As it is and easier... Sailor Bob and the nonduality group. 19 Nov 2023

Everyone above knows who we are. That's Tristan, Kenny, John, Richard, Taylor, Melissa, Micah, James, Timon, Cole, Lop, Jo, Michael, S, Rosh, Misa, Jasper, Dane, Julia, Alette, Ryan, and Paul. Hi, everybody. Well, it's the same old, same old. Those who are new, what we talk about here is what they call Advaita in Hindu scriptures. Advaita translated means nonduality, not two. One without a second, or only that. That is all there is. And we point each and every one to the fact of their own being. That that is all there is, really. Which we've taken to be other than one through the learning of words. So I can't teach you anything.

And I can't tell you anything. Understand that right from the jump. All I do is point toward and ask you to look to where I'm pointing to, to see for yourself. Because nobody can teach you anything and nobody can tell you anything. Purely and simply because there is no one other than that essence that you are, the life. It's all. Another way I put it, I'm not speaking to anybody. I'm not speaking to any mind. I'm speaking to that I am that I am. And that I am is the sense of presence. Which translates and expresses through the mind as the thought. I am. Just to this and nothing else.

We've taken on this idea of separation. Purely and simply because we learnt words. And when you look at it and realise you were not born with any words. You didn't have any words for, you were 18 months or two years old. I said 18 months or two years before you learnt words. Parents fussing around you, speaking words to you and you picked up the words from them. Little Johnny or Little Jean or whatever your name might be. And anybody asks you today who you are, you'll say, I'm Little Johnny or Little Jean, whatever your name might be. And what the ancient scriptures tell you, the great mantra or the great word is, I am that.

And understand and recognise that that is all there is. And each and every one of us knows that. Because that's the chair sitting in, that's the carpet on the floor, that's the room, that's the space in the room, that's the tree, that's the flower. It's all that, what have we done with it? We've attached words with meaning onto it. And it appears to be separate thing. But I tell you again, it's the one essence that's patterning, shaping, forming, appearing and expressing as everything. And so each and every one of us is a unique expression of that. Not two. How did this come about? Well, where did you begin?

And you'll say, I was born. Can anyone remember your birth? And you know, you can't remember your birth. How could you remember it? When you've got no words. So the little child, how did that come about? And it's all the one essence, the one being. And everything is that. Well, you came out of the womb of your mother. That life essence, when you're looking into that and investigated. Your father, that animating life essence, the pattern shape and form your father. From the food he's eaten. And the prana, the hero he's breeding and living him. A, enabled in that pattern, a little microscopic particle called a sperm to form.

That sperm was suffused with intelligence energy. It knew what to do. And the same in the mother. That animating life essence, the pattern shape and form your mother. Enabled in that pattern, a little microscopic particle called an egg or an over to form. That oven attached itself to the wall of the uterus and the sperm swam to the oven showing there was life in both of those, the sperm and the oven. There was life in them and when those two came together they formed this little embryo, this little thetus which is what you are today. What were you doing about it then? Well you weren't doing anything about it for a start off, you had no words but it was happening.

And then after about 18 months when we learnt words and we learnt the words I and me and in the Bible it tells you in the beginning was the word. The word was with God, the word was God. All things were made by him by the word. And there was nothing made that was made without the word. And isn't that so? You look around your hair you see trees, flowers, room, people in it, everything, it's all words. And have a look at the word, is the word the thing? Well take the word water, try and drink the word. Try and swim in it, see if you can drown in it.

Take the word fire, try and cook with it, burn yourself with it, eat yourself with it, you can't. Look at all these words and they're not, they're only just labels we put on things, they're not the thing itself. And we learnt more words from our parents. Then we went to school and learnt more words still. And believe ourselves to be this conceptual image, this mental concept, this word that who am I? Well I am Bob, the Australian, the good fellow, or not so good. Put all these other concepts on it and take that to be real. Not realising that what they point out is true.

And the scripture is saying is know the truth and the truth will set you free. Free of the belief. And when you look into the dictionary and look up the word belief, you'll see it's an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. Acceptance of an alleged fact without positive knowledge or proof. And we've taken on all these beliefs because we've never investigated, never questioned. Parents never questioned it. They probably didn't know how or anything about it. And so we've taken on the belief that we are this person. Where does that word person come from? It comes from the ancient English, I believe, or Latin or some other language anyway.

Persona, the mask. Putting it with this conceptual image or mask with which we are obscuring our natural state and our true nature and believing in the word. And so we go along believing in this word. I am so and so and that's not me or not I. And with the not me or not I comes a sense of separation. And separation brings with it insecurity, vulnerability. It's only me that can be unhappy, me that can be fearful, me that can be anxious. All my psychological suffering comes about because of that sense of separation. But they tell us clearly, not two. One without a second. Only that.

And that needs to be investigated. Am I this body? Well you need to know you're not the body because you say my body. Don't you say my house, my car, my coat, my hat. You know you're not the car, the house, the coat or the hat. So maybe you're not the body either. When you look at that you see it's not, it's right also. There's no such thing as the body. What's the body made up of? See it's made of elements. Air, earth, fire, water, space. Just like the elements around you. And what you're breathing in, the air. Drinking the water. Heating itself with the body temperature or the fire.

All these concepts make up the body. So the body, all these concepts can be broken down into subatomic particles. The pure energy. So all the body is a vibrating pattern of energy. Which we've taken to be real without questioning it and without investigation. What about the mind? Same thing. We call it my mind. Well if you are the mind, show me a thing called mind. Nobody can say anything called mind. No such thing as mind apart from thought. And if mind is thought, you'd be the primary thought. You'd be that I thought. You'd be frightened of going to sleep at night because you give it up every night when you go to sleep.

