Sailor Bob - nonduality - who told you so?

Morning everybody, everybody, every mind, every pattern, every form. Well, we're on about the same old, same old, trying to point, there's no trying, but pointing to the one essence that's patterning, shaping, forming, experiencing and expressing as everything. And they call it that. I am that. So you see why? Because everything is that. And don't you innately already know that? That's the chair, that's the carpet, that's the tree, that's the flower, that's the sky, that's you, that's me. So we know that everything is already basically that one essence. What's changing it? What's discriminating? It's the Word. And I tell you that in the scriptures also, in the beginning was the Word.

So there's no beginning until the Word came about it. And there was all the pattern, shaping, forming was still happening, occurring spontaneously. But we didn't have any labels for it, so it couldn't be discriminated as this or that or me or other than that. The animals know that they are already that. But they're not saying I'm a cat or I'm a dog or I'm... They're just that, they're knowing. And isn't everybody knowing right now? And knowing that you are. If you express that knowing, you could say I am. And as soon as we put those words on, I am, we've got to describe what's that I am.

Well most of us, because we've never investigated, say I am this body. I am this mind. I am this person. But then again, we're moving away what we're told in the scriptures. I am that. I am that I am. In the beginning was the Word. And then the Word was with God. And that's all that the so-called God we believe in, which is that. Well, not only that. We put the label on God. And look how many descriptions and ideas and concepts we've got about God. Every religion, every sect, everything else, and every seemingly individual have their own idea or concept of what they think God is.

But that's the very Word we put on. And that's what we're celebrating it. Without the Word, you can't negate the beingness. And that's the word that discriminates us again. In the Advaita's teachings, they describe Advaita as non-duality. One without a second. And they said the five factors of that are sat, chit, ananda, nama, rupa. Five different labels. And sat is existence. Chit is consciousness. Ananda is the bliss of being or loving to be. And the nama, rupa, the name and form is what we call the body-mind. So we've divided it up into those five factors. But anyone who is not existing right now, now you realize, no, I'm existing, I'm here.

I can't negate it. Anyone who's not conscious, no, I'm not unconscious, so I must be conscious. Anyone who's not happy to be, you're all loving to be. We gladly woke up this morning and we're happy about that. Even though it might have been, there might be miserable concepts and unhappy expressions, thoughts, feelings or emotions going on in the body, still all sorts of stories, you're still happy to be. And, if that being, knowing, loving to be wasn't there, what would you be? A corpse. A corpse. Without that life essence in the body, it's a corpse. And a corpse can't see, can't hear, can't wear wear.

But all those organs are still in it if the, if it's just a fresh and new corpse, if it hasn't, if it goes on for very long, it starts to rot and break down. Before it breaks down, the heart's still in the body, the brain's still in the head, the eyes are still in the head, ears are still there, but there's no, the lungs, there's no breathing going on, there's no heart beating, there's no activity. It's what I call the activity of knowing, or intelligence energy. Knowing isn't intelligence. Not your intellects, I know this, I know that, but the same intelligence is functioning in the universe.

It's causing the stars and the planets to form and express, volcanoes to implode and explode, stars to form and die, floods, seasons coming and going, tides coming. That implies that nature itself is suffused with an intelligence, a knowing, a knowingness, and that chitin energy, which is the same energy as being, knowing, loving to be, or have an awareness of being, an affectionate awareness of being. That's the loving. Love yourself a little bit. We're beating ourselves up with the word, we're not loving ourselves, I'm a poor, miserable human being. I'm unhappy, or I'm fearful, I'm anxious. What you are, the absolute, because there's no, there's no separate entity, there's no static point anywhere in this body where you can say, this is where I begin, this is what I am.

It's all constantly transient, everything is transient, constantly changing. The pattern shapes and forms are changing, but the intelligence energy that's vibrating them, and forming, enabling them to form, is still the same. And the appearance, how it's appearing, is not the reality. The appearance is what seems to be. What do they call that? The appearance is a seeming beingness. Phenomenal appearance, yeah. And the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be, or seems to be. And, well, have a look, maybe ask yourself, how do you, how do you express yourself? Will somebody ask you who you are? And what will you say? You'll say, I am Bob, or I am Bill, or I am whatever your name might be.

And so you put the name on the form. To try and give some substance to that sense of presence, or I am-ness. And the saga tells you to stay in the I am-ness. And people think when he says, we've got to stay with the thought. But he doesn't mean stay with the thought. He means stay with the actual I am-ness, the beingness, the knowingness, the loving to be. And he says that staying with that and reminding himself whenever possible, whatever chance he got, in three years from not looking at anything at all before this, he would realise it. And some of us have been looking for years.

I never recognise, I never realise. Why? Because we've been looking along all, taking all sorts of different paths. And where are the paths? There's stories in the mind. Every story, you can say, is a path. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. But when does that I am-ness start? You can only say it's starting right in this immediacy, right now. It's ever fresh. When does it end? You can't say it ends because, you know, giants only win when that life essence goes out of the body. And then, that's not the end of it then either, because that body which has been integrating right up until now, it starts to disintegrate.

Millions of life forms take place in it, bacteria, and germs, which start to eat it, devour it, rot it, break it down. They're life forms. And out of those life forms, more life comes. My life, constantly living on life, and producing more life. And Christ told you that a couple of thousand years ago, and says, well, I am the truth. I am the way. I am the life. That is what I am, the life. And see for yourself, that is what you are. That is what I am here, is the life. No life, what good are we? The analogy is the same with the computer.

