Sailor Bob, Kat, Gilbert and Sangha, 4.04.2021 Easter Sunday

Well, you get the same old spell again. You're all Alzheimer's students. No fresh and new ones there. Well, as you know, we can't teach you anything and we can't tell you anything. Why can't we teach you anything and why can't we tell you anything? Because whether you know it or not, you're already that. Now, with that understanding, you must realise that nobody can teach you anything and nobody can tell you anything. Because that is all there is. What that's based on is what they tell you in Hinduism, which they call an Advaita. Advaita translated means non-duality. And they try to describe non-duality by saying it's one without a second.

How can you describe the indescribable? You can't. So that's why they say it's one without a second. Not two. They break it down into Sat Chitta Nanda, Nama Rupa. They're the five factors. Sat is existence. Chitta is consciousness. Nanda is loving to be. And the Nama Rupa is the name and the form. The body-mind. And they tell you that the body-mind is Maya. It's illusion. It's a phenomenal manifestation. And that's all the names and forms out there. It's a manifestation. And they say... Can we take it off for 20 minutes? Can we take it off for 20 minutes? So we can hear you better. I can't hear you.

That's the problem. That meant my ears were out. Where was I up to? Speaking much louder now. Yeah. Where was I up to? I can't even remember. Sat Chitta Nanda. Sat Chitta Nanda. Nobody was listening anyway. Yeah, we were. It's all an illusion. Yeah. That's phenomenal. Phenomenal manifestation. The definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. So you might think these shapes and forms are real. They're just a phenomenal manifestation. The body-mind. And when you investigate it, you'll see that it's so. But Sat Chitta Nanda... There's existence, consciousness, bliss. Or loving to be. Anyone who's not existing right now... No, you say I'm existing.

Anyone who's not conscious right now. And you're all conscious. Anyone not happy to be. Nobody wants to be dead right now. So you're already that. But you don't believe it. Well, some of you do, but you don't believe it. Well, no, I've got to become something. The very idea of becoming is a false idea. How can you become what you already are? It'll never ever happen. So you go on a search. And the search becomes the problem. The seeker in the search becomes the problem. Because how are you going to find something that you already are? It's an impossibility. You do all these practices, meditations, repeating mantras, doing the guru-savour, and all the rest, to become something.

But why doesn't it become something? Why doesn't it become something? Why doesn't it become something? But why doesn't it happen? You seek for many, many years, and you don't find anything. And that's the reason why. Because you are already that. What you are seeking for, you are already. So the search is the problem. Another way we put it, I've forgotten. The search is the problem. Can't teach you anything. Was that the one I said before? No. Can't tell you anything? Point to what? Point toward. And ask you to look to where you're pointing to, to see for yourself. I'm sure I've told you that before.

From that point of view, nobody can ever tell you anything, and nobody can teach you anything. So you start from the fact that you already are that. You're not this person. Where does the word person come from? It comes from a Latin, an ancient Latin language persona, the mask. Pointing out you've got this conceptual mask. I'm this person. Like you've got to wear these masks with the virus on, and all the rest of it. What's a mask do? It disguises you, takes a part of you away, your face away. Gives you a false image of what you believe yourself to be, with this mask of concepts.

And what's a concept? Concept's a word, a mental construct. The word's never the thing. Every word you've ever spoken has been learnt, been picked up along the way. If I asked you when you were born, you'll say I was born at such and such a time. But you really can't remember your birth. And why can't you remember your birth? Because you had no words. How could you say I was born when you had no words at that stage? And realise you didn't learn any words until you were about two, two and a half. When the capacity of reasoning came upon you. And your parents fussing around you, taught you words.

You're little Billy, you're little Johnny, you're so and so, you're this, that and the other. And the words you... We learnt words like I and me. So naturally you put on that I am Bob. I am the Australian. I am the good fellow. All these words we've learnt. Concepts. Or images. And the sarcophagus tells you nothing can trouble you, except your own imagination. And break that word imagination down to image in. Imagine. Realise that's what we're doing. We're doing nothing but create mental images all the time. A good way of looking at that, look in the mirror. What do you see in the mirror? You'll see nothing but reflections or images.

Now you can't say those images are not there. But go up to the mirror and try and grab an image out the mirror. Or a reflection out of the mirror. You won't. You can't say that mirror's... That image in the mirror is there. But you can't grab it, you can't say it's not there. So it's only appearing to be so. It's imagined to be so. And we've taken this body to be real. Not recognising, realising it. It's a conceptual image. And it's a dead image of that because it's based on past events, experiences and conditioning. It's not what it is right now. Got this image that I am the body.

Another thing they point out is the false cannot stand up to investigation. You believe so many things. And another thing they point, the belief is not the actual. And look up the definition of belief. Definition of belief is an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. Acceptance of an alleged fact without positive knowledge or proof. So you've taken on this belief that you are this person. Maybe it's worthwhile questioning. Seeing whether it's real or it is an image. Are you the body? And you realise that you're not the body. Because you say my body. Don't you say my house, my car, my coat, my hat.

You know you're not the house, the car, the coat or the hat. Maybe you're not the body either. The same with the mind. Am I the mind? Then you say my mind. So maybe you're not the mind, not the body. So you're not the person, you're not the body, you're not the mind. But can you negate your being? Can you say I am or not? You can't negate your being, that I am not, so you must be. And what must you be? If you're not the body, you're not the mind, you're not the person, you're not any of those things. What's left? The innate intelligence energy.

The innate knowing. I can't negate the knowing that I am. I can't say I am not. So I must be. And what's left? It leaves me as the pure being. And being will never be becoming. Becoming implies a future time. And when I look into the thing and investigate this concept of time, I'll see time's a mental concept also. Because if I ask myself, is there a past if I don't think about it? I realise I can't say there's such a thing as a past. And then I'll tell myself I was in the past. Well, I'll say investigate and see. Try and live yesterday. Try and live last week or a moment ago.

