Celebrating Sailor Bob. Nonduality meeting 24/07/2022

Andrew. Cliff. Julia. Adrian. Gilbert. Simon. Lockie. Carl. Peter. Dean. Aima. Cass. And birthday boy. Well, good to see you all. There's quite a few that have dropped off along the way too, so we're lucky. Inside. Yeah, but we have a lot to offer. Yeah, exactly. Can I take a look at your... This is Rockstar. Rockstar. Rockstar Turnup. Yeah. Another one, right. That's a little close to the plate. Yeah, me too. You have this one, right? Yeah. One serving. One serving. I love the camera. Now that's good. We're lucky. We're just coming in a bikini. I'm glad I got everything. I'm glad I got everything. I appreciate it.

Okay. The little one is also good to see. I think we can fit another two in between. I think we can fit another two in between. I think we can fit another two in between. Sorry. A little bit. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. We are into pictures, so we've got to come up with one. Maybe. So you can pick. So you can pick. Would you like a pillow on this one? No. No. No. No. Yeah, doesn't really matter if you don't hear all the talk. Most of you have heard it all many times before anyway, so if we miss out on a bit of it, it doesn't.

And it's still the same old, same old. Non-dual. One without a second. Not two, only that. And that's the great mantra, I am that. Thou art that. Everything is that. Innately don't you all know that? Because they say, that's the chair I'm sitting in, that's the room I'm in, that's the space in the room, that's the trees, that's the flowers, everything is that. Which we discriminate with putting a word or a label on it. Otherwise, what we try to describe is what they call in Hinduism as Veda. And Veda meaning non-duality. Translate non-duality by saying it's one without a second. And they put that second on it, because not talking about the second in time, but the second, one without the other.

Not two, only the one. When it's investigated and looked into, you'll see that it's so. It is only the one essence, that in shapes and forms, except for the one. And that's the Veda. And that expresses as all these seeming things, all the diversity, all the differences of shapes and forms. They say, call it Sat Chitter Nanda, Nama Rupa. Sat is existence. Chitta is consciousness. And Nanda is loving to be, or the blessed being. And the other effect is Nama Rupa is the body and the mind. And they tell you that Nama Rupa is the body and the mind. . Body and mind are illusion.

It's all that one existence, consciousness, and loving to be. Anyone who's not existing right now, and if you haven't worked it out before, you must realize now, yes, I'm existing. You can't say you're not existing. Anyone who's not conscious or unaware, it's happening where you are. There is a consciousness or awareness right there. None of you want to be dead right now, so you're all happy to be. And that's what we're pointing to. And that's, when you look at it closely, that's what you are. You're all ready for that. But the thing is, we've taken on this belief, the concept and idea that we're separate individuals, persons.

In that sense of separation, all our problems come about. Subtitles by the Amara.org community It was not separate. It is that one without a second. It is absolute. And what can you add to the absolute? Nothing whatsoever. What can you take away from the absolute? Nothing. It wouldn't be absolute if you could add to it or take away. If you're not realizing or understanding it, you are that absolute. And that's what needs to happen. Start from the fact that you are already that. Instead of starting from the fact that you are already that. Instead of starting from this belief that you are this person, this body, mind, entity, this individual.

And you need to become something to realize this absolute. But simply becoming, being, can never become. Because becoming implies a future time. And when you investigate that problem, time, you'll see trouble. Time is just a mental concept also. But we've got this belief in time. We've got this belief in this person. This separate entity. This individual. And how did it all come about? Well, it came about when we learnt words. How many words were you born with? Can anyone remember your birth? You can't remember your birth. Why can't you remember your birth? It's purely and simply because you had no words. How could you say I was born if you had no words or labels to put on it?

And you didn't learn any words until you were about two, two and a half when the capacity of reasoning developed you. At about that age, somewhere around that age. And your parents looking after you have put that label or name on you. Somebody will ask you who you are. You'll say I am Bill or I am John or Joan or whatever your name might be. And you put that label on you. And you put that label, I am Bill or Joan. And that's what you believe yourself to be, this person. This separate entity. They don't tell you you are the absolute because they don't know themselves.

They've taken on the words. From then on, you learn more words, more words. And so we're like I am Bob, the Australian, the good fellow or not so good. I'm happy, I'm unhappy. But all the words are the same. They're all the same. You've got to drop all these mental concepts on them and form a conceptual image. A false image of what I believe myself to be. Instead of recognising, it's the one essence, it's the one reality. There is only that one, no matter how many different pattern, shapes and forms it appears in. It's still only that. That's why they say, the great mantra is I am that.

