Separation is isolation. Sailor Bob and troops on 5 Nov 2023

Because with this idea of being a person, a separate entity, an individual, separation is isolation. Isolation is loneliness, fear, trouble, not recognising it as all one essence, that pattern shapes and forms of experiences and expresses as everything. And everybody, including you, me and everyone else, is that. There is nothing, no thing that is not that. But they call it in Hinduism, in the Advaita teachings, as a phenomenal manifestation. And the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. All these believed in separate entities, and all the separation that's in this manifestation, is appearance only. It's only in these seemingly so. Like the mirage in water.

Or the mirage that appears. and the! and the! the the! the the the is the conceptual image we take on, and believe ourselves to be that separate entity. But when it's investigated, you see it's nothing separate. And they call it, in some of the scriptures, the phenomenal manifestation. The appearance is what it seems to be. And the appearance is, it takes place in the basic space, the phenomena. The basic space. The basic space. What are we all in right now? What are we all in right now? We're all in space. Try and get out of it if you can. And look around you, and everything you see, there's nothing you can postulate or think of, that could be outside of that space.

What would it be in? Now can you find a centre to space? You can't find any centre to it at all. Try and find where does it begin? Where does it start from? You can't find any beginning to it. Or any end. What boundaries has it got to it? Has it got any shape? Got any form? Well, space hasn't got any shape or form. It is no thing. Yet, you can't postulate or think of anything at all that could be outside of space. What would it be in? You must realise it would have to be in space. So all this manifestation is the content of space.

Space is no thing. Can something come from no thing? When I say no thing, I don't mean nothing, a vacuum or a void. I mean no thing. No pattern, no shape, no form. And space, they call a cognising emptiness. An emptiness that has this capacity of cognising or knowing. And the Buddha told me that a couple of thousand years ago when he said emptiness is form. And all this emptiness is patterning into shape, patterns and forms. Which we all are. Emptiness is form. And the form can't be anything other than the emptiness. So that is basically what everything is. Now that pattern, shape and form appearing to have, suffused with it intelligence energy, appears to be solid, substantial and real.

Well what happens when you go to sleep at night and you start to dream? What happens in the dream? Don't you, you can be in the hills, the mountains or the rivers or the city or in your bed, anywhere at all in that dream. All seems very real. And the activities that go on it. I'm in that realm, seemingly very real. What happens when you wake up? Where does the dream go? It disappears. And you're back. And what you don't realise when you wake up, you wake up to this dream. Which is a waking dream. Because when that dream at night disappears, so the places you were in and the things you were doing, that all disappeared along with it.

When you wake up in the morning, what happens? The dream seemingly starts off from where it left off the night before. And the room, the persons, the places and the things are still there. And they continue on from there. Seemingly continue on. But realise when you recognise it is a dream, while we believe it's a dream, we get locked into it and suffer accordingly. When you recognise it as a dream, you see the difference. As this architect will tell you. Realise you are dreaming a dream you call the world. And he says stop looking for ways out. And he's talking about this waking dream. We're in this dream and things are happening and we're looking for ways around them, through them, over them or under them.

All dream. We don't realise. And that's what needs to be recognised. What do you need to do for that? Well they say investigate. That's one of the things they will tell you, to investigate. Because they say the false cannot stand up to investigation. And when you look into it you'll see it's true. A lot of these beliefs we've taken on, when we look into it, are really false. They're not true at all. You go down to the ocean, you'll see a blue sea. Is that true? Well try and get a bucket of blue water out of it and see whether it's true or not. You'll never ever get a bucket of blue water out of the sea.

The blue sky, look outside the clear day, there's a seemingly blue canopy over it. You go up thousands of feet in the plain, you think you'll ever fly into that blueness? You won't. Because it only appears to be, sir. The water in the mirage. The rainbow. Going up on a cloudy day you'll see all these colours in the sky. The colours are not there. It's just the sun shining and reflecting into the clouds forms the different colours. The snake and the rope is one of the ones they talk about in Hinduism. The fellow steps out of his cabin on a wet night and treads on a wet piece of rope.

He believes he's trod on a stake. And immediately the goose pimples arise. The heron stands on end and gets the shakes and fear comes into him because he believes the bite of the serpent. And it's all sorts of concepts and ideas. Somebody comes out and shines and, look, it's only a piece of wet rope. Well, the minute there's a great sense of relief, but the fear and the trembling don't die down straight away, because they've been physical sensations and have been stirred up. have been stirred up and if it doesn't take on board it's only a piece of rope it'll come back again and hoard it.

