This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
I'll ask to see you all. What are we going to talk about? We're going to talk about non-duality, what they call non-duality, Advaita. And Advaita in Hinduism is, they call it non-duality, they say it's one without a second, not two. Trying to point to the one essence or the one absolute that is all disappearance and everything in it, absolute, not separate, divided. We're all sitting here as seeming separate entities, as individuals, as persons. Can you hear me all right? Is the microphone here, microphone working? The microphone is just for the people who are on the... So it's not in here. So, we've got this idea that we are separate entities, individuals, persons.
And all the problems in this manifestation in this world, or whatever you like to call it, come about because of that sense of separation. What happens if we're separated? What happens if we're separated? What happens if, as they point out, it's one, non-dual, only that can't be divided? Well, what's going to be hurt or touched? And it's the one essence that's patterning, shaping, forming, appearing and is expressing as everything. Where's it all taking place? Where this seeming pattern is, where it's staying from, it's in... It's in separate, in space, and it's looking out and in that space appears other pattern, shapes and forms, body, mind, and also lots of other things.
Animals, birds, insects, trees, flowers, bacteria, everything is the content of that space. Now, what's space? We're right in the middle of it right now. Can you grasp it? Can you cut it? Can you do anything at all with it? It is no thing. It hasn't got any centre. Hasn't got any circumference, any boundaries. Can't grab a piece of space. It's seemingly empty, no thing, yet the capacity to contain all of these seeming patterns. Shapes or forms. They call it, going back to the Advaita, they call it non-duality, one without a second. They say it's sat-shid-and-anda, nama-rupa. They put labels or words on it. Sat is existence.
You see, know that you are existing. And the so-called person or the pattern next to you is existing. And everything you can see is existing. And the patterns, shapes and forms are conscious. But even the insentient things are appearing in space. But that space, like the patterns that have sentience or the life in them, are seemingly different and are seemingly separate and apart. We see how the things are functioning all around us. And there are seemingly much greater happenings and goings-on than what I am. And so I try to latch onto something which we think is greater than the concept of a god or a higher power that's running the show.
I'm not that good, I can't do the things that that does. So with the thinking, the capacity of reasoning and thinking that comes up, I've formed this belief that this pattern, shape and form is separate. It's different from this other, this greater power that can do things that I, as a separate entity, can't do. But then, from the greatest, the largest, to the smallest, it's still the one essence. From Brahma, as they say, to a clump of grass. It's the one Atman. The one self. But you can like to call it god if you can, if you like, or whatever label you like to put on it.
Call it Brahma, Krishna, Jesus, or all sorts of labels, Allah, they put on it. Labels, shapes and forms. We are shapes and forms and what have we got on ourselves? Labels or words. I am Bob, the Australian. Good fella. Not so good. Unhappy or fearful. Sad. All sorts of concepts which are seemingly dividing the indivisible, the inseparable. Now for all these patterns, shapes and forms to be, doesn't it imply it must be suffused, that absolute totality, with intelligence? Because they're not haphazard willy-nilly patterns, shapes and forms. All formed in an amazing, intelligent way. The functioning of them and all the rest of it implies intelligence.
Which is easy to put the name of god on that. Then if you look at that, what formed god? Or what was god? And how did it appear? What did it appear in? If it has to appear in space, wouldn't that imply that the space or the emptiness was even before that? So can you give any beginning to it? Yet we got this idea this world has some beginning. Thousands of years ago, or millions of years ago, put a big bang on it, an explosion, and it started it all off. But have a look at that. The way we function and the pairs of opposites.
Anything that has a beginning, must have an end. And then we're looking forward to the end. But then they tell us about eternity. What does eternity tell you? It means it's beginningless and endless. It's this ever fresh presence awareness. That's spontaneously expressing right now. Changing, transient. Just like this body and everything around us is changing and transient. We say we were born. Because looking at it later on, we see how life seemingly comes about. And we think ourselves that this life has a beginning. But can anybody remember your birth? You say you were born. And you reason it out by seeing how other pattern, shapes and forms appear.
They come from the state called birth. Did you have any words to say, I was born? And you didn't. We didn't have any words. We didn't pick up any words who were a couple of years old. The amazing intelligence and life in this body, the capacity of reasoning, that pattern, shapes and forms, capacity in other pattern, shapes and forms, but not to the extent of what it is in this human form, has the capacity of reasoning. And we learnt words. Now animal, birds and all other things have sounds, which they can communicate with sound. But they're not using words. They've got to learn the sounds and respond to the sounds.
We learn words. And put these words on to this pattern, shape and forms. The word we learn, the sense of presence, the knowing that you are, translates through the mind as a thought. I am. What's that I am? It's that sense of presence, the knowing that you are, and every one of you know that you are. There's no one there who is not knowing or unaware. And you translate or say the thought or the word you learnt from your parents, I am. And they put the other labels on it, I am Johnny or Billy or whatever your name might be, and I am Johnny or little Billy.
