Sailor Bob, nonduality 23.05.2021. Take your stance as Absolute

My hearing has gone out so I won't be able to hear anything you say. And they say when I've got the men, my voice drops and nobody can hear me. Can everybody hear me right now? Perfect. Perfect and louder? Thank you. Well, we'll see how we go. And you all know what it's all about, don't you? Because you've been here many times. Trying to point out the non-duality, the one without a second, the absolute, which basically all the great scriptures will tell you it is the absolute. That's all there is. But they put terms like God on it, liberation, realisation, freedom and all sorts of things.

So many different words and we latch onto the words and lose sight of the ultimate. What meaning of it all? In ancient Sanskrit saying, I don't know from what tradition it came from, it says, mind is the master power that moulds and makes. And man is mind. And evermore he takes the tool of thought and shaping what he wills brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand joys. He thinks in secret and it comes to pass environment is but a looking glass. In other words, we don't realise it and we say my mind and we think this mind is really something that belongs to us, to the human form.

But if what it says is true, it's the master power, it is the same as the concept of the spirit. It's the concept of God, or awareness or liberation or whatever it is, I don't think of it. It is the one essence. Man is mind. So it's that that's formed this body to express through. And it's through thought, the tool of thought, that we shape our happiness, our sadness, our joy, our pleasure, our understanding, or our ignorance, all shaped through this tool. That's all that thought is, a tool. We think the word to be real. the word to be real, not at all. He thinks in secret and it comes to pass that all this manifestation is but just what each and every one of us is conjuring up in this thing we call mind.

We believe we have the mind. But if you ask the question, am I this body? Am I this mind? Investigate and have a look. Innately you know you're not the body already. You already know these things. But we've lost sight of it through the word. It tells you in the Bible in the beginning it was the word. The word was with God, the word was God. In other words that's all God is, is a label, a word we put on it. All things were made by him by the word. And isn't that so? All the things in this room and the things outside you put words on and label.

Subtitles by the Amara.org community And there was nothing made that was made without the word. And the word was made flesh or became a seeming pattern, shape and form. And the word has formed the pattern, the shape and the form. And if it didn't have this pattern, shape and form to express through which we call mind or thought, how could there be a word? Could there be any expression at all? So in its absoluteness, its patterning, shaping, forming and expressing is everything. And the difference with these human patterns is we've learnt words. How many words were you born with? When you investigate and you see you weren't born with any words.

Every word you've ever spoken or ever likened to speak has been picked up along the way. We've learnt all the words. Subtitles by the Amara.org community And then you need to reckon we take the word to be the thing. Take the word water to be the thing. But the word is not the thing. Try and drink it. Try and drink the word. Try and cook with the word fire. Try and heat yourself with it. Cook with it. So what's this word I or me as a so-called person? And what's that word person? It's another word we've learnt coming from fasona, the ancient word. Subtitles by the Amara.org community The ancient Latin I think it was meaning a mask.

So we've got a conceptual image or a mask. We've disguised ourselves in and taken ourselves to be this person. And we've made each so-called person a separate entity, an individual. All the great scriptures will be one. There is only one God. There is only one essence, one absolute, one great perfection. It's all one. And all this manifestation is made up of the many. Can you hear that? And the word is not real. And word is something we've acquired. So take the word off this what is then? The basic word we put on it then is things. Every thing, every pattern, every shape, every form is a thing.

All appearing on that basic screen, which is the silence, the stillness, the emptiness, they're the labels you put on it to try and describe the emptiness or the awareness of something. But can something come from nothing? No thing. We say nothing, but that's where we get led astray again. Because saying nothing, we think it's zero, zilch, a vacuum or a void. But it doesn't mean that at all. It means no thing. It has no particular shape, no particular pattern, no particular form. It just is. So all this manifestation, the basic screen which appears on it, is no thing. And things appear in that and on that screen like reflections appear in the mirror.

But like a reflection in the mirror, can you say it's there? Go up and try and grab the image in the mirror, if you can. You can't. So you can't say it's not there, but you can't say it is there. And that turns out, that's all this manifestation is. A seeming thing, a patterning shape and form and expressing. But it's innately one thing, patterning, shaping, forming, appearing and expressing as everything. The everything is really a no thing. So when they say it's like a dream, they're pretty right. It appears solid, it appears solid, substantial, it appears solid, substantial, it appears solid, substantial, it appears real.

You go to sleep at night. And what happens in the dream? While that deep sleep is there, a dream can start. And then that dream can be all sorts of worlds and things, different worlds, different places, all sorts of things going on. And that body, mind you, core you, taking all sorts of different activities and things going on it. And we expect them to be real in the dream. But when you wake up and realize it was only a dream, you realize that no thing had ever happened in that dream. It appeared to happen and on the waking, it all disappeared. But you don't realize what we wake up to is this.

And this is the waking dream. And the only difference, the way you can tell the difference between the waking dream and the sleeping dream. When you wake up to the sleeping dream, the mountains, the lakes or the hills, the house or wherever, in all the pattern, shapes and forms, the people you were seeing and the words coming out of your mouth, your body hadn't moved off the beds and no words would come out of your mouth. It was all taking place somewhere in that pattern you call your body. So the organs or the brains or whatever that goes on in that body. But nothing really happened.

But you wake up and this dream is still continuing and it seemingly has a continuity because it seemingly continues every night or not every night, whenever it does, from where it left off previously. And the mountains and hills and things like that don't disappear when you wake up to this dream. It goes on in a seemingly non-cognising way. We are not recognising it is a dream. It's naturally a dream. We're taking it to be real. And taking it to be real, what do we do? We take the dreamer to be a separate entity, an individual, a person, a mask. The person comes from the word person.

And we're just thrown in the mask. And what's the mask we put upon ourselves? It's a mask of concepts, thoughts, images, ideas. Have a look at that thing you call you. Who are you? Who am I? I'm Bob, the Australian. A good fellow. I'm not so good. That's all concepts. I'm unhappy. I'm sad. I'm fearful. I'm anxious. All concepts. Energy of belief goes into it and I take myself to this conceptual image. And suffering is an expression of it. And I tell you in the scriptures again, they point it out, they call it the great perfection or the absolute. What's the great perfection? What can you add to the perfect?