When we look at these sort of things and see ourselves that we're not this person that is suffering and this fearful unhappy person this individual that thinks he's not good enough and all the other concepts we get about it you'll recognize the truth and that's the scriptural saying know the truth and the truth will set you free it'll set you free because you've investigated and seeing the false as false and the false cannot stand up to investigation so we've learned all these words all these concepts and take them to believe to be and how does that function well have a look at it something comes up and I like it how do you know well you've had this sensation before investigated and you know it's a good one and we don't want the seeming good ones to go not realizing that there's all this manifestation is transient it's all constantly changing this body you walked into the room with is not the same body you've got now there are thousands of cells dying in it right at this moment and being replaced and each cell knows what to do that replaces it because the liver cells are not going to replace the heart cell heart cells are not going to replace the skin cells so each one knows what to do what's happening by itself what are you doing about it yourself as this person nothing so we see it's all transient and that's what we don't realize everything is changing constantly transiting and that when you look at time you'll see that past present and future is there a past if you don't think about it and can you live in the past well try it test it out can you live a moment ago you can't live a moment ago you might recall it and sometimes you can't even recall it if nothing about it but unless you recall it it's gone and what you did yesterday or last week is the same if it's not in your memory you can't recall it it's gone for good but you can't go back and live it you can't live a moment in the future you can anticipate and imagine the future you can't tell me what you're going to do when you leave here you might have a concept and idea about it but it will be anticipation and imagination but you can't actually live again so what do you have a moment in the future so what do you have a moment in the future so what do you got past present and future what's this presence which they call presence awareness presence awareness before any sensations come up pre-sense this immediacy are you unaware right now and you realize no i'm not unaware so if you're not unaware you must be aware so what did you have to do about that if you're not unaware you are aware right now and that presence is spontaneous it's got no duration and all time is as duration as the beginning and the end but spontaneity doesn't have any duration try and grasp it now i've got it right now but as you're saying that it's moved on it's gone so that is all there is a spontaneous presence awareness and that is what you and i and everything else is we appear in different patterns shapes and forms but the appearance is not the reality it's only what seems to be they call it the phenomenal manifestation and that's what the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be so we're all appearance taking ourselves to be this person this individual this separate entity and we suffer accordingly because of that it's only me that can be fearful only me that can be unhappy or depressed guilty shameful jealous or envious me is the cause of all psychological suffering and this me is only a conceptual image a thought up image as i said before goes on a thought comes up and you don't know what your next thought is can anyone tell me what your next thought is you'll say i don't know but a thought will come up and what do you do you grasp it i think and as soon as you grasp it with i think what have you done you've created a subject a thinker a thinker that's thinking this thought and the thought that's being thought is a spontaneous emanation coming out with i thinker so it's become the object so thinking has become subject object but if you ask yourself and look into that can there be a thinker without thinking and you realize there can't be a thinker without thinking and can there be a thought without thinking there can't be the thought without thinking so thinking is the activity the being that's the life coming the life coming and thinking needs a pattern shape and form to express through and that's what this body mind entity is the pattern shape and form in which thought feeling emotion and everything expresses so the thought look at the thought i think and can the thought i think it can't the same with the seeing can the thought i see see can the thought i hear hear the thought i feel the thought i touch can the i thought do any of those things where there is seeing hearing tasting touching smelling feeling thinking the ing is something that's happening right now it doesn't need the me to relate to we've taken it to be because we learnt words well when you learn words you have to know what learnt the words where did you begin and you all say i was born a lot of you out here won't say that because you've seen through it and know it but those that haven't i said i was born but can anybody actually remember your birth when you look at that you realise you can't actually remember your birth and you look into that you see why how could you remember your birth if you had no words and you didn't have any words at birth and you didn't learn any words till you're about two two and a half somewhere around that age when your parents fussing around you speaking and you listened the capacity of reasoning was developing and you're able to listen to what they're saying and learn the words so you see when you look at that and remember that you see for that first couple of years you were without words and what would that tell you it tells you that you are prior to the mind because that's all the mind is the thoughts words ideas images and if you were functioning before the word it means you're prior to the word well to look into that you say well when did you begin you believe you began at birth but did you you go back and have a look investigate and see investigate these things how did you come about well go back as far as your father and your mother that animating of pattern of life essence that intelligence energy that pattern shapes and forms your father enabled in that pattern through the breath the reasoning and the heartbeat and all the rest of it and the food he's eaten enabled in that pattern a little microparticle called a sperm to form that sperm was a blob of goo it was suffused with intelligence it knew what to do and the same in your mother that animating life essence that intelligence energy to your mother it was knew what to do also because it formed an egg or an oven and that oven attached itself to the wall of the uterus telling you that it was formed it was suffused with intelligence knowing what to do and the sperm being suffused with intelligence knowing what to do swam to the oven and penetrated the oven and those two coming together formed the little embryo the little fetus which is what you are today those two coming together doubled that cell redoubled it and the little embryo formed which nine months later become the little baby that little fetus which is what you are today we've lost sight of that and believe we are this person that's a lot of intelligence energy coming together so you came from the life of your parents and where do they come from?

the life of their parents and where do they come from? the life of their parents and you realise when the Sargated tells you there is only life there is no body who lives alive nobody we believe we are these body minds but there is no body that lives alive life lives on life and out of life more life comes and that's what Christ told you I am the way I am the truth I am the life he wasn't talking about himself he was talking about that sense of presence which expresses through the mind as the thought I am that is the life that you are in right there because each one of us still says I am you know that I am-ness the sense of presence the intelligence energy to which that I am you say I am Bill or I am Jane or whatever name you might have given put the label on it which discriminated and miss sight of what we are the actuality the pure intelligence energy and take ourselves to be the person I am Bob the Australian the good fella or not so good the seeming person the mask the conceptual image and functioning from that point it's the reason it's only me that can be unhappy it's only me that can be fearful because I have taken a belief that put a concept on this believed in person a conceptual image a thought up image of what I believe myself to be only me that can be fearful only me that can be anxious jealous or angry that's the cause of that psychological suffering is the cause of all my problems and the fear the anger the depression the unhappiness the guilt are the effects of the cause isn't that what they call so called karma?

