Sailor Bob and the group. Not a saint but the totality. 21/08/2022

Yeah, well, all about it. What we point to here is what they call Advaita. They put the label on it, non-duality, and people get all sorts of concepts about that. And that's what Advaita means, non-duality. Non-dual means one without a second, one without the other, not two, only that. So I can't teach you anything. And I can't tell you anything. All I can do is point to it and ask you to look toward what we're pointing to, if you can grasp it, and see for yourself whether what we're pointing to stands up to the investigation. I think that if somebody is separate and apart from that, it wouldn't be one without a second, would it?

It would be duality. Then the other way I put it, not speaking to any body. I'm not speaking to any mind. I'm not speaking to that body-mind entity that you believe yourself to be. I'm speaking to that I am that I am, the sense of presence. There is a sense of presence expressing through each and every one of you, a knowing that you are, a sense of presence. A sense of presence. A sense of presence. A sense of presence. of beingness or awareness. So just to this and nothing else. That's all I'm talking to. So don't take anything personally because you'll get into all sorts of problems if you do.

As if you've recognised in your very livingness the person or things you take on, the personal aspect of things, are problematic. Either fear, anger, depression or hatred, all these things, are because we are dividing all these patterns, shapes and forms into concepts. What's a concept? A thought or a word. And they call that in Buddhism the great perfection is the essence, the non-dual essence. That we point to. And they give it in one sentence. The great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. Awareness without any of these concepts or words on it. Advaita translated to the five factors are Sat Chitta Nanda Nama Rupa. Sat is existence. Chitta is consciousness.

Nanda is loving to be. Bliss or love. And Nama Rupa is the body-mind. And they tell you that Nama Rupa is Maya. It's illusion. So this body-mind that you think you are and believe you are, is an illusory pattern, shape and form. But are you existing right now? And each and every one of you know that. Yes, I'm existent. And aren't you conscious? Yes, you know you're conscious. You're not unconscious. Or unaware. And are you happy to be? Well, none of you want to be dead right at the moment, do you? So you're fit to all that description. So you must be that. Now what's your problem?

And what's there to search for? And who is there to search? But we've taken on this body-mind entity. When was that taken on board? When we learnt words. How many words were you born with? And you realise you weren't born with any words. So you say, I was born. How can you say that if you didn't know you were born without the word? And we've taken on this belief, when you learn the words, that you are this conceptual image from the non-conceptual pure awareness. Now you've got this conceptual image. I am Bob, the Australian, the good fella, and all the other concepts I like to put on it.

Or I'm happy, or I'm unhappy, or I'm fearful, or I'm anxious. Instead of realising that if it's only that one essence, that is all that it is. And that's the great mantra, I am that. And innately everybody knows that right now. Because you say, that's the chair I'm sitting in. That's the tree, that's the flower, that's the space. Everything is that, which we put other labels or words on to discriminate it. Separate it with the word. And look at any of those words and see the word's not the thing. Take the word water. Try and quench your thirst with it. Try and drink the word.

Take the word fire. Cook with it. Burn yourself with it. Heat with it if you can. You can't. Take the word I or me. What's it referring to? Isn't it referring to that very knowingness is there? That we may take it to be the sense of presence. What's written the cat getter? Have to go. That bag's ready with the rocks in it. Did you hear me cat? No. Just the last five years. He loves them more than me. So you see they're not troubled with the word. That's the main thing. And we are. We learn these words and realise the word's not the thing. We don't realise the word's not the thing.

And claim the words to be real. And your parents, you don't have any words when you're born. And you don't learn any words until that capacity of reasoning develops in you. Around about two, two and a half, the capacity of reasoning. Before that, the little embryo, the little fetus is growing and forming. And eventually has the capacity of reasoning and learns these words. Your parents fussing around. So your little Billy or your little Jane or your little so and so. And that sense of presence. The knowing that you are translates to the thought, I or me. And immediately somebody asks you who you are, you say I am Bob or I am Bill.

Whatever your name is. Instead of realising what you are is that absolute intelligence energy. If you like to use the term, you can call it your godliness if you like. But I don't use that term. Because all the great traditions have got different labels for what this god is. So many different concepts and ideas. And think it's something superior. And the very thought or idea that it's something superior. You've got the idea that there's more than one there. There's me and this other. This other is a higher or greater power of what I am. But it's the one essence that's patterning, shaping, forming. Experiencing, expressing as everything.

Translates to the thought. I am. What's that thought representing? Well there's a knowing here that there is a presence. That's not unaware. Isn't it? Isn't that with yours? There's an awareness of being present. That's translated by the thought, I. And so it's mainly corrupted and polluted by the conceptuality that this I is this thing that has been labelled as me, Bob, the Australian. Instead of seeing as it is. In its absolute. And they call it a cognising emptiness. An emptiness with the capacity of cognising. Another term for cognising is knowing. And we think we are cognising or knowing this emptiness. But it's not that at all.

It's the emptiness that's doing the cognising. It is that one essence that's fused with this innate intelligence, energy. And the Buddha pointed that out when he said it's a cognising emptiness. And he made the statement that emptiness is form. And he turned it around the other way and he said these forms can be nothing other than emptiness. So you and I are forms. Things. This room is a form. Carpets and the furniture are forms. The trees are forms. The flowers are things. The birds are bees. Stars, the planets are all forms. And what's he telling you? Form is emptiness. And the emptiness is form. What have we done?

We've taken them to be real. Actual. So many things. But when you investigate and see there are just vibrating patterns that are seemingly vibrating into something solid. Like you've got an aeroplane with a propeller on it. Just a single thing. Started up and right it spins. And that spin becomes so fast it looks like a circle. Put your finger in it and you'll soon see. Whoops. Sorry. Things like that. That we take to be real. But actually it's still only the one without the second. So we've got all these patterns, shapes and forms. And we learn words and put labels on everything. And that's all they are.

Things. You're a thing. I'm a thing. The trees are a thing. The flowers are a thing. All appearing in space. Space, like everything else, is no thing. You and I are no thing really. Space is no thing. Have a look at it. Investigate. It's the very first thing or no thing that's seen. It's the closest thing to your eyeballs. I used to ask people what do they see? They'll say, they see out there, they'll say it's you or me or whatever they're seeing. Not really the closest thing to your eyeballs. It's that space. Which because it hasn't any shape or any form or any beginning or any sort of it, it's no thing.