The computer's got all that information in it. Amazing information, wonderful information. But you can punch those keys, or run that mouse over it as much as you like. If you haven't got the power on, what are you going to get out? Nothing. So if the power is not animating this body, mind, this pattern, shape and form, you're a corpse, what good is it? Nothing. So what must you be? You're not the body, because that's no good without the life. And you're not the mind, that's no good. So you must be the life itself. And then, Christ's story, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, people think of me, he's setting himself up as something special.

He's not. He's taken all the specialness out of it and saying it's the natural state, as in nature. And you are, as in nature, naturally. And the body, we call this body, mind, entity, a person. And we call it my self. Whose self? Who's the me? Well the mind that has the self. And you see the me or the mind is a conceptual image. And you see the self is one and only self, which they tell you in the scriptures. There's only one self, one atman, one self, there's no personal self. And that atman is self-aware, it's self-shining, it's self-knowing, it's self-seeing, it's self-hearing. And isn't that what's going on with you?

But we've taken the focus off the one and focusing on this so-called persona. And what's persona? Ancient languages come from the mask. I knew even then. They're pointing out it's a mask, something that's hiding the true nature. You put a mask on your face, you don't see your true face. And you take a look in the mirror and you see the mask and you take yourself to be the mask. And that's what we've done. Taken ourselves to be a person. Instead of I am the totality, I am the absolute, I am Bob, I am the Australian, I am the good fellow or not so good.

Put mental concepts, mental constructs on that which can't be contrived. And taken ourselves to be the conceptual image, the mask. And that's conceptual image, if you look at the suffering, it's all doing all the suffering. Who's fearful? Me. Who's anxious? Who? Me. Who's unhappy? Me. Who's depressed? Me. Who is me? That's me. Bob, the Australian, the good fellow. On the bad side. I'm not so good, my parents tell me I wasn't so good. People tell me I'm an asshole or not so good also. Who says that? I'm gonna get them. We focus on this conceptual image, take it to be real, and try to work everything out from this masked image, this conceptual image, and we fail.

We try to grasp it with a concept, as Nisargadatta says, and you fail. He says you're bound to fail, you can't do anything else but fail because it's non-conceptual awareness. It's that awareness or pure knowing, without concept, without any label. But we discriminate it with the label. And that's where we get mucked up. And the scriptures tell you, the scriptures again, it'll tell you, God made man in his image and likeness. And how do we take that? We take it, instead of seeing it as what it stated there, we take it from the idea that we are the image and likeness, and God is, is that image and likeness.

You know all man's up in the sky. But he's not. But he's not. God is the intelligence energy, absolutely, it's functioning, patterning and shape and form. And so that's the image and likeness. Every image and likeness is God, this so-called God, if you like to put that name on it, expressing through it. Because it's the one essence expressing as everything. And that's pointed out in other texts too. When this saint, when he's a little bit tired, he goes out and then he goes in to the temple to worship. And he's a bit tired. So he lies down on his back, stretches out, it's only a very small temple, and he puts his feet up on the lingam.

And there's another worshipper in there, he says, oh, that's terrible, that's a sin, don't do that, can't put your feet on that lingam. So he took his feet off and put it down alongside. And lo and behold, another lingam appeared under his feet and lifted his feet up. And he took it off that. And another one appeared. And wherever he put his feet, a lingam appeared underneath it. And people thought, oh, that was a miracle. But it was just a way of pointing out that no matter where you put your feet, you can't get away from it. Everything is that. And people take it all away, he was performing miracles.

He wasn't performing any miracles, it was just a way of describing it. And a lot of these miracles and things are a way of describing it which we don't see. Look at the words and what they're pointing to and look at the things and investigate and see for yourself. Everything is that. And these words, have a look at the word, is the word the thing? Take the word water. Try and quench your thirst with the word. Get a cup full of words and see if you can drink it. Get a bath full of words and see if you can wash it. Or swim, go down the swimming pool and see if you can swim in the word.

You can't. The word fire. Fire burns, but does the word fire burn your mouth when you say it doesn't? Can you cook with it? Can you hate yourself? So you see the word is not the thing. And that applies to this word I, or me. Words. Now what can you do with I or me? Nothing at all. Until we add other words to it. I am Bob. I am this. I am this body. I am this mind. I am this person. All added on by the words. And how many words are we born with? Not one. Not one. When did you begin? When you go back and have a look at that?

Well that essence of your father, that pattern, shape and form of intelligence energy that you call your father, in that pattern through the food he's eaten, the prana in the food, the energy in the food, and the breath, the prana, enabled in that pattern a little microscopic particle to form. Another happening in intelligence energy. A little microscopic particle. You can't see it with your naked eye. Called a sperm. So minute. We don't, you know. And that sperm was suffused with that innate intelligence. It knew what to do. And the same with the mother. That innate intelligence that forms your mother. Enabled in that pattern another little microscopic particle called an ovum or an egg to form in that pattern.

And that ovum was suffused with intelligence. It knew what to do. It attached itself to the wall of the uterus. Applying it was suffused with that intelligence energy to enable it to attach itself there. And the sperm, suffused intelligence energy, knowing what to do, swam to the ovum. It had the capacity of swimming. Those two came together. What happened? That cell doubled and redoubled through the genes and the food and the breath and everything that's going on. That intelligence energy was functioning and formed the little ovum. The little embryo and the little fetus. And that was the beginning of you and it's what you are today.

But it's transient, isn't it? It's changed. It's constantly changing. And the little embryo, it grew from there into a young child, a boy or a girl, a youth or a young woman, middle age, old age, and dropped away somewhere along the line. But where did the essence go? The essence was just that pattern was forming in the essence. But the essence is not contaminated or corrupted or obstructed at all. A pattern forms around it. A pattern breaks down around it. But there's nothing that's touched the innate intelligence energy of it. And it hasn't separated it from any of the other pattern shapes and forms. So it goes on continuing to express, continuing to pattern shape and form.