Innately you know that. already because you don't just say that's the chair I'm sitting in that's the carpets on the floor that's the tree that's the flower you know everything is already that but we discriminate it with the words we put different labels on and have a look at these words the words not the thing take the word water anyone drink the word can you quench the thirst with the word can you wash in the word will you drown in the word you can't the word fire can you cook with it and you hate yourself with it looking that words and those things what's this word I or me isn't it a concept and that's all words thoughts are concepts and we take ourselves to be this person where does that word person come from comes from an ancient language persona a mask so when we got this concept of person on ourselves we think about it as a person and we think about it as a person we are this conceptual image got a mask of concepts which seemingly obscure or hide our true nature but they've been down through the ages that some of the great traditions people have pointed out that this is all the one essence they call put the label God on it not it says you know and we think this God's a greater power a higher power and we've got to believe in this God and that will take us to where we got to go non duality one without a second not to only that that is all there is there's not any other than that but there seems to be other there seems to be this sense of separation and appearance of separate they call it a phenomenal manifestation a manifestation made up of phenomena addiction your definition of phenomena is that which appears to be it's all appearance only seemingly so and when they say the body mind is Maya its illusion that what it appears to be have a look it's all seemingly like a dream you know what a dream is you go to sleep at night and then that dream things can appear and then you can be in a shopping mall in the mountains in the hills on on on the ocean anywhere at all and that body doing all sorts of activities taking part in it words coming out seemingly appearing thoughts feelings going on all in that dream you wake up in the morning where does it all go it all disappears it can only be vague rumors of parts but not all of it so if I'm out in the morning I'm in the mountains or the hills or the lakes or the shopping mall wherever you were all those things have disappeared and you look in that dream and you realize in that dream you never moved off the bed you're on the bed all the time no words would come out of your mouth and it all disappears when you wake up there can be vague images of some of the dream but if you don't recall it it's gone for good what you don't realize that this is a waking dream because when you wake up in the morning this dream continues on from where it left off the night before and the mountains and the hills and the rivers and everything was there the night before they're still there in the morning and it continues on from there and so I gotta tell you that he's you're dreaming a dream you call the world and that's what we're doing he says stop looking for why he's out we're trying to get out of this dream we want to be in that you know in our concept of the perfect living would be like dreaming a dream you call the world stop looking for ways out the dream is not your concern so he says don't be concerned with the dream your concern is that you love one part of it and not the other and that's true we want the good we don't want the bad we want to change it alter it modify it doesn't happen when you look at it and see how it all comes about what's it all appearing what's the basis of the dream what's the basis of the dream screen and what all this manifestation appears it's what you're sitting in right now space have a look at space the space have any center to it can you find a static point where you can say this is where space begins you can't because there is no point when you say it begins because of that and you never will because it's spontaneous as it's beginning it's already ended It's not static.

Does it have any boundaries or any circumference? Well try and fly to the ends of space again. Try and find a boundary to it. You can't. Now you're sitting in space, try and grasp space. Push it aside. You can't. There is no thing there. Space is no thing. All this manifestation is made up of things. You're a thing, I'm a thing, the tree's a thing, the flower's a thing. Everything appearing in space are things. Space is no thing. But can you postulate or think of anything, anything at all, that would be outside of space? What would it be in? It's got to be in something.

The only thing it can be in is space. Space is no thing and everything is a content of space. Well can something come from no thing? It can't. The things we think it's coming from is no thing also. Something cannot come from nothing. So you and I and everything else is that space-like awareness. It's what we call... ... You can't negate your being. You can't say I am not. You can't say I'm conscious. You can't say I'm conscious. Are you unaware right now? No, I'm not unaware. You know very well that you are aware. What are you aware of? Aren't you aware of being? You're aware of being right now.

You can't say I am not. You know for a certainty that I am. But instead of realising I am that, I am that absolute, I am that pure awareness, somebody will ask you who you are, you'll say I am Bob or Harry or whatever your name might be, and I am this person, this individual. So we've brought ourselves down from absolute into the believed in self-centred, the person, the entity, which is the cause of all our psychological suffering. The sense of being separate and divided. And they tell you that it's individual, indivisible, it can't be divided. It's inseparable, it can't be separate. You take that stance, recognise you, take the stance that you are the absolute.

If you were the absolute, and you are, but if you realise it, what would you say? If I am the absolute, who can be superior to me? Who can be inferior to me? And what would I want of the other persons? You see, a lot of all these fears, anxieties, stresses, guilt, shame, remorse, are going to drop away. If I know I am that, absolute. Nothing I need, nothing I want, nothing I need to become, nothing I need to be fearful of, why would I want to go to war with somebody else? Or fight with them? So you see, this is where all our psychological suffering comes from.

The belief we are this separate entity. This person. And the sad problem is, we think we're going to get from the person, we do this practice and do this other practice, do this and do that, practice this and practice that, we will become something. None of us ever stay what they tell us. Start from the fact of your being. You are already that pure being. Start from there and then you don't go through all this crap of trying to become something from the person trying to get there. You start from where you are and recognize again and again and again the cognizing emptiness that you are.

Everything is space. How does this work in your body? Something comes up and you like it. You don't know what your next thought is going to be, but a thought comes up and it might be a good thought. You want that thought. You like that thought. Not realizing that this manifestation is transient. It only lasts a moment or not even a moment. That's a measure of time. It's spontaneous. And we don't want these good things to go. We want to keep them there. It's transient. To keep, try and keep it there, we resist it from going. And resistance is conflict. If you are resistant, you are in conflict with it.

You're fighting it. And if there's no conflict with it, it makes you uneasy. The fear makes you fearful or anxious or depressed, guilty or not knowing what's going to happen, full of care or understanding. That uneasiness, another name for that is disease. So there's resistance, conflict and disease going on in these patterns. Probably going on a lot of years. You're saying, this is a lot of crap or I don't like it or whatever. You're resisting what's being said. In conflict with yourself, something comes up and you like it the other way around. Now this thing you like, you want to keep it there. We don't want it to go.

Not realizing it's transient again. It's constantly changing. Don't realize it. Well, have a look. This body that you believe you are is changing right in this moment. There's not one or two, but thousands of cells. Dying in it right now. And being replaced. And the cells that are replacing it are full of that intelligence energy. Because a liver cell is not going to replace a skin cell. Or a heart cell is not going to replace a brain cell. Each cell suffused with that intelligence and energy knows what to do. If something comes up and you like, try to keep it there. And you've got to resist it from going.

