Realize you are not unaware. Sailor Bob and the crowd on nonduality. 14 Jan 2024

Hela, John, Inay, Deanne, James, Lita, Ross, Anita, Julia, Tom, Tony, Nicole, Talshon, Pauline, Simone, Michael, Chris, Hazen, Adrian, Luke, Catherine, Tegan, Tass, Steve, Dmitra, Loki, Jay, Stuart, and Bob. You are. Morning, everyone. Morning, everyone. Morning, everyone. Well, it's the same old, same old. What we talk about here at Point 2 is what they call in the ancient texts Advaita meaning non-duality. Translated it means non-duality. They try and describe non-duality by saying it's one without a second, not two. In other words, there is only that. That is all there is. And that includes you, me, and everything else in this manifestation. Is that only. That's the great mantra.

I am that. Because, innately, we all know it already. So, that's the chair. That's the carpet. That's the tree. That's the flower. That's the bird. That's me. It is all that which we discriminate with the word. Words with words. Words with language has all been picked up. You realise you weren't born with any words. So, you didn't have any words. And, as they pointed out, it's non-dual one without a second. It's only patterning, shaping, falling, experiencing and expressing in the different pattern, shapes and forms. It's all, what they say, a phenomenal manifestation. And, that's the great mantra, I am that. Innately, we already know it.

But, we've taken ourselves to be this separate entity. This individual. This person. And, that's where all the problems comes about from. The division. The idea that you are separate and apart from everything. Everything. But, when they're pointing out it's one without a second, they're pointing at the absolute. And, the absolute, you can't add anything onto absolute. It wouldn't be absolute. You can't take anything away from it. It wouldn't be absolute. And, in recognising that everything is that absolute. Who can ever be superior to you? If you are absolute. Who can be inferior to you? And, what would you want from anybody else? Well, if you can grasp that fact for a start off.

Who or what can have any problems? What is there to be fearful of or anxious about? Or depressed or guilty or jealous or envy about? If you are the absolute. If you are the absolute. But, it goes unrecognised. Because, there's only a few that have really understood it. And, they pointed it out in a lot of the different texts and scriptures. But, it goes unnoticed. And, what they say, it is ignored. The fact of your own being is ignored. Ignorance. We think when they hear that term that we are dull or stupid. They are not meaning that at all. That means that what they are meaning is that we are ignoring our true nature.

Not investigating. And, taking on what we believe ourselves to be. When we are given the name Bill, Jane or Johnny, whatever your name might be when we learnt words. Somebody asks you who you are, you'll say, I'm Bill or I am Jane. Instead of saying or recognising it. I am that absolute in which all this manifestation appears and expresses in. The one without a second. Non-dual. They call it a phenomenal manifestation. And, the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. Pointing out this manifestation. You, me and everything in this room. And, outside of the room is appearance only. It seems to be real.

It seems to be solid and substantial. But, it is not real. It's just how it's vibrating. Patterning, shaping and forming. And, we are taking the pattern shapes and forms to be the reality. And, they call it, in the scriptures, the basic space of phenomena. Phenomena is that which appears to be. And, the basic space is what everything appears in. And, we don't notice it. Is there anyone here, right now, who doesn't realise that you are in space? Of course you do. We've known it all along. What is space? Can you find the centre to space? So, you can find a point where it begins. Can you find a point where it ends?

Can you find any boundaries to it? Any centre to it? That, you know, you can see. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. The other one. that this manifestation is nothing but the adornment of that space. In that space, that emptiness, just like in this room, there are lights on the wall, there are paintings and things around the room there, all adornments, but they are not the room.

They are not the room, they are the space. That's the same with all this manifestation. All adornments, the things you, me and everything else are adornments on that basic space. The base of it all is space. Space has no centre, no circumference, no boundaries. Try and get out of space if you can. But it goes unrecognised. It's there before our very eyes, the first thing you see, first thing you notice, but it's ignored and that's what they tell us. Ignorance. They call it ignorance. And we think, oh, I'm dull or stupid. I don't hear what they're saying. I don't understand. Don't hear the simplicity of it.

Instead of not hearing it or recognise it, we're just not recognising it. We say, oh, that's a good one. It's all space-like. But have a look around and realise, can any of this manifestation be out of space? What would it be in? They talk about the Big Bang, billions of light years ago. What would that Big Bang have to be in? Would it have to be in space? Nothing in a posture later I think of, it can be outside of it. But the very fact of that is missed. And we've got the idea we are this person, this individual, this separate entity that needs to become.

If I do this practise or look at this and investigate that, I will become realised or I will become recognised. But becoming is not being. Becoming implies a future time. When you look into time also and ask yourself the simple question, is there a past if I don't think about it? And you realise without a thought you can't say there's a past. And to add to that, try and live yesterday or last week. Go back and live a moment ago. You can recall it. But you can't go back and live in the past. It's only a recollection. And if you don't remember a lot of it, it's gone forever.

It's only that which we can recall or remembered that you can say is past. So we think there's, when you recognise it, you see the past as a mental concept. What about future? And you say, oh, you can't live in the future. You can anticipate and imagine what you're going to do when you leave here or what you're going to do next week or something like that. But you can't live it. So you recognise you haven't moved away from this presence awareness. Timeless. Awareness is timeless. It's not something that has a beginning or an end or a start or a finish. It hasn't got any time whatsoever.

But is anybody unaware right now? Because that's the way they express it in Hinduism. Sat, Chit, Ananda. Nama, Rupa are the five factors. Sat is existence. Chit is consciousness. Ananda is bliss or loving to be. Nama, Rupa, body, mind are the other two factors. They tell you straight out. Nama, Rupa is Maya. It's illusion. This body, mind that we have, it's Maya. It's illusion. It's a conceptual image. We've taken on board and never investigated. Never seen it. So, what are I up to with time and future? So, when you see there's no past and this to think about it, then there's no future. What about this presence?

