Deconstructing and discarding. Sailor Bob and nonduality group investigation. 20 Oct 2024

Tony closing today. Jane, Julia, Brandon, Tolga, Clip, Leon, Heyman, Jimmy, Ben, Ken, Tasha, Steve, Prudan, Adrian, Timur, Dane, Mitra, and Mo. Hi everyone. I haven't been to FLATS for the last couple of weeks. I don't know how far I'll get today, but still, if you can put up with it. If I can't go any further you can sort it out amongst yourselves which you can do. Everybody's got a taste of it that comes here. And you know what it is, it's just carry on from there. And you know what we talk about, what they call nonduality. One of the ancient traditions. And if you don't know what it means, it means one without a second, not two.

Well, they call it Sat-Shit Ananda, Nama-Rupa in Hinduism. Sat is existence, shit is consciousness, Ananda is bliss or loving to be, not the bliss of the greatest. This is esoteric, a wonderful, marvelous state, but the ordinary, natural presence-awareness is within every one of you now if you're quietened down enough to hear it. It's the very life of you, it's breathing, you're beating your heart, growing your hair and your fingernails, Digesting of food, causing this and that and everything else to occur or not to occur. And it doesn't matter which way it goes. And overall, pointing out in its nonduality, one without a sense, they say the great perfection, the basic space of phenomena.

Now have a look at that word space. And you know there's space all around you. But we're ignoring it, we're not taking much notice of it, we're taking the content of space. The concepts, the ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions that go on in space. Take them to be real. Not realising that the space itself is the base of everything. All these religions and traditions come about trying to become something. Something they put out there that there's some greater power or God or something that's much greater than us. And yet if you look at those scriptures too they'll tell you that clearly. The Lord thy God is one God, there is none other.

Be still that know that I am God. There are those in the scriptures. You'll see it. The Bible tells you that in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Pointing out that's all there is. That Word is God is a Word. All things were made by Him, by this Word. Satsang with Mooji Now all this manifestation, all these patterns, shapes and forms are vibrating into patterns of energy. That's this body, that's this mind, that's this tree, the flower, the planets, the stars, everything is that. And that's the great mental they talk about. I am that. And we hear that and we say, well, if I'm that, I've got to become some great lord or master or something like that.

Just got to stand, sit on the throne and tell everybody what to do. And if it's not going right, pat him on the head with a peacock feather or something and everything will be all right. But we look into these things and see it's not so. But in that pure awareness of being. And is there anyone here who is not aware of being right now You can say you are unaware You can say it of course you can You can say I am unaware I am unaware But what on earth is it to be said? Could you say it if that life wasn't there? Or that being or knowing wasn't there?

You couldn't say anything about it at all. You can't negate that beingness or knowingness or awareness. And I tell you that too, that the awareness of being is the blissful state. Just be aware that you are. The thought of it is I am. I am is just a concept. We say it'll be this person, this body, this mind. But I am, say that to yourself and ask yourself, I am this body, are you the body? When you're looking at it you can't say I am the body, say my body. Again you've got the basic idea that there is something that is prior to the body that's be able to say it.

So that I am, and that's the great mantra, I am that, that's what they tell us. And what's the that? Well you don't have to look far for that either because you know everything is that. Isn't that a chair you're sitting in? Isn't that the room we're in? Isn't that the space in the room? Isn't that the tree outside, the sky, the flower, the mountains, the hills, everything is that already. And if I am that, that means that this pattern, shape and form and all those other things I just mentioned Patent of shapes and forms. That this pattern of shapes and forms is nothing other than that also.

So we hear the word and we take that to be something other than what we are. And because we've got this seeming body, this pattern that seems very real, we'll say this is what I am, or that is what I am. But I Am, am I that body? Again you look at it, you say my body. You say my mind. Who are you talking about? Who or what is the I Am saying it? Is it the thought? The saying it? Well you can drop the thought. You give up the thought every night. You don't disappear, it's not the finish of it. Come and wake up next morning, so you can't be the thought and you realise that all the I am concept is is a thought, a word, which you gladly give up every night when you go to sleep.

I Am is the It is the sense of presence, the knowing that I am. Anyone who is not knowing right now that you are, try and tell me you are not. Try and negate the beingness. You realise that when you say I am not, there's nobody else to say it. So you can't negate your beingness, or you can't negate the knowing. But we ignore it, take ourselves when this I Am comes to be, these concepts that come up with it. I am this person, I am this Bob this, Australians, the good fella or not so good. Crooked on the world or the world's crooked on him or whatever other concepts are going on that's been added to it over the years through the capacity of reasoning, trying to work it out in the thing we call mind.

Am I the mind? And you say, look at it, you say no. You say my mind. So who's this me or I that believes it's other than the mind? Or I am this body? Who is this I am? When you look at this I am you realise it's a sense of presence. The knowing that you are. Anyone here who is not aware of being right now? Nobody's jumping up and saying, yeah, I'm not being. You can't because you know damn well you are being, whether you're saying it or not. But being this or being that, the concept you put on it, we put on I'm being this person, this separate entity, this individual.

And that is just a concept or a thought that you have yourself, about yourself and believe in. So you've taken yourself to be other than what you really are, A conceptual idea, an image. Nisargadatta tells you that nothing can trouble you except your own imagination. Break that word imagination down to image in, imagine. You realise that's all that's happening. You creating a mental or conceptual image of what you believe yourself to be and taking it to be real And that all that can be affected Something comes up and you like it or you don't like it. Who or what doesn't like this concept I am?

