Amazing drama! Sailor Bob and friends on nonduality. 14 July 2024

Aida, Timur, Chloe, Chris, Luke, Ramit, Jordan, Lucky, Sanjay, Lee, Jen, Rose, Anita, Julia, Adrian, Dane, Hain, and Bob. I am a member of a group of Linesage, and I am a member of a group of People who are active in the world of Aam Tata. I am a member of a group of People who are active in the world of Aam Tata. Another new day, fresh and new, spontaneously arising. Leave yesterday behind. Carrying around yesterday, whatever went on, you're blocking a lot of what could be happening right now and recognise and experience the freshness and newness of everything. Because that's all it is. It's all the one life expressing as everything.

That is exactly so. Everything. There is no thing in this manifestation which can be other than that one life essence or intelligence energy. What they call nonduality. Or if you like to use the terms God or the Great Perfection or Spirit or Essence or whatever other labels we like to put on it. We put labels and words on everything. And the word is not the real anyway. But there's no one in the earth right now that can deny their own existence. And that's how they express it in Advaita. Existence, consciousness, bliss. Or being, knowing and loving to be. And of course the story goes around that you've got to become that.

Because anyone who's not existing right now, anyone who's not aware right now, and anyone who wants to be out of it right now, you don't. So you already are. And the search itself is what is blocking it, because the search is the problem. It's a believed in entity that thinks it needs to become something. But becoming is not reality. You'll never become anything because becoming implies a future time. When you look into the concept of time, you'll see that's all it is, concept, is there a past If you don't think about it, and can you live yesterday or last week or even a moment ago?

And you can imagine and anticipate a future, but that's all it is imagination and anticipation. And what is wrong with right now if you don't think about it? Well you can't say anything at all about it if you're not thinking. And it is always and ever this immediacy, this nowness. Because the past is what was, it's not right now. The future is anticipation But this immediacy is spontaneous It constantly transient it constantly changing But every so-called thing in this manifestation is that. That's what they tell us. I am that. And the that they're talking about, when you look at it, everything is that. Every so-called thing.

The carpet on the floor is that. The cats that. The wolves, the photos, everything else, go outside, the birds, the animals, the trees, the flowers, they're all that. Which what has changed that is the words we've learnt. And the discrimination comes with the word. And they tell you that the great perfection or the absolute is I am that already. And there is only that. There is nothing separate, though there appears all these patterns, shapes and forms. The whole manifestation which is that is appearing in what? Well, it's appearing in space. Well, they call it the basic space of phenomena. This phenomenal manifestation is nothing but space, and space is no thing.

Can you grab a point of space or anywhere, or touch a space, or separate yourself from space? Does it have any beginning? Does it have any substance, any boundaries, any separation? The Contextuality. And the other thing is this. I don't know what you've missed, but don't recognise what you've missed. The actuality, the first thing you see is space, is emptiness. And all these things are the content of space. Space is no thing. Has no shape, no form, no beginning, no end. Can some thing come from no thing? So you and I and everything else in this manifestation are things which in actuality are no thing.

And that's why they call it a phenomenal manifestation. And the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. This room appears to be full of things. And the appearance is what seems to be so. That's the definition of appearance, that's what seems to be so. So it's all seemingly well, but we've taken it on board and looked into it every day, we've refreshed it and looked into the space and it's seemingly the actual and we've lost We have lost sight of what we are, that life essence or space-like appearance. We've lost the essence as to the way it actually is, no-thing. All this manifestation is no-thing.

Can something come from no-thing? It can It got to appear in something And you can postulate or think of anything that could be outside of space Space is no thing And so you and I and everything that is appearing right now is space. We've taken the idea we are these things, these bodies, these minds, these persons, separate entity. But it's all space like awareness. That's what they call it. Sat Siddhananda. Being, knowing, loving to be. Or awareness, consciousness and loving to be. There's only no one who is unaware right now. Or present. So we need to get away from this belief that there is all this manifestation and all this separation when the ancient texts and knowledge is, it is only one life, one essence, one being.

We take it to be a personal life, a personal self. But person is another word we've learnt, it comes from the ancient Latin. Persona, the mask. And people like Christ and they tell you there is only life. There is nobody who lives the life. Christ told you I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. And those as record on the mountains, I am that I am. That life, that sense of presence translates to the primary thought, I am. Or if you like to put it the other way, that primary moan of the universe, which they call Aum, a vibration, a movement, a somewhat of a vibration because not even a beginning or an end to it.

Just continually vibrates. All this manifestation is a pattern of intelligence energy. When I say intelligence energy, well, have a look at the way it is appearing and expressing. Look around you, see the things, the people in this room, the room itself, the art on the wall, the trees, the flowers, the birds, the sky, the stars, the planets. Doesn't that imply that the whole of nature is suffused with intelligence? It's not an actual, or just a, what do you call it, a seeming somewhat of a pattern. It's a pattern in an intelligence-knowing way. And that's why they call it as being. And being is not was-ing.

