Drop the concept, drop the word, see what is left. Bob Adamson and the nonduality group. 19/6/2022

And what we talk about is the same old, same old. You've all heard before, I think everybody, no newbies here. As we go through it, the same thing, let it sink in. Instead of getting into stories about it, get to the directness of what it's pointing to. What they call Advaita in Hinduism. And Advaita translated means non-duality. And the time described non-duality by saying it's one without a second, not two. And that's what we all appear to miss out on. Not everything is the one essence. The real essence is the essence. There is not two. Sat, Chit, Ananda, Nama, Rupa. That's how they describe it.

Sat is existence. Chit, consciousness or awareness. Ananda is loving to be. And the other two factors, Nama, Rupa, the name and form. Now they say that name and form is Maya, illusion. That's the body-mind. But have a look at the other three. Sat, existence. Any one who is not existing right now. Anyone who is not conscious or unaware. And you'll say, no, I'm conscious, I'm not unaware. Anyone who is not happy to be. Well, nobody wants to be dead, do they? So you're happy to be. So you are already that. Because you fit that description. Sat, Chit, Ananda, Nama, Rupa. You are already that. And we don't realise or recognise that.

that because we think, take on the belief we are this person, this individual, this separate entity and we think we need to become something, become a higher power or whatever. But what they're pointing to, there's no higher power, there is no God as such or they call God Atman, one self. And that's it, there is only the one self, not a personal self. And we've got the concept we are this person, this human being and we've taken on the personal, seeming personal. And it's that person, the concept of a person or idea of a person is the cause of all our problems. Because we've separated ourselves from the inseparable.

If it's one without a second, not two, that's all there is and everything is already that. And that's the great man. And the mantra, I am that. And innately you already know that because you say that's the chair I'm sitting in, that's the room the chair's in, that's the space in the room, that's the tree, that's the flower, that's everything is already that. Which is all discriminated with the word. They'll tell you in the Bible, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God, the word was God. That's all that God is and another label. All things from God were made by him by the word.

And there was nothing made that was made. And isn't that so? You look at the things in the room, the chair, the table, the carpet, the tree, the flower, the mountains, the hills, it's all that word. All the words, labels we put on them. And we put the label on ourselves, person. And where does that word person come from? Doesn't it come from the ancient Latin persona, the mask? So this person that we're pointing out even from that point of view it's only a mask or a concept we've taken on board. But the problem is we believe it to be what we are. And a belief is not the actual.

The dictionary definition is belief is an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of of reason, acceptance of an alleged fact without positive knowledge or proof. So we're alleging to ourselves we are this human form, this pattern, shape and form, this human being. We'll have a look at that too. Being human. You call yourself a human being. If you believe in God, you'll call God the Supreme Being. Now take away the word human and take away the word supreme. Try and separate your beingness without the word. And none of you can say I am not, you can say it, but wouldn't you realise if I'm saying I am not, the very fact I'm able to say it would imply that I am.

So when you look at it closely, it's all pointing to the fact that you're not human. That of your own being, the one essence, pattern, shape and forming, appearing as, expressing as everything. One without a second, not two. And if there's a belief in two, what's that? It becomes relative to the other. So all our problems of relationship relative to is the cause of all our trouble. We've got this problem. of relationship. And the male-female relationship can cause a lot of problems. But if you recognise it's the one essence expressing as everything and when they merge into each other it's not the two at all, it's all the one essence.

What's it all appear in? Well, they call it space-like awareness. What's space? You realise that space is all around you. The closest thing to your eyeball is space. Everything is the content of space. The trees, the flowers, the mountains, the hills, the planets, the stars, all the contents of space. Can you postulate or think of anything that could be outside of space? What would it be in? And you realise it'd have to be in space. Now, space has got... no centre to it. You can't find a centre to it. You can't find any circumference to it. It's got no boundaries to it. It is no thing.

And yet you can't postulate anything outside of space, so you must recognise that everything is that space appearing as other than space. So it's space-like awareness. It's a... And when you look at the things that are in space, you're a thing, I'm a thing, the tree's a thing, the flower's a thing, the mountains, the hills, the planets, they're all things. Space is no thing. Can something come from no thing? It can't. So all these things, however they're appearing, are not the reality. The reality is that one essence. That one... What I call, for want of a better term, I don't use the term God, for all the traditions have got different labels for their particular gods, and there are all sorts of different concepts or ideas of what God is.

And it's all words or concepts. But the life essence or the pure intelligence energy that functions this universe, that's breathing you right now, that's beating your heart, growing your hair and your fingernails, digesting your fluid, replacing cells in the body right now. The body is transient, it's constantly changing. And it's rolling the earth around the sun, causing the seasons to come and go, the tides to come in and out, the planets and the stars to form, and all the manifestation. It's all that one essence, patterning, shaping and forming and appearing as everything. And all expressing and seemingly real. It's real in its essence. But the pattern, shapes and forms are not the reality.

So it needs to be investigated and seen for yourself. Am I this body? Am I this mind? Am I this person? Well, innately you know you're not. Because you say, my house, my car, my coat. You know you're not the house, the car or the coat, you say, my body. Well, who do those, car, coat, house and car belong to? Me? Well, who's the me? What is the me? And you realize all the me's is a word. A word we picked up, a concept, which we believe to be this person, this separate entity, this individual. Why do we believe that? Because we've never investigated. When did you begin?

You'll say that everything is interrelated. It's all interrelated. Take this body, when did you begin? Well, go back as far as your father and your mother, that animating life essence, that pattern shaped and formed your father, living from the prana, the air he's breathing and the food he's eating, and that pattern, a little micro-swap of particle called a sperm to form. You can't see with your naked eye. But that sperm was suffused with intelligence. It knew that. It knew what to do. Intelligence energy. I use that term rather than the used term God. I'll go into it in a minute. That sperm was suffused with intelligence, knew what to do.

And the same in that pattern you call your mother. That animating life essence, that fashion shape and form your mother, in that pattern, the air it's breathing and the food she's eating, and all the rest, and they all in that pattern, a microscopic particle called an egg or an ovum to form. Now that egg or ovum attached itself to the water uterus, implying it was suffused with intelligence. It knew what to do. And the sperm swam to the ovum. It knew what to do. So it was suffused with that intelligence also. And when those two came together, what happened? Merged into each other, and the little ovum, the little embryo began to form, the little fetus, the little embryo, which is what you are to do today.