But you're not afraid of it because innately, in spite of it all, you know that you're not that particular thought. And Shakespeare told you there's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. When you look into that, you see it's right. How do you think, how does thinking happen? Well it says always functioning in the pairs of opposites. Either good or bad. Pleasant, painful, happy, sad, loving, hating. Positive, univating, high, low. Watch it and see. All dividing. But there is no division or separation in non-duality. It is absolute. Or in Buddhism they call it the great perfection. What can you add to perfect?

Nothing. It wouldn't be perfect if it could. What can you take away from it? Nothing. It would be perfect if you could. So, the great perfection, and they take you that in Buddhism, the great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. Awareness without those concepts. Well, the other way of looking at it is what they call the absolute. What can you add to absolute? Nothing. It wouldn't be absolute. What can you take away from it? Nothing. And if you recognize that you are the absolute, who can be superior to you? Nobody. Or. Who's the world? It's the world. The world. The world. The world. The world. The world.

The world. The world. The world. The world. The world. The world. who can be inferior to you, nobody or nothing. And what would you want of the other persons? You wouldn't want anything as absolute because you already contain that. It already is you. It's already what you are. But we've lost sight of it and believe we can become something. When we're told by a lot of the corrupted scriptures that you've got to do something, you've got to meditate, you've got to pray, you've got to do this, Sadhana or whatever, practice this and practice that and you will become enlightened. But realise becoming is not being.

Becoming implies a future time. And when you investigate time and ask yourself, is there a past if I don't think about it? Have a look at it, test it out. And you say there's a past or a future without a thought. You can't. You pause the thought, you can't say it's good, bad, pleasant, painful, happy, sad, loving, anything at all about it. But you haven't stopped breathing. Your heart hasn't stopped breathing. Hair and fingernails haven't stopped growing. Food hasn't stopped being digested. The functioning and the life essence is going on and living you. And nothing in this architecture tells you, there is only life. There is nobody who lives a life.

Nobody. Nobody. None of these bodies are living a life. The life is expressing, appearing, forming and shaping all and every one of these bodies. Nobody is patterning, shaping and forming in it. No person. That's what Christ told you a couple of thousand years ago when he said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. People thought he was talking about himself. He wasn't. He was talking about that sense of presence that expresses through and translates as the thought I am. And nobody can negate their beingness. You can't stay. I am not. And they call it, another way they put it into it, it's Sat Chit Ananda.

Sat is existence. Chit is consciousness. Ananda is bliss or loving to be. The other two factors, Nama Rupa. Nama is the name and Rupa is the form, the body-mind. And they tell you clearly in the scriptures, Nama Rupa is Maya. It's illusion. It's only appearance. It's not true. But take existence. Anybody who is not existing right now, you'll say, of course I'm existing. Anybody who is unaware or unconscious, no, I'm not unaware. I am conscious. Anyone who is not happy to be. Well, nobody wants to be dead right now, so you must be happy to be. So you see, you already are that. What's the point of trying to become something that you already are?

Pointless. Becoming can never be being because becoming implies a future time. When you see that time is a mental concept also, there's no past unless you think about it. Future is anticipation, imagination. It hasn't happened yet. And that now is spontaneous. It's happening right now. And now already, it disappears straight away and it's happening again. And when you look and investigate, you'll see there's always this total presence, omnipresence, omnipotence, total power, total intelligence. That's the labels they put on the sky, actually. And realise you are already that. and you've got this, call yourself a human being, call God the supreme being. You take away that label human and take away the label supreme, stand up and tell me you're not being, if you can.

There is no one here who can negate their beingness. Each one of you, whether you like it or not, knows that I am. Thank you. But we've got the concept that we are this being, this separate entity, and from then on, the search starts, we're trying to become something. And they tell you again in the scriptures, what you are seeking, you already are. And the search is the problem. So, that's what we point to. You're not this body. You are not this mind. You are not this person. You are that life essence. That intelligence energy. The activity of knowing. Being, knowing, and loving to be.

And that is happening in each and every one of us right at this moment. So, how does it come about that we believe in this entity? Well, when you say we learn words at about two, two and a half, and we take on this entity that I am this person, and something comes up and we like it, we have an investigation, and the things we like, we want to keep. Not realise that everything in this manifestation is transient. It's constantly changing. This body that you're in right now is changing in this moment. There are cells, thousands of cells dying in it right now and being replaced.

And each cell replaces it because it's a fuse with that intelligence. It knows what to do. The liver cell is not going to become a brain cell. The brain cell is not going to become a skin cell. Each cell knows what to do. Something comes up and I like it. And the things we like, we don't want to go. We want to keep them there. Not realising, no matter how much you love them, how much you want to keep them there, it's going to change. We don't want it to change. So what do we do? We resist it from changing. Don't you realise that resistance is conflict?

If you're resisting anything you are in conflict or at war with it. Resistance is conflict and that conflict turns out as anxiety, stress, guilt, shame, remorse, jealousy, envy. All these psychological problems come about from that resistance. And that's uneasiness. Another word for uneasiness is disease. Desease. You're not at ease anymore. So there's resistance, conflict and disease. Something comes up that I like. I want to hang on to this one. I like it. It's good. I want to keep it. Again, not realising it's transient, it's going to change. So we resist it or try to resist it from going. Again, in conflict. And that's become the greater part of our life.

This psychological suffering, this fear, this anxiety, this stress, guilt, jealousy, envy that's going on in our life to the exclusion of the sense of well-being. the love and the happiness and the joyousness that's there. That's the opposite. But it's got little chance of being there for being there for very long when we keep trying to alter, modify and correct it, fight it, instead of leaving things as they are. So something comes up and I like it. Something comes up and I don't like it. So there's that conflict going on altogether. So again, it needs to be investigated. When I look into it and see this eye that I believe I am can't think.

