Nonduality with Sailor Bob. Problems come from beliefs. 18 Feb 2024

from saying our name. Joseph, Anita, Tasha, Lockie, Andy, Kavita, Bradley, Chris, Ross, Timur, Mitra, Tony, Dean, Jasmine, and Bob. Hi everyone. Good morning Bob. Everyone. Remember that. It's only the one. That's what we point to. Non-duality. Or what they call as Veda. In the end it was it was all that one essence, pattern, shapes and forms, experiences as everything. Only that. I am that is the great mantra. Everybody knows that. You know, because that's the chair you're sitting in, that's the room you're in, that's the trees, that's the flower, that's the space. Everything is that. Which we put other labels and words on and discriminate everything with the word.

And none of the words are the thing. You can't drink the word water. You can't swim in it. The word fire, you can't cook with it. Or eat yourself with it. It doesn't burn you out. But this word I or me, what is it? We take it to believe that this is believed in person. This body-mind entity. Which are seemingly separate. But there is nothing separate, though it appears to be. That's why they call it a phenomenal manifestation. And the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. It's only seemingly so. So I can't tell you anything. I can't teach you anything. Or teach you anything.

All I can do is point toward and ask you to look to where I'm pointing to. To see for yourself. Because there's no separate entity here. And there's no separate entity there. It is all the one essence. And you and I and everything else is that. Like the chair, the flower, the tree, all that. That in reality is no thing. No pattern, shapes or forms. The pattern, shapes and forms is how it appears to be. They're all the adornment of basic space. And space is the thing or the no-thing that we all miss out on. The very first thing anyone sees is space. But we don't notice it.

I ask anyone what they say they say, I see you or this or the thing in front of me. Not notice the closest thing to your eyeballs is space. Look back inward, the darkness inside is space, it's empty. You can't see a brain there or anything else. Space is no thing. I mean it hasn't got any shape, any form, any pattern, shape or form. It is no thing. You can't grasp it. Try and grab it to see it in front of you right now. It is no thing. Yet everything is the adornment of that space. That's you, me, the trees, the flowers, the world. Nothing you can postulate or think of that can be outside of space.

What would it be in? Have a look at that and think about it. What would it have to be in space? Where they try and tell you the world began with a big bang millions of years ago. What would that big bang have been in? It must have been in something. Or how could it be so? It was all no thing appearing as something. Like a dream. You have a dream and there can be all sorts of things happening in the dream. It can be in the country, in the city, anywhere at all. On the sea or anywhere doing everything. All sorts of activities taken on.

Where does it go when you wake up? I had a couple of nightmares last night. All sorts of things were going on. Where does it go to? Where is it? Was it real? Seemingly so. But it all disappears when you wake up. And what we don't realise, we wake up to this dream. And this is the waking dream. Because those are the things in the night dream that will disappear. It begins when you wake up in the morning. Because it continues from where it left off the night before. And it continually a continual bit of the waking dream. So, when they call it the absolute, and that's what it is, another name they put on it.

What can you add to the absolute? Nothing at all. It wouldn't be absolute. What can you take away from it? Nothing at all. It wouldn't be absolute. And so, recognising that every so-called thing, and you're a thing, I'm a thing, the house is a thing, everything in this manifestation of things, is absolute. It's the one essence. Because it's all adornments on that space. Or in that space, whichever way you like to put it. There's nothing you can postulate or think of that could be outside of space. What would it be in? Would it have to be in space? So, space is no thing. No shape, no pattern of form, it appears to be so.

Can something come from the no-thing? It can't. So, whether you like it or not, you are that no-thing that's appearing as everything. You are the one life or one essence. Without that life or that awareness that's with you right now, what could you say about anything? Who could you be talking to? Or how could you be thinking? How could you be breathing? Or your heart beating? And in that breathing, seeing, thinking, functioning, other so-called things appear. But as the Buddha told you a couple of thousand years ago, it's all a cognising emptiness. It's emptiness that's cognisant. Has the capacity of cognising or knowing. And he told you then, clearly, that emptiness is form.

And all these forms are empty. That emptiness. Emptiness is form. And he turned around the other way and said, the form's going to be nothing other than the emptiness. But what do we do? We ignore it. We've been told that we are this body, mind, this person. And you didn't pick up any words until you were a couple of years old. And we learnt words. And your parents told you, little Johnny, or little Jean, whatever your name might be. What do you say? I am little Jean. Or I am little Johnny. We put that I am. And the Sarcadian tells you, stay with the I am-ness.

And one of the poses, one of us says, I am that I am. That I am's the primary thought, or the primary word. Based on the primary movement. The vibration, om, goes into I am. And I am that, is the main thing. And we've pointed out that everything is that before. So you are the only and the ever appearing, like in the dream, as all these pattern, shapes and forms. And the recognition of being absolute. If nothing can be added to the absolute, nothing taken away, who could ever be superior to you? Who could ever be inferior to you? And what would you want from anybody else?

And isn't it where all our problems come from? All our feelings, emotions, and thoughts, because we believe we are this separate entity, this individual. And there's someone or something out there that's superior, or not as good. And we fear for love it or extra bit, or love it, or want it, or do all these conceptual images, taken to be real, instead of leaving in a singularity. So one essence, that's vibrating, patterning, expressing, has everything. And that is all there is. How does it come up? Well have a look, see if you mind. Something comes up, or go back to previous to that. How did you come about in the first place?

You'll say, I was born. But can you remember your birth? You realize you can't remember your birth, and how could you? People say, I remember my birth, try and tell you, but how could they? They had no words at birth. If you've got no words, how could you say, I am even? Let alone know anything about birth, or death, or anything else. So it all comes about from the word. Doesn't it tell you in the Bible, in the beginning was the word. That's where it all begins from, the word, we learnt words. The word was with God. The word was God. That's all that God is, is a word, a label.