Well, this presence is anybody who is unaware right now. And you know, for certain, I'm not unaware. I am aware. So, you realise. Anyone who is not existing right now. And you realise, no, I am existing. I'm not unconscious or unaware. Anyone who is not happy to be, do you want to be dead right now? Well, nobody wants to be dead. So, you are that being, knowing and loving to be already. Most of us come here with the idea of seeking to become something. Because we've got this idea or concept, we are these separate entities. To become God-liked or enlightened or realised or any other of the concepts they put on it.

You need to become something. Change it. Do some practice or some meditation or something to bring about the recognition and knowing that you are. But if you just said, you see you are existing right now. You are conscious, you're not unaware. Realise there's no becoming in it. Because becoming implies a future time. And they say, a lot of the scriptures we read, start from the fact. The fact that you are already that. And then if you do that, recognise that, you realise that the search itself becomes a problem. Because the search implies, there's something I haven't got but I will get it if I do this.

And so we go on practising and doing this and that for years and years. Trying to become something you already are. And then we wonder why we don't get it. It's impossible to grasp something that you already are. And so there's no need to become anything. Because becoming implies a future time. And when you say, look into time, past, present and future. Past and future are concepts. What about this presence? Awareness. Anyone who is not present right now or not aware. If you are aware right now, you wouldn't recognise the presence. But if you are aware, you know it's happening presently, right in this moment.

And they point that out. Awareness of being is the blissful nature of it. Being, knowing and loving to be. That's the such at an end, put it in other terms. We call ourselves human beings. You get the concept of God. We got that concept because we think this is not good enough. There's something that's got to be better than us. So we set up something higher or believe that it's greater than ourselves. This thing called God. A supreme being. What happens if you take that human off the beingness? And take the word supreme off the beingness. Try and negate your being without the word supreme or human right now.

And you realise, I already am that being. And isn't that the great mantra? I am that. And that I amness or the sense of presence is what the I am represents. So you don't have to become anything. Just recognise and realise and know for certain that I am that. Because in that beingness, try and tell yourself right now that you're not. And you recognise, no, I can't say I am not. Because it is the very fact that I am that being. And that's not becoming. But then again, I've got this concept that I am this person. This body-mind entity. This separate entity. This individual. Am I the body?

Well, investigate. This is one of the things I point out. The false cannot stand up to investigation. So we've taken on all these false concepts, ideas and beliefs. And taken them to be real without investigation. Am I the body? Well, don't you say my body? Doesn't that tell you immediately? Who is the me or the my that has this body? Doesn't say I am the body. Says my body. And have a look at that. You say my car, my coat, my house. You know you're not the car, the coat or the house. Maybe you're not the body either if you look at it along those lines.

Well, investigate that. What's this body made up of? You see the body made up of elements. Made up of air, earth, fire, water, space. Just like the elements around you. Isn't that a fact? Take the air out of your body. See how long it lasts without the air. Take the water. Your body's 60% water. It wouldn't last a lot. Take the fire, the body temperature. You'll soon get hypothermia and die. Get off the earth. Get out of space. So when you investigate and look at it, you see your car separates yourself from these elements. And all those elements can be broken down into subatomic particles.

Into pure energy. And that's all this body is. It's a vibrating pattern of energy. What about this thing called mind? We are this mind. My mind tells me this. And my mind does this to me and that to me. Show me this thing called mind. That you believe yourself to be. I can't find anything at all that you can call mind. And the same thing saying my mind. Like my house or my car. Who does it belong to? And realize it belongs to that sense of presence. Not the conceptual image that I have about myself. But the awareness of being present right now. Is anyone unaware of being present right now?

They would say no. I'm not unaware. I am that presence awareness. Well presence awareness. Doesn't mean a future awareness. Or a past awareness. Pre-sense. Before the senses come up and start dividing into good, bad, pleasant, painful. Happy, sad, ugly, or beautiful, or whatever. Pre-sense. Just a pure, natural, spontaneous activity of knowing. Or being. An activity. It's not static. It's not still. It's ever fresh. It's ever new. It is spontaneous. When does now begin? Well I'll grasp it right now. Alright I've got it now but that's already gone. And it's now again. So it has no duration. It's a spontaneous emanation. And we take it to be stable and solid and static.

But there is nothing static in this manifestation. It's all transient. And this body that's sitting there, sitting there right now in that body, is changing right now. You mightn't realize that. But there are thousands of cells dying right at this moment. And being replaced. And don't realize or recognize that. And each cell that replaces it, suffuses that intelligent synergy, that life, that knowingness. Because the skin cell won't replace the liver cell. The liver cell won't replace the heart cell. And so on and so on. Each cell knows what to do. And how did you come about? Where did you begin? Well have a look at that.

You'll say, I was born. But can anyone of you actually remember your birth? There were people who will say, oh yes, I remember your birth. But how could you remember your birth when you didn't have any words to say, I was born? And you didn't learn any words until you were about two, two and a half. When the compassion of reason developed in you. And that developed in you as the little child grew. And you learned to start to reason. And you learned words from your parents. For the first couple of years of your life you had no words. So you couldn't say this or that or anything at all about you.

But you couldn't say you were not either. You were living, being, growing. And where did you come from in the first place? Well go back and look at your father and your mother, your parents. The animate life essence that you call your father. Enabled in that pattern through the breath and the prana and the food he's eaten and the life that's suffusing that pattern. Enabled in that pattern a little microscopic particle called a sperm to form. That ovum was suffused with intelligence. You can't see it with your naked eye. That sperm was suffused with intelligence or life. It knew what to do. And the same in your mother.

That animating life essence. Patterning, shaping, forming your mother. Enabled in that pattern. Another microscopic particle called an egg or an ovum to form. That ovum was suffused with intelligence. It knew what to do. It attached itself to the wall of the uterus. And the sperm knowing what to do, swam to the ovum. And the ovum knowing what to do, attaching itself to the wall of the uterus. When those two merged together, that same intelligence doubled that cell, doubled it, formed the little embryo, the little fetus, which is what you are today. What were you doing about it then? What were you doing about it then?