It doesn't know birth and it doesn't know death. It doesn't know beginning. So when they say in the beginning, there is no beginning until the word came about it. See that at Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eight are the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What's that tree of knowledge, good and evil? Isn't it learning words? Not only good and evil, but every other word. And then when they learned words, they learned to put meanings into them. And they believed they were separate. They were naked. And the life essence came in. In that belief they were naked. And they say that they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And they put an apple into that. I don't know whether that comes with it or not. And they were certain. And the serpent told them to eat of the apple. I don't know. But they tried, you know, testing everything else. They ate of the tree of knowledge. And then believed they were naked. And the essence tell them, who told you you were naked? Who told you? Who told you you were separate? And they were kicked out of paradise. That's a story too. That's another way they express themselves. And that's what we are. We've lived that. Yeah. With the learning of words. And we try to get back into it through the word.

We've got science and physics and every other words and concept we add onto it. So they're saying in the simplicity that it's always and never left it. But we're trying to get back into it and it doesn't happen. And we don't become enlightened or realized through the word. And we recognize when the word is not. And that sense of presence hasn't left you. And that sense of presence is not the name and form you put on it. Because you can't separate it. Separate that presence from anything around you right now. We're sitting here in this space. This cognizing emptiness. Try and separate yourself from space.

And even when the life essence goes out of this space, where does it go back into? Disappears back into the space. Which it never left. Only seemingly so. And through the pattern they put a, the pattern was put around it as the body. And into that body came the reasoning capacity developed, which is very useful through the organs and things that are in. And we took on the idea where we learnt words and took on the idea we were a separate entity. An individual. But those two words tell you the same thing. Individual means it's undivided. Indivisible means we're not divided also. Not separate. But we believe we are.

We've taken on the belief as these words come about. And the belief goes into the word. And the word, what's belief? It's just another word also. And the meaning of that, the definition of belief, when you look into it, is an unquestioned acceptance. We're accepting something without questioning it. Of something. In the absence of reason. In the absence of reason. It means we haven't got, worked it out or reasoned it out. We've just taken it for granted. What our parents, our schools, and everybody else has told us. Acceptance of an alleged fact. Now it's an alleged fact. They say, this is true, this is real.

And we can follow along with them. Yeah, that's true, that's real. So that's, we're accepting it, an alleged fact. Without positive knowledge or proof. So we say, investigate. And see for yourself. And realize, there's a saying there too in scriptures, that the false cannot stand up to investigation. If you're believing in something that's false, and not true, it will believe in the way you believe it until you investigate it. And when you see through it, you'll see it's not true. And look, there's many analogies out there that point to it. The blue sea. Go down to the ocean and I'll say, get me a bucket of blue water out of the sea.

You'll say, don't be ridiculous, because it's been investigated, and you already know. But it doesn't stop appearing to be blue. You'll still see the sea is blue. But now you know the truth of it. And that scriptural saying comes true. You know the truth. And you're free of that belief. Space. Sky. Is space. Sky is blue. The room you're sitting in right now is space. Where's the blueness? It's not there. You go up in a plane. Is the blueness coming in the plane? It's not. It's further out when you look out through the window. It appears to be blue. The water in a mirage. Going along the road, what appears when the sun is shining and the shimmering light off the tar blows up and it seems like there's a pool of water there.

Drive up to it. There's no water there. When was it ever there? See, it never was. And it's not there now. When was it ever there? It appears to be there. The snake in a rope was one they point out in the scriptures. A fellow steps out of his room on a wet night, a rainy night, and there's a piece of wet rope outside. He stands on it in the dark, doesn't see it. It rolls under his feet. And he immediately thinks he's trod on a serpent, on a snake. And immediately the fear and the trembling comes up. The skin, the hair stands on end.

The goose pimples come up. And a bolt of fear runs through him. And he says, what's he doing? He feels he's, I'll be bitten by this snake. I'm going to die. Full of fear. There's somebody nearby that comes out and looks, and shines a torch. And look. It's only a piece of wet rope. Ah. There's an immediate sense of relief. But the fear and the trembling don't die down straight away. They've been caused, caused the physical activity in the body. And those activities, even though the thought goes out of them, takes a while to settle down. So we're still fear and the trembling. And isn't that what goes on with us right now?

We see something. The thought goes on about it for a little while. It runs on for a while. We see through a thought, you know. And you see it's false. But then the thought, the fears you had about it, are not far away. And if you go back and regurgitate them and look into them again, they're there again immediately. Instead of continuing to see that they're false. No power. And that's another thing. Power. We think we've got to persevere. We think we've got personal power. We think there's such a thing as thought power, higher power, God power, mind power. But if it's totality, there's only one power.

And that one power, as I tell you, it's omnipotence. Total power. And omnipotence, omniscience, it's total intelligence. Omnipresence is total presence. It's not divided at all. But with this thought, have a look at your mind and see the way the thought functions. It's constantly vibrating. Thought is just a vibrating pattern of energy. Like the life is just a vibrating pattern of energy. And it's constantly vibrating. And a vibration has got boundaries on it, by its always in the pairs of opposites. Good and bad. The good is one end of the stick. Bad is the other end of the stick. And so, as Shakespeare told you that, there's nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes us so.

That vibration is going on and that's what's seemingly dividing it. The saga tells you the same thing. Nothing can trouble you except your own imagination. That's another label we put on it. Imagine. Imagine this and imagine that. And we do. You don't have to be told to do it. We constantly do it. We imagine, but break that word imagination down. To image in. Make two things of it. Images are going on in this body, mind. Imagine. Now what's an image? Look in the mirror and what do you see? You see nothing but reflections, or images. Reflection. Image is another word for the reflections that are going on.