So again, see, we've... That absolute pattern, shape and form, that absolute expression, which is expression in all its variety and capacity and amazing, is now taking on the idea or concept that I am an individual, a person, a separate entity. And that's individual. We look around and seeing this world around us and everything that's in it, and with the capacity of reasoning we say that, well, that over there doesn't fit this word I am, this me that I believe myself to be. So that's not me. And that thing that over there, which now we call a tree or a flower or whatever it might be, that's not me.
So see what's come about. Now there's this me and not me. I and not I. And that sense of presence translates as the thought I am. And we learnt all these other words we've picked up along the way and taken them to believe, to believe them to be real. We investigate. If you investigate the word, you see the word is not the thing itself. The word is just an image, a concept, an idea. And what's an image? It's a seemingly picture or an image that's vibrating in this space, like this body, which is seemingly more solid and substantial, is appearing in space. And it, these words, which are sounds, which are a vibration, appears in space.
So all this manifestation, when you look into it, is separate, seemingly separate. It's not one homogenous blob. It's all seemingly in space. So it's all the content of space. Space you can't find a centre to. Space you can't find a centre to. You can't find a beginning to it. So it's got no centre. It can't have any circumference or any boundaries to it. These patterns, shapes and forms, which appears in it, are the content of that space. And so the content seems to be solid and real. Then you take it out of space. Try and get out of that space if you think you are this separate entity, this individual.
Can you think it's possible to get away from space? Wherever you look, wherever you go, there's always space. Space is no thing. So say you're sitting here. Try and grasp what you're sitting in. You're sitting in the chair. The chair's in the room. The room's on the earth. Where's the earth and space? You can't separate anything from that space. And yet there are myriads and sort of different pattern, shapes and forms of this space. Doesn't that imply there is an amazing intelligence that's patterning, shaping and forming? There's not some creator out there. Godliness is creating it, patterning, shaping and forming. Matter of fact, there's no creator.
There's no creation. And there's no creature. We are creatures from that creation. Seemingly so. But when you investigate, break down, look into it, try and find a centre to that pattern you call you. We've got this conceptual centre, I am, which is what we call the ego. I, when we put this the other concepts on, call the ego. Is there such a thing? Can anyone find an ego? Now if they do, that body passes on, they do what they, when they cut it up and investigate and have a look, anyone found an ego in it? The same thing with the mind. We've got this thing called mind.
And innately you know you're not the mind because you claim the man as my mind, so call me or I, what you take to be the person, when you look into it, you see it's a little bit before the personal. And we say my mind. Well again, anybody doing, what do they call it, when they cut them up? Can't think of the word at the moment. Autopsy. Autopsy, yeah. Have any found a mind in that? Nobody's ever found a mind, they can take the organ, the heart, the brain and all these things, they're organs they can show you. But can they show you a mind?
Well maybe there isn't such a thing. And then we talk about a soul. The soul we've believed in for many thousands of years seemingly. But has anybody ever found a soul? So a lot of these things we've taken for granted, taken to believe, when investigated they fall apart. And we say my body. Doesn't that mean, and you say my coat, my hat, my car, that there's somebody or something that's claiming the house, the coat, the car. When you say my body, that wouldn't be the same. Wouldn't there be a something, a seeming something that's claiming this body and this mind? What we believe is this ego, this me thought, this conceptual image we've got about ourselves.
Concept is word, thought, a vibration. It's the vibration trying to climb. A vibration. What's a vibration? A movement of energy. And anybody or anything can claim that movement. Like the earth rolling around the sun, it's vibrating and everything in it. Is there anybody rolling the earth around the sun causing the seasons to come and go? Or the tides to come in and out? We attribute it to a concept, this conceptual image called God. And how do you know what it is? We put words on it. And the words we take to be real, words, you are this body-mind. You are in this room. You are on this earth.
All labels, we put on all words, moving it away from its absoluteness. It's one without a second. Now in that division, in that splitting up, what is happening here with each and every one of us? In that sense of separation, isn't there an idea or a concept of not good enough? Or I'm unhappy, I'm fearful, I'm anxious, I'm depressed, I'm jealous, I'm envious. All these concepts are put upon this seeming separate entity, this person. If it's absolutely the one, the all and everything, and it can't be separated. Well, without separation, without division, what would it be? Wouldn't it be just as it is, absolute, eternal, ever fresh, non-conceptual, presence awareness?
Wouldn't that innate life itself, absolute awareness, which is patterning it, shaping, forming it, and expressing it, you could call that God if you like. Or I use the term pure intelligence energy. When I talk about intelligence, I'm not talking about your intellects, because that's another way that amazing intelligence expresses. Through these pattern, shapes, and forms, we have this thing we call the intellect, which has the capacity, which has the capacity of reasoning and doing a lot of other things, useful. The same intelligence, there's nothing out there functioning through everything, patterning, shaping, forming, as everything, and have a look at the way it manifests, the intricacies in its body, the amazing ways insects, birds, and animals, trees, flowers, and everything can vibrate, express.