Not realizing it's transient. It's going to change. So, where we were trying to get rid of it in the first place, now we're trying to keep it there. So, the same thing. And that's what our life's made up of. This constant conflict that's going on between the ears all the time. Fear, anxiety, stress. You realize all relating to the me. The believed in me. The self-believing in me. The self-believing in me. The believed in me. The separate entity. Only me that can be angry. Only me that can be fearful. Only me that can be unhappy or depressed. Shameful, jealous, envy. Me is the cause of all this psychological suffering.

The anxiety, the fear, the stress. They are the effects of the cause. Me. Cause and effect. What's cause and effect? Realize cause and effect is what they call karma. We've got this idea of all these karmic retributions we're going to get if we do this or don't do that. That's all the so-called karma is. Cause and effect. Well, what happens if I recognize and realize this believed in me, the believed in cause, is a fiction? It doesn't really exist. It's only a conceptual image I've had about myself. The energy is beliefs gone into and keeping it there. Realize that. Realize that, that me is a fiction.

And ask myself the simple question, well, can there be an effect if it's not related to a cause? Well, you don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to work that out. If you're not relating to a cause, who or what can have the effect? Or where can it lodge? It'll be just as it is. Left as it is, unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected. It changes by itself. And that's what needs to be done. It needs to be investigated and recognized. That you are this life energy, this pure awareness, the absolute awareness. And all the conceptual images are because we're related to this believed in me. For it's only the me that can be unhappy, fearful, anxious, or whatever.

Me is a fiction. It doesn't exist because we say me is mind. The mind is the me. The mind is the past. As I've got to tell you, there's no me in the present. What's this thing called mind if you believe you are the mind? Can anyone show me a thing called mind when you investigate? Yet you're claiming it readily and every day. My mind. My mind. Show it to me. When you investigate, you realize this. No such thing as mind apart from thought. When you bring it in, you say I, mind. It's just believed in I. I am. Which is the thing called mind.

Which is a thought, a concept, a word, a sound. What's a concept? Words. What's words? Sounds. What are sounds? Vibration. What's vibration? A movement of energy. All these words, concepts are just a vibrating pattern of energy. Millions of autopsies have been done over the ages. Anyone digging into that human pattern, looking into the brain, the cells, anyone ever found a mind in it? This thing you're claiming to be you can't find it doing an autopsy on the body. Just the same, you can't find a soul. We've got these concepts that we need to reveal without investigating. Take them on board. No wonder we're continually beating ourselves up.

Making ourselves a lot less than what we are. And it's not necessary. Though there was a belief here for many years that it was so. And I was right into it. A lot of suffering, a lot of pain, a lot of anguish. A lot of stress. That comes about right now, if any, because it's not... If it does, it simply comes about. The thought's not fixated on or attached to. It's left as it is. And being a vibration, it moves on. And that's all dualism is. Relationship. Relative. Relative to. That's relationship. And we're talking about the non-dual. When we're coming from the point of duality.

That's why it needs to be in balance. It needs to be investigated and see for yourself. And it's very simple when it's looked after. Looked into. Initially, we're so locked into the thoughts, concepts, ideas and images. We think this is not true. This is not possible. Investigate. The false cannot stand up to investigation. That's what they tell us. And when you look into that, you see it's true. If you recognise something as it appears to be. And you've seen that many things in your life. Like you go down to the sea and I'll say, get me a bucket of blue water out of the sea.

You and I know the sea's not blue. It'll never happen. But at one stage, we believed the sea was blue. The sky seems blue. A blue canopy over the space. You go up 30 or 40,000 feet in the plane, the blueness is not there. Water in a ray-bear. The snake in the rope. All these different analogies they point out. Pointing out the fact that when it's investigated, these things are not where they appear to be. The snake in a rope, for instance. A fella steps out of his room on a dark, wet night. Stands on a piece of wet rope. It slides under his feet.

Immediately he thinks he's trod on a serpent. A snake. It's removed. And the goosebimps come up. The hair on his hair stands on end. And this bolt of fear rides through him. It's shitty, shit upon the snake. All sorts of fear there. Somebody comes out and shines a torch on him. Look, it's only a piece of wet rope. There's an immediate sense of relief. But the fear and the trembling that's caused has stirred up the physical. That's not going to die down straight away. It'll take a bit of time. Just a minute. But left as it is, it will die down. But then again, we keep reinforcing it.

Thinking it's there still. When you investigate and look into these things and start to get the taste of your true nature, you'll realise the simplicity of this. It's that simple that we miss it. Because we think we've got to make all this effort. We've trialled in a lot of these great traditions. You've got to become this. You've got to do this and do that. And all sorts of things to do. And then maybe you might get it up. But after that, not really. It's just a little bit of pure investigation. Question your doubts. Question your thoughts. See for yourself. Am I this body? Am I this mind?

Innately, you already know that. Because you say my body, my mind. You say my house, my car, my coat, my hat. You know you're not the car. The house, the coat or the hat. Well, maybe you're not the body either. And when you look into it and investigate, you see you're not. What's this body made up of? Why is this body made up of elements? Air, earth, fire, water, space. Just like the elements around you. You're in the air right now. Well, take that air out of your body. See how long you'd last without that air. Not going to last too long. Pointing out that the body is made up of air.

Take the water. Your body is 60% water. Stop drinking water. You wouldn't last too long. Take the fire, the body temperature. You'd soon get hypothermia and die of the cold without that body temperature. Earth, fire, body temperature, water. See, so you can't live without those elements. That's all this body is. Made up of elements. And all these elements can be broken down into subatomic particles, into pure energy. And isn't that what's going on right now? That body is a vibrating pattern of energy. You're breathing. It's beating your heart. It's breathing. It's growing your hair and your fingernails. It's digesting your food. It's causing the words to come out, the sounds, the vibrations.