All things were made by him, by the word. We'll have a look at that. Everything you're seeing around you now, you've got words for. That's the chair, that's the carpet, that's the tree, that's you, that's me. All these different patterns, shapes and forms are words. We've learnt. Instead of seeing it as that one life, that one essence, that one intelligence, the space-like awareness. They liken it under space. And space is no thing. As I say, you can't put a boundary on it. Can't put a centre to it, or any circumference on it. So how can it be a thing without that? And all the things that appear in it have boundaries, have starts, have seeming beginnings, have seeming endings.

And space is no thing but the content. Everything is the content of that space. There's nothing you can postulate or think of that can be outside of space. What would it be in? It'd have to be in something. It would only be in the space. Now that space is not a vacuum or a void. When we say no thing, we don't mean nothing. Nothing implies a vacuum or void, but no thing means it's got no shape, no pattern, no form. They only appear in it like the dream appears. The dream seems very real. But how real is it? And where's it taking place in? It's taking place in that sleep.

When it's seemingly unaware. No thing going on. The dream occurs. So it's real. It's recognising there's always awareness there. And it can't say when you wake up in the morning you say I was unaware. You're unaware. You're unaware of that awareness. There's an awareness of your unawareness. So it's always been the awareness. And awareness is just another word or a label. It's not the life. Christ told you I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. He wasn't talking about himself as we think he was. He was talking about that sense of presence. That sense of presence is the thought I am.

When your parents tell you Little Johnny and you realise that's who I am. I'm Little Johnny. The person. The individual. And you're still the person. Most of us say that today. Somebody asks you, you're not going to say I am absolute. You don't want to either because they put you in the funny farm. But you know innately know that you are not this body. Not this mind. What's this body made up of? My body. What's it like? You say my house. My coat and my car. Are you the coat? No, you're not. You're not the coat. Or the car. Or the house. Well on that day, looking at those things maybe you're not the body either.

And when you look into that you realise it's so. What's this body made up of? Well when they pull it apart they say it's made up of elements. Air. Earth. Fire. Water. Space. The elements that are around you right now. We can't see those elements. But they're there. Appearing. Appearing to be there. They're seemingly so. And that's what this body's made up of. All those elements can be broken down to some type of particles. Into pure energy. So it's nothing but a vibrating pattern of energy. That's what the body is. A vibrating pattern of energy. Seemingly taking the shape and form as these bodies do.

The different patterns, shapes and forms. What about this thing called mind? We say we are to be the body mind. And we all claim it. My mind. What are you claiming? Show it to me. Is there such a thing as mind? You look into it. There's no such thing as mind apart from thought. Or which authority are claiming to be me? The I thought. And if you were that I thought you wouldn't give it up. But you'd gladly give it up every night when you go to sleep. Gladly get rid of it. And yet when it's there we've attached everything to it. A thought. A concept.

An image. And they call it those that point it out in the scriptures non-conceptual. If I is a concept it's non-conceptual awareness. Awareness without a concept. And awareness is nothing but that pure being. Is there anyone there that can say I am not right now? You can't because why? You know you are existing. You know you are conscious. And you're happy to be. That's your demand. To exist. Consciousness. Being. Knowing and loving to be. Awareness of being is this. Different ways they put it. So you are that pure being. Again, always have been. Always will be. You call yourself a human being. Call God a supreme being.

Take away the label human. Take away the label supreme. What are you left with? And there it is. You've taken those words away. Anyone not being? Nobody's jumping up and saying I'm not being. No you can't say. So you still are without the concept. So you are that presence awareness. And presence awareness because when you look at awareness look at this concept of time. But when you look at time you'll see that time is just a nothing but a mental concept. Concept. Is there a past if you don't think about it? Ask yourself what is wrong with me right now if I don't think about it?

And you'll see without a thought you see quite clearly without a thought I can't say it's good, bad anything at all about it. You haven't disappeared. You haven't fallen apart. The seeing is still there. The hearing is still there. The functioning is still going on. But they're not putting any thoughts or concepts or labels on it. What's your next breath going to be? You don't know. But you take a breath. You don't think about it. I have to breathe. I have to beat my heart. Know the truth about it. And they say that know the truth and the truth will set you free. What's your next thought going to be?

I'll ask somebody here what's your next thought and they'll say they don't know. Well I don't know either what the next thought's going to be. But the thought comes up. And the thought comes up and it's claimed. I think. What do you do when you say I think? You've formed a subject. A thinker. And that's what this idea of the person is. The thinker. But the thinker is the thought I think. And the thought that comes up with that thinking becomes the object. So subject object is thinker and thought. Without the thinker there can't be a subject. Without the thought there can't be an object.

No subject, no object. Where does that leave you? Present and aware. Not past and aware or future and aware but presently aware. Just right in this moment. Pre-sense. Before the sensations and feelings come about. When the sensations and feelings come the words we put upon them this is fear, this is anger, this is happiness this is joy, this is love. All based on the word. And the word is not the thing. But we take that on and we're even to this day Somebody asks you who you are you'll say I am a silencer given your name. We've believed it and continue to believe it. But a little bit of investigation and looking in it you'll see the truth.

Because they tell you and it's true the false cannot stand up to investigation. You see so many things out there you take to be true when you look into it. The blue sea for instance. You go down to the ocean and try and get a bucket of blue water and you'll see you realise water is not blue. The blue sky, you go outside on a clear day there's a blue canopy over the what's the name of the space up there when you get away out seems to be blue but this is space in this room. Where's the blueness? Can't be a plane. The farther you go, as far as you go it'll never be blue while you're in it.

Appears to be water in a mirage but there's no water in the mirage. You go outside in the cloudy day, a misty day there'll be to be colours in the sky, a rainbow. But there is no colours in the sky, though it appears to be so. In this room perhaps you put coloured paper the sun shines through that and on the floor becomes a beautiful coloured pattern. Where is it now? Where is it? Look in the glass, where is it in the glass? It's not there. It's not, it appears to be so but none of those things are real. So when we look into this body and mind in the same way you see it's not how it appears to be.