Now can you postulate or think of anything at all that could be outside of space? You have to realise there's nothing that can be outside of space. What would it be in? Investigate and have a look. And see will it be there? And if it's not, then what is it? And see will it have to be in space? It's not going to come about as some thing when there's nothing solid for it to appear in. Space, have a look at space, try and grasp it. You'll find it hasn't got any centre to it. You can't pinpoint a starting point. It hasn't got any circumference. It hasn't got any boundaries.

So it's no thing. And all this manifestation, nothing you can postulate or think of could be outside of space. So it is appearing in this no thing. And it is no thing that's vibrating into so many patterns, shapes and forms. And we take it to be this person, this me. When we learn words, we learn words like, I and me, that sense of presence. And I am this person. So I've got the idea that I'm a person, a separate entity, an individual. If it's not separate, it must be absolute. Everything is that. Now, if everything is that, what can you add to the absolute? Well, if you could add anything to the absolute, it wouldn't be absolute, would it?

And what can you take away from it? You can't take anything away from it. It wouldn't be absolute. So nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be taken to you. Now, if you realise that that is what I am, if nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken away from it, everything, every so-called thing is that. And that's what they tell you. That's the great mantra. I am that. This is that. That's that. That's that. Innately, you know that. Because you say, that's the chair I'm sitting in. That's the carpet. That's the tree. That's the flower. You know everything is that, which we discriminated again by putting the words and labels on it and dividing the indivisible.

And it's not separate. We're separating it into me, you, this and that and the other. We're separating the inseparable. So instead of it being the one essence, which is quite natural and effortless and to be grasped and understood and recognised, we've divided it into the myriads, the many. And all sorts of stories and things go on about this, that, the other in that division. And we're locked into this conceptual image. But if you realise you are the absolute, who could ever be superior to you? You'll realise if it's absolute, there's nothing that could be superior to you. Who could be ever inferior to you? And you realise there's nothing that could be inferior to you from all and everything.

And what would you want of the other persons? So what would I be at war or antagonistic or in conflict with anybody else at all if I recognise and grasp it as everything is that? Absolute. In the understanding and recognising and knowing that is what I am, there's going to be a big change that must come about. If not in that conceptual dividing, thinking this, that and something else and other, there's going to be a stabilising in that which is, in the isness of it. And isness will never be what it is. Will never be was. And never be what will be. And you see from that, and you look at the concept of time, you see that all time is, is past, which is dead and gone, future which hasn't arrived, and presence which is spontaneous.

It's got no duration. It's just coming right now and changing right now. It is transient. And if you look at that and ask yourself, what is wrong with right now if I don't think about it? And you realise if there's no thought going on, I can't say it's past, future, pleasant, painful, happy, sad. It hasn't been divided. It's as it is. And that's the reality. But the thoughts, we've divided up with the concepts, the thoughts, the ideas and images. And especially we've got this I thought, this personal belief, this belief in this person, this separate entity, that thinks it needs to become something, to become whole and complete.

Because with this sense of separation there's inadequacy. It's not adequate anymore. It's not complete or whole. It's not absolute. But you've got all these concepts and ideas, about this God that'll grant you this, that and the other. If you become one with it and recognise it and do take away all your fears, your unhappiness and your depression. And so we go for searching for something that is never ever found, or will be or can be found. Because what is necessary to find is to find your own innate intelligence, energy, the innate nature, what you really are. Which they tell you, and when you recognise it, you know for certain that I am that already.

It doesn't take much to recognise it. Re-cognise. It's a cognising emptiness. The emptiness is doing the cognising or knowing. Rearrange it. Have a look into it further. Where it says in the Heng Sing Ming, emptiness here, emptiness there. Yet the infinite universe stands ever before your eyes. It's appearing before your eyes right now. There's a seeing. There's a hearing of these words. There's a tasting, a touching, a smelling, a thinking. And investigate it instead of taking it for granted. We are the serpent trying to get from there. What's your next thought going to be? Investigate. And there's not one of you can say what your next thought's going to be.

But a thought will come up. Spontaneously, naturally. And what do we do? We claim it. I think. Who's the thinker? This contextual image, this sense of presence, which translates as the thought I am, now thinks that I am is what I really am, this person. I think. But the thought I think, you become the subject. A thinker. And you're thinking this thought, which has become the object. You are not the thought. You are thinking. The thought is being come up in the thinking. You claimed it by this so-called thinker. I think this thought. So what have you done? You've formed subject-object. Thinker and thought. Well, can there be a thinker without thinking?

Before that thought comes up, for the first couple of years of your life, when you didn't have any words, concepts or ideas, there was seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. How were you discriminating it? When you had no words. Wasn't it just as it is, as it was? Not discriminated alone? Now the idea of this thinker, me, has come up. And I think this and I think that. And all the thinking is in concepts. Words. Which I've learnt, picked up along the way. And none of those words we pointed out before is the real. None of the words are the thing. So I've got a conceptual image based upon words, concepts.

Concepts, ideas. Which I take to be real. And the meaning in those words, taken upon, and the capacity in that reasoning is the thinking, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, thinking, feeling. The I-N-G, the seeing, the hearing, is the actuality. But you claim it by this I-thought. I think, I see, I feel, I taste, I touch, I smell, I experience. It's looming into the believed in separate entity, and that believed in separate entity can't handle it too much. And it becomes fearful, anxious. Put other concepts in, depressed, jealous, envious. Energy of belief going into them, and it becomes emotional, thought, feeling and emotion. And I get all these emotions and traumas and dramas.

All comes about through thinking. Just as Shakespeare told you 400 years ago, when he says there's nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. And the saga letter will tell you the same thing when he says nothing can trouble you, nothing at all can ever trouble you except in your own imagination. Now that's good news in both those statements, isn't it? If you took it in, you can't be troubled by the thoughts or the imagination, but do we take notice of it? We do eventually, some of us get sick and tired of being sick and tired and realise there's a bit more to it than what we've realised and you're not going to get the answer in the mind, in thinking, nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

And you read different texts and scriptures, it will tell you the same thing. The great perfection is non-conceptual awareness and things like that. And different realises that it's one without a second what they're saying. Investigate these things and see what they're saying is true. And a little bit of investigation, you'll realise that the false cannot stand up to investigation. And you know that too because there's many things you've got the belief in when you come into this existence. You believe in so many things, but when you investigate a lot of them, they'll fall apart under the investigation. People believed years ago when they looked out where the sea and sky met, that the earth was flat.