cause and effect now what happens if I investigate that and ask myself the simple question can there be an effect if I'm not relating to the cause well have a look at it try it out and realise if you're not relating to any cause where can the effect lodge or what can it be? so you'll see the cause of all your psychological problems the fear the anger the depression and all that is because of that belief we've taken on that this me is this body this body mind entity this person this separate entity not realising this person this separate entity is only the pattern shape and form which needs to express through because this absolute awareness and that's what it is absolute presence awareness Sat Chit Ananda existence consciousness bliss name and form existence is Sat Sat anyone who is not existing right now you know I'm existing Chit is conscious anyone who is not conscious you know I'm conscious anyone who is unhappy doesn't want to be unaware doesn't want to be here right now nobody wants to be dead right now you might have times when you feel you want and all the troubles going on but in the actuality of you don't want to be dead right now so everyone is happy to be so don't you see Sat Chit Ananda you are already that already we've taken on the concept that's not it that's this body mind that's this person and I need to become realised or liberated becoming implies a future time and we just got into the time as a concept there's no such thing as time apart from the concept there's no becoming but being another way of putting the Sat Chit Ananda is being knowing knowing and loving to be anyone and not being no you know you're being anyone who's not knowing that they're being no you're certainly dead anyone who's not happy to be you don't want to be dead of course so you're already that being knowing and loving to be so realise being will never be becoming so don't try when trying to become something it won't happen because becoming implies a future time and there's only this momentary spontaneous now and we call ourselves human beings but the label which discriminates as human beings if you believe in God or some higher power or something you'll call that the supreme being so what happens if you've got this these labels human and supreme you take those label off take the label human off take the label supreme off try and negate your being that's right now as you're sitting there try and tell me you are not you can't without those two labels you're not being a human you're not being a person you're just that beingness and that being is breathing heart beating hair and fingernails growing thoughts arising coming all the digestion happening fingernails everything going it's going on spontaneously naturally and effortlessly pure being and we say how does it work and we say we'll have a look something comes up and you like it you don't know what your next thought but that thought has come up and it's a good thought what you think is a good thought and you like it you don't want the good stuff to go you want to keep it there forever not realising that everything is transient no matter how much you love it how much you want to keep it there it's going to change and you don't want don't want it to change so what do you do you fixate on it trying to keep it there and you fixate on it and what does it do it wants it's transient trying to move away but fixating on it means you are in conflict with it because you're trying to keep it there when it's naturally spontaneously going to move on so we're in conflict and that conflict makes you unhappy distressed or guilty or jealous or anxious uneasy so there's resistance conflict and uneasiness which is another word dis-ease that's going on in your life all the time what about the other way something comes up and you like it instead of trying to make this one go you want to keep it there not realising again that it's transient no matter how much you like it you won't keep it there it's going to change so again we're resistance again conflict again dis-ease and isn't it what our life's made of?

of this constant stress and anxiety and dis-ease going on fighting with us fighting with us never leaving things as it is as is but constantly trying to change it alter it correct it which is conflict we're considering this conflict and unhappy depressed guilty and that's what Wei Wei Wei told you a couple of thousand years ago when he said why are you unhappy? because everything you say everything you think and everything you do is for yourself and he says the risen one and then that when I pointed out if you might have seen it then you see that there is no personal self and they tell you that in all the scriptures if you look closely there is one self one God one pure intelligence energy just one one Atman one self but we've got this personal self which is the many and one has seemingly become the many but it's never ever changed its true nature from that one and while believing in the many we're in problems trouble seeing it as the one and knowing it as the one there is a great sense of relief from that a sense of well being being well and putting it simply nothing wrong anymore nothing right or wrong or good or bad as Shakespeare told us that three or four hundred years ago and he says nothing either right or wrong but thinking makes it so and look at that you'll see it's right look at the way you think you're always thinking in the past or the present or the future and it's either good, bad pleasant, painful happy, sad loving, hating high, low far, there have a look at the way you think and you always realise it's always in the pairs of opposites and that's our problem we take one we take the good try and hang onto it and don't like the bad separate them and constantly in conflict because of that constantly in trying to divide the indivisible trying to separate the inseparable it can't happen it doesn't happen and when we try to make it happen that's our problem and then what needs to be done is to re-cognise that's a call of the cognising emptiness and that is with the capacity of cognising or knowing and that the Buddha called it that and he called it a cognising emptiness and he made the statement then that that cognising emptiness emptiness is form you and I are forms the trees, the flowers, the hills, the mountains everything out there are forms and he told us that emptiness is form and he said the forms can be nothing other than the emptiness so you and I in the trees are found all emptiness forms the forming apparent forms seemingly real but we take ourselves to be real we try and separate the emptiness and the form not realising that it's one essence now have a look in nature again in nature we'll have a look at the sun and the earth this planet earth is rolling around the sun this part of it is facing the sun and it's light because it's facing the sun the other side of the earth is facing away from the sun it's dark does the earth know anything about darkness or light?

it doesn't does darkness or light know anything about darkness or light? it doesn't it'll naturally roll around and this end will become dark and the other end will be light but the same pattern is functioning in our mind but we get the good thoughts we want to hang on to the good thoughts and try and keep it not realising that they're change and when it changes to its opposite bad we don't want it we're fighting it not realising it left as it is it'll come around again just leave everything as it is unaltered unmodified uncorrected and it'll come around and you get the balance of it the evenness of it makes life a lot simpler and a lot easier it happens by itself Einstein tells you that years ago and he said I worked on this problem for years and couldn't find an answer to it he said one night I went to sleep dreamed and in the morning I woke up and there it was and it turned around again it had come to me and a lot of his ideas and inventions came out the same way and a lot of yours and mine will too when you leave things as they are unaltered unmodified uncorrected no preference no partiality no comparison because the preference partiality comparison and altering modify are conflict we're at war with each other constantly in conflict and that's what keeps us in the pattern what is wrong with right now if I don't think about it I can't say it's good can't say it's bad pleasant pleasant pleasant pleasant good high whatever always going on just leave everything out of the good it changes by itself they call you that too they give you clues to it all the way through the great perfection they call it in the bosom what can you add to the perfect nothing it wouldn't be perfect what can you take away from the perfect nothing it wouldn't be perfect the great perfection is non-conceptual awareness what's the other one the other scriptures they call it absolute absolute absolute is the claim of the great perfection what can you add to absolute nothing you can't take anything away from it it's all absolute and if you recognise that you are absolute who can ever be superior to you who can ever be inferior to you and what would you want from anybody else see that all the world's problems would be a lot different if you wasn't chasing after what somebody said or done that you can think you'd do better they've got more chance than you are or they're greater than you or not as poor unhappy as what you are all that would disappear knowing that I am the absolute take that stance and see how it goes work it out and what is necessary will come up so there it is recognise your true nature that you are not this body you are not this mind have a look at that I am this body are you the body?