But we've taken it to be that everybody around us 99.9% of the world are believing in this stuff and so we fall into the trap of going along with them on. There's always been a few that have seen through it and they're the ones that really knew and understood and they're the ones that the scriptures and the things are written about in their recognition. And all the true ones go back to the Daoists and all the rest from there all point to the one reality. The absolute basic space of phenomena. It's all got to appear in a base. And the base of everything is that cognising emptiness the space.

It has no pattern, shape and form and enables all patterns, shapes and forms to appear in it. And that's the real thing. And that's the real thing. And disappear. The pattern, shapes and forms are not the reality. They only appear to be so. And there's nobody or no one who has never moved away from that pure essence that pure intelligence energy. The more it's looked into and investigated the more seen and realised and the more liberated you are from the conceptual thinking. That's all liberation or realisation or is. It's not that you're going to get or become something. You can't get anything or become something that you already are.

And you are already the absolute. And that absolute is even. It's not divided. It's the one essence appearing as everything. And look into it. As Shakespeare told you a couple of hundred years ago nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes us whole. And what's thinking? Thinking is the vibration. And the vibration is a sound. Word. And you can get the same thing out of a guitar string. Music is a vibration. Make a song out of it. The same thing in words. Animals and birds and insects don't have the capacity of reasoning like we do. And they've got no words to speak in words.

They make sounds. And people and other birds can recognise what the sounds mean. We've got words and divide things up with a word and the word becomes a story. We add other words to it. I am Bob. I am this. I am that. I'm so and so. A good fella. Not so good. I'm having a bad job. People like me. All these concepts added onto that primary concept. I am. That I am the life. Itself. The saga tells you there is only life. That is all there is. And you are that life. There is nobody who lives a life. Life lives on life. And out of life more life comes.

Look into that and see it's there. Where did you come from? You come from the life of your parents. That pattern you call your father and they will have that pattern called a sperm to form. But you can't see with your naked eye. Put it under a microscope and you'll see it has the capacity of swimming and moving around. It's not just a dead empty blob of glue. It's suffused with the life. The same in your mother. That animalic life essence in your mother. And enabled in that pattern a little microscope called an egg or an ovum to form. That ovum or egg was suffused with intelligence.

It attached itself to the wall of the uterus. And the sperm knowing what to do swam to the ovum and penetrated the ovum. Those two coming together that life essence in them doubled that cell doubled it again and formed the little embryo the little fetus which is what you are today. What were you doing about it then? And what are you doing about it now? It's growing you. It's living you from that tiny two microscopic particles coming in it. The little embryo, the little fetus into the body which is now growing and aging still say I am. Still the same sense of presence and life exclusive.

You recognise that is what you are. You are that beingness, that life. And the saga tells you there's only life. There's nobody who lives on life. And out of life more life comes. And it also tells you that nothing can trouble you except in your own imagination. There it is. What is imagination? Break it down to image in. What are you seeing? You're creating all these things in the manifestation are images in your mind. All images. Look in the mirror. What do you see? You see an image in the mirror or a reflection. You can't say it's in the mirror. You can try and grab it out the mirror.

You can't say it's there because you can't grab it. But you can't say it's not there because it's there. All the reflections in the mirror are adornments on the mirror. Without that base, the mirror there can be no adornments. There's no intensity or life there. Could there be these patterns, shapes and forms, body, minds or any of the adornments on that space? Know yourself as that. And that is all there is. And that is where the freedom, peace and joy is. That is where the love of being is. And that being is the knowingness. It's not what will be. It's not becoming which implies time.

And there's no such thing as time when you look at it. All these things when investigated, put them under investigation and see things through them and as they say, the know the truth, the truth is that you're free. What are you free from? You're free from this belief that you are the person. You are the separate entity. And look at that dictionary, the word belief. Look at the dictionary and see the definition of the word belief. It's an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. It means we haven't reasoned it out, we haven't looked into it, we've taken it unquestionably which we do when we learn I am, we don't question it and parents don't tell us to because they didn't know either.

Unless you strike somebody that understood it you're not interested in it. But something in your life makes you realise and recognise there's got to be more to it than that. When you've got all these scriptures with putting rules and regulations you're a sinner and you've got to do this and practice it, do something else and we try to do it and think we're going to become something but becoming is not being. That's the simple thing you need to see. Being is not becoming and becoming is not being. Becoming implies a future time. And you investigate time and see that time's a concept where does that leave you?

Just as it is. What is is part of the verb to be. Is is that beingness, that's the immediacy that right now everything is. I am is that. That is I am. There's no though it appears in the opposites the opposites are not separate and they couldn't be. Could there be day without night? How can you say there was one or the other without the other being there? Could there be good without bad? Could there be pleasure without pain? There could be me without you. Could there be happiness without sadness? We divide them and think they're separate but realise they're two ends of the one stick or two sides of the one coin.

Only that. That is all there ever is. And you and I and everything else is that. When you are free of the belief who or what can suffer? Again it must, look at it, it must be absolute. Or as they put it in Buddhism they call it the great perfection in Buddhism. The same as the adlude, absolute. You can't add anything to the perfect. It wouldn't be perfect. You can't take anything away from it, it wouldn't be perfect. And they give it to you there in one sentence. The great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. Anybody who is unaware right now, you say no. You know that you're unaware.

But is there any conceptualising going on? If there's conceptualising going on, you're thinking this and that. You put an adornment on that basic space of awareness or beingness or knowingness. And that adornment is not what you are. It's like the image in the mirror. It is not there. It is no thing. Taken to be something. In this room right now is only the one essence. That's patterning, shaping and forming and expressing as that everything. And that's why when you come into a place like that and get a bit of a taste of it, you feel that sense of well-being. It enlightens you. It makes it much easier to you.

And you recognise there seems to be a greater sense of presence where people gather together. And it tells you that in the scriptures. Where two or more are gathered together in nine names there I am in the midst of it. We are gathered together in looking into this non-duality. Well that non-duality is right here, right now. Isn't it more easier to see and recognise you when a group of us are here? It's just the same absoluteness when you see, when you recognise it on your own. And there is no on your own either. There's never a way from that space. Never can be away from it.

