Case story with Sailor Bob on 23 July 2023

We usually live stream, we start from saying our names around, I'll try to do it from the hands. Jane, Jan, Manita, Jim, Julia, David, Wayne, Michael, Paul, Suzanne, Woolworth, Zuma, Chika, Tony, Catherine, Gilbert, Haman, Adrian, Graham, Haman, and then people, Haman, and the people in front. Don't forget the choo-choo training. Yes. That's not Chris. That's Morgan. Ross, Josh, Dan, and Manja, and Richard, and Andy. That's why I chose that option. Mary, and Mary, and Mary, and Mary. Thank you, Dean. It's a good one, and the people. It's a good one, and the people, you're so his. And the people, you're so so that I can't do that, and the people, you're so on.

Well, a couple of days ago, the start of my ninety-sixth year. And all the ninety-six years I've never had a start like this. Beautiful. So many people are here. And it was at a stage before I started to look around there. There would be nobody here. And nobody would want to be here the way I was. But I was turned around and given a second chance. And underneath there was a question that, we are given a second chance, how well do you use it? And it came to me there and then. There's only one way to use it. And I started using it. And see how it's grown from that.

And that was from a fellowship. There's quite a few of you, that statement. Quite a few of you belong to you, that come here. That started it all. And I believed in nothing spiritual at that stage. Couldn't have a bar of any of it. But that little statement, find out what it is, took me on a path that's so far come to this. You've turned that life is. Turned that life around completely. And a lot of you that have been coming along. The same thing has happened to you. Been turned around. So I can't deny the fact that it works. It works if you're open enough to look into it and investigate.

That's all that's necessary to do here. led me into many things. And I looked into some of the Eastern traditions and found something that resonated with me in that. And that recognising or resonating has become clearer and clearer and I say the proof that it works is sitting here before me. All I can do is carry on, point it to where someone else might hear what we say and might resonate and recognise it. And if you're not doing too well it might turn you around also. It might not. The tradition I followed was an Eastern tradition called Advaita. Advaita meaning non-duality. Non-duality translates means one without a second.

Non-dual. Not two. And it points out that there's only one life, one essence, one intelligence energy, one beingness in this whole manifestation. and that's how it's working out. I had a lot of problems leading a very miserable life. all sorts of concepts, ideas and thoughts brought about fear, depression, anxiety, stress, guilt, anger. and they weren't recognised for what they actually were. They recognised the belief that was put into them that I was this nasty being. Well maybe I still am, I don't know. But it doesn't worry me if I am. Doesn't look like it though. Doesn't feel like it. But that's how it was. And in that one essence, one being, it is love.

It is life. Life is love. Don't they tell you in the scriptures that God is love? If God is love, well love must be God. Wouldn't that be right? So we don't have to look for some big daddy up there that's going to do this and do that for you. Just let that love that dwells within you, that it is within you, if it open up to it and let it resonate, let it express. And you'll be amazed how that functioning works. As I say, I looked into many things, finished up in India where I met somebody who was able to resonate with and what he said was, I'd been heard many, many times before but it hadn't opened any doors.

Wasn't resonated with. Wasn't seen. But the way it was expressed there would seem the same as anywhere else but there was something in the words, an essence in it, a life in it, a love if you like, that resonated what basically was in here which wasn't much of that at the time. It was there but just like a smoldering ember that needed a bit of life blowing onto it to burst into a flame and that it did after many years of inquiry. So it's worth looking into, I think. And that's what I continually point to. And the great mantra or the great mantra they talk about is I am that.

You've all heard that. I heard it many, many times. Oh yeah, that's a good one. What does it really mean? Well when you look at it you see everything is that. That's the chair you're sitting in, isn't it? That's the room we're in. That's the space in the room. That's the tree. That's the flower. The cat, the dog, all over. Everything is that which we put different labels on. and discriminate it with the word. And the word is not the real. We've learnt all these words. None of the words are real. Take the word water. See if that will quench your thirst. See if you can wash in it.

See if you can drown in it. The word fire, does it burn your mouth? Can you heat yourself with it? Can you cook with it? So we've got this word me or I. this so-called ego and believe in it. Purely and simply because that's the first word we do, we learnt. We weren't born with any words. Is anyone here that thinks they were born with any words? Let me know about it. We didn't pick up any words until we were a couple of years old. when the capacity for that little fetus, that little embryo being that keep growing, grow, grew a bit more and got a bit more intelligence in it to learn words.

And the parents fussing around and telling you little Johnny or your little Billy or your little Gene or Jane or Joe. What do we say? Somebody asks you who you are. I am little Billy or I am Jane. Taking the label, the name they're pointing to, taking it to be real. Taking it to be the thing. The word is not the thing. If you just point it out. the label is not the car, not the sheet, not the jumper, the word's not the thing. But we believe it. But what it represents when your parents tell you little Johnny or little Billy, there's a sense of presence there.

A sense of knowingness. Isn't that presence with you right now? There is awareness of being here, now, present, and you're not unaware. That sense of being, that sense of presence, that sense of awareness is what you are. But it's not adorned with any concepts, any words, any ideas, any evidence. It probably is, otherwise you wouldn't be here. But when you're looking at it, it's not. It's the word. But we take it when we learn those words with little Billy, that I am the body. I am this person. I am the mind. I am this, I am that. Not realizing that the I am-ness is the sense of presence.

Godliness. Or, if you like to look at it, it is the godliness in you. It is the one essence. Here are Israel, the Lord thy God is one God, there is nothing other. If there's nothing other, everything in this room must be that God essence, if you like to call it that. I don't use that time. Because we come from different backgrounds, different religions, different places. And every religion has got a different concept about what they think this god is. And then so, they take that on board and miss out on the reality. Realizes, what I call, for want of a better term, intelligence energy.