And what have you done about it as the person ever since then? Except with the reasoning and the words, we've taken on the belief that I am this person. That I can do this and I can do that. And got the conceptual image. That we can do it. But recognize it's only the life. It is the life itself that's patterning, shaping, forming, experiencing, as expressing, as everything. As you, me and everything else in this manifestation. And the manifestation is all the content of space. There's nothing you can postulate or think of that could be outside of space. What would it be in? So they call it a space like awareness.

And the Buddha told you that a couple of thousand years ago, when he called it a cognizing emptiness. We think we cognize the emptiness. We don't. It's the emptiness itself that has that pure intelligence entity or the capacity of cognizing. And he made the statement then that emptiness is formed. Telling you clearly and clearly and immediately that all these forms, and you and I are forms, the trees, the flowers, the birds, the planets, the stars, are all forms, are all emptiness. All the space like awareness. Emptiness is formed. He turned it round the other way and said the forms can be nothing other than the emptiness.

So we've taken all these patterns, shapes and forms, it's taken to be real. And suffer accordingly. It's only me that can be fearful. It's only me that can be anxious, ashamed, guilty, jealous, envy, remorseful, unhappy. And Weiwei tells you, why are you unhappy? Because he says everything you say, everything you think, and everything you do is for yourself. And he says there isn't one. That's what needs to be recognized. We take on this idea that I am this person. I am this self. But there isn't one. And they tell you that in the scriptures, and you've read it many times. How much notice will we take on?

That there is only one self. The Atman, or the God self, if you lose. I like to use that term. But I use the term God here. Because there are many different concepts and ideas about what God is. And they can get lost in these terms. Different religions, different things. From the atheists onward, we've got different concepts. And ideas what they believe God to be. God is just another word as far as I'm concerned. Because all this manifestation, it's concepts, it's words. It tells you in the Bible, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. That's all God is, it's a Word.

It goes on to say, all things were made by Him. Isn't that so? Isn't all these things in this room, or anything you can speak of, I imagine, have a word to it? All things are made by Him by the Word. And he says, there is nothing made that was made without the Word. Well, he has all these words, concepts and ideas we have, that are dividing and separating the inseparable and the indivisible. So instead of recognizing we are that one, that pure intelligence entity or pure being, we've taken ourselves to be this separate entity and suffer accordingly. For it's only me that can be unhappy.

It's only me that can be fearful, anxious, depressed, jealous, envy. Me is the cause of all the psychological suffering. And the unhappiness, the fear, the anxiety are the effects of the cause. Thoughts, feelings, emotions are the effects of the cause me. But if you look into it, and ask yourself a simple question, cause and effect. What if I recognize the cause me is a concept, a word? And ask myself a simple question. Can there be an effect if it's not related to the cause? Well, you don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to work that out. If you're not related to the cause, how can there be effect?

There can't be. So you see, cause and effect is what they call karma. All on about this karma. Put ourselves in a knot about it, you know. You've got to realize your karma and practice and do this and do that and break that. But all it is, is cause and effect. Now, if you recognize the cause, me, is a fiction, is just a conceptual image. And ask the simple question, can there be effect if I'm not relating to a cause? Well, they realize there can't be an effect if it's not relating to the cause. So what happens to your karma then? Disappears. And you're left with everything just as it is.

What is, is not what was. It's not what will be or not what likely to be. It is as it is. Part of the verb to be, isness. And everything is that, including you and me. So that's what needs to be, need to investigate. That's what we need to investigate. That's what needs to be understood and recognized. It's a cognizing emptiness that I pointed out before. And in the recognizing, you know the truth. And that's the scriptural saying. Know the truth. And the truth will set you free. What are you free from? There is only one thing you need to be free from. That's freedom from the belief that you are a separate entity.

You are an individual. You are a person. Now have a look in the dictionary and look up the word belief. Look up the word belief in the dictionary. It tells you it's an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. And we haven't reasoned this out. We haven't taken it for granted when our parents told us. Your little Johnny or your little Billy or your little Jane. They've taken it for granted. And reinforced it when we learnt other words and went to school and learnt more words. Somebody tells you who you are. I am little Johnny. I am this and that. And unquestioned belief in the absence of reason.

Acceptance of an alleged fact. We're alleged that we are this person and we're accepting it. Without positive knowledge or proof. Without the positive knowledge or proof it means it hasn't been looked at. So we stay in it and believe in it. Try to work it out in the mind and it doesn't happen. And we wonder why it doesn't happen. But if you recognise your true nature. That right here and right now in this very immediacy you are present and aware. You are that. Then the search is over. And the old people say oh I saw it and people do say it. But I lost it.

Why? How can you lose something when you recognise the true? We've just got back into the old habitual belief of what we relate it to. And they tell you but you haven't lost it at all. It's there but it's being obscured by the thoughts, the mental construct. And the obscuration that's all it does obscure it. Is the thinking. As Shakespeare told you three or four hundred years ago. There's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. And isn't that the way we think? Good, bad, pleasant, painful, happy, sad, loving, hating, positive, negative. We always think in the interrelated opposites. And we divide those opposites.

Conceptually. Not realising it's all two ends of the one stick. Or two sides of the one coin. They're not separate. And when you realise it's separate there's nothing either good or bad. But thinking makes it so. You don't have to get where we do it now. We'd like to stay in the good and we don't want the bad. We think we've got a choice. But look at that. Something comes up and you like it. We don't want the things we like to go. Not realising that everything is transient. It's all changing and it will continue to change. We don't want this one to go. We want to keep the good and don't want the bad.

So 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 going. We try to keep it there. Recognise that resistance, any resistance you are in, you are in conflict. You're at war with it. You don't want it to go. So you're fighting with it. Conflict makes you anxious, fearful, depressed, guilty, unhappy. Conflict is the cause of all your psychological suffering. And that uneasiness, another word for that is dis-ease. So there's resistance, conflict and dis-ease going on in us all the time. Something comes up and I don't like it.