And recognise more and more and it stays with you more and more. And that takes a way to go. And people see it shining out of you. And you'll be able to pass it on. They'll come and ask you what have you got? There's something there I want. And they might hear that and you might be able to tell them that. And that's how it's passed on. You know we think we go out and get knocked on the head or tapped on the head by a guru or hit with a peacock feather or given something that's going to give you the realisation or the realisation.

It's not. It's only through your own investigation because you are all that there is. There is no other. To think you're going to get it from somebody else. You're looking at a pattern an appearance. And recognising that you realise if it's all appearance and it's appearing in this pattern that I believe to be me then I am must be that absolute essence itself. And recognising and stay with that. That's what we're going to and people here that know that they've heard it and listened to it. Resonated with it. Taken it on board and can tell you in the same way that I might use different words, different experiences.

So if you hear what's said and what they say might hit home and resonate with you more than what this does. And there are others who are looking at it for the first time or have questions. So don't forget to open up and ask the questions. And you might hear something that will resonate with you and then you'll get the question and we'll answer it. And you'll settle down into being what you already are and the knowing. And that's what Satyajit and Andrew is. Being, knowing and loving to be. And you love to be. That warmth of there. What do they call God if you like to believe in God?

God is love they say. If God is love love must be God. And you know what love is. That resonates with you. Somebody else says might have a sad story and you'll be relating to somebody else and you'll say my heart went out to them. You see that sensation, that resonance comes in and you point up here somewhere and you say that's my heart. Well what's heart? Not the physical heart. That's just like the so called brain. It's just a pattern through which things are expressed. But heart as the core of beingness. The centre or the symbol of the spirit. And that spirit is the one essence.

And you are that. So away you go. Thank you. We have a couple of comments from our online community. Apart from good morning to all messages from various parts of the country and the world. Scott says Jai Bob Ananda. And Gilbert says Does water dream of being an ocean, a river, rain or a mist? It is all water, water, water. There's a song there for Gilbert now. Oh is there? There's lyrics. Oh yeah, okay. Gilbert you have the assignment to write a song on that. And come here and sing it. Otherwise yes. What does the ancient Mariner say? Water, water will drop the dream. And we have a comment actually from Richard to what Gilbert was saying.

He says clearly a mystery. So he's clearly beyond description agreeing with Gilbert. But there is Gilbert being a little bit cheeky. He doesn't like people commenting or having a last word. Mystery for whom? Without a single word or thought what are you? A mystery? No. The activity of knowing is spontaneous. Life is spontaneous. Why separate into concept? So Richard learned and didn't comment on that. And we have J.C. say hi, G. and all. And that's all for the online comment. So now we invite you to participate, ask questions, share, sing. Anita. No, no. Jasmine. Jasmine has like 10,000 questions. I don't know what to ask.

I don't know what would I ask. But let me start with this one. I always wonder when Bob says there is no time. At this stage, like I can't believe that because why do we say there is no time? Because I know there's going to be, I have a lot of appointments scheduled for like next one week. I know it's going to happen after a day. So I know for sure there is a time, right? I have to make a reservation. I have to make a reservation at 10 o'clock. There is a time, but why do you say, Bob, there is no time? Well, these appointments are going to happen when will they happen?

Now. When you're there. So you've got an image of something that's some future which is now. Tell me. The future is anticipation, imagination, thought. Past is thought, idea. Is there a past if you don't think about it? But there is no option for me not to think about that, right? As soon as I get up, like everything comes, I know my mom is in Lakeware. I know like what my daughter is doing, like there is a bundle of jasmine, right? It's not like I'm born today. I have like whole history of like 45 years of my history sitting here, so. But the actuality of it is only in this spontaneous moment.

It's all conceptual. So you mean that I never lived 45 years? Pardon? So you mean to say that I have never lived 45 years of my life? Well, it seems to be so. But it's not so. You've got only 45, I've got 95. Seems to be. But is it the same you who was saying I am when you were two or three or five years old? But it feels very different that when I was like eight years, I remember like I was a totally different person. I had different interests. Now I'm a different person, different interests, right? So. Yeah. But it was now then when you were that different purpose, that you're relating to, and it's now.

Now. What are you going to do when you leave here? That will be a now too. That will be a place. Yeah. So there was a parent, there's a parent who's got some duration. There is no duration to it at all. It's spontaneous. Everything is spontaneous. Can you tell the difference between direct experience, direct experiencing, and the imagination? You know when you plan or when you reminisce about the last 45 years? This is mental space, right? You are thinking. But there is a difference between my actual 45 years of life versus I'm imagining going into space versus going under the sea. How big the difference is.

How big? Because all these appears. The moment you stop thinking. So the whole quote about time is is there a time if I don't think about it? That's the full like the full pointer. Is there a time if I don't think about it? Okay, let me check. Now, stop thinking. Is there yesterday if I don't think about it? Well, theoretically maybe it is but even to say theoretically I have to think. So forget about it. Without a thought. But the thinking happens. The thinking happens. But if you really if your heart is with non-duality and you really want to find the answer and Bob invites you to look is there a time if I don't think?

And your heart is with it. Then for a moment that curiosity brings up a discipline and it brings up the moment of respite from thinking. And in that gap even if it's a microsecond you can see that there is no time in that moment of direct experience. Now the thought will come up with the story and with everything else also. But in that moment when the thought was not you were still alive. You were still present. You couldn't say your name because that requires a thought. You were still there at that moment. But you existed. You were there. I felt it right now. Yes, you know that.

So you know that time is only a collective story. Very beautiful, very practical. It enriches the dream. It makes it juicy. But it is not experienceable directly. It isn't. It needs a context. It needs a story. It needs mental activity. But how do we stay in this presence and how do we stay in this experience? No, it's not a problem. Bob is planning things too. We have a lot of things to plan. Even to be able to assist all the people that he is helping. You have no idea the amount of planning and correspondence. This is happening. If you look at the nature the squirrel is planning for the winter.