And you realise you can't live the past. You can recall it. And the only actuality you're giving it is when you're giving it right now. Because none of you can tell me what you thought of a minute ago unless you're recalling it. Because it's already gone. And about the future, I can anticipate and imagine the future. What I'm going to do after this or what's going to happen in the next five minutes. But you can't live a moment in the future. And so you recognise that time is just a mental concept. Where does that leave me? It must leave me as this ever-fresh presence awareness.

The timeless, spaceless, bodiless, mindless. One without a second, not two. Can't negate the life essence, the beingness. Like Christ told you when he says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. People thought he was talking about himself. He wasn't. He was talking about that sense of presence. That says with an each and every one of you right now. There is a sense of being aware or a presence of awareness with you right now. And that translates as the thought. I am. That's the primary thought. And it's like it tells us, it says stay with the I am-ness. And people that think you stay and stay with that thought, I am.

I am repeating it like a mantra. But it doesn't mean that at all. It means staying with the sense of presence. Isn't there a sense of presence with you right here, right now? You're not unaware of being present. So you haven't, you are existing right now. You are conscious or not unaware right now. And you are happy to be right now. So you're already that. Sense of presence, the knowing that you are. As I say, to see that, the search is the problem. And the seeker, so-called seeker, is this I or me. The conceptual image. I believe myself to be. The imagined image, imagined so-called person, now thinks it has to become realised or liberated or free of this book.

Of this bondage of self that I'm encapsulated in the bondage of self. The persona. The mask. The persona is like a cocoon. Where a caterpillar will enclose itself in a cocoon. And there it will metamorphose and come out as a beautiful butterfly. I'll put an egg under a fowl. Just a yolk and a white. I'll have it stay there, get a heat on it. For a few weeks. And it'll form a little embryo, the little chick. That little chick will grow. When it gets to a certain stage, it'll pick its way out of that cell. Become a little chick. So if you're fortunate enough, instead of being locked in this conceptual image, something will move you, which it has done.

Or you wouldn't be sitting here. Because it means it's taken you a little bit further. Like you can't... You've got sick of being tired of being this persona, this mask, this conceptual image. And realising there must be a little bit more to it than this, has taken you to look at something else. And like that chick that picks its way out of its cell, it's changed altogether from the yolk and the white. It can be a beautiful bee fowl with all those colours in it, and all sorts of things. So, this conceptual image we've got about ourself, this persona, this entity, is not the reality.

And they tell you that in Buddhism. They call it the great perfection. Or the absolute. What can you add to the absolute? You can't add anything to the absolute. You can't take anything away from it. If you could add anything to it or take anything away, it wouldn't be the absolute. The same with the great perfection. What can you add to the perfect? Nothing. What can you take away from it? Nothing. And the Buddhists point it out as the great perfection. And they tell you in one sentence, the great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. It's awareness without any concepts on it. Without any thoughts. And you can't negate your awareness right now.

You can't say you're unaware. But you can't tell me what awareness is. But you know you're not unaware. And that's the old scriptural saying, know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And what are you free of? You're free of the belief of being this persona, this mask, this conceptual image. We go on this so-called spiritual search. But when you look into that too, and see what's spirit, what's so-called spirit. Spirit is essence. Like get a bottle of lavender water. And the essence of lavender will be in that water. You'll get the smell of the lavender. Or rose water. Or something like that.

That's the essence of it. The opposite of spirit is matter. This material body is matter. And when you say it doesn't matter, you couldn't do less. You'd let it go, don't you? So it hasn't solidified. It's a thought, if it doesn't matter, you're not taking it on board. It hasn't mattered. Spirit and matter are one and the same thing. But we've separated them. And I think the spiritual is some great thing we've got to be. It's just essence of material. But when it solidifies, becomes matter, it's a big problem. Like blood. Blood in this liquid, liquidity. You can say it's like the spirit. But when it congeals, the substance becomes material.

Becomes solid. Or steam, water and ice. When it becomes water, it cools down. When it becomes ice, something solid. So we've separated spirit and matter. Not seeing they're the one thing. And then bondage to that concept, image. Recognise like everything else, it's the one essence, patterning, shaping, forming and appearing as everything. It's not two. It never was. So when questioning these things and seeing them for what they are, there can be a freedom from it. Am I this person? Am I this body? Am I this mind? Well, have a look. What's the body made up of? Made up of elements. Made up of air, earth, fire, water, space.

Just like the elements out there. The elements around you. Well, separate yourself from them, can if you can. Take the air out of your body. See how long it lasts without the air. So recognise you're not separate from that air. Take the water. Your body's 60 or 80% water, whatever it is. Separate yourself from the water. Stop drinking water. See how long it lasts. You'd soon die of thirst. Take the fire out of your body. The body temperature. Without that body temperature, you'd soon get hypothermia and die without the heat. And get out of space if you can. Postulate or think of anything that could be outside of space.

What could it be in? So when you look at it, you're not separate from these elements. All these elements should be broken down to subatomic particles. So fused with that innate intelligence energy. Or life. I don't use the term God here because you can get confused with that term. We all come from different traditions. Some of you might be atheists, agnostics, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhist Jews. Start talking about God, you'll get confused with that term. I use the term intelligence energy and that's just a label too. That's not it. It's a way of describing it here. I think it fits a bit better but I can't put those other terms on.

What's intelligence? Another term for intelligence is knowing. And what's a knowing? It's an activity. You're knowing right now and knowing is an activity. It's a movement of energy. That's where I get the term intelligence energy. The activity of knowing. Anybody who is not knowing right at this moment must realise I am knowing at this moment. So that's the intelligence energy that's functioning. It's expressing through that pattern which is formed. It needs some pattern, shape and form to express through. So it's forming through that pattern as you, what you call you. So you are not the person. You are not the body. You are not the individual.

