Sailor Bob Adamson - nonduality - 26 Apr 2020

Yes. Alright. Hello. Good morning everybody. Good morning. Cold miserable morning outside. We talk about the same old thing here, time after time after time. Trying to point out the simplicity of it. Instead of getting into long winded discourses and arguments. Just point out the directness. What you are seeking you already are that. That's the point. And if you grasp that one for a start off, you must realise if I'm already that, the search itself is the problem. Because how am I going to find something if I'm already found it? It's already there. And that's nothing new we point to. It's there in all the ancient times.

It's there in the context. But it's seemingly obscured by the different takes that have gone on over the years. Different takes and different concepts and ideas about it. And the belief that there is something solid and substantial out there. Including ourselves. But it's all mire. It's all illusion. Reality is always the actual. It's not how it appears. How it appears in all lives. This diversity in every pattern, shape and form. And everything there is. It's not real in its appearance. But in its essence, it is the only reality. And it's all there ever has been. And all there ever will be. So as they say, the Mahabhaka, the great mantra is, I am that.

You are that. This is that. And don't you already innately know that? When you say, that's the flower. That's the chair. That's the sky. That is this. That is that. Everything is already that which we've put in. What's differentiation? Differentiating it. Is the labels. Or the words we've put on. You just have to understand that the word is not the thing. Investigate and have a look. Take the word water. Well, that quenches your thirst. Can you drink at it? Can you swim it? In it? Will you drown in it? Impossible. The word fire. Does that burn your mouth? Can you cook with it? Can you eat yourself with it?

Not with the word. It's not what it points to. As the saying, put a piece of iron in the fire. It'll become red like fire. It'll become hot like fire. And pick it up, it'll burn you like fire. It's of its own nature. What has it got? What will it do without, if it's not in the fire? Can't do any of those things. That's what needs to be looked at. You mightn't think so. Or a lot of you mightn't think so. But that's what I found necessary here. What Nisargadatta was pointing to, not only Nisargadatta, but many others down through the ages. But Nisargadatta was very clear and very straight to the point about it and very simple.

Simple. Very simple person. People say he was an angry man. He wasn't angry. He'd get a bit fired up, but if it wasn't anger, it was just stressing, trying to bring it home. The point, they were you, it was useless trying. But that's the way it expresses. The very trying to get something you already are is an impossibility. That's what we say here. Start from the fact, whether you know it or not at this point, that you already are that. When you say, I am that, you know yourself that you have to be there to be able to say it. And you might understand what you're saying is the that-ness of it, but the that-ness is everything, even though it appears as different.

Without the label, without the word. And the Buddhists tell you that one too. They say it's non-conceptual awareness. Awareness without any concepts, words, voice, sound, mind. The great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. There it is in one sentence. You have to search for that. You have to do many years of, what do they call it? Searching and seeking. It starts with the fact whether you know it or not without trying. But be open to that. Don't be blocking it with concepts. Now, that's what we've taken on all our life when we learnt words. But realise you weren't born with any words. Words are something that's been acquired along the way.

Words are putting the blockages on us and stopping us from all being picked up. And the words, as I pointed out, are not the real. But the word, then we think we've got to get rid of all the words and not think. Well, the thinking happens and it comes up as thoughts, words, ideas. But the thought is not the enemy. It can be very useful. But understand it. Recognise it. See what's going on. Very useful. But it's the same thinking that is self-destructive. Because that doesn't think, doesn't the thinking tell you I'm not good enough? I'm fearful or I'm unhappy or I haven't got it.

There's something to get. And the worst one we put up is after all I'm only human. And we call ourselves human beings. Oh, yeah. If you believe in the God, you're called God the Supreme Being. What if you took that label Supreme off and took the label human off? What's left? Beingness. Now, negate that beingness. You're sitting there or whatever you're doing, standing, running around and jumping. I don't know. Try and negate the beingness. Try and tell yourself I'm not. You can tell yourself that forever and ever. But realise what's going on. But realise what you're doing. Could the word come out of your mouth if you were not?

If you take a breath, could you do anything? So you are already being. And that being is knowing. And that knowing is the loving to be. And that is what Satchitananda was. Existence or being. Conscious or knowing. And loving to be, which is bliss or bliss. That's the Satchitananda. And the other two, the Nama Rupa is the name we put upon this body-mind entity. And the body is the form through which it's expressing. Now what could you express without the life essence going through that body-mind entity? Nothing. It would be a corpse. Or it wouldn't even be existing. It would be a body. It would be existence.

So if it wouldn't be existing, if it's a corpse, it must tell you again that you're not the body or the mind. And if you're not the body or the mind, and there's thoughts, words, sound, body, voice and mind, all going on in that pattern, what must you be? Well, realise you'd be the life essence itself, wouldn't you? Which is what Christ pointed out to you. And he said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. People thought he was talking about himself, that sense of I am-ness, but he wasn't. He was talking about that I am-ness. That sense of presence that you are.

To tell anybody, somebody say, who are you? You say, I am so and so. Wouldn't you? Well, you know the I am is the sense of presence and the so and so is the label you put upon yourself. I am Bob. I'm the Australian. I'm the good fella. I'm not so good. So we put all these labels or words on the sense of presence. And when the Sarcadetta says he's staying in the I am-ness, he realised his true nature in that short period of time. And that I am-ness was the sense of presence. So when he says stay with the I am-ness, he's not saying repeat I am, I am, I am.