Oh, I shouldn't be thinking that. That's a bad thought. That's a thought I get into trouble with. I shouldn't think that. So what do we do? We resist that. Try to push it out. Again, resistance. Again, conflict. Again, dis-ease. So now you see why you are unhappy. This constant conflict is continually going on. Never being quiet for a moment until. And we stay in the conflict longer than we stay in the happiness. We have moments of us coming up. Trying to modify it, but we stay in it longer. But realise if you recognise that it's the resistance, the conflict itself that causes the problem and leave everything as it is, what's going to be there?

The natural peace that passes all understanding. And that's what they describe it as in the scriptures. The peace that passes all understanding. What does that tell you? Well, it tells me that it can't be grasped with the mind. Because that's where things are understood in the mind of the concept. The peace that passes all understanding means that I've got to drop the concepts. Be concept free. What's wrong with right now if I don't think about it? And realise if I don't think about it, I can't say it's good, bad, pleasant, painful. No conflict going on. It's just as it is. And in that no conflict going on, just as it is, what's there?

There is a natural sense of wellbeing. Being well. Nothing wrong. Shakespeare says nothing right or wrong or good or bad with thinking. But there it is. Have a look at it. Investigate it. See for yourself. And you recognise that it is so. And then knowing the truth, as they say, know the truth. And the truth will set you free. You're free of all these erroneous or conceptual beliefs. And in that freedom, there is the peace that passes all understanding. There is the sense of wellbeing. There is the joyousness. There is the very life itself. And you can't help but recognise I am that. This is what I am.

This is what I always was and always will be. There is no one to become anything or be anything. There is no one to lose or be anything. Just the need to recognise. So that's it. So that's it. So, Kurt. Okay. So, welcome again. This is the part where we share and interact and ask questions. And our online community, we have about 15 people with us now. And there are no questions. However, there is a question which I was just answering via email that Bob, maybe you want to elaborate on that. I've already answered it but he probably wants to hear it from you. Is it possible that consciousness or guru can shine a light on the path?

Or give lessons through dreams? Or is it all the mind? There are many, many different ways that a person can recognise your true nature. You have taste of it all the time. There is a sense of wellbeing thing when things drop naturally away. And you recognise it. But we don't stay there because we are so used to the conceptual image being in this pattern and that's me, that we don't stay there long enough. And so nobody points it out. But when you look along these lines and see, it's been pointed out down through the ages and recognised. And it's quite easy to do if you sense what's being pointed to.

Yes. So I basically also reminded that non-duality is not, it's about non-conceptual awareness. So we don't bother much with those concepts and ideas of the past or progress or lessons or future achievements of some Supreme State. We point out that it is already present here now, but overlooked because of the preoccupation with the I needing to become. You got it. So that was, yeah, that's the Mr. Parkinson with us. So that preoccupation with one eye is a veil that hides the obvious, the true mystery, the light of being, the witnessing presence. So we also don't say, and this is what Bob says, that there is anything that is impossible in the dream.

Things are possible. Everything is possible. But we just don't concern, we are not, we are not, it doesn't concern as much the content of the dream and the idea of becoming, as Bob beautifully said before. So it is about the recognition of what is already here, ever-present, not what will be here tomorrow or at the end of the past. If it is not here now, it's not worth it. It's not ever-present, it's not truth. So the miracle of existence, ever-present, just before the mind divides it into I that exists. The existence is there and the mind comes and says, no, this is I and I am separate and I have to become whole and complete.

That's just the unnecessary part, the part that is to be recognized, that what we are looking for is already present, just hidden behind that translation, that chatter. And I send the link, so hopefully he is here with us and he heard your answer, the man who asked the question. So would anyone like to comment or ask question or share or... Yeah. What you need to understand, there is not just one person that knows it. There's quite a few in this room that have recognized and understood it. There are quite a few all over the place. We think we've got to hear it from the one.

But each and every one of you that had a taste of it, could let it tell us in your words how it is. It might be a bit different to what's being said here. And it might be understood by somebody who couldn't understand what's being said here. So that's how it's passed around. So don't hesitate to think, what are they going to think of me if I speak out? Recognize your true nature. And let it out. A natural state. Everyone was born into it. It's there. Just see how you recognize it. Who would like to start? I was just thinking about a dog chasing its tail.

And I was just thinking that that's how it is when we first come to hear this. It's like the mind has kicked in and it's still trying to figure everything out with the mind. Even though there is no mind actually. It's actually the narrator and the... It's just always narrating. And the biggest narration is about the me. The image we have about ourselves. And as Bob beautifully said, there isn't one. So, you know, when you first come, Bob says, you know, you've always known this, you know. So we're searching for something we already are. And yet, we have all these fantastic pointers given to us.

And then we're still in the mind. Or the alleged mind. The memory. The narration. Looking for this presence awareness, which we already are. So, it's like a dog chasing the tail for me. The dog is never going to chase the tail. Never going to catch the tail. Well, it might catch it, but then it will keep chasing it. So, it's sort of ridiculous, really. And there's been so many pointers all our lives, you know. As a little kid at Catholic school. All those beautiful pointers from the Bible that Bob was saying. God is the word. You know, that was all taught to me as a child.

And there were moments where I was just staring into space and, you know, just enjoying what is as a child. And I think, I don't know what's going on in the Bible. There still are. And yet, that memory of who I am, you know, in early days coming here would kick in. And I think, I haven't got it. Well, I've always had it. It's always been who I really am. And the rest of it's all a narration. And it can only work in the pairs of opposites. Pleasure, pain, happy, sad, me, you, yesterday, tomorrow. You know, and that appears upon that presence that you are.

And yet, we're in conflict to it. It's kind of ridiculous, really. And yet, we sit around talking about it for, in my case, 36 years. You know, we have actually close to 40 now. But, yeah, it's all become a bit silly. Anyway, that's how I wanted to start things on. Thank you. And I'm just going to just add on to that, that, you know, the experience of present awareness without attribute, just pure awareness, presence awareness. Presence awareness. Presence awareness, yeah. Presence awareness. Yeah, presence awareness. Yeah. When I was little, before I was five, I spent, because I'm one of nine, this huge Catholic family, I spent all my time in the backyard making mud pies.