The images in the mirror. You can't say they're not there, can you? And you look at them. Investigate and have a look and see for yourself. No, those images are there. Well, go up and try and grab one. And when you get up to them, what do you do? All you do is grab the glass. You don't grab the image, because you can't. So you can't say they aren't there, but you can't say they are there. So, like they say in the scriptures, it's all appearing to me. So, everything, you know, it's a phenomenal manifestation. It appears to, or seems to be so. But when it's investigated, it's not so.

And look at the ways this manifestation is appearing to us. The amazing ways and the wondrous ways it appears. In all its variety and all its diversity. Not realising it's still only the one essence. And, above all that, that you are that essence. That is all there is. You are that, as they say. And all those images of appearing, so-called patterned shapes and forms, are that. Everything is that. I am that. And that's Mahavaka, the great mantra. The great mantra. We repeat, trying to get somewhere with the mantra. When you realise what they're pointing to, see, it's always been so. You realise how great it is.

Then you say, I am that, and forget about it. And that's like the fellow that went to the ashram to see the guru. And he looked and he said, I've been seeking for a long time. I want to know truth. And the guru says to him, you know, you've been seeking. I am that. That's the truth. And he says, I've heard that. I know all that. If you know that, away you go. Don't stay here. So he did. He took off and he went down the road. And he says, go and see the mantra. Guru down the road. And the fellow that sent him knew that the guru down the road knew what he was talking about.

And the fellow goes down there and he approaches the guru. And the guru says to him, where you been? He says, well, I've been to that fellow up the road. And he knew that the fellow up the road knew the truth. So he said, you'll, he said, it's giving you the mantra straight away. He says, you'll have to serve me for 12 years. Give me, do some service for 12 years. And the guru said, the fellow says, yeah, anything. He said, I've been seeking so long, I want this truth badly. I'll serve you for 12 years. So he called the ashram manager over and he said, what job have we got?

And he says, there's not too many jobs left. The only one we've got left is picking up the cow shit. All right. He said, well, that's your job. And the bloke said, all right, anything. I've got to find God. So he diligently picked up cow shit for 12 years. 12 years he came racing up to the guru. I've done my 12 year service. Tell me the truth. The guru pointed to him and said, thou art that. But this time it was different. Those 12 years had opened him up. Had opened him up. Hadn't done it for him. He couldn't see it. But they told him, ah, yes, I realize what that means now.

And he saw it. And that's what a lot of us got to do. We've got to do that, sir. But there's a rapid path to it, an immediate path to it right now. And they tell you that in a lot of the scriptures, too. The Zen path is the gradual and the immediate. It can be immediate. And if you're astute enough, you can see it immediately, right in this moment. And I'll ask you again, anyone who is not existing, you'll say, no, I'm existing. What do you keep asking me that for? Anybody who's not conscious, well, I'm not unconscious. I must be conscious. Or not unaware, so I must be aware.

And am I happy to be? Oh, yeah, I would rather be than not be. So I am that already. Now, what can I add to it? Nothing. What can I take away from it? But the important thing is don't lose sight of it. We usually forget it. Because we go out there into the world, and people, 99.9% of the population are coming from that point of view of the me. No, you've got to do this. Or do that. And that's not good enough. And you get caught. And you drag your back into it again. But look at it again. See that down through the ages, there have always been people, saints, sages, saviours, and seers, and gods, that have recognised it.

And that's what that happened to them. Oh, he knows, he's seen it. He's a saint, or he's a saviour. That one is a god. And put those labels on. And what have they done? They've set the messenger up, and worshipped the messenger. And the messenger is just like a signpost. Or a little dot on the map. And they've set him up and worshipped him as the god himself. And lost sight of the message. Now the message is what takes you home. The messenger, just a pointer. It can be of assistance because the messenger and you are one and the same thing. You and the messenger are just the one.

One has recognised, through that pattern, a little bit more, and functioning from that point. And you are functioning. He's seen the light, as they say. The light, the energy of light, of life. And the one that's still looking is searching in the darkness. Mm-hm. And when you're searching in the darkness, you've got to fumble around. You don't see it. And you might come upon it and recognise it by its feelings. But see it clearly. You are the light. That's what they tell you again. You are the light of the world. And that's what the world appears in, isn't it? Light. And does the world know darkness?

It does. When the sun moves around and faces the opposite way, darkness comes about. And all that the darkness is is absence of light. And it's not going to be there for very long. Because the earth is rotating. It's sentient. It's changing. It's moving. And it's, of course, constantly revolving around into darkness and light, day and night, high and low, good and bad, just like the minds in our bodies are functioning the same way. But you are that light. You are, as Christ says, high and low. You are the light. As Christ says, I am the light of the world in which the world appears.

And it says again in the scriptures, that light shall shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify the Father. Not Big Daddy in the sky to glorify that essence, that thatness that I am, that life. What is light? Light is nothing but energy. And isn't it energy that's fattening shape and form in the world and everything in it? Yeah. So you recognize you are the light for the way the world's functioning. You see it. And the way you're breathing, your heart's beating, your hair and fingernails, it's in that light of energy. How far away from it are you? What distance you got to go to get it?

How many years you got to walk this path, the path of words, to get it? Get the caution. Yeah. Start to reason that out and say, there's no distance at all. I'm already there. And you go to the North Pole, can you go any further north? You can't. Where do you do? You start going south again. Go to the South Pole, can you go any further south? No. You start going north again. But as we're going north and south all the time, what do we miss? We miss the middle, the equator, where it is the equal. That's where it splits, where it's neither, either north or south.