Thinking anybody knows what their next thought is going to be. When you ask yourself, they realize, no, I don't know what my next thought is going to be. But a thought comes up. When that thought comes up, you claim it. I think this thought. As soon as you say, I think, you formed a subject, a so-called subject, a thinker that's thinking of the thought. Whatever the thought was that came up has now become the object. So we're back into subject, object again, thinker and thought. But can there be a thinker without thinking? Look at that investigation. There can't be a thinker without thinking. And can there be the thought without thinking.

There can't be the thought without thinking. So thinking is the actuality. Just the same as seeing. The thought I see comes up. The thought I see can't see. But seeing comes up and it's claimed as I see. Hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, feeling. The I-NG of something that's happening in the moment. When I put I see, I think, I taste, I touch, I feel. You're relating it to this conceptual entity which is false. So we get the wrong take on things. Believing that we are the doers, the choice makers. But investigate and see that the thought I see can't see, the thought I think can't think, the thought I am aware is not the awareness, the thought I choose is not the choice maker.

Thought. There is no, the spontaneous functioning, it's happening naturally and evidently. There is no one, no personal entity that does it. Miss Agata says there's only life. There is nobody who lives a life. When you look into that you see it's true. Life lives on life and out of life all life comes about. Christ tells you that when he said I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. that I am-ness comes up and taken to be real. But when you realise that the thought I see can't see, the thought I hear can't hear, there is only the sensation or the feeling and that's all the thinking is, it's a vibration.

Just the same as the body can be broken down into vibrating pattern of energy so can thought. What's thought? Word. What's word? Sound. What's sound? A vibration. What's a vibration? A movement of energy. So all this body, mind is a vibrating pattern of energy. It's a fusion of that innate knowing or intelligence. Shakespeare, the saga letter tells you nothing can trouble you and he means that and it's true. Nothing at all can trouble you excepting your own imagination. Break that word imagination down to image in and realise we're creating these conceptual or mental images, taking them to be real and so losing sight of our true nature.

Nothing can trouble you excepting your own imagination. And have a look at that. Look in the mirror. What do you see in the mirror? You say images or reflections in the mirror. Look up the mirror and try and get that reflection out of the mirror. You can't because it's really not there. It seems to be there. But when investigated, it's not there. It's only an imagined or reflected image. The water in the mirage. The rainbow, the colours in the rainbow. Sun shining through the mist forms colours in the sky. They've got a bit of what do they call a paper sheet or something over those glass windows in the door there.

When the sun comes around to the west air, it shines through that and those stairs are suffused in colour. All sorts of different colours. You can't say they're not there and try and grab one. You can't. These are things that appear to be so, but when you investigate, they see they're not as they appear. So, that's why we need to question and look into it. The snake and the rope is another one they use in the scriptures. A fellow steps out of his room on a dark night. It's been raining and he treads on a wet piece of rope. He thinks he's trod on a serpent.

Immediately the goose pimples start up. Fear encompasses his body and he imagines all sorts of things and the snake bite him and everything and fear and trembling there. Somebody comes out with a torch and shines and says, look, it's only a piece of wet rope. There's an immediate sense of relief. But the fear and the trembling doesn't die down straight away because they are now bodily functions caused by the body and so they hang around a bit longer. And so that's how it is. Thought, feeling and emotion, that's how it goes. It's the same as in nature it's steam, water and ice. First of all, the sun evaporates the water, it's steam, it condenses, it cools it down and becomes water and then that water can become solid and ice.

Well, the same way the patterning function with its thinking. First of all, there's a subtle thought there. Thought is a sensation or a feeling. Keep it there long enough and that feeling will come out as anger, fear or unhappiness or love or joy or whatever. We're hanging it on. The sensation has become real and it's stirred up the body and the body blood pressure is raised and all sorts of things going on. and the thing is before we look into it another thought comes up and keeps it going and another thought because we try to cancel this one out or the other one out and do it by thinking.

There's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. Left as it is, it will come around just the same as in nature. Get your clue from nature. Everything is banky told you is perfectly resolved in the unborn mind and it is. Nature resolves itself before the thought comes into it. Look out there now. The earth is rolling around the sun naturally and effortlessly and this part of the sun, this part of the earth is facing toward the sun so there's light. The other side of the earth is in darkness. Does the sun know anything about the darkness or light? It doesn't. Does the earth know anything about it?

It doesn't. But it happens. The earth keeps moving, keeps rolling around and so it isn't long before the other side becomes the side facing the sun and becomes light and this side goes into darkness. There's the appearance of darkness and light and that's just how it's battling shape or forming. So with our thoughts we separate the thoughts we want the good and don't want the bad. Not realise that thought is the two ends of the one stick. Thick end can be the good end and the thin end can be the bad end or two sides of the one coin but they're not separate and left as it is, as they say, leave everything as it is, unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected and it will change by itself.

No preferences, no partiality, no conditioning, leave things as they are. What is means just as it is, not what it was or not what it will be and it changes by itself. And then in the recognition of how when we separate and divide it, we cause all our problems and have a look at it, see how it's going, it's only me that's believed in me that can be anxious. It's only this me that can be fearful, unhappy, depressed, guilty, jealous or envy. Me is the cause of all my psychological suffering. And when you investigate and have a look at this me and ask yourself the simple question, can there be a cause or can there be an effect without the cause?

Because the effect of the cause is a psychological suffering. Can there be an effect without a cause? Well, if I see that the me is a fiction, what am I going to relate to? Nothing to relate to. Left as it is, those thoughts won't hang around forever. We keep referring to them and relating to them. We keep them there longer than we should and the suffering is more than what the sense of well-being is. But left as it is, that self sense of well-being will come up. Being well, nothing wrong. Sense of well-being, sense of joyousness, love and warmth, the opposite of unhappiness, depression. that's there just as much as the other is.

And recognising it and being with it, settling, relaxing into it, not trying to be going. The very trying is what keeps you away from it. Whatever activity is needed, it will come off if left to itself. Just the same as you don't know what your next thought is. Yet a thought arises. So, have to look at that and when you see, stay in that, when you won't relate into the opposite one, into the fear and the anxiety so much, because you recognise left as it is, it must return to its natural state. So you can be free of all this cycle that you're suffering. That's what we point to, that's what we relate to.