There's no one in this room who is not knowing right now, who is unaware. Everybody is aware or knowing. That knowing is intelligence. The activity of knowing. And any activity is a movement of energy. So, these words of vibration coming out, sounds, words, they're a vibrating pattern of energy. It's not this so-called pattern. This is just the instrument which is expressed as well. Just like you're playing a guitar or some musical instrument. The instrument is not doing it. If somebody wasn't playing the instrument or using it, nothing could come from it. the instrument is the same here. If it wasn't for this life essence here, I couldn't be saying any words.

And what I'm saying, I couldn't care less, it might be a lot of rubbish to some of you. But it doesn't matter, that's the way it's coming out. It works here, that's all that's necessary. And the word, as I said before, is not the real. So we learn all these words and take them to be the thing and see what that does. Instead of being that sense of presence, now I'm above the Australian, the good fellow or not so good, people like me or people don't. I do this and I do that. Well, the amazing concept of words and that concept has become the imagine, the image that I believe myself to be.

And this architecture tells you clearly, nothing can trouble you except your own imagination. So this imagination is the thing that we need to look at. Break it down to image in, imagine. And have a look, isn't that what we're all doing? We're creating mental or conceptual images. Images about this, images about that, image about everything else. So and so shouldn't have said that, they've got an image I don't like because of it. I don't want this or I do want that. All mental images. Look in the mirror. What do you see in the mirror? When you look into it, you realise you're seeing mental images, conceptual images.

You see the face in the mirror, think it's real, go up to the mirror and try and pull your face out of it. See if you can. But you can't say it's not there, it's there. But you can't say it is there because you can't do it. and that's what they call in the scriptures a phenomenal manifestation. This manifestation, this here and here manifestation and everybody in it. we don't realise it is phenomenal and the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. It's all appearing solid and substantial but that's all it is, like images in the mirror because can any of you or anything appear outside of space?

realise realise what you're in right now. We're all sitting in space, isn't that right? A room in space. Grab the space. It's the first thing appears before my eyes. Space, it's no thing. It's empty. There's no boundaries on it. No beginning to it. No end. But postulate or think of anything that could be outside of space. If there are other worlds what would they be in? Outside of space. Anything at all that could be outside of space. It wouldn't. Space hasn't got any centre to it. You can't pinpoint a centre where it begins. Hasn't got any boundaries to it. So you can't encapsulate it. It's not encapsulated by anything.

There's nowhere where space is not. Now, can anything as I say in postulate be outside of space? There's God. So everything including you, me, the chairs, the birds, the flowers and everything else are things. This thing, that thing, another thing. And we're all the content of space. Space is no thing. Can something come from nothing? It can't. So where do they get this phenomenal manifestation? It appears to be so. We're all appearance, we're all seemingly solid appearances. All seemingly real. But when you investigate, and that's the thing they tell us to do, investigate, have a look. The false cannot stand up to investigation. And when you see the false as false, what must happen?

What must you be left with? You must be left with the truth. Because that's how the mind functions. Good, bad, pleasant, painful, as Shakespeare told you. Happy, sad. Nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. It vibrates into the pairs of opposites. And the trouble is we grasp one and the opposites and not the other. Not seeing everything as it is, absolute. It's not divided. It's two ends of the one stick or two sides of the one coin. If it's not divided, we divide it. And in that division we've separated. And that's where we come. We become this person, this separate entity. this believed in person.

We've seemingly, conceptually, separated ourselves from the one reality. And naturally we suffer accordingly. Because separation is isolation. It's loneliness. It's not ideal. We've tried it, haven't we? Some of us have been lonely. Some of us have been isolated. Not too happy about that. And some of us have recognised and merged back into the one reality. The one being. The one knowing. The one loving to be. That's what Sat, Chita, Nanda is when you look at it. Sat is existence. Chita is consciousness. Ananda is loving to be. body. The other two factors, Nama Rupa, name and form, is my, illusion. The body mind, Nama Rupa, is illusionary.

It seems real. You call it my body. Well innately you know you're not the body, don't you? With that statement, you say my car, my house, my coat. You know you're not the house, the car or the coat. So if you call it my body, maybe you're not the body either. If you don't believe that, question it and have a look. And see, that's all that can happen. Nobody's going to do it for you. The investigation needs to happen by itself. And that's what it moves you to, that life turned thing around. I had to look at what it was pointing to and see for myself.

And it took me to where I could get assistance, to where I could get help. 27 years later, I got to Saga Dada. And I didn't want to go and see him. But there again, it moved me towards him and I had to go and see him. And he pointed out what I'm trying to point out here. That I am not this body, I'm not this mind. And said the same old things that I'd heard many times. But this time I really heard it. And that was the turning point. We stood at the turning point. And that turning point changed this life. was the search was over.

And I came back to Australia and wanted to shout it from the housetops. And I could shout it from the housetops and nobody wanted to hear it. And so I had to get my mouth shut for a while. But that was changed for me too when somebody came up to me one night after a meeting and said I like what you say. And I want what you got. Well that was the opportunity. And I started talking and they heard it. And 40 odd years later they're still around today. And others have heard it and come around. Others have left it and gone away. And I've had a couple come back 30 odd years later.

Left it a bit later but still they're back. And none of it is my doing. No just the mouth piece in which the sounds come, the words come. the proof is what I see before my eyes here. And I know there's a lot of love, a lot of warmth that's opened up and being expressed. Other places I could be in would be a lot of nastiness and a lot of unhappiness. And then the pubs and dives and things I used to frequent. There wasn't much love in that. So you see it can turn around. Yeah, giving you long enough so you can, a lot of you know about it, a lot of you can talk about it, have a taste of it.

So don't, as they say in the scriptures, hide your light under a bushel. You are the light of the world. a light of life that shines through you. Let your light show shine before men, the most thing of good works. And glorify the father, the big daddy, not the big daddy of the bloke in the sky, but the natural intelligence as you are. Let it express. So away you go. Where's that's going to? Thinking of that song. I hear, I see your light come shining from the west down to the east. Any day now, any day now, we shall be released. That just came up when you said we were the last.