Oh, really? Yeah? Yeah, I was a mud pie girl. Oh, wow. It's always had mud. It's always had mud. Mud. Mud. Come on the pies. What's that? What's that? Come on the pies. Yeah. Come on the pies. Hey. And I was, I felt, I remember feeling, I was just, like I was so loved. I was living in that love, you know? People left me alone. Everyone was so chaotic. It was, I was left alone and happily making mud pies and I had a little pram. You know? And then, oh, I went to school. And it was, you know, right, wrong. You know, from day one, oh, I had a photo taken of myself on the first day of school.

And later on in years, I had, I ripped it to bits. I couldn't bear looking at it because I was so beautiful and so innocent and just so open and ready for life at school. And from that photo on, it was, I was, you know, jumped on. And then it kept on happening in so many ways. And, and I remember one thing that really sticks out and I was maybe about eight and I used to still daydream. I used to daydream all the time. I just triggered what you were saying, Jane, about, you know, looking into nothing. Oh my goodness. I spent a lot of time just thinking nothing, looking into nothing.

And we went to see, in those days, everyone's to travel on boats. And we went, the, the priests used to go on over, back over to Ireland. We, whole school used to go down to the boats to wave goodbye to the priests. Anyway, I won't go into the whole thing, but the priests took a photo and sent it back to the school. And I was right on the rail and I was bigger. I was big, you know, tall and big than most kids. And I really stood out and I was daydreaming. Like I had this look and the nun, the head nun, who happened to me, my cousin, took the photo and she put it on the big notice board in the hall with a red arrow pointing to me and a sign saying, this is how stupid you look when you're daydreaming.

Oh my God. Okay. So it's like, yeah, no wonder those experiences all the time was, fuck, I am not right. I have to be something. I can't stare into space or make mud pies. So that's, I was just sharing this morning. That's, that's where it all started. What I was sharing with you with. I'm hell no, no, I'm not good enough. And it's, you know, and that's what happens. And so it's only in the last year, you know, that I'm coming home. I'm home to myself. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's beautiful. And you can see how necessary, by the way, it is for that, for that suffering to be there, for the investigation to kick.

And, and the experiences part, actually the part of that message that came through, it came in the title of that email about all those spiritual experiences and gurus giving light in the dream and stuff like this. Yeah. This is exactly what actually running away from the reality through the daydreaming, seeking spiritual experiencing, seeking pleasure and a sense of escaping the moment, which is obviously escaping the moment of suffering. It's usually what perpetuates the search. And it's usually to be recognized as the activity which veils the natural state. So initially it seems like we are conditioned to suffer and to kind of solidify the identity and to feel not enough and to feel wrong and suffer and suffer and suffer.

Then the whole machinery there, the bio-computer, learns or teaches itself to escape through the daydream or through addictions or through anything from that suffering, sedating it. And somewhere along the way, the idea comes up that this seeking pattern, that this behavior is who I am. While it is only a behavior, it is only a preconditioned survival strategy which defends the body mind from the suffering. And what I am and who I am, the ever-present, ever-fresh awareness of that witnessing field has never been touched by any behavior, any suffering. This is to be recognized. But for it to be recognized, it first has to be lost.

That is what the coming home is. If you haven't left, and only in the dream, seemingly, if you haven't left the home, you can't find it. But the truth is, you recognize at the end of the so-called seeming journey or the road, that you haven't left. That the home is always and forever what you are. And the narrative over shading it or kind of hiding it is only a pattern of behavior, is only conditioned piece of software, which is designed to protect the body mind, which is not who you are and what you are. And I have a couple of comments here from Connor. Earlier this week, I had a great chat with Bob about how the I that claims the current situation wasn't in the past.

it refers to. Same with the body that was different too. Can he talk more on that? Or is that just my mind pushing through again? Darling, would you like to talk more on, Connor says, the I that claims the current situation wasn't in the past it refers to. And the body is not the same, it's different too. Would you talk more about that? What did you talk with Connor last week on the individual session? That's about, I can't remember what was it. That's the past. Yeah, so you will have to ask the question again on your individual session because Bob doesn't really recall the details of it.

Sorry Connor. But yeah, the I has never been there. So the I that claims the situation, yesterday's situation or childhood trauma or whatever, that I that claims isn't there either. It's just a piece of program. It's just a credit taking behavior, pre-programmed behavior, which is wonderful in the storytelling society, which connects through telling stories. This is the story of me or you have similar story. We both men or women or Australians or whatever, pie supporters. So that's a beautiful, beautiful pattern of behavior. If you recognize it become absolutely harmless. You still say I, but you realize that the I is just a translation. There isn't such a thing.

Look inside. Is there an I? Where is it? Here? Here? How does it look? Is it big? Is it small? Does it grow? Does it change? It isn't. You can't find one. And there is another one from Oliver. In this phenomenal existence, is it only the mind which can be ignorant? All else in the natural state. The mind is seemingly tied to the body. After the body dies, is that the end of the mind? End of ignorance? Well, the so-called mind needs something to express through. Yeah. No body, what's it going to express through? Yeah. Yeah, so that was your answer. Absolutely. Yeah. If that pattern needs the lips to talk or it needs the eyes to see.

So when that device is shut down, well, there is no expression. There is no mind. There is no ignorance. But that's a nicely posed question. Thank you. That's it for the online contribution. Anyone? Yes. Here it is. Here it is. Here it is. In the Bhagavad Gita, they say it's the mind that reincarnates. planets and they say that I mean many sources say this in different scriptures but they say that whatever's on your mind at your time of death is what will take you into the next birth. Who is the you? Yeah if you're identified this is the point but if you're identified with thinking you know you think this is me this is my story and oh my god somebody killed me somebody murdered me they shouldn't have and so on if you have a story that you're attached to then this mind is what gets reincarnated into another birth this is what they say.