You are not the mind. You are really that innate intelligence energy. That activity of knowing. And look out there in nature and see that it's nature that's patterning, shaping, forming. They're all vibrating in that pure silence, stillness, that emptiness. Vibrating patterns which are forming semi-images or patterns and make up this world. And the Buddhist called it a cognitive state. It's a cognising emptiness. And we think we are cognising the emptiness. But it's not so. It's the emptiness, that intelligence energy, it's a fusion of that intelligence energy or the knowingness, is doing the cognising. The knowing. So it's the emptiness that's cognising. And the Buddha told you again that it's the emptiness that's formed.

It's that cognising emptiness that's forming all these patterns, shapes and forms that are appearing out there. He turned it around the other way and said the form can be nothing other than the emptiness. So if you take that to be real and recognised, all you are is this cognising emptiness. It's appearing solid and substantial. It's forming all this manifestation. And it's all no thing. We hear that term no thing. We think it's all zero, zilch, nothing. They say nothing. But no thing means it's no shape, no pattern, no form. It's just a vibrating appearance. And have a look out there. And see all this manifestation is made up of no thing.

Everything in these patterns, shapes and forms, it's all things. And can something come from no thing? It can't. So instead of saying no thing, zero, zilch, it's no thing. It has no shape and form. And have a look at it. That chair you're sitting on is no thing. You are no thing. I am no thing. Everything in this manifestation is no thing. Without it. We put the label on it, the shape and form. Can something come from nothing? It can't. So whether you believe it or not, or whether you like it or not, you are no thing. It's a fuse with that intelligence energy. That's making it seemingly real.

Pattern, shape and form. Seemingly real. But not as a thing. It's real in its true nature. The intelligence energy, the activity of knowing. The spontaneous things. Not as the body, not as the mind, not as any other manifest shape and form that's out there. They're all appearance. All seemingly dreamlike. And you have a dream of the night. Dream of the night. What do you do? Sleep at night. Dream starts. In that dream will be oceans, seas, sky, space, form, people. Shopping malls. Everything will appear in that dream. When you wake up, what happens? It all disappears. But you realise when it wakes up, your body has never been off the bed in that dream.

No words have come out of your mouth. It all disappears. The hills, the mountains and everything else disappears. What you don't realise is what you do when you're waking up to this waking dream. And the only difference between the dream at night and this dream, it seemingly has a continuity from where it left off the night before. Seemingly continues on. And the mountains, seas and rivers and all the places you were in don't disappear. Because the continuity of the dream is something that's to carry on. And that's what Nisargadatta tells you. He says you're dreaming a dream you call the world. And stop looking for ways out.

The dream is not your concern. Your concern is your love world. Your dream is your life. You're dreaming one part of the dream and not the other. He says love all of it or none of it. See it for what it is. And the rest will be taken care of by the same intelligence energy that brought you into existence. And I can go on to that and tell you all that. I've told you enough. You've got enough. Would you like a question? Yeah, if any questions are... Yes, hello everyone. And we've got a lot of Eastern greetings from people who are with us around the world.

And watching us. So happy Easter everyone. And happy Easter to you guys. And the first question was on... From Amarnath. Easter greetings, Bob. Can you please tell us how I am the body idea is veiling the self apparently? How the idea that I'm the body is veiling the self? And Tanya wanted that answer. Purely and simply because you've taken on the belief when you learn the words, I am the body. You've taken on that belief that I am. Because your parents told you, your little Billy or little Johnny, whatever your name was. And naturally the capacity of reasoning has developed in you. It's about two and a half.

When that capacity of reasoning, you reasoned when they told you, I am this little Johnny they're talking about. And you look out there and you said, that's not me. That's not I. And you've separated the self into duality. Instead of saying it's all the one, now you've got the belief in the separate entity. I am the body. Yes, so it applies not just to the idea I'm the body, but to any idea that I'm anything. I mean, if the self, Amarnath used the word self. Self is the totality, the collective, the all and everything, the all and nothing. The undescribed self. The indescribable. Then if I can describe myself as anything, body, mind, a woman, whatever, that's less than totality.

That's already a limitation. And that limitation breeds that sense of incompleteness. And that sense of incompleteness breeds the action to fulfill. And bring this whole evil, silk or madness of seeking. Because we are the totality, the completeness. Any idea put upon it is like a tight jacket which limits it. And of course, as Bob says, is the separation. So I'm now separated, isolated, fragment, not the whole anymore. That's how the truth is veiled. Because without the thought that I'm a fragment, how am I a fragment? I have to imagine being a fragment to be it. If I stop imagining being one or the other or having thoughts or any descriptions or interpretations, I can have no idea what I am.

But I have to imagine. I cannot deny the fact that I am. There was more question. I am the self. And as soon as we say I am the self, we're taking on the idea it's a personal self. And the scriptures, all the texts in the scriptures say there is only one self. That's the Atman or self. The one self that's patterning, shaping, forming, expressing and everything. And the person is not the personal self as a conceptual image. We've broken ourselves down to a separate entity, an individual. Instead of seeing ourselves as the absolute. And then we break it down to tell us we've got a soul.

Anybody ever seen a soul? I've got three souls. Yeah. Dare I? Go for it. There are souls in each of my feet in my asshole. Hey. No? That was quoting Bob, but it's a good one. Yeah. But they spell S-O-U-L, soul. It should be spelled S-O-L-E. It's the soul, the one and only. That's my take on it anyway. Other people might have locked into their religious beliefs. We don't like that at all. And the idea of soul is a noble version of ego. Because ego is something that is ugly that we want to get rid of, put under, push under the sun. Put under the carpet, what other words you're using.

Anything, something bad, something undesirable. And soul or higher self or something pretty according to what? According to, of course, some social norms, which are different to every location. So now I have separate soul. I don't want my separate ego, but I still want a separate soul and the immortality dream. They both have one thing in common. They imagined. While you stop thinking, the good one and the bad one, the devil and the angel, they both disappear. They're all concepts. And yeah, I can see the point of having that ideal that my soul always speaks noble words. It's just kind of trying to get to be a higher self or something.