It's a vibrating pattern of energy, which you're claiming is my body. And who's claiming it? As my body. The concept, the thought, I am. This is me. Claiming to be this body. And mine, the same with mine. You can't show me a thing called mine. And there's no such thing as mine, apart from thought. As they tell you in Buddhism, they call it the great perfection instead of the absolute. You can't add anything to the perfect. You can't take anything away. And they give it in one sentence, the great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. Awareness without any of these thoughts or concepts. And we think that we've got to con...

People have to think these thoughts and things like that. But the awareness is there first. And you cannot say you're unaware right now. So it's non-conceptual, ever-fresh presence awareness. Now, some of you here, a lot of you here, coming in a while, got a good idea or two, got a good idea of what it is. And you can pass it on. They might want to hear it. They might hear it a bit different to what they're hearing it here. And what they hear might resonate with somebody and recognise it. And that's how it's passed on. It resonates or is re-cognised. It's a cognising emptiness. It's the emptiness the spiritual intelligence is doing the cognising.

And the Buddha made the statement that emptiness is form. Telling you that all this manifestation, all these forms are emptiness. Emptiness is form. It's the emptiness that's forming. And he turns it round the way and said the forms can be nothing other than the emptiness. Pattern shapes and forms appearing are that one essence. And you are already that. So if you've got any doubts or questions, don't hesitate to ask them. And know that you, that... got a good understanding of it or recognise it, don't hesitate to put it out there. Because who the hell's going to hear it if you don't... somebody's not pointing it out to them?

You didn't work it out when nobody was pointing it out. Because we were obscured like the sun gets obscured by clouds and you think the sun's not in the sky but when you realise the sun never left the sky and the clouds are seemingly obscuring it and the clouds just are condensed water and the cloud will evaporate and blow away and when the sky is clear there's more clarity, more warmth in it. The same here. When all these thoughts in your head are seen for what they are and left in there, what'll be there? When there's less thought there. There'll be more clarity there. And more clarity...

in that clarity there will be more light. There'll be more recognising, more understanding. A more re-cognising of your true nature. Thought free. Ever fresh. Presence awareness. Just this. Nothing else. So get into it. Don't be backward and coming forward. We had a lot of birthday wishes from people who were with us online. From Bill, from Tanya, from Michael, from Mirela, Blas and so on. Dale, Patricia. And Amy and Tony. So no questions from online participants. Just... How is it that emptiness is formed? Well, it vibrates into different patterns, shapes and forms. See, the ocean can be still and calm but the energy will stir through it, cause a ripple or a wave.

They become the forms. But like the ocean is ever changing but never changing. So is this. It's ever changing but never changing. It's still the one essence that appears into different patterns, shapes and forms. An appearance only seemingly so. That's why they call it a phenomenal manifestation. And the definition of phenomenon is that which appears to be. So this manifestation is only seemingly so. Seemingly quite real. And it is real. And it is real in its essence. But not how it appears. It's the one essence appearing, but this one vibrating and expressing as everything. Bob, then why does the mind take the concepts to be real?

Take the concepts about the form to be real? Cause that's the way we were taught. We get the word or the concept on something and take it how it appears to be. And that's the amazing wonderment of it all. In all this diversity, the different ways, shapes, patterns, forms it appears in implies it's a fuse with a wondrous and amazing intelligence. People call it God. But then they get the label that there's something greater than what we are. This God thing, you know. Tells 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.

Is a Word. All things were made by Him. By the Word. And that's so. All these things which we label, we put the Word on. And there was nothing made that was made without the Word. And we learnt words. That's the problem. Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Paradise. Having a great old time. But they learnt, took on the knowledge of good and evil. They learnt words. Good and evil. Not only good and evil, all the other words. As soon as they learnt the words, dualism. They kicked out. That's what we do. We've learnt the words. We're functioning from a dualistic point of view.

When it's not true. There's only the One. And all the great traditions and that will tell you. It's One without a second. Not two. Only the One. You can't hear me. Hear that. Hear. Hear, O Israel. The Lord thy God is one God. There is none other. So you are that already. I deeply thank you for keeping us both healthy and happy. It is a fact that I learnt many from you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's a great honour and a great pleasure to be around this beautiful man. It is. We have more birthdays from the online community. We have another birthday wishes from Keith and another from Maureen.

I'll read them individually to you later on. I'm curious in the energy and I wonder what you experienced when you were around Nisigadatta. Like I walked in today and even coming here sometimes I notice there's like a peace that is often there but descends to a deeper kind of resonance. And then walking in here. And just sitting here it's the absorption of that. And yeah, so what draws us all back here over and over and over and what, yeah I wonder what you have to say about the resonance of energy in different places and people and what you experienced. Yeah. Well that's so energy is everywhere here.

Some place it might be more apparent than others. Like a lot of other things in nature. It's all that vibrating pattern that intelliges energy. If there's more energy in this room, who brought it there? Each and every one of you come with a certain amount of energy. Especially if you're looking into the stuff of it, it'd be more so than if somebody's coming in full of a lot of energy. Full of all the unhappiness and the depression and guilt, shame we carry around with it. That can make places lower than you feel that. Life is energy, energy is life. And you are life. Everybody is life.

How it was around Mr. Gadatamukhi was also asking. Very good. What a surprise. He couldn't help but love the man. Yes, I have the same thought as you. Can I just go back to what Clif's talking about the mind and how it became this, how it started to sense and what Bob responded to. I just want to add on that. It became a knower. You know. Not only the patterns, but it knows that it's real. It knows that it exists. And that knowing is what we're here for because we're talking about an unknowing. You can't know what not to is. And the... So we're stumped.