As Kipling said, as Kipling said years ago, east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet. And he says, there is neither east nor west, border nor breed nor birth. When two strong men come face to face, they come from the ends of the earth. So it's there. It's all around you. We see it and know it. And that's the difference. Seeing, knowing and loving to be. That's another thing for such in and of itself. We're seeing and knowing. But be that seeing and be the knowing. Be the tasting, the touching, the smelling, the feeling, the I-N-G, the thinking. The I-N-G on there's something that's happening right now.

What are you seeing? Aren't you seeing right now? What are you hearing? Aren't you hearing right now? What are you thinking? Are you thinking right now? The I-N-G is the actuality. You're not seeing a moment ago or what you saw yesterday or a moment in the future. You're not hearing in the past or the future. You're not thinking in the past or the future. When you look at it closely, you think we're in the past, but you're recalling the past in the immediacy. And you're imagining the future in the immediacy. You can't go back and live the past. You can't go forward and live the future.

So you're never worried away from this, what we call the immediacy, this presence, awareness. It's pointed in so many different ways. But we go into it long stories. Oh, I've got to go through this and got to go through that and all the rest of it. And I will become. What's becoming imply? Future. A future. And is there any such thing as a future? When you look at time, and see that time is a mental concept. There's no past or future unless you put thought on it, put the boundaries or the word on it. And look at that. You call God this God you believe in, concept as a supreme being.

He's the greatest being of the lot. A supreme being. And you call yourself a human being. After all, I'm only human. We've discriminated. The being. But take the label supreme off. Take the label human off. And without that label, see if you can separate the beingness. What can you do without a past or a future? What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? There's just a spontaneous activity, a movement of energy, a vibration taking place. And that is what you are. Now the words have their uses. As I say, that capacity of reasoning developed in us when we learnt words. And it's a useful capacity, but it's a vibration.

So it's a destructive capacity also. Because it's the words that tells me I'm not good enough. That I'm fearful. Well I'm after all, I'm only human. I'm a person. That's when it's destructive. And it also tells you, if you look at it closely, that I am that. I am that one without a second. But we don't stay there and recognise that and develop that. We're used to habitually going into the self-destructiveness. Trying to become. You've been trying to become for a long time now, most of us. We've been searching for a long time. Why haven't you become? If you think you're gonna get it in the mind.

Your own common sense will tell you. I've searched earnestly and honestly. Trying to find it. The answers are mine. But I've never found it. I've been sincere and honest. Poor me. Why haven't I found it? Is there something wrong with me? Of course there is. Because you're looking for a bloody me that doesn't exist. But that might dawn on you then, I've been looking in the mind all this time to find the answer. But they keep telling me there's no such thing as mind. Mind is a fiction. So if I'm looking in the mind for the answer, there's no such thing, maybe I'm looking in the wrong direction.

And then wouldn't you ask yourself, if I'm looking in the wrong direction, in the mind, and there's no such thing, what way is there out of the mind? I'm in the mind, alright, and that's it. How can I get out of it? Shut up. Yes, shut up, full stop. Don't go there. Let it go. Just rest in it. Uncontrived. And that's when you might take a notice of it. And that's when you might take a notice of somebody out of scriptural statements where it tells you clearly you'll never ever get peace of mind. And that's what we're looking for, isn't it? Peace of mind. This mind has chatted for so often and so long.

I keep getting locked into it and chatted about it. I want out of it. How can I get out of it? And then they tell you you'll never get peace of mind. And they'll tell you clearly where it is. The peace is when the mind is not. So wouldn't you ask yourself then, get out of the mind. And say, well, full stop. Don't go there. You can't stop the mind because it comes up spontaneously. But if you don't give it any credence, you're not locking in on going with the story, just leave it as it is. Just let it rest in its uncontrived singularity. And in that resting, leaving it as it is, you'll see there's no thoughts stitched in your head or constantly in your head.

It's constantly transient. Every thought is transient. It's constantly changing. But we keep the thoughts there. Keep recognizing them and going into them. And out of the thought comes another thought and another thought. And it tells you again, it gives you an answer to that in the scriptures, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. How would you renew your mind? There's no such thing there. How would you renew it? Wouldn't you keep reminding yourself there's no such thing as mine? Until that reminding, you know the truth and you recognize the truth. And the analogy of the sun and the sky is another one which is a good one.

You go outside on a cloudy day and you say, I can't see the sun. You realize that the clouds are fusing and obstructing the sun. It's fusing the sky. But you recognize it. You know that the sun never leaves the sky. You know that one. That's one you've investigated and know the truth about it. But then out of curiosity, you'll ask yourself, what forms the clouds? If you want to work it out in the mind, well, you'll see the sun itself forms the cloud. Now, the sun doesn't know anything about a cloud. Look at the vastness of the sun. It lights up the world. And the clouds can only obscure it in certain places.

They're not covering the whole world. There are always places with this clarity. And if you ask yourself, what forms the cloud, you don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to work it out. You realize that the sun itself forms the cloud. Because all the sun does is shine. That shining or light, the shining light, it radiates heat. And that radiation, that heat evaporates water. And that water rises, and that evaporation, the steam rises and cools and condenses that steam back into the earth. Back into a liquid form, water. And that liquid form, it cools a bit more, and it'll come down as rain or ice.

Or so, it becomes solidified as ice and so. So from the basic essence of a subtle thought, it's now become something solid. And that's the same we're doing with our thinking. So steam water and ice are the same, three aspects of the one thing. So with the thinking, thinking, feeling and emotion. Thought, feeling and emotion. Three aspects of it. Thought's very subtle. A thought will come up in your mind, might be a sad thought, which is caused by, you might have walked past a place where you lived years ago, or have a memory of it, or see something, or think of somebody. Very subtle, you don't have to think about it.