And that will do. So, if you've got any, a lot of you know it here, and you can tell us about it, because somebody who's looking at it for the first time, might hear it differently from what I'm saying it, and understand it better from you than what they could from me. And others mightn't. But some of you might have questions, well don't hesitate to bring them out. Somebody might answer them for you in a way that you might hear it, and settle down. But you'll get the taste of it, and resonate, there's a resonation with the hearing of it, a sense of well-being, being well.

And recognize what the Buddha told you a couple of thousand years ago, when he says it's a cognizing emptiness. emptiness, that emptiness has the capacity of cognizing or knowing. And he made the statement that emptiness is form, pointing out that all this emptiness, all these forms, are empty. Emptiness is form, he says, and the form can be nothing other than the emptiness. So you and I, and everything in this room, are emptiness. the room itself is emptiness. They also tell you in the Buddhist Textures that the great perfection is non-conceptual awareness or the great reference point of the great life is the great, the basic thing, the basic space of phenomena.

phenomena is space and everything, there's nothing you can postulate or think of that could be outside of space. What would it be in? This room, everybody in this room is full of space and everybody in it is full of space. The room itself is full of space. What's on the other side of it? Space. Can you think of anything or postulate anything that could be out of space? What would it be in? When you look at it and investigate it, it'd say it'd have to be in space. But space is no thing. It's got no centre to it. You can't find a pinpoint and say, this is where space began.

It's got no circumference to it or no boundaries. It's boundaryless. It's got no pattern, shape or form. Yet, it is the content everything. Everything is the content of that space. Space is no thing. Can something come from no thing? It can't. So whether you like it or not, you are all that space-like awareness or emptiness. And in the recognising, it's a much greater way of being, knowing and loving to be. There's much more being well, nothing wrong, than joy in it, happiness and contentment. So again, get into it. Cat? Cat? She's got cat for emphasis. She's comfortable here. Disturbed. Okay, that's your ears. Thank you.

And we have a few messages from all over the world saying welcome to all the crew, all the crowds. And we have one comment from Laura who just, here we go. Okay, go, good. Who was just commenting on what Bob was saying a moment ago. Left as it is, action will come if it is required. This is completely pertinent to my question on Thursday evening. Thank you, Bob. Yeah, it simplifies everything. Whatever's required shows up in the moment. If the thought is required, thought will arise. And if the action is required, the action will follow. That's really what it is about. Initially, people who are here, especially for the first time, have a concept about Bob being superhuman, being superior, being something better and they don't want to listen to anyone else.

What Bob says, everyone is that already. Everyone already knows innately, in the bottom of their hearts, that they exist. And really, there is nothing else that needs to be known. Everything else is disturbance, third-hand information, acquired knowledge, which basically can be ignored. So, we share that message as we are already aware of our presence. And we encourage everyone to share and to listen to each other because there is no one here who is not aware of their presence. You might be aware of other things. You might have political affiliations or opinions or things, but those are all third-hand informations that are to be discarded, really, and recognized as just something that obscures that pure presence of awareness.

So, anyone would like to start and ask a question or share or tell us how you're going or perhaps even reiterate what Bob was saying, maybe something that resonated strongly in his beautiful spiel today. I'll kick it off. Kick it off. Thank you, Peter. I had a crack, eh? I had an operation last week, a hernia operation, a guinal hernia in the groin area. And at one moment, they were willing to have the operation. Everyone around, all these guys, about nine surgeons and this and this, people hanging around. One guy said, well, who are you? Who are you? I had to laugh at that. They laughed loud and I said, that's really a great question.

Thank you so much. It's not in the answer, is it? It's not in the answer. It's in the question. It's in the beingness. I'll live it. Beautiful. Something will come up. Sure. Open your mouth and the Father will speak like Jesus said. What was the last thing you were saying? When you leave it as, what will happen will happen. The word will come up or the right, but it's not necessarily good or bad in the conventional way of looking at it. It could be, it can appear in any, in an infinite sort of way. But it always does. It always, the next thing just comes up.

It's just always coming up and no one really can fathom, you can pretend that you think there's something that you know what's going on, but you don't. You don't really know what that's going to look like or how it's going to appear. But you just do know that it does and it will and it always has and it always will and that's it. Someone say something profound because it's not going to come out of this now. No, that's actually pretty profound and especially what you highlighted that it not necessarily will be good or bad in a conventional way. Yeah. You know, according to the social conditioning, this might be something dreadful.

Like something dreadful that Bob was drinking alcohol. What dreadful? How stupid? He didn't decide to become a drunk, but that's how it happened. And if it hasn't happened this way, he wouldn't be here right now. So in a conventional way, well, his mother wasn't too happy. His friends, especially those who lost few teeth, weren't too happy. What are you telling my story? It's a great example. It's a beautiful example. Anyone can have an example in their own life of something that didn't go right the way we actually hoped for and it turned out along the way to be the blessing rather than the curse. because the intelligence of life is so infinitely greater than our little ideas that we may want to have and our little ideas, conditioned ideas of always following pleasure and avoiding pain.

Where sometimes there is no growth if there is just pleasure. The challenge is part of life and things do come up. And judging them as good or bad is just a weakness of the mind. I mean judgment will arise but it doesn't have to be blindly believed. This is the freedom. Freedom from believing whatever shows up in the narrative. This is the freedom. The narrative may still be coming up but now if you are the space like awareness if you are that conscious field of knowing then the belief doesn't exclusively have to feed every thought that comes up and make it real. Like little children they were told about the fairy tale and the Santa they haven't had a facility to question it.