He's saying stay more constantly. Go to what that I am represents. And it comes out as the sense of presence comes out as the thought I am. And you're not that thought. You are the sense of presence. And presence is this actuality, this moment. Look into time and break time down to the past, present and future. See the spontaneous now-ness, the spontaneous ever-fresh presence awareness, which again, they tell you in the scriptures. The great perfection is non-conceptual awareness or ever-fresh presence awareness. Ever-fresh means it's right in this moment. It's not time-bound. Even for a moment. Can you say it? Begin. It begins because as it's beginning, it's already ending, isn't it?

It's already, when you look and try and grasp onto this now, I've got it, but it's gone. And it's now again, but it's gone. There's no static point to any of it, anywhere or at any time. So see that. And that's what you're told in the scriptures. The Buddha will tell you that. There is no static point anywhere. There's no self-nature to anything. So when I believe, or if I do believe, or I think that I am this self-centred, or I am this person, I am this body, that's relating a self-nature to it. But there's no self-nature to anything. It's all the one totality. Can't be broken down into self.

But the point is when we learn my self, instead of taking to be the total self, the one Atman, the one self, we make it my self. Broken it down and put it into the shape and form, this pat body made shape and form, which I believe to be me, or I. And taken away from the absoluteness of it, into the single, separate, not even single, into the one self-nature, the body-mind, the person. Body-mind, the person. Person again, another label I put on it. Where does that word come from? Look it up and you'll see it comes from an ancient language, I think it was Latin.

Persona, a mask, that's what it meant. A mask. A conceptual image, an idea we put on it. So we're living from this concept of a masked identity. You're not the lone ranger. He wore a mask. But it wasn't him. And it's not what you or I are. This conceptual image we put on ourselves and take it to be real. Take it to be real. Investigate and see. Who am I? Or what am I? Who am I? Basically, I know, the same as you know, I know that I am. And don't you know that? And what's I am? It's a thought. A label, a word. And when I'm asking, who am I?

What am I doing? I'm asking a question. And the question is, who am I? And what if I ask, who is the questioner? And I'd realize, well, I am is the question. Who am I is the question. And it must be the questioner. So the questioner and the question are one and the same thing. They cancel each other out. Where am I going to look after that without the question? And when I know that the questioner, that which is asking the question, is another question. It's the same as who am I? Or what am I? Or I am what? It's a thought, a concept. Now how's that, how's a concept going to find out what it is when it doesn't exist?

So if there's no entity, persona or entity to put that question to, what's happening? Have I stopped breathing? I haven't. Stopped seeing? I haven't. Stopped hearing? Tasting? Tasting? Touching? Smelling? Feeling? I haven't done any of that. All that thing is going on spontaneously, naturally and effortlessly. But it is very useful, isn't it? Even though it's self-destructive, it's right to me, it's very useful in using those words. So that's what I say, the mind can be very useful, but it can be very self-destructive. The pot, the cup, the thought and the plate, all I do is think. So the plate, all ideas in somebody's mind. The planes, the helicopters, the balloons, every other thing, all ideas in somebody's mind.

The art on the wall, all idea in somebody's mind. So those ideas, as I say, can be very useful. But you know the pattern, shape and form is how it's appearing. Say, the art on the wall. That's the art's been drawn by somebody, the wall has been built by somebody or something. And the bricks and mortar and stuff that's been moulded, made by somebody. All out of the silence, all out of the stillness, the emptiness. That's the basic screen in which everything appears, just like the glass with a back on it reflects everything and becomes the mirror. Which all the reflections in the mirror appear in that reflecting surface.

So in this cognising emptiness, which the Buddhists point out again, is a cognising emptiness. Well what's cognising? It's knowing. And we think we are. That cognising, the knowing emptiness. Not realising that the emptiness itself is the cognising. If it wasn't for that emptiness to appear on, there couldn't be any cognising. And he made a simple statement then that emptiness is form. You and I are forms. The trees, the flowers and everything in the room or out of the room is forms. He said that emptiness is form and that form is knowing. nothing other than the emptiness. Just again like the image in the mirror or the reflection in the mirror.

It's empty. You can't say there's nothing there. Have a look at it. But go up to the mirror and try and grab one of those reflections out of it. And what do you see? You can't say they're not there. They're there before your very eyes. But go up and try and grab them. You can't say they are there. So they appear to be. The appearance is not the reality. But there wouldn't be any show without the pattern, shapes and forms. There wouldn't be any show. But the difference is, and what the scriptures will tell you, is know the truth. And the truth will set you free.

See those images or imagined patterns, shapes and forms will sting you. They can hurt you if they're taken to be real. The sensations, the feelings when the label or the word goes in them, the fear, the anger and all these sensations with the energy of belief goes in and acted out as this seeming pattern, this word or belief, they'll hurt. The pain, the anger, the stress, the anxious and recognize, go up and recognize, look into them and see. that they have no substance and no independent nature. And what they're doing, what's all happening, what they're doing, what's being done with them all, is this manifestation.

All the manifestation are patterns, shapes and forms. Things, everything, as I say, everything is a thing actually. All appearing in the no-thing, the cognising emptiness is no-thing. So you and I are things. Can something come from the no-thing? It can't. So it can't come from no-thing. What must everything be? It must be that no-thing already. So... So I seem to be... I seem to be sitting here making a bit loud noise and... It's no-thing coming through a seeming mouth. With a tongue in it, it couldn't have anything without the tongue. And without the... in that thing, pattern that's coming through the body, voice and the mind, couldn't do anything at all if it wasn't seen for what it was in reality.