But it's a subtle thing. And that's the way you can think about it. Very subtle, you don't notice it. There's a sad thought there. And you don't notice that for a little while until it brings up the sad feeling. Oh yeah, I miss him, oh it's not so good. That feeling will be there for another. And then there's a feeling you might get fearful about or angry about. And the fear and the anger and the emotion come. All based on the vibration patterns of a subtle vibration of energy that's formed as thought, fear, feeling and emotion. So now what have we done? When we were children, all these things, instead of seeing the feeling, is a sensation.

Pure sensation. You're sensing it with the mind now, rather than thinking it. We get the sensation, anger or fear. When we had these when we were little children, we didn't know what they were. And your father or your mother will tell you you're angry. Or you're fearful, or you're frightened, or you're scared, or you're unhappy, or you're depressed. So whenever that one's come upon us ever since then, we put the old label on it. And we put the old labels on to this day. Now we know what fear and anger are. They're all I'm angry, I'm unhappy, or I'm jealous, or I'm envious. We're relating these sensations, instead of seeing them fresh in you, like everything in this manifestation is fresh in you.

We're putting the old labels on them, putting the belief, energy of belief into the old labels, and it's so. So no wonder we're caught in these habit patterns of fear, anxiety, stress, guilt, remorse, unhappiness, depression. No wonder. Couldn't be any other way. But, if you have the courage to look into it, and see for yourself, this anger, I'll have a look at it this time. See it as a pure sensation. See as though I'm seeing it for the first time. And that's that serenity prayer, as most men do. Serenity, to accept the things I cannot change. See them as they are. Courage to change those that I can.

If I look into one and I can use that courage to change it, see it's worth it. And the wisdom to know the difference. Recognize I can't change the weather. Lots of things like that, except those ones that I can't change. But put the courage into the ones I can change. And, we think we've got to get, God's going to give us this courage. But all the courage is there that you need, you know. All the trust is there that you need. See. And look at that Jack, get a bite of loaf of bread. You'll eat it. Or get an ice cream, you'll eat it.

You trust that there's no poison in it, or nobody's contaminated it. You know. All these things you can get on a tram or a bus on trust. And somebody comes up to them in trouble, you might yourself jumping out and jumping into them to pull them out of trouble or save them. Well the courage is there. And the wisdom is there too. But we've got to utilize these things, make use of them. But we don't. We stay in the little believed in me, and think that some big hand will come out of the sky, some big daddy will come along and pull us out of it.

But in using that wisdom, serenity, trust, courage, things will fall into place in a way you never believed was possible. And with that will come the sense of well-being and the joyousness, the love of being, have an affectionate awareness of being, be warm towards yourself, love yourself a little bit. And then that warmth, it grows. Everything grows in warmth, in love, in joy. When you get the taste of that, you'll know exactly what it means. I've got some nice comments, Dad. Oh. This is from Rohan. Thank you Bob and Kat once again for the clear pointing. What Bob said, that thoughts and feelings will still manifest for some time even after recognition, was really helpful.

Some of the me thoughts about past and future came up this morning and then another thought came up that hang on, we've seen through this. So where is this coming from? After then, some thought that maybe it wasn't truly seen. But now it is clear that it is also just me idea seeking to continue in something. Very good. Yes. So I would say, let it come out. And we have one from Michael. Thank you beautiful people. Thanks Bob. Your story will stay with me. I think I'll have that image with every shovel of shit. Maybe even stop shoveling. The 12 years. There was a comment I didn't want to disturb you before.

Larry was asking if you have a cow. He would be willing. I don't have a cow yet. No, we have cat shit. And now we have, here a couple of people were saying, I mean a lot, about 35 people were saying good morning and sending love messages. Now a couple of people is leaving. Mukti loves the pictures of Miss Argadata behind you. Tanya is, because that was also Tony was saying, that many patterns have shown up here. Because of the lockup. Energy goes into them. But having the opportunity to look at them, they are seen for what they are. Just labels, thoughts. Beautiful. Wonderful. And Tony says, that shot of early patterns that aren't, that we aren't, are so funny.

Really notice it when they are in your face in a lockdown. Yeah, I like the saying, patterns that we aren't. We're not the patterns. Yeah. That's so funny. And Tanya is asking, what's your necklace? The dragon. Yeah, dragon, yeah. It's a Chinese dragon, isn't it? Yeah. My birthday is on the year of the dragon. And a Chinese lady gave me that on my birthday. On your birthday. On my birthday, yeah. That was when you were in America in 2004. Yeah. I've never seen it since, or heard from it since. But something of mine, they give me that. Yes, Judith is missing the face to face.

Face to face. Yeah. Yeah. Tanya is saying, if you see that you are not separate self, what more is there to see, know, or understand? Nothing. That's it. Yeah. That's me. If you go astray. Mm. Yeah. Sebastian from Spain, he says, so good to see you Bob in those confused times. Yeah. Good to hear from you Sebastian. Yeah. And we have a lot of good morning messages from a lot of people, and love messages. See if there's any more questions. Ram is saying, I did the door for five years. That was my cold shit shoveling. Paula says, learning to go ahead. Feel that feeling without putting a label of good or bad on it.

Yeah. Yeah. Tanya, I guess because I am from New Zealand, I thought it might be a green stone, Pounamu Tiki from New Zealand. Tell her I've got a couple. Yeah. Green stone. She can hear you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have a couple of green stone one. Yeah. I forget what they call them now. Pou-na-mu. That's the Tiki. Yeah. Pou-na-mu. That's the Tiki. Yeah. Yeah. Pou-na-mu. That's Piki. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What a relief. Do not have to look for anything anymore. Tanya says. The more time goes by, the more younger Bob becomes.