Everything that mommy and daddy said was a gospel. So that was the truth. The Santa was real unquestionably. Today we are in a different place. Those things can be looked through. They can't be questioned. And then if you question every single thought you will see that none of them is true. No thought could ever be true. They are all based on third hand information and assumptions. even the obvious one. Like sky is blue. Is it? It's not. Bob has the example about the blueness going through the airplanes or where is the blueness at night or in the colorful sunset. There's no thought that is true.

The thoughts are a wonderful means of communication and means of connection and finding in that beautiful play of life different way of joining you know like being a female or being Australian or American or whatever just moving and finding connections beautiful beautiful play but they're not true. Even I think they're just temporary settings facilitating the dance of life but what is true underneath that changing vibrating narrative there is something that never changes. The only thing that is reliable that's been here forever even before the time means before the mind before the thought and that's what we give the credit that's what we give due attention back to that what you call the basic space of phenomena basic space before the phenomena basic space for the phenomena to arise and express it that's home that's freedom that's the true nature that's what we are everything that we posit as being true is false everything says false is probably true or maybe it doesn't matter it's just the we can never arrive at a proper answer that's the difficulty with this thing isn't it here week after week after week looking for an answer where's the answer can I grasp back you know there's nothing to grasp that's the thing to let go or hold or do whatever you're doing there's no answers there's no answers there's nothing there's no outcome to this process we call just the essence of life that we all are isn't that true that's all I have to say that's beautiful and Laura says excellent people without investigation it seems like what you believe is true for example if you know I don't investigate my circumstances without going deeper into it that's my accepted reality or truth so if my circumstances are horrid then this is my life's horrid because that's what I believe and you know like I live with my elderly father for example and for him everything is terrible you know he ostensibly is unhappy finds difficulty in everything that he does nothing is right and I know he's in pain physically mentally and emotionally and that's his reality I have to go and empty the bag and as much as you know I can be with him and pull back from that it still seems that you know I can get caught up in that as being his reality and my reality so I don't know where the question is leading but I guess it's only through deeper investigation that I can see through it but that doesn't mean anybody else can see through it and we're all looking at it in from our own perspective I don't even know if that's the question but yeah it just seems that like here I'm in a space where I can be at much more ease and investigate that but if I'm in a different situation my mind and my thoughts get lost in that and I'm not as much at ease as say here for example or when I can pull away from it so I don't know just don't know even what to say about that but that's my observation yeah it is a tough goal and anyone has the way of dealing with that yeah cat quoted Jesus open your mouth and the father will speak well I have a complaint I opened my mouth in a bar no one shouted me a drink not even the father yes I just say this really sorry that you know this is really tough call to actually see a loved one in pain and you know if there is anything that can be done of course it will come up they are pain management specialist and perhaps you know even a psychiatric care or psychologists it will come up you will be guided you will be open life will be facilitated but if you look at the way little elephants are handling situation like that their parents dying or we watch docos with Bob we watch documentary movies you see you are already doing what's required you holding space you investigating your own responses because that's you know that's what you are seemingly responsible for this your own body mind the other person if it appears in the sphere of your awareness of course it's just another reflection of you and whatever can be done will be will come up but you do have to self care because if you fall apart what is your father going to do then you do have to find a way to you know just self care go for a walk go for a swim go and get some way of renewing that source of love because it is a challenge you know especially if he's if he's in pain he'll be cranky he'll be difficult to be around he'll be picking on you because who else does he have to pick on it's like when you look at the dog with herpes it doesn't mean bad it doesn't have a self it's not selfish it's not a bastard it's just sick dog with herpes will go and bite everyone else not to infect them it doesn't know anything about it but it's just the nature it's just the nature releasing the tension in this way so definitely a lot of patience a lot of understanding and a lot of love which you would have to find a way you know pouring out and letting it be renewed through the self care and it will change you know it will change nothing nothing stays forever he may get better he may get worse you want to say something I see here no I'll say something I'm also with I'm also with my dad he's almost 90 and I find the more peaceful I am that he also picks up on that so like I said you hold the space but I don't get very agitated but if I do he picks up so you know it's just that being available for that energy to flow through I think I need to remember the Bhagavad Gita yeah it's a really good teaching tool in as much as that's old the story do you know the Bhagavad Gita no anyway it's a story about Arjuna who's a a chariot he's a prince and Krishna is his charianteer and Krishna is giving him all this advice and Arjuna finds himself in an impossible situation he's very similar to everything that we experience on a daily basis right it's impossibility of the life right yeah how can if we do this we'll be rooted and we do that we'll be fucked what are we gonna do if we you know we dominate or we submit we're equally screwed and the great answer to that is simply do the best you possibly can and then throw up the give away the fruits of your labour you know you're not responsible for anything really it just is the way it is you find yourself in a situation do what you can and and then give away any guilt guilt's a hopeless emotion anyway there we have it there's been a lot of fairly active block dropping going on here lately and as I found yesterday instead of the distraction of shooting off to the cafe there was more like a staying in my room and there was more like fear comes up which is great because I think if you drop in the triggers instead of going to a nice peaceful place and the triggers are still playing out in your body and screwing you up in other ways but you're so blissful you can't find them so to work on them there seems to be a move here to work on them first rather than sit there remembering to not think being in that space instead and a it seems more dramatic that can stay in the space because the triggers aren't some of them seem to be fully removed and also it's interesting the fear is coming up and it's like yeah okay seem to be watching one piece instead of working on those triggers this is going on for two days but it was just the fear wasn't seen as a baddie and something annoying something to be got rid of and it was no I was noticeably more steady about staying in that space rather than shooting off to the cafe as a distraction so it's kind of nice you know that universe has decided to remove some triggers that there's an awareness that it's kind of handy to be able to feel that stuff in order to dig them out and but to not be so unsettled by them and not see fear as something not to be felt and yeah it's just part of the process well it's not guts the universe just does what it does when you don't have any sense of free will in the picture yeah right but as you see the tendency was to run away and to get yeah to get destructed and now there is a freedom from that tendency and it is really beautiful this is what we are noticing here that technically nobody can do absolutely anything to stop being imagined self because you've never been one so how could the imagined self get rid of imagined self to become something that it is already there's nothing that can ever be done and yet this is what we notice the degree of freedom keeps growing and people come here and they resonate and we had a comment here from JB Bob great spiel this morning thank you for always being so clear and that clarity brings the resonation brings from the heart what's always already known and the degree of freedom seems to grow people actually seem to overcome their habitual patterns of avoiding or running away from things that are uncomfortable yeah they find the guts to actually face that energy that energy which is also just another way of that brilliant magnificent radiant life dancing itself into all the forms if it was only pleasure it wouldn't be known as pleasure there has to be the other way there has to be the dark and the light the pleasure and the pain the health and sickness all of it is equally that and we have another comment from Gilbert by listening to where someone is coming from we may have insight into our own patterns of behavior being is thought free be still and know that I am great reminder thank you Gilbert and also seeing where everyone is coming from even a grumpy person who is uncomfortable on a eel it is coming from that sense of being and sense of loving to be loving to be expressing us I don't want to be uncomfortable I don't want to be in pain just hear me just see me just hold space for me understand it receive it and of course that's only possible if you don't follow your own pattern of running away from uncomfortable situations and that's impossible if the running away is on the menu I mean show me the wild creature that will go into the discomfort what for so yes it is a fine balance in a way the life dances and you could actually see how life facilitates as you voice the difficulty you can see how life will facilitate navigating through it how you will find yourself once in a position of running away for self care another time in a position of being curious about your own responses yet another time about being complete space receiving the compassion empathically what's happening there yet another time just shutting down just fascinating because the whole picture will be filled with very very different elements of the landscape it could still be as difficult as it is it could still be an incredible insight into the nature of life and the nature of mind I can't relate to it even though I live with 95 year old but he is so serene so beautiful even if he is in pain he won't be grumpy or picking on me or anything like that that's the only way he does it it just makes us laugh so I hope you will find a place where it would be your average John Smith would actually respond to suffering in quite a different!