You're on. You're on, right? We got about, oh my goodness, we got a lot of happy birthday wishes, so I'm not quite sure if I should read them all, that might be taking a lot the rest of a meeting, but that's from Charlotte, Bill, John, Joe, Joe, we have your balloon here. She sent the flower and chocolates, we ate them straight away. And from Gioti, Estelle, Dave, Svetlana, Lily, William, Oli, Tanya, British Julia, John, and Bridget, she says more, yes, words or thoughts in the mind are just images. Thanks for showing me that I cannot see the truth with the mind. Yes, the mind doesn't understand anything.

It is no comparison to the universal energy, but the small mind and the love are just sacred expressions of it. I'm supremely grateful for you showing me all this. That's beautiful, Bridget. And yes, a lot of us can say that. Beautiful, yes. The gratitude is the sweetest poem of love, isn't it? It's so sweet because it kind of, you know, exhibits sinning separation, that there is me and there is you and I'm grateful to you and so on and so forth. But how else could that life essence express love if not through that beautiful game, this beautiful dance of sinning separation that happens within the dream.

But deeply in your heart, you know better. It's just love, just that one life. And there we meet. If we had Kavisha here, she would sing Rumi for us. And Catherine and she is with us, I'm sure, in her heart and spirit. And we had her yesterday on the big party. So we have Catherine also saying all the best, James and Catherine. And that's it for the online comments. We have 30 people with us online and we have probably more than 30 people with us here. So please share whatever comes up, whatever moved you with the spiel or in general, in the way Bob puts the message.

And generally the lifelong pointing, so selfless and so generous and so available and so uncompromising with no scandals and fallouts and traps of desires and yes, it's something to celebrate. Anyone would like to start and say a word or share something? Please, thank you, Peter. All I want to say is thanks. Lovely. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. We all love you so much and just beautiful. Every time you're up here and you're doing this and it's just wonderful. Thank you. It's the love that you have that's recognising itself. Thank you. It is. Thanks, Bob. Thank you for the unconditional giving, a giving without any expectation which is truly amazing this word.

Thank you. Thanks so much. Yes, thank you, Ruchika. I'm feeling extremely emotional right now and I think I'm picking it up in a few of us. I don't know why but it's mixed with the sweetest of joy but it also brings a tear with it. I don't know what that is, gratitude. Yeah. Thank you. Please. I'd like to thank Bob because he's a wonderful, wonderful creature, beautiful man and I love him dearly. Thank you, Mary. And I think everyone today is feeling the same thing and that's where the emotions come up and the love that we are all one, not separate, there's no separate. Yeah.

Thank you. So true. Now you being? No, no, no. There's someone who was talking about the book. so maybe I'll just then, since I know it's a little bit more intimidating when we have a big crowd to speak in front of the public. So I'll just bring up something that, can you pass me over that red book? Thank you. This is something that a dear friend of Bob has written nearly 20 years ago and what actually moved us about, he republished that book again, James Brahan. He invited Bob to America, Bob stayed there for five weeks and when he was rewriting it, he says, oh my God, I'm amazed how brilliant book have I written.

So we picked up the book and we read it together. It took us probably a month because there's a lot of commitments and a lot of Skype calls and things. So we would read it a couple of pages a day and yes, he was right. This is a bloody amazing book. But why I bring it up here because James is an example, we had a couple of Skype calls with him over the last week of a person who divides his life, the dream, into life before Bob and life after Bob. And I'm on the same page with James, absolutely. Life before Bob was life drowning drowning with suffering, heaviness, unworthiness and lacking joy.

I mean, they were pleasures, absolutely. But the joy of sense of completeness, sense of nothing being wrong, joy of life, like witnessing a miracle of life unfolding without relating it to that poor, miserable me. And James, that was nearly 20 years ago, that's what he says. and he said it in the book, that was quite a bunch of people who had that realization during those five weeks with Bob. And the book, I just ordered a couple of copies in case it was easier for someone, but it is available on Amazon. Anyone can buy it and get it shipped here and printed here. So it's a lovely, lovely piece of pointing, Bob's pointing, digested a little bit by James and that group from which nearly everyone can say today that life divides into life before and life after me.

Thank you. Absolutely. And there's few of us in this room who can already say it and few more hopefully will say it in no time. Yes, I remember the first meetings about the health food shop, you know, trying with the mind to understand what the mind can never understand and years of phone calls and, oh, Bob, I'm, you know, in my head, blah, blah, blah, hours and hours of, you know, selfless giving and then the meeting on the corner of Victoria Road and Hoddle Street in the little church tall, coming selflessly in the middle of winter, you know, finding out someone hadn't paid the rent and then the meetings starting here at the house.

Yeah, and also all the hours and hours and hours of one-to-one, you know, trying to help point back to the truth of this being here, you know, I just, the gratitude is, yeah, definitely before and after Bob, in fact, my son got up at my, at my, actually, it was my 60th birthday and he said a whole bunch of things and then he said, he said, and Bob, I just want to thank you so much for, you changed my life because when my mum started talking to you, life became a lot more, a lot more pleasant. So it's lovely when it passes on to the next generation as well because, you know, when you're not stuck in that conflict all the time, you can actually enjoy your children, you can enjoy your friends, you can enjoy what is and that life became effortless as Bob said, you know, when he met Nisargadatta, Nisargadatta took him beyond the need for further help.

Well, Bob, thank you for taking me beyond the need for further help. Well, thank you. Like Kat said, I feel so much difference after meeting Bob and what I was before that, every problem, anything bad, I say, how can I fix? I become so much worried. Now, they become, okay, no problem, like, they go by themselves, and so good. Everything Bob said in the spill was, I was relaxing all the time, activity of knowing is what you are, and then what the activity happening is not your concern. So, and all body relaxing, and seeing all these people, I feel so gratitude to be here today.