The trees, which in this cold season, a lot of the ones from the colder climates, lose their leaves, the sap stops running, and they appear to be dead. But that life is suffusing them, knows it's one with that life essence, that intelligence energy, and it knows that when the changes come about in the seasons, some seasons like this one, we don't, our native trees, and that don't lose their leaves, they carry on through it. But it knows when and the others, and when the season changes, what happens? In that tree, little buds will appear, forming the leaves, other buds with flowers, fruit, and so it goes on, it'll change, come about, and out of that life, more life comes.
Miss Argerda tells you that, he says there's only life, that is all there is, is life. And he says there's nobody, or no thing, that lives a life, just life itself, it's patterning, shaping, forming, expressing as everything, these things are appearing. And he says out of life, more life comes, and continues to grow more life, and isn't that so? Where did you come from? Didn't you come from the life of your father and your mother? Didn't they come from the life of something else? Life lives on life, and life is very prolific. That animatic life essence that you call your father, it's a fuse with intelligence, the prana, the breath, the food you eat, enabling more life to express, enabled in that pattern, a little microscopic particle, like the seeds come on the tree, and the seed, to express, it's called a sperm.
That sperm was a fuse with intelligence energy, life. It knew what to do. The same intelligence energy, life, expressing through your mother, a different pattern, different shape and form, the female aspect, enabled in that pattern, an egg, or an ovum to form, which knew what to do, it attached itself to the wall of the uterus, it was a fuse with intelligence. And the sperm being a fuse with intelligence, it swam to the ovum, knowing what to do. And when those two came together, what happened? The life essence in them, the life essence intelligence, utilizing that pattern, the life in that pattern, to express through, doubled that cell, doubled it again, and it was a beautiful little embryo, the little fetus, which is what you are today.
Isn't that amazing? And so it goes. You must recognize that that which is enlivening it, or expressing through it, that life that is in you, is what you actually are. It's not the body, or the mind, which is the vehicle through which that life is expressing. And that vehicle is the instrument through which the sperm and the ovum can come about through the male-female and replicate itself, potentially form more life. And it's the same in all this, that tree out there, the seed, one seed in that pine cone, has the potential to cover the earth in trees. And the main male-female aspect has the potential to cover this earth in human pattern, shapes and forms.
The earth, the intelligence in it, and the belief in the separation, will bring about ways, shapes and forms like viruses, disease, plagues, and things like that, wars and everything like that, to keep that population from being separated from the earth. And that's what we're doing. We're keeping that population at a certain level. And the intelligence ways it's fashioning, we're learning ways to overcome it. But even so, no matter how much we learn, and even to overcome it, something else will come up that'll keep it at its level. And when us, in this architecture, says there's only life, that's all there is. And life lives on life, and out of life, more life comes.
Doing that. Now it reforms and reforms. Like in space, going back to the space again. All this manifestation, the patterns, shapes and forms, are the content of space. And space is empty. It's the closest thing to your eyeballs. See it's this thing outside of you. I can't touch it, I can't feel it, I can't stretch it, can't separate it, can't do anything with it. The next thing, the first thing I see is something out there, a little bit further away from the eyeballs. It can be very close to them. So all that content starts from there. All appears in space. Space is empty. And the content is no thing.
It's space. It can't be anything other than space. The content is space. Can you postulate or think of anything that can be outside of space? What would it be in? It'd have to be in space, wouldn't it? So space is no thing. All these things being the content of space, some thing cannot come from nothing. So they are no thing also, appearing and seeming to be things. So all this manifestation is seeming to be so. It appears to be so. And they tell you that in the scriptures. They'll say, it's a phenomenal manifestation. We're told, we know what it's all about. We don't take much notice of it though.
We should do. A phenomenal. The definition of phenomena, it's another word, phenomenal. Another word we've learned or picked up along the way. And the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. So you and I are appearances only. Seemingly real. But the reality is that life that you are. Which you cannot negate. You can't say I am. But all this manifestation it tells you in the Gita. The sword can't cut it. The fire can't burn it. The wind can't dry it. The water can't drown it. All appears to be so. But nothing, no thing can touch it. It just is. Now, we've got this idea we are these separate entities.
And they tell you that the false can't stand up to investigation. And so you recognise or realise your true nature. And they tell you with the great mantra, I am that. And innately you know that. Because you say that's the chair. That's the tree. That's the flower. Everything in this, that's the cat. Over there, that is that. Everything is that already. It's all the one. The that-ness. But they put words on it to break it down and discriminate it with the word. And this seeming absolute pattern takes itself to be real and substantial. But it's not happy with that. Because with that sense of separation comes the isolation.
We isolate ourselves from these other things. And with that sense of isolation, because you don't know what the other is, we haven't investigated that time, comes insecurity. We're not secure anymore. So insecurity, isolation and insecurity, vulnerability. We are vulnerable. Instead of the life being absolute, totality, joyous, free, now, because of that sense of insecurity, me, I'm not good enough. Or I'm unhappy. Or there's something lacking. And I need to be more. I need more. Not looked after. All these concepts or ideas or images come about. All dividing. All separating. And have a looking at it. Word. Sound. All or only sound or vibration. A boon of energy.
