wrong direction.

Trying to get rid of this me. When you start from the fact, like I said before, is anyone who's not existing right now? You've got to say, no, I'm existing. Yeah, know it for certain. Anyone who's not conscious or unaware? No, I'm not unaware, so I must be aware. Anyone who's not happy to be? Well, you'd rather be than be, be here right now than be dead, wouldn't you? So you are that. The nama rupa, we don't question it, take it as it is, the name and form. And the energy of belief goes on. It goes into that we are this name and form. And we're constantly trying to acquire, become, or whatever, but it never happened.

So, where are you looking? We're always looking in the mind for the answer. When you're eyeing this mind, and you look at mind, you see there's no such thing as mind. Can anyone show me a thing called mind? You look at it, you can't show me a thing called mind. There's no such thing as mind apart from thought. And if you were a thought, which particular thought would you be? You'd be that I am thought. That's the primary thought. The sense of presence, the I am thought. And if you were that thought, you'd be frightened to give it up. Yet you give it up gladly every night when you go to sleep.

You couldn't care less if it was there or not. As long as you go to sleep, it's gone. And if you were that thought, if you gave it up, it'd be the end of you. But it's not. Now, all these proofs are there that you're not what you believe yourself to be, but a little bit of investigation, a little bit of questioning. We don't know how to do it. But see how it works. We've got this conceptual image. I am Bob, the Australian, the good fellow, which my parents told you. I'm unhappy or I'm sad or I've had a bad childhood or I'm introverted or I'm extroverted.

All these concepts make up the pattern of what I believe myself to be. Investigate that and see if it's so. How does it work? Well, something comes up, because it's that what we call reference point, the self-centred ego, this conceptual image. Something comes up and I like it. Well, how do you know? I've had this experience before and it's good. Naturally, we don't want the good things to go. We don't realise that they're transient. No matter how much you love them, how much you want to keep them there, how much you want to hang on to them, they're going to change. But this manifestation is transient.

When you look at it, you realise you haven't got the same body you walked into this room with 20 minutes ago, whenever it was. The cells dying, thousands of them right now are being replaced. So it's constantly transient. So something comes up, we like it, we don't want it to go. Not realising no matter how much you love them, they're going to change anyway. Well, your idea about them will change, it will change, but let's let it change. So what do we do? We try to keep it there. And in trying to keep it there, what are we doing? We are resisting it. We're resisting it from going.

And don't you realise that resistance is conflict? Any resistance you are in, you are in conflict with it. You're at war with it. And any conflict you are in makes you uneasy, anxious, fearful, depressed, guilty, shameful, remorseful, all your psychological stuff comes up from that resistance and conflict. And another way of putting that uneasiness is dis-ease. Uneasiness is not at ease, that's dis-ease. So resistance, conflict and dis-ease is going on. Something comes up and I don't like, what do I do? I don't want this one, I've got to get out of this, this is damaging to me. I've got to push it out, try and get rid of it.

So we're resisting it from being there. So again, I'm not going to do anything about it, but the resistance, because you're in conflict and dis-ease and uneasiness. That's going on in our life all the time. Constant resistance, conflict and dis-ease. We need to investigate this self-centre or ego, the reference point, self-centre or ego, it's all one and the same thing. And everything becomes relative to this reference point or self-centre or ego. And what's relativity? Relationship. Dualism. Everything is relative to something else. So it's a dualistic pattern we're trying to become. And when it's not just a male-female relationship we get bogged in, it's relative to my job, to my country, to everything else.

It's all relational, what we're relating to. And that's dualism. And we're talking about non-duality. So that's why we need to investigate. Well, have a look at it. Question it. What's happening? Everybody is seeing right now and everybody is hearing right now. Isn't that a fact? Yes, I'm seeing and I'm hearing. Ask myself this. Does my eye tell me I see? Well, my physical eye is not saying, look at this, Bob, look at that, that's good, that's bad. It can't. But the thought comes up and translates it as I see. But so it's no longer a pure seeing. Because what have we done to it? When we say I see, we've added to it, on all these vents and experiences and past events, I'm Bob, it's me, Bob, that's now seeing, a conceptual image, believes it's seeing.

The same with the hearing. The hearing is happening right now. When I woke up this morning, somebody called me in loud sleep, loudly in deep sleep before that, and I heard it and woke up. So the hearing is there. The ear's not saying to me, hear this, hear that. The ear can't say anything. But the hearing is happening through the ears. And the ears are translated as I hear. And again, it's not a pure hearing because it's translated by, it's me, Bob, the Australian, this conceptual image thinks it has the capacity of seeing and hearing. But the question's a little bit further. Ask yourself this.