Thank you. Wonderful to have you, Manju. Beautiful. And I have a valid question, just a second of interruption from people who are with us online today. and they are asking about the book that I just presented with dear friend of Bob's, this is James Braha, and the link to the book is on our website, so anyone who is interested online and here, you will find the link to the book, you can have paper copy or you can have Kindle, and I see Corey says, I happen to be there in Florida for James Braha's book. I am just mentioned at the very end of the book.

Wow, Corey, I didn't know that. Corey, yes, Bob remembers it. That's wonderful. I have that candle book, that one I have read and I haven't continued. Oh my goodness, it's a fantastic book, it's just so well written. I will complete that. Yes, James is a writer, a lot of books, every book about Bob's teachings, especially when you have transcripts, he puts it in a way that is so beautifully simple and elegant. I'd imagine every single book as brilliant, but James is a writer, he's written numberless books, so the way he actually narrates the story, running out from a hurricane, seeing things on the way, gathering in the groups, in the room, Bob playing with his little boy, all this is included apart from teachings which are delivered in a way that is, well, I read it when I was still a seeker and I found it to be the best book of Bob's teachings ever written back then and we were rereading it again and yes, the judgment stands.

Although, this is, most of people today, they don't read, so when you listen to the spiel, as much as you may hear it a hundred times, and I've been here when I was a seeker ten years ago or eleven years ago and I heard the spiel and very, very smartly that device here would navigate what it lets in and what it doesn't. But the written word is a little bit less, a little bit more uncompromising in a way. So reading goes through a different sort of a channel. And this is also why we have created this one. This we have created because now as much as you can hear in the talks that there is no self and there is, you're not the body, you're not the mind, it kind of goes through, it feels energy is nice, so you relax, you're kind of sleeping, that soothing, pleasant vibe.

But here you have it written black and white and it delivers sharply and that one pointer will just hit you and oh God. so this is really a weapon of destruction for those programs. I mean, of course, it's still love. There's nothing but love. Everything is love. But it's just so much more uncompromising in a way it is delivered. It is not smoothened up in a beautiful warm story. It is just and it's pure Bob. It's an extraction of his teachings given out in a way that can't be missed really. Can you miss this? Miss identification started with language. When you had enough words to start thinking I or me.

Babies and animals reside in natural state. Can't miss it now. In no natural state. Then the photo that goes with it. The actual image is the smooth beautiful experience as well. It's really beautiful. That's true. Thank you. I would rather really talk about Bob and his impact on us than kill the silence with advertisements although these are expressions of love. If you could please participate and give us a little bit more of a juicy present sensations. Yes, Gilbert. Please. Yesterday we had a party for Bob and I cooked a chocolate cake. It was lovely. Delicious. More chocolate cake. I said it was an evil chocolate cake.

It was wonderful. And I haven't cooked many cakes in my life but I thought I'd better make one. It was all right. I had a few people ask me for the recipe which I'm keeping secret. But if somebody asked me for the recipe for this I think it's one of Bob's pointers which is watch the mind and see how it operates. It's such a potent pointer and it's really a really potent thing. Watch the mind and see how it operates. And I would add to that the fact that awareness is thought free. Those two pointers together is enough. Watch the mind and see how it operates.

And awareness is thought free. So the character that's seemingly caught up in the narrative and the stories and the celebration and the self- and the self-deprivation or whatever. It's all appearing as concepts on the consciousness. What is aware of the consciousness? This is the key. What is it that's aware? you can't name it. You can't negate it. It's what you are. It's what we all are. And it's one without a second. One consciousness not divided into my consciousness and your consciousness, Bob's consciousness, Kat's consciousness. It's not divided. It cannot be divided. Nothing can divide it. And when you think about it, how can this concept divide anything?

A thought or a concept has no substance or independence of itself. It can't, as Bob says, when you investigate it, it can't stand up to the investigation. It falls apart. And that's where watching the mind and see how it operates has its potential. And the potentiality comes from the noumenon, the unmanifest. and the manifest has no power. The appearance has no power. It's a dream. And there's a dream within a dream. And the dream within the dream is me, the belief in me. And by seeing that the me is not real, that dream falls away. But the dream of the consciousness remains. But what knows the consciousness is not dreaming.

there we go. Happy birthday, Bob. Beautiful. Bob, question. How we all completely forget ourselves when I realize then how can I be such a fool of thinking I was Manju? How it happened in the whole world and we all and eventually we come to know. How? How fully forget it and thought about person and take it as a person and go to the world and survive until you die. me. Yeah, you want to answer that, Bob? What was it? How come we have forgotten who we are? Completely. So completely. Not completely. Not completely. Well, we pick up words, we learn words, we go to school, we learn more words and each word puts a different meaning on things until we come believing in the word.

And the word's not the thing. If you recognise it, what's a word? Word is a sound. What's a sound? A noise. What's a noise? It's a vibration. That's all it is, a vibration of energy. Just the same as the body made up of earth, air, water, fire, water, space, made up of elements. We take those, are you the air, are you the fire, are you the water, you're not any of those elements. The elements can be broken down to subtyplic particles into pure energy. So the body, mind is nothing but energy. And what's energy? Just a vibration, a movement. And what it's vibrating as, it only appears to be real.

Look at an ocean, if the ocean is still, there's nothing there. Something will move and it sends up hundreds of little wavelets, ripples. But each one of those ripples or waves is still nothing but water. It's still never changed. And we change everything with the word. It tells you in the Bible, in the beginning was the word. 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. Isn't that a fact? You've got a word for everything. And there was nothing that was made without the word. So we've learned all these words and we believe in the word.

Now look at the word belief. belief. You'll say belief's not the actual. You look into your dictionary, what's the definition of belief? An unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. I mean, we haven't looked into these things, we're just taking them for granted. When your parents tell you, you're little Billy, or so and so, I am little Billy, we don't question it. An unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason, acceptance of an alleged fact, without positive knowledge or proof. You put your words to the belief, is this true or is it false? See if it will stand up to the fact.