If it's perfect, you can't add anything at all to it. And what can you take away from it? You can't take anything at all from it, away from it. So just as it is, the great perfection. And they give it here in one sentence in Buddhism, the great perfection is non-self. non-conceptual awareness. Now what's concept? What is conceptual? Concepts are thoughts. What's thoughts? Thoughts are vibrations. Sound, word, vibration, energy. And also it's all a movement, a vibrating pattern of energy which, happening through this body with the brain and heart and it seems real. The pattern, shapes and forms appear. Isn't it? Seems so very real.

And if it's non-conceptual awareness, what's awareness? Awareness is just another term for God also. Because is anyone unaware right now? You must realise, no, I'm not unaware. So if you're not unaware, mustn't you be aware? It must be its opposite. There must be awareness. So you already are that great perfection. But you see what they've said, it's non-conceptual. It's the concepts that's disguising it, that's hiding it, that's making us lose sight of it, where we go into the personal. And from the personal, we enter all this problem. And the saga tells you, I think it's chapter two or chapter three of I Am That. The person is not reality.

Got a chapter on it. But again, this personal idea, this conceptual idea, this conceptual image is not the reality at all. We've taken it to be real, and we've lost sight of the fact that absolute means it's one without a second. It's non-dual, there's nothing other than that. We separate and seemingly divide everything, not seeing it in its true nature as absolute. And you can understand this too. Because what being would there be for any of us, or anything in this manifestation, if it didn't exist? I told I can't express myself with gory words. I can make myself be filled, with gory words. hating, positive and negative.

Watch your mind and see if it thinks any other way than dualistically. And in that dualistic patterning we take it to be real. So now we've got a body, we've got a mind in the body or a life in the body and the body and on earth, earth and the world, the world and the cosmos, it goes on and on seemingly forever, but it'll never be anything other than what it is. Absoluteness, emptiness, a cognizing emptiness, the Buddha calls it that, a cognizing emptiness, an emptiness with the capacity of cognizing or knowing. And aren't you knowing right now, basically, I know. Before you put I know there's something just fresh inside your head that nobody else does.

this or that or no then you can't say I don't know you can say it but the very fact of saying it that means there's a knowing there that's enabling you to say it and that knowing is the life that very life of you as Christ said in him was life and the life was the light of man that life energy is what's lighting up that pattern shape and form that you are right now and he also said I'm the way I am the truth I am the life and I and the father are one this think we call the father so-called higher power there's big daddy and is the father he says I and the father are one but the father is greater than I the total power is greater than this personal power though it's the one essence I don't use the term God here because it can get confused with that term it's how many different concepts and ideas and images about what we believe God to be God is I use the term intelligence energy and that's not it because no word will ever fit it but it's just another concept but I think it more use and believing that God's some big daddy out there in the sky that's gonna give me grant me this and do this and do that if I pray to it or plead with it and day will listen another with it and if If I don't do it, it's going to beat the shit out of me.

But it's not only that. It's that one essence that vibrates in the pairs of opposites. It's the life and functioning intelligence energy is the label I put on it. Intelligence is knowing. And each and every one of us are knowing right now, which we translate as the thought I know, or if it's the person that knows it. But without the person, there's a knowing there, or a wearing or a being there. And that's how they translate it in the Hindu scriptures, the non-dual scriptures. Sat-Chit-Ananda, Nama-Rupa, existence, consciousness, loving to be. The Nama-Rupa, name and form, Amaya, only patterns, shapes and forms that are seemingly real.

But is anyone not existing right now? And you must realize, yeah, I can't say I'm not existing. I am existing. Anyone who's not conscious? No, I'm not unconscious or unaware. So I am aware or conscious. Anyone who's not happy to be? So you're not realizing it. But that you are already that. But we're realizing when we started to reason all these thoughts and concepts we've learned and picked up and taken to be real and put this mask of concepts on ourselves, which have stopped us from being, knowing, recognizing and realizing what we actually are. That's what needs to happen. Re-cognize. The Buddha called it a cognizing emptiness.

Another term for cognizing is knowing. Or a wearing of. And he turned it, made that around. He said that we think we are the cognizing emptiness because we're, you know, we're cognizing this emptiness right now. And we think it's the, don't realize it's the emptiness that's doing the cognizing. It's that one intelligence energy, that one activity, that one absolute perfection that's enabling the pattern, shapes and forms, the words, ideas and images, everything that's manifest in this cosmos. And all, a lot of the unmanifest too. Couldn't happen without that life. We call it life or intelligence energy. Intelligence is knowing. If you know anything, you know this and that, it's a prize you have.

It's a fuse with intelligence. And that knowing, the I-N-G on it, is a very important activity. It's something that's going on right here, right now. It's not going on yesterday, tomorrow. Yesterday and tomorrow, it's with now. And yes, and being recalled. If you can't recall it, you can't say there's such a thing as yesterday or tomorrow. And the recalling it, the only life you're giving it is what you're giving it, what's being given right now by that life energy. That's breathing you, beating your heart, the very life of you. And I say intelligence is knowing. And what's knowing? It's an activity. It's not knower or known, not something dead.

It's something that's going on right now, like the seeing, the hearing, the tasting, the touching, the smelling. The I-N-G is something that's an activity that's happening right now. And that activity is movement. And any movement is a vibration, a movement of energy. So I use the term intelligence energy to describe it. And that's what's happening in each and every one of you now, right now, that intelligence energy is functioning. So that's what has to be looked at. It doesn't have to be, and it probably won't by a lot of people. They seem to get by without it or suffer accordingly and die miserable. But there are some that it will take, to where they've got to go.

Because not every thing that came into existence is going to recognise a rule, like not every insect that's born is going to go, but they're prolific enough to make it, there'll always be a proliferation of them and they'll go on. But it's that same life that's in each and every one. It's the same life. And it's the same life. It's the one life. It's not divided into separate lives. It's like that life that's in you right now. You're seeing, you're hearing, you're tasting, you're touching, you're smelling, breathing, heart beating, all that functioning is going on. But we rarely say, I am living. I am life.