We're totally stumped. Not only have we become this. Also, we come from the sense of knowing. And you can't know this at all. Yep. You know that you are that knowing. That's another way of putting it. Being, knowing, loving to be. That's the statute of need. You're being right now and you're knowing that you are right now. And you don't want to be rude to it now. That's a knowing. Yeah, that's still a knowing though, Bob. Yeah. How do I know that? I was saying that's still a knowing. Yeah. Yeah. The statute of need. Yeah. How do I know that? That's what you were talking about, wasn't it?

The knowing? That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you already know that. Yeah. I think something you used to say, Bob, was there's nothing more simple than simple or something like that. Yeah. So, you know, it's the language. Yeah. It's the language that we divide everything. People talk about oneness, you know. Well, you can't talk about oneness unless you divide it up with words and concepts. So, all the talk about oneness is actually not oneness. But the simplicity of looking at things as they are, you know, life is spontaneous. You know, that's self-evident. It doesn't have a past or a future. Or a present. They're just labels.

So, if life is spontaneous, that means that there's no cause that you can discern or put a label on. So, you know, this life right now is causeless. It's spontaneous. It has no past. It has no future. It has no present. It has no future. It has no present. It has no future. It has no present. It has no present. It has no future. It has no present. So, that is the activity of knowing, which everything is the activity of knowing. But the labels divide it up so that, you know, we can apparently think about things. And it's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle in that way.

We think we can get all the parts together and put the jigsaw back together and it's oneness again. But there's always a piece missing. You know. Where is that piece that's missing? And, you know, life is spontaneous. It's so obvious and so simple. And the mind, I remember sitting on this couch many, many years ago and it dawned on me that the mind cannot divide anything. I was sitting in the room listening to somebody speak. Speaking to Bob and Bob answering and talking back and forth. And it dawned on me that hearing was happening but there was no engagement with the so-called intellect. It was just, I was, that hearing was happening by itself spontaneously.

And it just dawned on me that the mind can't divide anything except itself. So, you know, we appear to be the same. We are the same. We appear to divide the wholeness. It can't be divided. Wholeness cannot be divided otherwise it wouldn't be whole. You can get an orange and cut it in half. It's no longer a whole orange. You can glue it back together with super glue but it's not a whole orange. So that wholeness has never been divided. So there's nothing to do. There's nothing to fix. There's no one to fix it. And what is is what is. So the seeker is the problem and the thinker is just another thought.

Thank you. Another question from someone who is with us online. We have about ten people here. And there's a few nice comments from, more wishes and more comments. Nice to see the room filled up today, says Vivek. And someone with the name Hey You. . When you recognize or cognize, does that mean it's already being experienced? Just asking because when you say when we were born we don't have language, but trying to recognize, cognize is already being experienced which is already past. That's a cognizing emptiness. Emptiness is self that does the knowing or cognizing. Emptiness is form, and the form cannot be anything other than emptiness.

Cognising is another term for knowing, emptiness, pure knowing. The ING on it gives us something that's happening right now, knowing, seeing. What's your next thought going to be? You don't know. But a thought will come up and you'll say, I think. As soon as you say, well I think, you've formed a subject, a thinker. And that thinker is thinking this thought, whatever the thought would be. So that's where subject, object comes about, thinker and the thought. But can there be a thinker without thinking? Can there be a seer without seeing? Can there be a taster without tasting? Or an experiencer without experiencing? There can't be.

So seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, the ING is a form of knowing. It means that something that's happening, the ING is on the thing too. Something happening right now, not something that will or has. So seeing, thinking. Yes, so the cognising is independent from language. Language is just a translation, one of the way in which it expresses. Cognising happens, the Buddhists are discussing whether a dog has a Buddha nature. Well, the dog knows that it is. The awareness of presence, that's the cognising, the emptiness cognising. It cognises using whatever, the bats have a sonar. They cognise through that. Some other animals have other senses and other, the sense of smell or the sense, they are even senses like more colours some birds are seeing.

Unbelievable way in which that cognising emptiness expresses itself and translates itself through different senses. It translates itself through different channels of experiencing. So this was Amarnath, I don't know if he's answering to Hayyu, but he says, love is not a word or a thing or a done. It happens in its natural state. Resistance is also from form of hidden love. And Keith says, we can't help but love you. And Amarnath says, replying to Keith, thanks a million, we love you too. Beautiful, you are the love others need can't be created. Here and now are also lost beyond time, space and present. Another happy birthday from Xanthi.

And Amarnath's mind is indivisible, appearing as divided. And he also says, happy birthday, every moment is birthday, lots of love. And Hayyu says, thank you for loving me. And he says, thank you for the heart, good luck. And that's it for the online participation, so back to you again. This is an impossible meeting. It always has been, yeah. It's the mind trying to understand itself or expose itself, which is impossible. I guess one question arises is, can we go beyond, can we possibly conceive or go beyond the mind, as the limit of reality? Because that's what we always come back to, isn't it? The mind is the limit of reality.

If I can understand it then, then I can understand my life, my universe, my relativity, everything. But what we're dealing with here is that there is life beyond the mind, which is an incredible thing, really. So how do we... How do we get to that, Bob? What's your best condensed... Well, just as you said, there is. Instead of putting any more on it, there is, there isn't. Right here, right now, you can't negate your being. Can't say, I am not. If you do say it, you know, you realise there's something there and nobody can say it. Everything is. And is is not time-bound, it's spontaneous.