What were you doing about it then? And what are you doing about it right now, as is believed in person? You realise that persona, that label we've got on it, which as they call, comes from persona the mask, the mask can't do anything. So what must be doing it? It must be that life essence that you are. Christ told you that a couple of thousand years ago, and he said, 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 I am-ness. Which in the saga that I tell you, you've got to stay with the I am-ness.

And we think we've got to repeat it all the time as a mantra. But what does that I am represent? It represents the sense of presence, the presence of knowing that you are, that presence awareness. There's an awareness there of being present right now, which translates as the word or the thought. And in the beginning was the word. That's when we came into existence with the word. But can any of you remember your birth? You can't. You'll say, I was born. But you can't remember your birth. And you don't remember your birth until you're 40 years old, when you learnt words. So you were living prior to the word.

So that means you're prior to this thing we call mind, which is made up of words, conscious. But you were before that. And yet we've taken ourselves to be this person, this separate entity, this individual and believed it. So if you're not the word or the body, are you this thing called mind? And you say my mind, again like you say my body. Who are you referring to again? You're referring to that pure life essence, that intelligence energy. You call it intelligence energy rather than use the term God. Because we've all got different concepts about the belief in the word God. But intelligence energy, intelligence is not your intellects.

It is knowing. Not your intellects, I know, but it is that knowing. And what's knowing? It's an activity. The ing on it gives us something that's happening right now. Like hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, knowing. And you are knowing right now. So it's an activity. Any activity is a movement of energy. So it's vibrating. Spontaneously appearing, spontaneously changing. Changing, transient, constantly. But we say my body, my mind. And when you look at this body, what's it made up of? You'll see it's made up of elements. Air, earth, fire, water, space. Try and separate yourself from those elements and see how long it lasts without the air, without the water, without the fire, without the body temperature, or getting off the earth.

So you see you're not separate from any of these elements. And all these elements can be broken down into subatomic particles, into pure energy. So it all can be broken down to that energy, movement. And we take ourselves to be the person, the self, because we pick up words from our parents at about two, two and a half. Before that you had no words. And we take the word to be real. If you say, are you the word? You realize the word, when you look at it, is a concept. What's word? Thought. What's that? Sound, word, vibration. A movement of energy. Just the same as the body without those elements.

What is it? Can we all be broken down into a vibration? A movement of energy. The space is not, it's a cognizing emptiness, but it's not empty of that innate life, or intelligence, energy. It's suffusing it. Another term for that is awareness. There's nobody who's unaware right now. So if it's awareness we're pointing to, you must be aware. But we can't tell you what, you can't tell me what awareness, you know you're not unaware, but you can't tell me what awareness is. And it's that very existence itself expressing as that concept, a word or idea. And on that existence consciousness comes, and all the labels come up.

And that's the thing about which we enable everything then. Further from that. So you are the life. You are the truth. And the scripture saying is know the truth, the truth will set you free. What do you need to be free from? The belief. The belief that you are this person. You are this individual. You are this sense of separation. And we think that this is real, but we've got to become this higher power. We've got to become this God. We need to meditate. We need to recognize. We need to do all sorts of mantras and things like that to become what we already are, which we don't recognize.

Instead of calling ourselves human beings, believing this God, you'll call God a supreme being. Take away the human, take away the supreme, and separate the beingness. And then you know that I am right now. The great mantra is I am that. And don't you know that already? Because that's the chair you're sitting on, the sofa, that's the carpet on the floor, that's the space in the room, that's the lights, that's the tree outside, that's the flower, that's the mountains, that's the hills. Everything is already that. Which again we describe and discriminate by putting labels on it, to differentiate it. Differentiate the one thatness, the one self.

And that's when the problems start because we differentiate it and that get this idea that I am this person, this separate entity, an individual. Well, at about two, two and a half, when the capacity of reasoning develops in you, when we learn words, that's when the separation comes. Because we've taken ourselves to be this person and that sense of knowing is there and you look out there and you say, parents will call you little Johnny or little Billy, whatever you want to be. And you say, I am little Johnny. And you look out there and you say, that doesn't fit little Johnny. I don't know what that is.

And when you don't know what something is, you feel insecure and vulnerable. And with that sense of insecurity and vulnerability comes the sense of separation is there. And now we think it's me that doesn't know what that is. And I'm separate from it. But I've got to become that, try to become. And don't realise that becoming implies a future time. But if you've investigated, you'll see that time itself is a mental concept. Ask yourself, is there a past if I don't think about it? Investigate and see these things for yourself. And some of you have and really know it. Is there a past if you don't think about it?

Well, without a thought, can you say there's a past or a future? You can't. But you'll say, I was in the past. And I'll say, yeah, well try and live a moment ago. Can you go back and live a moment ago? You can't even, if you can't recall it, it's gone. It can only be recalled now. The same with the future. Can you anticipate a moment and live in the future? What you're going to do when you leave here? What's your next choice? You can't. You can only imagine and anticipate. And if you're not imagining and anticipating it right now, that's gone for good too.

And these things only last a moment. Spontaneous, not even a moment. Because that's a section of time also. But a throb or a pulsation or a vibration is happening spontaneously right here and right now. So there's no such thing as past, no such thing as future, unless you think about it, conceptualise it. And it's always happening in this spontaneous moment. So it's all that. And you are that. I am that. Everything is that. And we've never moved away from it. Because it's, they tell you in the scriptures, it's only the one self. Call it admin. Admin the self. Not a personal self, it's not a separate self.

But we've created all these, believed in, separate personal souls. And the one has seemingly become the many. But it's never moved away from its actuality. Which is also always and ever and always and ever will be the timeless, spaceless, bodiless, mindless, non-conceptual, ever fresh presence awareness. Happening in this timeless, spontaneous moment. And you are that. That's what we point out too. That's what we ask you to look upon and investigate and see for yourself. Because nobody can do it for you. When you realise there is no one but vibrating patterns of the same intelligence energy that you are, though it appears to be many. And it's one, non-duality is one without a second.