No. See, not having to look for anything. lot of the burdens away straight away. If you recognize there's nothing to look for and gives it more chance. When there's more clarity in the sky, less clouds, there's more clarity. When there's less thoughts and worries and concerns are going on, there's more clarity in the head and the spontaneity, the spontaneous activities and thoughts will come up. Yes, we have Tony saying hi to Mukti and Moira, and Paula asks if the stone is malachite. I think it's jade, isn't it? And Graham says you don't lose your individuality. Your individuality expands and becomes omnipresent. Well there was never any individuality.

It only appeared to be so. It always was expanded and present. Good. Oh, Sally says, yesterday I had an experience of knowing me and it felt like life watching life. Is this duality? You put the label on it, yeah. Yeah. See it as pure feeling. And also if you just, it's a beautiful way to say it, life watching life, but you can just leave watching and then there is no life and life on both ends. So you only have watching. That's non duality. It's just one process. Now, Julia says, I like the explanation that identification coming up does not mean that there is no recognition of the truth, but more likely a result of a bad habit.

Julia has the habit of identifying for about 15 minutes. 50 years. The habit might take more than a second to drop off. A lot. It says the sense of presence that I am is so obvious it gets ignored. The loving to be you mentioned Bob is strong without that ignoring happening. It is then that there is no questions. Peace. Yeah. Good. And Heyman says there is absolutely no judgment. Absolutely no duality in non duality. We all know it. Yeah, they know it. But frightened to express it. Get the courage and confidence to let your light show shine before men. I like the thing. Maybe I just emphasize on this one because you highlighted in the spiel what Julia was saying, a habit of identifying.

When Bob was talking about this. Adam and Eve being naked in the garden. Who told you that you are naked? Who told you that you are separate? Who told you that you are Julia or you are a person or you are a woman? If you can discard everything that you don't know firsthand from your personal experience, everything that has been told you by someone else, even if you were brought up in one religion and then the Buddhist told you, oh, we know the truth. Or the Muslims told you. We know the truth. And you seemingly changed your identification from one to another. It is still that kind of the outside, the environment imposed that telling that, you know, someone has told you the serpent or the other society.

But there is something that is known firsthand that doesn't need words and doesn't need anyone to be told. Doesn't need. Yeah. Yeah. It's we all talk about the same thing over and over again is that I am that Bob was pointing, not the word, but the sense of presence, that undeniable existence. It's a sense of presence expresses through the thought I am. And as anybody are not present right now, that sense of presence is what you are before you distort it with any thoughts, concepts, ideas or images. Yeah. Yeah. Leave everything as it is. I'm altered, I'm modified. I'm correct. Yeah. Julia says, I am that.

Exactly. And Larry says, Christ said something like, what good is a lump under a bed is best to set up on the hill. Tanya says, what about if thoughts, habit patterns about identifying with the body, ideas of improving the appearance? Improving the appearance of the body just this habit pattern comes does this copy habit pattern come and go Give it no importance and it will dissolve of its own accord If you know it as a habit Pattern, you're not going to put the same belief into it. That's what you believe when you've laid it you and doing something in the body It can happen you can do it, but you're not giving it any credence.

This is have selling power of its own It's a natural functioning money and also if you look at the animals It's always good to look at the animals the birds or even the cats They still look after the body, but there is no mental obsession about it It doesn't mean that the body should be neglected or dirty or or even undecorated If the habit pattern is to keep it in in a presentable way But there is no mental obsession. It doesn't matter. It's not important The importance is what keeps Us in bondage that we become slaves to everything that we give importance and now we have Payments as when you're silent it speaks Alan what I'm not sure okay Wonderful Bob we all know it but Are afraid to express it mimicking the pointers isn't it?

but the Message sits in I see that I am nothing other than the essence of message. Love you Thus Yes Good one test Does the ego have actual continuity or it is just or is it just apparent from Timothy? No such thing as a vegan I go when the ego goes when I go I go there's no ego Yeah Yeah, if you if you take off the label because we kind of tend the psychology did it 150 years ago or something or 40 140 years ago devised that idea that there is some sort of a half transparent Body that is called ego and it and it contains personality and and it is there is something But if that label is taken off There is just functioning and a functioning Maybe habitual but it is just ever fresh spontaneous functioning responding to the environment So the ego is an idea that we believed into existence when we believe that there is an ego we experience the ego just like we believe there is a Serpent in the in the wet rope we experience the the consequences of the beliefs or self-centered Hey man says looking after the body is brain functioning brain functioning You can related to the brain or whatever you like.

Yeah Michael says Bob cut can you talk about the power of mind claiming the truth claiming the presence? How do we keep stepping back into nothing and continue to function in the world? Well, you've been doing it all your life Michael when we the minds only something that's translated into different concepts first two years your life you had no word thing is such a more and they called it in the scriptures of the unborn mind pure mind or unborn mind Which concept? discriminative concepts or words Which divided or discriminated but still only the one it's the space and silence silence, stillness and emptiness. Everything pattern shapes and forms and appears.

Somewhat of a throb or repulsation as I say. Shakti dances and the world appears. The dance of Shiva. What's the dance? The dance is nothing but a vibration. Just like the water in a mirage. You look up as closely and it's usually the sun shining on the bitumen and you'll see sort of rays going up into space from it. Sort of little seeming movements of air or something. And those movements, those vibrations become seemingly solid. Aiman says that he wasn't sure if the quote belonged to Alan Watts. Well I guess many people would have said the same thing. I just wasn't sure when you're silent it speaks.