Can that thought I see actually see? Well, shut your eyes and see for yourself right now. Close your eyes, look around the room and see what you can see with a thought. And you realize you can't see anything with a thought. The thought's job is to translate it, but you can't see anything. You can look mentally, when you use the mental things in your mind, but it won't be the actual seeing of anything in this room. So you recognize that the thought I see can't hear. Do the same with your ears. Put your hands over your ears and see what you can hear with a thought.

Muffle your ears and see. And you realize you can't hear. You can't actually hear anything with a thought. So have a look at it. The thought I see cannot see. This conceptual image we have, the ego, can't see. The thought I hear can't hear. The conceptual image again can't hear. Is the thought I am aware? Your awareness. Well, if you're not unaware, you must be aware. You don't have to think I'm aware. That awareness is there. But you can't say what it is without putting a lot of concepts on it. But it's naturally there. The consciousness or awareness is actually there. So the thought I see can't see.

The thought I hear can't hear. The thought I am aware, not your awareness. And the thought I choose. We all think we choose our thoughts. But why the hell would you have an unhappy, a miserable, a sad or fearful thought if you can choose them? Do you choose to be that way? No. Choices are made. Choices come up like the seeing and hearing is translated by the word, by the mind. So that egoic image cannot see. Cannot hear. Can't be aware. Can't choose. Can't do anything at all. It's a total fiction. So if you've got nothing to relate to then, what are you going to be?

It's going to be just as it is. And what is, is this immediacy right now, as is. As means unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected. No preference. No partiality. No comparison. No comparison. No comparison. No comparison. No comparison. No comparison. No comparison. No comparison. And it comes about naturally and effortlessly of itself, because it's all a vibration of energy. And it all happens by itself. If we're not clinging to it and fixating on it and getting lost in the concepts. We all think we're going to find the answer in the mind. But you'll not find the answer in the mind. If you're going to find the answer in the mind, why haven't you found it?

You intelligent people. You've done this meditation. You've printed this mantra. You've read this book. You've done all sorts of exercise. Why haven't you found the answer? Well, might have dawned on you half all this time, you've worked so many things out in the mind, that have been useful, but the answer to life itself you haven't worked out. Maybe the answer's not there. Maybe I've been looking in the wrong direction. If that dawns on you, you really have to look, well what way can I look that's not in the mind? And you realise there's no way out of the mind, the only way out of the mind is full stop.

Just don't go there. Leave it be, leave it as it is. If you don't go there, you're free of the mind. That's why they call it, you won't find the answer to the mind, because that's why they call it, you'll never ever get peace of mind. And look at that, you won't. And they call it the peace that passes all understanding. What does that tell you? That means I can't understand it or grasp it with a concept or a thought, they're telling you that already. But we continue to look there. That's when the peace is, when the mind is not. It's when the mind is not.

The silence and the stillness emerges. When you're not corrupting it with any conceptual images, I thought. Now look at that and see those things for yourselves. You've got any questions or doubts, some of you have looked into it and got a grasp of it, or getting along with it, some of you might have questions, some of you might have doubts, some of you can tell us what you've understood about it, how you've, different ways of expressing it, you might express it different to what I'm expressing. But that's what needs to happen. To recognise it in yourself. Then 99.9% of the world are coming from that point of view of the ego, the self-centre.

And you say, I saw through it the other day, they don't know me, but it came back. How can something that doesn't exist come back? But we got taken in by the people that, you know, they're repeating it and forming it all around, got all these concepts of conceptual images. Our school society and everybody else will learn it. The thing is to stabilise in it and see for yourself. And people will notice in the chat. See the light in your eyes, the energy shining out of your face, and it'll change you. Instead of them dragging you back in, you'll drag them out because they'll come and ask you, I want what you've got.

I see you've got something I'd like. And they'll look at it and they'll come along and listen to you. And if they're open enough, they'll resonate it. But some might be stuck in their ways, following the meditations and paths for so long, I'm so close to it, I'll get it in the next minute. I'll get it in the next meditation. And hang on to the old ideas and the old concepts instead of letting go and seeing what's fresh in you and always immediate. That's what it's all about, so you can get into it and go for your life. How did you go with that understanding?