Only she doesn't have a thought or he doesn't have a thought. He will pick and plant the forest. But if something goes wrong without planning the animals don't feel bad for that. But we beat ourselves saying I should have done it better. But how do we that's out of control. Oh, you missed a plane because you are late. You got up late. You didn't check right. What do we do with that? Yes, you noticed that. You already are aware of that. This is the tendency which animals are free from. So they don't suffer. They don't beat themselves up. But humans are not free from that tendency.

But you can see how that tendency arises mechanically. But that mechanical thing is very consistent. There is a consistent voice that I am running on. It's not one voice today. It's the same voice consistently playing behind the scenes that makes us feel like Oh, there is somebody. If you are actually really vigilant you may actually notice there are few voices. There is one voice that will tell you, oh you had such a hard day come on, have a chocolate or have a glass of wine. And then you have it and another voice is, oh you stupid lazy bitch you should have done it. That's not the same voice.

There is quite a few voices there. But it's all a female voice all the time. Again, if you look very very closely you may find out that throughout your life there is also a very but it is irrelevant. It doesn't really matter because it is a program. It's a story. It is a piece of software that is installed by imitation. You were imitating your parents and your grandparents or whoever was there and all those voices there may be even voices of your old teachers whatever it is it's a piece of mechanical software that has been installed. Installed the same way as the heartbeat or the breathing or whatever keeping your posture or the way you sit or smile.

So you can see that this is part of the conditioning of your costume of your body-mind mechanism. It's not you, it's not yours. It's not going to go away. You don't need it to go away. You don't want those patterns to break. Would you like the pattern of heartbeat to break? No. And this voice is harmless when you actually see it for what it is. I don't believe it. Because when I make a mistake I know that voice is going to say that oh you did wrong. I'm scared of that voice more than the mistake I did. There you go. Because you take it seriously.

You believe it. Go on Bob. You said it's a story. What happens if you detach from the story? That's where I'm struggling Bob. For me, I feel the story is me. If you drop the story, you're in bottom line. No, never mind thinking. That's the story. But the story tells me that. Yeah, the story tells you. Stop breathing if you can. It tells me that I cannot operate. It tells me that I cannot operate in this world without that. And you believe it. Why do you believe it? Try it for five minutes. Try not to believe the story and see what happens. That's what they told you.

Detach. What if the story takes place in presence awareness? Brings you back to this presence. Spontaneous. Moment again without any concept story. That's what the freedom is about. It's the freedom from the belief in being separate individual identity. Entity. Who has a story, who can do something wrong, who is unworthy, unlovable, not good enough. That's the only freedom. Freedom from the belief in that story. So if you see it for what it is, it's just a story. It can go on. It can go on forever. It can make you laugh. It can be a great entertainment. The story can say, oh, you're not good enough.

And you just burst laughing. It's just the seeing and knowing the truth. But what if you see yourself doing some mistake, right? What if you see yourself doing something wrong? What would you do for that? Well, whatever comes up spontaneously next. You say it's wrong, now it's wrong. That inner, that inner intuition will tell you. Don't go there or do this or do something else. What you will do, the same thing as the animal will do. Animals do things wrong also and they die in the process. Sometimes they hunt and they get hunted and life goes on. See, the principle of life is that it looks after itself.

It loves to be. So the improvement also happens spontaneously. Learning happens spontaneously. If you do something wrong, you don't even have to narrate or beat yourself up to get the lesson because it automatically updates the software. You can just trust life. That life will bring the next moment. That life will bring the next heartbeat and the next thought. How are we both talking to each other, like how do I understand what you're talking to me? How do you understand what, like it gives the impression that we are two different people, right? I'm talking to you and Bob is talking to me. So how, like three people, how does it happen?

One without a second. You're dividing conceptually. Dividing it all up. Yeah, without the thought what will happen. I like when Bob smiles. Yeah, right? He's like, I love you Bob. Thank you. And we have a couple of comments here. I wonder if there will be some for you. Ben says, I like to think that we are the God spring, but even that is a concept. What a sweet concept. And Tazi says, hi. And Laura says, it's a great question. The question you asked. Thank you. Thank you, yes. And Tazi says, phenomena transit the present giving the illusion of time. Time is movement in the present consciousness.

And Ben says, is there an I if I don't think? That's a good question, isn't it? Because the presence is there, but the I, the I is the thought. And JC answered to Tazi talking about phenomena transit the present giving the illusion of time. Time is movement. JC says, there is no distinction between phenomena and the present mind makes it appear so. Time is not without us. It is without mind. And Gilbert says, answering to himself on the one that Richard commented, does water dream of being an ocean, a river, a rain or mist? He says, so many voices and no last words. And Sol says, be the loving awareness of the story and it will lose its power.

Yeah, that's a beautiful advice. The story is actually always is a love story. As Nisargadatta says, life is a movement. The movement is love. The love is, you know, when you make a mistake and a voice says, oh, you stupid idiot. Why is the voice saying it? Because it is a voice of a loving care. It doesn't sound this way, but if it didn't give a shit, it wouldn't do any better next time. So if you see that, you know, that it's all just an expression of the flow of life, the flow of love, and you don't believe it, you take it as a feedback.

You take it as a friendly commentary. I was paying more attention to the negative phrases that were popping up in the ether here. You know, criticizing this pattern here. And then there's a scan back happened of all the past times in this lifetime where those same voices came up and then two or three different scenarios would come in with the same kind of older woman doing a critical, making a critical comment. And it was just the same setting each time with different older women. And it was very clear that that phrase popped up from those scenarios that it was nothing to do with the individual thing over here that's separate from the other.

