This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
Carl? Carl. Julia? Yeah, Jordan. Sorry. Jordan. Michael. Jane. Jess. Mark. Liz. Charlie. Marty. Jimmy. Brendan. April. Ross. Salila. Jacinta. Mitra. Tony. Jamie. And I'm Jamie. And I'll just say a couple of words. Opsi. For those who are with us online, Bob is in the hospital. He will be back home in a few days. So I invited Jamie to give us an introduction and then the group investigation will go on as usual.Hello everybody, a few familiar faces, I know a fair few of you, some of you I haven't seen before so I'll just quickly introduce myself. I'm Jamie, I'm not a teacher, I haven't got any special information to offer you or anything, I'm a fellow traveller on the path.
Like all of you and you know I've been looking at this sort of information for about 20 years. I met Bob about 10 years ago.And so maybe I could just share with you what it is that I've picked up along the way that's been of benefit. And I guess... Sort of thinking to myself what would be good to talk today is just on the topic of happiness and I figure that's something that we all have in common I don't think there's anybody that doesn't like to be happy and What is the nature of the happiness that it is that I'm referring to?Um, Look, I first stumbled upon this purely by accident.
Many years ago, I had a spontaneous awakening and without going into details, The one thing that really stood out was for a period of time, was this feeling of happiness that I'd never experienced before. And the nature of that happiness was different to any other happiness, like, because we all, you know, we all feel happy, we feel sad, we have different emotions. And, um... Generally, that happiness has a cause, but this happiness that was experienced at that time was an uncaused happiness. It was just a happiness to be. It's just purely a happiness to be alive and the pure experiencing of it. And it was a joy that was new to me.
But like all experiences that have a beginning, it eventually ended, and then I was, you know, the mind comes back in, and the unhappiness returned.And that's what began a long period of trying to understand what was this happiness that happened to me spontaneously out of the blue. Look, I can say what triggered... The happiness is a very, very simple line and it still resonates as true to me now. And I just happened to be listening to an interview with someone that I didn't really know of and for some other particular reason, but he said one line. And he said, what you are is not your name.You're not your occupation, the job that you do.
You're not your thoughts and you're not the body. And, you know, I'm a musician. I live in a totally different world. I'd never heard this concept before. And it just struck somewhere deep and triggered as, like Bob says, it rang a bell as true. And I thought, shit. That, wow. And it stayed with me ever since. And it did trigger a period of immense uncaused happiness for quite a few months. But as I said, the mind comes in. So I guess...What my misstep from then was, It seemed to me like I'd attained this happiness, that something had happened to me and given me this uncaused happiness, like it was something that was added to me.
And for the next 10 years or so, that was a sort of misstep that I figured that I could therefore regain this happiness by meditating, by becoming vegetarian, giving up drugs, all the bad things I was doing, become a better person, become more loving. I went back to uni and I thought I'll become an acupuncturist because that's a very spiritual job. And I spent 10 years trying to regain this happiness that I'd lost.And in the trying to attain the happiness that I'd lost, seemed to just increase the more I went down that road, just seemed to increase my suffering tenfold. I thought I'm doing everything right, I'm meditating two, three hours a day, I'm not eating meat, I'm becoming an acupuncturist, I open a practice, everything and my anxiety and my suffering and depression had never been greater.
And I seemed as far away as possible from that happiness that I believed I'd attained from that experience.And that was until I met Bob 10 years ago. And I stumbled upon Bob just like I stumbled upon that experience. But I never forget walking in here for the first time and Bob gave me a big hug. And he welcomed me like I'd known him my whole life. He was like my grandfather or something. I just felt an instant resonance with Bob.basically sat down and he said, look, just start with the fact that what you are seeking, you already are. In other words, that happiness that I was trying to get back was already there.
But it was being obscured by an activity that was not detected at the time. And that's where Bob really helped. And he said, now let's start with the fact that you are already that. What you're seeking, you already are. And I believed him. Instantly I said, there was not a doubt in my mind that what he said was true. He said, now let's investigate what it is that's coming up and obscuring that fact.And what it seemed to be was an activity, a mental activity that was going on. And that mental activity, I guess some people call it, you know, a self-center or a false sense of self.