And what's a vibration? Have a look at it. It has boundaries. Good, bad, pleasant, painful, happy, sad. Put stoppers on it. Happy, unhappy, fearful, anxious. So we've divided ourselves up with these concepts or words. If it's non-dual, not vibrating in these words, not two, it's only the one, does it have centre to it? Does space have any centre to it? It can't find any centre to it. Does it have any circumference or boundaries? It can't find any boundaries. But it's suffused with that life or intelligence, which we call, for want of a better term, God or awareness. And on that awareness, on that pure knowing, being, knowing and loving and being, comes the consciousness, the thoughts, the concepts, the body, the mind, the seeing and the conceptualising, and imagining, imaging in, all these words, concepts, and having the images, the patterns, shapes and forms, which image it.
And now we've become this isolated, separate, vulnerable human being. But it doesn't have to be so. A cognising emptiness, is that emptiness that's doing the cognising. And emptiness is form, as the Buddha pointed out. It's all this emptiness that we're sitting in, all the patterns, shapes and forms, through that vibration, are appearing in it. You can't take anything away from this emptiness, space. It's all the content of space. Emptiness is form. And realise what it is. The form can be nothing other than this emptiness. And instead of being this human pattern, shape and form, recognise that you are the absolute. You are the totality. And if you recognise that, or recognise, and relax into it, do you think your life's going to be the same, as it is, when you're believing this separate entity that's having all these problems, fears and anxieties?
If you naturally merge back into its absoluteness, recognising and seeing everything as it is, letting the spontaneous life, which is breathing you, beating you, beating your heart, growing your hair and your fingernails, digesting the food, and rolling the earth around the sun, causing the formation of planets and stars, and all the things that form, like the earth and the sun, that thing vibrating in all this manifestation, that life has the capacity of doing that, lapsing into it. You can't say going back, because there's no back and forward. But just relax into it. And be what you actually are. The one essence, the one life, that's patterning, shaping, forming, expressing.
And know yourself as that. And being that, the concepts and ideas and images drop away. And that sense of wellbeing, being well, nothing wrong anymore, is there. It comes about. Knowing that it needs to express through patterns, shapes and forms, otherwise it can't know itself. And knowing also that these patterns, these human patterns, expressing as I or me, can do some amazing and wondrous things. And the capacity of doing all sorts of things we do as these human forms. But it also has the capacity of recognising its true nature. And that, as that true nature, it gets a better take on things and what we do as this contrived human conceptual image.
And you know, in that awareness, in that heartfelt essence, or knowing that you are, there is a great warmth in it. There's a great capacity of love. If you like to call it that. Joy, happiness, wellbeing in it. Don't have to dwell in the broken down pattern of a separate entity. With all its fears, anxiousness, depression, guilt, that grow stronger because of the lack of recognising or going to your true nature. Recognising in the strengthened, seemingly strengthening belief, that we are this separate entity. And we are not good enough. And we're unhappy. See this conceptual believed in ego, which is coming through a conceptual believed in mind, which couldn't be there without the functioning of that life energy, that intelligence energy.
But it streams out and tells you, know the truth. Know the truth. You are locked into this belief. But know the truth. The truth will set you free. That's what they tell you in the scriptures. What's there to be free of? Only the belief in your libertations, your boundaries. Question it. Investigate. The false cannot stand up to investigation. Know that the word's not the thing. See and recognise that the word is just a vibration, a movement of energy. Know that that energy is life. And know for certain that I am that. And I couldn't be anything other than that. So, that's what we're on about.
If it resonates, utilise it. If it doesn't, look, keep looking for somewhere else. Or if you're happy with being the person, stay with it, write it out. A lot of people do get through even though unhappy and miserable. But it doesn't have to be that way. So, the way out is to investigate, question, have a look and see for yourself. So, if you've got any questions or doubts, and some of you are recognising it and hearing it and knowing it, got a fair take of it, well, you wouldn't be here. You'd be out there stuck in the fear of God and the belief in it.
And all the punishments it's put upon you, which are unnecessarily so. You're putting enough on yourself with the erroneous belief that you are this person. Way you go. Beautiful sharing from someone who is online with us. We welcome everyone who is online as well. About 20, 25 people. So, this is from Mirela. There's a beautiful poem that goes like this. Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish, he'd go away. And there goes a sharing. This pretty much sums up my experience. I looked and looked and there is, and the only me I could find was a wish for me to go away.
Yeah, thank you Mirela. That's brilliant. Well, what do they call it? Wishful thinking. What's wrong with right now if you don't think? Maybe he's gone if I don't think about it. That's a nice summary. Whenever you want to try to locate the me, you can only find the thought. And because me can't be found, oh yeah, but I'm not there yet. I want it still to go away. What is it? That's just another thought. That's the same as that one, as a rule, a man's a fool. When it's hot, he wants it cool. When it's cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting what it's not.