But is the concept the thing? What's a concept? Definition of concept is that which appears to be a conceptual image, an image made up of thoughts, ideas, concepts. They tell you again, when you look into these ancient texts, you'll see it's all there. It's all there, it's always been there. Different ones, not just the Catholics or the Protestants or the Hindus or the Muslims or whatever. They're all saying it somewhere along in their talks, but all of them are losing sight of it. And realize that the I Am is the sense of presence. It's the life itself. As Christ told you, I am the way.

It is the way to go to find yourself. Look into that I Am and test it out. I am the truth. And this is know the truth and the truth will set you free. People thought he was talking about himself, he wasn't, he was talking about that sense of presence. It's the sense of presence, the awareness of being, that translates into that thought I am. If I ask you who you are, you'll say I am Bill or I am Harry or I am Brendan or I am Jim. Put that concept on us straight away. None of us jumps up and says I am the absolute, fearful of saying that because of, get out the hammer and tacks, and have a little play for you.

Tack you up in the wall to do the tree. And so we're fearful of saying what we truly are. But when you look into it, and you say you are not that, You know, I am that that knows I am. I am that being. I am that knowing. I am that loving to be. I am that presence-awareness. Because that knowing is present. Are you knowing yesterday right now? You can't know yesterday. It's gone. You can recall it, and what you're recalling mightn't be really what it was. It's only what you can remember of it. Can you say, I am a moment from now? You can't because it hasn't happened yet.

And when you say I am this absolute right here and right now, and it's always right here, right now, present. It is presence-awareness, not a past awareness or a future awareness. It is the awareness of what is, being, anyone who's not being, Which is that, existence. It is the awareness of knowing. Anyone who is not knowing right now, no of course you're not, you're knowing. It is a sense of loving to be. Do you want to be dead right now? No. So you are that Sat Chit Ananda right now. And we take ourselves, because we're not recognising it as this now moment, I Am the One, I Am the One.

And not that I was that, or I will be that, but I am already and right here in this presence of the hour, I am that presence-awareness of the hour. What is presence? Can I grasp this present moment? I can't. Because why not? Because it's now. Can it be grasped? It can only be grasped right now. Can it be this imagined future that I have, that I'm so and so, or I will become? I can't. You see, the time itself becomes a concept. It's only a mental concept also. Past, present and future. Is there a past if I don't think about it? I just dropped thought didn say anything wasn thinking anything there was a natural spontaneous hearing functioning going on There no conceptualizing and verbalizing about it What could I say was wrong with that Couldn't say there wasn't anything at all wrong with it.

What was right with it? Didn't have to divide it into right or wrong, or good or bad, or pleasant or painful. It just was as it is, right here and right now. And that's what they tell you. The great perfection is non-conceptual awareness. It is a phenomenal manifestation. And they say all this manifestation is the definition of phenomena. It's all a phenomenal manifestation. And the definition of phenomena is that which appears to be. Now you can't say this manifestation is not appearing. You can't say you are not. And all these patterns and shapes and forms in the room, you can't say they're not. They just are.

Twenty minutes ago there was only two of us in this room. Now look at the room, it's full of people. What's real? What hasn't changed about it? And you look at it and you realise the only thing that hasn't changed, that's got no beginning or no end or no pattern, shape or form is the space itself. So, you can't give space any shape, any beginning, any pattern, any form. That's why they call it the base of all this phenomenal manifestation. And things appear in this manifestation, which were all appearances, and disappear. But you are nothing but that life itself, that awareness itself, that beingness. And is there anyone of you that is not knowing right now?

And you realize, I know. I know. I am. I know that I am. What's I am? It's a concept, a word. Am I the Word? It tells you in the beginning was the Word. That's what God is. The Word was God, the Word was God. All made up by these words. It tells you in Isaiah, the Bible, be still and know that I am God. That I am, they're not talking about the concept. You cannot grasp life or concept with the Word. It's prior to the word. In the beginning was the word. Now they talk about Adam and Eve, the first couple of humans to appear in this world.

We're in the Garden of Eden, paradise. Everything was going right. What happened? They ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What's the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Isn't it a conceptual image? Words you've picked up? And we do. As Shakespeare tells you, when you start thinking, there's nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Well, good and evil, present and painful, happy and sad, that's what we've picked up. We learnt words, and it's the same with you and me. I didn't know anything about the first couple of years of my life. Why? I was alive. People tell me I was alive, I was born such and such a day.

But I didn't know anything about it, to put any words in it, because I didn't have any words. Until I picked up words, I had no idea of being a separate entity, an individual. So the same for me as it was for Adam and Eve, the same for you and everybody else. We kicked out of paradise into this world because of the word. We take the word to be real. And we can do a lot with the words, a lot in the appearance and the patterning, shaping and forming. Seemingly good stuff because, as Shakespeare tells you, there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking so.

Makes it so. And that's all that thinking is. This is good, I like it, that's bad, I don't like it. This is happy, I like it, that's not, that's unhappiness, I don't want it. So this is all that's happening, the vibration of word is going on and the belief in it. If you look up your dictionary, you look up the word belief. You'll see that the definition of belief is an unquestioned acceptance of something in the absence of reason. It means we've accepted these words without investigating them, isn't that so? When you are told you're Little Billy or Little Jane or whatever your name might be, aren't you saying today, I am Little Billy or I am Little Jane?