It's not what will be. Being is a concept of time. Knowing. And there is nobody who is not knowing right now. I know, I am. That's the knowing. And the happy to be, we all love to be. But it doesn't work out that way, does it, when we identify to this person. I am not happy, I am fearful, I am anxious, I am unhappy, I did this and did that, or this shouldn't be happening to me. And causing all these concepts, words, to appear and seem to be so. Recognition that the word is not the thing. That's what it tells you in the Bible, in the beginning was the word.

The word was with God, the word was God. Realize that's how they've got their understanding of this thing. God is a word. All things were made by Him and isn't that so? Is there anything you can see in this room or know, that hasn't got a word on it? There was nothing made without the word So that what we done We learnt words taken a belief in these words without questioning it without looking at it And we've got all this manifestation made up of appearances, words, concepts, which we take to be real. They call that the absolute, the great perfection. What can you add to absolute?

You realize you can't add anything to absolute. It wouldn't be absolute. What can you take away from it? You can't take anything away from it, it wouldn't be absolute. The It's all absolute. And what would you want from anybody else if you understood that? We want this and want that. Think somebody's got more than us or less than us or stopping us from becoming something. But if you know you are the absolute, that everything is you and you are that. And in that recognition, recognition see for yourself how life becomes much simpler and easier for its pure being, its pure knowing and pure loving to be.

And they call it, they would have called it cognising emptiness. And he made the statement that emptiness is form. Now we think we are cognising the emptiness. But it's the emptiness itself that's doing the cognising or knowing. And he made the statement that emptiness is form. And he turned it round the other way and said form is nothing but the emptiness. So you, me and every other form in this room and outside this room is nothing other than that emptiness. The one life, the one essence, the one intelligence energy that expresses patterns, shapes and forms and appears as everything. Now in its absoluteness can it be known by anybody?

It can't be, because who would there be to say it, the Absolute? Can't turn around and say, I am Absolute. Can't. But that is all there is, and it needs patterns, shapes and forms to express it. So all this manifestation are patterns, shapes and forms in which this emptiness is being expressed through those patterns, shapes and forms, taken to be real. But a little bit of investigation you'll see that there is nothing that is apart from it, that everything is that absolute. Not how it appears to be, but as it is. And what does what is mean? It means it's unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected. No preparation, no partiality, no comparison.

It's just this. Only this. This is all there is. Or that. And I am that, I can't be anything else. In grasping that and understanding it, there comes a bit of change. What happens to this separate entity, this me that's having a bad trot, or doesn't like this or they don't like me? I Am Fearful, I Am Anxious, I Am Depressed, I Am Guilty. All is added onto that me. All concepts, all words. But if I am that full stop, end of sentence, what is wrong with that is? And you know that, because that's the chair, that's the carpet, that's the tree, that's the fire.

You know already that everything is that. We put the label on it and discriminate it. Not realizing that these words labels are not the thing. Take the word water. Drink it if you can. Swim in it, drown in it. You can't. Take the word fire. Cook with it. Eat yourself. Burn yourself. You can't. And all these other words when you look into them, are they the thing? And you realise there's words that no word is the thing. So this manifestation which is made up of words, concepts, ideas, is no thing. Not nothing, zilts, zero, nihilism, but no thing. It means it's got no pattern, shape or form.

It is that space like awareness that seemingly vibrates into pattern, shapes and forms. And we learn the words and take them to be real. And whether you've got the words or not, if you look into it and recognise that, you'll see it won't matter what the words are. If you're not going to take delivery of them and put the energy of belief into them, So there's a belief in them and that's the main problem. We believe in all these concepts and words. Look up your dictionary definition of a belief. An unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. It means we haven't worked it out, we haven't looked into it.

We've taken for granted what our parents told you. Your little Johnny, or your little Jane, or your so and so. Because they didn't know it, they put their words on it. And we've gone on from there and taken the word to be real. And recognise then that the word is not the real, that you are prior to the word. And see that. How many words were you born with? You weren't born with any words at all. And you didn't have any words until you were two and a half, somewhere around that age. You might have been a bit earlier, might have been a bit later.

For more information about the Only me that can be depressed, guilty, jealous or envy. Me is the cause of all the psychological suffering. And they are the effects, the anxiety, the fear, the depression, the guilt, the shame, the wrath, are the effects of the cause me. And this is what all our suffering is. Believing in the cause me. And suffering accordingly. What happens if I looked at this me, this ego, what we call ego, and see it was just a concept, just a word I've taken on and believe in. No substance, no identity. And have a look at that. See if you can find this me, this I, this ego.

You realize when you look at it, you can't find it. Now me is just a concept and the great perfection is non awareness non ever presence And if there's anyone who is not present right now or unaware, well, stay with what is. Remember and keep expressing what is and realize that the person is the belief. An unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. Acceptance of an alleged fact without positive knowledge of proof. And leaving everything as it is, the changes come about. Have a look at your life now, something comes up and you like it. Some idea or thought, oh that would be good, I like it.