well you certainly know you are not the body because you say my body you say my coat my car my house are you the coat? are you the car? are you the house? no you know you are not those things well maybe you want the body either we investigate it again what is the body made up of? every body is made up of? every body is made up of elements air, earth, fire, water, space just the same as the elements around you now take the air out of your body see how long you would last take the water the body is 90% water or 60% one or two I forget take the fire the body heat take those elements away you wouldn't last too long without them so you realise this body you call the body is only a a pattern of the elements going together earth, air, fire, water, space all subatomic particles and those subatomic particles can be broken down into pure energy so the body is nothing but a vibrating pattern of energy take this thing we call mind again you say my mind well show me your mind you can't show me a thing called mind and there is nothing nothing there that is mind apart from thought and if thought is mind you have to be a particular thought and which thought are you?

are you this I thought? if you were this I thought you would be frightened to lose it every night when you go to sleep but you give it up with great pleasure you lose it so you know you are not the thought and what is the thought? thought is nothing but sound sound is word word is a vibration a vibration is just a movement of energy energy so it all comes back to the one thing energy which is suffused with an innate intelligence it's not an activity that doesn't know it's an intelligence energy a vibration of pure being knowing and loving to be and that is what you are you can't negate that beingness intelligence is an activity it's a movement something that's going on activity of knowing and activity is a movement and any movement is energy and that's where the term intelligence energy comes from the activity of knowing anybody there who is not knowing right now you can't negate it you say yes I am that but that's what we seemingly lose sight of with all that's going around on the river now though there are millions of people locked into this belief of being the person down through the ages there have always been some that have recognised the true nature of something and these people wouldn't be here if you weren't looking to go for something beyond the religious beliefs and activities because they are limiting their boundaries putting limitations you are a sinner you are a terrible person you have got to do this and do that putting boundaries on what is boundaryless so you come here like others have done before over the years looking into something that is different you mightn't find it here but some have and others mightn't that's the same as people looking around found other things and they formed great religions around some of them and then those great religions got corrupted because somebody got on the idea that didn't truly understood it so he said I did but you got to do this and got to do that to become what I am talking about gave them a task you are a sinner and put all these concepts on them and made it impossible to find what is natural and ever fresh and ever new and the others point directly to it recognise that you are that that is all there is there is nothing other the great perfectionist non-conceptual awareness be as you are all these things so that is what we point to and ask you to look for it and as I say people here can tell you about it and that is what I ask you to do those that have got a taste of it tell us about it somebody here might hear it different to what I am hearing it and it might be the very thing that opens them up others even expressing it will open up a heart that is the way it is passed on from one to another so you don't have to go around worshipping people think they are going to come and pat you on the head with a peacock feather or something and give you enlightenment give you sense it won't happen it never has happened and by practising this mantra and doing that the mantra isn't good in terms of making the mind one pointed but you have got to go beyond that even the one pointedness they call it silence emptiness the great perfection emptiness here emptiness there yet the infinite universe stands ever before your eyes no difference for all boundaries have ceased and left as that emptiness but it is a cognising emptiness an emptiness that fuse with intelligence remember that don't just say it's no thing and think it's zero and let it express as it is so away you go tell us about it thank you thank you thank you thank you can you get the mic he is yeah thanks sorry i'm still a bit confused about the concept of cause and effect how do you eliminate the cause and effect concept you said if there is no cause there will be no effect how do you can you please explain that i can't do wait a minute oh i'm sorry as soon as i get the ears in i was just trying to get the question straight so earlier you said that if there is no cause there will be no effect earlier you said is this on yeah no it's here right now yeah earlier you said that if there is no cause there will be no effect yeah so how do we eliminate the concept of the cause the cause yes well who is the cause you see that me is the cause if you see there is no me what would do it the same intelligence in it as breathing you beating your heart growing your hair on your fingernails and enable those thoughts to come up and enable those words to be spoken so you mean there will just be things that just happen you think you are doing that speaking of it that speaking of it if that life wasn't in the body how many words could you say okay i don't have any questions from our online community we have twenty people with us and we have a couple of good morning messages from all over the world from Argentina she says she says she says it's great when i can on sunday night connect with this beauty sunday night yeah for some people it's still saturday night who is that who is that Patricia she come out of here yes yes so anyone would like to share something or ask question or tell us how you sit with that is it yeah please thanks thanks um you talk about the thought a lot um and that we we experience things through thought can you talk about the connection between the body and the emotions as well and how those interact yeah well the body you see in the absoluteness the absolute can't do anything at all so patterns shapes and forms to express through appear in an empty and this body is a pattern through which the words thoughts sounds and then they can express animals and birds don't have words but they have sounds that can connect and activities you know it's the life essence that forms the patterns to express through and as the saga that says there's only life there is nobody who lives on life life lives on life and out of life more life comes and that is all there is it that life wasn't there well there's death in the body and life essence goes out of the body what good is the body then is a corpse it breaks down and goes back into the elements and and and and and in the in the understanding of the of the absolute um i find that i'm missing the personal uh um um you know uh the poet's room he talks about the beloved in our early sort of catholic upbringing we talk about the other the god out there and there's a sense of a personal interaction and that's not the case it seems with non-duality that there's nothing personal so to speak and i find that that's sometimes i uh i feel about that i miss that well it's different everything is the love of the being wouldn't express it with that urge to be what i'm there so it is love that's expressing and i say god is love if god is love love must be god and you love to be don't you well that's the godliness in you not the personal except that there is the belief that it's personal i mean many many people there is still the very strong persistent sense of being of everything being only personal and completely not being all enveloping and that is also the absolute experiencing and expressing as personal and expressing as personal you have that possibility because of the resonation with the message to actually be in both worlds i mean to be a shiva and to be a shakti But for a lot of different forms in the manifestation, they are only the act that they're playing.

They are not the actor or not the director of the whole show. And that's perfect too, because the Absolute has every position in consciousness. So the end seems to me. The great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. It doesn't mean to say, it's both love and hate, are both absent. They can be the one or the other, but they're not when we separate them. But you see the two ends of the one stick, the impersonal is not going to be so bad, is it? Because you know it's coming from the personal.