It's sweet. But yeah, it's a story. Well, they set up a so-called higher power, which they call God. God put the label on God. In the Bible, it tells you in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. That's God. All God is is a label, a word we put. All things were made by him, by the Word. And isn't that right? Look out there in the manifestation. You've got words on everything. There was nothing made that was made without the Word. So we've separated the Word and set the Word up with a whole new world. So we're a higher power or a small...

We're a lesser power or a personal power. Then again, they tell you in the scriptures, there's only one power. It's omnipotence, total power. It's omnipresence, total presence. And omniscience, total intelligence. It's the one power, patently shape-forming, expressing us, everything. So if it's the one, can you or I or anything else be separate from it? That's the way it goes. you start to question these things after a while. You hear it about you can't do this, you've got to do that, and all the rest of it. And it doesn't sit too well because with that relating to the personal self comes the fear, the angst, the stress, the guilt, the shame, remorse, the unhappiness.

All these concepts and ideas come upon them. But if it is absolute, everything is that, you can't take anything away from it. So who is there then to be afraid, fearful or anxious or depressed? As I put it, everybody has a different concept about you. When you walk into a room, you'll form a concept of everybody. And they'll form a concept about you. And they'll have a concept about themselves. You'll have a concept about yourself. about yourself, which concept's right? And you realise there's no concept right. All that concept is is a mental construct. So if there's no concept right, who can be superior to you?

Who can be inferior to you? And what would you want of the other persons? So take all that off. You're going to be at war with other people if you don't take from them. You're going to think you're better than them or worse than them. So take all this, conceptualise it. You and I are one. And the universe is a uni-verse. Uni meaning one, non-conceptual. I've got a nice comment from Tanya. They are random because the telephone is doing funny things. You can't be the body because you are aware of the body. You don't disappear when there is no thoughts. So you can't be thoughts also.

So would you be the body? Whatever is true is what is here that has no words. Wow, that leaves no room for a me, separate entity. Beautiful. Beautiful. And we have a couple of others. Actually there is only self-awareness but only matter is apparent. How come? Amarnath. There is only self-awareness but only matter is apparent. How come? It's a different frequency of vibration. Different way of expressing. If you reckon yourself aware, then you can't show me awareness. Yes, self-awareness. And now Tanya is commenting on Julia. How funny. Roared laughing with the three souls comments. See, idea is idea. Concept as concept only. And word as word only.

That's Amarnath quoting what I said. And what you said. All questions are concepts only. And I see we have some more. Any of you have questions or comments or anything to say or ask or share? In the first book, What's Wrong With Right Now? Wait, I'll give you the speaker because this one doesn't pick the sound very well. Oh, okay. In Bob's ears. In Bob's first book. In your first book? Yeah. What's Wrong With Right Now? And let's see what's wrong with right now. What's wrong with right now? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You actually have a question in there? So you say, this is a question. You have a question. Okay. So, what's wrong with right now? Let's see. You say, in your first book. Huh? In your first book. Yeah. What's wrong with right now unless you think about it? I mean, there's hundreds of pointers in there, you know, clear pointers. Yeah.

But one of the most, let's say, effective ones, if it's followed, is watch the mind and see how it operates. point or it's like an instruction and you know it's so potent because if if you actually observe what the mind's doing it tells you all everything and the mind can only divide itself and when you say it's the emptiness that is cognizing it's the same thing you know so when you watch the mind there's no one there watching it but there's an activity of knowing and the mind reveals how it's seemingly trying to take you away from this wholeness or unity or whatever it can only function in the pairs of opposites that's right good bad pleasant painful good bad pleasant painful good bad pleasant painful good bad pleasant painful good bad pleasant painful happy sad me and other than me yeah on this one i don't know anyone else and anything to say to add to ask to share to question if not i'll i'll dig out some of the other of the online ones don't hesitate them if you got any questions or got any doubts or got something to say you can put it in your words which somebody else might hear you definitely resonate with them maybe consciousness is being labeled me by thought that's what tanya says that's it yeah yeah well let's just say i'm conscious it's it's believed to be real so the label me or whatever seemingly takes on reality but you know as bob says watch the mind see how it operates so you know you see this idea of me playing out its game of dividing and uh you know what's necessary is to recognize that you know if you ask if you could possibly be separate that means that the wholeness is divided but how can the wholeness ever be divided if you take an orange and cut it in half it's no longer an orange it's two halves of an orange and it's imperative that we actually recognize this this activity of dividing things and labeling things and get to see how that operates because if if that's not recognized it continues but just by watching the mind it it's a very simple instruction and it may seem very difficult or you know because the the habit is to be distracted by things constantly but if you really like nisigatara says you know you have to be earnest what does that mean you know i'm earnest but to be earnestly um witnessing what the mind is doing means you're nobody you're you're not somebody doing something you're just nobody there's just empty cognizing happening and then it all reveals itself to nobody yeah it is this a simple profound and beautiful point because the the secret is once you watch the mind who is the you that is watching it is obviously not the mind watching itself the the seeing or cognizing or recognizing or watching happens this is the space like awareness revealing itself to itself because the mind is a mechanical set of patterns and as gilbert said is constantly dividing like you're subtracting starting with at a point uh second break um you're part of that process is there is a lot of然後 meか you bring it up you become как Frito and you sit down like this uh just with this very basic concept if things are doing faster or slower like that and you can like yes the narrative is going on and the narrative is usually self-obsessing because usually always rambling about me what they think of me what they do to me what will i do tomorrow will happen to me and once once you see that narrative as just completely mechanical set of patterns what is seeing it me it can't be me the me is in the narrative me is a construct already included in that in that rumbling but it is known it can't be denied that it is known and that knowing principle is it this in the knowing principle the patterns happen mind operates the mind vibrates so watching the mind already puts you beyond is transcended the mind has to be transcended to be seen as an object some something from outside the mind is actually aware of an object of the mind.