So all these other appearances, everything is that. But not how it appears. So though it's still going to express and appear as it seemingly does, if you know the truth about it, you're not locked into it the way you were. You see it as coming and going. Constantly changing. Transient. And you know that. What's your next thought going to be? And you'll say, I don't know. But a thought will appear. And you'll come up and it'll come up and you'll say, I think. And soon as the thought I think comes up, what have you done? You've formed the conceptual belief that it's me, I. This thinking.

And the thought, I think this thought. Whatever the thought might be. The thought has come up, I'm thinking this thought. So what have you done? You've formed duality. A subject, a thinker. And the object, the thought. Subject, object is duality. But can there be a thinker without thinking? Work that one out. When you have a look at it and you see, no. There can't be a thought if there's no one or nothing to think, the thinking's not going on. Can't be a thought without thinking. And can there be the thinker without the thinking? So the thinker and the thought duality are fictional. The thinking is the actual.

Now that doesn't only apply to the mind. It applies to the thinking. It applies to the seeing. You're seeing right now. You ask, does my eye tell me I see? It doesn't. The seeing is happening through the eye. And the thought I see comes. The hearing. The thought I hear. Feeling. The thought I feel. The thought I taste. I touch. I smell. I experience. It's all related to this conceptual image, I. But there are seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, thinking. The I-N-G on it. Something that gives us reality. It's a movement. Thinking is a vibration. A movement. An activity. That's why I call it intelligence energy.

The activity of knowing. And there's not one of you here who is not knowing right now. Being, knowing and loving to be. So everybody is that one essence appearing, seemingly differently and separately, but it's never changed its true nature. And that's what we lose sight of. That's what you've got to recognize again. You don't have to. But if you want to live in unhappiness and fear and depression and guilt, then that's what happens. You've got this separate entity, me. And have a look at it. It's only me that can be fearful. Only me that can be anxious. Only me that can be depressed or guilty or jealous or envy.

Me is the cause of all my psychological problems. And the anxiety, the fear, the stress, the guilt, the shame, remorse, all these things, these conceptual images, are the effects of the cause. Me. That's what karma is. You don't hear about karma or karma is cause and effect. But what if I ask myself the question, can there be an effect if it's not related to a cause? Well, of course. Can there be a cause if it's not related to a cause? I've got it wrong around here. Or the right way around, whatever way it is, anyway. Can there be an effect if it's not related to a cause?

Well, there can't be. So I'm not relating to the cause, me. Where are all the effects going to be? They drop away. Because you're not relating, you're not feeding into them, not keeping them going. And where does that leave you? That leaves you with what you've been trying to seek, to become awake or aware. It leaves you in that presence of awareness, the pure being, the pure knowing, and the pure loving to be. I use the analogy of the clouds and the sun. You go outside on a cloudy day. Would you say the sun's not in the sky? You wouldn't, because you've investigated, you know the sun doesn't leave the sky.

But yet you can't see the sun. It's obscured by clouds. When you investigate and ask yourself, what is it? What forms the clouds? You work it out and see intelligence, you'll realise that the sun itself forms the cloud. Now the sun doesn't know anything about the cloud. The vastness of the sun is so great, it's not interested in anything like a cloud, if it could be. But it's the pure radiance of the sun, the light in which we're sitting in now. You're not sitting in the sun, we're sitting in the sunlight, the light of the sun. So the sun in its radiance, what does it do?

It shines of itself. And in that shine and radiance, what does it do? It evaporates water. It evaporates water from the ocean. The water rises and cools down and condenses and forms a cloud which obscures the sun. Now the sun continues to shine. That's all it knows how to do, is to shine, to radiate. And it'll cool that mist down, that cloud down, and bring it down as rain, or cause a wind to blow that'll blow it away. But what's there then? The basic space, the clarity, is there. In that clarity, the sun shines in its brilliance. And there's affection and warmth in it. Well, liken that to what's going on in your mind right now.

You think he's going on, and what's it done? It's formed words. And what have words done? They're appearing in your mind. They're appearing on that awareness or knowingness. And the mind, what they call mind, which is nothing but thought, is now seemingly filled with these mental concepts, which are hiding, obscuring the pure presence awareness, the intelligence that you are. So what happens when you recognize and see that the thoughts, feelings, and emotions, they're just concepts, vibrations, have no substance or any independent nature? What's going to be there? Like in the sun, there's going to be a lot of clarity there when it's not obscured by the thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

And you've had taste of that throughout your life when the clarity's been in it. Everything's fallen into place. The thought has fallen out when there hasn't been any conceptual going on in brief instances. And in that, there's been a resonance. A sense of being well, well-being. Nothing wrong anymore. And recognize you've had a taste of your true nature. But the thoughts come again. Instead of recognizing them, we lock into them and try and get rid of a thought, a concept with a thought, a concept with a concept. And it doesn't happen. And it won't happen. We try to meditate and do all these concepts. And when you look at it, then you realize there's no one to meditate and nothing to meditate on.

That is a natural meditation that's going on. Without trying to become, it's just happening. You relax into it. And as they say, now let it rest in its uncontrived singularity. And the recognition and knowing and understanding that it is a singularity. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? And it's all transient. It's constantly changing. You're going to try and become something when you recognize that you are that being without the supreme being or without the human being. The being, you can't negate the beingness. You can't negate the knowingness of that or the loving warmth and affection of that. As Nisargadatta puts it, there's nothing wrong anymore.

A sense of well-being. Being well when there's nothing wrong. Let it rest in its uncontrived singularity. Rest and relax into that. See how your life changes then. Have a look at what's going on now. Something comes up and you like it. And the things we like, we don't want to go. We want to keep them there. Not realizing that no matter how much you love it or how much you want to keep it there, it's transient. It's changing like everything in your body is changing right now. So is the thought. So it's going to change. It's going to go. We don't want it to do.

So what do we do? We try to keep it there by resisting it. Got to keep this one and get rid of the bad thoughts. And that's... And resistance is conflict. And conflict makes you unhappy, fearful, anxious and diseased. Uneasiness, which is disease. So there's resistance, conflict and disease. Going on in us daily. Something comes up and you don't like it. Oh, I shouldn't be thinking this. This is another one. I don't want to handle this. I want the other. I want the good again. And that resistance is conflict. It brings up the fear, the anxiety, the depression, the guilt, the unhappiness, the shame, the jealousy, whatever it's about again.