The one essence. It's patterning, shaping, forming and appearing is everything. It needs these patterns, shapes and forms to express through. But they are not the reality as they appear. And that's what I say. You are not the reality as you appear. As the body, mind, entity. But you are the reality as that life essence that's animating and expressing through it. What is the time? I don't know, for only 22 minutes. You can give us a few minutes more. I can just... maybe that will start you off. Julia has really liked what you said about how does a concept find that it doesn't exist. She loves it.

It's impossible. Yeah. When you actually... well, it needs to be recognized. It doesn't exist. The existence itself, which... we label existence, which doesn't exist, is the reality. It's being. And existence is being. It's aware. You're not unaware right now, so you are that awareness. You are that consciousness. All appearing in the different pattern, shapes and forms. But the one essence. And it's not divided into separate entities or individuals. It's the one essence that can't be cut up, can't be divided. The essence can't be touched. It tells you in the Gita, the sword can't cut it. The fire can't burn it. The water can't drown it.

The wind can't dry it. It is the essence of all those things. Nothing, none of those things can touch it. But they couldn't appear outside of it. You are that. Jane says, what is being expressed beautiful. And that's the wonderment of it. It can express in all its diversity. It can be expressed as a load of rubbish too. A load of crap. Says who? Who is the judge? No. No doer. No doer. Never was. But what's to stop it from appearing or vibrating in its oldest variety? Which it does. Non-conceptual. What's a concept? Thought or a mental construct? That's all. A mental, it's a construct.

I mean made or formed through that pattern. And we call that what forms it. We take that which forms it, it's in the mind. But is there such a thing as mind? When you look into it. Show me your mind. We take, we say, my mind. My mind. Show me your mind. Look into it. Can you see such a, is there such a thing as mind? Apart from thought. Apart from conceptualising. No such thing as mind apart from conceptualising. And what is a concept? A mental construct. And what's a mental construct? A thought. What's a thought? A vibration. And what's a vibration? A movement of energy.

That life essence, for want of a better term, people will call it God. I don't use that term because you can get confused with that term. We all come from different traditions. Some of you might be Christians, some of you are agnostics, some of you are atheists, some of you are Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus or whatever. I start talking about God, you immediately relate it to what your traditional belief is. And that doesn't agree with my Christian concept of it, or it doesn't agree with my Buddhist concept of it. But I use the term intelligence energy. And this is just a concept also. But I think it, for me, for this pattern, there's no me here, but this pattern thinks it's much better.

Intelligence. What's intelligence? Not your intellect. But have a look out there in nature. See how nature's functioning. Earth rolling around the sun, seasons coming and going, tides coming and going, all sorts of things coming into being and disappearing. Doesn't that imply that nature itself is suffused with an innate intelligence or knowing? It knows what to do. And the nature itself, and the energy, which is happening right in this minute, is an activity. Well, that's all energy is, movement, an activity. So it's the activity of knowing. That's what I call intelligence energy. And anyone who is not knowing right now, isn't that activity of knowing, functioning in you right now?

So isn't that what you are? Instead of putting the belief in the concept, I'm so and so, I'm this and that, when in all you it is, is an activity of knowing. And another way of putting it is that, you know, being, knowing, and loving to be. The knowing there, that's the consciousness or awareness. Awareness, when consciousness comes upon it, it's a subtle movement away from awareness, because in that consciousness comes all sorts of things. But in awareness there's nothing. There's nothing. Just is. You can't negate it. Comments, Bob, there is, Michael is saying, thanks for nothing, Bob. You're welcome. Looking good and sounding good, Bob.

This is Tazi. A question now. Oh, Megan also comments on that. Anything can point us to the no thing. Thank you for giving us so many pointers, Bob. And we have a question also. What happens to people who think they have had previous lives, reincarnation? Is it crossed memory or something? Well, it can come up as thought. Just like a dream can come up and you can dream you, in a house, in a city, you can dream your way somewhere at all. So the idea of past or future life can come up and express. All things are possible. But they're still only things. And I'll point out that there's no thing that has any substance or any independent nature.

So all this immediacy. If it's going on, if you believe you have past lives or future lives, go ahead. See them. They might be very useful expression or experience. No, the question was more of what are they? Are they crossed memories or something? I'd say, maybe I'll just say it here. I'd say it's a thought form. Everything is a form of a thought or a thought form. And as we know, thought is another way the intelligence energy expresses. Like it expresses as a tree, as a star, as a blood cells, as humans, also as thoughts. And thoughts, they also transmit. I mean, you know, you can transmit the thought from one mind to another, so to speak.

That they actually, they replicate. So the ideas, there could be an idea from the book read or heard when the child was in the womb, when the mother was, who knows? The ideas that form are circumstances dependent. And those ideas are believed into existence. And when they are believed, of course, the whole line of past is created, a line of projections is created. But yeah, they're just thought forms. And thought forms are, almost like, I like to look at them. On one hand, I like to look at everything as just a mechanical pattern. But on the other hand, they're all consciousness forming those shapes and patterns.

So they're all alive. Even thoughts are alive. Like the way thoughts wants to get followers, look at religions or look at the values or any ideas. So they just, they to be seen for what they are. Any idea of past life is just an idea. It's an image, it's a story. Like a dream, I think. A dream was a good one. Thoughts, as you say, they're life, but there's only one life. There's not a past life or a future life. It's this absolute presence right now. We have another one. What's your thoughts on PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder? Yeah. Well, that's apparently there. Yeah. And apparently doing things about it.