One of the, can I, one of the, like the fact that seeing, this activity of seeing is happening spontaneously, if you're coming, if you're coming from a self-centered point of view, to recognize that seeing is spontaneously happening and that I'm not doing it is very humbling because it, it, it kind of demolishes this idea that I'm separate, that I'm doing something, but the seeing is spontaneous. It's happening, you know, when you open your eyes in the morning, as Bob says, you don't have to go, oh, and press a button or kick it, kick something, but start the seeing happening. It's happening. And from a personal self-centered point of view, that's incredibly challenging or humbling.

But there it is. The seeing is happening. It's not being done by me or anyone else. It's cognizing emptiness. It's the emptiness that's doing the cognizing. And the emptiness is form and the form is nothing but the emptiness. So the re-cognizing is still that emptiness that's doing the cognizing. It's not the person. And it's not separate from the seeing or the hearing or? Sorry, it really. It's not separate from the hearing, the seeing, the knowing. The recognition is, there's no separation. But it appears to be sudden and unexpected, but it's actually timeless. Oh, yes, please. I think, I think that there was, in regards to watching, watching the mind, I used to practice and teach mindfulness for a long time.

But, and it was all about watching the mind, but it was all done from a perspective of a dean watching a mind, which the dean is a thought. It's only when I stopped mindfulness altogether that I realized that I could actually see the full mechanics of the mind. Because before it was a practice done by a me. And it didn't work. It just didn't make anything work. It's called the dean of the faculty. I remember that sort of exercises I was doing as well. But I remember even on the Vipassana meditation course, I was instructed to watch the body and just move the attention. And the one instruction that I haven't been given, it was watch who is watching.

But with the mindfulness exercises, when you watch the mind or you watch the narrative, and there is a witness. You are watching the witness, watching the object. So now, the step back and see the whole scene, including the witness. If you imagine that there is a separate entity watching, include that witness in the awareness because then you are aware of the one who is watching. If there is still something else, Bob has a nice little location exercise. You want to remind that exercise, Bob? When you say, locate the one who is aware or watching. Okay. Thank you. So where would you locate yourself? In the head or in the throat or in the heart?

And where are you looking at it from? And then you see that you construct some sort of a witness, maybe on the left shoulder or maybe in the back or maybe in front. Wherever you construct, the mind is constructing that false witness. You already knowing where it is. So where are you knowing that from? And then you see that every step back, that awareness become more spacious, less limited, and you are able to see that you are not just watching. You are already seeing that you are not just watching. You are already seeing that you are not just watching. You certainly can see that you are not just watching.

You can see that you are not just watching. You are already very well aware that the mind is located and less condensed, until the point comes where it is un-locatable. You realize that every construct, every concept of every witness, where you locate somewhere, is also known in consciousness, and you are that consciousness. But yet, mindfulness exercises are really helpful in a lot of different psychological situations, issues, traumas, and stuff like this, but that last instruction is usually non non duality circles not given and I remember the almost a sense of revelation when I stepped out of my all vipassanas and went to the non duality retreat in India and I was taught to actually locate the one who knows about the breathing and then locate the one who knows about the one who was located or locating and then suddenly just the whole sense of self or location has collapsed the witness the observer whatever the construct is made they just temporary constructs just like the me the seer like Gilbert was saying seeing is spontaneous try to keep your eyes open and not see if you think you have any control or power over the seeing you don't if your eyes are open you're gonna see and you can't close them unless you the thought comes to close them and you can't choose that thought because they taught may be inspired by the environment and the thought may be inspired by the environment and the the thought may be inspired by the environment and the really there is no one to choose it and really there is no one to choose it and you can't control anything and you still constructing that there is a me who has power well really verify how much power that me has you have to fire synapse that has to happen first yes who here knows how to fire synapses I'm not very good at that you can do that oh you're good there is something I felt sharing I have a beloved friend who like who the two of us I'm not going to mention names but the two of us like to bicker sometimes about the concepts of possibility that you can become enlightened you know and I'm reminded of this I I pulled this off of Facebook and here you might be able to see it we've got Batman and Robin and Robin is saying to Batman I did it I'm enlightened and he's smacking Robin he says there is no I keep meditating right you see that yeah I like that one because I think it points to something that a lot of us are well we're still thinking that we can become there's something I can become that I'm not yet because I need to get a certain experience because I hear stories a lot of people have had these stories of this is was my path and then this happened and then all of a sudden there was like me living on a park bench for two years and I was just in bliss and then this happened and now there's no me but there never was so I would love it if you could discuss that further about that there's this poster that I have at my actually it's on its way here now it's a Jim Carrey painting that says and in that moment he was freed from the prison of becoming and I really love it because it's sort of a reminder that there's nothing to become or no one to become go ahead I'll just say there's no becoming becoming implies a future time see the time is a mental concept it's just pure being being can never become call yourself a human being believe in a god you'll call God the Supreme being cancel out the supreme cancel out the human try and separate the beingness if you can without a label and that's being a chair sitting on that's being the room you're in that's being the tree outside that's being the flowers that's being the space everything is that pure being which we've labeled all it is just labels words but label or the words not the thing okay yeah yeah can you not be a human being?

Exactly. If the enlightenment thing is something that is to happen in some future time and is not right here right now, then it's not eternal. Then it's a rubbish. If it has the beginning it will have an end. If it's not right here right now, well, it's not worthy of chasing. And then again, the second part of the question, for who? Who is the me who wants to be superior due to some blissful state or something? If there is no separation, there is no one who wants to. There are so many flaws in that statement of wanting to or hoping to become enlightened in the future.

Unbelievable. And it's something that often starts the search. So somehow that idea, life has come up with that idea, and it's a potent idea. It sells books and seminars, doesn't it? It does. I just wanted to mention that back in the 60s there was a song, and it was, I was looking back to see if she was looking back to see if I was looking back to see if she was looking at me. What song is that? That's what it's called, I Was Looking Back. I can't remember who did it, but it was like, what? But it's, you know, watching the mind, you know, it's a bit like that, you know?