So that's what our life consists of. This constant conflict. That's going on. And it's going on more and more and there's less places when it was seen through. Before we took on all the concepts and ideas, it was easier to see through. Now it's constantly coming up thoughts, working with thought and fighting with thought. And we're learning more words, trying to get rid of it with a word. That doesn't happen. And it won't. And they tell you that in the scriptures. And I say, the peace is when the mind is not. It's beyond the mind. If the peace is when the mind is not, that's when it's prior to the mind.

When the peace is there. So we'll never ever get peace of mind. And that's what we seek it for to begin. But realize it's naturally there. It's there with you right now. And if there's all sorts of concepts going on and obscuring it, try and step over them. Get around them. You can't pause them for very long because they can't do it. But naturally, in the recognition, they'll sit in the background. And thoughts can come on that. There's still thoughts come up there now and again. Not so much because it'll drop away after a while. But the thought, when we divide it, good, bad, pleasant, painful, happy, sad, we put it around it.

But there's no one-ended stick. So each stick has got two ends to it. There's no one-sided coin. Each coin's got two sides to it. And so the thoughts, good and bad, pleasant, painful, have two sides to them. And they're not separate. And that's the trouble. We think they're separate, want one and not the other. But being not separate, just like day and night, winter, summer, high tide, low tide, all the other things, all the other things patterning, so the thoughts, if they're not separate, will come back. If you're locked into the thought for a while and leave it as it is and let it rest, then it'll come back to the thought free, presence awareness, the existence, pure existence, the pure being.

And it'll change again, just like the earth's rolling around the sun day and night. So it will continue to do so. But it's not separate. It keeps changing. But now, you're not bound into the word. You don't have to get rid of the word. You just have to recognise and understand that the words are not the real. They're just concepts. Take the word water. Can you drink it? You can't. Can the word fire burn your mouth? It can't. The word me or I is not what you are. The description's not the described. The map's not the territory. So learn that. With all these words we're learning, they're not the real.

But they're all appearing in that non-conceptual, ever-fresh presence awareness. All patterns, shapes and forms that appear in it play around and disappear. So you are that life itself. Not the body or the mind. You are that life. It's what Nisargadatta says. There is only life. There is nobody who lives a life. And life lives on life. For out of life, more life comes. And isn't that a fact? Didn't you come from the life of your parents? And didn't they come from the life of life to life? Life has not got any beginning. Nor can it have any end. Because it'll go on as life. But the patterns, shapes and forms appear, play around and disappear in it.

But because they are patterns, shapes and forms, they have no substance or any independent nature, they're not troubling that life at all. But we lose sight of the fact and take ourselves to believe that we are the person and miss out on the reality. And as I pointed out before, belief's not the actual. So that's what we put out there. So that's what we point out here. And you've all heard it before. And a lot of you recognise it. Most of you here, but there's people on the... What is it? Skype? This is Facebook live stream. They might have questions or doubts. And if any of you do have questions or doubts, don't hesitate to ask them.

Don't be frightened or think, what will they think of me? They'll think I'm stupid or something. Maybe they will. But that's their concept. Why should you take delivery of it? So away you go. We have the questions from Tanya and a few of welcoming messages to everyone. Tanya says, if you recognise you are not me, no sensation that normally would be labelled fear, frustration or sadness never appear again? Or they are just not labelled anything? But still appear. No separate me is found. But the sensations, thought labels, fear, anxiety and frustration still appear. Yeah, so that's a beautiful question, Tanya, because many people may also have that question.

And that's a beautiful observation also in the answer to the question. Because your direct observation actually answers the question. You still observe that certain vibrations come through. And maybe even label shows up, but you don't find any me. Those vibrations and those labels are not really yours, they're impersonal. And also if you observe animals or if you see a little baby that doesn't have words, does it ever cry? Yep. Does it smile, laugh? Yep. Sensations, vibrations, just like the weather in the sky, they keep showing up. Which is your observation? Which is always the final ultimate answer? Direct experience. Whatever other people tell you, flush it in the toilet, just go to the heart and find your own answer, which you just did.

And thank you for sharing it. Did you want to add to it, Bob? No, you said observation. Yeah. Well, observation is observing, not observer or the observed. They're fixed. Yeah. The observing, just like the seeing, the hearing, the tasting, touching, smelling, thinking, the spontaneous functioning is always and ever happening. Everything is perfectly valid in the appearance, but the appearance itself is not real. It's only seemingly so. A phenomenal manifestation, definition of that is, phenomena is that which appears to be. I tell you that in the scriptures, appears to be. So all this in this room is like the waking dream. And as Nisargadatta says, you are dreaming a dream you call the world.

Stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your concern. Your concern is you love one part of the dream and not the other. He says love all of it or none of it. And if you do that, the rest will be taken care of by the same life essence that brought you into existence, that's breathing you right now, beating your heart, growing your inner flame. It'll take it. But we don't. We take it to be the person instead of love what we love one part of it and not the other. But this dream, you don't realise it. When you go to sleep at night and have a dream, you can be in the mountains, the hills, the cities, anywhere at all, doing all sorts of activities and everything going on.

You wake up in the morning, where does it all go? All disappears. There's very little might be called, but you won't recall that for long. But it's a dream. And you realise when you look into it, your body had not moved off the bed throughout the night. No words had come out of your mouth. It was a dream. It wasn't real. But what you don't realise is we wake up to this living dream, this waking dream. Because when you wake up in the morning, in that dream of night, your body had never moved off the bed, nothing had happened, no words had come out of your mouth, and the mountains, the hills, the cities, all those things have disappeared.

When you wake up in the morning, this waking dream seemingly continues from where it left off the night before. The mountains, the hills, the city, and the rooms you're in, they're all still there. And the bodies and minds seem to continue from where it left off the night before. But this is a living dream. It's the same life essence that's functioning, patterning, expressing as everything and appearing into all these patterns, shapes and forms. But you are the reality. And in its absoluteness, what can you add to the absolute? Nothing. What can you take away from it? Nothing. But with nothing added to it, nothing taken away, it's got to form patterns to express through.