Something resonates? Bud? But resonates is a recognition. Innately, you already know. The energy in you resonates with the sound, the vibration in the sound, and it's really going on. That's what I've been struck at though recently, is once the recognition is discovered, there's really absolutely nothing you can do about it. You know, because then you have the notion of wanting to abide in it or awaken within it, and at that point... You're gone. You're gone, yes. There's nothing else to do. Which of course is both frustrating and a great relief. Free. Freeing as well. Just let it spontaneously happen. And it'll come up again and again and again.

Because it's the whole of this manifestation. Resonates, vibrates. And you've always had taste of it all through your life when something, when everything fell into place and fell apart. But we've gone back into the old habit of going into the egoic sense again. But you don't get to control this feeling of the door, unfortunately. Well, fortunately. Fortunately. Yes. Unfortunately for the ego, fortunately for the self. Any controlling, I think, that needs to come up? It'll come up spontaneous again. I think of Togiruji Satsang. And he was describing an occurrence that happened at one of Nisargadha's satsangs where a man came and said to Nisargadha, I really get what you're saying, but to be honest, I'm always suffering.

And he said to him, he said, you're not experiencing suffering, you're suffering. You're experiencing the thoughts that you are using to judge your experience that is causing the suffering, not the experience of suffering. Maybe that was you who said that. And the question, asking the question. Could have been. Could have been. Yeah, you're asking a lot of questions, isn't he? Yeah, what did you ask him? What did you ask him? I couldn't, can't remember that one. I know he dragged me out of the front and hammered the hell out of me. Every, I thought I had some beautiful answers then, but no matter how great I thought they were, it wasn't good enough.

But then when the time came to say goodbye, and you said goodbye, and you said goodbye, you said goodbye. And he said, I got out a call out for a dinner for Bob and they both cried. They both hugged and cried. And you said, you know, recognizing that you can't do anything. So there's a different, you know, a lot of time we chase kind of stillness or calm or whatever. And we think that's relief. But the real relief is knowing that there's no alternative. You know, it's a different type of freedom. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Because in fulfillment, it is automatically going to make it out of your reach.

Yeah. And then when that settles in, it's like even when you're having a tough week or you're caught in it, there's a little bit of, there's a space there. I understand it is a cognizing emptiness. And the recognizing, there's no one who couldn't recognize, but that's just to slip back into remembering, remind yourself. And that's the old scriptural saying, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Be mindy. Doesn't mean to say, coming back, bringing it back to what, not a matter of bringing it back. And no one can bring it back. But it's always fresh and new. I spoke with a friend yesterday and she says she actually, she's home.

She's been here with us a few days, a couple of years ago. And she is actually quite grounded in the experience of presence. But she says, my mind is still very noisy. I say, is that a problem? Because if it is a problem, keep investigating. The thing is, if you're not your mind. Whether the mind is playing out or it's not playing out, whether it is silent or it is noisy, who cares? It is just a, it's just a bird singing there. It's just a commentary. So she says, yes, I don't mind. There is a love of being. I do love what I am, who I am, as a form and as the emptiness.

And there is no resistance, even if the mind is loud. It doesn't last long. It is recognized quite quickly. It's not a problem with the mind being. Yeah, Bob, you were saying in the beginning, your mind, you were caught in the mind and it was lasting much, much longer. Today, it doesn't last. The mind comes with the story. And the recognition comes nearly instantaneously. But it doesn't mean that the story doesn't appear. It does. And that's beautiful because there is so much beauty in the stories. And there is so much beauty in waking up from them. And if there was no story, they wouldn't be waking up from it.

So the duality, the expression of duality is totally needed for the experiencing, for the joy of living. But it's still in your body. Oh, yeah. And then you've got to wake up. And then you're really at risk of getting caught. That's a good game. Yeah. It's amazing to watch it also, to see how it sits in the body. And actually watch it in a way in which you are curious about it. You don't label it. You actually see where it is located, how dense it is, how thick it is, how it is affecting your breathing, how it affects your imaging and stuff like this, just without pushing it away.

Because, of course, nobody, we are wired with the survival instinct to avoid discomfort. So if there is an uncomfortable feeling, this is running away from it. And then running away is another pattern that is to be observed. It is quite interesting. It's quite sweet to see. Yeah. Yeah. And to see that, oh yeah, I'm cold. I don't want to be cold. Okay, cool. But funnily enough, sometimes it's not even uncomfortable at all. Yeah. There is no aspect of pain to its emanation whatsoever. And so that's... Yeah. And then there can be genuine pain, but, yeah, I mean, it's the discernment between the pain and the suffering.