Who's watching? I was looking back to see if she was looking back to see if I was looking at her or something. That's the game. Well, it reminds me a little bit what you just said of like, just sometimes I've caught myself judging people for judging. Really? Oh, yeah. Well, I saw somebody judge, and I was judging them for judging, and then I judged myself for judging. Judging them for judging. Cool. I have a nice idea. If anyone wants to contemplate on it, or Bob, you want to add something? I think this is coming from Dee, and it says that it was something about, oh, yes, presumably the resurrection is symboling of transcendent of mind.

Yeah, we have the holy day of resurrection, so it's kind of like on the topic, the transcendence of mind. What is it? What do you say? Well, that's what you, that which was never born doesn't need to be resurrected. So how would you interpret the idea of resurrection, if not as transcendence of mind? Well, show me your mind for a start. See if you've got to transcend that. Nazar asking, Bob, could you say something about love? All there is is love. They say God is love, and love must be God. God is all there is, and it's not all love. Anybody who doesn't love to be.

And now we have God saying, it seems what I am looking for is an intimate connection with myself, and all what is happening seems to be disconnected, or by or through the mind or ego, mechanically. Can you say something about it? Like longing, I think this is also an answer on the idea of love, longing for that deep love. For that deep, meaningful connection, for that union. A lot of people actually are seeking enlightenment because it seems to them as a promise of a cosmic union with the universe. So I want to be here and the universe outside of me, and the joining, the union, the connection, that's a temporary state.

And it's quite blissful, it's quite sweet, a lot of people have experienced that. But it doesn't transcend the duality. It's a passing phenomenon, something that comes and goes, has a beginning and an end. And longing for that connection is quite normal and healthy, but that connection, well, it's just what is, whatever, it's just what is. But there is further to go than finding the connection with the absolute or universe. Once you find out that you are the universe, you don't really need to connect anymore, because there's nothing to connect with. You are all that is. And you can experience yourself in different locations, just for the fun of it, but it's not even necessary to do that.

That word connection implies, you know, because I hear it a lot, that there's something disconnected. Doesn't it? I have this big... I said that the word connection, because people say it's connected, it implies that there's something disconnected, that there... you know? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But what it seems like, Gad, you are referring to is sense of fulfillment or completeness, because that's what often connection is looked for. Like people long for things to somehow fulfill or complete themselves. Longing for a partner because he will make me happy, longing for a promotion or wealth or security because that will complete me, make me happy. That completeness is already present.

Only it is obscured. Only it is obscured because of the ideas that I'm not complete, that I'm not perfect, I'm not there yet. I need something to fill the void because I am the void. I'm not total. Those ideas, when they are paused for a moment, there's nothing wrong. Like the book that Gilbert put together, you mentioned today, What's Wrong With Right Now If You Don't Think About It, the best book title in the planet. Yeah. Yeah. And really, if there is a longing for connection, longing for fulfillment, longing for fulfillment, that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason for that is there's a sense of being there.

There's a sense of being there. And then the moment you stop thinking about this moment, feeling of I'm not enough, I'm not good enough, I'm not lovable, and you stop thinking for a moment, stop even labeling the feeling for a moment, there still might be a shallow breath. But if you don't label it sense of incompleteness, that shallow breath dissolves in that loving attention and it ends up in a sense of nothing is wrong. You don't even need to call it sense of completeness because if you say nothing is wrong, that's it. That's enough. Yeah. Bhagavad Gita was pointing also, and he was pointing to the natural state.

Nothing is wrong anymore. Not the bliss and cosmic union. So it's easy to dismiss ideas and concepts and things, but longing is an interesting thing because you can't, you have, it's like it almost demands respect. And you can't just dismiss it, and it's wrong to dismiss somebody's longing and make it demeaning. So if there's a longing, I would suggest to follow that longing to its source. What's the source of that longing? Because if it's genuine, it's going to take you in the right direction. But concepts and ideas always lead away from, and we have a longing to be whole and complete. That's not a bad thing.

No, no. No, it's actually quite beautiful. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Belonging to belonging. Yes. Well, no, belonging, you don't need to belong to anything. That's separation. You are that. Yeah, but longing also implies, I remember I used to sit with that and contemplate a lot because that longing was the feeling that regardless of everything else, I really loved. Oh, yeah. And this is the feeling. Yeah. Just going to look. It's... Yeah. Anyway, the longing was, for me, was this feeling that I don't have anymore. And when I see that longing in others, I actually really, this is my only way to experience it. And it used to define my life.

My longing for the truth, devotion for the truth, for finding the truth was the main feeling that carried me out through life. This hope for finding that liberation. Yeah. It was something that gave flavor and it was the most profound. It was my identity, the seeker, spiritual seeker. So this is not to be taken lightly. But when contemplating on that longing, going back to the heart, I realized one day that, oh my God, I know innately what I'm longing for. That longing for love, the longing for fulfillment, it comes from the memory of knowing it innately. It is already present. The ideas are hiding it.

The feeling of longing shows me that this is something I know what I want. I know what I'm longing for. I'm not longing anymore because there's really no one to long for anything and it is all there. It's all here. But seeing that feeling and seeing that urge in others really melts my heart because as much as it is painful. It's painful because it goes with the sense of lack of fulfillment. In the same way, it is beautiful because it comes with the knowing, innate knowing what is there, the emotional, the love, the fulfillment. How would I ever want it if I didn't know it was there?

You remember the sense of longing, Bob, when you were 45 years ago doing all the austerities in the... In the ashram and you probably can't even remember that, can you? No. Don't go there. Don't go there. Not longing for anything. You want to speak up? No? No. Oh. Pity. Well sometimes there's a longing for that knee pain to end, isn't there? Or no? I'm not thinking about it at the moment. Thanks for reminding me. Bitch. I can't believe you're here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here.