It was something that came from those times that those, the environment planted all of those phrases, that same phrase over and over and over. Yeah, absolutely. It wasn't me. It wasn't only me. Yeah, almost actually, you know, here it almost seems like, it was when I was asked, you know, the question went up out of here. Is there some kind of like negative entity, you know, presenting shit? And sometimes that's what came up as a thing, you know, and I can sort of visualize that too. But it just was another way of clarifying that these were independent and interdependent phrases, yeah. Absolutely. Like Bob was saying in the spiel that, you know, we were told that, oh, you were a sinner or you should be humble.

You shouldn't have any high ideas about yourself because then you're not going to grow. This conditioning. And sometimes, as you say, it actually even sounds like your grandmother or your mother is scolding you or the abuser or someone or the other. Sometimes you can even play and find that sound or justify it. Look for the voice and find what the story has to say. One time I noticed I did a Vipassana retreat and at the end of it, because we weren't talking for 11 days, and at the end of it, when we could start to talk again, some older woman was over there and said something and it was like my whole body just like, you know, flinched away in fear, you know, and that was the first, you know, sign I had.

And I was like, oh, there's an older woman issue going on here. And we have another Jasmine here commenting. Yeah, just one sec. Jasmine says it is the same mind that tells you to do something and then tells you that you did something wrong. Yeah, yeah. It might be a different voice. It may be the same voice. It doesn't matter. It's the same activity, mental activity. Yeah, commentary. Mitra? I don't have any questions, but, you know, I can always come up with one. Maybe someone has something better to say. Yeah. I think, Jasmine, if you're used to engaging with the commentary going on that's happening right now in your life, then the shift that can happen a bit more easily, it's direct experiencing in the present moment.

Which is the only place you can have direct experience. And often coming into the senses, into the sense of the body, or the senses, the eyes, the ears, something like that, will actually draw you into the present moment. And the commentary goes on anyway, but it's the identification with the commentary that you think it's you when in fact you can come into the present moment and see it just goes on anyway. It does get more quiet when you operate more in the present moment. Functions still function. You can organize stuff in the future. Well, mostly they do. But that doesn't change. But your identity of who you are actually shifts by being in the present moment.

So if that helps, I'm not sure if that's useful for you. Can I ask you a question about that? Yes, please do. I work in an office situation where I regularly do presentations and all of those. This non-duality understanding of what's going on is very important to me instead of calming. Because now I know that anything that is coming out of my mouth, I don't have a control over it. It just automatically flows out. So... When I know I have to present a concept, now I am like, oh, what is going to come out of my mouth? Before, I knew that I'm prepared well, I have control of the material that I'm going to deliver.

And I don't have to have to speak in front of 100 people. Just come. How do you relax though? How do you relax knowing that... Come into the present moment. It's the only place. And of course, if you have challenges like this, then the slow exposure helps. Just get used to it. Does Bob think before delivering the message, the feel that Bob gives, does he think about that? He doesn't memorize it or rehearse it to repeat it. It doesn't come from the memory. It comes from the direct experience relating what is experienced in the moment. Isn't it, darling? That's why it's always fresh and new.

That's why it's powerful. There is never any preparation going for the meeting. There is no... I would say, if there is any commitment ever to all those groups, is to not get prepared. To not sit and remember concepts of non-duality to say it out loud. Because that would be dead. That would be shit. Either you come to your heart and you come from your... come out from your direct experience, or that's no worth in it. But of course, if you are delivering a presentation or you are reciting or you are an actor and you need to remember your role, yes, part of that whole thing is preparation.

You know, like if you want to cook a family meal, you got to read the recipe, you got to practice cooking, or drive the car. All those things have place in the appearance. And you don't have to worry about it because life will. If you need to rehearse, if you need to memorize something, if you need to have the bullet point memorized, the thought, the discipline, the idea will come. And you will know. And you will see yourself doing it. And you won't be doing it. But in the setting like this, like you know, when you go for a date with your husband, you don't rehearse or prepare.

No, because that's love speaks. So here, love speaks. No preparation. Hi Jasmine, I wanted to suggest that you, if you had some time to do a clowning workshop. A workshop in clown. Because that's all about spontaneity and response. And just, and then you learn some things. You learn some skills that will give you some confidence when you have to present your material. Not that you have to be a clown, but it's a great, um, great training for trusting yourself in the moment. That's all. Because I've done a lot of that and it's beautiful work. Really, it's playful. It's really helpful. I reckon you'd have a lot of fun too.

And we have a comment here from Dee is asking, Kat, why do you say it is a loving voice when it is always negative? Very good question. Absolutely, it is. The job of the mind is to complain. That's what it does. It constantly judges and complains. How else would you be motivated to do something about it? And the mind is in a position that this is my job to get the situation better, to get the environment better. So, it motivates you by shouting you down. That's what it does. But the predicament is that it has the power and it is in charge. While it isn't.

It is the wrong assumption. That through the complaining it will motivate you to do things. But the truth is, through the complaining it lets you know that there is a loving care behind it. Because if there was a bad weather, if there was a bully in your room and it didn't complain, well, where is the loving care? But again, the way the whole machinery is wired, you pay more attention to something threatening and negative than something sweet and positive. And this is really justifiable evolutionarily. Those who paid attention to the beautiful butterfly on the plant and missed out on the elephant or the tiger didn't get children.

They didn't make it. So we are all offsprings of those who were negative thinkers and who were very careful to see all the dangers and all the negative stuff rather than smelling the roses. So, the mind's function is to get the attention and to look into the possible negotiation of the best condition for the body. And it does it through the narrative and it does it assuming the role of the doer. But it only comments. The doership belongs to the whole life expressing through the body. So the commentary is there. It means attention has noticed a bully. Now the body is responding either by hiding, flight, fight, whatever.

And the mind again comments, this is me, this is I. I decided to take action because I've noticed. It's a convenience. It's convenient to have that whole setting of the narrative. But when you know the truth behind it you know the mind is not the doer. You know it just does the narration and translation. And you recognize life in all thy ways. You recognize life in the movement of attention that spots the things it complains about. You recognize life in that fight-flight response you recognize life in all thy ways. And yes, good point. It is negative. But you can see what's behind it. What is behind the negative commentary?