I don't really call it that. I believe there's only, I don't believe we're not a non-self or anything like that. We are a self, you know, that we are absolutely here. But there's a belief that's instilled in us from a very, very young age, from the time we're a baby, that we are separate, that we are limited, that we are vulnerable, that we're born, that we're going to die, and that we're lacking, and that to become whole and complete in life, we need to externalize our mind and go out to the world and attain objects. To complete ourselves, to feel whole. So we spend our whole life under this wrong idea that by externalizing our mind, going into the world, attaining objects, relationships, whatever, spiritual experiences, all of that,that we're going to become whole and complete.
We're going to complete ourself. And I'm sure everybody in this room, you wouldn't be here otherwise, know that that's just a futile game. It's a losing game. And the more we attain, the more we want, the more lack we feel. So we get to a point, and I got to a point where I had everything in life. I had perfect relationships, I had money, I had success, I had fame, all of that, and yet I was miserable. And there's nothing worse than having everything and still being miserable, because at least if you have... If you have nothing and you're poor and you're miserable, at least there's a chance that you could get something and become happy.
But if you've got it all and you're still miserable, then you're stuffed. And I was stuffed. And Bob pointed out something that had never occurred to me, and that was the factI was already whole and complete. The nature was there, but this mental process, this conditioning that we're given is playing over in our head and it's telling us that we're lacking something, that we're not good enough. Having a look at this for the first time, It didn't take me long to realizethat we're dreaming. We're dreaming a self, a me, a vulnerable me that has no existence. Like a kind of mirage or an illusion. And it was seen clearly that we're all dreaming this.
And, uh... Einstein said that you cannot solve a problem with the same level of intelligence that created the problem. In other words, you can't use the mind to get out of the mind. You can't stay in this dream and resolve the dream by being in it.It needs to be resolved from a higher level of intelligence. And that higher level is us. And when I say us, I mean... What we are, our true nature, reality, happiness. That happiness had never gone anywhere. It had never gone anywhere. And when this was seen, and the realization that the happiness was always there, it was just in the background, it was obscured by this mental process that was telling me that I'm lacking.
And it was seen as a total mirage.Now, 99.9% of the population are operating. Under this false illusion. So what is... The nature of this false illusion. Is just a wrong idea. And even when it was pointed out as succinctly as what I heard all those years ago, that we are not our name,We are not our job. We are not our thoughts or our body. Even that small bit of medicine, I call it, it's like an antidote. In a way, I see these teachings and the Advaita teachings because I don't believe even that's the truth. I now don't know what any concept is true, whether we are the body or not the body, but it's an antidote to a very strongly held belief that we are the body, that we are the mind, that we are our thoughts.And the antidote to that, what in my case was hearing that and it just stopped the mind.
And in that stopping of the mind, The natural happiness is there. Nef. And I guess why I wanted to discuss the nature of happiness, because I believe as seekers, I spent many years as a seeker, seeking all sorts of information. I wanted to know truth, I wanted to know the nature of reality, what is this world, what's going on? And that led me down many, many paths and many false paths of, you know, And what I discovered is there's no solution to our questions out there in anywhere. There's just more and more concepts and we tie ourselves up with concepts. And I boiled it all down to this one fact that what I wanted was just to be happy.
No matter what the truth was, no matter whether I was God or just Jamie or whatever, I don't really, none of that matters. What I wanted was happiness. And whether we're seekingrelationships, cars, spiritual truth. Ultimately, we want to have that happiness. And we all experience it, whether we experience it as a permanent thing or whether we experience it occasionally. But I would suggest that that's what we're all looking for. And I guess other names for happiness. We may call it awareness, consciousness. They refer to it as such and under. And I think that's beautiful because nobody can deny that they're existing, that they're conscious of existing.
Or that they're happy to be. It's a very simple pointer.But, you know, other than that, I would just point out that if the happiness isn't there, then investigate. Because what I discovered was that happiness has no cause, but the obscuring factor is our unhappiness. And in my case, that was what was going on. The unhappiness was obscuring the fact of what is already there. And what I discovered is the unhappiness was caused by a false belief that was installed that I was not complete, that I was separate andvulnerable, anxious. And all of this was a dreaming. I had a closer look. Bob says, investigate. Investigate this.
This idea and when I did investigate not with the mind but just checking in with experienceIf we let the mind subside and without a concept, Where's the limitation? Where do we begin and where do we end? Can we find a centre to what we are? Without a concept Can we find any limitation in what we are? I can't.I only experience this of wholeness and completeness, and even that doesn't come close. But certainly not lack, and it's certainly not separation. And it's a very, very easy investigation. But it can't be done with the mind. When we use the word investigate, It's a kind of seeing, looking into what really is.