But you don't, when you say, I am life, we think we are this personal life. But when Christ said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, He wasn't talking about the personal. He wasn't talking about himself, though people think he is, because he's one of the knowers of truth that people have recognised and worshipped the messenger and not the message. He's talking about that sense of presence. That's the way. That's the I am. Describe yourself to me. You'll say, I am Bill. I am Jane. I am this. I am that. And I'll say, I am Bob. What am I describing?

A personal conceptual image. Not the truth. So when he's saying, I am, it's not that sense, it's not that person he's talking about. It's the sense of presence. The knowing that you are, which you can't negate, which translates through your mind as the thought, I am. And he says, stay with me. This architect says, stay with the I am-ness. He's not saying, stay with the thought, I am, I am, I am, and repeat it as a mantra. He's saying what it represents. It represents that very life that you are. So be that. Be what you are. I think that's Ram Desh wrote a book, didn't he?

Be what you are. Not what you'd like to be, not what you will be, but you are the life. And have a look at that. Take the life out of that body. You've got a corpse. And that corpse has got eyes, it's got ears, it's got heart, lungs, hair, fingernails, nerves, sinews, all the organs, all the brain, all these organs, all the brain. Without that life essence, what good is it? What can it do? Nothing whatsoever. It's a corpse. All it can do is rot, which it will do. And it breaks down and rots. And enzymes form in it and start devouring it, breaking it down.

But where does it go? It goes back into that one absolute again, which it never left anyway. It was only a pattern-shaped form appearing in the absolute, not recognising itself as the absolute, appearing as something else, separate from part of itself. When it disappears out of that body, you've got a corpse. It's not a bit of good to you whatsoever. So how can you say you are this body or this mind? Because it's realised it's that life that's formed this body. It's that life that's causing the breath to happen. It's beating your heart. It's growing your hair and your fingernails. It's digesting your food. It's doing the living, the functioning.

It's rolling the earth around the sun, causing the seasons to come around, causing volcanoes to form. Implode and explode. Tsunamis to come. Galaxies to form. Stars to form and just play around with it. Myriads and myriads and myriads of different pattern, shapes and forms. And it's the one life that's patterning, shaping, forming and everything. Why the fuck are you separating yourself from it? And a good example of that is your computer. With that life that's expressing through us, we were able to build and manufacture and do all sorts of things, utilising that life. And we form a computer which has got some wondrous information in it.

Amazing things in it. But if the power's not running through it, what good is it? Not a bit of good. Just the same as this body. That life's not going through it, what good is the body to you really? And there's this thing here that's got the green light showing on there. It's got the power going through it. It's working, but it's not otherwise. So take yourself to be what you are. The one essence, the absolute. Forget the person. The person will look after itself. What brought you into existence is what is breathing you right now. It's what is beating your heart right now. It's what is replacing the cells in your body right now.

It's doing something. It's doing the work. What are you doing about it? Oh, I've got to do this. I've got to do that. We set ourselves up. We don't like what's happening. We're constantly dividing ourselves with other concepts, other words, ideas and images. But in the recognition that the word is not the real, you must be left with life. And the word can be utilised. But when we believe in the word, it's using us. It's telling me I'm not good enough. I'm fearful. I'm unhappy. After all, I'm only human. That's when the worst one put about ourselves. After all, I'm only human. Poor little me.

Poor me, poor me, poor me a drink. So it goes. Well, that's enough verbal information. Wait, I'll just ask you one question from Stella. If you would call it a soul or that or God, do we have it or we are it? That's the question. It has you. It has everything. You have nothing. Because of you, never existed. Beautiful. I would answer the question, who is we? Same thing. That's it, yeah. So I thought it was an interesting... Wait, wait, Julia. Hang on. I'll wait. OK. So while everyone's waiting, I'll just add that thing which I really like Bob answering a question about the ego.

Like, are you still using your ego? And Bob would say, well, first of all, you find out who is there to use the ego or anything at all. If I found out with certainty there is no I to use ego or whatever you define, whatever else you define. That's the answer because, yeah, that's the primary question. It's who is there to interpret? Who is there to interpret the world, to see the world in the personalized way? Then you don't have to personalize anything else ever again and everything is as it is. It's enjoyed this way. You ready? Can you hear me, Bob? Yes. OK. So, you know, for the most part, I've lost interest in listening to, you know, other non-duality speakers or anybody on YouTube.

But once in a while, old patterns die hard. And something pops up and I'll be like, all right, check this out. And I'll be listening. So yesterday I was listening to Ram Dass and you brought him up today. You never bring him up. But you did today. And he was talking about, well, he was talking about the problem with psychedelics and all that. And but then he was talking about his guru who took a massive dose of like LSD or something like that. Yeah. And it had zero effect on him. And he's talking like that's how it should be. You know what I mean? Like, like, oh, like, apparently that unless I could take a massive dose of LSD and have it have no effect on me, there's, you know, this is the kind of like what I kind of got from the way he was talking about him.

You know, like that. Oh, yeah, that's maybe it kind of in a way put me in the prison of becoming again, you know, for a moment, just hearing him say that. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's, you know, that's what I'm talking about. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. You know, like that. Oh, yeah, that's maybe it kind of in a way put me in the prison of becoming again, you know, for a moment, just hearing him say that because I'm like, well, maybe that, you know, I'm not like if unless I could take LSD and massive doses and have it have no effect on me, then then maybe my there's a consciousness that needs to like evolve or get more silent or more spacious or I don't know what the fuck.

But. I just wanted to hear your comments on that. Very disappointing. It was a bit of no effect on you. What the hell would you take? And I say. So-called city powers and all the rest of it. They're quite valid in the appearance. Because everything is in the appearance, the pattern, shape and form. And the appearance itself is not real. It's only a facsimile. So it's quite valid. And why doesn't that? Why doesn't that? Why doesn't everybody be able to do it? Because it's not possibly not meant for everybody. It's meant to be. These things are meant to be seen by some, I suppose, recognition.

The amazing way it can pattern, shape and form and express and express in wondrous ways. People have all sorts of different experiences through the pattern. But what experiences do they have after life gone out of the pattern? The body mind can be very useful and be a wondrous instrument useful. But the other way around too. If you're not having any of these ways and experiences, what happened to you? The miserable depths of despair, fear, anger, unhappiness, all sorts of diseases and symptoms and things like that. We're loaded up with pain, anxiety, stress, guilt, all these opposites appear. Could you tell one if the other wasn't there?