and I do really hope and wish you will show him by demonstration that there is a space in which there is a place for serenity in whatever happens he because he is one with life and yes sometimes there is just a place for holding hands and crying and just dealing with the pain just see how life resolves because of course there is no one in the world you may have the team of specialists whose expertise can be helpful but no one in the world will give you the answer to your life only life will which is you and let us know how it goes because it will change it will be constantly changing see all the subtle changes and then suddenly out of misery it will also be fascinating and we have another comment from Gilbert self calming narrative are a form of!

yeah any narrative is just a narrative it's nothing to be too preoccupied or bothered with although all the narrative is also a form of self hypnosis which is again facilitated by life there is no me that does any of it because me is not real! I know what's your name Tibor I just the cat just the way the cat the way you responded to Tibor you know when he told his story about his dad it was beautiful it was so compassionate and yeah it was just beautiful that it was yeah you didn't yeah you just totally responded in a very caring way yeah it was just yeah it just opened it was an open space there wasn't it with love it was beautiful yeah I do feel for you Tibor because it is tough call you know a lot of people and a lot of you know even you are you're a child of your father children of their parents stepchildren of their parents you know the life today they just chuck them to the place where they die quickly it is beautiful that you actually step up for this difficult role it is really yeah and the other thing too is when you started speaking and you often say this you say same old same old and it's not true you liar it's fresh and new it really is and it really is you know and just the flowers the different variety of flowers here you know and how people express in their own way but it's all the same and it's well no I don't know whether it's all the same but totally different as well yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so yeah that's it for me beautiful nice I actually had a you know kind of similar situation and your sharing was so useful and I thought the way I take that and I thought I actually raise it so if you have you know any advice or you know I appreciate because the way I deal with it I mean it's about my son being new in Australia and settling to a new life it's very hard for a young person you know I've been there myself I've seen so many migrants you know it's always very tough and he's very introverted and doesn't you know make friends easily and then his life is not going the way he imagined here so he was disappointed and worried and because I really love him so much of course I also went to that space for a while of being but because I take every situation in life as a teacher and I've seen it like I think if I'm in this situation probably life is trying to show me something so if I'm suffering in any situation for me is like life is trying to show me something and I try to get that message so for the way I did it was like what am I so I was worried more than anything I sat with myself and said okay what is worrying me here why I'm so worried I realized some of it is because I care for him and I don't want him to suffer so that's valid but I realized there is more than that in there and I'm worried if he gets depressed or anxious or that kind of that becomes you know like chronic what do you call it like becomes like a problem big problem that young people go through and we had a loss in the family my cousin took his life you know that kind of thing you know worried about that you know and I said is is this really are you sure it's going to happen that way and is it going to help you know thinking about that kind of outcome is it really reasonable is it like logically no well it's not because I don't know what comes out of it I've been through depression and great things came out of it so maybe it could be the same for him and he's not depressed he's just you know a bit down and you know so I actually took that worry you know and I actually worked with it like I I'm taking that situation as a way that I work on my reaction on my on my own self you know because any advice I give him he just really hates it you know any solution I find for that situation he absolutely disagrees you know so and it just absolute annoying for him because you know I'm the mom and whatever mom dad says it's wrong anyway so I stopped giving solution I started actually trying to be at peace with the situation myself accepting that this is what it is so I basically came I went to do what I'm doing like all these meetings I stopped being worried I tried to stop being worried and it worked you know and then things like this came up like we watch movies together you know maybe I have only half an hour night but that half an hour just brings both of us to a different space you know and things are changing I see that he is changing now you know I think it started after maybe maybe it's relevant I started changing I started being violent it took a bit of time you know a few weeks three four weeks but I saw the change in him he's fine now I hope he stays fine but right now he's fine and I appreciate it any other thing come to you too as advice as well or anyone else that's just beautiful that's just such a great worth of wisdom how you actually use it to self to do self inquiry to recognize the love underlying all the worry to recognize the projecting future in which there will be worse is pointless and it's not taking you anywhere and instead finding a place of perfection where things resolve themselves remembering that love underlies everything it's just wonderful demonstration of the deep wisdom which you tap into it's yours it's in your heart and it is guiding you it's just so inspiring thank you for sharing that another thing I did yesterday so dropped some blocks and issues and at least it seemed like you know watch things move away so you set yourself up you change yourself and then the universe comes along and does some jiggles and there's some shift there's a better way that happens is and and then I was watching like these one piece that's just a manga where there's a whole lot of like major wars and interactions and dramas but it's another perspective it's like a big zoom out you know life changing stuff just happening and for some reason that knocked some perspective you know a couple of things in there just like shifted the focus back and so then I really had a real sense of like how all the thoughts that were how difficult the situation is, how expensive the rents are, how difficult it is to get clients, you know, all that sort of stuff that's making it seem like impossible out there and because there's always been some patterns of scarcity going on, you know, that it seems like, oh, you're the lids on the possibilities.