It is a loving care. And then Laura says Excellent answer. Come to your senses watching to commentary. I seem to have lost interest in doing anything that changes the way I feel as I can clearly see no need to change what is perfect. It is beautiful. Space doesn't have any agenda to change any feelings or to always feel positive or elated. And you are that space. And Laura also says Speaking has happened in a meeting. I often don't remember much of what I've shared. That's the way. It's not yours. It's just life singing its song. And Giotti says All beliefs just thoughts that are repeated.

Yeah, absolutely. All the beliefs are thoughts. Second hand thoughts or just a scramble of various second hand thoughts. And Ram says to Jasmine You are replacing one story with another. I'm prepared versus I don't know what I'm going to say. Oh shit, what's going to happen? It's a story. You can still F it up even when you do prepare. Yep. You can sometimes pull off something amazing without any prep. Yep. Do what you have to do but recognize that life is always spontaneous. Yeah, even preparation is following the spontaneity of life. And you are not the doer. Good point Ram. Do what you have to do and recognize that this is just life doing itself.

There is no doer as me. There is no me doing preparation or doing cooking or learning how to drive or fly. And that's it for now. Chris. So just describing a process that occurred last week when I was here. Sitting, listening to the voices and seeing characters and people and being here and then the sense was that this whole reality was painted on a kind of a perspex transparent and it started to peel away. So all the characters all the voices just peeled away and what was behind was the realization that particularly the story of seeking the story of the character was a natural way of knowing who the character is of the character of the character of the character of the character and the role of the character and the role observation of the removal of the kind of the film and then you know past but but at least well not at least but it was a very significant experience in terms of the the depth of the concepts that we have about who we are and what we're up to and how we got deeper into the experience and the trail was and all of it thank you that's that's what it does life gives us those beautiful experiences which even though right now it is in the past but it is the experience that shows you the whole depth of that incredible mechanism creating and manufacturing the whole dream and me making it so enchanting and so believable and you see through it and then the experience is gone but you some things there you saw it you saw it you can never fully believe it again beautiful um I'm just going through this quite incredible process at the moment with my dad as he's he's um his world is crumbling and he's really suffering because he's really holding on to you know all these concepts and and it's a really painful thing to watch someone's world falling apart and he's crying and he's looking at all the things that he's losing constantly um so I find that quite difficult to be around sometimes although I know it's a process and and and um and my my body reacts to his suffering and I feel something there and I can you know sometimes I just want to cry with him because he's he's in that process um however it's it's also good for me to see that that is that it's those concepts that are dying like everything that he or I believe about myself and what what this body my mechanism is is false and if I hold on to that as I see him holding on to it it's really painful to have it all shattered in front of you those concepts being shattered so I don't know but but just as an observation really and it's just been um yeah quite a powerful process really so um and there's sometimes there's not a lot you can do for them or for my dad I'm you know um however it's just um yeah it's yeah anyway it's just an observation it's been really just a um it's been helpful for me to see it yes um but it's hard that I I don't have the words or the capacity to necessarily make it any easier for him because he's so in the in that um and the world is horrid for him his world is is seemingly very very difficult so anyway yeah the only thing you could ever give him you're actually giving him the pure undivided attention the pure loving presence without any judgment that's the only thing trying to fix him alter modify correct you know it already brings the presumption that there's something wrong with him and he's separate no you don't need that you are holding space for life undoing itself in the state it does and yes throughout life and Gilbert made a comment here significant experiences come and go absolutely every experience is significant insignificant powerfulledge all of it yeah come and go so right now life is experiencing itself as that through your eyes as a witness of that through his eyes as the victim of that or whatever the story is there and that is a unique way I mean if you look at love life again at large it's almost not gonna happen for me the only thing that I can really it experienced itself as a dying whale in the ocean or the eagle in the sky or another planet somewhere or galaxy or whatever so life has absolutely unique experiences always changing and this what you're going through right now it's not gonna be here in 10 years or in 10 days in 10 minutes I know it's in the moment and it always does pass and I do endeavor to just be in a space of stillness as much as possible and just feel whatever I feel in the moment and see him as that whatever he is acting so I'll just continue to see him as complete yeah if you see life you recognize life in all thy ways and you see that there is only life going through that extreme ordeal and we've been working with people with suicidal depression and Bob even had a couple of you know, a couple of people who had suicidal depression and Bob even had a couple of people who were coming to the meetings actually did succumb to it my best friend killed herself too so that suffering to the point of you know that's really love beyond the suicidal thought which wants to end the suffering it doesn't really want that life to be in the ordeal but going through that is not easy it's never easy because yes your heart goes out to them and you almost carry that that pain yeah because he does you know speak about like he's had enough from time to time and then it's you know it's again it's not so much that he he knows he's going to die but it's it's the letting go of all those concepts of who I am or who I think I am like you know and I and I can't do this anymore can't do that anymore as a body starts to deteriorate and fighting against that but I have seen it in other instances where people have accepted their situation and that is seems to be much easier for them but my dad is not in that position now he may be the next second but but but he's been yeah he's he's been a really powerful reflection for me over the past and you see how he has to find his own answers you can't actually resolve it for him you may hear yourself having a suggestion but it may make no effect you can see that that's all life dancing yeah yeah I know he has to go through his process like I'm going through my process in the moment but yeah my body still vibrates at a at an energy that I sort of feels for you totally I think this is Jasmine says here can you see it as a mirror you can detach from your remote can you touch from your emotions each will go through whatever they need to simply give love and compassion yes thank you Jasmine I think that's exactly what people is doing just yeah seeing the reflection anyway thank you okay everything is you everything is me makes no difference can you see everything is you everything makes no difference can you see everything is you makes no difference can you see everything is you makes no difference can you see Bob do you ever pray 50 years ago no he's free from desires what would he ask for He just wears the next shirt and the wardrobe once a month.