The person's not going to be so bad, because it knows it comes from the impersonal. It's only the slant we take on them, whichever end of the stick we go to. Yeah. I think the key thing that I had a realization recently, like everything just happens. Everything just happens. But the difference is when, say, it's happening to me sort of thing. So that's the difference, I think. Like everything just happens, but when it's happening to me, then that's the self-centre that is taking it on board. And saying that's happening to me. So that's the one that needs to get looked into, because everything just unfolds and happens.

But when it's taken personally, yeah, that's where the pain happens, I guess. And I guess I like Bob's point of like up until age like two or three, like there's emotions happening. There's expressions happening. There's crying. There's laughter. There's whatever. And then they're already happening, but there's no one there sort of claiming it. And then the ego identity starts forming and saying, I'm crying or I'm doing this or I'm feeling this. But, you know, it's never perfect. Like the light is just growing stronger at times. And it's, it's, there's no, you don't need thoughts to experience this. Like it's already there without thought. So, but, you know, the other day I was in traffic and there was anger came up and I flipped the bird at someone in the traffic.

So it's just like, it's not this serene. Everything's perfect. Like the emotion will just flare up and it'll dissolve straight away. And things shift, but there's no story around it. And it just, just happened. There's no saying it happens to me. So I think. Yes, Bob. I remember saying the happening. All happens. And that was all it was. It happens this way, that way, or any other way. But it's happening. Occurring. Yeah, recently I've been, you know, some challenges have come up. Had some kind of like, you know, sad news whilst I was overseas. And we were supposed to be going and visiting museums and doing all of this kind of stuff.

And I found myself, you know, reasonably upset. And then I had Bob's words in my head, you know, what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it. And it's amazing how when you're not, when you just drop the thought, all of a sudden you can enjoy the moment regardless of what, you know, potential future things are going to happen. And similarly, when I've had emotions coming up, the thought, just that question, who, who is having these emotions and investigating that. And it's amazing how quickly what you're sucked into and labeling as sadness, whatever, anxiety, just becomes, literally just becomes a vibration that's happening in your body.

And there's nothing, you can't label it as bad or good or it's just what is. And it's amazing that how quickly you can step out of a personal story and be just experiencing a sensation in your body. And then everything is just, you know, there's still joy there, there's still peace. And you can just be doing whatever you're doing, there's no story overlaid. But I guess the question, I have a question and that's, the answer seems obvious, but I need to ask it. Like, what, why do we have to wait or why do things that apparently appear to be bad have to occur before we can become, have like a sincere or kind of like serious investigation?

Everything could happen, shapes and forms in the same opposites. Could there be day without night? Could there be silence without sound? You know, if you weren't happy with what was going on, would you look for something else? Also questions why? Yeah. Always invitation for a story, wanting to know, wanting to have everything understood and explained. It's just like really going out of that beautiful feeling of a mystery and oneness into the head, which, oh yeah, now I understand. I don't have to be afraid anymore. Yeah. And even as the question comes up, I hear myself like, well, who wants to know the answer? And then you, and then a step back into that looking and it's just a, it's just a sensation.

Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. I had an experience last week where I was, um, you know, health food shop and a guy, and there's a laundromat across the road, right? Um, across the, the alleyway or the corridor road. And, uh, there's a guy in the, uh, laundromat getting really angry and he's bashing, bashing things around, you know. Have you ever been in that sort of situation? Adrian? I don't know. It was me. Yeah. Right. Cool. Yeah. He really lost it. He lost it. He was a no-hoper. Yeah. Real no-hoper. Poor guy. And he was also in that dream. Yeah. And he was very angry and bashing, crashing and bashing things.

And, uh, fuck this and fuck that. And he came over to me and he had a look and he expected some sort of response. And I didn't, I didn't have any response. It was just, uh, just went on. I looked at him briefly and then went on and he went, oh yeah, alright. Everything fell down in terms of his expectation of some kind of something to come up against. Yeah? Yeah. That was all, there was nothing there that could, that he, I don't know, for whatever reason that's the way it occurred. And, uh, I think we all dissolved. Yeah. The whole situation dissolved into nothingness from whence it came.

There was, yeah, nothing, and everything can be approached in this way, can't it? Just wait a moment and it all passes. Wait. What rises to meet that life anyway except the ego and, oh, the sense of being an ego. The sense of the self rises to meet these things and somehow respond. But where is the reality of that? Where is the reality of me in relationship to any, anything at all? Really? When I really look, where am I? Who am I? It's good to, I think we really need to, at some point, get down and dirty and have a real good look for yourself. I like to say in the privacy of your own mind.

You know, that, uh, anyway. That's it. So it's almost as if this guy was waiting for your resistance to be able to push back, so he can continue the story. But when there wasn't any, there was just the acceptance. There was, it's like punching the air, like you're not going to hit anything. Um, and it's, it's a thing that I find a lot in life. If we're in a state of acceptance of things, it kind of dissolves the self on its own. Um, if we're not trying to think like, no, it shouldn't be like this. It just is, this is how it is. Oh, okay.

And then it's not personal. It's just how it is. And it just dissolves the self without having to be like, I need to dissolve the self, which is once again, that same, I need to do this. I'm resisting the fact that this is what's happening. I'm resisting the fact that I'm angry or that I'm this, or that this is happening around me rather than just, okay. And it kind of sheds the story, the self, the everything on its own, just with the acceptance. Um, that's it. Beautiful. Just thinking about the, um, when you get something turbulent before something gets looked at. And often you've just got the unraveling of the universe and then tighter and tighter stories get laid on top of that of, oh, it must be working like that.

Based on a limited amount of data that pops up, little notions that pop up in each head. And so it just could be that, you know, enough sort of stuff of the universe is coming together that something's kind of ready to be unraveled and let go of. And before that it gets quite turbulent. And then one, the next level of story is, oh, you know, the universe noticed that before it got looked at, you know, and then the next level of story is, oh, I, um, thought of, you know, investigating that. You know, things got really serious. And then I investigated it and fixed it, you know, and it's just layers and layers of when it's really just stuff doing stuff.