Could there be day without night? Could there be day without night, for instance? Or silence without sound? Could there be fear if there wasn't love? Hatred without love? They need the pairs of opposites to express. This diversity of expression wouldn't happen at all. We'd be just this basic static silence, stillness, emptiness. What they call the void. The no thing. The no thing. Not knowing itself. Not knowing itself. Not knowing itself. So what the hell? I'm going to have a dance, I'm going to have a dream since Shakti. Since she forms Shakti and vibrates in the world of it. And everything, not hearing. And so everything goes on in that dance and that expression.

But each night when you go to sleep it disappears. And when that pattern is no longer of any use, it disappears for good in that particular pattern. It hasn't stopped anywhere else, it still continues and expresses, but it's still always the same and never changed. So while you're here, why not take your stance as the absolute, see what the absolute has in store for you, see where it takes you. It's taken me through hip replacements, knee replacements, taken me through the booze, taken me through all sorts of different patterns and amazing love, things like that, that I never thought was possible. So it's been a joy ride, not a game, as it's fun, as it's moments, and it's only in this particular pattern for a little while.

And who knows how it will express, as it's still expressing in myriads of others around this pattern right now, and myriads away. So it will continue. What interest will I, Bob, as a person, have in any of it then? Not a bit. Will he be concerned about it? Was I concerned before my father and my mother got together, conception happened? As Nisargadatta tells you, what we knew before you were born, what we knew before your conception. Try and imagine that. There must have been an impossibility too. There must have been something that came, and there was. There was your father and your mother, and there was the father and mother before that.

As the Buddha said, every sentient being has been your father and your mother. It just means then as it was, but if you were a sentient being right now, you would have been the father and mother of everything. So it's that right in life, it's always expressing and expounding in all this variety. And all these different ways. So enjoy it. Enjoy. Got some comments, would you like that? Hi everyone. We got a comment, coming back to the question about the soul. John David says, I've heard Bob in the past refer to soul as S-O-L-E, the one essence, patterning, shaping and forming as everything. Soul, one essence.

Yeah. And? That's what I was saying, they got it wrong. Yeah. And they made S-O-U-L. I've never seen anyone dig out a soul yet. Yep. I haven't got any in glass bottles in the experimental room. And we have also from George, question from George. Is meditation helpful as complementary practice to staying in presence? Or should I just leave it out? Meditation has its uses. If it helps to bring your mind to one point of state, if it's a key to my self, it prevents things from going too far. So it can help me not to think too much. But then again, ask yourself, who's the meditator?

And what am I meditating on? Yeah, the trap with the meditations is when you take credit for it, when meditation happens, because life moves you to meditate. You don't think too much about it. You just do what's happening. When you start thinking and analyzing, that's where the idea of me meditating to get something, because it will help me with achieving something, that narrative is actually helpful. There's a relationship. is guiding and the urge to meditate is there to little naturally drop into it yeah you drop winter silence or the stillness or where the peace is and you know that sounds because you all had taste of it at different doors never lasted very long but you all had taste of it meditation is not thinking it's good I just said meditation is not thinking not thinking yeah that's a good that's a good definition isn't it that's what I call not no mind or pure mind without thought mind without thought we have also a question from Amarnath Bob would you wanted to hear your pain after surgery completely resolved or not your experience of pain please it's a it's a good and useful experience sometimes I like it sometimes I don't it is useful it keeps you alive without pain that's you know wouldn't have been able to say I got a crook me if I didn't have the pain otherwise we collapsed and breaking down everything and also I know people who have the deficiency brain deficiency that and disable them from experiencing pain they usually don't live very long kids are sitting on a hot stove and baking themselves my girlfriend who was paralyzed from waist down was impressing her other kids jumping from the top of the stairs and ending up on the on her knees she never developed the normal length of the knees because even though she is probably my height from waist down she's just half a meter short because it's all metal and and screws just because her loving mother was always at her back and drug her to the operation she didn't know her legs were broken so that's that's how useful the pain is it's a call for attention it's a call for attending when the energy is needed it thinks it there yes if Bob didn't experience the pain the news would keep collapsing underneath him and they wouldn't get fixed until it could be dangerous and pain you'd only get to a certain level and you know nobody go out of it whatever you go unconscious please Bob just to come of reflections on the spiel this morning in in regards to dreaming I was just thinking you know I quite often remember my dreams and there really isn't any difference between the waking dream and the sleeping dream in a lot of ways because nothing you realize when you're awake that nothing really happened in the dream and it's the same with the waking dream you when you think about yesterday or something like that did it did it really happen I mean in a way the past is just in the mind as a memory and sometimes I've noticed in dreams I feel as if I'm somewhere where I've been before like a big house or something like that and it seems like it's a memory in the dream or this is farm I'm sometimes on in a dream and you know it it hasn't really happened or seemingly hasn't happened yet it seems like a memory in the dream like in real life only there is something called memory in in actuality you can go in the other room and go oh yes I remember I did this yesterday and it seems to appear in front of your eyes like that too but but maybe that's also happens in the in the dream life too it there's no real substance to it other than that other than the observation of it really and the other thing was I was just thinking about thought and you know the thought is what shapes us you know as you're saying right at the beginning that shapes the life and yet we think it's my thought this is my thought or I think differently to you or different thoughts appear but but that seems to be what gives us our our pattern or shape I think you know thoughts are they universal until we create the labels in the thought I I don't know that's just a question maybe everybody really knows we conditioned to believe in the conditioning in schools society and everybody else teaches we need to break the conditioned happens happening is this real or is it is that the actual false can't stand up to investigation as the architect says you really you realize you're dreaming a dream you call the world that's this is going on here right now we're sitting there and he was realizing this is a dream we call in the world we'd be probably looking at what am I going to do next or tomorrow or or yesterday or about today or the next day, you know that's just part of life.

yesterday what happened. So we're looking for a way out. We did want that to happen. We don't want it to happen again. We want to change it. He says, realise you're dreaming a dream you call the world and stop looking for ways out. Your concern is, is to take the dream. You like one part of the dream and not the other. We start to discriminate it and like one part and not the other and then we get into trouble. He said either love all of it or none of it. Don't discriminate it, don't separate it, see it as it is. And he says the rest will be done for you by that same thing that took you to the dream in the first place.