We're told don't go out there, you'll fall off the edge of the earth. Who would believe it today? Nobody, because it's been investigated. Go down to the ocean, they'll say, give me a bucket of blue water out of the sea. You say, don't be an idiot. You'll know you'll never get any blue water out of the sea. The sea's not blue. But it doesn't stop it from appearing to be blue. The sky is the same. You go outside in a clear day, there's a blue canopy over that space. The space is the same space as in this room. Where's the blueness? Wouldn't it be to put a distance between us and it would appear to be blue?

There's many things like that when you investigate the things that's false. Investigate this idea that I am this person. I am this separate entity. I am this individual. See what you find there. And when you see there is nothing there but a mental concept and the great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. You're going to keep indulging in these concepts, thoughts, ideas and images. Some of us do. But some of us look a little bit further and get the taste of it and start to recognize. But still with all of that, we still, some of us still try to find the answer in the mind. But there's no such thing as mind apart from thoughts.

And what are thoughts? Vibrations, words, sounds, vibrations, a movement of energy. Just the same as there's no such thing as these bodies, minds. What's the body? Made up of elements, air, earth, fire, water, space. All those elements can be broken down to subatomic particles into energy. So this body is a vibrating pattern of energy. The earth, the stars, the planets and everything else, all can be broken down to subatomic particles into energy. So all this body, mind, thoughts, ideas, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, body, mind, these patterns are vibrating intelligent energy and the intelligence is a way of vibration patterns. We couldn't think of some of the ways these pattern, shapes and forms appear and the intricacies in them and the wondrous ways they express, the colors and the flower, things like that.

Who could think that up? We take it to be a god. But it is that innate intelligence itself. That's the essence of it. that innate intelligence itself, that life. And look in the Bible. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. That's all that God is. Another Word we're put on. All things were made by Him, it says, by the Word. And that's a fact. There's not one thing out there that we haven't put a Word onto, a Word. And there was nothing made that was made without the Word. We've learnt words and utilise the Word. But investigating and seeing the Word is not the thing.

There's good ways of communication, words. Good ways of expressing things, learning things, and things that are useful. But the Word is just a vibrating intelligence energy. Intelligence is knowing. Not the knower or the known, but the knowing. Knowing that you are. The is-ness of you. The being-ness. And that knowing is a vibration, a movement of energy. It's an activity. Any activity is a movement. So that intelligence energy is the activity of knowing. And is there anyone there, here right now, who is not knowing? Try and negate that being-ness or knowing-ness if you can. You call yourself a human being. A human being. A human being.

Believe in God, you call God the Supreme Being. Some greater being. Take out the label, take the label off it. Human. Take the label Supreme off. Try and separate your being-ness as you're sitting there right now. Try and tell me you are not. You can't say I am not. So if you can't say I am not, you can't say I am not. You can't say I am not. You can't say I am not. What must be there? You must be. So you're being there without conceptualising it, without putting any label on it. This is that pure being. And being is what is going on right here, right now.

It's not becoming. Becoming implies a future time. And then you're back in that concept of time again. So as they say, know the truth. And the truth will set you free. What are you free from? You're free from these beliefs. You believe this, you believe that. Look in your dictionary. Look up the definition of belief. Definition of belief is an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. Acceptance of an alleged fact. We hear these things that people tell us. Take them to believe. Take this body, mind, entity to believe. Somebody told you, you are this person, this body. An alleged, take it to be an alleged fact without questioning it.

Questions of acceptance of an alleged fact without positive knowledge or proof. As I say, when you look at it and investigate, and put that positive knowledge into it, if it's true, you won't be able to get rid of it. And that will be know the truth, as they say, and the truth will set you free. But if you don't question it and you go into it, well, all the seeming troubles that we've been in all our life because of this belief we're separate will continue to be there. But you can be free of it. As Krishna Murthy tells you, he wrote a book, Freedom from the Known.

Leave the known, go. Be with the knowing. Not what was or what will be. Being what is actually going on right now. And recognise that I am already that. So that's enough from there. And Chris has got the other people coming in. He's got some questions there. But if you've got any questions, any doubts, don't hesitate to bring them up. And don't hesitate to bring up what you've grasped. You've all been coming here for a while and you've all got an understanding of it. Or you wouldn't be coming back. What the fuck would you come here for? . Love yourself. Exactly. Anyway, why are you going?

Hi, Sailor. There's less than 20 people with us today online. And we have no questions whatsoever. So all the forum goes to you now. So we rely that group to you. So we rely that group to you. So we rely that group to come alive and be here by your contribution. Questions, sharing? Oh, yeah, Anita. Just a simple question, Bob. For some time now, I have a spontaneous smile that arises. And it's there all the time in presence. You know, the present moment. And I haven't heard anybody speak about that before. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that, please. It's always there. Beautiful. Not a complaint, is it?

Not a complaint. That sense of presence expresses. The joy. Yeah, natural, spontaneous. Well, it comes as a smile, a laughter, a sense of well-being. Naturally expressing, spontaneously. You don't have to think, I'm going to smile now. Interesting. I was just thinking about that this morning before I came here, how that uncaused joy isn't the opposite of sorrow. It's a different... And there's a big difference between knowing that you are and, you know, acknowledging that uncaused joy of your own being and the pairs of opposite joy, sorrow, pleasure, pain. It's a very different thing. Knowing something, knowing something intrinsically, is so different from a belief, you know, or a story about something.

It's a knowing. Yeah. Spontaneous, yeah. And Bob used to say, be warm towards it, give it a wink and a nudge, acknowledge it. Yeah. Sorry, Jo. I just wanted to say about knowing something and when you think something is known, like, I know something. I know such and such is still like a subtle mind and it goes, oh, I know this, which is very different to actually knowing, being in the knowing. Very, very subtle. Yeah. That's been something for me recently that I've been recognising. Yes. So you say, I know, you claim it by this conceptual image. Yes, yeah, yeah. So an analogy that has sort of really helped me see that subtle grasping that I had or that subtle ego owning was that we are both wave and ocean and in being the wave and the ocean, even that is not the same.