We are beyond the mind. We are beyond the mind. It's all beyond the mind. The mind arises in the... In the awareness of the cognising emptiness, the all-pervading reality is what we are. The mind is a sensing, thinking instrument in that. We think we are the limited mind, but we are beyond that. It goes beyond. It pervades everything. It goes beyond. It pervades everything. All creatures, all being. That's right. Beautiful. Because the mind is no thing. There's no such thing. The young child in the back saying, are we there yet? Yes, the... It's obvious. Yeah, the mind's a thought-up reality. The me, thought-up reality doesn't really exist, as Bob said.

It's coming from nowhere. I also had just about experiencing. That word experience is a little bit lame in the sense of it's... Who's experiencing? That's the point. So experiencing consciousness, all those words, a little bit outdated, but we're talking about nothing. So it's... You've got to use something, yeah, I guess, to point to. Four birthday wishes from Sharon, and then Ren says, I say, enjoy the ride. Because, yeah, Peter was asking you for advice. How the best way you do it, you go beyond the mind. And then says, I say, enjoy the ride. Ascleve says, you can't do anything. You're not the doer. You're not the mind.

You don't have that sort of a power. But the recognition that you are already beyond the mind, beyond the mind or you already doubt or you already present and aware aware of your presence that's that's the answer and what stands in the way distractions giving power to words giving power to stories giving power to imagination so recognizing that sense that sort of the attraction in what is not happening and just yeah giving it a smile really laughing at it from the point beyond the mind already because how else could you see the mind if not from the pure recognition of it being a vibration being a destruction a wave transient just passing through the open field of consciousness that you are already yeah there's nothing wrong with them right no no quite entertaining isn't it yeah makes movies and yeah yeah i think that uh there's a flood of compassion that comes with this too that um love for what it is which dropped down into that liberated from and there's no control over that i don't know how that happens it happens doesn't it there's a desire and a traction and a revelation of love So Amarnath says, me is just letters M and E.

And then send a little bucket plane. So because we celebrate Bob's birthday, you probably know already that the best gift you can ever give him is the reflection of that clarity which he's transmitting constantly. When he sees someone coming home, you see that light reflected. So whatever resonates, whatever you feel that could actually be that gift for him, keep giving it. You give it to yourself, there's no one else than yourself. But it is really precious. Come on, Cole, you want to say a word? I'm just thinking, you give it to everybody. That's right. You give it to everybody. And nobody. And there's nothing. That's right.

Yeah. I want to talk about... You said the self identity can only exist... doesn't exist in the present. And that's very true because it only exists in the past. And of course the past is just a story. It's dead. It has no existence. So if you see that very clearly that the past has no existence, that entity that you always thought you were, has no reality. No reality at all. It's just a story. It's just conceptual. I'm talking to a shoehorn. The holy shoehorn. Yeah, the holy shoehorn. Do you have anything on the scene? Oh, Lindsay, okay. Yeah, cool. What I notice is that nothing has changed.

Like nothing at all has changed. And the application of this understanding over the decades is really all... Like it's the truth in action. It's like the truth of this living, breathing understanding of the oneness of all life. The interconnectedness of all life and experience, the experience of that in the present. And how the idea or the thought of an experience being something such as pain or suffering or joy or whatever, it doesn't actually change the experience of it. Like the experience of it is like, oh, my God, I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain.

I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain. And so when I see this body, this instrument breaking down and crying and seemingly suffering and seemingly in pain, when the story of what is labeled as pain, is happening, when that is just, the grip of that just is loosened, then I find myself one and the same. One and the same as the actual experience itself. And then it's love. It's like it's right here. And it's just love. And it's real. And yeah, that's what I have to share. I've got a couple of comments.

Another birthday wishes from JB. And Amanat says, Freshness and newness is the eternity. My beloved Bob and the Lord of Cakes and Heart. And Vivek says, There are no experiences in consciousness. All that is needed is us to rest in the self. And Amanat says, I lost the, I got the I. I remained as I. Nothing ever happens or happened. And Bill says, You are not beyond the mind. You are the inescapable immediacy which is ever present. Yeah, that's a good take on. Apparent contradiction, you are not beyond the mind, is just a pointer. Of course, you are the totality, mind included. But you are not exclusive.

What you think you are usually. The thinking is that I am the mind. So the pointer, you are not the mind or you are beyond the mind, is to dislodge that fixed position of being the mind. It is not the absolute truth, because the absolute truth cannot be spoken in words. And that includes inescapable immediacy, immediacy which is also a word. But it's a beautiful pointer. Thank you, Bill. And Tanya says, What song right now, unless you think about it? She's talking Bob. So, There is nothing wrong or right, noticing how only a thought or pattern of thought appearing says there is a problem, but what is actually here says nothing at all.

Seems most thoughts are just a story that is not real. And Amana says, I lost the I, a little I, and I got the I, it is a capital, yet nothing happened or happening or will happen. Nothing lost its meaning. Nothing lost its meaning. As it's everything. All words became naked without meaning. And the icons. To say, Thank you, Bob. Thank you for hanging in there. That's so long, 94 years. And how many of those years have been dedicated to this? 60. 60 years? 62. 62 years. What an incredible feat. Thank you. He's given up the will to die. That's true. Goes on. Beautiful. I was just going to babble on a little bit about one of my favorite pointers from you was just about intelligence energy.

I mean, for me, well, there's no me, but at the same time, it really was such a helpful pointer because it's not a thing. And at the same time, it appears as absolutely everything, including the thoughts and the me and the know me and the emptiness and everything. It's, I'm using words, of course, but that's the intelligence energy as well. So it's, it's, I think somebody earlier asked about how emptiness is formed. Well, this intelligence energy is empty, isn't it? It's just energy or the energy. I like. It was, I don't know. I think of energy as a wave. You know, when I, when I look at a picture of it, but it appears on something.