If it didn't form patterns out of itself, how could there be any expression of the absolute? Because nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken away from it. So all these body, mind, things in this manifestation, all know things, all appearing in space. Space is empty. Did I point this out before? Might have, I don't know, been early. Space is empty. You can't find a centre to it, you can't find a circumference, any spot at all in it where it has any boundaries to it. And everything is the content of space. You can't postulate anything which would be outside of space. What would it be in?

And it'd have to be in space. So space is no thing. And yet all this content appearing in space are things. You're a thing, I'm a thing, the tree's a thing, the flower's a thing. All the content are things. Can something come from no thing? Space is no thing. We say nothing, we think it's a vacuum or a void. So it's not that, but it's no thing, meaning it has no pattern, shape or form. All these patterns, shapes and forms, all those expressions, are appearance only, only seemingly so. So something cannot come from no thing. So all this manifestation, again, though it's appearing as solid and real and substantial, it's still no thing.

And you and I and everything else is that. That is all there is. And innately you know that, because you say that's the chair, that's the carpet, that's the tree, that's the flower, everything is that. What has changed it? The Word. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God. That's all that God is, is the Word. We put labels or words on everything and discriminate it with the Word. Drop the concept, drop the Word. You don't have to. What's there then? What can you say without the Word? Nothing. But if you disappeared, you haven't. If you've fallen apart, no.

Still appearing to be so. And know the truth. And the truth will set you free. So we're going there. There is a comment from Keith. He says, it is very simple and obvious when you look at it. Thanks, Bob. And Joseph says, how to go to the level of heart? Well, you know what heart to heart is. When it's head to head, so you're not, you're not, you're not communing with it. It's just bang, bang, it's a clash. And you'll have your concepts and I'll have mine. It'll be head to head. But you know what heart to heart is because you say, you talk to somebody that was in a bad way or something and you resonate with them, the compassion, the love, the warmth went out.

And you'll say, naturally, my heart went out to them when you explain to somebody else. And when the heart went out, we think heart is the physical heart. But it's not. Heart means the heart. Meaning the core of your being. The core of anything is the heart of it. And the heart is a symbol of the spirit. The spiritual essence that you are went out and resonated with itself. The spiritual essence of the other. And then there was communication. Head to head now. Bill says, love space. Love you all. Bill has birthday today, and he reminded us in the morning in the comments that he's unborn.

And yet that is the truth. That is the truth of who we are. We are unborn. But if not for the form, that wouldn't be realized. So appreciation for the form and love for the form is like, was it Kabir says, by worshiping a form? Yeah. Kabir, no it wasn't. When was it? Tukaram, I think it was. Tukaram, oh yeah. It was a bhakti. He lived in the mantras and so on. He says, by worshiping the form, I attained the formless. So he got through it, through being a bhakti, through the love of the believed in conceptual God, whatever it was, Brahman, whatever it was.

And it's also such a beautiful excuse to celebrate the formless behind the form. When there is this one day, one special day. We're going to have Bob's birthday in a month, in about a month. And again, he's unborn. But if not for the form, none of that would have happened. So appreciation for it. Why not? And Tanya says here, beautiful Kat, the sensations are impersonal. That is becoming more and more clear. They are just happening spontaneously. That is crystal clear. Thank you. And thank you, Bob, for that beautiful response and expanding on what Kat showed so clearly. No more thoughts to reply with our appearing now.

Just soaking in us this clarity. Beautiful, Tanya. And thank you for sharing those thoughts, observations and questions. Because, yes, they're also impersonal. And they appear in, you know, it's almost like the electromagnetic field around. You put the radio and you tune in and the question comes. A lot of people may tune in to the same question and get them just clear. Thanks to your contribution. So if anyone else would like to share something or ask questions or contribute, remember, it is not personal. It may be a lot of people out there listening and wanting to hear it. Just in the way you transmit it. Or you ask.

Or you prompt Bob to answer. So if anyone feels like... You happy, Julia? Oh, I'll just get the... Good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Somebody was commenting or asking earlier about the... Moving from the head to the heart, I think. And I think something I've heard Bob mention previously, just about affectionate awareness. I like that pointer. I wanted to throw that one into it. Because I think that's like... The affection, if I were to bring up affectionate awareness or something being affectionate, we could have thoughts, We could have thoughts of affection or whatever, but it's more of something you feel here, isn't it?

It's more something you experience if you're affectionate. Yeah? But it's still the same subject in there, the being, knowing, loving to be. Awareness of being is bliss. Affectionate, aware of being. There are different ways of expressing the same thing. Taste them all. Anybody who doesn't love to be, none of you want to be dead right now. I dropped the topic yesterday. I was walking my dog, and a woman stopped me, asking how old my dog is. She's 13, so she's a senior dog. I mentioned her senior dog that had passed. And I started, but I didn't want to continue because it just didn't seem right.

But I was just like, yeah, well, what you fall in love with is here. Sorry? Sorry. I'm not. I'm not speaking loud enough for you. No. She's got ears on. Yes. Revenge is sweet. That must go on. There was just saying there was a woman that, you know, her dog had died. You know, and I was just saying, well, that, you know, that pattern, I guess if we were to do taxidermy on it, you would still have the form. You know what I mean? But that's not what we're in love with, really. I mean, it'd be kind of like with most of us, we think of like if I taxidermy my dog, when it dies, it's kind of gross.

We're like, ew. Because we can taxidermy your cats when they go, but it's not just, be like, that's not what you loved. You know? It's what we're falling in love with is whatever is animating the taxidermy. It's a weird metaphor, but. I went to the football the other day, and my team wasn't going too well. I could feel this emotion coming up, and I remember the last time I was in this situation, you look out across the MCG, between the light towers, just connect with the space. The spaceship. And the emotion dissolved. So the game goes on. My team keeps performing poorly, and this practice continued.

So in the last quarter, when it looks like it's all going to be over, and going to be very disappointed, that mood didn't take hold. And what I did, what did develop was an acceptance of the situation, and even an acknowledgement of some of the strengths of the other team. And so it's all over. Most of the people wearing the same colours as I was were pretty dejected. So I thought, well, I'm going to catch a tram, go home, walk over to the tram. Well, I think I'll have a couple of drinks before I leave, and I'll just hang around and wait till the crowd goes.