The same life essence. In other words, it's doing everything. I've got no say in it whatsoever even though I think I'm burbling on here. I can't remember my birth. I don't know anything about the cause. I don't know anything about the cause. I don't know anything about the cause. I don't know anything about the cause. I don't know anything about the cause. I don't know anything about the cause. I don't know anything about the cause. I don't know anything about the cause of it. For the first two years of my life I don't remember I was even in this body. Though the body was formed and it came into existence and was living for that two years without thoughts, without words.

And then when the sense of separation came upon it by learning words, how could you separate yourself if it wasn't for words? Your parents told you little Johnny, you little Billy, you're a And then you learn words from them like I or me or this or that. And he said, I am little Johnny. And you look down there, that's not little Johnny. That's not me. So naturally, there's a sense of separation between that and me. He says, sense of separation was the cause of all my problems. For instead of being just me, the life essence, or me the absolute, or me the great perfection, or me the presence awareness, it's now me, Bob, the Australian, the good fella, the not so good.

And people are doing things to hurt him and this and that, and they're dirty on me and blah, blah, blah. And I'm trying to get things that are not happening. Poor me, what are they doing to me? I'm having a bad time. And I beat myself up with the word. It was just a label. Word I. Can't do much with I. So what do I add it to? I. I am this Bob they told me I was. That's the label they put on me. I'm Bob. I am that. I am that word. I am that concept. And these things around me that don't fit that, they're not me.

So if they're not me, they must be separate from me. And what's the sense of separation? I don't know what they are, so I feel very insecure about them. I haven't got words about all those things. Very insecure and vulnerable. That thing that I don't know what it is might hurt me. So that's when the sense of separation, security arises, sense of vulnerability, and that goes on. And we try to get back to the sense of security again. Try to get the me, which we've added onto the news. Well, I'm not good enough. Or I'm fearful. Or I'm unhappy. Or I'm not likeable. All these concepts around it.

I've got a conceptual image now, which tries to get back to the absolute, which it can't. Something that never existed can't get to something. So when we try to become something, it never happens. Being can never be becoming. And you are being right now. You're not becoming unless you put the labels on yourself. I'll do this and do that and become this and become that. What if I am the being? I am the pure being. I am the absolute. Look, I can't go around saying that to everybody. They'll think you're correct and kill you. Damage you. But initially know it. And realize it. And see the absolute in everyone and everything.

And you mightn't like them. You might hate them. But you can't even put any energy into that much anymore. Where before it could become overwhelming. You'd go out and cut their throat or stab them or do something. Blow them up. Or I'll get the bastard one way or another. You know, see what they are. It might change. Things might change. And they do change. They've changed here. They've changed in ways I've never expected or never could understand or never believed possible. And the life itself has gone on which I didn't think was possible to live to where I am to this day. And who cares how long it's going to go on in the future?

Where's it going to go to? If the recognition is I am the birthless, deathless, timeless, spaceless, bodiless, mindless, one without a second, the non-dual entity, the non-dual, everlasting, ever fresh, presence awareness. And is there any concern that I have to express in a particular body? Repict the pattern, shape and form? Or does Johnny Cash think in the highwaymen, I may come back as a single drop of rain, but I will remain? As you say, you give up all those concerns when you go to sleep. You have to say it again because we can't. As you say, you give up all those concerns when you go to sleep every night anyway, quite easily.

We have a couple of comments from online people who are with us from far away. And this is Amarna. Thoughts are there, not it doesn't matter. Okay. So that's a, this quote from Nisargadatta that has been a little bit, yeah, I don't know if you can see it. Yeah, probably needs, thoughts are there, are not, it doesn't matter. Probably was, he meant that whether the thoughts are there or not, it doesn't matter. You are not mind. How does it affect you? So that's the quote from Nisargadatta. And Amarna, anticipation create future desire. Memory creates past fear. Both are non-existent. And now we have John David.

Try and grasp that I thought. I say it to yourself. Try and grasp hold of it. Try and make something substantial out of it. Sailor Bob from his book, Presence Awareness. This quote was key for my understanding. Thank you, Bob. Thank you, John. Yeah, I can add a little bit. It's just, just the fragment of the memory regarding the LSD story because it's quite entertaining. For me to actually open up that story because I only heard about Ram Dass probably about a year ago with his, actually his story. But about 15 years ago, I was hanging out with Korean Zen Sangha Kwan Um. And they have the same story about the Sansanim, the Zen master.

And then plenty of witnesses. Every time I heard the story, there was more of witnesses who actually saw it. And then I heard that same story about someone being super special because they could have a lot of LSD and no effect. About two other saints that are glorified as the, as the whatever, how you glorify the messenger instead of hearing the message. And funny enough, recently I was given also quite a, not a handful, but three and a half dosage of the LSD. And it had no effect on me. And the one thought that came was not that I'm super special. It was just a crap acid.

Because another friend who had one said, well, I'm super special. And the other friend who had one, he said he didn't really feel much either. But whether, whether it is the reaction or response from the mind or that response mind hallucinating or non hallucinating is happening in consciousness and it doesn't really take it for the trip. It really makes no difference. I think this is one of those stories that are being romanticized to pull you into the Sangha. Something that is supposed to promise, you know, like the promises of eternal bliss. Look, he is having eternal bliss, this one or that one. He is trying to find a way to join.

Oh, I heard the same one about Mooji as well with the LSD stuff. You know, like everyone is actually romanticizing the messenger by making him super special by giving them some sort of the power. I would not take any notice, especially if I was to compare myself with them and say, okay, they are great, but I am not. You know, I will never be like them. That's definitely, you know, they would be crying if they heard how that bullshit story, is supposed to attract, do the sales pitch for their message, is actually creating more separation, division and distinction. That's what it did with me. Yeah.