And we don't want the good things to go away. Not realize that everything in this manifestation is transient. It's constantly changing. It's only lasting for a spontaneous, thrival, falsation. Now. It was all spontaneous. So the things we like, they're going to change. And no matter how much you love them, how much you want to keep them there, I Am Self, or Person. The idea that there's only one self, the absolute self, not a personal self, whatever. And that's why a person like Nisargadatta will say the person is not reality. And other people will tell you that too. And that's what all there is, the one reality, the one life, the one being, and you are that.

So the things that come up and change and see that everything is constantly changing right now. Not absolute. It's constantly changing. And so in that change we take on the belief again that I am unhappy or I am fearful or I am anxious. So me is seen as the cause of all this psychological suffering. So only me can be fearful. So only me can be anxious or depressed. I Am is the cause and the anxiousness, the fear, the depression, the guilt are the effects of the cause. Now what's cause and effect? Is it so-called karma? Cause and effect, we've got all this conditioned idea of karma.

The I Am Not Relating To A Cause. Well, if you're not relating to it, can you say it's good, bad or anything like that? You can't. So you can be free of all this karma and all this psychological suffering by knowing the truth. And that's what they tell you, know the truth and the truth will set you free. And you free of the belief And in that three of the belief the life functions as it is And there's a sense of well-being, nothing's wrong anymore. Sense of beauty, of adventure. Life itself, expressing, being, knowing and loving to be. The fear, the anxiety, stress, guilt, shame, remorse, they disappear.

So that's what we're saying. Have a look at that and see for yourself. And few of you here know it. You all really know it if you look into it. But a lot of us don't bother to question. We like to go on to what the majority of people think out there in the world, that I am this person and wonder why I'm still suffering, why things are not working out for me. I still don't know. As Wei Wu Wei told you, why are you unhappy? Because everything you say, everything you think, and everything you do is for yourself. And he says there isn't one.

Well see if that's true. Investigate and see if you can find yourself. Or the myself, the personal self. I believe there was one for years, and I'm now certain now there never was or never could be. There is the one self, the one life that expresses, patterns, shapes and forms and experiences as everything. And you are that. So, cattle, come along and host the meeting. Point out what some of the saying will get you to ask questions. And away you go. And in recognizing it, recognizing yourself, you realize that others that have said it down through the ages knew what they were talking about. Yes, so we have a lot of enjoying being.

Cheers, Bobbie and Katharina. Hi, everyone. Love you, Bob. And welcome and good morning to everyone. Those are the messages from our online community. And no questions. So I'll just repeat what I've said on the beginning. There are a couple of people here who are from around in our community. In case you don't know, in a week time, actually less than a week, on Saturday we're going to have Bob's birthday party I am very happy to have this celebration in our home. If you need the address, just text us or email. And on Sunday after the meeting we are going to go to Sofia and have another birthday cake.

So if there is... and I see a few people from around who didn't come here but live nearby. So you are most welcome. Anyone who loves Bob is most welcome. They are all concepts anyway. Yes, absolutely, I mean, we're gonna celebrate the birth of a form, but if not for that form we couldn't celebrate life. So we're gonna celebrate the formless behind the form, and the whole idea of birth of the form, what a wonderful opportunity to express and experience love. That's all it is really. Nobody's counting. It's like Bob behind the form is timeless, birthless, deathless. But what an occasion, what an opportunity. So why not take full advantage of it?

And we have... Oh, Debra says that sound isn't good. I guess when I'm speaking this direction it wouldn't be good. Thank you. So, who would like to grab the mic and have a good sound out of the spare mic? Awesome. Please. Thanks, Bob. Every week, fresh and new. Thank you. What I heard really and resonated with me today was the thing about the construct of the person is actually just memory Memory and imagination That it There really nothing else more to it than that It quite remarkable actually Thank you It is quite remarkable. As you were talking, you were talking about how the things you love, they'll change.

And then my mind for a second went to, yeah, but it's the things I don't love that I want to change. But then the mind was helpful again, just a little bit. And like, well, that changes too. You're full of crap if you think that doesn't change. I mean, obviously it wasn't always like that. Anyway, it's the frustration that arises when it's, I guess the attention is dwelling on the change. That's all. Yeah, it's the changeless. That's, I think Jesus would say, that is the rock that you want to build your house on. He's just dwelling in that which doesn't change. And unconditional acceptance of change makes you free from any lingering or clinging to it.

Because you know it is going to change, so you can enjoy it now, even if it's not comfortable. Because you know it's not going to last. So that sort of an attitude... It does help, it really helps to know that, yeah, you know, that actually will change. I am the mind. Who is the I that wants change? When I itself is change. How important it is when you just get out of the shower and you're having your morning whatever drink you're drinking, the poison. How important is that when you don't think about it? None. And then the thought comes and the whole environment changes and the body gets tense and that is momentary.