It's probably when you are silent it speaks. So, yeah. Well the saga that I tell is my silence sings. My emptiness is full. Stillness, I think it was somebody, might have been Mosegar, I think, but it was stillness speaks. Oh no, that was Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart Tolle was it? Yes. Oh there again. Just hearing your voice is presence, Lonnard says. Just hearing your voice is presence. Well, voice is sound. Sound's a vibration. A vibration's a movement of energy. It's still the same intelligence, energy, patterning, shaping, forming, and expressing and everything. But not of something as a voice or a word or anything else. Michael says beautiful things.

Good on you, Michael. Heyman says, listen to silence, it has much to say. It has so much to say. That's a quote from Rumi. Yeah. Simon and Guy Finkle ever sung the sound of silence. Yeah. Mukti says, even though we know it is the vibration and coming to be in vibration, I so appreciate. Yes. Yeah. That's the layout we put on it. But your appreciation is there without labeling it appreciation even. Yeah. It's the same as the love is there, before you name it. I'd like, I found one, I don't know if we addressed it properly. There was this comment from Rohan that what Bob said, that thoughts and feelings will still manifest for some time even after recognition.

And it was really helpful. Yeah. I just want to add to make sure this is clear. The thoughts and feelings will manifest. It's not that for some time and then suddenly you zombie, you have no thoughts and no feelings. Because if you look at the animals, they do still fight, they do still hunt for food, they still experience all sorts of different experiences because that's the part of the game. As long as we are in the body and we have functioning brains, there will be thoughts and feelings and emotions manifesting or expressing through that thought machine. Certain thoughts, like self-obsession, self-referential thoughts, they either drop off straight away or they slow dissolve and they stop manifesting.

But functional thoughts and most appropriate feelings, like the sensations coming up with the danger or the elation, they come. They still come. More or less Buddha was teaching for how many, 45 years or something. You have 45 years on your shoulders and you're still able to feel. Thoughts, feelings, emotions will always appear. But they've lost their sting. Some thoughts, if we didn't think, some thoughts are very useful. Because they vibrate in the opposite, some are very self-destructive. And the ones that we're labelling as my-self, they're the destructive ones. Some more comments? Mukti was saying, even though we know it is the vibration and coming to be in vibration, I so appreciate.

And then she added, yes, love. That's what you were saying about the vibration. Heyman says, non-duality is the strongest enemy of racism and of all other types of discrimination. Beautiful. Michelle says, non-duality has no enemies. Both appropriate. Tony says, lovely to sit at the coalface of sensation and stay a bit longer with one that you notice is starting to be labelled and reacted to. Yeah, that's the process of observation. Jane, the words of prophets are written on the subway walls and children's halls. Yeah, ten men's halls and the sounds of silence. Simon and Grandfankos. Tanya says, thank you. There was the expectation that thoughts and feelings would be no more once there is clarity.

It's so great to realise that this is not true and will always appear, but not to be a problem. Yes. Heyman, accept apparent ego. Tony says, the pattern here just spends a lot more time watching Korean dramas. Michael says, this quote from Nisargadatta helped me. Once you realise that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach the goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and become natural and simple. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah, it's... Like that one you're on, Michael. Yeah. But enjoy its beauty and wisdom. Life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple.

In itself, an ecstasy. Heyman says, you are the beginning, you are the path, and you are the destination. Very good comments. And that's the way to make you smile. Yeah. You don't have to sit there like zombies when... There's stuff that others might resonate with that you're holding in. I just want that nice smile for the screenshot. Give me a nice smile. Beautiful. Yes, so Heyman says, my comments are sourced by my direct experience. Where else? Yes. Where else could they be sourced from? Sally says, what can we change if there is no me? And Mukti says, what do you say about memory, Bob? Memory.

What can you say about the no me? What can we change if there is no me to change anything? Well, change happens. Yes. What do you think is turning the rain on and off out there when it's raining? Yeah. What's moving the cloud over to cover the sun? What's causing the tree in early spring to sprout new leaves, flowers and fruits? Yeah. There's no we. And what was the other one? There was Mukti saying, what do you say about memory, Bob? And Bill is saying, you cannot, from the slightest idea of this immediacy, you cannot form the slightest idea of this immediacy because it is yourself, but not the self you think you are.

And then Mukti says, you mentioned it before as arising. Does memory exist? Seemingly so. Like all the manifestation, it seemingly exists, but it's all mine. All appearing to be real. Yeah. Jane says, this is so beautiful today. Thank you, Bob, Kat and all. Thank you, Jane. Okay. I'm just going to add this because we almost time. Just regarding memory. Memory is what Bob was often pointing is the thought coming up in the present. The content of the thought is that there is a past in which something happened, but that's just a content of the present thought. So the memories are created right in the immediacy as a response to the environment again.

And as science says that the memories every time you revisit the memory, you recreate the event in the, I mean the neurons are firing up, recreating the event. That's why we can't really consider brain a computer in which you have files and folders from which you pick out certain things and then you can just sit down recording and review it exactly as it was because that's not how all that network works. So the memories are actually recreated the moment the thought. Yes. Appears. But they still thought and the content of the thought is still a content of the thought. Whether it is an imagination or it is a projection or it is a seeming past event, they are all the same.

Tony is replying, oh there is one more. Yes all maya, Mukti says. And Tony replying to Bill, because when you are not thinking about it, no ideas appear either as ideas. Absolutely. Thank you Bob and Kat and everyone. Sending love to you all. Michael, every time memory is restored is slightly different. That's Michael. Yeah. And Jane says I think this was Harvard. The memory is the me thought that can only live in the past or future even though it is actually happening now. It apparently takes us into the past or future. It's always fresh and new, everything. Yeah. Might be similar to what was before.

I dropped out about 20 minutes ago. I did. Silence came along. Settling down. And the responses that are coming out I just don't know where you're lying to even. Thank you everyone. Time for bigos. Thank you everyone. And off we go for lunch.