And then people could also say, oh, um, you know, once upon a time, I thought, oh, yeah, the universe is just unraveling in a mechanistic way. It's just, you know, um, velocity and, and mass all coming together as it does. And that there's nothing outside of the universe and there's no catalyst to change anything. So it's only ever going to happen as it happens because I'm including the whole universe already. But then someone said, oh, no, no, no, it's quantum now. You know, it's really just occurring kind of more randomly than that. And then there's theories that no one's even thought of yet. And then there's theories that are probably more sophisticated than no one will ever think of because these are just human, you know, mechanisms that can't possibly think of that.

So, yeah, it's just really stuff. You just, if you just notice, you know, the way we know the world, nothing stays the same. Everything changes. Everything constantly changes. Weather is changing. Seasons are changing. The moods are changing. The inner weather is changing. The people's attitudes are changing. The circumstances, geographical, political, all of it is changing. And it's changing the same, I mean, not the same, it's changing, you know, really various patterns to every living creature. It's changing for the tree. It's changing for the cockroach. It's changing for the dog. And only humans have that system in which they evaluate and take the change personally and say, I like this one.

I want to keep it. I don't like this one. I want to push it away. No animal does it. I just had a cat on my lap and then I needed to get up and the cat jumped off. Didn't take any offense. It's just what's happening for the cat. It's just like Navi was saying, yes. If Danny said, yes, underlying yes. So, ah, this is what's happening. Aha, this is what's happening. Just that's the life effortless living without underlying suffering, without that pull and push. And if the pull and push happens, of course, as long as there is a body mind, the body mind will always prefer pleasure to pain.

And the mind will always try and find something more attractive than this. That's its function. But if you are not your body and not your mind, but you are that underlying, yes, that underlying field of knowing in which, ah, interesting. Oh, that's what's happening. Aha. And now that, hmm, rain, sunshine, anger, whatever. Then life becomes fascinating, whether there is personal response or impersonal response. Obviously, if that body responds with whatever, anger or sadness, it is a particular to this body mind. Other body minds would respond differently. But is it really personal? It's just how this body responds, just like how the cat's body responds. If you are the field of knowing, you can see your own body responding in a way that is maybe not very flattering.

And, ah, interesting. Instead of, I hate myself, I shouldn't be. No, it's just all really unfolding. Because is it really up to me how this body is going to respond? It goes as far back as Bob was saying, spare an ovum, what music my mother was listening to when she was pregnant, and what food she was eating, and her great-grandmother. It's just that it's totally not up to me. It's the whole universe that shaped this particular response. What about karma? No, karma is nonsense. It's a story. If we want to go into a story, we can, of course, we can justify all of this with some sort of a justice.

What karma does the wolf have? Yeah, but I mean, that isn't that... That one gets caught, one doesn't. But do you acknowledge that there's cause and effect in the world? No. Everything is caused by everything else. You know, it's really very naive to say that there's one cause and one effect, because that excludes the simple fact that for that one cause, let's say, what causes the rain? Let's say the wind causes the rain because it blows the clouds. But really, what causes the clouds? The sun that shines on the ocean and evaporates the water. So what causes the rain? The clouds, the wind, the sun, or perhaps the fact that the planet even exists.

That is also part of a causality. Or maybe the fact that there is a water, that substance on that planet. But there are observable patterns, though. There are patterns that are observable. Yes, and can you dissect singular cause in the observable pattern? It's like a wave. I see. So everything's included. For the rain, the whole universe contributes for the rain to come. And the karma is a naive idea, which is a sweet idea. That's not even part of a life. You don't believe that someone does the right thing, you know, does a certain, if they're bad, does something, that there's going to be a natural consequence to that eventually.

We can't ever know that. We can't, we can't. Yeah, you don't know. There's tons of people who get away. It's just morality that's superimposed. Absolutely. It's a romantic, beautiful, romantic idea. There's a lot of people who get away with bad things. But there is a karma, one could say. There are consequences of absolutely everything. If you go and steal something, the consequence will be there. You may go and steal again. And then you may become a thief. You may get away, or you may go to jail. There is a consequence in repeating pattern. But whether someone else will get on you or not, well, that's up to the whole universe.

Yes. Consequences are unpredictable. Just social control, isn't it, karma? Yeah. Yeah. There's no one-ended stick. There's no one-ended stick. There's no one-sided coin. Cause and effect, they're both two ends and all the same thing. So what do you mean by that? Well, it's only one. Two ends. Seemingly divided. So the cause and effect are two. Can there be an effect without the cause? There are no short difference. There's one thing happens, another thing happens, and the mind makes a connection between those. It splits them into two and says there's a connection between them. There's a connection between them and the mind makes a connection between them and the mind makes a connection.

And it's happening all the time. Often the same things have the same pattern, the same connection. Sorry, Dawn? Often the same things have the same pattern, the same connection. Well, okay. But that's all, look, there's nothing wrong with that. That's the exoteric reality, if you like. Yeah. As opposed to the esoteric reality. Okay? And in this room we're talking about the esoteric reality, yeah? Now, if you want to talk about the exoteric reality, yeah, there's cause and effect. But that's a mind thing, okay? And the mind is the thing that comes up with the story that sticks us into suffering, okay? And that's what we're trying to address in this room.

The noumenin versus the phenomenon, basically. It's a phenomenal world, not the noumenin. We want the noumenin. We want the noumenin. We want the noumenin. We want the noumenin. We want the noumenin. We want the noumenin. We want the noumenin. Okay, that's it. Okay. Bye. Hey, I just have a question for you, Bob. Just in the context of the conversation here around, let's say, personal and impersonal, or the seeker and the sought, I wonder if you could speak of the serenity prayer, in a way, that might make sense. If you could reflect on the 12-step serenity prayer, the wisdom to know the difference between those things.