And then again you look at the sunshine or you give a nice blink, a wink to your beautiful hubby or your kids and that's not important again. Throughout the day you can see how something that seems solid and permanent, how non-existent it really is. How it only exists when the thought exists. I was saying that actually the other day to a friend of mine who was believing in choice and doership and all that. And I mentioned the 10,000 things that I hear you talk about sometimes. Those 10,000 things don't exist without a thought. They're not even one thing without a thought. There's really no thing with or without the thought.

It just looks that way sometimes. It's a really good illusion. It's amazing drama soap opera, isn't it? Dean? No, no, I'm good. Why not? Thanks. Thank you, Bob. That was great to listen to this morning and very pertinent to something. I was having a very calm and peaceful week. I've just come back from holiday. I am the founder of the I am a member of the National Association of Indigenous Peoples of the United States. You know, it's just like some incident can seem to knock you off your balance for a bit and the mind just starts chewing away. And there's no one there to turn it off or do anything about it, but it's just the recognition that the mind wants to, or seemingly, wants to take you back into a drama and then there's the me that's got to play the part in the drama.

I think I found myself. I might be over there. Bob, I think I'm there. Right there, Bob. No, they're gone, gone, nearly there. It's funny you should say that because I've been looking at the rainbows that are around here and they're so multicoloured, so magnificent, every expression of pure light, just white light. I mean, you know, the way it breaks down into multiple colours. Actually, it's the same thing. Yes, that's it. The manifesting, everything manifests as a breakdown from... From the source into the color. From the source, yeah, into just the things that which are full spectrum. Yes, I really love that. It's so funny how we all just sort of dwell into this little tiny...

Oh, I caught it. Where'd it go? There it is, that little... you can't see it with the camera. Little tiny drop of sunlight. Thank you for watching! We believe that there's a colour there. There it is now. And truly that is a metaphor for everything. It is, yeah. Yeah, pure light. Absolutely. I love to equate that light, that broken light into like a human body is like a diamond. It is. And then the life goes through that diamond and it breaks down into a miraculously beautiful capacity for seeing, capacity for hearing, capacity for tasting, touching, smelling, Thinking, which is another diamond because it breaks into multitude of shapes and patterns and forms and images.

So yeah, you guys, you all are diamonds to break the light so that light can experience itself, can see the reflection of itself in that. You know, that's how they call it, why they call it God, the Creator. The infinite creativity of that light, refracted and broken down into those little mandalas everywhere. I just have another point about that. Some while ago I had a shift where the mind just totally shut up, the chatter just shut up for some time. But now it certainly chatters. Certainly there again. But I've realized that's all part of the same spectrum. Of course. There is no... You didn't chatter.

It just is. There was an experience of no chatter but then there an experience of chatter but it the same thing Yeah Yeah So really lovely Absolutely I mean I know it also really I just I don know why I was just thinking of this is that we You go to TOTS, you actually said that a few times here. You zoom out, you imagine, and then you zoom in, imagine. It's a pretty video. I think you've introduced it to people a few times here. Oh yeah, I mentioned it. No, no, no, go on. No, sorry. Oh, you've got a hot one there. Thanks Bob for the talk.

I've just got a question about goals, aspirations. Yeah, so if there's no me, can you explain the opportunities? I am a member of the Nisargad community. I am a member of the Nisargad community. Yeah, like you still have personal goals. Yeah, can you explain a bit about that for me so I can understand? There's only life. Like that tree outside there. I think that's gonna grow of itself today. I think it's gonna do it. Or when the seed falls into the ground and the sun and the earth and everything hit it and brings it to life. The same with you, with your mother and father.

If your father didn't eat the food and the food, how could that sperm fall and life? Did you say you had any beginning as a person? Has that food eaten by your father, you're totally different and you're the same with your mother. Energy patterns and experiences are everything, but it still only appears to be so. Like that colour on the wall and the colours we're talking about, are they real? No. They just appear to be colour, but when you look into it, it's not as it appears to be. We take their peers to a real. In that silence, in that stillness, in that emptiness, in space for instance, where are the stars now?

Somewhere. You can't see them now. Now when the light comes, shines from a different aspect, it forms stars in the sky and rainbows and things like that. It can appear in an all different variety of things but still no thing. It only appears to be. Okay, thank you. You're just thinking about those things, you know, goals and opportunities. Goals come up, you know, the thoughts about a goal or something arise out of that awareness. And then a so-called opportunity might appear in front of you or something that where an action can be taken. And the next thing you might find yourself taking that action and doing something and you're going, oh I achieving my goals But really it is just life unfolding in front of you Spontaneous Spontaneous taking you where you need to go such as with the tree too It just does what it needs to do too naturally In the end the Life wants to live.