It's not in the mind, it's not asking questions, it's not who am I, I'm this, I'm that. It's an investigation, a looking, a seeing without a concept.Can I find any limitation? Can I find an edge to who I am? Can I find a center? And if you're really honest, I think you'll find the same thing. But it's overlooked by the mind because the mind will come in and go, but... But we're not using the mind is not a useful tool for this investigation. So I guess just summing up, I haven't got much more to say. This is, I appreciate you listening to me that I've never done a talk like this before.
It's in front of people, you know, it's, I appreciate you taking the time to hear me out. But it's just something I wanted to share and it's something that I discovered that what I wanted to be is happy. And I've talked to a lot of other people. They want to be happy. Whatever the truth is, whatever concept you want to hang on it, You can drop all the concepts. What we want to be is happy. And that happiness is available to all of us. Anytime we're prepared to just investigate our unhappiness and realize that it's a dream. The unhappiness is the dream of separation.I saw it and hopefully, I know most of you have seen it as well too, so I'm preaching to the choir here, but I just thought it would be nice to share my experience and what I whittled it down to, what I discovered was the cause of my unhappiness.
And how that was seen as a dream. Although the dream continues, I like the example, and I use it a lot, that Bob uses of the Blue Sea. You know, we all investigate. If I ask you to go down and get me a bucket of clear water out of the blue sea, you're going to say, well, the water's clear. I've investigated. I know it. But then through... Then the dream can continue as it does and it's not a problem and that natural happiness will start to bleed through all of our experiences. It may not be an ecstatic happiness but it's just a content, happy to be, happy to be here, happy to be alive, the feeling of being alive, the tingling in your hands, the vibration.the loving to be is all of our birthright.
And yeah, I'll leave it with that. You can take over the discussion and if anyone has any questions, disagreements or whatever, anything to add or share their experiences, then let's continue the discussion. Come closer and include the online community. Okay, so welcome everyone who is online with us. And I have good morning messages from quite a few people. Love and hugs to Bob, which I will pass on. Actually, Bob is watching with us online from the hospital, so he's getting it. He's seeing all the commentary too. Love to all. And Gilbert says, the intellect is limited. Intelligence is unlimited. Beautiful. That's a nice distinction. And now everyone is invited, as usually, to share what works, what resonates.
Maybe something you would like to highlight. And thank you, Jamie. It was beautiful. I knew it would be. The beauty of the message is that it's really, really simple, really accessible. It doesn't need a lot of words to just put the obvious. There is the natural state.It is always here, it's always present. Nobody can deny their own existence, the presence. What obscures it is the ideas, concepts. So, now, anyone would like to start and perhaps highlight something or contribute something or direct the discussion somewhere, remind something, maybe bring up the pointer from Jamie or from Bob or something that really touches your own heart.When you were speaking of the pointer that touched you, I thought of the pointer that's been touching me.
At the moment. And it's nowhere to go, nothing to get. And it really just allows me just to let go and be. It's been especially powerful for me because I went through a massive episode of grief last year, but it's resurfaced this weekend. And I guess just bringing it to the room, this connection between love and grief, it seems like so overwhelming and so inner and just allowing it to be there, it's just like,Yeah. It can be a lot sometimes. Thank you. And thank you for highlighting the connection between love and grief, because as you can tell, you know, grief wouldn't be there if love wasn't there.
So it really is another way that love expresses itself through a different, maybe different facet of that crystal, through a different shade, color, different experience. But underlying it is always love. That's, yeah, it can be really, really overwhelming. It can be intense. But if you are in touch with that underlying motivation, which is love, it gets easy. It gets easier. That love is in the light. Like in that beautiful quote of Nisargadatta, that everything is love. Thank you, James. I really appreciated the purity, the simplicity, the humility when you spoke. So, yeah, it touched me. And I just wanted to respond. The other day I was with Bob at the hospital.
And when I came out, there was just tears flooding down. And I think I texted Kat, tears of love. And I felt like I need a glass of wine. I took myself to dinner and I had a glass of wine.of a wine, and the tears just kept flooding. And then there was just the thought, it's love making room for more love. There's no separation between grief or love. That's the mind creating that separation. And there was a real sense of the sacredness of sitting in this restaurant alone with my glass of red and floods of tears. And they weren't even my tears.It wasn't personal, and yet it was incredibly intimate.