Oh, yes. If that makes sense. Oh, sorry. You go. I'll go. I'll go. You go. You go. Yes. We have to name it. Yes. But in actuality, it's just the ocean. Yes, that's what I meant by even the name of it is not it. Yeah. Yeah, I see what you mean. Yeah. So we're both wave and ocean, but the name wave and ocean is Yeah, it's just labelled. It's just labelled. Yeah, Dean and I were just talking about that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And anyway, we're talking about that ... The very thing today we came in actually discussing whether the purpose and the action of the mind, if you like, is to make things concrete, to get things understood.

In order to understand something in terms of the mind, you need to make it fixed in time and space, you have to start, there it is, bang. It's solid. It's a solid thing that I can put a ring around and I know what that is. Exactly. is and that exists. But of course, it never exists. Everything is in flux. And in the knowing, you are a thing in flux, if you like. But that's ridiculous, isn't it? I've just described what it is. But there we have the impossibility of this discussion about what we're doing here, who we are and what we are. I prefer the spontaneous smiling, actually.

That's really good. Andy? Yeah, here. Andy, Andy. C'est moi. C'est moi. Yes. Yes, as Bob alluded to with Krishna Murthy's book, freedom from the known really takes you into a different way of knowing that's not part of our conventional subject, object. And in that is your true nature. And that's the uncaused happiness. Because you're in the source of being. It's really not rocket science, is it? And I think also there's a sheer delight of witnessing. Sheer delight. Beautiful. A comment from someone who's with us online. And this is Ram saying, sounding really energetic and vibrant today, Bob. Like you have turned the clock back 10 years.

What? Turned the clock back 10 years with your sailor's language and everything. Rough. Yes, exactly. It seems like Ram is liking it. And Amarnath says, impure knowing is beyond, beyond knower and known. And Byron says, sheer delight. Are experiencing that now. Obviously. Can't you read the facial expression, Byron? Yes, of course it is not something that is constant. When you think, I like that metaphor Bob sometimes uses. It's not really a metaphor. It's a description of a little baby that is not hungry and is not in pain and is just experiencing the being with sheer delight. And of course, there will be a time when, when the baby is screaming because it's hungry.

And there will be a time when maybe, I don't know, you've got constipation and that smile will go on. But in general, that underlying sense of completeness, the sense that nothing's wrong anymore, it is, you can't even say it is experienced because the opposite is not experienced. And that's the thing. Where there used to be a sense of void and sense of deficiency, low self-esteem, sense of being not enough, not lovable, somehow unworthy, that sense, profound sense of contraction, that, oh my gosh, profound sense of suffering. Now, that one is not there. So it is not that something else is experienced instead. But Buddhists have those analogies.

If you walk a thousand miles with the Buddha, you will find a stone in your shoe and you take it off. Or when you hammer your head and you stop. When the suffering stops, depending how profound and strong the suffering was, the sense of relief is like, it's like elation. It's the darkest the night, the brightest the day. That's the thing. Like the animal, you can see the cats there, they don't have that sort of sheer delight or smile in their face because they've never, never been in the sense of contraction. I'm unworthy, I'm not good enough, I'm stupid, I'm ugly, I'm old. That hasn't been there.

So there's no contrast to, oh my gosh, this freedom thing, wow! There's the joy of completeness, of sense of not having low self-esteem because there is no self to be estimated. There is nothing to esteem. Everything is, there's nothing wrong. Nothing should be or could be or would be or needs to be any different than it is. And that brings that sense of joyous lightness, ease and relaxation, which you can say is experienced because you can't deny it. That sense of naturalness is definitely experienced. And then Catherine says, the reason some of us come back and keep coming back is the community of love and truth that is there from both of you.

Love, James and Catherine. Thank you, dear ones, and love to you both. Ammanat says, words and thoughts are just boasting, yet not. That's the fun. And Byron was commenting, not about constancy, just now, right now. And that was about the sheer delight. And Ammanat says, knowing as being, seeing as being. That's quote from Ramana Maharshi. And Byron is asking for honest answer, as if it wasn't honest. Was it honest? Anita, when you said that sense of joy and sheer delight, for me, energetically, it's absolutely obvious. It's not doing anything, it's just happening. It's so absolutely obvious that you're not pretending it. Yeah, that's right. I don't know where...

It's a spontaneous arising. There's no doer of that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, Byron, I hope you are satisfied with that energetic, natural, joyous smile. And Ammanat is commenting, who is there, to be honest? Well, there is no agenda. Why would anyone ever want to pretend that they are free from suffering, if they are still suffering? That's like shooting your own foot. Like, if you're still suffering, say it out loud, you may find relief and help. But if you're not suffering, why pretend that you do? That's just... Yeah, so whatever shows up naturally is what is expressing itself, is that one life expressing itself. Even if somehow, through the conditioning, there is an acting or pretending somewhere showing up, well, that's also that one life.

But I definitely do not sense that sense of pretending. Would Ammanat come and think to that? Says, thinking is dishonest. Yeah, no thinking and just being can't be dishonest. Good point, Ammanat. And Byron says, we usually pretend. I order to reduce the suffering. Probably should be in order to reduce suffering. Yes, you're probably right, Byron. Some people have that attitude of fake it till you make it, you know, smile, you know. Smile because then endorphins will flow in your brain and the smile or get the postures on the NLP tricks. And they do seem to work. But you don't go to your doctor telling you that you have pain in the left knee when you have the pain in your right knee because that's counterproductive.

This setting that we have here, nobody is a doctor, nobody is healing anyone. But because the pointing is happening, the sense, the point of the pointing is to address real situations. So I don't believe there would be much of the pretenses or pretending that there is no suffering in order to reduce it rather than just following the pointing. That is much more effective. Anyone try to pretend they are not suffering? How well did you go? Yes, it's not sustainable. Great, Ammanat. It's not sustainable. Find the sufferer. Yes, and that's what is sustainable. Find the sufferer. Find the source of suffering. Find the me that suffers.