Life lives through life and life wants to live. There's an innate kind of drive or what maybe drive isn't even the right word but it's this expression of living and that manifests as thought and idea as keep you safe and do this, this will be good for you, do that, don't do that, that won't be good for you. To me that comes from that innate thing that life wants to live. And what is life? What is it? But no doubt the huge thing with most of us is around safety and wanting to live. And it manifests like that with goals and achieving this and doing that.

That's it. And it's just a natural expression. Beautiful. It is actually a drive, isn't it? The urge. Whether there is an urge to have a chocolate ice cream, or whether it is an urge to get promotion at work, it's just what arises in the system, the urge. And now if that urge is emotionally charged, the body will follow the urge. There's no space for any eye to have anything to do with any of it. Like the eye doesn't beat the heart. There is innately that capacity there in the body. It's beautiful, like, you know, with that freedom, Cliff was a member of a parliament without a desire to be one.

He just shown up and life took him this way. And then, you know, there are people who, whatever, writing books or I did the cards and stuff. It was no desire, plan or vision, just an urge which body acted upon. And if you ask artists, musicians or painters or photographers, how do the real art happens? You will see that it truly happens when they get out of the way and let life drive them, let life just act through. And the mind is only the force which takes credit. I did it or I'm planning to do that. It only says I and claims what life does spontaneously.

It's quite incredible to just walk through the day and see how little, and you will find it really is nothing, that the I really does apart from claiming whatever has already happened spontaneously. And I also wanted to actually suggest, Julia, maybe it would be easier to just put a link in the description than just instruct people to Google something. Because it is a nice three-minute video that you're referring to on that, you know, zooming in, zooming out. But it's just much easier to click on the link than to describe where to Google, where to find it and so on under the video. So anyone can just click and get straight into it.

It's a little three minutes entertainment which kind of loosens the boundary of perception. It's sweet. There's a nice example of that goals and all that sort of thing came up through the week. As a paraplegic archer in the news bulletin on TV, he was in a pretty bad way in a hospital and then he realised he wasn't going to be able to walk. So he's in a wheelchair and he said someone gave him a quiver full of arrows and put a target in front of him and he said, I have a go at that If I can hit the target I have a go at that He now in the paraplegic Olympic team And he realized with that that there was a great ambition and there was a great achievement just in that But he didn't do, all he did was, something presented, he thought I'll have a go at that.

So that's how it can manifest without any self-centered interest or ambition coming into it. You can also see the animals, you know, when you see the big pack of wolves, there will be an alpha wolf. Or you see the chimpanzees, there will be an alpha there. How did they become leaders? Did they fight or have ambition? No. They actually just life directed them to challenge because that's in their genes to challenge their own strengths and find the strongest because that's what matters in the animal world. I guess on the same note of doership, it became apparent when I was listening to Bob, like, you know, I'm just fully there, absorbed in whatever Bob is saying, and then the mind kind of comes in and starts chattering away about something unrelated, and then it's like, oh, I must relax and bring myself back.

It's like, oh, I'm relaxed. I'm a person who is not listening, and I'm also responsible for coming back and listening. But in the moment of relaxing you see that that's just a fallacy and that it's just life going on and the thoughts are popping up and subsiding. But there's an urge to take credit for all the action. But at the same time there's this funny thing that happens the longer you get into this is that the mind gets conditioned to question itself. And that's just like a beautiful expression of life coming back to life where like the apparent me is kind of self-destructing almost. It's like, oh, I must remember that I'm not real.

And then you see it and the whole process becomes a laughable kind of joke. So it's really, yeah, it's beautiful. I have a comment here from Vivek. He says, No thoughts, emptiness, void is so complete, so peaceful. And Gilbert says, No thing is still. Still no thing. All the movement which appears everywhere is a movement upon stillness. No thing exists without being anything. Yeah. You can't even really say whether it exists or it doesn't because it's completely even beyond that. But the existence that you are experiencing directly can't be denied. I mean it can, but you have to exist to deny it. A question I've got that keeps popping up again and again is that if you get to a point where you achieve consciousness, how do you then live with love in your life?

As in having relationships. Like is there... Because it seems that a lot of people who've achieved consciousness live a solo life afterwards. Hmm, really? It seems. I thought they're all married. Yes, and Byron Katie is married, Eckhart Tolle is married. I mean all of those popular speakers are surrounded by, it's just like natural state in which you can find

And swans or elephants, if their nature is to gravitate towards the mating for life, that will happen. If their nature is not, they will mate for a season like cats and dogs. Or, yeah, it's just the nature of the body which just follows its own pattern.

How does ego come into play with that? What do you believe the ego is? Because we don't believe ego has any solidity or validity, People have beliefs that ego is personality. Well, I guess if you're in a partnership where one person has achieved consciousness and the other person hasn't. What does it mean achieving consciousness? Like waking up from a coma? No, like... Well, let's say one person is on that spiritual path and understands the concepts that we talk about here, But the other person is on a completely different path. It means the one that is on the path is obviously unclear because it's seeking for something that is not recognized in the moment.