I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'd like to stay... No, go ahead. Go ahead. Explain why that's not longing though. That wouldn't be longing if you're thinking I should do something about this. He said he didn't know if it was longing or shorting. I had to repeat that. Do we have any more... Jai Baba Nanda, says Scott. Scott. Is that the long and the short of it? Where are you measuring it from? Yes. Let's see if I have any more screenshots from earlier questions.

That's a very sweet feedback from Amarnath. Bob and Kat chose us for knowledge of self with their infinite grace and showers of blessing without any cause or reason. We are ever grateful to both of you, your loving sun with radiance and coolness and bliss. And a beautiful set of nice emoticons. Yes, we are and you are and there is no distance between one and the other. It is just a reflection. Everything you see is a projection of your own mind. So thank you for creating us in your dream in the way you do. It's very sweet. Welcome to Disneyland. Let's see if we have any more.

Vasana, that's also Amarnath, equals desire, equals cocoon. Yeah, that's a cool idea. With laughing and blinking and yeah. Can't the body... I think I had that one already, Tanya. Actually, there is only self-awareness, but only matter is apparent. How come we've been there? Any one question, comment, sharing? Argument? It's actually... Rubbishing the pointers is not a bad way to break free from the attachment to them because pointers cannot be taken as the truth because truth cannot be described or cannot be spoken. And sometimes they are pointers, I am not the body, and people get so attached to those pointers and trust me, I've seen those people, I lived with them in the community.

They wouldn't go to dentists. They would have... Teeth falling and aching. They wouldn't look after themselves. They wouldn't pay their debts. And that's how the spiritual community collapsed actually because just bank took it over and put the yellow bulldozers and put the place down to the ground. So taking anything literally, like yes, okay, I'm not the body, the idea of being the body veils the totality of it. But if there is a totality, bodies are included. So I'm the bodies as well. I am the sense of presence or even prior to any sense of presence, the life essence or the emptiness vibrates into forms, shapes and patterns, including bodies, including thoughts, including any sort of reflections of the thought in the body which are emotions, feelings.

That's, yeah, that I am too. It's nothing excluded. And at the same time, I'm none of it. That's what when Nisargadatta was saying, I'm nothing, that's wisdom. I'm everything. That love. And between the recognition of being nothing and everything is the life flowing. That's how the duality of life shows up. It's up and down, black and white. And there's no point denying that beauty of the duality. But identifying with one or the other, with emptiness or with fullness, with the body or with everything or with nothing, is just conceptual. If you're not thinking, how can you describe or identify or place yourself anywhere? It's just what is.

It's just, yeah. It's just the world appearing magically, even though it is nothing, and still shows up and dances like Maya. And it's light. Because if it's not personal, it's light. Even if something, yeah, I'll be a bitch and remind, take an example of the niece, even if there is a pain, it's not personal. So there is no sense of, oh, why would God do that to me? Or why is it happening to me? Or why not anyone else? This is the horrible, horrible way of looking at the world when I take everything personally and compare myself with the rest of the world and see that, oh, I'm poor or ugly.

Comparing to what? Or things are happening to me that shouldn't have happened. Comparing to what? All that conceptual bubble creating the personalized world, which only causes suffering. Because even if my conceptual story would be that, okay, I'm smart and painless and rich and whatever, that is also comparing to what? And that breeds right away the need to protect and secure my wealth and my superiority. And there will be a ways that it will be challenged and questioned. So no concept can actually be sustainable way to maintain the natural happy state. No story, positive story, negative story, no story can ever. So knowing that, seeing that, even if we look at our own life, we get up with the left leg out of the bed and somebody tells us something critical and then, ah, we have a horrible day.

And then something changes and the day is okay. In the horrible day, the world is horrible. The God is punishing and I am unworthy. But then something flips and my story of the world or the God or other people, or myself changes. So how can you ever trust the story? They're just the entertainment. They're just a radio station playing some tunes there that can be laughed at because, yeah, that's what they are. They're so different. They're so vastly different. At least in my life, I can say that I had so many concepts. Bob, you have this example of how do we know that I was even there when I was a kid?

My concept of myself as a kid was different. My body was different. My thoughts were different. Feelings different. But something was there that didn't change. And concepts, self-concepts are changing, not even on daily basis, on hourly basis. If we are alert and if we do what Gilbert was suggesting, watch the mind, see how it operates. See how it brings up all those entertaining ideas all the time and definitions. See how they, yeah, they're fascinating if they're not taken personally. But they're completely unreliable, especially self-definitions. It's wonderful to be free from need to have any esteem, high self-esteem, low self-esteem, free from defining yourself or comparing yourself with anything.

Like, what does it really do if I have a concept about me being worse or better? It just doesn't change anything. It just causes pain. It makes no sense. But it is not the logic that causes, that conceptualizing and that mind function to come up. It's a habit. We've been brought up this way. We learned that as children by emitting parents, teachers and everyone. So this habit is completely innocent. And there's no point finding it out, oh, I'm an idiot because I'm doing it to myself. No, you're not doing it. It's an automatic function. And then again, watching the mind and seeing how automatically it judges, it's self and others.

You can stop taking credit for it. You can see that this is not you doing it. You can see this is a process similar to sweating or salivating or seeing or digesting or growing hair. Nobody does that. The whole environment does that. So even negative thoughts, even self-judgmental thoughts or self-rejection or self-hatred is a program. It's an algorithm that once seen, as impersonal pattern happening in awareness, it's not that binding anymore because it's a mechanical program. It's not me doing it to myself. It doesn't apply to me. It's just something that happens because it has been conditioned. And seen and recognized more and more as just a mechanical pattern, it starts breaking because it doesn't get enough attention.