We've taken on the word, we believe it. You're not saying that I am the absolute. I didn't look into it and see that I wasn't the word, I was prior to the word. And I am that absolute, I am that life essence, that beingness, that knowingness, and that loving to be. And that is prior to thinking, prior to thought. Prior to the word, before. And if there's a bit seeming before and after, doesn't that imply the concept of time? Well, is there a before? I can't say there is a before without trying to grasp at the concept. Is there a past if I don't think about it?

Because this is what the before is, it's past now, it's gone. I can't say there's a past without thinking about it. Is there a future without a thought? You'll see past and future are concepts. They're all words we've learned. And the word is not the thing. Have a look at the word, investigate it. I am this body. Well, am I this body? Investigate it. What's this body made up of? When I look at it, it's made up of concepts, words, sounds, ideas, images. Body is a word. Things are in the body, the air, the earth, the fire, the water, the space, all the contents that make up this body, all words.

All the thoughts and stories that are going on are all words, concepts, and all about some so-called previous time that is not the fact right now. Go back and live a moment ago if you can. Recall it, recall it as it actually was. You might be recalling it exactly as it was, but when are you recalling it? Now. It won't be what you're recalling. It'll be a fresher new idea and concept. And the future, you can imagine and anticipate the future. But you can't live a moment in the future. You can only anticipate it. So you see when you are, recognise you are prior to the word, you are before the word.

And what's this now? Well right now, what is it? Am I unaware right now? Well I know that I'm not. There is an awareness here in which words, patterns, shapes and forms are expressing, sights and sounds are hearing are expressing right in the spontaneous immediacy. And I realize as soon as they've been expressed, The past, they're gone. And another one that's expressing it. So past, you can only recall parts of it. You can't recall it all. So it's not the actual. Future, you can anticipate and imagine. You can't live a moment in the future. What about this now? When's that happening right now? When do I say that right now?

What's happening now? I'm saying it right now. Can I move away from this presence? Conceptually, I can take the belief there's future, but actually I can't. And what is happening in this now? Well I'm being right now and I'm knowing that. And I'm loving to be. That is the satchitananda. That is the existence. That is the consciousness. That's the loving to be. Can you negate that? Can you say I am not? You can say it, you can say all these words again, proving that the word is not the thing. It's only happening, it's only appearing. So we've taken on the wrong slant on ourselves and we live according to that.

And when you look into that, it's only me that can be fearful. Only me can be anxious, only me can be unhappy, or despairing, or jealous, or who knows. Me is the cause of this fear, this anger, this unhappiness. I'm relating it to the conceptual image I have about myself. I was like this a moment ago and it was good. Now it's gone and I don't like it. So the relations relating to it is changing constantly because of the conceptualising that's put on it. The Shakespeare challenge is nothing either good or bad unless I think about it. If I don't think about it, where does it leave me?

Without the thought, I haven't disappeared. You can pause the thought for a moment and see. When you go to sleep at night before thoughts start in your dream, is it the end of you? It's not. When you wake up in the morning, the dream stops, the dream's finished, and what was in the dream disappears. Why? Because it was all a fiction. It wasn't real. But what you wake up to when you in the house or the garden or somewhere away from where you are right now it all disappeared But what happened You wake up to this where the world where it left off the night before And this waking state you're sitting in now started from the moment you woke up this morning.

And it's always remained as that, presence-awareness. Awareness of being. That's what they call it. Being, knowing, loving to be or awareness of being is bliss. Being, aware of. And you are aware of everything, isn't it so? You're aware of everything that is for you right now. Aware of. What's the of that you're aware of? It must be some concept, some image and some idea. I'm aware of that number of people down at the end of the room there. There's six of you there. There's an awareness of you. Where are they? They're not in my head. But there is an awareness of you. So awareness of something is not its reality.

The of has become a concept, an idea, an image. It seems to be real. And from that point of view there will be an image of something up this end that will seem to be real. Everything you are aware of is objective. We take it all to be real because we looked into it so long, oh yeah, you are real, I'm real, this is real. But what about those that were there yesterday, they're not here today? You were aware of them yesterday, where are they now? You'll say they'll be there at such and such a place. That's all a conceptual image again of some imagined place where they'll be.

It's only what you can be aware of right now. And the fellow that you're aware of mightn't be aware of you if he's down the road somewhere doing something else. He's appearing as awareness right now. So that's how it seems connected. And it all is the space-like awareness, it's all in space. That space like awareness is the base which everything appears in. The basic space of awareness. If it wasn't for that space there couldn't be that fellow down the road, there couldn't be you at the end of the room. There couldn't be anything other than this seeming pattern. And you realise that this seeming pattern is also space.

That is seemingly self-aware. It's aware of being this personal self. And there's only one self. We've taken the person's self to the this, that and the other, you, me and everything else. All different concepts that we believe this person to be. But the person is not reality. Nisargad has told us that clearly in his book. The person is not reality. No, it's not. The reality is that life or energy in which the concept you, ma, you or something else appears in. It's the concept. The concept is the mental construct, a word. Now have a look at these words. Is the word the thing? Take the word water.

Bring me water, I say to you. What will you bring me? You'll bring me something that we drink as water, but it's not the word. When you look into it and break it down, all it is is hydrogen and oxygen. The word in this world, these bodies made up of elements, air, earth, fire, water, space, we call it a body, a person. And we're putting all these concepts and labels on it, but the word is not the real. And so we're locked into these things, remain locked into them, until we're moved to investigate. And you people wouldn't be here if you weren't looking for a little bit more than what you were told or came to believe.

That you are this human being, that there's this god that's going to beat the shit out of you if you don't do the right thing. And there's the devil, and there's this, that and the other. All these concepts they put in. There's other worlds and things like that. All concepts that we believe and are happening in that belief that leads us into all sorts of problems. Some of us start to wake up and say that's not good enough, there must be more to it like that. And those that do that they see that And I am saying the fact that you can do it And you can see the difference.