Never wanting what he's got. As a rule, a man's a fool. And that's it about the online sharing. So we invite every one of you to just open up and share whatever you heard from Bob speaking or whatever didn't resonate, or perhaps speak about your own experience, or maybe you have a pointer or two that could be brought up. This is where the forum opens. We actually have, hopefully, a great upgrade. We have another mic, so we're going to be passing on the mic around the room while Bob is keeping his own. Do they hear me? Hear me all right? Yes. Recognizing more myself to become more happy.
While I'm notifying, recognizing myself to become more happy, I'm strengthening and implying a non-existent self into existence. And the result is the other way around. So I'm strengthening the ego, so-called ego, which does not exist. And just just let it go. Let everything go. Instead of remembering or reminding myself, recognize yourself to become more and more happy. So I don't need to think about it. I must recognize myself to become more happy because there is no separate self already. So while I'm saying I must recognize myself to become more happy, I'm implying that self as real. And that means I inject energy into the unreal self.
So as a result, I just round and round into a circle. I thank you, Bob, for notifying. Thank you, Harlan. Thank you. But as you say, you're going round and round in circles. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Do you want to comment on that? Well, who's going round and round? It's up to see if there's an entity or a person that's doing it. It's just thinking. It just comes back to what's wrong with right now. If you don't think about it, try and go beyond the thought or be prior to the thought. You can't stop the thought. But there are moments when thought is in abeyance.
You've had those moments. Hasn't everything been okay? Nothing wrong with it? You've had taste of it throughout your life when everything's sort of fallen into place, effortlessly, naturally. That's your true nature. But the thinking comes up and disrupts it again. Anybody who is not unaware right now, realize, no, I'm aware. You say this, that, and then you start a story about it. Leave it as that without trying to grasp it, add to it or do anything about it. And what comes up will come up of its own. When they ask you what your next thought's going to be, everybody will say, I don't know. And you don't know.
So the thought comes up. Where does it come from? Does it come from the thinker? Obviously, if it came from the thinker, you'd say, my next thought's going to be this. You'd know immediately. But you don't know what you're thinking. But as soon as you say, I think, you've formed a thinker. And it's this thinker that is the egoic or conceptual image we have about ourselves that keeps going around in round and circles. Leave everything as it is without putting the concept or image in there. That I, which is the consciousness or awareness, see that all this is fictitious, just like a dream. And what would it matter what I think, feel, or do?
Leave everything as it is. The self-being or the wellness appears. Get the taste of your true nature. You'll enjoy the next breath of the life, essence that's patterning, shaping, forming, expressing, as you, as that body-mind. Let it express in its absoluteness, not as the conceptual image we've taken about ourselves, as the poor, miserable, unhappy, fearful human being. For all, I'm only human. As soon as you say that, get that idea, you've brought yourself away from what you actually are. Loaded down with concepts, ideas and images is life itself. Inspire. When that breath in, inspire that life itself. When it expires or goes out, let the thoughts that have been clinging around for years, let them go right out on the breath.
They're gone. And before you take the next breath, notice that little hiatus over there. Nothing can be said about it. You're still seeing, still hearing, all pure, natural, effortless. I've got a comment from Tanya. She says to Mirela, same here, so true, Kat, is just another thought, and the thought is not true. The thought is not the actual. Not reality to the me at all. No reality to the me at all. And Byron says, I think it was to Heyman, he wants to be more happy. Are you not happy now? Yes. One thing I've just picked up on lately, you know, with your thoughts and triggers, you know, feeling's just energy.
But if you look at it as the anagram, feeling is facing the experience with the energy of love. And every time you say that, you're just facing it with love. Every experience. I couldn't hear that too well. Oh, heyman? I asked. Is that better? Yeah. No, the mic is only amplifying for people who are with us online. It doesn't amplify to both. Ah, okay. Sorry, Kat. Just what's come up with me, like, you know, triggers and emotions, and you know, you feel, which is energy, and you're just like, oh, I'm feeling it. Is that better? Yeah. An anagram for feel is facing the experience with the energy of love.
So every time you have a thought or anything, you're just facing it with the energy of love. That's basically it. And you can recognize that, oh, no, I didn't actually mean that. You can recognize that love is always the intention behind every movement, because that's what the experience, actually, in Nisargadatta's words, love is the movement, and the stillness is wisdom. Movement is love. Even if that seems to be some sort of a hurtful or egocentric behavior which harm oneself or others, behind the intention is always, this is how the body is constructed. It is constructed to preserve itself and negotiate the best conditions for itself.
So it always comes from the deep. It comes from the desire for better, the desire for more happiness or more pleasure or more security or more safety or more approval. And what is the intention of that? What is the motivation behind that desire? I want good for myself. I want money. I want whatever. Whatever the desire, whatever the action, whatever the impulse to do anything is, is the self-care. There is a caring instinct, the love, as you said, the feeling, the feeling, yeah, meeting everything and recognizing the motivation behind this love. Even in seeking, particularly in seeking. This is the program which is slightly, well, this is what the mind is designed for.