If I say, go down to the ocean, if I said to you, get me a bucket of blue water out of the sea, what would you say to me? You'd say, don't be an idiot, because you know the sea's not blue. But does it stop appearing to be blue? It doesn't. The sky appears to be blue canopy over the sky. But the sky is nothing but space. Water in a mirage. And the famous one about the snake and the rope. When was a piece of rope over a snake? Never was. People standing on it in the dark night, it was a bit wet and it slipped under their feet, think it's a serpent, a snake.

And immediately the fear and the trembling and all the activities come up because of that belief. we've got so many beliefs that we latch onto and upset ourselves, fear, anger and depression, all comes from relief. But recognise that, question, have a look into it, see if it's true. The false cannot stand up to investigation. That is the fact. Pass me the line, please. 365 days ago, it was Bob's 94th birthday. I was sitting there and I said something, Bob's Parkinson shake a little bit and now Bob Parkinson doesn't shake as much as 365 days ago. Well, that implies the realness of idea of progress. So I made progress.

Congratulations to myself. Which is completely illusory. After the meeting, Peter and Gilbert were in front of the door and Gilbert told Peter that he's a case. I mean, Heyman is a case. A good case so you can work on him. I know I'm still a case, but a better case, you know, and more useful than a suitcase. I've got the suit on tonight. Beautiful. So I'm going to ask Gilbert, do you still have the same opinion that I'm a case, yes or no? My opinions are worthless, just like yours or anyone else's. So just take it as a pointer. It's right. Is there anything in the case?

Is there anything in the case? This is brilliant. empty case. I didn't say you were hopeless case. I can tell you this, if you keep hanging around and looking, that case will shine. open the case. I'll never close it again. Beautiful. No case. No cell. Just in case. Just in case. Case closed. case. That was the best case. That was the best case. Beautiful. It's no case scenario. No case scenario. I rest my case, your honour. case together. I'm a little nervous talking still here, so that's interesting. But for me, it's all about the energy and the energy that you exude, Bob. And I'm just grateful for that energetic presence that you radiate and I feel permeate through everyone in the group.

So, yeah, for me, like, it's the words, but it's more the meaning and the energy that comes through the words that really, really hits here in the heart. And I come here and the light glows brighter. That's why I keep coming back. So, thank you for your bright torch and, yeah, that love that comes through that energy. So, thank you, Bob. Thank you, Mary. Yeah, thank you for hearing it in the right spot. Yes, and everyone probably does since you're here. Julia? I have a before Bob story. I used to live in another country. when I met you, I just, I, um, it didn't take me long to know I wanted to be here and just milk what I could of what I can.

do. Um, I'm really grateful. Um, I was thinking about, um, how stupid we've been, or I've been to buy into these ideas. And that was something I think that really shifted a lot because I was really into these ideas before I met you. You know, like, I really loved them. But I, I think it was meeting you or getting to know you that I came to see that it's like, all right, we'll stop. What if, what if, what if I could just fall in love with what the ideas are pointing at? Instead of the ideas. I was saying, I said, what if I could fall in love with what the ideas are pointing at instead of just the ideas?

You know, and, um, yeah, and it's, it's hard to speak sometimes. You know, it's like, what can I say? I was thinking a little bit about what she was saying about how could we be so stupid? And I think what comes to my mind a little bit is, you know, just this idea that I remember thinking about once, what's, what does Jesus Christ and the Dalai Lama have in common? Um, maybe when they were little babies, they grew up in a family that was telling them they were something, they were, they were God, they were, you were the universe, you were everything. It wasn't somebody saying you're a piece of shit, grow up, you're bad, and you're da-da-da-da-da.

And then they started to believe in this and then more layers upon layers of layers and layers and, and, and how could that not have been? You know what I mean? I mean, my, I've got, I've got kids and I think I sensed when they were babies, you know, that when you're looking into their eyes, they're just, at what point did we lose this perfection? You know, we never did. It's just a thought that, that's all, that was believed in. It's, it's simple. And, and I'm so grateful. I love you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Julia. Yeah, and thank you for everything, Julia. I would like to actually acknowledge and thank Julia.

Many of us was in her home yesterday. She has opened a home for a bunch of strangers. I mean, I mean, majority of them went in strangers, right? Isn't that what you're doing now? Well, yes, but she put a spread of food and she put, and then year by year, she changed the country to be around us. She, she moved from America to Australia. She's putting a golden bed cloth on the, on the tables in Sofia. And this year she also opened her home. This is just, this is love in action. I mean, showing up is love in action. Everything's really love in action, but I just, I'm just, I'm really grateful for having her here amongst us.

I love you. And every one of you too. Thank you. magnificent. Sensational. And she's also talked Bob, even though he was reluctant at first, because he does a couple of Zoom meetings in a, in a weekday. She talked him into having an extra call just for her countrymen. So tomorrow, which is Sunday afternoon for Americans, Julia's hosting, and Bob is speaking to people who cannot join us in the middle of their nights, which is, yeah, which is so selfless, and it's so beautiful. He's the selfless one, though. I mean, he's doing this like, I mean, what, now four times a week? Yeah. You find Bob, but it's like, but I understand it's joyful to share this, isn't it?

You know, it's just lovely to just, love. It's energy much. It energy. Yeah. And apart from four times a week, he's got couple of handfuls of individual calls. And he always, this is beautiful, because we have absolutely wonderful, easy life, filled with joy, and just discovering moments as it unfolds, without desires. And when anything comes up, like someone needs to hear him, or speak with him, or share, or open up, that always goes first. Other plans get cancelled, and he is there, available to help those who need him. I'm witnessing. Yes, yes. I think I emailed him not too long ago. That's right. And I said, I'd like to meet with you.

Wait, Shikha, we're going to give you the mic, because... I'm a perfect example. I actually emailed Bob, I think a few months back, and I said, I'd like to meet him. And I thought, oh, maybe he will respond, maybe he won't. But instantly, I think, I got an email saying that, yes, you can come on Saturday at this time. I tried to negotiate a time, it was like, no, that's it, Saturday, this time you come. And I came and met him, and that was actually a very profound meeting. It was so beautiful. He was there, and I think the best I liked was just being in his presence.