And there was no separation. So I know grief has been a huge teacher in my life. I became an active seeker when I lost my father at 14. So grief is a big part of my life. And I realize it is true nature. Just keep bringing me home over and over again.And I love you, Bob. And you know that. And then I said to Bob, it's all love. And he said, love is life and life is love. And there was just a recognition, it's my mind dividing, but the truth, there was never a separation.Can I say something? You go for it. Yeah, I'd like to say a couple of weeks ago when we were at Mandela, I'd been walking that morning in nature, which I love, and I realised that Jacinta was never there.
It was God, intelligence, energy. And I came here and Bob said, how are you? And I said, Bob, it's always God, intelligence that's speaking, never me. So then I realised... that, you know, that I'd been on a bit of a mission, you know, so, you know, yeah, and I just realised then that I was everything, so, and I wasn't separate, and that this girl who'd spent so many years of her life in trauma and that, even, yeah, the... It's always God, intelligence, energy speaking. There's no separation. Thanks. Does anyone else want to speak?Hi everyone. Thanks for that, Jamie. I think everyone in here can relate to wanting to be happy, unless they're a piece of work, like myself.
Because I don't want to be happy. So, talking about happiness, I mean, I recently just had a baby and it was my first baby. That would be difficult. Bit of a segue. I didn't do it. I know you might think I did. I didn't do it. Okay. I really actually did nothing, to be honest.But I just wanted, I was just reminded of Bob's birthday and there was a lady on the ground, I can't remember her name, and she was talking about the birth of, you know, a baby, I think she's a nurse. And she was talking about how she, you know, watches the ego being created, you know, in the hospital.
I really saw it firsthand, just this, and this actually goes back to what you were just saying over there, this happiness, this love that we have for life. I mean, this life literally came out and all I... All there was in terms of this experience was just an absolute outpour of love for life. You know, without labeling it, you know, a name, Jason or something. Real name's Liam, but... You know there was just pure love for life literally love for life and um and there was no label uh there was no name it was just pure pure life uh crying and then not crying and and doing all these things without any any name whatsoever and it was alive and living and um and and really just sitting with that andand seeing that that's where it all started.
And then somewhere along the way, you know, we started taking that name, that label as The Real. And we miss the fact that it's always just been life that is living everything. Not the names that have been given to everything. And that's not even some spiritual idea, it's actually just very logical if you think about it. How can you be a name that you were given? You were born before you were given that name. So how could that be you? How could all those things that are tied to that name, like the job that you're talking about and, you know, Bob says, the good guy, Bob the good guy, Bob the...
You know, whatever label you attach to that name. How can any of those things be you? And if you can see that, I mean, it's pretty clear what we're talking about here. And it's not a religion or a concept like you were mentioning before. Really, it's just us. Coming back to our own innate happiness that we were born with. And, yeah, that's all I have to say.Beautiful. Thank you. I have a funny comment here from Michael. He says, wow, I just had incredible experience. The Facebook Live just got stuck on a loop, playing over and over, perhaps 50 times, where Kat said, see the light, see the light, see the light.
Mesmerizing. Thank you for making us laugh, Michael. And yes, I'm really grateful for that topic. What a wonderful way of looking at the natural state as the inherent ability to have the happiness. It always reminds me of that last tribute song that Nick Arandes did for Bob, which starts from, I'm Bob the Sailor, always happy to be. And that happy to be, the happiness to be, unobscured by the ideas and projections of the future. And he is especially brilliant example because his body is falling apart. I mean, it really does. It gives him a little bit of hard time at times, you know, a little bit of pain and a little bit of weakness and not maybe not a little bit really.
And the happiness to be is still there. It's interesting you say that because my inspiration for wanting to talk about happiness today was spending those few hours with you and Bob the other day.And by all circumstances, Bob has nothing to be happy about. You know, because from a physical relative point of view, he's in a very aging body that's falling apart. He's in a lot of pain. But I'd never seen so much joy. The light in his eyes, the laughter and the total acceptance and the happiness that couldn't be dampened by the pain inspired me that really that's what you want. That's what we all want.
We want that happiness that is not extinguished by circumstance. Although the pain may be there, the underlying understanding of who we are never leaves us. Therefore, the happiness can never leave us. And, geez, if I could get to a point like that in my life and still have that much joy. And, you know, I've been in a lot of situations, in similar situations with family members where the suffering has just been intense at the end of life, that it just breaks your heart. It's really terrible to watch.And there was just none of that. It was pure joy. And there's never been anything but pure joy in the 10 years that I've known Bob.