I am saying that you can do it. I am saying the fact that you can do it. What can you do to an object? The object is not you. You are the subject. And it is only pure subjectivity. But the objects appear to be there, and we take them to be real and get locked into that problem. Know the truth, as they say. Know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What is there to be free from? Free from this belief. This belief that you are the person. And the belief in the concept of being the person. The definition of belief is an unaccepted, an unquestioned acceptance in the absence of reason.

Acceptance of an alleged fact without positive knowledge or proof. All the way through. But you've got so many beliefs out there, put them to that test. Are you the body? Well, for example, if you say my body, well what's the body made up of? You realise the body's made up of elements. Air, earth, fire, water, space. Those elements can be broken down into subatomic particles, into pure energy. What's water, what's fire? All different, made up of different elements and different things. What is there to be free of? To be free of the belief that you are something other than the truth. I am dispersant. Anyway, we've been rambling on long enough.

So, you're there and get cattle, host it and tell you what to do, but we ask you to all question it, all those that know it, tell us about it, because it can be said in many different words, as you say, in all the different religions, all say it, but all corrupt it in some way or other. And different ways you get pointed to and something you might hear, which will gel with what you're living on, what you already know, and takes you further along the path until you'll do what they say. You'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. And in that freedom is peace and joy, well-being, the love of being.

So, away you go. You have cat-lose trouble. You have cat paralysis. I'm staggering around, don't know why she is. I can't walk. So, we have couple of comments here from online community. Welcome again and welcome everyone who is with us online. Catherine and James are sending love and gratitude. And thank you for a beautiful feel. That was beautiful, beautiful. And Jyoti says, good morning Bob, Kat and everyone. And Ariel says, sitting in my garden surrounded by nature and beauty and overflowing with love and appreciation for this expression of truth Anika sends love and love and hearts. Translated into the reality of this moment. The group is supposed to be now we are conducting group investigation.

So we want people to participate actively and see how it works for you. Bob is sharing it from the heart and whoever are sharing, I find that energy really heartfelt. They sharing, they... What happened? Oh, sorry. So we have Catherine also says Bob is one of the greatest luminous voices of modern times brilliant dazzling eternal Beautifully said Hi Ben. Hello. I was just thinking during the week a couple of things. The first thing that struck me is that to focus too much on awareness itself, one can get caught up and miss another subtle characteristic that's necessary The thing that's going with it is knowing, what they call vidya, the non-conceptual, non-dual knowing.

What keeps one bound in this samsaric existence is that not knowing, what we in English call ignorance. If you look at that word, it's ignore-ance. It's when we ignore what we actually the essence of our being is that we get kept in this bound samsaric existence, all the suffering and all the rest of it. So it's the knowing that's required and all that's required to do there is to stop ignoring what is actually there. Beautifully said. Thank you. Yeah. I am a sailor in the headlands of the sea, But, so this, okay, the way I understand it is that this I am-ness in me and the easiness of the object or other things is basically that common factor in all of us, that existence.

And that is, it's that, right? It's the only thing that is. And it's kind of aware, it knows itself. That's all we can say about that existence. Like we know that we exist and nothing more. But then I don't, so I can see that we all share that existence. I don't feel it in the space between, say, me and Bob and you and, you know, other stuff. I don't feel that existence in the space, but I guess it will reveal itself to me when it reveals itself to me. And it doesn't really matter because, see, if you think of electromagnetic waves being in the space, You can only discover them when you have the device that will translate them or decode them.

You need the television or you need a radio or something. So you are the television or the radio, you are the transmitter-receiver. The body-mind as such is the pattern through which this life can know itself. If there is no pattern, there is... There is not only there is no possibility to know, but there is also no need. If there is nothing there, no one there who even cares to acknowledge the existence. There is no need. So assuming that the space will reveal itself as self-aware, it's not even necessary. Just stay with what is happening right now and don't feel that this is not enough. That's the feeling.

Oh, maybe later I will get some more. No later. This is it, really. It is that simple. If the space doesn't reveal its own self-awareness, well, maybe there isn't any. Just keep it simple. And when you really put your heart into the essence of the present moment, it shines of itself. But as Ben beautifully highlighted, when it is ignored, the attention gets scattered around other stuff. And on the destructions. But when the attention is back home in the source of it, it shines of itself and reveals the aspects of itself that are mind blown. I also have a question that just came to me somehow through what Bob was saying that so if that isness that is in objects and amness that is in me, it's just a common factor, it must be what we call God, right, in a way.

Omnipresence, they call to God omnipresence, which is presence which is everywhere in everything. And it's kind of felt in us as being. Yes. But then does that God, or whatever one calls it, know that it's a God or not? The concept, even the need to objectify examples,

The existence comes only from that device, the translation. Does electromagnetic wave know it is electromagnetic wave? It doesn't need to know. It is life itself. It doesn't need to have self-definition. It comes through the radio as a voice which can be translated as a speaker saying something that will be a content of it. There is no need for that existence of its own, knowing that there is an existence or that self-awareness of existence, The undeniable existence is enough, but what this existence is, whether it is God or it is absolute or it is life or it is emptiness or it is totality, that one is only added through the translator.