Oh, yeah. It can be pain, but not suffering. And that's the... I think that's... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah... Yeah… Yeah... I remember, I think Ben, you mentioned once that experience of pain and experience of awakening, they kind of intertwined, the most beautiful moments of realization came from sitting with pain. Can you say something about that? Because that's really... For someone who's got a chronic illness and is sitting in pain most of their lives, then the pain just varies because it's not leveled? Yeah, well, I mean, sometimes it's just unavoidable. I mean, this kind of, you know, I travelled a lot.

Yeah. Yes, that's right. you know Bob once told me to make the pain worse and that's kind of exhausting and you realize there's you can't make it worse you can't you know you can't but you can't make it better either so it's just something that's happening through you you know and then some yeah sometimes when you're exhausted it's the mind just shuts off and a bit of clarity also the idea of making things worse I love that idea because it applies to everything including the anxiety or including the self-pity or self-hatred because very often the the real core or the cause of suffering it's not what's happening in the present moment is the thought that it is not going to end it is not going to stop or it's going to get worse so avoiding it getting worse and trying to run away from what is because it's going to get worse that's when when this is faced and okay let it let it kill me I'm going to just die into it the worst thing that can happen I'm going to faint and I'm going to just make it as bad as it gets so I don't have to fear it anymore and then yeah fainting usually doesn't happen and and the terrorist that is trying to convince you that pattern because there is no ego it's a pattern that is trying to convince you that you are in danger and you have to go to your fight flight mode this terrorist is exposed it you can see that it is only scaring you but it never delivers it can't do what it is promising oh you know you're gonna no it's not it's just exposed and then there is no fear anymore and then this okayness when you try to make it worse you know it is usually expressed as a knot in the guts to make in the heart lump in the throat or something like that if you look for that try to make it worse you can we go right into the actual thing where you've had if you've got a cut in your body or a bone or something you can pinpoint it but try and pinpoint a psychological knot in the guts try and go right into it when you wake up there is nothing there it dissipates because you are trying to put pinpoint on something is to think there is some substance and that's what we've done when the feelings come up this is anger or this is fear or this is jealousy or envy or something like that we move away from it we move away from it trying to and it is constantly there and we have to move then but look into it go right into it try and okay what's there can you find if it's physical as i say you can pinpoint because you feel it in the body but if it's mental there's nothing there at all dissolves that's why you need to look into it and that's a very hard thing to do when people are in pain very hard for them to look at this but if you want out of it do it see how bad can this really get so if they try and make it worse ben says you can't why because there's nothing there to make it works beautifully with anxieties and fears and it's funny because that's where some of the most innovative psychotherapeutic techniques are designed to do to amplify the symptom and then a resolution will happen spontaneously yeah seneslav brock who's done a lot of everything for giving to that um would say things like a negative emotion experience at its fullest is the funeral fire of that emotion actually richard bandler as well it's one of the techniques that he teaches with anxiety and neuro-linguistic programming so it's like well teach me how do i have the anxiety what i have to do first where do i feel it what's the first thing what tension here i grip my teeth to my shoulders and then experiencing all the modalities of what they're saying in their own mind what they're feeling is it rough is it smooth and then and then you can have a holiday from it teach me how to do it and i'll do it for you tomorrow so oh cool yeah but it's it's really powerful and you can't actually produce that that anxiety without the physiology and engaged without particular way of thinking or you know you do have to have all the elements included for for the body to actually generate that sort of a feeling yeah so knowing how you do it knowing how you do it yeah the awareness on what's actually happening and it's still not you doing it it's a pattern it's really a mechanical pattern so pose and discover how is that pattern going into a play that's the awareness again you introduce awareness you see how it is build up in onto that yeah that modality yeah yeah and disconnect from their body that their refuge is in the the disconnection and the severing the contact with the experience so like you know in terms of that sense of amplifying and all these things that for some people it's actually it's to completely dissociate it's not here anymore so the non-duality and the ability to disconnect becomes the refuge from the experience itself i think status up girl could say well then that gets amplified whatever the defense mechanism is like why brain is born or disconnection oh yeah this connection is and you cannot be seen obviously during the disassociation it can't be seen but something he's able to observe through the passage of time that brings me to it but i think that's still the big emotion there the disassociation um maybe to be amplified also the question is no process i i would i would ask the question also does it really need to resolve because at certain points like you say refugees in the camps who knows what sort of trauma they've been through perhaps it knows it's not a time for them to engage with it just yet perhaps that life intelligence created that response of this association to protect them at this point it is really all non-dualities about trusting life understanding bringing awareness to what's happening but trusting that that intelligence that brought us into existence is still continuously breeding us beating the heart digesting food and is creating all that responses in the best way it can so yeah trusting it and it will change because everything changes people who have this this associative disorder they're not going to stay the same either because nothing in that whole manifestation ever stays the same psychopathology is a label no such thing as water?