That's what is the big, big deal. To be and soak that presence, that dynamic being of his is just amazing. So, thank you so much for that unconditional love and acceptance. Totally unconditional. It's beautiful. Thank you so much. Thank you. Cannot express with words the gratitude I feel for those meetings that I've had a few of them now, and you've never said no. And I come and, come and, I don't know how much I trouble you with all those questions or whatever. it is. And it's beautiful. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes, thank you. The same happened for me too. About four months ago, I emailed Bob, and Kat replied so quickly, because I was sick of reading, reading, reading, how many books to read and until when?

And maybe I got to see Bob and Kat email me, okay, you can come. Then I come. Then it becomes much easier. And thank you. Thank you. So the question that Manju asked earlier, which is a very common question among a lot of people, a lot of seekers, why does this, you know, why do we forget who we are? Bob answers that question in his first book, What's Wrong With Right Now, if you don't think about it. It's one of the first questions that's addressed in the book. And Bob answers it by using a common story that's told in the Advaita tradition, which is where, you know, Bob would effectively come through.

And that is that the intelligence energy throws a veil over itself for whatever reason, and then it releases that veil for whatever reason. And it's a story, but it's a, you know, it's a cute story that you can, that I think answers that question quite well. But fundamentally, it doesn't matter why the illusion appears because from the point of view of the intelligence energy, the awareness, samsara is nirvana, nirvana is samsara, there's no difference. It's all that, everything is that. Awareness doesn't give a shit whether or not, you know, the patterns through which it expresses knows it or not because, you know, the patterns themselves, regardless of whether they know themselves or not, are still that.

and Bob has often said to me in the past, you know, whoever comes here, whoever doesn't come here, whether they understand or they don't understand, they're still that whether they know it or not, fundamentally. And Bob was fortunate enough 50 years ago to have heard the message and the veil was removed, the clouds dissipated, and the light shone and he's been sharing that light for the last 50 years and, yeah, we're very fortunate to hear it and I'm very fortunate to have been able to hear it from Bob for the last 13 years since the first time that I came through that door in 2010 and, yeah.

Thank you, Graham. You want to say something, darling? A veil of ignorance, ignoring the true nature, ignoring what's obvious. I'm master of it. I'm working on it to accept what is. I just want to announce that. Thank you, Gilbert. It is impossible for me to stop coming here. We can arrange it for you. I appreciate it. We know God. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's still open. hard case. So, you know, there are lots of religions and traditions and a lot of those religions have stories, lots of stories, mythological stories and symbolic stories. and they're rich, you know, like the Bible has so many amazing rich pointers in it, but they're not available unless you've had some experience of what it's pointing at.

You have to have a touch of experience of what's being pointed at, otherwise you don't recognize it. So, experience is seemingly very important. But in the Hindu tradition they have this story about Shiva and Shakti. And Shiva is no thing. He's no thing. And there's a thing, there's something called Shiva's dance, which some of the quantum physicists got onto because this quantum energy or whatever that's appearing as quarks and protons and electrons and atoms and things. This is the dance of Shiva. But Shiva doesn't dance. He's no thing. So, Shakti, his partner, dances for him. And the phenomenal universe that we are experiencing is the dance of Shiva performed by Shakti.

And in the mythology it says that because Shiva has nothing to do, he's not doing the dance. He goes to sleep. But he keeps one eye open. Not two eyes, that's duality. He keeps one eye open. And that's the seeing that's happening spontaneously for all of us. It's not my seeing or your seeing. It's spontaneously happening. And if you look at it carefully, you see that that seeing is spontaneously happening. It doesn't ask for permission from me. Can I start seeing now? And when you wake up in the morning, the eyes open and the seeing is already there. and then those first few moments, maybe there's no story of me.

It's just seeing. Things are registering. And then the memory, the me of memory comes in and dumps in the whole narrative about, oh, shit, I've got to get to work, I've got to have a coffee, I've got to have a shower, I've got to do this, all that. And that's the story of me, which it's not absolutely necessary. It's like psychological suffering is based on the belief in me. So the point is that come through Bob in the books and in the meetings is have a look, see if you can find this me. Really have a look and see if you can find it. And by seeing that it's not real, that you can't find it, then all of that psychological suffering has nothing to attach itself to, so it dissipates.

The conflict disappears because it's all depending on the belief in being a separate entity. And that is not real. The phenomenal universe is not real, it's an appearance and it's pointed out over and over again. But we somehow, we've got this investment in me and the stories and everything. After all, I have to have something I can contribute. And here I am contributing something, but it's actually nothing. And nobody really wants to hear it because everyone already knows it. It's only the me that wants this and doesn't want that. That's my penny's worth. Beautiful. Did you want to say something about? Yeah. Go on. Yeah, what's that?

Shiva, Gilbert pointed out, is static. Shakti, his consort, is energy, the vibration, the dynamic. The dance is the display of all this manifestation. It's the dance, Shakti dancing. It's all appearance. Mm-hmm. like you have the field of probability and you have the actuality, the emptiness and the form, the sky and the earth. Like in shamanism, you have the father sky, consciousness, emptiness. And the earth, mother earth, the feminine aspect. So we have Shakti dancing feminine aspect and we have consciousness of the sky or Shiva or potentiality. It's not realized yet. It's not actualized yet. It's just potentially there. So you can't say it is there.

You can't say it is. It is as a potential, which is not a thing. And you can't say it isn't there. And you have yin yang, which is the other polarity. You have the passive and the active. The active is masculine, the passive is feminine. In Chinese, which is wonderful, because then you have reversed sort of the, they're all metaphors. because the metaphor in one culture active is associated with masculine and another active is associated with the feminine. Wonderful. You can just grow over the metaphors and see where they point. Like Julia was saying, instead of falling in love with the pointers, fall in love with what they point at.