I heard it. It was just like when I heard him say that, I thought, well, you know, Ram Dass supposedly kind of woke, I guess, I don't know, you know, and I'm definitely, I don't think I could ever do that mess of dosage and have it have no effect, you know, even if it was shit ass bullshit. You know? So, yeah, that's why I brought it up because I just thought, yeah, I, yeah, there's nobody doing anything anyway. And at the same time, it seems like that sometimes there's a, like, if I were to compare life now to life 20 years ago, it's the same life, right?

Yeah. And what's different though is how it's playing out, I suppose, I don't know how else to say it, how it's being experienced. Okay? So these days in this dreaming now versus the dreaming from then, I'm just, I don't know, the dreaming is lighter, you know, than it used to be. So there, you know, it's still dreaming. It's, you know, but I like what, I like what you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. I like what you said, it's all valid in the illusion or in the appearance. It's just that they kind of get you hooked on the appearance, don't they, when they say stuff like that? They took all this LOSD or whatever it was.

Please speak louder, I can't hear you. Took all this LSD and it didn't affect him. What if the anesthetics you take when you operate on didn't affect you? Ouch. Yeah. Good point. They come from plants or something too, the anesthetics, don't they? So some of it's useful, some of it mightn't be useful. Do a good trip, enjoy it, some people it mightn't. Yeah, the medicines, the poisons, all those things have their uses, their function. Yeah, no, I... Wait, wait, wait. It also... I mentioned this once to you before as well. I know people who have a pattern of using these medicines on a regular basis and in ceremony and I think it was one other person said, well, if it's an every week ceremony, is it really a ceremony?

I'm like, oh, well, this is what they call mass, isn't it? It's a ceremony, but you know. The... I don't know. My little... My children, when they were babies, they would use a... I don't know. They would use a crutch to help them walk, to stand. They used my hand or the sofa or the table or the chair or something to pull themselves up. And that's great. That's fine in the beginning. Maybe, you know, once in a while if you need that. But after a while, if you're still needing a chair to keep yourself walking or holding up, that could be a sign of a problem.

So I think that, you know, I don't know, whatever. You know. This is all just a justifying story. I mean, when people say that we do it to help to see something or to experience something, they don't do it. This is what life moves them to do. From a human perspective, you're totally right. Yes, they can actually get addicted to the crutch and they can be a slave of a crutch. But from the life perspective, ultimate perspective, they don't do it. They are moved to experience something. And now they have blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm doing it because of that and I need to get that and I need to, you know.

That's the trap of it all. Because that narrative will keep them, will justify and bring them back to the addiction whilst really the life may move them again or not. And again, even some patterns may have highly addictive personality and they will just resonate very, very quickly. They will get hooked on sugar or something. If they don't have justifying story, the chances are that in the absence of story, they will see the pattern. But when the story takes all the attention, the probability of seeing the pattern is much, much lower. So the probability that the pattern will ever get recognised and broken is also much, much lower.

It's fascinating because there is nothing wrong if someone dies of addiction. Well, this is again the same one life. Through one pattern experiencing itself as dying of addiction, through another as dancing, whatever, through yet another as playing music, from the life perspective, nothing is ever wrong. Nothing is out of place. Just like the, what was this, Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, so the dead guy and the crook guy and the poor guy. I mean, if the guy, poor guy wasn't crook, you know, got forgotten, there would be no Buddha. I mean, everything has its place in a greater scheme of things, even people with addiction. Sometimes they could teach you more, and your kids, about addiction than any spiel ever given.

So in that bigger picture, even, there is a beauty and wisdom and greatness in all of it. We have any other comments? Apart from a lot of comments of welcoming home, Bob. So I must be still here to be welcomed home anyway. There was this Irishman who ran into a leprechaun, and the leprechaun said, you can have, I'll give you three wishes, you can have anything you want in the world. And he said, well, I'd like an everlasting, never emptying bottle of Guinness. And then the leprechaun said, well, what would you like for your other wishes? He said, I'll have two more of those. Now, if you think about it, he could have asked for a second absolute.

Yeah. Can you add anything to the absolute? No. You want to say something? You want me to say something? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so I don't really know what is going to come up. Yeah, we can just make a joke of the second absolute, and or the God that cannot create the stone that is as heavy that he wouldn't be able to lift it himself. That's the paradox of the rules in the appearance. Like if we want to have almighty and omnipresent, omnipotent God, he should be able, he or it. I actually like when Bob was talking about God calling it it. I prefer it as well.

Yeah, but this may be offensive. Referring to this, whatever this is. Go on. Yeah. So a lot of people will say, you know, like, who are you? Isn't it a better question to say what are you? Yeah. That's probably a little bit, because who implies that there's a someone here. There's a person here, doesn't it? Yeah. You know? It is. There's an it. We'll have to repeat it, darling. It is. It is unaltered. Yeah. Say it again, darling. It is. And what is is unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected, no preference, no compassion. Comparison. No comparison. No partiality. Yeah. Yeah. Just as is. And when I was hanging out with that Kwan Um Zen Sangha, and I was hanging out with two other Zen Sanghas as well, but that one was having the practice of who am I?

Asking yourself who am I? And answering the question, I don't know. So when you ask who am I, and the mind has to say, admit that it doesn't know, it may produce the effect of mind cutting off. Because mind is everything. And the mind is everything that does know and understand. And saying I don't know is quite confronting. And hearing it and accepting it. But when I got introduced to non-duality, I could actually make variation of the question. And instead of who am I, my question that was actually really shifting in the meditation was what is I? What is it? It's like, yeah, is that even it?

When I say I am, I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. When I say I, I mean the sense of presence. I mean my own very, very intimate existence. Like when Nisargadatta says, stay with I am. Didn't mean the concept or the thought or the mental image of I. What is I? Who is I? No. It meant that most intimate awareness of presence.

That undeniability of being. So what is that I that hijacks that intimate being? Because if I'm investigating that I, obviously I'm not it. So in the being that I am, in the consciousness that I am, the I is showing up and saying, no, no, this is me, this is my being. And what is that I? When you look, even when you describe yourself, you describe the body. You say I'm a woman or I'm this country or that country or wife or daughter or mother or whatever. And also when you start describing your qualities or your values or your personality, you're describing the mind. But who is doing the describing?