The seeking is the assumption that as it is, what it is right now is not good enough. There is a possibility in the imagination for the things to be better than they are right now. So let's employ the imagination, employ the attention to go and find something better than what is because this is not good enough. But of course, even though it is the activity of love, it is love in action, movement, it is the creation of the world because now the things are imagined. The following investing attention in those imagined things may actually fuel them to existence. Or anyway, the more of creation is happening, more of separation, labeling, perceiving and engaging, more of the things that are happening in the dream is happening.
While the lasting sense of fulfillment and happiness is not through following the movement of seeking. It's through relaxing out into the natural state, the space-like awareness, which is always and ever already here. And everyone, through every aspect, because as Bob was saying, the form is also the emptiness. So every form is made of emptiness. It appears as the form, but in its essence, it is that peaceful, silent, empty sky of pure awareness, pure knowing, pure being. So it is the disengaging with seeking, with wanting something more, desires, aversion, disengaging with that cloud of imagination overlaying this moment now and judging this moment as not good enough.
So relaxing out of it is resting in that uncontract singularity, in the peace that passes all understanding, in the true original nature. It is very simple, but it cannot be done because there is no one to do it. It is about stopping to do otherwise. If you see how the mind is creating the activity of engaging imagination, constantly trading this moment for what is not happening, but could be or should be happening, if you see that activity going on, you recognize that activity going on and you stop it. And then again, this is not you stopping it because there is no you. But the recognition of that activity is already from the point of disengaging with it.
So it already starts dissipating. That attention going to the imagined future or imagined know-me, enlightenment, whatever it is, that attention is now engaged in recognition, in being space-like awareness in which the activity is happening. And now that stillness, that space, it doesn't mind the dreaming, the manifest, it doesn't mind. It's just not personal, it's not important. And that's the freedom, that's what we're pointing to. Something that's already present, already available, not by action, doing and seeking, but by stopping the distraction or recognizing and disengaging with the distraction and finding what's already here. The beautiful doesn't mind. That's exactly it. Thank you, darling. So we have people here with various...
Oh, yeah, you wanted to... Yeah, go on, Gisato. Yeah, that was quite interesting because I started resonating through that because yesterday I was on a... invited by a friend, someone who's playing music, and I went there, and then I had the thought of luck, like there wasn't that what I was seeking, and then I was seeking more like I was seeking about a woman I know, and I thought, oh, it would be good if that person would be here and so on, and then I could actually let go for a minute. Oh, that was actually interesting because people were dancing. They wanted me to dance, but I didn't feel like it, and I was relaxing into just me, and then I had that thought in my mind, oh, I'm not the body, and then I was more relaxed, and then I was realizing, yeah, I love that person, and just recognizing that as well, and then I was quite happy sitting there, relaxed, so then I was thinking, oh, so I was basically not thinking what is not there.
I was just recognizing what is. Like instead of grasping, oh, I don't have that, I don't have it, I was like, oh, yes, that's what it is, and then I was happy with what is. Beautiful. Yeah, so then I was like, oh, that's what that was. How about now? Yeah, I'm happy now. Yeah. I'm happy. It's like that song, you're happy and you know, clap your hands. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that was interesting, because it was literally happened yesterday, and then you spoke about it. So you had a taste of it. See, you can recall that same stuff. Yeah. I wasn't too sure what it was, but now since you said, ah, okay, that was it.
Yeah. Kavisha, do you want to say something? Please. Oh, I thought I passed it on to you. Yeah, I think you did. Yeah, I think you did. I think you did. Yeah, I think you did. Yeah, I think you did. Yeah, I think you did. Yeah, I think you did. Yeah, I think you did. Yeah, I think you did. Please. Ah, I thought I passed it on to Andy. Yes, please. I love the term, ah, cognizing emptiness, but equally, ah, cognizing loving emptiness. That the energy, intelligence energy loving, you know, that that's always part of the infinite equation if you like. Wow. of no self that's beautiful yes say something more I mean I always meant to ask look not everyone of you knows Andy wrote a beautiful book really big brick full of big brick it is a brick that's well said yes non-duality book the book is called being but it finds non-duality everywhere in philosophy in science in physics beautiful compendium for people who are also kind of cerebral oriented and he's got a beautiful clarity and understanding I always meant to ask but at the same time I respect that you know not to force Mike on people it may not be comfortable but now as you open up please the only thing that arose in these moments before you know particularly talking about happiness that happiness is the natural state that's because once things drop away you know the self and it's grasping and everything like that then there's just a happiness there that's uncaused as unconcerned you know it's just a natural giving of the universe you know it's not a something you have to think about or seek at all it's really as we've been talking you know getting recognizing I guess the falsity of self and it's grasping the natural state just emerges before language before concept because I just had a sense through what we've been talking about this morning that what came to me during your talk Bob was through our growing up we're taught to speak and in the language itself is this egoic structure which I wonder if say we would be born in India or different languages have different holds different understandings and I was just wondering if the price of living in India was different than the price of living in China problem is with English.