And one who is not on the path, it means it's clear, it knows that it exists. I don't really even, I can't even comprehend the contradiction. Let's say someone is a seeker, is obsessing about finding something that is not already here, Which means it's just confused. Someone who is on the spiritual path is someone who you could say is confused, is confusing themself to be an individual or a person. So it is just a surface confusion for the one who is clear, not on spiritual path anymore, not seeking anything anymore. That one who is clear is also clear. The person chasing their own tail, in essence, is that life is clear.

So I would say probably not even engage in conversations on the topic because it just feeds the chasing their own tail. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Did you want to add something, Bob? Everybody is already that and always have been. Yes. Just ignoring our true nature. When we ignore our true nature we think we are this person and we act from that point of view, which is a wrong point of view. So the problems arise because of that. I think this is this nice saying, I always found it entertaining until it really landed fully. The only difference between enlightened and unenlightened is that unenlightened believes that there is a difference.

So if I am unenlightened, I believe I am separate, I am limited, then I believe Bob is superior and I am inferior. That is just a belief. That is just a belief. But when I look and I can't find that separate self, and I realize there isn't one, there is just life, It's just life, the same life looking out of my eyes and his eyes and your eyes and the eyes of our cats and any vessel which expresses that life is the same life being expressed. Then I understand of course there couldn't be a difference. Even if there is a belief floating on the surface, no, no, you are superior, I'm inferior.

That's just a thought. What I love about Bob is just he relentlessly points for 48 years that you are already that life. And as he just said now, you may persistently ignore it and hang on to a belief that no, no, I'm not yet, no, I need to achieve consciousness in future. And there is a little me who needs to get to that state. But that's just a notion that is to be investigated and looked. And if you see, when the notion is there, you suffer. When the notion is not there, you are in natural state. Relaxed, curious, free. When you wake up in the morning and before the day downloads itself, oh shit it Monday I have to go to work or whatever That natural state is there already before the download When you pause the thought he has that beautiful little saying the book is titled What wrong with right now if I don think about it And in that moment of no thinking, who is superior, who is inferior?

Who are you and how unenlightened or enlightened you are or not? Nothing can be said, it's just pure experiencing. It's like the natural state in which animals are living. They don't have thought that tells them that they are separate. They're free. And it is not to go down beyond the capacity for thinking and become an animal. That's impossible. But being free from that belief which is causing suffering. And then life just unfolds like Anita was beautifully saying. Mind sometimes is quiet. Sometimes it shatters. But if there is no one there, no one could be found who has a problem with that, let it shudder, let it be quiet.

That makes life effortless. Yeah, and life goes on, life continues. It just keeps going on, keeps unfolding. And that's the excitement, really, or not the excitement, but that's the point of existence, right here, right now. The way everything shows up is absolutely beautiful. So I think that in the earlier parts of my life, and sometimes happens now too, the suffering identifies with the mind-shatter that comes up. But now that just drops a lot quicker. But life still, you know, there's children and cars and bloody bills and all the same thing. And ambitions, maybe. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Life keeps going but there's less opportunity to get teeth stuck into an identity that's doing it.

That slips off a lot quicker. So I'll just say probably the same thing in my way. So I'm in a cafe having a cup of tea with a friend and the teapot doesn't work properly I was in the tea pot, and the tea is coming out of the wrong hole, it's coming out of the top. And I was, you know, fucking tea pot, they never work in these cafes, right? And I was really not, irritated, and my friend said, stop, put the tea pot down. Become one with the teapot. So I did. I put the teapot down and I was like, right, okay. And then, like Bob said last week, there is no teapot.

There is only love. You know? The love's not, you know, it's like, and also read in one of your photograph books just a couple of days ago, and I can't remember exactly, one of Bob's pointers, like, the sky, the clouds passing, that's all it is, you know, in the blue sky. That's it. Really simple, it's so simple. The identification, the contraction around the thought or the idea. And when you see that there's a contraction, it easily comes and goes and it doesn't hang around as long. That's certainly an experience here, I'm sure others have other experiences. There is a comment here, Vivek says, in void, emptiness, still I exist the ever-presence.

Yeah, whatever you define as I. Gilbert says consciousness is all there is Consciousness is not an achievement Life is all there is Simple Bradley of Stasi in reality no thing happened The unborn remains timelessly unborn Vivek says, if we identify the person, thinks, then mind-ego duality is at work. If self is recognized, then all is self and then there is no mind, no persons. Yes, so it is that simple. As Bob said 10 minutes ago, it's that simple that we miss it and we ignore it. That's why it's called ignorance. Ignoring that incredible radiance of life that is beating the heart, that is doing the breathing, that is bringing the thoughts.