Who is it that knows about the body? Who is it that knows about the personality, the values and all of that? There is a knowing, there is the inherent, innate knowing of it. So in that knowing, everything shows up. In that knowing, all the space of gaze show up. Everything I see is appearing in that knowing, in the presence and the knowing. And the hearing, every sound, every person, you are all appearing in that knowing. So how are you different? You are the content of that consciousness. How are you different to that consciousness? You can't be. So how are you different to that body which also appears in the same knowing, being knowing?

So that really boils everything down to recognize that yes, it takes different forms. It puts different costumes, different masks, different things. It's all different. Different shapes, different, you know, different fragrance, different like thoughts. What are thoughts? Amarnath was saying, you know, that thoughts are there and they're not there. Who cares? You're not your mind. Thoughts are just another way it shows up. It shows up as a tree. It shows up as a smell, as a sound, as an idea, as a mental image. How brilliant. That's the omnipresence. Everything that has a presence is another way that intelligence shows up. So thinking is also the way it shows up.

But taking that thinking as description or reality, well, that can hurt. And that pattern of taking thinking to be reality is also just showing up. It's just the way it expresses itself. And yeah, just seeing the whole dance make you just bow down into the brilliance and the beauty of the whole dance. Because, well, let's face it, that could have been nothing, no appearance at all. And let's face it, when you look close enough, there is nothing. There is no appearance at all. Because in one moment you close your eyes, and where is that magnificent world? It may show up as the memory, but that memory will stop also.

Everything that comes and goes is just that passing cloud of appearance. So you get the thoughts, the feeling, the image, the sound. Everything that is showing up as it has beginning and an end is an appearance. It's not the ultimate reality, which is the reality of being and knowing. That space of consciousness in which everything comes and goes. So when you really, really want to find and connect and reconnect and recognize the truth, your heart goes into what's real. And naturally, what's passing gets less of the recognition, less of importance. Like, yeah, okay, somebody doesn't like me, or there is some problem with money or health or whatever.

How big is that going to become if most of my heart sits with reality, with the being and knowing? And there is not that much of the attention into the passing phenomena. Oh, he is ugly or she is stupid. Who cares? I mean, yeah, sure, it shows up as well. Why not? Anger shows up. Appetite shows up. Preferences show up. But they do not become absolute reality. And if they do get a lot of attention for a moment, like the survival instinct, there is a threat on the horizon. Like, you know, slip your hands next to the cat, it will also react. That's normal. Survival is prioritizing the safety of the body-mind because without the safety of the body-mind, there is no experiencing and no expression.

So even that is beautiful, but it is temporary. And when the danger is recognized and placed properly, the joy of life comes back and the beauty and the reverence. I'm reasonably good at, reasonably anyway, at just being aware and thought free. But I'm much... But what I'm saying is, I'm not... I'm not a person who is not aware of the danger. I'm not a person who is not aware of the danger. But when thoughts start to happen, I find they overshadow the I am-ness. I haven't yet mastered the space where the thoughts can happen and the I am-ness is lost. But for how long do they overshadow?

Because... Once I go back to silence, that's fine. Yeah. But having the silence and the thoughts without losing the silence is my present situation. I see. Yeah, but you go. What's there first? Isn't silence there first? Oh, yes. Yeah. So do you think that whatever is appearing on it can... get rid of it or throw it out? Still the background... The awareness will still be the background whether thoughts are going on or not. So the thing is, if you put less attention into the thoughts, if the thoughts are troubling you, put less attention into it, well, naturally the silence is going to be more profound.

But the thing is to absolutely certain that awareness has never gone away. Even when the sleep, deep sleep or anything at all, is in the mind. Anything at all has appeared on it when that body's not there. It's fullness, you know. Absolutely total. Absolute. Everything appears and disappears into it. Yes. Yes, perhaps it's just a matter of practise. What do they say? Practice makes perfect. Well, it is. It is. And look, I'd recognise, don't I? What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? Also, you know, And if that intelligence of life wants to express in a way that the strong thought takes over the whole screen, you know, just the way you watch the movie, you forget that this is on a flat TV.

And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, the good movie, the intention of the good movie is that you forget that it is only appearing on the screen. So if your experience of life right now is that the thought comes and it overshadows the background on which it appears, that's perfectly fine. I mean, what's wrong with that? That's how the absolute wants to experience itself through you. But do you ever forget that the thought happens because you are, you're conscious? If you weren't, if you didn't exist, you weren't conscious, the thought wouldn't happen and wouldn't overshadow that screen. Or I could change channels. Yes. Change channels.

You can change channels. Yes. Yes, yes, very good, very good. So if you're not conscious, you're not conscious. You're not conscious. You're not conscious. Yes. And even the thought is a proof that the consciousness, the being and knowing is there. So the thought can be actually used. Yes. Yes. Now I understand that on a, I understand, I understand that on a sort of an intellectual basis. But in, in practice, the, um, the sense of presence and amness is rather too easily overshadowed. And you think it should be different? Why do you think so? Well. I think it's because of the stillness. And, and, and, uh, what I find with thinking, particularly narrative thought, it is very energy consuming and really quite troubling.

It's like, um, like, it's like a pond being stirred up. I like the still pond. Yes. Yeah, I totally get it. And I, yes, and absolutely. Who does not prefer pain to pleasure, pleasure to pain? It is, of course, mindfulness. It is, of course, much more enticing and enchanting to be in a state of stillness and pleasure and love than being in a state of anger and turmoil and. Yeah. But the trap comes with it that, oh, I don't want what is. I want something else. I want something different. I want more stillness. I want less thoughts. Now if you see that pattern of wanting, you see that behind that pattern of wanting, it's really love for the truth.

But the pattern of wanting. You stay with the love for the truth and see the pattern for what it is. Just the pattern of wanting what is not. And love. And love. And wanting it to be different probably cements the problem in the first place, doesn't it? You know. You have to start it again. I said the wanting it to be different probably cements the problem of thinking in the first place because you know you're thinking that you shouldn't think. Totally. Okay, so, which creates more thoughts. Well, I shouldn't think now. I'm thinking, why do I keep doing that? I'm thinking about that. I shouldn't.