So when I went downstairs, and I found this bar downstairs, and it was very loud, very noisy, and they had screens up, and there were commentators, and they were talking about the game. And I thought, well, I'm going to catch a tram, go home, walk over to the tram. Picking the game apart, and very noisy. And I just started to sort of relax and just rest in my own presence. And I could feel there was, in this relaxation, there was a lot of equanimity developing. And then there was a chap a couple of metres from me. I was just standing there. standing in the middle of the room and I said, what time do they close the bar here?

And he said, well, depends about 7.30. We'll look at the crowd, we'll see if the staff are just standing around doing nothing and then we might make a judgment call. And I said, oh yeah. I said, what's your role here? And he said, I'm the host of this room and my job is to just walk around, make sure everybody is behaving. And he said, like that fellow over there. I said, we've become very concerned because there have been these brawls outside the stadium recently. He said, so we're very concerned about people who've had too much to drink and behaving badly. I said, oh, OK, yeah, that's understandable.

And then he started to talk about the steps, the steps that would occur. And at some point he'd talk to the bar manager and between them, they'd make a decision. And he'd say, well, let's see if we can get a bar manager. And he'd say, well, let's see if we can get a bar manager. And he'd make another judgment call. And then they'd decide, well, perhaps we'll close the bar or in the case of this fellow that was getting a bit sort of wobbly, we might bring in the security. And then suddenly he just said, I've got to go. And he took off. And so then I'm just standing there and I'm feeling very...

very settled, balanced. And this fellow comes up to me. I was sort of near the bar, just going to order a second drink. He comes right up to me and I thought, there's something odd about this fellow. He had very short black hair and he looked like Gomez... Gomez Adams, yeah. And he had sort of funny teeth and came right up to me and started telling me a story and it was sort of related to the game. But his gestures were... It was like a character chore. So when he stretched his arms out, he stretched them right out, expressing the story he was telling. And at some point, when his arms weren't wide enough, he jumps.

He jumps. He jumps sideways. And yet I... I didn't feel any rejection to him. I felt, this is weird, but I just, you know, joined in the conversation. And then I thought, yeah, there's something weird going on. So that conversation finished and I left. Walked out. And started to walk up to the tram stop. And then there were a series of these events that happened that didn't seem to have a cause, but they were, again, just character chores of people coming up, talking to you out of, you know, for no reason. And then at another point, the tram, on the tram, the tram stopped and a group of about six, young women jumped on, young girls, school girls.

So they weren't in school uniform, but they were obviously school girls, about 16, 17. And they come on the tram. And then, with the momentum of the tram, they all sort of turn in different directions at the same time and bump into each other. And they're all giggling and bumping and... This is weird. And the next stop, they get out. They disappear. They get out. So it was sort of like, it was like a weird comedy going on. And... And yet without, at the same time, there was no feeling of unease or... Yeah. It was, obviously, this is a dream. Yeah. So, I just wanted to relax.

I just wanted to relate that story. Yeah. Without judgment, rejection, preference. Yeah. Yeah. There is, Rohan says, Hi, Bob and Kat. Yes, the form is transient, but we are grateful for the life that expresses through this Bob and Kat forms. May they continue for many more years. Amen. And I have another one here. Primali says, Well said, Julia. And JB says, Hi, everyone. A couple of weeks ago, Peter was pointing out to a person that basically seeking to understand this via mind is fruitless. I had noticed the same thing as well, except have no idea how to put it into words. A lot of teachers, including Bob, says this.

It is like it is seen that all attempts to get this mental health to work mentally is eventually seen to be a problem. And either burnout or frustration can remove the seeker mind or sometimes seeking starts again after a break from it. I apologize for the wall of text. Facebook won't allow paragraphs since I am on the phone. Much love to you all. Thank you, JB. Would you like to comment, Bob? It was about, you know, that Peter was pointing out that seeking, finding the answer in the mind, this is in your words, can't find the answer in the mind. So seeking is fruitless and pointless.

So perhaps relaxing the seeking may happen. And he says that attempts to get this is seen as fruitless. And eventually seem to be the problem either burnout or frustration can remove seeker's mind. Or sometimes seeking starts again. What you resonate with, something you might hear and resonate with sort of a sense that it's what they're hearing is what's necessary to hear. That'll go on of itself. And the resonant means that it's working in you anyway, even if you lose sight of it for a time. It's bringing changes about. Yeah. In the way you're functioning. So there is nothing else that can be done about it rather than just keeping to transmit that frequency which may wake up your heart and resonate.

Like if you remember what you are, who you are, and seeking mind is of less importance. I mean, if you are in love with the reality, with being, with, like Rose was saying, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, being space for all that movie of life. If you actually find the delight in it, if you develop a taste in that, if you fall in love with that, you automatically deprive that seeking mind of attention. Automatically, it's not that much of that attention available for engaging as the character with another characters. So it really is Bob keeps just hammering from every side possible to just bring about, to just bring about that recognition that you are not the thinking, you're not the body, you're not that.

Don't worry about that. This is not important. What's important is right in front of your eyes, is beating your heart, is here. Put your heart where it belongs, but it is not an instruction to follow. It's not that there is anything that individual can do to become or to free itself from the mind or to silent the mind. It is the other way around. The mind is the ongoing, so if the attention is engaging with thinking, it is really about disengaging, relaxing that attention, stopping that attention from going into the drama. It is not a doing, it is the cessation of the doing that brings about that relaxed natural state, like beautiful when Ross was explaining, you know, sitting in a football, feeling all the disturbance, not only his own, but also probably about 50,000, 100,000 other people, That's a strong energy field.

But still, shifting the attention and engaging with the present moment rather than the story of how horrible it is, it shouldn't have happened. But just being a space, holding a space, because ultimately this is what you are. The being is pre-sensory. It doesn't have any shape, form, vibration, feelings. Even the feelings appear on that space-like awareness. Just returning to it is the only way. And I see there are a few more comments, so I'll shut up and read it. Byron says, Trying to get it mentally is the way because it will send the seeker insane after a while. Good one, Byron. Thank you. British Julia says, No thought is not conscious.