That's a word. But that's to us, like probably we don't have access to knowing more than just knowing that we exist. We don't have access to it, we don't even need it, right? But from God, the whole existence perspective... But that is what you are. That you are. God is not separate. God experiences itself through and as you. It doesn't have any other way. You know, if you call it God, and I love again how Bob shows it as the field of energy, intelligence energy. The static aspect is pure space, unadorned space. The dynamic aspect is the movement. The movement creates the cell, the sperm, the ovum, it grows itself a body, it gives itself the eyes and the ears and the mouth.

That is the movement of that same field of energy. Now it gives itself a thought. Is there a god? Does the god know it is a god? I am that, it says, God in his unicity can't know itself. So the word there is unicity. What is that? Unicity. Unicity is oneness. Oneness. It can't know? So that's why it expresses in that. So with all that intelligence that it created... How can one, how can something that's one, only oneness, not a second, how can that know itself? Because it's already one. Undivided. Absolute. Absolute. Absolute means oneness. So in the oneness, why is... It knows itself the same way as you know you're aware.

It's called reflexive awareness. The only reason you know you're aware is because... You need the microphone, you can't hear you. Oh, sorry. Sorry. We can hear you, but the people online can't. I can't. The only reason you know you're aware is because of what's called reflexive awareness. Awareness itself can reflexively understand and know its own awareness. So what you're projecting as being God or the Creator or anything else is just that level of awareness of being that reflexively knows itself. It doesn't actually need to create any of this. It knows itself the same way as you know that you are aware. It's that same thing.

But the dynamic energy, as Kat was saying, is just its play. It just expands and expresses immeasurable amounts of everything. Because it can. It doesn't need to, but it doesn't not need to either. That underlying awareness that you know yourself as I'm aware is the same as what is. And all this is just what it is and it reflexively knows itself as it is. Sorry, it's short. Thanks. Okay, sorry. Just for now. So, if that's... Okay, so what's the difference between me with all of my ignorance that I don't even really know what I'm talking about and God? We are caught up in literally ignorance.

We are caught up in the not-knowing. We think because of what we see with our sense equipment, we think there is separation. Again, as Bob says, it's just a thought. There is no separation. But what we perceive to be separate, we think we are, which is an incorrect assumption. When you go further into the investigation, as Bob has obviously done many, many times and keeps talking about it, There is nothing separate, there is just that field of energy which appears in multitudinous forms, which we use multitudinous words to describe. But it's that one underlying essence. And I said it to Bob this morning, I said, it finally clicked to me, there's never been a duality.

So I said to Bob, you and I are different, but we're of the same essence. And a thing is only its essence in the end. So even though we are the same essence we are in fact the same the one thing but we appear different we act differently Yeah but my question is what is that intelligence coming from them The intelligence that creates this complication. The fundamental is-ness don't try and find it because it's not able to be found. No, but what about the intelligence? I love your question, they go right to the heart of it. I just think something you said, you see it appearing in you, I think it's like it's the other way around like we appear in it or you're appearing in it and you're taking it to be you when really it is it's universal it's in you it is the intelligence energy that you are you're not separate from it you are it.

I get that, I get that. My question is, then all this amazing intelligence that just imagine the body, right? Where that comes from? If it doesn't even know... I mean where does that come from? If it is primary, it doesn't have to know anything. It is it. It doesn't have to say, where do I come from, because it just is. The question, where do I come from, is just like, who am I? No, not where do I come from, but where that intelligence is coming from. It's the same. You are it. There is no where and no when. It's spaceless. That's all existing in the thought.

It's where. Who wants to know? Maybe we should just go to one at a time. Well, my answer to that was that consciousness is vastly interconnected and the whole field of consciousness is deeply interconnected and it's united by yin, which is empty space, Which is, you know, a president in Yang. So I just find that the universal allness is deeply interconnected and all things create consciousness. Because it's viewing like allness from slightly different perspectives, creating a vastness of interconnection, which for me creates consciousness. So I just see that. Where does that come from? I don't fully know. But I don't know. But it's not just about it exists, I get that, that's the nature of consciousness, it's the existence, I get that.

But I just don't understand something, but it's also very intelligent, it's incredibly intelligent. It's like it's actually moving towards just experiencing itself and towards something. If it's in me, I can feel it. It just wants to find the truth of itself so badly. So it's got some intelligence. And I just wondered if that intelligence... I mean, if we say, I thought that is God, that's what Bob called intelligent energy, that is God. But you're saying God doesn't even know it's God or it's intelligent or... It knows through you. Sorry. See, the thing is when you were asking, is that funny Zen saying when you were asking what's the difference between someone who is in ignorance and someone who is in a clarity.

There is a funny Zen saying saying the only difference between the enlightened and unenlightened is that unenlightened believes there is a difference. There is no other difference than a belief. You are different to Bob only one belief, you are one belief away from realizing what he has realized so long ago. The only way for life to live, experience and express itself as God, if you like that word, is this moment as it appears through these eyes, these ears, these thoughts. Now you can see how the questions, where does it originate, when did it happen, like Bob also sometimes says, oh it was 13.8 billion years or whatever.

Those are all concepts invented by the translating mechanism, by the mind. The whole time is invented by that programming. If there is no mind, and we say straight away, the only thing that you can conceptually understand about nonduality is that the mind can't grasp it, ever, because the mind trying to grasp it will put it in a context of past and future. When did it happen Where did it originate See the differentiation straight away You have open field and then it divides it into time spaces or locations It can do any other way Mind is the instrument of dividing the nondual one field of presence or being into sections, times, experiences, identities, beliefs, all of this.