Well that's all that's all that was born in the first place the thought I am. Which is the so-called mind. Yeah see even if that thought there is a thought that is really charged with the energy there is no I charging the thought there never is an I so there never is an I that incarnate or reincarnate or anything it's just the energy so there is a thought oh somebody murdered me they shouldn't have and that is really charged it's really heavy loaded so that energy well energy doesn't disappear it may just float somewhere and dissipate or not dissipate or show up in a different form but is there an I anywhere carried with that emotional energy there isn't there is just a temporary state of emotional charge and the idea and those are beautiful ideas the idea of going to heaven or hell the idea of going to heaven's 17 virgins waiting the idea of reincarnating into a pig if you are a bad society member those are fantastic those are beautiful inventions that life come up with to self-regulate a big crowd of people who if they misbehave there is going to be a disaster like the rules bob talks about the moses on the mountain mountain you gotta not kill each other you gotta like each other blah blah those are wonderful set of rules that are assumption behind it is that you have a choice of course you know you have a choice to be good and to be polite and to love each other and and to not act out of of your anger and in the in the social settings they are helpful because majority of people are not interested and that's also life self-regulating in verifying whether there is an I person who has any will or any choice in any matter and as life of course it may seem unfair to us oh yeah we can see true but our siblings or our friends can't because they're not interested no from the perspective of life it is absolutely brilliant and perfect life experiences itself as completely identified as a story and life experiences itself as a tree and life experiences itself as coming home and from the life perspective there is nothing wrong not everyone has to see through it from the individual yes we may have thousand stories and we may have beliefs also and we may see the bigger picture how those beliefs are brilliant and seeing that beauty and brilliance of life that's exactly what the freedom and love for being shows up like us the mystery seeing the mystery seeing the miracle seeing the even in the suffering even in the human suffering or in the planet suffering seeing that bigger picture seeing that duality of black and white dark and light and as bob said before nothing's either good or bad just just seeing the totality the mystery the mystery the brilliance humbling please no it's um what happens after the body and the mind die although the physical form dies it is beyond the mind because the mind can't grasp that but everyone's got theories i suppose yeah um um uh shakespeare says you know uh in that in the sleep of death who knows what dreams may come when we shuttle off this mortal coil so maybe the dreaming goes on in a way but in a form we don't we don't get recognized i've actually had a near-death experience at the birth of my children when i lost so much blood and i was you know i was dying on the operating table and there was nothing but pure consciousness there was a body but uh the sensation of the body was disappearing and there was a movement towards all these faces and this love this great love and great compassion nothing but awareness the same awareness that is right here right now but just no body sensation or the body sensation just dropped off it's magnificent actually looking forward i have a comment from gilbert he says no one can observe the formless the activity of knowing is spontaneously happening presently the introduction of the idea of time activates the imagination image making about a future after death can only take place now great point and all the theorizing about what will happen or what should happen or what some or the other scripture propagates and believe that also happening now it's an amazing creativity of life exhibiting in all those theories because they're equal we may seem that oh no reincarnation is more just and heaven hell is too naive no if you look deeper they're all beautiful all the origin all the myths that come and explain something and bring something to the table and the people are part of the collective stories and are really another expression of loving care and they're really another expression of loving care bob sorry you're going to say something all the adornments are not the space and there's plenty of adornments i keep thinking of that other shakespeare quote just keeps coming up a tall tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing nothing space i was just going to say um you know what they say bob like uh those that they call the guru in this life come back as a goat in the next yeah what when i've spoken to bob about this topic uh he'll say you know when i die where will i go um and it does get back to that space like awareness so that recognition is always there and it's a tangible reality it doesn't have to become a theory a feeling it's a living reality you're you're steadfast in that state of awareness and that's what the bhagavad-gita also talks about and um and from my own experience um i when i was doing vipassana retreat a few years ago um you know i was getting in a few days and they encourage you not to move and and my knees were killing me my back was throbbing and uh i just you know wanted to get out of there but i thought you know what um you know i'll do i'll do it and um i just made a commitment to myself i'd rather die before i move a muscle um no matter how intense the pain gets i'll sit there for the hour however long it is and i'd rather die so i'm sitting there all of a sudden my knees are killing me my back my spine feels like it's going to break and um you know i'm not the most flexible type um and you know i feel all this pain and you know i'm just noticing the sensations i just keep surrendering to it surrendering to it and then all of a sudden i start to dissolve into the floor um and then it's like i'm literally dissolving into the floor and then my whole body dissolves into the floor and all the pain is gone um and there was just nothingness there was no pleasure there was no pain there was there's just nothingness emptiness um um and i don't know how long it was like that for but then my mind starts thinking this is pretty cool um really happy the pain's gone and then it was like like sucked back into my body or at least that's what it felt like and then all the pain started coming back and i thought bloody hell um and and so i've had a few and since then um i've had a couple of dreams where i have died in my dreams so one i was i was burnt alive in my dream another thing i got eaten by a snake and i went to that exact same place of awareness um where there was just nothingness and and void and um so i think i think death can become an experience a living reality for you in this life and that emptiness is the ground of all being and so even if you know reincarnation or lives exist you know that the play will keep on continuing but that that nothingness that is the base of of all thought of all life um that's always here that's in all of us uh that's uh that's eternal and that's that's that's one between all of us so i think that and then when you see that death and life that the distinction between the two doesn't really occur so i have a beautiful quote just gonna read it quickly from giotti when dean was saying that uh bob's gonna become a goat a goat she is she's asking is it goat the animal or g-o-a-t as in greatest of all time brilliant duty and we have laura says i remember vipassana retreats well yes it can be intense sensation and so james right so yeah so i'm very very somehow very interested in what you're saying and i hear it in different ways from different people that whatever is and i'm just really curious about what's your point of view of what exactly happened when we see it with what is disturbing us in any way like for example for me would be uh my mind really tend to daydream i've been a daydreamer from you know since i remember i was a kid or let's say if it's a physical pain or it's um um you know like addiction like the craving you know or i don't know whatever comes up sadness anger whatever when you sit with that and fully allow yourself to feel it it's transformed i mean it never happened for me to a full degree like yours but