Can a thought ever be aware? Yeah, good point. Can the thought be conscious or aware? Yeah. Can the space be conscious or aware? Only through the means of the vehicle. No thought is conscious. And Byron says, The seeker will lose his mind soon enough and just needs to try harder. Yeah, the seeker. Keep trying until you get exhausted. Yeah, that's a funny way to look at it. And John says, Bob's enlightenment permanent. Self-loss hair saloon is open for business. Look at the big, shining, empty space where that head is. Lots of love to you guys. Thank you, John. And John says, Well said, Kat, regarding simply shifting attention or disengaging attention.

Yes. Yes, it is too simple. It's non-action. It is. It's the thing. Anyone want to jump in? Hey, man, did you want to say something? I see you smile. Yes, later I will explain how transparency can increase intensity of action during the time. But I will speak later. Thank you. I'll just speak because no one's speaking. But games, and everyone knows this, but games are really interesting, actually, because we can... They're completely made up. And yet, look what happens once they're fully established, and when you get like a full crowd of especially opposing forces with each other, one bragging for one side and the other bragging for the other, and the level of emotion and drama and, you know, commentary and analysis, and then even, you know, violence at the end because you lost or...

And the whole thing is ridiculous. I mean, the whole thing is just made up to begin with. So it's a good example of how we get caught. We get caught up in our projections and the whole thing is just literally made up. I mean, there are certain laws in this realm that are consistent. So those laws will and do function. But we overlay the whole drama on top of it saying this is that or this isn't that or I like this or I don't like that and so on. Anyway, that's just a good example of how all our dramas are... just clinging to one... having established a preference for one side or another and then kind of fighting for it.

And then we just get more and more embedded in it. And then that brings up all the disturbances and everything. So anyway, I just thought, extend your game thing. Yeah, it's a good metaphor for life. Anyone, Michael? Just on the cartoon thing as well. Like I felt that the day Donald Trump got elected, when I saw that, I thought, this isn't real. It just can't be real. And then I thought, well, it won't last. It couldn't last. And then we... And the world just progressed from that point for me just to be more and more like a cartoon or unreal. And what's happened over the last couple of years and I would just look at it all and I'd go, well, that's just insane.

That's just... I won't talk about any of that. But yeah. But just the idea of a cartoon, that's really been... I can't take it seriously anymore. So long, guys. Thank you. It's not a really harsh judgment. You can see it with the lightness of it. Then you don't suffer. All that's coming to mind is the opportunity of everything. Like, I don't know, I'll try to explain that everything offers. I had a friend in the U.S. who, one time she and I were commiserating about similar experiences we had as landlords. And I was... I had rented to my apartment to a friend who thought she'd take advantage of the friendship opportunity and try to get discounted rent and it was a bad experience.

I just didn't want her. And my friend, who was also a landlord, she... She had rented to a relative who also took advantage of the situation and didn't pay and damaged her property and all that. And when she told me the story, I went... I was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry that happened. And she said, I'm not. It was an incredible release. So, to me, I guess what I got from that... What I got was that whenever some misfortune or discomfort or lack of equanimity shows up, there's the opportunity, which may not present itself without that. You know what I'm saying? That when it comes up and you move from here back down to here with affection and awareness, you know, and you let go or welcome, more specifically.

Whatever it is that... With affection and awareness that you're going through, then the emotional upset that was coming on moves on and dissolves. And then the same kinds of things just don't push your buttons quite as much. There was a quote that I liked from somebody else once who used to say, it's not that people or situations push your buttons. That's not the problem. The problem is you have so many buttons. And every time... I don't know. I just see it as an opportunity when it's... Oh. The opportunity to look and it just... I don't get disturbed as much because it's easier to just stay...

It's a reminder to come back to here. Everything is. It's all that. Anyway, I'm dabbling, but I'm trying to help the space. But it was... It's similar. It's like coming back to here and out of here. It's always an opportunity. The button was seemingly pushed. Yes. And there's no buttons. No. No, there never was a button. But it's... There never was a button. There... But that's what's seen. You know, when the button is... Well, the seeming activation of that button or whatever is observed. It seemed that there never was a button. And you... Or the button... Whatever. It gets dissolved. It's... It's... It's... It's... It's...

It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... Dissolved. Dissolved. Dissolved. Dissolved before... You get into it. Sort of bypass all those things. Yeah. It never... Doesn't even have... Doesn't even have that button. I like the metaphor of the button. Because... You can diffuse it. You know what I mean? It deactivates. Yeah. Yeah, like you said, you don't even see it. The button is just, yeah. Yeah, so yeah, the target's gone. So you can't shoot the arrow, hit the target with the arrow without the target. But the other one I think, or I find one of the most beautiful things with respect to that is, is realizing that you're the only one in here, so to speak.

So you have full control of how you respond to all the seeming things hitting you. So you have full control over what side to take if you want to take a side. But better still, the side to take is the recognition of what you really are, what you ultimately are, the awareness, the untouched, untouchable, unstained, never stained. Nothing's ever taken away. It can't be destroyed. It's like the water can be muddy, but the water's actually still containing the mud, so the water's still pure, all of that. So you're knowing that you're the only one in here. And so everything that's happening, you have the choice to actually go back to that, go back to your pure being, or to react.

If you react, you're going to just create more drama, more problems. You're giving energy to the negative issues. You're giving energy to the negative issues, and grasping, and the unhappy type things that are occurring in you. Or if you let it go, then you're doing the opposite. And the truth will set you free thing is, again, recognizing what the truth is, what the enduring, knowing, untouched, perfect, pure, wonderful, loving, blissful being that you are. Yeah. So the... Yeah. So the recognition that you have full control over it, it's your choice. And one guy, Lester Levinson, as you know, you know, used to say, there is such a thing as can't.

Sorry. There's no such thing as... There's no such thing as can't, but there is such a thing as won't. So that's... Yeah. So we recognize that we can, but sometimes we're just, no, I'm not going to... This one is too big. This one is too much. I'm not going to accept this one. And that's when it's like a little demon of our own mind telling us that we can't, but we can. And yeah. So yeah. Don't you think that the self that's supposedly in control has the choice as a part of the narrative self as well, the ongoing self-referencing limited nature of what mind seems to be as a kind of...