So the, I guess that's the Shiva and the Shakti that you've talked about in the past. So that stillness, which is, wouldn't exist without the energy and vice versa, simplifies it. Yeah. It makes it easy to see that this emptiness, this no thing is everything. This is the form. Anyway, it's what I, I just thought I'd throw in my understanding of that. Not that I understand anything. One of the gifts of the richness of duality and the, when there's, now there's less, way less of a preoccupation with the sense of a self or a me. Then the unexpected. The unexpected. Because I think way back I had this incredible fear that I would have to lose everything.

And, and so there was a gripping and a struggling and a wanting freedom, but also I don't want to let go of all the things that I think are my life. And, I mean, ironically, in a sense, all of that has changed and fallen away, relationships and marriages and, you know, the, the willingness. To let that all fall away was what was needed, seemed to be. And I just now am so grateful, Bob. Every time I hear a pointer from you, there's some time where there's a struggle or there's that identification happening again. And there's such a simplicity, like in the one you shared, Julia, as well of the, just now, the, the way that those words that you bring.

Yeah. Yeah. Help me in those moments to cut back to the, the not to, you know, and the, then there's just so much more fun and play and relationships and family and work and flowers and trees and everything is so much brighter and richer and, and in that freedom. Yeah. So, celebrating that today. And I know you've said a thousand times, a thousand times a thousand, perhaps the spiel. And every time is fresh to me. So I'm so appreciate you, life bringing you here over and over and over again to speak to itself. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. One of the, you could say one of the really practical pointers in Bob's first book.

Yeah. Is it's worth repeating many, many times. And that is watch the mind and see how it operates. You know, it puts it, puts the ball right in your court. You know, it's up to you. Watch the mind, see how it operates. And insights will come from, from watching the mind and see how it operates. And one that came for me was I recognized that. Yeah. The experience in is uninterrupted. Nothing interrupts the experiencing. Experiences come and go. And if you look at it, you watch the mind and experience is the mind labeling some event or so-called experience and adding a narrative. But that is there and then it disappears.

And then deep sleep every night. And then deep sleep it all disappears. In the morning it appears we have a choice. Do we pick up all those, that baggage of the stories of me and do the play over and over again? Or is there an opportunity to, to let the narrative just fade away? Life is spontaneous. And phenomena is self liberating. It liberates itself. It doesn't. It doesn't need an entity to keep it there or make it go away. That's the nature of phenomena. And if you look at a rainbow, a rainbow is phenomena. But it doesn't actually have a location. The rainbow that you see is not the same rainbow as, as the eye see or somebody else's sees.

And it has no location. When I was 10 years old, somebody told me there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And I didn't know what that was. I didn't know what that was. I didn't know what it was. and on the weekend I went up into the bushland beyond where my house was, and there was a rainbow, and I was going to find the end of the rainbow, and I walked and I walked and I walked, and the rainbow vanished, and I was a little bit disappointed, but I kind of learned something in that. It's like, it's bullshit. And there you go, phenomena.

Things appear and disappear. And we might get attached to things, and we feel sad if they die or they disappear or they don't want to see us anymore or whatever. But what is that attachment? And who is it attached to? It's all concepts and ideas and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Thank you. That's going that way. As you said. I just wanted to say, let's not forget that the duality is beautiful. What appears in duality is actually the other side of the coin. It's not something to get away from, necessarily. It's something to totally embrace as being. Once you see the truth, once you get the resonance of the fact that all is one, then the duality which keeps on reappearing is the one.

It is. It's so beautiful in its incredible division of everything. The intellect, the capacity of thinking is the action of God in duality, isn't it? In that case, that that is and that that isn't is playing at the same time. It's all one thing, all incredibly beautiful and not worthy of disparagement, really, because it is all of that. It is all that. Here you go. I'm listening to you. And I'm wondering, but is there duality? Well, no. Like everything else, it seems so. It is. And what do you want to answer that? I say it appears to be. Yeah. But it's the same coin as you were saying.

Not dual. It's still the one coin with two sides. In a sense, you can flip in and out. You can have a mobility of mind, if you like. A mobility of awareness where you flip in and out. You see the beauty of things, all the devastation, and then you flip back into the realisation that this is art. All one, and then you get back down again. And I like the process of swimming, isn't it? Swimming through. That's how I would say it. Well, when you go into a deep sleep at night, and you go into that nothing state, that nothing can never know itself, because to know itself would have to split into a subject and an object.

To know itself, you'd have to then have a subject and an object, so it can never know itself. Well, the knowing is just conceptual. The foot of the concept, two ends of the stick, still the same coin, the same stick. This is the same. Paul, isn't the question then, if I'm that, or if, um, can that know itself, if it's one? Isn't that what's sort of the question really behind this little snippet of conversation? The answer, yes or no. So you have to create an entity then that would want to know. Yeah, yeah. So you have to create a subject. Yeah, that's right. And again, trying to grasp it with the mind.

And then that subject wants to create an object. So you're in a spot. Yeah, good point, Carl. Very good point. But it's still knowing. It's still knowing. And is it the rainbow? There is no rainbow. Again, who wants to work it out in the mind? Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. Dean. On Friday evening, there was a bit of wanting to work it, well, a habitual wanting to work it out in the mind, and I could see that I was about to fall in a very familiar hole, and at that moment, there was a notification on Facebook, and it caught my attention, and I looked, and it was someone that had liked a post that I'd made last year, which I shared a poem that Bob had shared with me here, one of the Friday afternoons I'd come to.