And then the pretending is no more required. But thank you. Thank you for asking and for clarifying it. That's always helpful. And Ammanat says, I equals pretender. Well, yeah, that's a good point too. And he says, thanks, Byron. Yeah, thank you. I cannot pretend because I is lifeless with inquiry. Yeah, I is dead. When you see that I is just a mental image, a concept or narrative, the set of sounds and the set of mental projections, how can that do anything? When you see, and that's why we inquire, to actually see what that sense of I really is. And then it just flattens out. And it's a cartoon character.

It doesn't have a reality. It can't do a thing. So now we have over 20 people now. And we are still having no more questions. So please say us where you are. I forgot where I was. I don't know. I'm still, I'm, yeah, I just still having, difficulty realizing, like, I understand what you're saying. I spoke to you about this. But I don't want to keep trying to go into that state. But I'm still, I want to feel it. I want to realize it. But I'm still having difficulty going into that, that realization, into that feeling. You know, I don't want to try. But I, so what am I, what am I doing wrong?

You know, I'm trying not to do anything wrong. It's so nice when I listen to all the satsangs and everything. But when I come out, when I'm doing other duties, I'm totally, you know, I'm no longer there. I'm just very involved in those duties. But I want to be in there. I want to see what you are seeing. I want to be in that place where you are. In that place where you are in. How, what am I doing? You know, what am I doing wrong? Trying. Beautiful. Yeah, trying. Yeah. Beautiful. Seeking. Like I want to say, while you're thinking about that, have you stopped breathing?

Stopped feeling? All the sensations are going on, but you're relating them to believed in personal sensations. You're still seeing, you're still hearing. Food's being digested. Just like outside in nature, the Earth's rolling around the sun. Does the Earth know anything about rolling around the sun? It doesn't. It continues to roll around. And the sun doesn't know anything about the Earth. But the spontaneous natural functioning is going on. That spontaneous natural functioning is going on. And the life that you are is living there. But we've got all these, when we learn words, we've got all these concepts and ideas that we took to be real. See them for what they are.

What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? See, and you can't even stop thinking without trying. You try to stop thinking, but you can't. But you realise you don't bother even trying. Just keep going. Just leave it as it is. Let it rest in its uncontrived singularity. You feel like the Earth's still rolling around the sun. Your heart's still beating. Your hair and fingernails are still growing. All the life is going on spontaneously. And don't fixate on the concepts and ideas that are causing other ones. The very trying, you've got the belief there, there's this entity or individual that needs to become something.

But what's the entity? Who are you? Move into that. Now, what's that? That is nothing. It's nothing and everything. That's the chair, that's the carpet, that's me, that's you. Everybody in this room is that. Trees and flowers are all that. Know yourself as that. And see what happens. Settle down into that. And the smile will come on your face. It will come on your face too. Also there is that little aspect which is quite common with seekers. That sometimes I am with it and then I get carried away and I am not with it. When I'm poor by my duties then it is gone. See, subtly there is a belief that there is some it that I will be achieving.

When I'm meditating there is a pleasant feeling. But when I'm washing the dishes there is no pleasant feeling. But it is not about finding and keeping that pleasant feeling or that joy or light. It is realizing that life is being the open space of consciousness is present whether you are busy or whether you are sitting and experiencing feelings. It is prior to all the experiences. It's like it is when you say you would like to feel what Bob feels and see what Bob says. What Bob is seeing. But really what we are pointing at is prior to sensory experiences that Bob has. It's prior to pleasant and unpleasant and all those, this aliveness, this presence when Bob says are you unaware?

You are always aware. But sometimes you are more aware of the awareness and sometimes you are less aware of the awareness. But awareness is what you are. And mind witnessing it or not is what you are not. This is irrelevant. That witnessing. It is really about relaxing back into that basic space as he says what's wrong with right now? Nothing. That base is always there. But with the seeking mind the mind will tell me no. But it is not there right now. Well if it is not there right now then you are a corpse. It is there. It is beating your heart. It is breathing you.

It is always and ever there. It's just that mind has this image that no but that's not enlightenment. That's not freedom. I'm not smiling. I'm not happy. So okay. It is there. But what else is there? There is something else there. There is a subtle idea there that oh this is not good, not good, not good enough. I have to become like Bob was saying. I have to become something else. So this is all there. The that is always there. The that is always there. On top of the that is the idea that no that's not good enough. I'm not there yet. This is still a me.

I have to get rid of the me. I have to do something. I have to try. So all those ideas are mental chatter. This is the inner talk. And when Bob says what's wrong with right now when you don't think you see without the thinking all that chatter goes away. The idea that I'm not there yet. That Bob is seeing something else than I is gone. Those ideas are not there. And now in that moment of relaxation that's it. But the mind will say no that's not it. I'm not experiencing bliss. That's not it. But well it is. When that one kind of becomes the heart of the essence when that becomes the most important not what the mind has to say but the direct experiencing aliveness it matures into the bliss because it starts shining through every little crack in the mind.

This mind wants to cover the whole sky. But then there are little gaps and it just shines and it opens up and it matures to the to the uncaused joy and the smile and the bliss that prevails through the day. You know I think that one of the greatest spiritual teachings is what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it. I think it's been that greatest spiritual teaching that's been going on for a long time. Yes. Because you take mind out of it you're just here. No one else. Where else can you be? That's right. That's simple. Take thought out of it. That's simple.

Thank you so much for your sharing. It's beautiful. I can really see the the essence of life and beauty in you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing that. And a genuine necessity to discover yourself is there. So I think you can absolutely trust that. You have to trust that because you've seen the truth. You sit here and you've seen that you are true. You've seen that you are only awareness. Is that not true? You have, haven't you? You've been there. You've been to the mountain top if you like. And in that you can trust implicitly. It will show you the way.

So just keep bringing yourself back to that because you know and in the beginning you need to express a little bit of discipline I think. Or discipline will be there for you to express in relationship to this. Like for me it was always you know whenever some thought of lack and you have to understand that the the separate mind, the ego is dedicated to to lack, to having lack, to seeing lack. Right? That's very good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. Jane. I just want to say one thing. It's the mind is dedicated to lack. You are that. You're always that.