Yeah. Yeah. ...facsimile of all that is? You know, it's like, to me, I recognize that storytelling mind that is constantly wanting to take over, if you like... In a way to point it out, but you know, just in the recognition of that, I'm no longer, there's the narrative mind again referring to something. Yeah. In reality there is only the totality of awareness and that's it. Whenever one recognizes that the narrative mind is an action, the storytelling mind which is a kind of self-perpetuating nothingness, it's self-referencing all the time. Where am I? What am I saying? What are people thinking about me? Can I improve the way I do this or respond to that?

All this is all just the same. It's just the same, same, same, same stuff. There's nothing bad about it, but it's just a very limited place to be really. So that's all I've got to say. I was going to babble on a little bit about that word choice. You can go into the comments, it's okay. Speak about it slowly. I don't know if it's maybe I'm mishearing sometimes, but when I hear that word choice it brings up, yeah, well that belief and there's a my choice, I choose. Well, I'm choosing to be whatever Hitler does. I'm choosing everything. So there's no personal me that chooses everything.

When I start to believe that there's a me that's choosing, then I believe there's a you that's choosing, then I believe there's a you that's choosing, then I believe there's a anybody separate choosing. And I start to go into judgment. Beat you or myself up because I chose this. And when I let go of the idea that anybody in particular is making a choice to do or be anything, that judgment dissolves because there's no more blaming or giving credit to anybody to anybody as the choice maker. Anyway, that's just all I felt like saying about that. Yeah, so what you're kind of indicating, I guess, is that in order for that situation to exist in the first place, there needs to be a belief in me.

And with that comes my preferences. This isn't how my life is supposed to be working out. So you're saying that if the me is removed, then those issues won't arise in the first place because there's nothing for them to bump up against, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah, like, you know, it's the me that takes on a problem, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's the me. When I think we're... Yeah, yeah. And when there's a holding on longer than a toddler would, you know, I think. Yeah, there's a me that's holding on. You know, otherwise we'd let it go. That's right. And there's no one to hold on and no one to let go and no place for it to land, you know, including all the judgments, the respect, nothing.

That's... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no self, no problem. No discriminating thoughts arise. The old mind ceases to be. Yeah, and a beautiful Julia, beautiful point that... Yes, you go. That's all. That's all? Okay. Yeah, because I also have been through that idea as a seeker that there is a choice to be made. I can either be conscious or not or fall into the story. Oh, my God, what a self-torture it was. At the end of every day, I was beating myself up. What a stupid bitch I was. I could only stay conscious for 10 minutes. I could only stay conscious for 10 minutes. I could only stay conscious for 10 minutes.

15 minutes here and all of the days I wasted. I was not worthy of love. I was bad. I was evil. I was shaming and blaming myself for taking wrong decisions, making wrong choices. That amplified the suffering thousandfold. The idea that I can make a decision or choice and I'm making the wrong one. My God, this is the core of the human suffering. This is me. I'm not good enough to take... I'm not good enough to take a right decision, to behave in a way that would be optimal for the life, God, consciousness, love, to express, whatever it is. This is the painful, stressful story that we question here.

And when we see that there really isn't anyone that is taking decision, making choices, life just unfold as it should. Through the flower, it creates a fragrance. Through the person, it creates a song or chat or action, whatever it is. But there is no one there who is responsible for that. And if we look for responsibility at all, we have to include absolutely the whole universe to the least last speck of dust. Because guess what? They are one. They're not separated. We can't say that this caused that, but that one doesn't. Because they're not separated. It's only the labels that separate the things. So the whole universe causes everything.

And as I appear in your universe, you appear in my universe, the collective universes, their personal world, so-called the dream. And there is multiverse of all those multitude of dreams. But all of them are interconnected, interrelated, and inseparable. Only via labels and beliefs we separate them. But the moment the belief is withdrawn or is stopped, the moment we go to sleep, all that disappears. Or the moment we pause the thought, or we delight in a piece of paper, or we eat a piece of chocolate and forget about everything else. Any moment when the conceptualizing of separation doesn't appear, conceptualizing of being separate body doesn't appear, I'm not it.

I'm not the body. I'm not separate. I'm not the self. And that's the ease of being. But I have another comment here from Mirela who says, because we're getting over time, so, there is a preference to sit with Bob's pointing for hours on end and resistance arises when life calls for duty. It feels like emptiness taking the shape of the doer. Me gets frustrated. Any pointers? I can, yeah. Is the me get frustrated or is just the vibration of frustration moving through? And if you take a label, that vibration will change very fast. It's just a wave coming across the ocean. A little bit of a light wind flow, blue, and there is some sort of a vibration.

If you don't call it frustration and you don't claim it as mine, you will just... Choices are made, deeds are done, but there's no doer or chooser doing it. And that natural resistance, you know, like when you watch the animals, you watch the dog that have fun chasing a ball outside and now it's called home. It doesn't want to go. Eh, no. But that's just the... That's just the feeling naturally arising in that space and expressed through that body of the dog. So you feel frustration. That's beautiful. You're falling in love with emptiness. That's a wonderful place to be. You don't claim doership. Yes. What's going to happen?

Don't claim doership, yeah. You're not... The me doesn't get frustrated. It will resolve itself. Yeah. Then the belief is I did that. When it resolves itself, it doesn't. It's happening. A lot of people think of it as an excuse. You know, like, oh, I won't go there. Okay. I'll just read my last comment from Kieran. She says, I feel that so much. This is exactly where I feel I am at at the moment with the self-blaming. Yes, Kieran, just give us a call. We'll give you a sharp, nice reminder. Yeah, and look at this. Self-blaming is also just a wave of self-pity. just a wave arising in the ocean.

Don't take it personally. Just see it as completely impersonal habit, which has your best interest at heart only when you stay with the heart and you see that best interest and you don't follow it and you don't create a story and you don't self-punish. Then you stay in the heart rather than going in the head. You know, motivation, self-blaming. I want to do better. How cute, how sweet. But stay with that sweetness rather than go and punish yourself. And yes, catch up with us. And did you want to say what you were saying something to me or not? I don't even remember. It must not have been that important.

Okay, so I think we are ready for Sophia's. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you.