Well, what is it God grant me? The serenity. You have to be granted serenity. Isn't serenity there? Acceptance, to accept the things I cannot change. It's all there. Courage to change the things I have. And wisdom to know the difference. It's all there. It's all left as it is to work out by itself. You don't have to be granted everything at all. And it is naturally there. If you look at the animals again, the natural world, the cat can know the difference. What can be changed, what can't be changed. When the cat is hungry, it goes hunting. If it hunts, it eats and it's changed it.

Some things can't be changed. The cat doesn't try to change the weather or something like that. It's just that we humans have so much story hanging around it. So much credit taking. This is right. This is wrong. I should. I shouldn't. And that is what causes suffering. I love how Cole put it very, very simply. Yes, you can go with the story of the mind. Yes, you are the body in the world. There are other bodies. The world is against you. You have to survive. Yes, it's a good story. If you want to suffer, stay with it. But there is a way of experiencing directly the world in which the wave or the pattern of the mind is only part of the landscape and direct experience, the seeing, not translated by the mind as I, the seer, see this, the world, and we are separate, but directly be the field of seeing, be the field of knowing, field of questioning.

And in this, even when something unpleasant comes up, that something unpleasant is just what's happening. Rain might be unpleasant if you're having a picnic, but there is no need to fight or suffer because of something that's inevitably part of the happening. You might see the response of the body to the rain. Oh shit! And that may be interesting also. It doesn't have to be something dreadful. It may be something fascinating. Oh, that is how this body is conditioned. Amazing. It can be amazing. And I have a comment here from, uh, from Jade. I am currently watching the fragility of my, the ego game at work.

It's such good news that I have a choice to sit back and watch and wait. Yeah. When the resonation is there, the seeming choice appears because the, the reminder comes up. And Laura says, morning Bobcat and crew. Sorry, I just woke up after, oh, Paul McCartney will watch the replay. Oh, he's still here, Laura. And few more good mornings from Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Yeah, so that's that. I just want to make a comment on the, the, seeing it from the duality almost seems a waste of time because it's just the headlines. It's the tiny, tiny headlines of everything that's happening. And we're missing everything else.

So to say that, you know, that's why to me decision making is just so not real. So not true. Because it's, how can you get the entire, everything down to two points and say that, you know, one got selected. It's just, yeah, it doesn't even seem to, are worth wasting time with it. That's why it's better to go to the, to the kind of mind you were talking, you know, the, the space you were talking about and not experience the mystery, the misery that Kyle was talking about. You know, it's just, it's just such a flawed argument, decision making, such a flawed argument. It is beautiful.

Well, she said in the first place, it's all duality, as you say. Without duality, nothing wrong. Yeah. Nothing either good or bad, but thinking like that. And I love how Tony says, you know, you focus into a subtitle and you miss out the whole show, focusing just on the subtitles, just on the narrative, and missing out the field of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, experiencing, just pure being knowing, which is delightful, delicious, intense. And the narrative is always good, but pleasant, painful. Yeah. Don't worry. You were going to speak more. There you go. Um, it's such a beautiful deepening for me today. Thank you, um, so much.

I wanted to ask in the spontaneous presence, is a beautiful intention still relevant? Yeah. To what? Beautiful intention in the spontaneous presence, when the intention arises. Yeah. Beautiful. Anything that arises is totally welcome. It's nothing right or wrong. It's welcome. You see beautiful intention, wonderful. Do you need, do you need that if you're? You have no choice. Oh. No. It shows up or it doesn't. Okay. And then throw to hell can be paid for them, huh? For good intentions. Oh, we still want to. Yeah. Um, I was going to say, I think you're, you're onto it before with your last comment, where you're talking about the phenomena appearing versus the, what was the other word?