no such thing as water? such pathology like you know we're so obsessed particularly the western disorders and i see you know there's so much use to diagnose this but um i just get to see clients get so hooked by them as well yeah yeah it may be helpful but it might be detrimental like everything with the words and you can't say to them no this is why you know it could be any other way it's perfect but yes that's the sense isn't it that if life is conditioned you this way like the universe is conspired for you to have OCD you know you've got to run with it unfortunately yeah from from the individual perspective perspective of a person who has that disability because it is kind of disabling them yeah that's terrible that's unfair oh god had it you know he picks on me or whatever but from the ultimate perspective of the life essence that life essence that embodies every form in one form is a tree and another is a bird in another is a psychopath and another one is mother teresa or hitler or whoever that life is playing the game all the actors all the objects from the consciousness perspective if every pattern was the same that's not a play that's not an expression it has to be different so now finding coming back to that consciousness okay i have this disorder or this ability or this this disadvantage but on the level of consciousness that's exactly what I want to have that's that's exactly my mission my purpose my shape my form and unconditionally accepting the situation of that this is how it is I'm not the pattern I'm every single pattern but in that particular pattern I do deal with this particular shit and that's beautiful too because coming from that acceptance you know the victim anymore you you feel the privilege of being and experiencing that right that what is vacation from eternity of nothing yeah you could say it although absolute doesn't is anthropomorphism you know absolute doesn't have that sense of what what we project on people free will and a choice that you know I choose this you know I choose this and I choose that and I choose that and I choose that but ultimately as you see this is what is so this is what this is what is I mean you can't say this is what is because the absolute wants it to be because that's already anthropomorphism but it is what is dot that's it you can't argue with it that's what this look you can try and interpret it differently but that's already overlay of a story that oh yeah this is good or this is bad or this is you know that's already a narrative that's interpretation that's not not not what is and I'll turn on modified and corrected but it is interpret or this is for my growth or this is for me to develop quality so this is for me is again the the relationship and the interpretation it's really just okay that's how it is yeah yeah it is it is used and and it may be helpful especially from for people who have the strong tendency tendency to play the blame game, to constantly focus on how others did me wrong and how am I a victim.

So bringing that opposite perspective, which A Course in Miracles does, is just basically annihilating that predominant idea that I'm a victim. Because on the ultimate level, yes, I've chosen as the absolute, this is the shape I gave to the world. Great perfection is another way to put it in Buddhism. The great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. That's the absolute, what can you do, what can you take away? Nothing. And everybody will have a concept of you in this room. You will have a concept of everybody else and you'll have a concept about yourself. They'll have a concept about themselves. Which concept's right? I've got it all.

It's just a concept. Just a mental construct, an image. So what are you without the concept? Who can be inferior to you and what would you want of the other person? So if we're not conceptual, everything is as it is, just as it is. And it's constantly transient, it'll constantly change. What are you going to do? Work it out in the mind with concepts? As regards to your spiritual behaviour, I know that in my experience of coming here, and I was thinking about it this morning, so I'm going to ask you, what's your spiritual behaviour? What's your spiritual behaviour? What's your spiritual behaviour? When I'm thinking about it this morning, it's been four years that I've been coming here.

The ability to stay in the experience of the moment through the senses as a portal to just, well not even a portal, just the reality of what is here. I realised that I really hadn't been here. Avoiding or trying to get somewhere. And just the force of trying to get somewhere really, not really being with what's here. with what's here now so I'm so thankful for the experience of just landing somehow and catching myself when I'm caught just caught in some some something some some narrative I mean I wake up with that I wake up with the narrative and now there's just a knowing that okay that's it's thought and this is what I want to ask you Bob today what is thought well what is thought question mark but what is thought without the conditioning what is thought without yeah without the concepts what is thought itself yes the pure knowing that thought you're not putting a label on it that's what I call the unborn mind it's pure minding it's pure minding without dividing it up in the concepts whether right is without any sort of conditioning or concepts or anything like that like can you can you come up with the thought that wouldn't be associated with all the all the past That's exactly it.