yeah i'm very interested to see what actually happens is it like something it's like all these i don't know this is my interpretation want to know if what you think about it is it like these forces i mean they i don't know where they come from they come from whatever nothingness this kind of energy and i feel like we have to they want to be noticed they want to get our attention they want to really be felt be even respected maybe and i don't know something like that and i have to really give my full attention to it which i have a huge resistance not to but you know one day hopefully but what is happening there is that is my interpretation correct well you didn't really give the interpretation you give us a beautiful description of how the life is directing you to look and listen to that still small voice for you it may be sitting and looking what comes up and if the resistance is there and there is still a certainty that certain attention is needed and you need to look at it those are of course experiences so people get the same stage through let's say running marathon or through singing for hours and hours you know those are experiences whether you sit in meditation and things come up or you do breathing exercises or you take psychedelics those things do come up and you may have the story that this is something that needs resolving healing or whatever the story is but really non-duality is about leaving to the fullest moment to moment as it shows up whether it shows up as extraordinary experience or just an ordinary awareness and listen to that still small voice just be the witnessing presence if something comes up okay that's what what the life is presenting to itself right now is it happening right now no it happened yesterday a month ago or whatever so that is what life was presenting to experience right now when it was right now don't worry too much about having some sort of an elaborated theory whether you're doing the right thing or you're doing the wrong thing or you should be doing it or everybody should be doing it and then creating a structure and a practice every day at 10 30 to 10 whatever just listen to the still small voice and see what life shows up it guides you it has you it is breathing you it is moving you it is seeing through you so without much of conceptualizing and of course if you are moved to have a big story about what's happening well that's also what life presents but see if you can be a witnessing presence even for the meaning given to the story even for the bigger picture and just yeah go with the flow it might be experiences by all means every one of us had intense and beautiful experiences throughout life whether in meditation or through well even eating chocolate cake or having sex with the loved one any experience top peak experiences of beauty of dread of sadness of suffering they absolute they spices of life they're beautiful but chasing behind them is again reinforcing and re-engaging that pattern of escaping what is i want more of that you know like just pleasant experience of not not having pain yes that's what bob was saying i like it i don't want it to go or i don't like it i want something different that re-engages that sense of that pattern that program which is so convincing that the next minute oh this is i this is me this is i don't like at all i like it it's just a software to to preserve body mind but the identification in the narrative with that software of tracing experiences is is is what what where the where the core where the essence of the suffering life so listen to yourself let it take you thank you yeah so at the start what was your point of view not what anybody's point of view is everybody's got a different point what's yours look into it yourself and get your own realization or recognition yeah you hear a million other points of view you jump from here there and everywhere but just relax into what you saw right thank you so much yes surely if i was to die i would remain as i was before i was born the main as it was prior to consciousness because it's only the consciousness that consciousness that can dissipate prior to consciousness the unborn state never changes the unborn state never changes hello everyone i liked your phrase cat about the still small voice but a question the still small voice but um i suppose it's an ongoing experience of the discernment between the still small voice and and thought and in my experience in particular in my most intimate relationship is where i experience probably the most suffering and there's this ongoing battle despite all i know and don't know about non-duality there's a there's an ongoing battle as to how to discern the right thing to do and my relationship with my partner is where that conflict arises the most yeah so is it a gift yeah and it's agonizing and it's it's it's nothing at the same time it's it's it's bizarre how much suffering it causes when nothing is wrong but then it's like is something wrong oh maybe there's something wrong and then it's like fuck off yeah but it's humorous but it's agonizing right yeah yeah that's where the the potential for freedom was not through pleasant experiences because all conflict arises between that me and the other um well yeah if i wasn't there there wouldn't be a problem that's right exactly and i don't mean physically i just mean in the me in the memory of yourself bob wants to say something still still small voice is the intuition the inner teacher listen to it and it doesn't speak in words because the moment words come up that will be a mind the still small voice is more of an instinct it's more of a urge coming from the heart the moment it starts conceptualizing and narrating that's not it and i have also a lovely wisdom says laura and we have a beautiful visitor nitya patricia she says hello beautiful ones idea of coming to see you guys came across my mind a couple of times recently since i'm in bali it is close by hi wonderful to have you with us nitya is polish lady who does a sad science much much greater in numbers than we do and i did listen to you as well it was just lovely and yeah nice to have you with us uh yes you're not that far if you want to pop in please it's just a few hours it's just a fly i've just got a big pain pain happening right now so i thought i would deserve it after mitch was talking um so there seemed to be like two notions rose in the room which triggered a change of what was going on here so one was the labeling it pain you know and the other was something cut said vaguely bought about you know what if there's no future and so that both of them sort of stopped the this is pain this is annoying don't like it thoughts um feelings of uh i don't know exactly what goes with that there's a real feeling but feelings of emotions of um i don't just annoyance i suppose and obviously body reactions away from it body and or tensing of various body reactions that happen um also then there would be notions come after despair like what other options are there you know and no it's not even seem to be choices but there's just those thoughts and those associated feelings arise in a package of um uh what's another option i don't like this you know um um emotions that yeah this is uncomfortable it's annoying um it's despairing um and when those two drop off because of triggered things and the things in the room that trigger are moving away from noticing that as pain or all of those that package of like stuff we don't like arising then it's just enjoyable and comfortable and maybe relief um so these are also emotions body reaction physical reactions just if you just sort of see things of stuff coming up or packages of stuff coming up and it's definite like very very clear there's no preference doesn't you know it's just there's absolutely no reason in there for one to be more valued than the other um but that doesn't stop i don't like it thoughts and movements away in the body and emotions that also deemed to be not wanted you know with other thoughts and other emotions and other reactions in the body so yeah it's just a it's a bit of a complicated thing yeah when you don't add other layers of um associating it with people and choices and identities and all the rest of it beautiful beautiful i love how you simplify things into the stuff coming up rather than putting a lot of meaning a lot of dense emotional uh association with it you know because the moment you you start describing certain sensation okay there is a heartbeat faster or there is a little sweating or a little