Yeah. I'll just add. It's another pattern, which is also circumstantial. Like obviously there has to be a trauma for that pattern to develop. And it's the same sort of, I mean, of course it's more complicated, but it's the same sort of like a nervous tick when someone has or compulsion or something like that. And it's not just a compulsion or any sort of a pattern. It is really the way, when we look at the way the computer is being programmed and certain behaviors or certain actions are being exercised through the algorithms in the computer. When those, when this computer, this brain computer, is exposed to extreme situations for which it doesn't have a script, it somehow creates the survival mechanism that may be not optimal.

But in the moment of stress, let's say if someone is in the war, that extra vigilance and that extra alertness may be a life saving. But when the war is over and they go back home, it's not assisting. So it is seen as disorder and it is trying to be fixed in a way. And as much as the life comes up with the PTSD, that same much life comes up with the ideas, how to cure, heal or correct the PTSD. This is all the same life dancing. And I hope that's not your case because it's a pretty hard condition, a lot of suffering in it.

And that's the point also too. What's the thought? When you ask what's the thought, what's the thought? Oh, I've got crook knees. It's getting pretty painful. What's the thought in that? Well, I can give you a lot of expletives and what I think they are. They're terrible things. But the thing is, what is it without the thought? Without the thought, without the conceptual or the description or the pattern on it, see it as it is, fresh and new. And you get a different take on things. Totally different take. And that's what we do. We take on all these, a lot of these sensations. This is the way the mind functions.

The thought is just a thought. It's just a sensation. Thought, feeling and emotion. Thought's very subtle. And the feeling, which is a sensation, comes next. And then the emotion comes, which is another, it's a bit stronger than the thought, feeling. Thought, feeling and emotion come up, all based on the thought. If I don't think about it, what is wrong with right now? Doesn't mean to say that some things need to be there. If we didn't, if you're sitting on a pin or something like that, you get up and jump over it. If you didn't, it's gonna be painful. It's gonna remain painful while it's there.

Or a rotten tooth, or something like that. It's gonna pain, it's gonna, it's the same with the knees. It's gonna pain there and it's, it needs, the body's screaming out, do something about this. Do what you can do about it. And that's the, and there are, there are, the medicos and things like that, that have looked into these things, the scientists and all of this, and found through that, ways to treat these things, and fix them, and help the body mind. All those things are aids, or helps to do it. And they work. So that's why the mind's being very useful in a ways too.

But to lock into them, with the poor me, forever and ever, you know, it's worse and worse. So where did we get the idea of fear, anger, and all those things from? We had this sensation, when we were little children. When we started to learn with it. We got this change of mood, which we call fear, or anger. Our parents told us this was anger. You put a change of mood swing, or something like that. And we put that label on it ever since. As soon as it comes up now, instead of seeing it fresh and new, this one's anger. Well this one's fear. And we load ourselves down with it.

What happens if you're able to pause, and have a look at that sensation? Look at it right now as it is. See it fresh and new. You might get a different take on it. Yeah. A couple of comments now. One is from Larry. Hi Bob. There is a word in the Bible, Selah, which means stop and listen. I came across it in Psalm, Psalm 24. In the context of the Psalm, it is saying full stop. Thank you for helping me, to see that aspect of Christian scripture Bob. I was raised in Christianity. The impact of the pointers in the Bible, really have a full stop effect on me.

Yeah. They do when you look into them. People don't really look in, and see what some of them mean. Yeah. Yeah. We have another one. It's a good one. They're all good. Nazar Ghazi is saying, PTSD is a nightmare, literally. It is pure awareness having a terrible dream. Yeah. And now Julia says, the mind which I know I am not, has been giving itself a hard time, for being ADHD, the attention hyperactivity disorder. And having the attention spam of a butterfly, even though I know, that it is beyond its control. I know it has nothing to do with what I truly am. And now Jane says, I think reincarnation stories, and attachment to the me story, in memory, and then wanting that illusory me story, to go on past an alleged death of the body.

But what Bob and Nisargadatta are saying, is there is only life itself. No me, no you, no birth, no death. One without a second. Sat Chit Ananda, being consciousness bliss. Beautiful. Exactly. Good to see it coming out there. Yes. I'd say just one thing, one thing to Julia. If you see that your ADHD is not who you are, it is a pattern of the body, and you say it is giving you a hard time, see who is having a hard time. Who has the idea that it shouldn't be there, or that it is bad and not neutral. Because, you know, whatever, it is what it is.

And I think it has its good sides too. I mean, we love your attentions, Pam. I mean, you're totally, totally gorgeous. But the idea that there is something wrong with you, who has that idea? Who is that appearing to? Because perhaps if you're really not Julia, if you're really not the body-mind, maybe you can see that piece of art of the universe, that canvas of the body-mind, absolutely unique and gorgeous, without the judgment that it could have been, or it should be any different than it is. See how quick we are to put the labels on them? ADHD, post-traumatic stress. Yeah. Yeah, Julia says she accidentally clicked send before she finished the question.

And now Sally is saying, the other day an experience happened when the me disappeared and there was just awareness. And then from this point, it appeared that reality was unfolding in front of me. Is it true that reality is just unfolding and that there is nothing we are doing or can do to affect it? That's right, yes. And as I say, unfolding, that's transient. It's constantly changing. Like this, you know, the wind will blow the clouds away and leave more clarity. And there's no cloud stitched on the sky. There's no thought stitch in your head either. Let the wind of life, or the energy of life, blow the thoughts away.