This is what I was thinking. If I wake up with this thought about the past or then thinking about trying to avoid the thought about the past, without that, what is the experience? Without that content, what is the experience? Without the content of the experience, what is the experience of so-called thinking? Yeah, yeah, what is it? For me it feels like when you wake up in the morning, it's almost like you come back, or the world comes back. So it's like you're there for a moment and you think, well what day is it? What am I doing today? And if you wake up in a different place, it's like, where am I?

What happened yesterday? Is that what you're getting at? That space before those thoughts all come in? Is it like that? It's almost like reality. Reality comes in. The world comes in. What about babies? You know, they haven't words, but, you know, they're gurgling or screaming or... Can you see? Can you hear it? Yeah, yeah, that's right. They don't have any labels or any words. That's what I call, in Buddhism, the great perfectionist. Now what is it? Non-consensual. Yeah, a non-consensual way of... As Banke, he said, everything is perfectly resolved in the unborn. He called it the unborn mind. The mind, just a pure mind without any concepts.

And that's so. Everything is perfectly resolved. Nature is resolving itself all the time. There's no born mind out there in the universe, but the trees, the flowers, the sky, the sun rolls around, all those things knowing what to do without putting... dividing it or conceptualising it, any words. Everything is perfectly resolved in the unborn mind. Why exchange the unborn for thought? Because it's the unborn mind. And that's what we do. Constantly exchanging it with thought. And they call it thought free, ever fresh, non-conceptual, ever present awareness. Thought free. To free the thought, what do you need to do? Gurgle. Gurgle. If you're going to say, I'm going to free the thought, that won't be it, but let it be.

Let it be. Thought free. Let it roll. Instead of fixating on it. Yeah. Instead of fixating on it, let it roll. Thoughts come and go. There's no thoughts stitched into our head. They're constantly transient, constantly changing. But thought's not the enemy. It can be useful. But when it utilises us, that's when the problem comes about. It tells us I'm not good enough, I'm fearful, or after all, I'm a human, or all this crap. Let it be. Or I'll never get out of this one. You put a boundary on it. The boundaries are the words. That's how thinking is. Good, bad, past, future, pleasant, painful, happy, unhappy, or sad, whatever it is.

The limitations, the boundary put upon itself are words or concepts. So we locked ourselves in a cage of concepts. And you've got a cage, a bird in a cage for 20 years or so, and open the door, it's not going to fly out straight away. It might potter around for a couple of days before it sees there's a, a bird in the cage. Yeah. And it sees there's a, a gap there where it can get out of, you know. Because of that used to it being there, he won't see it. That's what we do. We're locked in this cage of concepts unless you're investigating it and seeing the words, not the thing.

Sitting on a seat out there in front, and the sunlight was just coming through, through the clouds. The background, the noise of the trams and the traffic. It was very peaceful. And then a fort came in. Yeah. And I was anticipating the meeting and there was an idea about saying something clever or, it was recognised, that's, that's me. And just, that just dissolved into the spaciousness of being. And just going back years, I remember what, and I see the, the person in charge of the coffee team in a spiritual, spiritual place. He said to me, um, the truth is very simple. Even a child can understand it.

Which immediately raised all the anger and, but it's like, it's like that. It's so simple. Everything will just dissolve into that cognising emptiness. Mm. And it's, it's just instant release. If it's, it seems like there's a binary switch. It's all one and, um, it's free and has no boundaries. Or me comes into it and there's that, there's suddenly, there's objectivity, there's subject, object. And, um, like, uh, Nungal Wurimpache said, you can be the spectator or you can be the greyhound chasing the stuffed rabbit around the track. So the, this stillness, spaciousness, emptiness, awareness. Suddenly there's someone who wants to get somewhere and is off. Yeah.

And that's the beginning of all, you know, the race of existence, the rat race, the, between, you know, just being or being someone. Getting somewhere. On the road to somewhere. Yeah. Anywhere, but not here. Mm. Not now. What a beautiful description. And this is always something that, uh, personally makes me really happy when I hear people who, who come up with saying, oh, this is much simpler. Oh, this is much simpler than that. This is so simple. This is so simple. That is the duality of the mind doesn't even fit into it. When I hear that word, I know that you're already on the other side because there's, yeah, the simplicity is what shocks first.