So you can't from that super divided 10,000 things Get the answer about the field in which all of them arise and disappear. It's impossible, it makes no sense. So the answer to the primordial question, and I think somebody also said it, you know, where does it originate from? Well, what is that question? What is it? What is the question? Not what is the content of the question, but like Bob says, who is the questioner? Isn't that question of itself just another appearance in the field, just another way that intelligence vibrates to distract itself from this present moment? And once you recognize, that's what it is, cool, good on you, you caught me again.

And you laugh and the question dissolves. There is no one who wants to know. The question is recognized for what it is, a distraction. And you're back, landing in that beautiful bed of presence, just yummy, delightful, radiant presence, aliveness, a mystery, a miracle of existence. Now, another thing, but yeah, yeah, but it bugs me that Bob seems any other comparison, any other identity. And again, you recognize, aha, I think I like Ben was using the words which also exist in some traditions. What was it? Mental energy, dynamic energy, dynamic energy. You can see how that field, you know, from being static in the bed of being into being dynamic, asking questions.

What is it? What a comma! And embodying that question, identifying, creating the questionnaire, and again getting distracted from pure presence. If you see the way that distractions come into a picture, you will be more interested in the way that dynamic energy vibrates and creates those shapes and forms, than what the particular shape or form is. It will be more interesting how it actually comes and takes you for the ride, than what the particular ride's direction and content is. The thought, the way it appears, is more fascinating than what it says. So you now may not be that interested in what the thought has to say, As you would be interested in a way that dynamic energy arises in that field of space-like awareness.

And look from this perspective what thought can ever do. They will keep arising, they will keep bugging the system too. The mental images, conceptual images, the questions, all of this is part of the dream character and it will be going on. But there is part of that field which is actually marvelling in a way it plays out, rather than being lost in the content. And I'm sure you've experienced, everybody does, you know, the thoughts that are very little relevant, you know, the thoughts you can also see how the mind is prioritising, this is important, this is not. You see how burning desires, you say, you know, this consciousness really looking, searching for itself, it wanting to discover and blossom, it longs for itself, creates questions which feel like, if I only get that worked out, I'll shine even brighter as consciousness.

But now consciousness is already shining in its fullness. And those questions are taking away some of that energy, some of that attention into a sidewalk, into a, like someone was telling on our Zoom, on the train of thought, and the train off it goes. See the nature of questions. Sorry, I forget what I'm going to say. Yeah, just I just said in a quite a simple way, I think there's just a tendency for, There's a tendency for distinctions to arise in the thoughts, so specialness. So just the idea that there is intelligence is like, oh, there must be something a bit different and special out there.

But really when that brain is empty, there's no knowing, there's no intelligence, there's no nothing distinct from anything. So it's just to me, I don't see intelligence. I don't see some of these basics we do talk about here. I don't see them when the brain's empty. And when the brain's not empty, I don't really consider that being in the moment. So that's really it. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's another description of the same. I have a couple of comments from Bradley says, intelligence is not to be confused with the concept of intellect. That is a great highlight. Bob always says it, intelligence. And I love when Toni says she doesn even label it intelligence You know why label it It just nothing The sentence intelligence shouldn be mixed up with It shouldn be confused with the intellect The way we actually interpret the concept of intelligence That there is something that is having some sort of a processing capacity there.

There is no processing capacity. I meant, not about process, but it was more like if it doesn't even know it's God, how could it... It does, true. It does know it exists. I don't think I am God. No, no, of course, because that's bullshit. How can it be so intelligent? I mean it's so intelligent. I'm so stupid. That's absolutely, yes, that's a good question. Beautiful. Beautiful. You know like in biology called form it is very intelligent like all the biology is very intelligent like all the cells and how they evolve and all that. When it comes to the mind it just sounds like you know they really aren't intelligent and stupid.

Well, I mean, in the biological thing it is, I mean, whole existence it just been surviving for billions of years, I don't know how many years. That's intelligent. I just wonder how that intelligence... This is a concept. Now, you have a concept of God and you have the concept of intelligence. What we are talking about is transcending the concept of intelligence and stupidity. God and godlessness. What we are talking about is prior to the division to intelligent and stupid. God and godless. Prior to it. We call it intelligence, I think Bob took it because he actually liked the expression of the field as intelligence energy.

Krishnamurti used it at some point. And it is a good description, but it is not it. What we are talking about is completely beyond concepts and words. Intelligence is a label. That label is having nothing to do with intelligence or stupidity. And so is God. And so, yeah, absolutely. Back to Bob's field, the word was God. Yes. Bradley, he made that comment probably about 10 or 15 minutes ago, so it doesn't really relate to what you were saying. It's a general reminder to not confuse the intelligence, because it's totally beyond description. It is not intelligent. Intelligence energy is neither intelligent nor stupid. It can't be described.

It is neither bright nor dark. It is neither existent nor non-existent. Grab that. You can't. Quit trying. It can't be comprehend by the conceptual thinking, which is black and white divisional thinking where you have two ends of the stick. Neither this nor the other. And now we have Rai Men which is, I think it's Janine, isn't it? Intelligence and God are just two labels in the graveyard of thoughts. Beautiful. I love it. Beautiful. Two labels in the graveyard of thoughts. And Mike says, the mind is like a magician Magician seeming to turn reality into concepts, self, time, objects, and we are tricked. But if we understand this, seeing through the tricks can happen.

Yeah, absolutely. But tricks are also the activity of awareness. Absolutely. And Adrian? Yeah, I had something to say, but I think I've lost it now, but I'll give it another time. The awareness itself won't need to know anything. It won't have any questions to try and understand itself. It already knows itself. So anything trying to get a question or an answer to something is a red flag. That's a thought trying to understand something. So the thoughts aren't you. The thoughts haven't got nothing to do with you, your real essence. So anytime you're using that tool is already going down the wrong rabbit hole. So I like what Kat said about the thoughts create the questioner and you're taking yourself to be the questioner.