Let your thoughts go out with the breath. Yeah. Let them play. Be thought free. And when we think we can, when we hear that saying, be thought free, we think we've got to throw every thought out. But it's not. Just let it do what it wants to do. Let it be free. And it will go by itself. And also, this reality is constantly affected by everything, including the body, including the thoughts. It is constantly in the dance. It's affected by the wind. It's affected by temperature, by everything. It's not that we cannot do anything about it. It's that there is no we. But things are done about it all the time.

The body is doing things around, but this is not we. It is the programming the body, the life in the body, that perpetuates it to do and affect the environment and itself. So yes, that's a beautiful realization. When you see the life unfolding, regardless of the narrative or commentary, that's it. That's what it is to it. I'm just kind of straightening the words that it's not, like everything influences it. It is a collective interdependent arising. Like the weather influences it. All influences it. But the we is just one of the multitude variables that show up in the whole scene. So it doesn't really have any, and it doesn't have will, because it will be influencing it, but it's habitual behaviors.

But yeah, that's, yeah, keep seeing it as unfolding, as just life leaving itself, unfolding itself. That's it. That's home. And we have another comment from Donna. I had conversation, I had a conversation when someone asked, who is that, that is, who is it that is aware when I find I am aware of myself? His name was Sharanjit. So I replied, Sharanjit is the, is aware or sees Sharanjit. Only an object can see another object. What is perceived is not perceiving. You are the seeing. You are not the seen or the seer. Your eyes will never see what you truly are. They were not meant to.

They were meant to see this world and the objects and people in it. Any comments? I think it's beautiful. Yeah. Well said. Seeing no thing, yet it is seen. And now Tanya says, by the way, Tanya has a birthday today, so happy birthday Tanya. Happy birthday Tanya. See what she's asking. How can you see? How can you look at old stories to do with your parents and sister, close family, emotions like sadness and resentment come up? They are labelled by thought, I know, but it seems so real. Yeah. It causes the things in the body. It's real. MJ is saying, you're looking like a trendy young hipster today, Bob.

Who said that? MJ. MJ. And back to the question about past lives. What about shamans and people who work with spirits? Is that imagination too? No. Each one, if they move to do that, that's what they do. And then I would just say that we imagine into existence the entire universe. So we can say it is as real, as real as the universe. Yeah. As real as Europe or America or another city or your parents who are not in your immediacy right now. If you believe it into existence as real, it is real. It's not imagined. And at the same time, this building, these walls, they are all imagined out of the homogeneous blob of the pure probability by the action of labelling it out, by the actions of education of the mind.

So it is not that something is less real, or more real in a dream. It's just like if you look at the dream at night and you say, okay, those mountains look real, but these people with three eyes, they don't. Well, they are all in the dream. So it is not to discard any of it. I mean, you know, the spirits, they are not the same as the reincarnation. I mean, past is kind of more immediately imaginary. The spirits, when you really bring them, believe them into existence in the present moment, you may be able to interact with them in the present moment. Not just like the story from the past.

It's not to discard any of it. I mean, they don't exist in my reality. I do not believe them into existence, but I would not say that it is wrong to have the angels or guardian angels or demons or whatever people believe into their reality. Like Nisargadatta, Nisargadatta was saying that there is no collective reality. There is only private reality of your own interpretation of that pure field of probability. So they exist for those who believe them. You've seen a stage hypnotist working. You get a group of people up on the stage, hypnotize them, have them doing all sorts of antics. And everybody is laughing at him, the rest they wouldn't have.

And he says, now, he says, I'm going to wake you up. But before I do, he says, I'll give you a post hypnotist suggestion. And so he clicks his fingers and wakes them up and they're all awake. And they go back to their seats and he's got another lot up there and he's got them hypnotized. They're doing all sorts of stupid things. And the people who were just hypnotized are laughing at him, fancy them getting like that or doing that sort of thing. And they'll go snap, snap his fingers and they're all into it again. That's what we're doing. We're hypnotizing ourselves into it. Just like in a dream.

How real is the dream when you wake up? Very real and very terrifying when you're in it. In a lot of cases. When you wake up, where does it go? So, nothing can trouble you, as the Sargadatta says, except in your own imagination. Break that part of imagination down to image in. Imagine. And image in, it means we're creating mental images and fixating in them, staying in those images and taking them to be real. So, as you learn words on, when we've got this imagined concept on ourselves, when we learn the words first, take it to be real and we're reinforcing it ever after. Our parents reinforce it, our schools reinforce it, we reinforce it, and we reinforce it ourselves, that we are this persona.

And that's the greatest hypnotic thing we get locked into, and not realizing it. That's right. Julia was saying, I was attempting to explain something to someone who wanted to understand but could not because my mind and dialogue jump all over the place and sometimes I have a hard time finishing a sentence. I felt bad that I felt like I can't explain those beautiful ideas I have learned from you, but not if one can, not if no one can understand. I still want to be able to communicate. I understand that I cannot be other than how it is, but I'm stuck in an utter of arguing with reality.