The Ignoring that life, because what happens habitually we think, ah yeah, that's not important, that's for granted, I exist, so what? That's boring. Give me some juice, some drama, something to interpret or understand or make meaning of. Or what's the meaning of that? Or what does it mean to me? Or what's the meaning of life? None of that would be possible if not for that open field of consciousness that we ignore. That is the main thing, that is the only thing that really matters. Because those thoughts, those ideas are just coming and going. They are not worthy of attention. The attention will go there because that's how the whole machinery is programmed.

What I would really, really deserve acknowledging is that incredible mystery of existence, rather than the content coming up, the smells coming up, the sights, the thoughts. They are just content. Adrian? I was just worried about the poor awareness. It's always been overlooked and ignored. I just felt for it, but I don't think it cares. It's not worried. But you know, that's so subtle in the stillness and the silence. Everything's functioning and operating and all the knowing and the knowledge is there. Not that it's mind knowledge. All the resources are there, the immensity of it is there. And then, you know, that's overlooked. It's overlooked. Yeah.

We need to give you a mic. You are inaudible. Have you finished that? Yeah, sort of. My only other comment was like, I just felt like life is just unfolding. It's like a river that's just flowing and unfolding and going somewhere and or not going anywhere but like just a metaphor and then the mind wants to get on top of that river and fight with it and you know direct it and Say it should be like this or that or and say that that's not what I am on the river sort of thing, but My only other thought was it's not my life it's like it's life's life I'm just showing up and aligning with that.

Not that there's anyone to align with. Beautiful I mention this as it goes to you Nothing is denied Nothing Nothing denied Nothing rejected All of it is not rejected I was just thinking about what struck me when I first came here was what Bob said, what you seek you already are. And the thing is, talking about achieving consciousness, There's nothing to achieve there because consciousness is all that you are. And the problem arises out of thinking and believing the thoughts. And the thoughts are about this thing we call ourselves and our problems that we have. And that creates the problem. The other great one is what's wrong with right now without a thought.

Without a thought everything's just fine. There's no disturbance at all. The Thank you for your time. Okay. I Am. And everything will fall into place. Thanks Bob and Kat. Relentlessly pointing for... how many years has it been now? 48. 48, just... yeah. When I met Bob 10 years ago, I think he told me to hold my breath I am a person who is not aware of the existence of the body. You're going to breathe again and it's totally automatic. And then eventually over those years I realized that in one sense everything is automatic. The whole show, the whole of creation, you could describe it as automatic because there's no one behind the curtain running it.

Although sometimes you might feel like you're a little marionette or whatever and that's the experience. That's actually incredible. I'm very happy to be here today. There are so many pointers that Bob has pointed out over the years, but that is also a living teaching right there, just the presence and the daily living. Somehow, I don't know how, but that is happening here, the same thing. I don't have any problems because it is always the immediacy. The I don't think you managed to teach me this. I think it's not like that. It's the whole of creation conspired. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. It's a bloody conspiracy, Bob.

It's an automatic conspiracy too. Somehow there is an expression of this gratitude and love for you and actually for everything though, for the whole of creation. Because it is like with these diamonds or maybe more like this is a common experience where this body, this vessel is a crystal. I'm not saying it's not superior, not in that sense, but it's reflecting and refracting everything. The whole of creation is refracted in this. So no experience can be personal, or nothing is actually personal because it's a reflection of the whole show. It's amazing actually, because how can there be a problem? There could be a problem, but it's part of the show, expressing as appearance of a problem.

And it's always a whole show. And I don't know, there's just a lot of gratitude and love to be here with you and you and everything and nothing and... Oh, shut the fuck up. Thank you. Beautiful. Gilbert says the idea of near and far, space-time, patterns and ideas of more or less are relative and ultimately untrue. Watch the mind and see how it operates. Recognize that what you are is not moving away from anything. Beautiful. Peter? Life shows itself perfectly well anyway. Despite what we think is happening, we're always thinking about what we're doing right now, conceptualising something, crystallising a shape of what we are.

And it's always falling away. I'm lucky you said I must do this or something. It's already past, isn't it? It's already gone. Everything is so fleeting and beautiful and awesomely incredible, really, just in that the notion of it passing. Everything goes away. It's incredible. But it can also be disastrous for you if you buy in to any one particular concept, which cannot be. No concept exists except in that one moment, shimmering in the light of everything. When I was a... I started off in my career trying to be a biologist. I had this idea a box idea about being a marine biologist I got a boat and I did a lot of diving The reality of it was that that concept was hard to bear It was horrible, really.

I had to fix the boat all the time. And I was very cold in the water and all that sort of stuff happened. But beyond that and after and through all that I am a man of the mind. I have a session full of gems today. Thank you all. Yeah, we still have another few minutes. No, no, no. I was thinking, um, we still have to live in the world. The experience is we still have to live in the world. And there's probably 50 times during a week where something might briefly feel pretty personal. An incident or something in traffic or something, blah, blah, blah.