Trying to get, so it's like seeing the space out of which those thoughts arise and looking I don't claim to have any solutions for you. I have a question here. I'm already that, right? I am the existence. I am that even though I haven't realized it. Whatever. I don't know what to say. There's no one to realize. How do you happen to realize that you exist? Really? Yeah, so I am that. You know how you exist? Yeah, I do exist. So you realize that you exist? That's all I... yeah. But when you say the question that comes... It is also that, isn't it? Because it comes to existence.

And because I am that, it's that. No, no. What I wanted to say is the question is also coming from that. Because I mean, what else I can be, right? Yes, but you think it's you asking a question. That's just an appearance coming out. So it's not taking the question to be, I'm asking the question. It's like, what you are is prior, you are prior to the question. Everything is coming from that, what's not that? Yes, nothing. Nothing's not that. Questions included. Nothing's not that. That is all there is. And what's the great mantra, I am that? I am that with all of my ignorance.

You'll never understand it with the mind. No, there's no answers in the mind. No answers in the mind. Yeah, no answers in the mind, but mind is also that, isn't it? Yes, but you get bored. I don't know who is looking for an answer, but I guess it's that, isn't it? No one there. Now, if you actually see what's truly happening, the question arises. The concept that there is someone looking for the answer also arises. You don't know your next thought. Your next thought may be another question containing another assumption that there is a me wanting an answer to a question. But this is just what arises in the field.

Question is a thought, the concept of the questioner having or owning or construing that question is also a thought. So what is ever happening in the field of being knowing, in the awareness? There is a construct, vibration of energy, a thought arising. One thought forms a question, another thought forms the questioner. So that's all that ever happens. You're one thought away from that clear sky in which you do realize and with it or without it you always fully realize that you exist. Even when you don't think about it, you never not realize that you exist. That is prior to concepts. Even when you look into the eyes of a little baby, you can tell that baby is conscious.

Conscious meaning aware of its existence. So you are aware of your existence regardless of the content of distraction. Always. How wonderful is that? Now the idea comes that that's not good enough. There is more. What is it? It is just another idea, another distraction. The It doesn't take any stance anywhere. I am God, I am not God, I am nothing, I am everything. Who is there even to define itself as an object in consciousness? Consciousness doesn't need the object. See, definition is another thought arising. Move it out and leave that space open, completely open and empty. Another thought arises and it invents the thinker of it.

I want to know. If I only know that blah blah blah blah blah. It's like the question what's wrong with right now. It's like the question what's wrong with right now. That's good, eh? What's wrong with right now without a thought? Okay, how do I label it? As soon as you think that that's a thought and you're out of the question, yeah. What's wrong with right now without a thought? No thought. How do I understand this or label it? Suddenly that's a thought. You can also see how... The trouble is you want to understand it with the mind but you can't. You also can see the desire or the urge arising.

It's not only the thought and the question arises, but also the desire or the longing or the urge to know I want to understand it. That's no different. That's just the same spontaneous arising of the energy forming into that shape or pattern of urge and the me having the urge or having a desire or having a longing That another vibration arising and you just notice it gently aside and you back home I just wanna do say all you gonna hope for in thinking is the procession of paradigms The best thing, the best outcome we can get is a, when you approach things from the point I Am the One, the One.

I Am, I Am, I Am, I Am. Sit with that a little bit longer rather than trying for another conceptual solution. That's all. What Adrian said, the red flag, whenever you feel those questions coming up, just imagine a big red flag. Because the minute there's a question, it's who wants to know. And the who, if you like, is the me, which can only live in the memory. There is actually, and it's only a label, it's not who you are. It's just so red flags whenever there's a question forget it. Yeah I think that's what Pete said like it's if we can take the attention away from up here and come back into like come into the body the breathing that space and just get in touch with that and seeing that that is there outside of thought or So, what I do as a practice is, sorry, I want to check my understanding with what you're suggesting and everyone else.

During the day I just go to that space of just feeling the existing, like feeling the awareness, the effortless awareness, or silence, or quiet, or sometimes it comes as stillness. Just revisiting that whenever I remember, and then it will reveal itself to me. That's what you guys are saying, right? And take off pointers and really... No future. No me. It's not going to reveal itself to me. And it won't do it later. Won't do that. Yeah. The idea, yes. You may actually say it, that it unfolds of its own, but there is no me to which it will reveal itself in the future. Here is the tip from Raymond again.

Try that one. Thoughts that aren't yours. You know, how destructive are those? Kathy says, if you imagine what we are talking about is the blue sky, the essence we are talking about is like the blue sky. And clouds coming and going, storms coming and going, sunny days coming and going, these are all thoughts coming and going. But what you truly are is beyond that, the blue sky. And now see whether it actually needs the future to reveal itself to someone. Blue sky, it exists and now does it really? If you look what the sky is, it's just the empty space all the way into ad infinitum, however you want to imagine and it isn't even there.

Does space exist? It doesn't. And it does. It does. Beyond concepts. So the blue sky, even if there is tons of activity going on in the atmosphere, in that thin layer of atmosphere, in that blue ball, Does it affect, does it touch the sky, the space that you are? You want to say something? No? Okay, sorry. So you are that sky. Recognition is immediate in this moment. It will not reveal itself later. When in the absence of distraction, it is obvious. With the distractions, well, it might be a little bit obscured, But it isn't touched. You still are 100% aware that you exist. You may have concepts of what is it.