Good. I'm doing that all the time, Julia. Forgetting things and can't, don't realize what's going to come out next and what I'm going to say. Happening constantly. But keep at it. Yeah. And it becomes easier as you go along because we've got to break the old habit first. And the old habit was reinforcing not days, weeks, but years. We've kept it going. And not only ourselves, but people around us have helped us reinforce it because they haven't understood also. So it's easy to flick and do it. And then you just need to stabilize yourself and remind yourself every chance you get. Remind. And that's the scriptural saying, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

That'll transform you. And how can you renew your mind? Well, just remind. Also, there is one other aspect, Julia. Maybe this is what you would be operating even better on because you are such a love junkie. Most of the transmission happens through the frequency. That's why it doesn't really matter how well you explain the idea, what words do you put. But if someone resonates with your point, your particular frequency, they may get delivery of the message even beyond your own understanding because it's always the same one life that is transmitting. The interpretation, what the other person hears, is happening through their filter. If they had no filters, they would hear every single one, even a drunkard in the pub, as pure life expressing.

So if someone doesn't understand you, it's not that there's anything wrong with you or your transmission. It's that interpretation or resonance with what you say. So if you really go to that heart of the essence, which is your natural state, it doesn't really matter if the words get twisted or sentence get cut off half. Or, you know, you know. I know you know. And then Raymond says, one intelligence is operating. Yes. And now Julia says, get me closer. Terry once said something about reincarnation that I thought made a lot of sense. Basically what I understood was that it is possible for two or more people to remember the same past life.

How many times have you heard psychics say they were a celebrity in past life? We can't all become celebrities in past lives. I can add something to it. I heard pretty good explanation of the idea of karma and also thought formations. Like let's say if the thought is some sort of a being that is also immortal in a way. It might dissolve into the emptiness because thought is a subtle sound of vibration. That thought could be a shape or a form having even like a distinguished image within itself. If that thought is like a virus and you kind of contract it, then you may have the past memory.

And in the same way, few people may have that thought. And the same way when the body dies and the strong emotional charge, strongly charged thoughts are still about, who knows what happened with those thoughts? How would they transmit? Perhaps some receptive mind on the same frequency can contract the thoughts from few different significant charged events. And that could be not really an ego transmigrating from one body to another, but the strong memory or a strong charged thought formation that could be travelling like a virus of the mind. So that sometimes is one of the explanations of the reincarnation. Not that there is a soul or the ego or anything solid that survives the death, but basically just a bundle of patterns of vibrations that transmigrate until their life is over, until they dissolve.

But I think the best way to approach those sorts of ideas and beliefs is not to think about it. Because let's leave the mystery to be a mystery. I mean, why would everything have to be understood in logical terms? It is so much beyond the logic how the whole manifestation plays out. Having it all worked out and basically just being stripped off the mystery, it's not going to do any good and it's not going to take anyone anywhere. It's fascinating, of course. It's fascinating to entertain ideas. And to dig into different maps of the universe, different models of reality. It is. But just when we do it, it's good to remember that we're just playing.

It has nothing to do with working out the truth, because the truth cannot be worked out in the mind. It's just playing, imagining things. And the silence underlying the absolute truth is the screen on which that playing happens. Well, all I can believe in the past and the life of everything is to find out where the past is. I can't. I used to believe in all that. But when I recognised it, when I looked into time and found there's no such thing as time, it's all spontaneous, there's no past or future in it, where are the past lives going to exist? We have a few really good comments to it.

Raimund says, Why worry about past lives? This life is enough. Absolutely. Julia says, Thank you. And Jane says, Who's worried about who? That's a good question. Can't change the mind with the mind, Jane. And Dana says, Original sins equals karma. No person, no original sin, no karma, and no past life either. What a relief. That's Dana. Julia, The mind doesn't know what it is. It doesn't know what to do with stillness and emptiness. Does it? No. There's no mind or no. Beautifully put, Michael says to me. And yes, the mind actually, I'll just add it, the mind is a movement. So the movement cannot know the stillness.

So if you actually see the movement, if you see the mind as a vibration, as a ripple, then where are you seeing it from? You're obviously seeing it from stillness. You can't see the movement from movement. You see it from its opposite. So Heyman says, I was pure awareness in my past life. Good on you. And you are now too in this life. Tanya says, So need to be concerned about an imaginary future. No need to be concerned. No one to be concerned. Yeah, take no thought for your life. Nothing to get in. Nothing to say. And then and saying that there is no need to be concerned about imaginary future doesn't mean that the future will not be taken care of.

Doesn't mean that the capacity of the body to predict and plan and prepare are not going to be utilized. They will. It's just no need to worry. Totally no need to worry. Because whatever the capacity the body has, they are being utilized moment to moment. And there's no personal doing. No personal. How do you know when the separate self has dropped or been seen to be non-existent? How do you know? How could you not know? Yeah. What's left? The existence is still there. Yeah. And also the moment you pause the thought, what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it, there is no thinking going on.

So obviously in absence of thinking, there is no doer. There is no person. Because person has to be thought about. And you still exist. You're breathing. You're seeing. You're hearing. You're still... The life is functioning the body. And there is no person. This is as simple as that. Even for a split second, if there is no thinking, an existence still goes on. That's how you know that the person is false. It's not reality. Because if the thinking, including the person, would be gone from the picture, you would stop existing. And the existence doesn't stop. So that's it really. I mean, from here, you just keep recognizing until the rest of the doubts, the residue doubts, because people would say, okay, I've seen it.