tension now the whole idea of oh i'm doing the wrong thing by my wife who i love dearly and you know that is so much more heavy and overwhelming and identifying because that is precisely what actually holds that identity the story there is no eye apart from the story of me being right or being wrong or being traumatized or being left behind or being unfair whatever it is while really what is happening is just the body which will always have preference for pleasure over pain because that's loving to be that's how it expresses but witnessing that preference for pleasure over pain is just the witnessing it doesn't judge if the judgment then the person might not at the same thing of the same thing in the same thing and the same thing in the same thing and the same thing in the same thing and the same thing in the same thing and the same thing in the same thing and the same thing in the same thing and the same thing in the same thing and the same thing in the same thing feature in the landscape or ornament you call it right or adornment it's just another adornment of space there is a space like witnessing the field of presence and then the sensation pop in and then the judgment of a sensation pop in and then the meaning given and the story all that pops up in that field of presence and for some reason when the intention is just on the pure sensations and somebody words it in the room there's just like this child like ah I love this shit this is the shit I love the best you know please just describe your experience as best you can I love that yeah I don't you know I think the other stuff is also shorthand you know the abstracted versions of everything shorthand to also have great letting go so you know I love that stuff too but the most joy here just pops up at a pure description yeah yeah because the pure description straight away misses the personal heaviness the heaviness coming up from this being really important and really personal it's just the most honest way of speaking of whatever happening because that's just impersonal noticing I think um with the dog chasing its tail analogy was interesting for me because I think that's what I've been doing for my whole life and only in the last year like I've realized that it's the same dog chasing its tail I used to have behaviors that were how to escape from my mind and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid of those and I've got rid and it's like all this knowledge that I've been trying to accumulate and hoard that I thought was getting me somewhere I'm trying to go backwards now and get rid of all of it and that takes time and at the same time I can't control all that you know you talk about memory and karma and trying to not think it's not possible but what I can do is accept what's in there and not pay any attention to it and then slowly that will begin to declutter and that distance between me now knowing all this stuff and then not knowing will eventually lead me to the only thing there is which is you know the truth so it's like I'm going backwards it's really weird I took all this time to like you know gain all this knowledge and try and get somewhere and accumulate all that you know and I know and I've got so many you know things that I can explain and rationalize and now I realize that that's all the stuff that was causing me the pain so can I just like even here can I just be here and not have a preference like oh that was good this was bad they were right can I just be here which means that in the future I don't have a memory of this so then there is no karma because all my karma comes from preferences and likes and dislikes of the past and then that's causing me pain you know it's raining that's bad so then in the future when it rains I'm like oh fuck it's raining so can I not just be and experience whatever it is there in the moment and then when it comes up in the future again it's another experience because I don't hold any kind of prejudice you know so and that's the thing with the having a preference you know yeah when I say all conflict arises between me and the other yeah that's all a very nice you know flippant statement but what it is is you know we have a preference or a partiality to what's coming up sure and so yes those things are but it's the preference or the partiality that cause the conflict and that ties into what was said about heaven and hell hell is when we're in that bloody you know place where we're stuck you know and hell and heaven is when there's no shit going on you know so to me you know when there's no shit coming up and we're just you know you know being knowing loving to be and responding and there's no preference or partiality to what's happening that's heaven hell is when we're in conflict and we've got a freaking story about it can I just say one more thing but it's gonna forget so okay yeah sure yeah you see can can you're talking about can you be here right now try and get away from it yeah I think but we know what you mean yeah just one more quick thing is that now I think I just instead of trying to control life and uncertainty is now I realize that it's just happening to me and that's it and all I can control is the reaction which is the distance between me and then going backwards so whatever works is as it is I can ask a question of Jane then because I think you were sort of summing up something that I was going to ask a question about the me and you in relationship but the me and you in relationship you know that and is it just a set of preferences and partialities battling with another set of preferences and partialities absolutely yeah that's right and it's having fixed ideas about any person place or thing that causes the conflict and all conflict arises between me and the other the other can be a thing not a person it can be you know whatever comes up it can be a thought and you can be have a thought that's being resisted so yeah so yeah that's right that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and that's right and relationships is the best ground for seeing your resistance and your preferences and just going oh there it is bang yeah it's kind of like where the rubber hits the road as they say when the compulsion the compulsion is to get out leave exit find a new relationship find something better it'll be better yeah and that's that compulsion is so powerful it feels right almost you take the same ideas to the next relationship but bob used to say you're either attracted or repelled the rest of it is a story you're either attracted or repelled and and the universe will either move you out of there or it'll keep you there so that's it in a nutshell thanks so um just keep looking back and keep seeing where the seeing is happening because the seeing is always happening the cognizing is always taking place so just keep looking back and seeing where that seeing is taking place and that's ultimately where it all starts because that's the no thing the seeing is taking place in that no thing and this entire manifestation is appearing in that no thing including this body and this mind and all these thoughts feelings emotions they're all appearing in that seeing in that no thing and that no thing and the attention arises from that no thing but it's directed towards phenomena towards the thoughts the emotions the feelings and there's this seeming idea of being caught up and being involved as a person but when the attention is brought back into its source the noumenon which is that no thing then it's just that's thought that's fundamentally what we're talking about here is bringing the attention back into to the seeing to the cognizing that's taking place all the time that's that's what we're talking about it's all the stories and all the concepts and everything else is all appearing in that scene and we can sit and talk about the stories till the cows come home and fundamentally they're just stories they're just concepts they're just concepts they're stories about me so that's it yes i have another last comment here uh that summarizes the what you just said ram and what everybody really heard regarding the dog chasing its tail gilbert says the dog has no tail and laura says love all of it or none of it what you are looking for is where you are looking from that was a quote from san francis and jb says bob great spiel thank you for making this available for us not but not able to be there physically and thank you and thank you everyone thank you for hanging out and making it available available for those who are and that's it