And is there another to pray to? Is there a God separate to pray to? You don't pray anymore, you become the prayer. You live life like a prayer. Now I'm not going to sing Madonna's like a prayer. I was going to say why. Okay, um, beyond... Oh, it's the wrong key. That's already it. Beyond ideas, right doing. Beyond ideas, wrong doing. There is a field, a beautiful field. I'll meet you there. I'll meet you there. Beyond ideas... Beyond ideas, right doing. Beyond ideas, wrong doing. There is a field, a beautiful field. I'll meet you there. Beautiful, thank you and love the music. And JC says love the music, thanks.

And we also have a comment from Ram. You cannot pick and choose how that wondrous intelligence energy will express itself. How good is that? I was watching a documentary yesterday about neo-Nazi gangs right there in Melbourne. They have terminar anchor men. Men are actually on the surface vile and hateful people but they too are expressions of that. The same consciousness, the same presence of awareness. Confronting, huh? Wah, wau, wah. Absolutely. Yeah, great point. You know. People are eating animals. Animals are eating other animals. There is mass extinction, that's all life, the same life as Bob sometimes says, creates the horrible people and the same creates the people who are remedying it.

The same creates a climate disaster and the climate activists. It's the same one essence. And there was a comment, oh gosh. Just briefly another way of experiencing the thoughts not working while activity is happening is just with call and response singing. So if you do it enough and you just get used to it, there's a feeling of an intuitive response coming up at the right time with the right volume and the right form of mouth. Once you really let go of needing to do a good job. And after a bit of practice. And then you can hear it coming out. It's coming out. There's no you hearing it.

It's coming out and there's still activity happening. Life is still happening without any thought. The whole issue is the thing of sovereignty. What is taking sovereignty in your life, in my life? Whether presence awareness is sovereignty. Or whether it's. The attachment to story. That is sovereign. Whether you're identified with the scripts going on and the conditioning. Or that you let go of the belief in all of that stuff. And just be in presence awareness. And that takes sovereignty. It changes everything. It doesn't deny anything. It's just. And things just fall away. I saw a beautiful interview today with an American comedian. George Carlin. Oh yeah.

Wonderful political comedian. And he said things changed for him when he didn't care about the outcome. When he stopped caring about the outcome and enjoyed it as a big game. And then he said his whole way he was doing his show totally changed when he stopped. And in a way I thought well that's a good example of life. Like do your best but don't worry about the outcome. And then you lose. It's. This fear. This fear that's just on your shoulders all the time. I mean I have to do that because I think I can think imagination. If I don't do this this will happen.

If I don't do that. Oh I'm going to be homeless if I don't earn enough money. And blah blah blah. But these are all imaginations right. But just letting go of that. When I saw the interview. I thought yeah he's right. Let go of the. Let go of. I've heard it many times before. But it was great to see. It's a great idea. And there are people in this room who are practicing artists so don't worry about it. Just go for it and see where it leads you and you have way more fun. And I've been having a lot more fun lately. A lot less suffering.

Yeah. I've heard the story Bob about the man who goes to meditate but then he decides he needs a loincloth. Can you tell that one? The guy goes to meditate but then he decides he needs a loincloth. Someone comes and tells him he needs a loincloth. Can you tell that story? You don't have to say it. I don't remember much of it. Yeah. I don't think it was. I don't remember much more than like he needs a loincloth. but then somebody says he needs to meditate the maximum amount, so then he needs somebody to wash the loincloth, so then he needs a wife. And then because he needs a wife, she wants to live in a house, not just sit in the desert next to him.

Then he needs to build the house. He's meditating, yeah. So we just live life without the loincloth because somebody told him he needed the loincloth. He'd be fine. I can't remember. What story? It sounds like a story of a patriarch. Story of God. Yeah, I knew a guy. I used to work with a guy who, it's a little bit similar to what you were saying, Kavisha, about letting go of the attachment to the outcome of whatever actions. He was a captain on one, one of the ships that I was working, a highly sophisticated job with divers underwater, so he was basically responsible for life of people there.

And he was sleeping half of the time, and officers were responsible. So this is like a really high stress load. And then, of course, there is the weather. That was in Brazilian waters, so there's a lot of unexpected circumstances, unforeseeable circumstances. And he was handling it really, really well. And I was like, oh, my God. And I was like, oh, my God. And I was like, oh, my God. And I was wondering, he was almost, he felt like, you know, that peace and serenity about him. How is he doing it? People were afraid of him. He kind of felt like someone with a great strength.

And I asked his secret, because it was almost like a secret of an enlightened guy, how you're handling it. And he says, I don't worry about anything I can't control. And I say, okay, can you start giving me an example of what you can't control? Well, I can't control. I can't control the demands from the office regarding the ship. I can't control the weather. I can't control the behavior of the divers underwater, whether there is an accident or not. I can't control the, you know, like whatever he, the captain's overall responsibility. Very, very quickly, we established the platform in which there was very, very little that he could control.

And he still believed that he could control his own performance, which, of course, I didn't challenge. Why would I? I mean, I didn't have to, I didn't need to fix him. But this is really a good way of finding the truth, even though you're not attracted to non-duality. Just the one little slogan that you could even share with someone who is not interested in finding the ultimate truth. Well, don't worry about what you can't control. How obvious, how clear, how simple. But then you realize how little you actually can control. And the more honest you get, the more confrontational it will become when you realize that you can't control anything at all, even to control.

Control your breath, which you may seem like you can. You need a thought. And to have that thought, what has to happen for you to have the thought to breathe faster? You can't control that. But that is already where we are. He didn't have to be there. There's a lot of people who find the truth, like comedians or actors or anyone, really, find the little glimpses of the truth because the truth that they are, they already have. They may not see it. They may not know it. Everyone already has, already is the truth of presence, of awareness, of being. And nobody doubts their own existence.

They may doubt what they are, but not that they are. And that's it, I think. Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Kat. Thank you, everyone.