And in that you can have absolute faith. So just simply bring yourself back to that. This cannot be proof that I'm not that. Whatever it would be. Thank you. Thank you. Krishnamurti's been mentioned here today. And he points it out really well in his second Penguin Reader. If you're in an old bookshop you might be able to find that. And within that Penguin Reader there's a chapter on awareness. And in that chapter on awareness it really nails the nature of the mind. And the nature of the mind is as Bob has so eloquently said is we're fixated on the image we have about ourselves. And yet all the time that presence is always there.

It's been there since we were little. It's there every single moment. And yet our habit, the habit or not our habit, the habit of the mind is to name and claim everything. You know? And so it's interesting to watch that. You know? And like you say you know that mind's absent when you're focused on what you're doing. It's interesting isn't it? That you know and then when that story comes up that you know you're not enough. I'm not enough. I must be doing something wrong. You know that's the nature of the mind is to name and claim. It can't figure anything out outside of its own parameters.

Pleasure, pain, happy, sad, me, you, desire, fear. You know? It's just its nature. It's like a clunky machine. Really. I mean it's a brilliant machine at times but that's what it is. You know? If you take the power out of that machine what have you got? You've got a corpse haven't you? You know? And so everything you do every single action that is taken every single thing is that presence in action. You know? It's like watching a little action figure. I was watching this hand put the make up on my face today and I was like wow. Is that? Is that amazing? I didn't go hand put the make up on.

You know? It just was doing it. You know? It's like it's an amazing thing when you see there's an action figure and then there's the naming and claiming of it. You know? And it's like a joyful thing when you see that. Rather than a deep dark heavy thing. It's like oh there it is. You know? There's that mind trying to name and claim everything again. You know? It's just it's nature. It's been there since you were a little girl. But what else has been there? What else has been there? Is that shining presence that awareness of everything every moment. You know? And you are that.

Beautiful. Bapa wanted to say something. Yes. Go on Bapa. Yes. It's just the fact that it comes up I lost it or something like that. You start dividing the individual again. You know? Even if you think you've lost it. You can't. Because there's only that. And that expresses in it's all interdependent on everything else. There's nothing that can stand on its own. Separate and apart from it. We try to divide the indivisible and separate the inseparable. Leave it as it is. And also I think awareness only can exist in the mind. It only can exist in the present moment. It's not any other place except the present moment.

So if it comes straight into the present moment it's there. It's there. And whatever works for you. Whatever works for you personally is the thing that you should use. Whatever gift you've been given to come into awareness of the present moment. You know? What is it? Work out what it is for you that brings you home. Just be that. Bob? Yes? And if you think you're going to get any purer or any better than you are now you're absolutely that already. And that's the pure perfection of being an absolute. You're not only a holy saint. That's why everybody's cheering up when Bob uses the swear words.

He is not saint. He's not. He farts. I know. He's blaming me. He even blamed Julia on this. That's when she realized she is his friend and not student. But yes, being a totality you have the capacity for everything. For outburst of volcano erupting. For tears. For joy. For sadness. For all of it. Being a totality the life can express freely as every of that energy. But what you truly are underneath that is never shaken. Even if on top there is a swear word coming up. That's the beauty of not being saint or not pretending to be an angel or holy. That's true. Because I fight.

I fight with my husband. I fight with my husband a lot. My husband says, you know you are the trouble. You are the problem. But I'm trying to realize why am I causing a lot of problems? My son does talk. My son does talk. And I'm saying, what is wrong with me? Am I normal? Am I not normal? I'm trying to realize. But here I'm angry. Here I'm shouting. Here I'm shouting at my kids. Doing this. Doing that. And then sometimes I'm not doing the right thing. So I'm just I'm just normal. I'm just being a human. I'm just being a human. Sometimes when I'm listening to it I feel so nice.

Extremely so nice. And I just feel like I want to experience that 24 hours a day. It's so nice. And then here I'm doing all the other things. Shouting, screaming, running here, running there. And then I'm trying to attend to my other family members needs. They are calling me. Asking for help. Some help, this and that. So I'm like torn apart so many places. But here I want to be in that awareness. In that being. In that now. In the presence of now. 24 hours a day. And not let go of it. And I just want to be there. While I'm doing all these things.

While I'm doing all this shouting and screaming. And doing. I want to be in that awareness. Knowing that I'm there. You know. If you weren't aware when you were cleaning. How could you clean? But yeah. He said if you weren't aware while you were cleaning. How could you clean? Yeah. But see. You just gave yourself a pointer. Like keep part of that attention. See how you're not doing any of that. You know. You're not shouting, screaming at the body. And its conditions. And its conditioning. Attending to the environment. If you. Part of that scattered attention. Keep here. As you were pointing at yourself. I want to be here.

I want to be here. You are here. You just lose sight of it. You're always here. You just somehow attention is taken away from here. So if you could see how the mechanical activities. Like breathing. Or even shouting. That can go on autopilot. Those are all mechanical. Like driving. Eating. All of those activities. Life is doing. And then attention is scattered around. Part of the attention. Remembering the being. Will straight away change the quality of every experience. As you touch your heart. And you say. I want to be here. Just yeah. Do it through the day. Touch your heart. And remember. Oh. I'm here. We have couple of comments here.