And he's been through a lot of different challenges. And, you know, that was behind my inspiration. I was really sort of thinking about it over the weekend. I don't want truth. I don't want esoteric knowledge. I don't need anything. But what he's got, that's what I want. And I've had that and I still have it now. It's here now. But I guess when we boil it down to the essence, and it's not... It's exactly like what you're saying. It's a pure love. It's not a positive. What we generally think of as happiness is getting what we want. That's what 99% of the population thinks. When I get what I want, I'm happy.
When I don't get what I want or I get what I don't want, I'm unhappy. That's not what I'm talking about because that's almost like pleasure. We feel pleasure when we get what we want. This is not a positive. It's non-dual, so it has no... This happiness doesn't have an opposite. The underlying nature of what we are. And the way that we use language implies it as a positive, like we pursue, I want to get happy, I want to become happy, I want to pursue happiness.It's like we use language like, this room's really cluttered, let's create some space, move all the stuff outside. We're not creating space, the space is here.
We're removing the obscuring factor, which is the people and the couches and that. We're not creating space. The space is the natural state of the room. And it's the same with the happiness that I'm sort of pointing to. It's just, it's our natural state. And the removal of the cluttering factor is just the false belief in separation. In the dualistic mind that is happy and sad, loving, hating, whatever that operates in this limited dualistic fact that is not the reality. The reality is that happiness. It's just our natural state. It's just... It's not a positive emotion. It's just the contentment, the happiness to be content.
Nothing's wrong. Beautiful. I love the metaphor of the room and removing a clutter. How simple. That is a good metaphor. Yeah, I'll just quickly read it because I have a couple of short comments here from Jyoti. She says, I thought it was just my Facebook glitching and seeing the light and laughter.says the sense of I can't be found now and a lot of life flows in effortless effort. It's sometimes that puts me doing nothing for hours or a day and there is something, there is sometimes a fear. And I push myself to work. I do need to earn income. I guess that means the self is coming back.
How do I trust the income will come? And I can't just follow the instinct to do nothing, no matter how long that goes on. And amazing, Michael also says, so that was for everyone, the light. And Julia, we're going to give you the voice and we'll answer the question later. I didn't realize it was a question. Well, which probably since that question was still there, the question being... Yeah, yeah, you go on. What are you on the side? No, I was just going to kind of like... Jump in while you were talking about happiness and grief. I may have said, I've probably, I have said this before.
Happiness is what is when we have no conditions for it. It's, it's, It's when we're really upset about something, we've got, oh, I can be happy when I get this or when I don't have that or when this happens. And it's always present. It's like you said, the obscure.I need this. No, I need this. And all that mind caca. That's all. And the mind caca will also come in the form of grief. I think that, because I don't know, just that they're not here. I'm just reminded of when my dad died. He was the best friend I ever had, you know, I felt. And now I remember moments, oh, I've got to call him, and I couldn't call him.
That's right. Okay. And then the grief would come up, and I'd notice myself feeling sad about that. What was just really, really helpful from the moment I found out that he was dead to every moment after that I found myself, you know, wanting him to be here was just this question is another investigation. But right. Well, can I find where we're separate? That was like, you know what, when I asked, that question came up and there was a looking.Yeah. Anything that would come up would be in the form of a thought or an obscuration. And maybe I wouldn't, you know, I would see through the BS thought or whatever.
I wasn't like feeling all of a sudden really joyful or whatever, but I wasn't feeling miserable either. I was just as I am, which is better than, I guess there's a comparison, but it's better than that feeling of lacking. It's still just as it is. And that's always good. That's fine. What more can you want? Anyway. I don't remember the question that was asked of the... About income. Yes. Going to work. I'm going to be in the nothing. Yeah, I guess that life is going to, you know, you might not get the work. That's the thing. You might not get it. You might not. It's just that when you don't have a story that you should, you know, that it should not be this way.
It should be that way. When you're just, okay, well, that's what it is. That might also include me hustling and doing more to get work. That's fine, too. But the obscuration to this happiness is really the, oh, no, it should be this way.It's just a thought. Yeah, the question really is, Michael, you ask a question somewhat, you know, whether it is okay to do nothing and wait and trust the universe that it will provide, or whether you should push yourself a little bit more to get that income come. The real question is, do you even actually have any saying or any power? Are you even a doer who have that choice?