It's not believed anymore. And belief is what fuels the whole thing. It's the whole show. And at some point, you see those patterns, even the negative patterns, even the patterns of anger, they're there. Oh, wow, interesting. Oh, that fires up when this happened. This button is pushed and the body does this. And you don't want it to go. You don't care. Why would you? It's not you. It's not about you. It's just how the body responds to the environment. And once you're completely uninvested in wanting to fix it or to modify and correct, the belief is not there. And it will start breaking. But it's a byproduct.

It's not the goal anymore to stop responding in a certain way. It just happens because it doesn't get enough energy to sustain the pattern. If there's no resistance towards the pattern, a resistance is also a way to sustain it, to keep it. It's also whether it is a negative attention or it's a positive attention. It's still attention. It's still a fuel on the fire. But once it's impersonal, it's just nice to keep watching it, how things that were there one day, they change. And nobody cares either way. But they change to better. There is less and less of involvement. The energies, so-called the negative energy, I wouldn't call it negative, but the body actually responds differently to cortisol and differently to oxytocin.

So those energies, they don't hang on anymore. Like Bob was saying, sometimes you would get fired, get angry. And it would last for days or hours or weeks. Now we had a dinner with neighbors yesterday. And they say, oh, they never hear us yelling at each other. I say, well, we do something. We do something. We do sometimes, three times a year. But it never lasts longer than a couple of minutes. And then we laugh. It just doesn't last. But to have that energy still available, why not? Yes, not fired too well today. That's it also, Bob. Yes. I think I see the comment on the screen.

Connection to heart. No, that's it. I thought there was a longer comment. I think I see the comment on the screen. There is one. Tanya, are any thoughts true? I have a feeling none are true, but there is a doubt. Some seem true, like thoughts to do with keeping slim and exercising, but maybe they are just thoughts appear, just another thought that has no actual reality. And she's laughing out loud. It is a thought that says another thought is true. Yes. Thank you. We have just answered the above question. Yes, you've got a gift for that, Tanya, answering her own questions. Yes. Even the thought that says that the previous thought is true or false is thought itself, so it can't be ultimate truth.

The truth is that which never changes. You can have relative true, but that's not the truth. And a thought is a passing phenomena. I've got to keep it in mind. Okay. Nazer, if there are no more questions, I'd just like to express gratitude to Bob for the telephone conversation I had with him few years ago. He helped me have no more questions. Oh, how beautiful. Yeah, welcome home, Nazer. No more questions. Believe fuel of the mind, Amarnath says. And you know, Nazer, that you could catch up with Bob on Skype and just say thank you. That's an option there. And Tanya, very enlightening meeting today.

Very profound and clear. A lot of pointers landing. So quiet here. Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions and hear such stunning, beautiful clarity. Lots of love. Thank you, Tanya. That's beautiful. Hmm. Yes, I'll just comment quickly on the idea that thoughts, you know, that you have thought that, let's say, an apple a day keeps doctor away, or when I exercise and eat less, I will get slimmer. They have relative truth in the reality that you believed into existence. If you believe that, that will happen. There are slimming pills that you can buy, hundreds of them. If you believe strongly enough, the placebo effect will take place also.

There's a lot of research on the miraculous cures of advanced cancers through, it means no other than belief, because the experimental therapies or fasting, whatever, the whole world is really believed into existence. That's how the mind creates the reality. By learning, perception is trained. Since early childhood, we are learned what to see, what not to see, how to see and understand it. We give meaning. The program that when Julia was saying, you don't know how to fire the synapses, there are algorithms in the brain that fire the synapses in the way that the world seems to be. It seems solid. The beliefs, we have different belief sets than let's say Aboriginal people.

Or they are, in Philippines, they are this, or even Christian science people who actually manage to connect with the spirit and visualize the healthy bone and get it fixed in seconds. How do they do that? Or Jesus walking on the water. Who knows? The belief seems to be, nothing has a power, but belief is the material. From which is the whole Maya created, is the whole manifested world, just like in the dream. It's believed into existence. And it will be believed out of it once, yeah. Once there's no time. Because, so you know, on the one hand, you know, these... These wispy little words that come through my head or other people's heads are just, I like that.

I like the metaphor of a candle. You know, you can blow out the candle and... That little bit of smoke, not a major forest fire. I'm talking a candle. Okay. And at the same time, a fire can cause smoke damage. Okay. You can get the smoke damage, but I mean, if it sticks around long enough, it seems, or maybe if it's bought into, that might create the smoke damage, right? Yeah. But at the same time, I don't know. I just, I think it's just interesting to talk about how, like, you know, yeah, the belief, it's all relative, isn't it? Yeah. You know, any belief, it's all relative and compared to somebody.

And what does nothing believe? Everything's valid in the appearance. The appearance is not real. It's only appearance. So, ghosts and angels and demons and all that stuff. They appear to people. Yeah. Yeah. And what of the people? Well, isn't the grand illusion that the mind creates reality? Yeah. The belief that the mind creates reality, that is the illusion. How could the mind create anything? You can't even find it. And to make a paradox perfect, they are... like a Zen sort of teachings and all Buddhist teachings that call the awareness or the totality, they call it mind, unborn Buddha mind. So, this unborn Buddha mind is the source.

They call it source. But at the same time, yeah, this unborn mind is a cause of mind that doesn't even exist. It's all Maya. It's pure mind without any thoughts, more and more. Everything is perfectly resolved in the unborn mind. Why exchange the unborn for thought? Yeah. And can you find unborn Buddha mind? No. Can you not find it? Can you deny it? Good point. Can you find the born Buddha mind? Can you find any mind? Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the three. Yeah. It's one of the three. Fair enough? I think there was one comment from John there on the screen. I saw about the idea of mass awakening happening due to internet.

And why is it happening? So, that's the final thought. You want to comment on that? Yeah. Well, yeah, we kind of focus more inwardly than outwardly because if you dream a beautiful collective awakening in your world, good on you. That's wonderful. Keep dreaming. That's, yeah. So nice. Nice one to have. And happy Easter, everyone. I think we are sharing Easter eggs now, so.