It's a very ego, egoic language and yeah we and our struggle is that we're trapped in language. That's what I say, we're trapped in it. We just recognise the words not the thing. Kate, want to do that? I just want to show, quickly show the book. This is the book, look at the brick. It's really, but it's beautiful. It's a good read of a bird. And the green being. And it says experiencing a numinous reality. Kasturita, do you want to say something? I'm laughing thinking of some people who aren't here who have been asking the same question in some ways for so long. We have this on, we get it in the moment.
It's true that Yeah. When you drop the mind, there's just love and peace and openness. But then that momentum of the mind is just so relentless, it feels at times. And then other times it's like, oh no, there's, it's so easy to see that it's not real, that there's no substance. But so often the kind of momentum of the thought patterns return. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And yes, if you take, if you are lucky enough to spontaneously, because you can't make it happen, see that none of that is real. It's a pattern that doesn't have any substance. Then you're back in the, but that kind of, is it, I don't know, it just feels sometimes it feels no matter how often I hear and see, I don't know, I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Like, I don't know, like I don't know. But, yeah, I don't know right now. Right. There's nothing to be done about the thought patterns. Yeah. And because you look back and say, I think a lot of people see and experience that freedom. That momentum. It just keeps coming back, and for quite a long time, most of the time, so. Yeah, I don't know. Is it just, yeah. There's nothing to be done about that really. But I can see it, like. But just feel a bit disheartening at times that that pattern keeps coming back.
and right now there is that space and freedom, but just to bring that up again. You recognise it when you recognise it. The word recognise means recognise it again. See, 99.9% of the population are coming from the soft centre. I know when you were a child and you first didn't learn words like I am, you were reinforced by your schools, your society and everybody around you. Now, talking to people, at least it will drag you back into it again if you had a sense of it. But you've got to pull yourself up there and say, hang on a minute, I've seen through this. I know it's not so.
Why? Because it's easier to go with it. With a mob again, because everybody will step out of it. Where they suck you right in right now, everybody can suck you in. You stand firm on your own two feet and you'll suck them out of it. Oh well, somebody will be interested in what you're saying and come and see you. Impulse is like, as one of you were saying just before, that impulse for the mind to keep trying to work things out. It is a survival instinct, a protection instinct. Yeah. That we've been trained to have. A habit. Yeah. That's reinforced daily. And that's your question.
Watch both of them, the habit of the mind doing whatever it does and the habit of disheartening coming together with it. Because that feeling of disheartening is kind of like a very, very subtle hope that it will be different, that it will stop. And there is a comment here from British Julia. Doesn't mind, doesn't matter, as Bob says. Yeah. That's, yeah, it's, and that feeling of disheartening, that's really love in action. That feeling that, oh, I hope the mind will be quiet and won't engage that much because I so care about Kasturi. I so want the best for her. That's just the sweet sort of, but it's still the, it's still the mind really wanting what it's not.
Yeah, the thing is, as Nisankha Dutta says, well, I know I am. Because I know I am wisdom when I'm nothing. That is wisdom. Yeah. When I'm everything. When I know that I am everything, I am love. Between those two, it's constantly happening, you see. I'd say it all. When you think you're trapped in the mind, I'm nothing. Even in saying that, it's sort of a hiatus in there. That's wisdom. And the other way around, when you're getting to the point where you're saying, oh, I'm nothing, I'm nothing. The other way around, when you're getting all of these things, you are everything. That is love.
Well, who can you not love? That was everything. You think it's separate, divided. Well, that's what we do. We keep isolating, bearing in mind that we're a separate entity, you see. That's the cause of all our problems. The so-called ego. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. When you're trapped in the mind, remind yourself, I'm nothing. And even that reminder may actually ease the mind. That's sweet. That's the saying in the Bible, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. How would you renew your mind? Keep reminding yourself, I'm not this, I'm not this. We have Dale says, that peace, love, the natural state, I'm concerned, I'm contrived, prior to thought.
And Byron answered to himself about Heyman wanting to be more happy, isn't grasping also natural? In fact, is there anything that is not natural? Good point, Byron. Absolutely. There's nothing that is outside of nature. There's nothing that is not natural. And yet, if you want to recognize yourself as space-like awareness, or sky-like awareness, then you recognize the grasping as the clouds moving through the sky. If you identify as a cloud, then you suffer. If you don't identify as a cloud or grasping, then you're free. That's why we use dualistic language. But absolutely, you're totally right. There is nothing that is not natural. Grasping, desires, aversions, seeking, all that happens in nature is totally natural.
Thank you for that. You're saying that it's not separate. Yes, totally not separate. When I know I'm nothing, that's wisdom. When I know I'm everything, that's love. And Nisargadatta mentioned, my life swings in between. Bob, I thank you again for giving me so-called me. Reset factory button. And the title of the reset factory button is, just leave it as it is. Whatever technique mind use, reset factory is always at highest quality and dominant to the mind. Just leave it as it is. Mind take you somewhere very complicated, and now put you in somewhere very extremely complicated, just leave it as it is. Now, it's very complicated.