Of course I can stop thinking for one second and I don't disappear. So it means I'm not thinking because the persona, the me, is content of thinking. But there is still a feeling and there is still a contraction maybe. Yes, but the feeling and the contraction is a content of consciousness. Without thinking, the feeling of contraction doesn't really have any meaning. And without the meaning, that is just part of life. Keep recognizing it. And when the residue doubt comes up, yes, I've seen it, but now I don't see it anymore. It's not there anymore. What is that thought? It's just another thought. Any doubt is just a thought.

So see it for what it is, the thought. And stop thinking. There's no doubts. There's no person. The only fact is the fact of your own being. So knowing that the story is never the real, especially the story about alleged me. That's Jane. Tanya says, oh, that, I see. Thank you, Bob and Kat. What's wrong? Hmm? How's the time going? Time is 11. When the me disappeared, fear came up and feeling out of control and then I ran back to the me and it felt more safe and comfortable. That's Sally. Hmm. Well, she saw through it the other day. Hmm. And you know the fear wasn't there then.

Yeah. Still, just be quiet. Hmm. Let it happen. See what it, if it comes up, don't go into it. Don't fixate. Also, Sally, if the fear has arisen, if there is a fear, it means there is a subtle me that comes and labels the fear. Because without the me, if there is complete emptiness, there is a vibration in the body, but there is no idea that it is a me. Hmm. So if the, if you look at the, if you look at the nature, the tree or the cat or the magpie, they don't experience fear just because there is no agency or imagined controller there.

So if there is a fear, it means there's something to still be looked at. Like, at least take a label of the fear and experience the pure life as just a buzzing life. That may, because the natural state is not a state of fear. And going back to the me is not a safe haven from which you go away from fear. Basically, the me is more of going out of the pure raw life and emotion back to the head, to the story. So in the story, we can regurgitate the fear or we can medicate the fear or we can incantate ourselves, some sort of a mantras or whatever.

But staying with the raw life without the label, that's not fear. That's, yeah, that's, that's life. That's, there has to be a residue me that calls it something and that feels to run away to the safety of another form or me. Keep looking because in the no me, there is no fear. There is, there is just buzzing life. And it doesn't mean that the thinking doesn't happen or the action doesn't happen or emotions don't happen or moments of, of, everything happens in that natural state. Even me happens in that natural state. Jane says, every question arrives from the alleged me. One that's seen as false, no question, once that's seen as false, no question arise anymore.

Julia says, there seem to be an I who wants to run out of questions. Hey man, I accept and welcome fear as much as, as peace and joy. Dana says, Bob's pointers are the safe haven. Yes. Tanya, wow, never heard it put like this. Fear has featured a lot here, but it is not fear, just energy, sensation. That's right. Thank you. Fear is just another label. Yes. I see if I missed any questions. Oh, I think maybe Bob, you should elaborate again on the Sally's question because I only touched on fear, but she also said when the me disappeared, fear came up and feeling out of control, feeling out of control.

And then I ran back to the me and it felt more safe and comfortable. Would you like to comment on this? Because I think it's important. I mean, okay, so I'll start it. The feeling, not just fear, but the feeling out of control. If you really want to be completely honest with yourself and just investigate how much control you have over everything that is happening, in your life, that would be, that's a contemplation, but it's really kind of liberating to realize that control is completely imagined. It feels like I'm controlling. Let's say I want to drink and I go and make myself a cup of tea.

It feels like I'm in charge. I'm in control. I'm deciding and I'm doing it. But where did that thought come from? It came from the circumstances. It came from maybe what I ate last night, that I'm thirsty. And it is totally generated by the whole world. And the thought is not my, I didn't think that. So it is so much about thinking, having no control over what thought is going to come up and what action is going to follow the thought. But also you have no control over what virus they will find tomorrow or what the weather is going to be or how is going to be your heart beating, whether there will be an arrhythmia or something in a heartbeat, or whether there will be indigestion, or whether people wake up next day and their hair are all white because of one nightmare.

So those things, what we really can control in life, the 12-step prayer says that we can control, that there are things that we can change and there are things that we can't change. And they say the things that we can change is ourselves. That's a very, very practical way of looking at life and it gives, it empowers people and let them work on themselves and invest in this billion-dollar industry of self-help. But if you are completely honest to the core of your being, how much it really, even that, even working on yourself depends on your free will or your choices. How much control you exercise over your genetic appearance or your upbringing or your early conditioning or your life, or your system of values or beliefs, then you may actually see that control is a handy illusion because, handy because it kind of works the society in a way that we can punish people who allegedly crossed the rules and did something against the whole structure of the society.

It's handy on the operational, functional level. But deep down, it is baseless. There is no control. It's a program, software's, algorithm's running and vibrating together and kind of, even the decision that what we're going to have for lunch after that meeting depends on so many factors. We can have plans and those plans will not be my doing or his doing. They will come up as a result of the collaboration of the infinite amount of variables. So see the idea of control and see how imaginary that idea is. And maybe you won't be looking for that control in life. And maybe an absence of control will be liberating rather than distressing.

Because it feels like there is a lack of freedom, the absence of freedom. When we have the idea that people are being taken their freedom away, it's the freedom of choosing, the freedom of control. But if you really, really see how little control you ever have in life, maybe you'll find it liberating. I do. It's just the same. It's just the same as the other factors, like seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. Oh, yeah. Controlling. There's no controller and nothing controlled. But the controlling happens spontaneously. Just like the seer and the seen. There's seeing, but there's no seer and there's no seen. Seeing happens by itself.