And hmm. Yeah. And I thought, hmm. That poem, when he shared it to me that day, really brought me out of the hole that I was about to fall in. And yet again on Friday, it did the very same thing, but it was like there I was about to kind of fall in this trap. And I can't explain to you just how to say it, but the fact that that poem came at that moment on the Friday evening, that Friday night, when I really needed, I really, yeah, was the most helpful thing. And yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I just wanted to say that it, I suppose it not restored faith.

It showed me that I'm not the mind, that here's this miracle of this seeming miracle. I don't know what to say that just this poem arrived at the perfect moment. It's just evidence. Thank you. I should also, really, I should also repeat what I was saying about the subject and the object before. That's completely imaginary, see? You're always complete and whole. And the idea of splitting into a subject and an object is purely conceptual. I know. Yeah. And I guess the answer, Bob answered that question, if you like, that all there is is knowing. And that doesn't require a split. Well, as soon as we open our mouth, we're going to be subject and seemingly subject and object.

As soon as we open our mouth, we're going to be, there's going to be a seeming subject at the end of the year, talking about some object outside of itself. And if you see through it, well, you know, what's the problem? Yeah, life, the thing is, life is spontaneous. It doesn't have a cause. This demolishes everything, if you really see that life, nobody can tell you where life comes from. You know, they've got these new telescopes that see further and further and, you know, see galaxies. You know, so what? You know, it doesn't matter how good those telescopes get. It's just going to be stars and more stars and galaxies, you know.

And then they make this big deal out of it. And they're trying to find the Big Bang, you know, which is a theory. It's just a theory. There's no beginning or any end, you know. You can't remember being born. So how can you have the audacity to start talking about the beginnings of other things and the end of other things? You know, you go to sleep at night and everything disappears in deep sleep. And in the morning you have a seeming choice. Am I going to pick up this bag of shit that I've been carrying around, the story of me, and relive the same crap over and over, or am I going to just leave it where it is?

In the past. Nobody. There's nobody who can make that choice. But having the thought that I don't need to carry this crap. You know, why do I carry this crap around? Why do I tell my story to other people? I mean, what does anybody know about you that you haven't told them? Not much. The government knows more. And all these identical things like, I don't know. I don't know. Bits of paper that prove your identity. You know, plastic. And you've got to use this to get in here and get in there. That doesn't prove anything about who you are. You know, you don't know who you are.

You are that. That's it. There's no who involved. There's no you, so you can't know the mind. But you know, once you drop, there's no you. There's no duality. But there is a sense. is a sense of that as well. I thought we'd leave it with that's that, but wanted to mention tomorrow's meeting to remind anyone. If you're in the US time zone, please join us tomorrow on Zoom. It's on Bob's website. And then we go back to what you were saying. I'm sorry. I just had to throw that in. Bust out that cake, I think. It's a bit lonely. Holy sugar. I wouldn't use it.

Just one thing I'd like to add to all of this is that I think one has to approach it with a bit of levity, because there's never going to be any answer to these questions that we pose, these cutting and dicing and slicing all of these pieces of non-duality, which we love to do. We love to do, but in the end, we're going to fail miserably at that. So yeah, sure. The thing to do is, who's the questioner? Who wants to know? Exactly. So you've just got to enjoy yourself, I think. Ha ha, ha ha. Bob's 94th birthday, anyway. I'm never amused by this. Thanks, Peter, because I feel like the few experiences or times that I felt like I've been experiencing what everyone talks about, there is always this sense of just laughability.

And it always seems to arise when I'm doing mundane tasks, just like typing on the computer. And there's this awareness that I'm just, there's just a field of vision with a couple of meat sticks pointing out of it and some sausages on the end of those. Ha ha ha. And they're just going about their business. But at the same time, there's astonishment. Like, there's just this utter astonishment at the things that go on when you're out of the way or when I'm out of the way. And then the mind kind of tries to stick back in and explain things. And then I fall back into the awareness.

But really, I don't know anything. Like, I can't say anything about it. And people will see, a lot of people who have this understanding and obviously experience this for longer are able to put it into words succinctly. But for me, it seems like these times when it's there and I'm just a circle of vision with things occurring in it, and it's utterly absorbing and astonishing. And then I'm back creating a story about it. But I just appreciate what you say because for me, it is just this little laughability. And it's just a dumb joke almost. But yeah, thank you. And thank you, Bob, so much.

I can't say how much I feel like things have started to appear in my life, or this awareness has started to appear so much more often since I've been seeing you. So thank you. I don't know if you're referring to a recent movie called Everything Everywhere All at Once. And they've actually got sausages as fingers. And I got that visual then. And it's such a good movie. I've seen it, but that wasn't . It was really good. As for people who are with us online, Vivek says, the energy is expressing as nature. It's expressing to tell it exists through its not visible. says, but thoughts are saying to whom?

And who will rest in the cell? They're all the same sort of a version of the inquiry with Julius who gives the shit. Yeah, who will rest in cell? says, no one is saying or listening like radio. And says, a beautiful, wonderful, happy birthday, Bob, appearing. 94 on Mother Earth. And first, thank you for this well of fresh water. And thank you everyone, so amazing, as usual. Hope you all have a beautiful celebration with a lot of yummy food, fun, and laughs. Showing off. Dean, would you like to have the last word? No, no, no, absolutely not. Come on. Come on, come on. No, I really already had it.

Come on. Come on. I think everyone's just really I feel like everyone's really thrilled to be here and share this time with you as as that in this expression and there's just love and there's heaps of laughter and gratitude and we'll celebrate together Bob. Is it a two-way street? Yes definitely it is. Thank you everyone. Thank you.