Because if you don't, then you may actually just stay as that field, as that open field of witnessing presence and see if from that field the movement to do something advertised arises or it doesn't. And if it does, if it's charged enough, you will see the body following it. If it's not, you will see the body staying as it is. And I had a couple of days ago, I had an individual call with someone from Europe who had exactly the same struggle. And even in the same field as you, Michael, having a situation where the coaching clients weren't really showing up and there was a rent to be paid and there was an eviction hanging in the air and there was no money in the bank.
Like, what am I going to eat now? And should I be trusting life? Well, it is always about finding out what is already present. Is that trust already present on certain level? And you know it is. You know you don't have to trust life to give you another heartbeat or give you another...Just relax that field and see what comes up. If there is no obscuration of the idea that I am the doer and this is my responsibility to manipulate the reality and stand against life. If life moves you to do something, the doing will happen. If life doesn't, it won't. And funny enough, just half an hour before we had that call, he got the email of a client signing up for a few sessions.
And the money landing on the account paid up front. So yes, life works in an amazing way. But what Julia said is important also. See, if you look from the perspective of life, through one body, that life will get a lot of money. Like Jamie will have career, will be famous. He could still travel around the world with the best ever known ABBA cover, Bjorn again. He just gave it up right now, you had enough, didn't you? But yes, he had money, fame, name, everything. And through other bodies, you may just have ambition of being on top of the world and you may suffer being deprived of all of it.
From individual perspective, incredibly unjust. Why some are being born with sickness or disability or poor or traumatized and another one has everything. And why the one has natural base level of happiness and another one is depressive. No justice is the incredible diversity of life.From life's perspective, you as life, you have it all. Through one body you are wealthy, through one body you are healthy, through one body you are neither of it. And it is possible that the job will dry out. It is possible that the job will multiply, regardless of what you do. You may have the narrative mind saying, oh, this is all my fault, I'm a piece of shit, I shouldn't have, I should have.
Or you may have that narrative mind commenting and you have it recognized that this is just a narrative. And life is moving on much, much more primal level than the narrative. The narrative comes after. The energy moves, surges through the body and it gets interpreted and translated into the thinking. But if you stay in that field, that energy, without being translated to should and shouldn't, may create the movement or may create further relaxation. And let us know how you're going. Yeah, and the should and shouldn't can, like, when we're in that, I just think that can, like, also... Stimulate a lot of, a lot more cloud.
You know what I mean? All that shitting and shouldn'ting and, you know, and then all, we're in this like, you know, we're now caught in the mind and we're in the shitting and the shitting, which is why I, like, I don't know. I discovered a long time ago. If it's at all possible, when there's an action to be taken or whatever, to...Just let go of all the, if you can, might not be able to, but when you see all the obscurations, still let them go and just come back to this place of just what is. As if we're taking action from this place of the shoulds and the shouldn'ts and oh my God, you know, we...
Those actions can, well, I think, maybe make things worse. I always maintain an attitude that life has brought me this far. It's not going to drop me now. I've been through all sorts of difficulties. The good and the bad is going to come along, but life has brought me this far. And I have absolute faith that life will take me through. And that faith is the kind of surrender of being able to take the step off the cliff and know that there's something there to...without knowing what's there to know that something will be there. Because it's the feeling of separate. Once the knowledge of wholeness is there, where can you go?
What can you do wrong? It's just... It's all just happening. It's only the feeling of separation that I'm the doer. Am I steering my life in the right direction? Did I make the right decision? And that's the paralysis by analysis. Am I making the right decision? Should I have done that? Oh, no, it's all going to fall apart now. That's the suffering. The acceptance is even if I lose all my money in the bank, it's not going to affect my happiness. Because nothing external from you has any ability, it has no ability to make you happy. Anything external also has no ability to make you miserable as well.
Only you can make yourself suffer. Only your own mind can do it. Nothing externally has that ability. And that's the understanding that that's the control that we do have. Whether we go into the narrative, the poor me, oh my God, my life is falling apart, nothing's working out. Or we stay in the knowledge of what we are, of the reality that nothing can complete me. Nothing can be taken from me because I'm already whole and complete. I am that. It's okay. Yeah, I might be in that 1% that's got a different kind of journey. But I usually find out years later that people have been thinking, oh, what an idiot.