Go beyond the words. Or like Adriana was saying, look at the energy, look how it wakes up your heart, how it resonates. Doesn't matter what the words say, every pointer can be rubbish because they're just words and words are duality. But yes, what is beyond them, Catherine, you want to contribute on that? Yeah, just another aspect that I found very beneficial when I first started coming here was obviously breaking down the mental concepts. and one thing that Bob always said back then and still does is the availability that this is your true nature and it's available to everybody, not just those special few. And back then I'd gathered a lot of spiritual concepts and there was a lot of talk about being present, always being present.

And of course, you know, that big fat concept of time, of measurement, which then brings in the whole idea of a process of meditation, of technique, of then becoming. And I found I had to look at that over and over and over again because I was quite attached to a system of meditation until I sort of had to pick that apart and see that that actually comes from the mind as well. perhaps much more subtly. And Bob kept pointing to the fact that it's right here and now, which involves no time at all, of course. And time is a mental concept. The whole mind is time, really.

The me is time. And so all these things I sort of read about that I had to sort of struggle with slowly fell away and, you know, the immediately is always here. It's a great thing to see that. It's a really wonderful thing. Just kept chipping away at it, but it is all that anyway. It's a beautiful thing. Thank you so much again, Bob. Beautiful. Thanks. Just to add on to that, what Catherine was saying, it seems to be a process of subtraction. There are no techniques. Yeah. You can't add something to it. You can't do something to get there. It is a subtraction or a netty-netty.

Not this, not that. And I'm doing. And I'm doing. Did you want to say something about it? No? I'm just amazed at the diversity of points of view and people here. It's incredible. That's a testament to Bob, isn't it? Your ability, Bob, to just accept everyone, no matter who they have, where they come from, what ideas they have. Even you. Even me. Or you. Or us together, perhaps. No, no. All the blocks. But more than that, I think, oh, sorry, Bob. If it's only one, how could I not accept it? True. That's it exactly. That's the take-home thing here, isn't it? That even in our multiplicity and diversity, all these beautiful people, all these ugly faces, everything.

I think, you know, when I'm talking about cough, yeah. That's enough for me. It's all good, though, isn't it? It's all good, isn't it? It's beautiful. I just want to say one thing, everything. One thing. One thing. One thing. One. No, a little bit. Well said. Well said. Bob, did you want to say something? No? Oh, sorry. Good on you, Pete. Good on you, Pete. Yeah. I'm going to try to say something as well. I don't know if the thoughts have consolidated, but I came up with an analogy last night. Gilbert talks about observing the mind. Maybe I'm misphrasing, but observing your thoughts, and I started to think of it like the thoughts, because I struggle with that conflict of the immediate thoughts that come to pass, like the really apparent ones, and then the deeper, more pervasive thoughts that you don't think of in the same way, but they are still thoughts.

I started to think of it like a glacier, and the fresh snow being the thoughts that you sort of, I'm hungry, or I'm running late, or, you know, but they sort of, they fall upon, and they're the most obvious ones, and they're the ones you sort of most strongly identify with, at least the easiest ones to sort of, okay, I can see that, those are my thoughts, but they sort of rest upon this deep, consolidated glacial ice, which is sort of your past thoughts and your experiences, and those are kind of harder to sort of see as being thoughts, because you sort of focus on the sort of surface level, you know, the snowflakes settling on the top, but you sort of slowly need to sort of melt each successive layer, to get the sort of, you know, who you are underneath, all those sort of, you know, thoughts, and they're just hard to sort of, struggling to come up with the words, yeah, it's hard to, you sort of, you feel yourself reacting, like I feel myself reacting to a moment, sort of, whether it's in this, where I'm feeling, you know, anxious for speaking in front of people, and it's not something I'm, you know, thinking about, but it's sort of just coded into me from my past experiences, from my, you know, all my previous sort of memories that I think that I have, and I associate with, but those are still thoughts, but they just feel much more controlling, like dominating, but to sort of, once you sort of realize that those are still just thoughts, and they're sort of a bit more automatic, then you can sort of start to melt them away, and I can sort of see myself, you know, less strongly identifying with them once I recognize that they're still just thoughts, they're just a bit more automatic than the ones that I think I have more control over, but I have control over none of it, and sort of, the metaphor, I'm going to try and write some kind of poem about it, but I figure once you melt all that ice, eventually, you know, there's that, the concept of place you'll rebound with the land, underneath, after you have all that weight that mounts off, it decompresses and sort of expands, and I figured that could be once you melt the glacial ice, then you sort of, who you really are can sort of be decompressed and express itself in its original form, yeah, words.

It says, it tells you in the scriptures to detach, all those thoughts come up, detach, let them be, they're not, not you, you are the one intelligence energy, thoughts come, thoughts go, we fix it and keep them there, that's the problem, just detach from, let them be, see how it unfolds. but hip hop also uses this beautiful metaphor about the thought, feeling and emotion being like ice, water and steam, you know, like emotion in the body can get so solid, like trauma, like repeated sort of a thinking, it become an iceberg, it becomes something that is really hurtful and tough, but as you say, you know, the more recognition, the more melting of that hardness until it evaporates like a steam and off it goes.

We have another comment here from British Julia who says, I keep putting that silly veil back on, you don't do it darling, you know the doer, can't wait to meet you in person, oh yeah, Dito, you are so welcoming and kind and within the dream that heart energy does attract. That's British Julia, I think she's coming in a couple of weeks, two or three weeks. Right. So yes, looking forward to seeing you Julia in person and there's two more comments. Bradley, we make up the thought story then seek a technique or ritual to get rid of it. We paint the canvas of consciousness with thoughts and then complain about the color.

Beautiful. Yeah, you can put it in a nice poetic statement for sure. Thank you. Ram? The very first meeting that I attended, I recall one of the pointers that really kind of hit me in that meeting was thought is a vibrating pattern of energy. right? Now we, there's a lot, a lot of time is spent analyzing thoughts and what they are, what they're not and all this but fundamentally there is no thinker of a thought and if that one is actually seen and understood clearly and the whole thing just collapses. It's like a deck of cards and the belief in the thinker is what holds the deck of cards up together because that belief in the thinker is the belief in me.