Like people think, okay, I'm so smart and I've been to so many things. I almost got it. You know, I can try a little harder and I will get it. No, you won't. The simplicity is before the, all the idea of getting. It's a matter of discarding instead of getting. Yeah. Discarding all the concepts and images we've taken on board and believed in. It seems to be a, a memory of a small child that, that sort of woke up that there's a, there is, there is objects that you can know. All you have to do is say the name. Mm. Say the name and then you know something.

And there's instant feedback from, from the child. Mm. And then you see a grown up and you see that, oh, this is a game. This is a game that you play that you, you say names, you know, it's some sort of game. And that belief in knowing seems to be the game we play throughout our imaginary life. Yeah. Reality. Mm. Can't be known. Yeah. It can't be known because it's not an object. That's right. We know objects and we, and it can become very complex and complicated. Mm. The knowledge when the truth can't be known. Yeah. It can't be known because we are it. We're not.

That, yeah, absolutely. We're not objectifying the. Plus the, the, the, the nice way I like when Bob uses the word intelligence energy is the activity of knowing. knowing is the activity of grasping while the silence of the stillness is inactive it doesn't move it doesn't they're trying to get from there to the completely complete stillness from the activity is ridiculous like the faster you run the further away you go from the stillness that is always there you don't have to run you don't have to you just stop you just pause and it's always there it can't be denied so that's another way to look how impossible is to get to know what is always there how impossible is to objectify the space and know it as an object through the activity of knowing through the intelligence of grasping this is ridiculous it is known and it's very obvious the moment that activity of the mind stops it's undeniable like the being can you try and not be now I can't it can't be visualized yes it really helps to know what you're looking for you won't actually get to see yes there's almost like a difference between looking and seeing as well looking is like this contracted energy that moves out and assumes there's something to find so it's like this pattern of looking and then this pattern of something to find comes up and seeing is is it's all look always everyday is and already is in English language you even say I know and I see and it kind of means the same which is it doesn't really add up in in my language in polish you don't really have that but yeah people also say here this is again nlp different modalities I hear you means I get you all means I understand you but the truth is yes reality cannot be grasped in any way either through seeing or through hearing or knowing in any other sensory way and at the same way it can't be denied because even though it's pre-sensory like Bob sometimes breaks up the word presence pre-sense pre-sensory it doesn't taste it doesn't smell it doesn't have any sort of qualities objective qualities it can't be grasped but it can't be denied at the same time even though it doesn't have shape it doesn't have form it doesn't have taste it can't be denied and is it likely the recognition can be recognized yeah it's just like self aware universe like suddenly the awaring just kind of dance on you it is yeah the recognition you just you can't really say there's something to be recognized or someone to but the recognizing that it's like racing dawning like suddenly it's it it it works the same way as the memory works like you forgot where you put your key and then suddenly ah and you have that flashback oh yes because yeah ultimately as far as we know animals who don't have the language network in the brain they don't experience the recognition and memorizing and conceptualizing and visualizing the way we do so only we can experience it as far as the science is concerned right now that's that's the that's the notion that the capacity to get lost in the imaginary world of your thinking goes together with the capacity of waking up to the reality animals don't have it because they never got far away from the reality they already in that pre-sensory enlightened state of senses of course they experience all the data that are being processed through through the senses yeah as far as the science says although now the different things are coming about the the species that are hanging around with humans even the laboratory monkeys that have certain capacities to learn certain things or even i don't know there was some information about recognizing the mirror picture of themselves uh dolphins apparently they really intelligent but whether they are selfing or not is hard to tell also cats and dogs you know they are animals that seem to be having projected the psychosomatic diseases on them how is that happening the science doesn't really have clear answer to it either so there is there is a lot of mystery in the way the the intelligence unfolds through different forms it's always all that theory has to be taken lightly because they will change over time there will be new theories that will replace the old ones they always change over time they will change over time they will change over time once the old concepts but some of them might be used as a pointers that yes you do have to fall asleep to wake up how else could you wake up the ING on everything is the act of the reality of it all seeing thinking tasting touching smelling thinking is happening right now then we say i think i think this thought although i think is the conceptual image you've got about yourself and the thought you have is a conceptual image of the thought you're going to have about you even though you were staying almost all day to get here and the thought you have as a conceptual image and so that is what they will have a Because you have their own way of doing it.