And seeing this big perspective of massive, you know, shifts and these characters' lives, and then I look out the window and it's like, no, this is not a dystopia outside. You know, here's a solid city. You know, Australia's not going to go down in the next wave. All of these people out there have managed to get themselves a solid living circumstances and decent income and, you know, aren't going to crash, you know, in the next couple of months or whatever it is. Yeah, and it was just so clear how light and how it was all about those thoughts, you know. If none of those thoughts didn't come, none of them needed to be there, there would be a completely different possibility out there.

Just absolutely everything's available out there without those thoughts showing up. So that was kind of interesting. Totally. Thank you. A question, Bob. You mentioned the imprisoning nature of words, but some people, I understand because I'm not one of them, actually remember in mental image pictures. So the question is, how do mental image pictures imprison people? Are you imprisoned by the dream? Could you say again, Bob? Are you imprisoned by the dream? Am I imprisoned when? By the dream. Are you in a dream? Ah, yes, that's a great point. Yeah, okay, that's spot on. Thank you. I've got no say in things, and that happened when I had to leave the room.

I had no intention of doing that, but if I stayed there, I'd have shifted a lot of you. Explosion. We have a comment. Did you want to answer? No. No? No? Yeah, okay. Get off that topic. Nice comment from Bradley Fantasi. Psychological suffering is the symptom. The disease is belief in a false identity. Fantastic reminder. Just a one-liner. Whatever there is suffering, psychological suffering, it is just a symptom. You can say that animals experience pain, but they don't experience psychological suffering, because they don't have imagined self, false identity. And of course, you can't impose the non-dual teachings on people who are not interested in looking into it.

That's just violence. You don't do that. But if you find yourself amongst people who suffer, it's just even a calming noticing how, look, you know, you believe in God. God looks after you. It's breathing you, breathing you, breathing your heart. Or you believe in life essence. Life essence is breathing you. You can realize, trust it. that's without imposing anything but just kind of pointing out that whatever you believe you are just put it aside and notice that life's already leaving you it's already here it's that's your true self but you don't violently impose it on anyone who believes that they are something else that's self-discovery that can be pointed on request but if there is no if there is no urge to look into it that is to be respected and vivek says accepting it as it is that's a great reminder too that's it for coming oh you want to tell us about the cause and effect well the effect is psychological there can be psychological suffering and the cause is the believed in entity I mean I'm just repeating Bob's words and and and the believed in entity is the cause and it's not true not real so how can the effect how can the psychological suffering occur for who the believed in entity that isn't there so Bob explained it in explains it regularly in this feel I heard at this time Bob thanks thanks no yeah it is a brilliant point it is exactly what Tazi is saying just in a different word but yes that is all one it's probably not that relevant but it's just an indirect thing for grumpy old man or grumpy old parents you know um yeah people who haven't sort of been through this process and know about lightening up um yeah there's a great netflix series called kindergarten for old people and it's like all these four-year-olds are teamed up with these old people for six weeks and they get the fragility out of them and they get the depression out of them because they're come on come on you can do it you have to go you know get stand up I'll help you with the walker what's that yeah when they second yeah yeah yeah yeah you have to get the ones on board I guess I mean this is so particular but yeah just everyone knows any there's so many offers there have been many offered solutions not taken so you know um and um like again as they say you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink so you know whether that's like a shet and that's that well I mean it's patterning you know he's 91 years old with 91 years of patterning you know and I'm my age 60 years old with 60 years of patterning and and I know there's now and and here and those patterns don't exist yet there is that tendency of the body and mind complex to fall back into that you know that relationship that I've had with my dad for all my life and so those I know I just have a lot of people I know I like to do and I like to do and I like to do and I like to that I like to do and I like to do and I like to do and I like to do and I like to do and I like to that I like to do and I like to do and I like to do and I like to do and I like to do and I like to do and to people and and having that shown or being able to recognize that and then seeing the falseness of that because it's not true except when i think it is so um and yeah i have found those moments where you know i've been still and made that space where it doesn't matter what happens and it's okay and at other times it's you know the tiniest thing will set me off and then moments later i might notice it and drop it but there's still this toing and throwing until there isn't i guess so yeah yeah but anyway it's learning it's opening up and that might be a situation which i also mentioned that might be a situation that life and what life will facilitate it where you can no longer stay with him at home and that's not a bad thing also if life facilitates it to find a different solution i know children that would abandon their parents just because they don't care but i also know the situation when they're incapable of taking care of them incapable of lifting them and handling them so that's not a judgment when life either way i mean either way even abandonment is also the whole world the 10 000 things playing out together to create the character who might be resentful or who might be overly judgmental critical or selfish is still life it's still the totality expressing like that but yeah just apart from all the social conditioning and concepts life will facilitate a solution for now i bow down to you because i know it's not easy and you're still in that position but when the time comes that it will change that's still just life doing yeah it's always one day at a time that's just the way i look at it and yeah look things will undoubtedly change you know that i know that but and i i can i only need to deal with the moment that's it yeah and if i go forward or backwards that's suffering for for him for me like i can see that he he um he doesn't um particularly want to be in the moment he wants to be in the past most of the time when things were seemingly better although nothing's really changed you know but and i i i get that on many many levels however the the the daily interaction is what i've got to deal with and that's it that is it yeah i feel a song i feel a song coming on daily interactions paula give give us a call um um can you hold it for me please colin yeah inspired by what you just said okay now let go of the past now let go of the future i come into the present I was just going to say, when you notice it, to let it be.