It's spontaneous. Thinking. Thinking happens. No thinker and thought. Thinking happens spontaneously. And it's going on all the time. Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. Controlling if it's necessary for controlling to happen. Oh, ING gives us something that's happening in the immediate. It's amazing. But when we entered the seer, we formed a subject. And the seen, the seer becomes the subject and the seen becomes the object. The controller becomes the subject and the controlled becomes the object. Couldn't there be a controller without the controlling? Yeah. Couldn't there be a seer without the seen? Yeah, we have a couple of funny comments on the word fear. Jane says, false evidence appearing real.

And Julia is commenting. And not fuck everything and run. Larry says, a friend of mine from 12 Step put it that way, Julia. Funny. And didn't, isn't it that song, Bobby McGee? Fear is just another name for nothing left to lose. Oh, beautiful. Joseph says, stumbled upon the talk. Very nice. And thank you for the live feed. Tatf Amasi. Lucky stumble, Julia says. Timothy says, why are people attracted to different teachers? Is it random or is there some sort of resonance? There's generally a, well, if you're attracted to anyone, what is it? Do you resonate with them or what? Yes. Generally there's resonance, isn't there?

Yes. And, you know, that resonance will last as long as it needs to be recognized. Yes. And then there's this. If there's no satisfaction with it, it might take you to resonate with something else. Or it might take you right home. And that's why I find it so wonderful. There is so many options of hearing the same message in so many different ways. Beginning from transmitting through silence, like Ramana Maharshi. Or through the hugs, like Amma. And through the music, through the art, through different way of speaking. Through different, even pace of speaking. It's totally different. It's totally a matter of resonance. Because this is always only the same life.

Expressing through different filters. I find much more resonance with women. Bob attracts much more men. But that's just the general. Because, of course, it's not a rule. But, yeah, that's what I've seen in Bob's group. There were always 80-90% men. And I was always hanging out and teaching women. And still do. So, it's resonance. And many, many. There are other factors. And resonance is generally heartfelt. Yes. Johan says, Hello Bob and Kat. It seems easy to look through the me during the day. But there seems to be renewed grasping at me immediately when waking up in the morning. And all the associated suffering. It is almost like the investigation need to start afresh.

And it is only then that there is a peace. That's right. Everything is always fresh and new. So, when you wake up, instead of diving straight back into the altar. Sit for a while. Look around the room. Just see everything without labelling it. Know that you're seeing it. Hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. Without going into the story. But we usually jump straight into the story and locked into it. Our day is stuffed before we start. Yeah, there's really a funny comment from Larry. I recently heard. Someone say, of course I believe in free will. I have no choice. And I'm on says there's no free will whatsoever.

Larry says the will is pure freedom. Words. Michael watched news last night and felt like I was being hypnotized into fear. Word COVID mentioned over and over. Not doing that again. Even felt. Energy of fear arising. Look. Have a look. Fear. Will. All these things you just label. Are all names and forms. Take the labels off what's there. Try and get away from the absolute right now. Without any words. Without any shape. Without any form. You have a comment from task. Bob. What seems to be happening is clear observing. Of this body. Inside and out. Watching and feeling the cells alive in the infinite flow.

This awareness isn't me as task. But it's the same awareness as would observe an animal in zoo. The cage is opening. Love you. Good. That's very good. To. Seeing hearing observing. Tasting touching. Yes. Larry says, I just want to say I love being here. See you all next. Week. Yeah. The other. Julia. I wish I was not drawn to so many. But I am good thing. I'm not the doer. Or I'd feel guilty. As hell for cheating on Bob and listening to others once in a while. Listen to yourself darling. It's not my loss whether you listen to me or not. Jane says Bob is still the one who resonates here the most.

Hey man. That intensity which erodes all intensities in intense long hours of meditation. A goal according to my direct experiencing. It is just miraculous to be aware of being aware. Beautiful. Me too. Julia says a belief in free will is the precursor for judgment and hatred. No free will. No one to blame. Julia. No one to blame. No one to hate. Chagла. In deep sleep I don't know that I am. Is that prior to consciousness as in the real state? Yes. There's a knowing there that you don't know. When you wake up in the morning you say in sleep. Well how would you know? Pure awareness.

That's right. And also it's not really not knowing. It's just not remembering. All going randomly. going very well. I love you all Julia says. Thoughts and words, feelings and things drop off and it's just that life. Life is love, love is life. Sound stills and fade into the distance. What's left? Silence. Tass is saying to Julia that her polyamory is inspiring. And Jane says love to Julia and all and Tanya says love to Julia and she says yes I am love. Yes you are Tanya. My silence sings, my emptiness is full. Let it rest in its uncontrived singularity. Rest rather than be. Relax. Drop in.

Tanya says this talk is the best birthday present I could ask for. Yes, 11.22. Heyman says recognize that unlearning is the highest form of learning. That's from Rumi. And Julia wishing Tanya happy birthday. And also I've seen the comment from Tony. She's asking everyone for gifts. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. 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 think even if I have to 이것 the support she's in her new place already. Do you want lunches? You want to say something? No, I was just thinking if you want something to go it's probably going to be all right.

Hmm. Richard's saying. Happy birthday so hubby birthday Tanya once again. And we have a nice gluten free rhubarb cake so we are going to celebrate the birthday just after lunch. And I think Dean was with us. So Dean, thank you for the rhubarb. Thank you indeed. No we go. Off we go. Yeah. Thank you everyone. Thank you.