Amarnath says. Nisargadatta. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. Nisargadatta says. The quote. I am not interested in what. In what you had to let go. But my interest is in what you are holding back. And. Amarnath says. Excellent point there. It is an excellent point there. You are holding back. There's no one to hold back. Or letting go to. And yet, holding back might be happening. And Rosa says. Oopsie. Could you expand a bit more. It's been dangerous. Yeah. maybe some examples of what is the seeing hearing breathing touching without the words or content that they create maybe an example of what it looks like with the next with the word next to without the word thank you for making this available online so the the hearings hearing breathing touching thinking if you actually see how again how automatic those functioning is the heartbeats they are all going on whether the narrative accompanied it or it doesn't what is it examples yeah look look at your own seeing hearing see how you don't start you're seeing or hearing how it is already on examples of animals of course the the nature how how they function and touching without the words or contexts that they create yes there is there is that basic little pointer Bob sometimes use that we use the attention in a way that we just engage in narrative almost exclusively and seeing hearing tasting touching smelling is neglected so the easy exercise is to go out or even stay at home and pick few sounds few of them different directions the sound of the heater or cooler the sound of the birds or the sound of the cars hold them all they in that field of attention and now perhaps include the bodily sensation just include it and now maybe include the breathing when the attention is somehow overload by the sensation from the environment there isn't much attention left available to perform the narrative so you will have first-hand experience of that sort of unfocused awareness I'm fixated awareness but another really great one from from Al-anon is be where your hands are yeah so when your head is going on and on and on focus on your hands yeah very good pointer yeah and also body awareness is the thing that brings you into the present moment body awareness or breath or any of those bring you into the present moment take it out of the head into the body yeah absolutely um my Buddhist meditation teacher uh Spike Hughes used to just say put your mind inside as in um and what he meant by that was was to actually drop the thinking just drop it drop drop everything and and bring yourself bring your awareness home into yourself and and that that act of putting your hand here and say I want to be here does that and I and yeah and I also recall many years ago when I you know first came here to see Bob he made a suggestion that when I'm walking um just walk without uh without any narrative don't name anything as you're walking and just move through the world just with and and no labels no narrative going it's really hard it was really hard but it was it was a really interesting exercise because then the awareness just opened up and everything was moving as it does but another thing to notice is is that you don't name everything you don't go go down the street going tree tree tram tram road road you know blah blah blah so there's a lot of time when there's no naming happening so that that's interesting to watch as well but um when you're caught up in that me that you think you are ask yourself who is this me that I think I am you know where can it live can it live right here right now without a story can it no because because that me that you think you are can only live in memory so that pointer of Bob's what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it it's miraculous because it really is miraculous because what is wrong with right now if you don't think about it nothing you know and so but the mind just comes in but but but but but you know the thinking what about me me me me me you know iji i think that when we when we have that we alright why go to a time where it's not right because your mind has to be mind it goes on and be always making mistake always blaming yourself why are you making mistake is that's part of the answer to the argument because later we are aren't we long things even after god is like living in that relationship we can amount to millions like that and that's like you don't you don't have any movies and life and y'all are like the Mangals are the same people you said because you can't don't you I think that's going to make a difference yeah and that's how so interesting to watch that that that story cannot live right here right now you have to think about Who is driving?

What am I seeing? What am I seeing? Who is driving? And the sun is shining and the birds are flying. What am I seeing? Who is this? I'm not going to be here soon. I will go. This body will go. This body is all full of pain and suffering. This body will go. So is the mind. So what am I seeing and what am I experiencing? You know? Yeah. Pure existence. Joy of existence. Yeah, but that's beautiful inquiry. I have another few comments from people who are with us. So Byron, coming back to the idea of feeling. Now that is honest. She cannot feel it, cannot feel it.

It is all about feeling. But we do really, but do we really feeling it? So the truth is that we do talk about it a lot, but at least when it comes to me, I do not feel it. Pointing the way it's good, very good, but for most, it does not seem to be good enough. Seeing eternity is very, very pleasant. It is a very pleasant feeling. What I value in those meetings is the genuine inner feeling. I do not feel it. I do not feel it is good enough. I am not feeling it still. So it is the very interesting experience, for me, because I have a huge interest in everybody present.

Yes. So again, this is probably a very, very similar situation. I'm not feeling it because I have an idea what I should be feeling. And I'm comparing that image in my imagination with the present experience. And out of that computation, I realized that no, I am not feeling it. I'm feeling this, but that's not good enough. I want to feel it, the pleasant sensation. As you said, it is about feeling. Feel it. When I feel something, I want to feel it. Feel it. Feel it. happening whatever the content of the feeling is whether it is pleasant or unpleasant is a secondary to the news that there is a feeling there is a livingness going on seeing hearing tasting touching existing being knowing whether the knowing is about blissful feeling or the knowing is about non-blissful feeling that awareness is always there and the preference for pleasure of course it's also there and it is also known and the knowing of that preference is what we're pointing to not the achievement of particular state and there was a man not answering to Rosa does do it and do a ship are false creations we are prior to the ink dream waking state yes and by don't set oh I think I've read that already value is the genuine interest in everybody present and Michael says they say we have 70,000 thoughts a day some are saying that women have 30 50,000 and men only like one-fifth of it.

Again, again, they are different estimations and they are just for that, for laughter. Who cares? Who cares? Yeah, but then again, Michael may have a point. They say we have 70,000 tots a day. I'm curious, two questions. Would this be the same for you, Bob, and Kat, or many fewer tots? And the second question, I want to know who had the job of counting those 70,000? Only the ego. Yeah, well, yes. Do you have fewer tots than you had when you were drinking? When you were completely crazy and completely locked up in the mind? I don't want to think about it. Yeah, the question is, there is no one to count the tots.

Yeah. So the amount of tots can't even be estimated because whether they are there or they are not there, nobody cares. Nobody pays attention. Well, it begs the question, what is a tot? Okay, wait, wait. It begs the question, what is a tot? Is it a discrete energy package? Is it actually discrete? Does a tot have an end, a beginning and an end? Or does it begin to sort of happen as an elongated kind of expression? Of something? There's no beginning and no end. Farts. Pardon? Farts. Farts. Exactly. Yeah, that's a good analogy. Middle bubbles. Yeah, middle bubbles. Now that there was that old thing, do you choose to think a thought or?

A right, yeah. Yeah, and what's interesting is when you really watch that, I mean, stuff can just come up from, you know, 30 years ago randomly at any time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know? And then all of a sudden, a song will be playing in your head, or, you know? Yeah, a student. I mean, it's just, when you really start to watch how random it is, it's amazing really because it's just bubbling along on the surface. There's absolutely, you know, there's, when you say there's no one to name or claim it, it doesn't matter what's going on in there.

It really doesn't. Yeah. You know, it's the naming and claiming is the problem. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And named by, sorry, and named by a illusory me, which can only live in the memory. Really watch that. I was going to say something similar, that it's like a narrative that's just running based on imprints from past experience. And I often actually say, oh, well, I think in pictures. And I do. It just runs. I often don't have, like, a concrete thought. I just have, you know, big picture images running. And that's still the narrative. It's still just this narrative. And on it goes. And it's fantastic.