Yes. It's the, any identification with that phenomena is the, is the problem. It's taking that to be somehow, uh, representing what I am. So any, latching onto any other phenomena is, is yeah, you'll, that'll, won't work out. appearing versus the what was the other word yes so the phenomena are coming and going it's the any identification with that phenomena is the is the problem it's taking that to be somehow representing what i am so any latching on to any other phenomena is is yeah you that all won't work out so the space out of which the phenomena appears is where we reside this is the true essence but yeah it can be tricky at times i think i just want to express gratitude to you bob for speaking the truth and living the truth for so many years and not really that that consistency and accuracy of the truth has the ripples of that definitely felt and unloved and i'm i just want to tell you how much i love you quite simply thank you tas it's the same life as it's there just back on the body and that cause and effect thing is it that um you know if you've got a conditioned existence of how you arose from a child and through your life um there's an awareness there in thought but there's an awareness in body and emotion and um perhaps like that kind of that struggling that kind of resistance you know the fighting response of of not liking the way something is or wanting something that you can't have or um you know maybe maybe there's something there in that cause and effect thing that you know there's a there's an underlying cause that sort of gives you a response yeah believe in me and but you don't necessarily need to be that response or act on that response you know you're not the thought that arises and you're not the emotion that arises and like the weather they pass through and you can you can observe them and notice them and and say oh there's that again and by not sort of clinging on to it and attaching it to it you don't have to go on that ride and go to those places and maybe that's maybe that's a little bit of cause and effect however like bob as you say like then deeper down there's not necessarily any underlying cause there's just is maybe that's it yeah as you started off there is an awareness this an awareness of the other what's the one that doesn't change the awareness and so on you can just notice without focus and also i have a comment here from ram in the appearance capital letters in the appearance of things that appears to be a cause and effect and this can be a useful idea in everyday life if i don't attend to a meeting my boss will probably yell at me as a seeming cause and effect it's a useful tool but in actuality everything is the cause of everything life is spontaneous time is illusion where is the room for cause and effect yes actually in a language absolutely it's totally practical to use that but you understand that even if you don't show up on the meeting and the boss will yell well it's not just cause singular cause and effect for that again the whole universe has to create a room and the boss and yourself and all of it nothing's excluded but for the convenience of the conversation i say i even though i can't find any eye and i can say oh it's shining so we'll do this but the truth is there is interconnectedness and not even even that is too much of a word because it suggests that there is more than one it really is one appearing as many things so everything causes everything yeah a lot of causes and effects are just habit so if you always react to something in a certain way say oh this is going to happen and this is going to you know really piss me off but if you don't do if you change the way you react you know as a surprise then you change you you you actually you're eliminating that cause and effect because you're not you're not behaving in that habitual way to that cause so then the effect is also nulled then it's not cool yes that's it that's what i mean so it's often cause and effect is what we just we just have it it's just a narration yeah what makes us suffer the suffering the things the triggers i mean you know you just think of it oh this has happened and this is how i'm going to react but if you choose not if you don't then you you you've eliminated that you've neutralized it just just commenting on that who's choosing or who's not choosing to react yeah so it's just seeing deeper than the person right so on the relative level cause and effect appears to be and there's nothing wrong with that it serves its role right but once you see that it's all the one mover right and it's all the expression of that one cause and effect collapses right so it appears to be so but once you see oh if you're believing the story of you know i'm go i'm the one doing this and that's going to have an effect right that that that can be so right but once you see deeper than that you're not really doing anything so you're just the dancer it's just expressing through you the dance yeah it's just expressing through you yeah i'll throw in a very um psychological perspective on it so i'm a clinical psychologist so one of the key core functions of the brain is to create the future picture and when it doesn't have enough data it digs into the past experiences and creates a data point connection and creates a false image so it's a phenomena observed very um commonly in psychology and it agrees with beta so it's pure phenomena purely to keep you safe to make you feel safe but it's false so once again just seeing it's a phenomena there's no reality to it your mind is connecting two data points to make you feel safe it's a frame you can always reframe it or just step out with the frame just observe it as a phenomena yeah it's just trying to create a future picture to keep it going uh and it will just connect anything so commonly observed instance of this is when if i told you your angel numbers is 11 11 11 your mind will just start to see the patterns everywhere because now it's created i've created the belief so now your mind is going to show you everywhere you go so it's a false narrative once again you might the problem solvers there's no problem it creates a cold soul yeah yeah yeah i'll add that it's the same as when people believe that if you pray then the sun will rise again tomorrow but if you don't pray then maybe it'll stay night forever and it does look like a very reasonable cause and effect like yeah i prayed yesterday and there you go the sun is here but we don't actually know and like kat said there's so many different things that can cause this one thing and we just we just don't know so we create this narrative we create this belief of oh okay it's because i've done this then this will happen but we don't actually know so is there a point of even living by it continuity it's just what is yeah it matches exactly in the same way i think the whole deal with the cause and effect in this context is the effect is all the suffering and if there's no cause there then that collapses so it's the cause of all the the hurt the suffering the anger and the separation so it's investigating the cause which is the the shadow self me and seeing that that actually doesn't exist and therefore the effects can't happen from that plat from that position that's my take so i think it's more beautiful beautiful and i have a comment here from katrina who said because there was a lot of ideas here oh i can refrain or i can do this or i can do that she says you don't do anything but she puts a head with heart so it's a kind comment kind reminder and very appropriate and thank you yes the space like awareness or cognizing emptiness is already having the capacity to know, capacity for knowing.

So there is no me that needs to watch or do or observe or relax or refrain. It's just the spontaneous happening being knowing. Well I sort of forgotten where I was. Yeah, I mean Bob points to something, he points to something, he gives it the name non-duality. Okay so we're here to look at that and the first thing we learn is there's lots of illusions and there's an illusion that things are separate and that opposites like top and bottom are really both the ends as it were the same stick as you've heard a couple of times tonight for today. And that sense of me, the sense of me starts off by when we see something, when we see something we add a me to it.

So when we see a rock, okay, it's just a rock, but if it's something more, if it's something that causes emotions to arise or something, then I get involved in it. Okay and those sorts of things strengthen the me. And when we, when we want to do something, when we look at something up there and we want it up there, that I want it, and that strengthens the me. There is just something up there, that's all there is. Okay, and we add a me to it. Okay and we add a me to it and we, every opportunity, everybody in this room, including me are coming up with explanations.

It's my explanation, it's my wish or it's my want or that sort of thing. And actually sitting here, none of us, absolutely me, can say nothing about anything. There's nothing to say about it. It's just the way it is. Okay, and that's, that's peace, that's silence. There's no me there. Okay. Yeah, I have a, here there's a comment from Claire. Hi, can I come and buy the cards? I see them on display here. And I say absolutely, yes, they are on this display here. And we actually created a little video which, in which we reminded people that actually they're going to be taken off Amazon because Amazon starts putting fine if they stay too long.

And I would like to thank you people who actually bought Fudex because now I have enough money to pay a fine to Amazon for another month because I didn't have it. So we may have them till Christmas or something before I take them out because now I can pay the, the, the fees that, the fees that are on the way. So yes, thank you very much. And Claire is also saying, do we, quote unquote, accumulate, have access to increase relative intelligence by seeing through the veil or do we simply reduce suffering? Would you like to answer that? Nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be done.

It just doesn't. Yeah, just, just reducing the obscuration. The, all the intellectual knowledge and mental images are the veil. So the less of the clouding, the more of the clarity, but that's not a clarity, which we understand when the mind tells added intelligence. Nothing can be added, nothing taken away. And reduced suffering is just a byproduct. And it's not even a reduction of suffering. The concept of suffering as a psychological resistance basically stops making any sense. And that's, that's that. Come back tomorrow? Zoom? Oh yeah. Tomorrow, especially for people from Northern America, there is a Zoom Sunday evening for them, Monday morning for us. And anyone who wants to join Bob and Julia on that meeting are welcome, of course.

They are all free of charge. And the weekdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, we also have some meetings for more of Asia and Europe. And yeah, you're welcome to schedule private session as well. And that's that. Thank you. Thank you. So how many followers have you got?