I am in the body, or I am outside the body and the body is in me. Or I am the cognizing of whatever the concept is behind the I am. That the clouding that the confusion But the fact of existence is always clear Even if you have the concept that you are queen of the universe or that you are meaningless little piece of nothing The fact that you exist is unquestionable. If you drop the idea that you need to know what you are, knowing that you are is enough. And that is never not here. Never not here. Only the mind tells you that no, that's not good enough.

Those people, they know something more than that. That's the point, they know less. There are a lot of people who have a lot of information on a lot of topics. We basically just put them all aside. Information about the diets or religions or upbringing or traumas or therapies or all of that aside, aside, aside, aside. Go back to the source of all being, which is right here, right now. It didn't happen in the past. It is unborn, uncreated, right here, beyond the mind, because the mind creates the ideas of past. It's much simpler. Mind complicates it. I think it's interesting what thinking or understanding what thinking is.

So like when we're a kid or when we're a baby or whatever, the thinking isn't, there's no There's no words to it. But how we learn is we experience something. Like we see our surroundings and we wonder what it is. And then we bring it in and we store it as memory and then it comes out. So knowledge is always time-based, we'll never find the answer. Like it's just... you become in a prison, you can't get out. And it like day in day out it reinforces this thinking pattern. Like it's always, oh we experience something, then we, that goes into the brain and that comes out as a thought.

So we can't get out of that and the only way out is what Bob points to. Because it's like constantly, like we can't find an answer. It's not in that dimension. No. It's just impossible. Just going on to what Brendan was saying is that when I was younger, it was like the thoughts were playful. I didn't hang on to my thoughts. There was no separation between reality and I am a woman who is not a person. I am a woman who is not a person. I am a woman who is not a person. The As well as I don't want to know, I don't need to know, I don't have to know, I don't know is the formula, the system which is the intelligence energy.

Doesn't know or does know, it is none of my business. It doesn't know or it does know, it is none of my business. It is none of my business if it doesn't know or if it knows. What I know is to trust it. I know I'm trusting it. I'm trusting it. It is trustworthy. It is the only trustworthy, trustworthiness. It is the source of trustworthiness. It is what is. Here and now. That's it. Thank you. And whose business was that? I have a couple of comments from online community. Mike says we don't revisit anything because we never leave or are separate from anything. And Bradley says, pure intelligence energy holds both the saint and the sinner in equal unconditioned loving awareness.

Intellect says preference one or the other there might be a payoff A payoff That that Can I just say something I just think a lot of this for me I think I used to want to try and understand it all And, you know, I thought consciousness is, you know, awareness is appearing in me and all this stuff. I think I had this sort of a diagram that kind of helped me was like an X and Y axis. The X axis is what I thought I was, which is like being born, having a first birthday, thirteenth birthday, such and such happened to me, and blah blah blah, and it'll go on, and one day I'll die, and all this, and it's all on this timeline that I thought I was.

The Y axis was the here and now, which is appearing along those points, but what I really am is the Y axis, the here and now, All that stuff about the story of who I was and that is not really important now. It's just being here with the emptiness, the here and now. I can never understand it from the point of view of the x-axis for being a person and wanting to understand this whole thing and who's labelling it. What the labels mean and all that. Forget about the labels and just be present with what's wrong without a thought. Isn't that ultimately what all the inquiry is here, is what we're doing right now, is deconstructing the whole conceptual reality that we've been led to believe.

I mean that's what the whole discussion is and the more and more we deconstruct it, it all comes down to the non-conceptual which is what Bob's pointing to all the time. And this is the only value of our discussions which are invaluable because really out in the so-called world, you know, that we're all part of, that's what's been reinforced, like what Cliff was saying. And coming here is just pointing to something that is not normally looked at, totally overlooked. And so this is the dilemma, isn't it? And that's really all we're doing. And we're so used to speaking in concepts and thinking in concepts and believing in The And it's not divided, it's all one.

The words divide something that is indivisible. And that's what we are. It has that sense of knowing without the concept there already, even as babies as has been mentioned, they know without the words which is totally overlooked. I get the sense that you're looking for truth in the form of words. In the form of words. You're looking for truth in the form of words. Am I wrong? You know, I mean, maybe I am. That happens. Yeah, but that's like the question is an effort to get some kind of an answer and truth in words, isn't it? It's all in it, you know, and if you could just maybe...

Red flag. Maybe it's already here. It's just being masked a bit with the questions and the thoughts and that maybe there's something else I can get or some thought or some word that's going to stick that that's it. You know. But that's already it. It's already here. Isn't it? And also what Catherine just said, it was beautiful, the deconstruction of the conceptual reality that is overlaid. And I love Bob often uses the word discarding. So discarding whatever is just standing in the way. Deconstruction of discarding. So yeah, red flags, why not? Not looking for the answer. And I just want to say thank you to Bob Satchitananda because being, knowing, loving to be, thank God Bob loves to be.

Because what would we, you know, where would we get these pointers other than from this wonderful man? We have it in the words of the last song that I posted on Bob's website. And the last one is not familiar, because Julia wasn't familiar, there is another tribute song that people with love and gratitude sing for Bob. And one of the verses is Bob the Sailor always happy to be. And that is just such a wonderful example. Being in the situations that are challenging, being at his age where the health declines and still having that sparkle. I'm happy to be in love for the truth and sharing it, giving it.

See the song, it's fun. Thank you.