And that's okay. That's all okay. The thing here is, it's more like how quickly can the undisturbed be let go? I mean, the disturbance be not that there's anyone letting go, but it's more like coming back, the space recognizing itself again, being and operating as the space or coming back as that space. And then it's then that stuff it's like on the top it'll just dissolve quickly. So that's I think that's realistic I think rather than I'm just rocking as the space all the time and everything's fucking clear and fine. So those abrasiveness is is dissolved much quicker when that's when sort of the Recognition as the space again.

Sort of thing. Yeah. And there's total freedom. Yeah, from any surface level goings-ons. Anyway. Yeah. Sorry if I didn't say that perfectly. No, no, it's okay. No, you did. Yeah, Bob often says it in a very similar way. That it is, you know, nothing lingers. The attention naturally goes to functioning whenever it's required. The attention goes to the thinking when thinking is required. Sometimes attention goes to thinking habitually. The attention goes where it goes. But if your heart is with the truth, that's where it returns. When attention is relaxed, it returns to that space, to that truth. And over time, it seems like there is over time, it stabilizes more and more.

Like Bob was saying, you know, he left Nisargadatta, he says he'll never be caught up in the mind again, and within minutes he walked out of the door, he was caught up. But it wasn't the same, it didn't last that long. The habit of attention and embodying the thought and believing in the thought was still there, But it didn't last because it was already questioned, the foundation of that belief was broken. So the habit was lingering but the foundation was broken. And what a freedom what a different way of living if you prioritize the truth the miracle of existence over the interpretation and the content what things mean even when the attention goes into it it doesn linger I often get a question and this is beautiful, this is just a beautiful expression of love because as Dean mentioned Bob has challenges And people may understand that witnessing someone you love being challenged may actually be harder first hand than yourself being challenged.

And what a lovely thing to say or to ask, how are you holding up? But I don't quite understand the question. Because for me to step back and have an overview and make meaning of the situation is almost inaccessible anymore. My experience of the whole situation is here he is, love of my life, he's here, how wonderful. So the experience is pretty good. I mean there will be moments when there is pain appearing on the face and that will be difficult but it is not right now. And usually when people ask the question that's not right now. What? Only when she slaps me around the room a bit.

He's got a good fantasist doesn't he? Yes, so there is no suffering in the situation that for many people calls for the support groups or for therapies or for whatever, you know, those things exist and wonderful that they do. But indirect experience and being rooted and being kind of committed even though there is no one to be rooted or committed to it, But just somehow being anchored in that direct experience and trusting direct experience rather than the interpretation giving meaning of that experience. It's just, well, the savor of the day. Every day is beautiful rather than being miserable, fearful or full of negative projections and dark scenarios.

Why? It's not necessary. That's not what's happening. So I've been thinking, yes, I've been thinking about rainbow, the notion of rainbow that's sort of been showing up here in the room. I remember as a child the magic associated with rainbow, the myths and the fairy tales and the stories and the seeking, I am very happy to be here. The more ephemeral it became and turned into moisture and lost its color. Much like seeking, I would think, that only with a bit of perspective, with a bit of distance and appreciation, the true beauty is there and it's real. As it's just as it's unreal when you're sort of trying to break it down and understand it, I am a man of the earth.

I've been considering that rainbow and it's obviously a conspiracy. It's completely disappeared from the wall. And it passed through a transparent medium. And that transparent medium allowed it to express in the spectrum from red to ultra Is it infrared and ultraviolet at the other end What is this transparent medium? Well, someone's already suggested that if we're very still and the mind is balanced, The whole vista can open up and we may see the light. We may see the light. More often than not we see the scene, but there's something else and it appears as a transparent medium. And that transparent medium has been expressed in the words a glassy essence.

That is our glassy essence. I was talking to Cole the other day and he was saying, somehow he used that phrase, this glassy essence. I thought where does that come from? So he didn't know or he couldn't remember where it came from, but it just seemed so apt to this base of everything. Anyway, I looked it up, I googled it and I eventually found they come from Shakespeare, from a play that Shakespeare wrote. And it's amazing language, so I made a note of it. See, we're talking about rainbows and things. From measure to measure. From measure for measure. It was spoken by Isabella. And she's arguing a case for saving her brother, Giulio.

And Giulio is going to have his head cut off because he impregnated this young woman. And the law at this time had lapsed. But this deputy who was standing in for the Duke had decided that these laws had to be guarded and enforced. So he was going to have the executioner cut off Julio's head. And Isabella in her argument starts, she's working through different arguments and this The other fellow is just ignoring it. He's very cold, unsympathetic. She gets to this point where she says, Merciful heaven, thou rather would thy, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, Split the unwedgeable and gnarled oak than the soft myrtle.

But man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what is most assured, His glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays fantastic tricks before high heaven, as make the angels weep, who with our spleens would all themselves laugh mortal. That's Isabella. So that's the glassy essence that Shakespeare spoke of. And it appears as it is expressed everywhere in this room.