Are you trying to change somebody or expecting something from somebody else? And since you already realize, recognize that after 90 years, the patterning is going to be very difficult to change, can you simply let it be? Yeah, so I have similar experiences in a couple of different situations and I think that's what's coming up for me. It's just that acceptance of the other person as they are and it's when we want them to change, that we experience a lot more conflict and disturbance. And as we know in life all the time, we cannot control anybody else. And the only control we do have is with ourselves.

And when we do gain some semblance of control of ourselves, it's amazing what external things change. But actually they're not changing, it's our response to that that's changing. And that's the only thing we have control over. And so whenever we're in conflict, then that's a sign that we're resisting something. That's what Bob has said today, right? So resistance is conflict. I heard that too, Bob, so thank you. Yeah. And it's just all these benchmarks that tell us, you know, we've still got work to do on ourselves. It's not about changing anybody else and it's about the acceptance of where they're at. And it makes sense.

It makes total sense that somebody with their experience is who they are now in this moment, as it does for ourselves. But as people who are wanting to change ourselves, like that's the only thing we can do and we can focus on. And yeah, anyway. Yeah, I feel a bit guilty when I don't challenge my sister. I feel like I'm along for a free ride, but I just get, yeah, everything you want, everything you want. I'm nice and quiet and peaceful and, you know, until she throws a tantrum at me and that'll happen. But I feel a bit guilty that I'm not challenging her anymore.

Yeah, but it's none of our business. Yeah, I know. It's literally none of our business. Yeah, it's none of our, like how somebody wants to live their life, it's their life. Yeah, it's got nothing to do with us and how we take it, that's our business. Or even wanting to live is not the right word, isn't it? It's just the way they are is the way they are. Absolutely. And I'm pointing time the way I am, the way I am. Yeah, and it's you who wants to change. So that's your business. Yeah. There's no business in wanting anybody else to change or to learn or to do anything different.

None of our business. I just want to say something. I, you know, my outlook on it is you made it to 90, I will just shut up. Yeah. But to some degree though, you know, it doesn't, I mean, I understand that, but I still, I still think there's ways of interacting that are, you know, that are, let's put it this very kinder on each other, let's put it that way. And, um, perhaps, yeah, okay. But I guess if I get what I feel is abusive, I will not stay in that position. Good. That's, you know, I don't think acting abusively from my perspective is appropriate.

Well, might be appropriate for the other person, but, you know, so, I don't know. I'll do what I do. Yeah. That's all I can say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know anything else. But that's it, you've got to, whatever works for you. Yeah. That's your business. Yeah. Um, yeah. And I'm not like, um, you know, we've spent a lifetime in the relationship of wanting each other to be different. That's, you know, why aren't you this sort of a son? Why aren't you this sort of a father or whatever? And this is what we are. It doesn't matter what we both think. And, you know, um, um, my, my dad, uh, was a high school principal.

So he's used to telling everybody what to do. Yeah. You know, and that's how we teach you to be like this if you're not like that. However, he's my greatest teacher at the moment because he's making me look at everything about the situation. So, yeah. So, anyway. The, uh, the Daleks are never tired of telling us resistance is futile. I was thinking of that before. Ah, the ball again. Close. Um, I hear you, mate. I've just spent, um, nearly five weeks with my father who I see, if I'm lucky, for a week every four years. He lives in Europe. Um, I've never spent as much time with him in 16 years as I have over the last five weeks.

Uh, and I've never been so frustrated with him. Yeah. And I've noticed that for the first time in my life, I have an adult voice to a child who's never been able to understand nor respond to their dad never being there. Yeah. Or not being there enough. Right. So, um, my situation now is that I'm incredibly grateful that I've just been able to look at this relationship with feelings and hurts from the past and with a mind from now. Yeah. So, um, everything that's come up and that is continuing to come up for me is, uh, at least in part processing something I hadn't had the chance to process at some other time.

So, um, maybe you'll find some of that. Yeah. Well, I'm only processing it now. There's no other time to process it. The time is now, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Are we running out of time? We are over time now. So just wrap it up. Uh, yeah. Just quickly. Uh. I just want to bring the whole thing back right now. Just in conclusion perhaps to who we really are. This is the big question, isn't it? Who am I? And, uh, we have nothing to do with anything really. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have a couple of people to include from, uh, the community. No, no, no.

I won't say that anymore. Uh, did you want to say something more? No. Oh, sorry. I thought you just finished. Yeah. We, we are over time and, uh, Gilbert brings up that, uh, it's hopefully just a bit of a time and Gilbert brings up that is hopefully just a wording who can change the self and Jasmine pointed that as well no one even the self is everything is changing in the appearance nothing stays unchanged so any change that happens within this one it might be facilitated by extra light of consciousness but even that the credit for changing that one body belongs to life not to the imagined self which doesn't exist and Gilbert also says the true insight cuts through all psychology and Vivek says self is ever present there's no chance of changing and Julia is reminding everyone that tomorrow in the morning there is a special zoom that Bob has for the American crowd and everyone from Australia and anywhere else in the world is also welcome all the details and links are on the websites they are also zooms they are zooms three times a week so thanks Bob thanks Kat thanks everyone