I mean, I'm a writer. So I write the narrative, you know, and put it to music. And that's, I have to say that recently, I don't do. I don't do as much writing as I used to do. And I've been questioning that. And there's a bit of grief around it that maybe my songwriting days are over. That would, you know, it's very. But, yeah, just trying to. It's that. But it's that narrative is not the actual. It's not the actual experience. It just comes like a movie. And it's an imprint of the past. And it can. And it can make all these feelings arise as well.

You know, like you'll reconnect with the feelings of the experience. And if you let that narrative run you, you'll never be happy. It's like all bubbling along on the surface. Right? You know, like, you know, and every now and again, that me will try and grab something and name and claim it. You know, and like Dale said, you know, there could be a bit of grief around. It which will create like there has to be a thought which creates an emotion. So, so, you know, that's interesting to watch too. And that could be quite beautiful. Grief and sadness. It's that discussion about no preference. Bob, you want to say?

Yeah. Bob is going to say something now. I say no claiming, no naming, no story. No narrative. That's all a story is. Where's that, Livia? Yes. Present and aware. I was just going to say that how could you possibly be a thought? Consideration of the reality of the mind as being who you are. You must consider that you are a thought because the mind is just thought. Without thinking, without a thought or without a series of thoughts, the mind, does the mind exist? No. So the mind is just a thought, isn't it? It boils down to being a thought which has no beginning and end in fact.

But if you consider that you change your mind every six seconds or have 170,000 thoughts a day, men sharing none of that and women sharing the rest of it. Well, besides that, the humor of it all, which is everything in fact. If you think you are a thought, if you believe your mind, right, you would have to be a thought or a series of thoughts or something. But that seems ridiculous, doesn't it? Isn't that just ridiculous? Inasmuch that if I think I'm a thought and the thought dies, I'm not diminished in any way. I'm still there. So I must be that which is behind all thinking.

It must be the apparatus of thought, but not the thoughts, not the conclusions themselves. That's clear, isn't it? Yes. Yes. Anyway. Beside the point. And there's also the thing that thought can only arise, like there's space and there's object, you know, or arising. And it can arise because there's space. And what is the space? It's the awareness. So the thought can only arise within the awareness somehow, you know? They're not separate. So they can only occur. So that's what the great discovery I made is that, oh! I can be who I am. It doesn't resist anything. All experiences not resisted. It's natural. It's natural. It's the most natural and most intimate of experiences.

The most natural, like calm, intimate experience. And of course thoughts come and go, but only because there's awareness. Yes. It's like the power in a computer, you know? Take the power out. Bang. Yes. You know, everything happens because of that awareness that you are. Yeah. Every thought, every action, everything. So the focus, like Kat said, bring it back. That place you never left, bring it back to that, you know? And the habit is, you know, the habit of the mind in resistance is conflict. So bring it back here, you know, to that presence that you are. And watch. How that habit is to create conflict, you know?

And you're not that. Bob, did you want to say something? They're all starting to speak as one voice. Yes. Beautiful. And I got a couple of one voice comments from people who are with us online. Byron says, discipline. We cannot force or push the river. Awareness is not discipline. Maybe closer to grace. Awareness is prior to both discipline and grace. Awareness is the space in which discipline or grace will come and go, will be or will not be. And Rosa was happy for the examples. And Amarnath says, thanks. Know the I, not the other thoughts. Know the knower, count the counter. And Rosa says, how to join the additional meetings Bob is holding.

There is. Sunday. Oh, that's a good reminder. Bob is holding three additional Zoom meetings. Rosa, if you are in Australia, you will have options on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. If you are in America, our Monday morning is your Sunday afternoon. And you find all the information. They all free of charge. You just click on the link on the Zoom, which is on www.silobobadamson.com slash meetings. And you're very welcome to join. And any meeting that is convenient, all of them, if it's convenient. And so is everyone else. And I have another one here. Amarnath says, be here and now. Even here and now is lost slowly.

Time and space are illusions. Body is nothing but sensation and thoughts, phenomenal elements. I am. I is best mantra, Ramana Maharshi. Concentration itself is I. I am on phone. So hard to comment, but to the... This is from JB. Can you wait? Just, we have people here and they will be disturbed. I am on phone. So hard to comment, but to the person wanting to experience what Bob does, there is a story in the group about Bob and his friend, Mark, I think, visiting Nisargadatta. That is a great pointer. That was from JB. Alluding to the... To the story about you and Mark visiting Nisargadatta and having...

I think it was a story about having a certificate in the ignorance. That's a book, by the way, that you can download. Accomplishing yogas. You can get that in PDF format on the internet. Yes, Mark West has written a book. You can Google it and download. As many other students of Bob also. Keith says, oops, there goes another one. And Bill says, it is impossible. Definitely and without doubt to grasp this with the mind. Stop trying. And be the inescapable immediacy. Absolutely brilliant. Impossible. Quit trying. It's not difficult. It's impossible to grasp it with the mind. And one more. Amarnath says, thinker is created which is nothing but emptiness.

All illusions are nothing but self itself. Mind is the past which does not exist. Thanks. And Biden says, yes, that was very good point. We feel that we feel not what we want to feel. So the question is, what am I feeling now? Really, truly, what is it? Recovering the answer feels like awareness. The grace of awareness. Even to say, what am I feeling now, is already too much. Because now you focus on the quality of feeling. And you label the feeling. And you still miss out on the capacity. When I'm seeing, like Bob was saying, what you see is space. But you ignore it.

You focus on what's in front of you. And now, when you see the object, you create a subject. So the seeing has been already overlooked. The capacity for seeing. The miraculousness of the possibility of that seeing has been traded for the mind's interpretation. Object, subject, duality, division. That is what we actually bring back. To the singularity of feeling. Regardless of whether the feeling is this, that, or the other. And that is me. Julia, you wanted to come. Because that was the last comment. So thank you all. Love you all. And Julia, you wanted to say something? No, it's really more of a comment. Because you were saying that we're all speaking as one.

I know of nowhere else on earth where you have a group of people who can speak as one the way you want. And I think that's a very good point. I think that's the way you've inspired. So thank you. That's because of you. Beautiful. Thank you. And thank you, everyone. Did you want to say something? No, no, thanks, everyone. Okay, yeah, thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.