But can there be a thinker without thinking? Can there be the thought without thinking? So thinking, the I-N-G, is the actual thing that's going on right now. Something we're seeing. Can there be a seer that's not seeing? Or can there be the seen that's not seeing? Can there be an experiencer without experiencing? Can there be the experience? So it's all divided up dualistically, but it's the one thing that's the base of it all. Even that word thing, I-N-G, that's the ing part of it. Being, knowing, loving, seeing. Isn't that what's happening? Happening. We put the I on it, the conceptual image, persona. So it's all spontaneously functioning, just as it is.

Alan Watts has this really nice analogy of showing a journey. We often equate life... Life with a journey that you've got to get somewhere. You've got to achieve something. And he says, no, life is like a music. Or ancient texts, they say it's like a dance. Imagine that there is a music which has, I don't know, a thousand musical notes, and you identify with one of it and relate how the other notes are similar or not similar, or stupid or louder or wrong, and how do they put you in the hierarchy? It doesn't make any sense. The music that... Oh, I'm sorry. All the dance is about the whole thing playing out.

It's like the forest and being one tree and relating the distance of the other trees and the heights. It makes no sense. The moment when there is no relationship, when there is really vacant, empty consciousness, just seeing the whole scene through that pair of eyes, that is when the beauty of life emerges fully, because suddenly everything can be seen from a multitude of perspectives. And we do have that capacity. We have the capacity to put ourselves in other people's or other forms' shoes as well. We can experience, or even if that originally would be an imagination, to experience other forms, how they are. Because initially it's imagination, but ultimately the being is always the same, because it's tasteless, it doesn't have any flavor.

So it is not something... you can't imagine it. The glimpse of experience of being will be the same in everyone. Because it's pre-sensory. That's what we share with everything. Luminosity. Bob mentioned that you see the light in people's eyes. There's a luminosity between the darkness of my conception of the world and the light of reality. Seeing the light, as they say. And the lights come on. Well, the light is in the presence. It's just that moment of waking up and everything seems a bit brighter. And there's clarity. And these are concepts of the Dzogchen, the great perfection. The light of pure being. The clarity. The similes of that to convey the concept of this underlying reality beyond the appearances.

It seems to be there. Where is that light? It seems to be through the vision. Doesn't it come through the mother? The umbilical cord? The light of life comes into it? It goes up and appears as a chakra. It shines through your eyes. That's how vision comes about. You couldn't see anything without that light of life. Couldn't do anything. Let your light shine. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. And glorify the Father. Beg Daddy. Hallelujah. Light. And life was the life of men. That's your very life. And you are the life. Don't forget it. Don't try. Don't try.

You know I remember when I was in Iran. I had a friend and my friend was very, had a lot of common, we had a lot in common in thinking. Our attitude was very similar. And because of our attitude and things that we had in common, we decided to commit suicide. Together. And one of his friends working in a drugstore in a hospital. And he paid him for half a kilogram of Clonox pump. It's a, it's a sleep pill. And we decided to put those pills in Coca-Cola one and a half liter bottle. And we drink the bottle and sleep and never wake up. We just need a house to be empty prior, 48 hours prior to being empty.

That house be ready for that. You know, those two days were best days of our life. You know why? Because we left everything as it was. And that house never get empty. Good. Yeah. I understand. I understand. So here I am. Yeah. That was showing you a way even then. It was showing you the way even then. Didn't allow it to happen, but the best two lives, we knew where the best days of your life were. And everything as it is. I have difficulty to leave everything as it is with that quality, you know. Just, you know, things change. Yeah. Trying to go back to what it was.

Well, never happen. That's the problem. Let it be fresh and new. It mightn't be the same one. It might be a better one. Or it could be worse. But let it always be fresh and new. The old is dead as soon as it's gone. Don't regurgitate it. Don't . Let it be. That's right. You know, there's things are strong. Let me try a little bit. When I give up, that's going to happen by itself. You know, I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I can't think. When I give up, that's going to happen by itself. Just think about that breath you just took. You were expanding your heart. You didn't. It's happening. Kill an elephant with a slap, you know? You need something strong, right? Why would you want to kill the elephant? Well, and why with a slap? I mean, the elephant is duality. But the strength of the duality is like an elephant. If you want to defeat the elephant, you have to! Oh, my god. Oh, my god. you need much more than a slap. The thing is you have to leave it as it is.

Then you see it is an illusion. It doesn't need killed or defeated. You can love it. The elephant might give you a slap and wake you up. That might be the slap you need.