Just leave it as it is. Beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. Thank you for highlighting it. Thank you. And we have another comment here. We have comment from Terry. It is language itself. Imagine if right now all your internal language changed to Chinese. What happened to the me then? I used to use that one too. Yeah. Yeah. And Terry also says, in the beginning was the word. In the beginning of what? Division, duality, mind. Mind, me. Prior to the word, there is no me. So, what is the me? Word only. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. That's what it says, in the beginning was the word. That's right. Yeah. Without the word, there is no me.
And without the word, there is no beginning. Beautiful. Yeah. Yes. And Byron says, so love is the natural state. Isn't grasping also natural? In fact, is there anything that is not natural? Yes, I guess. I'll answer that one. And Terry says, this is the reason we have no memory prior to around two years of age. No language has been learned as yet, which equals no me has been produced as yet. Prior to word, it is that that I am. Absolutely. And me can't see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Therefore, this that is here experiencing all the senses is that. That I am. Absolutely. It's the life essence expressing and experiencing through the imaginary body-mind costume which it creates for itself.
The me as such is non-existence. So how could it hear or see or anything? The word doesn't have those capacities. Thank you, Terry. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. And we have another one, long one from Sri Chandra Huva. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I not think that there is no toothache and do skewer myself, Bhagavan, when engrossed in other thoughts one does not feel the toothache. When one sleeps toothache is not felt.
D. But toothache remains all the same, Bhagavan. Such is the firm conviction of the reality of the world that it is not easily shaken off. The world does not become for that reason any more real than the individual himself. Now D again. Oh no, D. Now there is the Sino-Japanese war. If it is only in imagination, can or will Sri Bhagavan imagine the contrary and put an end to the war? The Bhagavan of the questionnaire is unquestionable. It is as much a thought as the Sino-Japanese war. And then they laugh. I guess it was Ramana Maharshi, not Ramana Rishi. Probably the spelling error. And thank you.
Yes, and Vivek gives us a thumb up for what Hayman highlighted, the reset button. Yes, that's a good one. That's all for the comments. So, Andy, would you give us a little bit more? A little bit more? Yes, please. Well, you know the lovely song that Donovan, remember Donovan? Like old days, Donovan. He had some really lovely songs. One of them was, you can have everything if you can let yourself be. Why? Why? Because. Happiness runs in a circular motion. You can have everything if you let yourself be. So happiness is the natural state only through letting yourself be. So, no mind. Everything is a part of everything.
Everything is a part of everything. Happiness runs in a circular motion. She's the singer. I've got to remember it now. Happiness runs in a circular motion. Happiness runs in a circular motion. You can be a little wave upon the sea. Everything is a part of everything anyway. You can be happy if you let yourself be. Why? Because. Why? Because. Brilliant. That is brilliant. You're going to always get a little song session. She's long. This is. This is the way. This is the way. And it was just coming up to me that that song, you know, when we're talking about happiness and, you know, how the mind interferes with the natural state, you know, that and with all the desires and all of the things that arise in mind.
That's really through loving, through opening. You're so often accepting and loving that the attachments and issues around them pulls away. It's not through the struggle and the mind fighting itself and trying to achieve some kind of perfection or state or to be enlightened or whatever. It's only through the letting go and loving and opening that those things kind of sort themselves out. You know, the place of mind, the place of desire, the place of. All those things. Yeah. About being in existence. Yeah. That's the essence of everything. That word. Loving. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the song. Beautiful. Let's do this again later on today.
Let's do it again. Empty sky thing. It's just. Oh, yeah. Thank you. The United Church at 530. We're going to do me and some other musicians. We're going to do. I want to have a better word that interfaith here. Time. So it's words of wisdom from the mystic poets from Saint Francis to the. The. Yeah. And it will be interspersed with silence. So you sing the song and then you have silence in between. It's an hour meditation just from 530 to 630. And you're all welcome. And it's a lot of fun. It's very gentle. And. It takes you into the silence. But. In the heart.
Get a sample in the budget. I've had your albums in the. I don't know what those CDs are now. You know how they kind of disappear out of your life. But I. Yeah. I love your music. Thank you. It's beautiful. You love my not my music. Not you love my not my music. I know your brother as well. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have another couple of comments here from. Oh, you. So there is from Sri Chandra Chuda again. Yes. Sorry. I was referring to those beautiful words from Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi. And beautiful song. He says as well.
Yes. So that's. That's it for the. Oh, no. One more from Tanya. And she says, thank you for the meeting today. Leaving everything as it is. Best pointer of today's satsang. Letting go and loving also points to that which is so beautiful. Can't put into words. Thank you for the beautiful singing. Also, unconditional love is everything and nothing. So, so much love to all. Enjoy your lunch. Beautiful one. Thank you. Thank you, Tanya. And we have one more from Biden. Wanting to elevate happiness as maybe more natural than all other experiences gives hope. And hope is needed in hopelessness. Thank you. So. Yeah. Thank you, everyone, for being with us.
And hopefully.