The thinker, the so-called thinker is the me. What you, you know, you think that you're thinking those thoughts and if there's a belief that you think that you're thinking those thoughts and then you believe the follow-on from that is I can control it, I can change it, I can do something with it, I can make it better, I can make it worse, I can, I can suppress it, whatever, all these other stories follow on from that belief in me or the belief in the thinker but recognise that the thinker is just another thought and the whole thing is arising in consciousness, arising in presence awareness.

Yeah, beautiful. What are you going to do with it? Nothing, yes. Andy, would you like to say something? Come on. What about Jim? Oh, hang on. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Who's going first? Okay. Yeah, it's very nice to be here, Jim, and it's been a long time since I've been here and I'm so happy that I'm here to, you know, to sort of share your birthday and of course I love you. And I remember I saw what you were pointing at at my very first time I met you and I was sitting over there on a chair and I wanted to run out screaming. I was full of fear.

I couldn't believe and I thought there's a trick to this and I was trying desperately to work my way out of it. But the point being that it's not really that you said as you said before, there's nothing that you said that I had not heard before. there's nothing you said that night I had never heard before and then for some reason I heard it. And so like the point being that it's not really that it's an idea or anything, it's that you made me investigate in my own experience for the first time really and it can be quite frightening. It can be quite frightening but it's the best thing that ever happened.

This is just you know I mean there's a lot of word thinking like one of the big problems in the world is people thinking and arguing in words. but this is just really practical and if you sort of think it sounds too wordy you're probably right. Like it's practical but you've got to be the one that does it you know you can lead a horse to water you can't make a drink and it really is just giving a nice salt cloth to lick but it really is just that that you've got to do it and you are you to the extent that there is an entity you've got you know you've got to do the investigating in your own experience and if you don't do the investigating in your own experience they're just words happy birthday thank you Jim Andy it was just that thing where Ram you were saying beautifully about collapsing me collapsing in awareness once you realise that that's an artifice or invention and that there's no substance and what to do about it is nothing because intelligence just operates on itself there's nothing that you actually have to do it's just the awareness itself works on everything and that's a beautiful thing and I think we you know Bob often starts the session with you know there's nothing I can teach you that's the thing you know it's not something you have to memorise or believe in or anything it's really giving allowing that intelligence to fully operate in you by collapsing any belief structures and it just works thank you Bob for providing an opportunity for this to express I brought a friend here the other day a couple of weeks ago and he said what a marvellous thing you know there's really you can't just go to any place and just talk about non-duality you know this oneness of being so you provide great opportunity where we can be in the presence of that sharing so yay without without cultishness you know and that's important too very important yeah Bob can't stress it enough forget the messenger get the message and Mary can you pass on to Mary just what the gentleman was saying just now you're correct there's no doer we're not the doers so it has to happen on its own accord awareness has to take place so when we say we're going to do meditation do whatever it's an indication but not necessarily it will happen because we're not we don't choose anything so we the happening happens the thoughts happen even though we say we live in thoughts we live in the past most of the times in the future and then we'll miss the now where things are happening but as far as us doing anything we don't do a thing even awakening it will happen and like Bob said earlier and somebody else we can hear the same thing over and over and over again until one day we hear with a different ear and see with different eyes and that's it and there's a lot of pointers where you can be awakened but if that awareness is not ready or wants to because we're not the doers we just what do you call it like little dummies you know it just plays the game that's all they're just playing the game it's just a dance it's not there's no reality no one gets hurt no one you know does anything and good and bad is the same it's a balance of life the yin and yang it's the same thing so yeah I just wanted to agree with what you said was about I mean Bob too of course by all means he's the master what Bob said is everything it's a fact you know it's true because if you really listen to them there's so many pointers there that if you're meant to wake up they're there yeah definitely thank you Bob you've done a lot for me too thank you Mary yeah we sell it so your transformation was delightful I just wanted to say what's coming up is the truth eats away the lie it's not this little me who has to take action that we've identified with our entire lives it's the truth that eats away the lie the lie is the story of me and all its naming and claiming so the truth itself eats away the lie and there's no doer totally agree I have a couple of comments you wanted to say something no just very quickly if I don't speak I'm probably just going to like explode so I don't really have a choice just I don't really know what to say except that like I don't know what's happened in the last 10 years with Bob like I don't know if it's a pointer I don't know if it's energy I don't know if it's a transmission or combination of anything you want to call it it doesn't make a difference go through it's right I actually got no idea but somehow Bob pointed to that and all there is is that and everything is that and for that I'm grateful and so loving and so much expression of absolute joy but there's no one to claim any of it it's just joyous celebration of that and that's all that's that I have a couple of comments from people who are online with us and we're going to wrap it up and thank you everyone who were pointing to the fact that yes that was all truth in every word there is no doer who can do the investigation and the whole thing is about telling you that you have to do that and there's no paradox because the way the pointing happens is through resonation so this comments pointers are to touch your heart and from that the discipline comes of true investigation looking within not a doer is doing that this is the discipline of the heart coming and calling for home which it never left really I have so it was beautifully pointed in many many different ways to the same thing which initially may seem paradoxical like oh you have to do investigation but there is no you to do it yeah that's the smart as mind answering question to actually avoid the task but the truth is it is the heart that has to call for it it is the resonation that has to call for it and we have Bill who says about 15 years ago I made the journey to deepen a couple of years in a row from the US it is rare that you will find a genuine teacher who is as accessible as Bob is the one on ones I had with him just sitting comfortably on his couch were so helpful and so meaningful for me to me I'll always be very grateful to you Bob for your kindness your love and your clarity that's Bill not the Bill from Wenzel he came from US and JB says Bob I'm so thankful for all the dedication and wealth of sharing that you provide I love you man and that's that from the online contribution I think we may want to make an attempt to be in Sofia on time for other people who are going to show up so thank you everyone you you