I'm. I'm thinking about that. And that probably reinforces the thinking. But if. That's lovely. Yeah. Resistance is persistence. Whatever you resist persists. Yeah. That was like one of my favorite quotes when I first heard it. But then I was just like, how do you not resist cancer when you have that? You know. And poverty when you're poor and all that. But that's when I like, you know, actually kind of what drew me to you guys was that Sedona Method when they taught me to embrace. Yeah. Yeah. You know, embrace my current experience, you know, as it is. So if what is is right now I'm feeling hatred.

I want to kill the bitch. Dead. Killer. Hire a hit man. Yeah. Can do that. Killer. Oh, take action. You know, don't don't do anything but allow yourself to just enjoy that hatred for a moment and stay with it. Huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even better. You know, just stay with the. and just stay that okay without the label it's even better yeah she's right yeah just stay with that that and then what happens if it's fully loved and appreciated you know and and celebrated even without a thought or a label is it just kind of i like the it just moves on all by itself and there's nobody doing anything you know nothing but but when i'm going i have to fix this you know to the degree that i have to do something this is like the beauty of laziness i don't have to do shit it's good there is the uh the dalek school of non-duality uh resistance is futile yes and i've got a couple of comments here from those who are with us you know i'm not sure if i'm going to be able to do this but i'm going to do it online i look out the window here yeah and i see from here to the window there seems space things in it throughout the further out the space again all the way to outer space space hasn't changed no and none of those things have corrupted it or contaminated it they're all appearing in it so that's my thought thoughts are like appearances and that's the silent beingness that you are awareness and love for silence is one of those appearances and it's beautiful we have the comments from amanath identify it as pattern unfulfilled desire becomes anger trace the desire take it lightly don't give more attention try to appreciate them rather than condemn win their hearts with love rather than resistance ask them to accept things as they are not wanting to do something that is unfulfilled ask them to accept things as they are not wanting to do something that is not good for you not what they think.

Beautiful. We learn, that's also Amarnath, we learn fun from children. We become more serious often. They are considered as God. And that's also Amarnath. Senses are there. Senses are there as our slaves. We are masters. All senses represent five elements. Self is the master of them. Source. And Tanya, I do appreciate, oh, there was a comment which disappeared from my screen. And the comment was on Tanya. How do you deal with an eight-year-old child when they are angry? How do you calm them? And then Tanya says, I do appreciate. I just seem painful for her. A movement to want to lessen her suffering came up.

Thank you for the suggestions, Amarnath. And Amarnath says, the movement I want to change as doer becomes pain, but as a role or drama of mother makes it a drama or fun. Yeah, I would actually stay with you, Tanya says, with that beautiful compassionate heart where you really want to ease the pain of your daughter. What comes out as an action or expression or word? I think it's not up to you, really. It's up to the conditioning of the body-mind. But staying in that willingness or that warm benevolent wish, I think that's just a delightful possibility of experiencing and expressing love, really. And you'll be guided because life is always, you know, life is experiencing and expressing itself through you and us, you.

Life will move you to do what needs done. Nobody can really tell you moment to moment, you know. But yes, staying with the intention is always, because intention, like Nisargadatta was beautifully expressing it, intention behind every move, every action, every thought is always love. The love can be to me or mine, which is identified as the little self, or it can be to pure, expansion of the being that embraces the absolute. But the love remains. Love is the motivation behind everything. Coming back to that motivation, that intent, is coming back to love. And from there, life moves you. Have you ever heard the expression, the road to hell is paved with good intentions?

Yes. Say it again. I was just reminded of the quote, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That's all. That's just it. That just reminded me, like, that's it, you know. So probably just staying. Kill the bitch, kill the bitch. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. That's coming from love. Yeah. Yeah. And that's true. It's just that every action also, the road to heaven is also paved with the same intention, because there's no other intention ever in the world. So every intention is the good intention. Like you, you wanna, well, it's good for the, it's good for the me, you know. Good, bad, what's the difference?

If I wanna kill the bitch, of course, it's not great for her. And this is where Nisargadatta make the distinction. What is the me? Is that this body or is that whole universe? Because if the whole universe is me, is my body, I will find no intention to kill anyone within myself or hurt myself. If I recognize that divine essence behind the bitch, perhaps I may not be, that keen of hurting the bitch. Yeah, but she doesn't even exist, so. It's just a reflection. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, she doesn't exist. It's a reflection. But yeah, it's a saying, a lot of that kind of like, yeah, world, way to hell paved with good intentions.

A lot of that saying is just to justify the failure. Like it's, you know, if someone is walking the length to do something good, and it doesn't really work out, and you wanna have someone to blame, and you wanna kick them in the ass that they've done wrong, they shouldn't have done it. Yeah, you have a nice little quote to back yourself up. But if you understand that they never done a thing, it was life that moves you to go to the barricade and start the war. It is life that moves you to destroy that oceans and that climate and that government or whatever. It's always life behind every movement.

And you don't really need to blame. The road to heaven, you know. The road to heaven. The road to heaven. The road to heaven being paved with good intentions as well. And then I was just reminded of something I heard Bob say from somebody else. Good, bad, what's the difference? Yeah, that's right. The road to hell is paved with the right way is not difficult. Yeah, can you say the whole thing again? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Now the road is not a word for the road is the way. They call it the great way in Buddhism. The great way is not difficult.

The road to hell is not difficult. There are those who have no preferences. When you've got no intentions, the road's going to be pretty smooth. And then, you know, this is another thing that I also learned from the Korean Zen Sangha when the master that was teaching was asked, where is that leading to? Where is that road taking us? And he says, well, that's the misconception right from the start. We are realizing that there is nowhere to go. We've already arrived. This is where we are going. This is where the end, the road ends. There is no road. I mean, they call it the way because it's seeming movement in it.

There is nowhere to go. It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always now. It's always now, yes, Cliff. Yeah, I've got another comment. The movement I want to change as doer becomes pain. But oh, yeah, that I already heard. Oh, now says, thank God. I learned often. Thank God. Here we go. Maybe I put out a mistake I learned. But I think there is a moral day. We are not 아하l 칼 strong. I suspect that I am. Is it cool with this? Yeah, I and you I believe you are able to truly support us. Yeah, I don't have time. Oh, no. Thank God. He loves me.