She just hasn't looked deeply enough quite often. But, yeah, so here I always sort of thought there was just energy moving around and that was it. And so I can never blame anyone for what they did because it was just so that's just the sum total of what's there at that point. You know, there was some sort of hidden blame, self-blames and stuff going on, which you unpack, you know, as you go along. So, you know, I was always...I was interested in the negative detail in architecture, not the positive. You know, I always kind of later on, you know, realized, oh, yeah, I've just got to drop, unpack.
The shit has to be unpacked. And then there will be peace. That was the notion, you know, unpack the shit and there'll be peace. So, you know, the word love seemed a bit weird and bulky and happiness. I was never like going for stuff. And I've realized more recently I was just running away from discomfort of the next second through the next few months. I don't really care about years ahead. It's always this fear of future. So all the interests in life, like sci-fi, future stuff, it was so easy to drop the whole regret guilt thing. I never really had it. Not that interested in the past.
Fascinating to watch. Like, oh, my God, the universe can do this and that. It did that. And, you know, it's all fun. So, yeah, but that does mean there's still, there's been a slowness, like a fear of sitting with the uncomfortable emotions that happens in that unpacking and the dropping of the triggers. So that can be put off for years. And so, like, my life is only just starting to, you know, first time living by myself at 55, you know. I haven't been on a forder before, you know, just all the hang-ups in the system. Suddenly this last year I mean it unpacked quite a lot but by weird process people think just bizarre processes that go on here I see you know other lies of guts to the things Iwith things in my shit, whatever.
It's just, it's all visual stuff that arises and dissolves and disappears. And, you know, someone pointed out, oh, do the whole thing. What aspects of you are holding onto that? So there's always a checking what aspects and they take different shapes and they disappear in different ways. And then there'll just be space and just a lightness in that particular area. So when you cast around, that thing isn't there anymore. And so I've had moments, um, It's more through probably like people actually, non-dual people, but giving transmissions in a way. They tended to have more of those, just those minutes of like, oh my gosh, you know, bubbling up joy, you know, just the light piece Bob talks about, you know, the light, what is it, the light.
It's just that there's nothing wrongness. The light, the bubbling joy comes out of that too, because it's empty enough. It's been coming up lately, but it's just missing me right now. Yeah, everything's blanked. Yeah, blankety blankety blank. Maybe stay there. That doesn't matter either though, because what happens, that doesn't even matter because what also happens is patterns come up again to be moved and you know, and there's never a sense that I'm doing it, so I never have that hang up. So a lot of what the hang up seems to everyone else, or the seeking, not there, not there, all that stuff, but there's like a damn slowness to it.to remove the discomfort.
So now the body's starting to seize up because of that, you know, nervous energy of discomfort coming up. And being here right now, that's got this kind of like low level, you know, there's the anxiety that I think puts me slightly on the autism spectrum as well, which is probably, you know, all these spectrums and collections are just collections of certain bunch of probably initial traumas from God knows where that then result in reflections over and over again until released, until disappeared and then triggerless. So yeah, so I think in the end It's the same thing that you will end up with, you know, that nothing really matters when the thoughts aren't coming up.
But here there's no move, the move, the behaviour that's taking place is dropping the triggers. And then more of that arises, more of that emptiness, not emptiness but lack of stuff, lack of...I like Bob's condensed energy, you know, busyness, that hurts. That just seems to be happening here. There's just a drawing that's happening here. Rather than sitting off in the... Because every time someone mentions non-duality, yeah, I just go to that, nothing there. But then the triggers come in immediately. And it just, the move here seems to be to remove the triggers, not to keep being reminded to sit in the nothing here. And it seems, and it's quite effective, like a lot of crap's moving out of the life and life is getting more chilled, more stable, you know, finances come in, you know.
Because the crap's disappearing. Yeah, that's what Jamie was saying in the introduction, you know, kind of removing the obstacles. Because the pieces and the natural stuff. Really, we have Gilbert here saying, Giotti says, I obviously personalized and was secretly hoping to see the light about that frozen loop in a Facebook, seeing the light. And Gilbert says, watch the mind and see how it operates, is a quote from Bob. Cease to embroider my details on the plain cloth of existence. Self-importance is just crap. And beautiful, absolutely. And just see what...how the energy moves, if the energy moves to unpack or the energy moves to let go or to drop away, the energy moves to focus on emptiness rather than on forms.
It's all on life. And we have, Billy says here, hello Kat, I hope you are well. Thank you, Billy. And do non-dualists believe we live in a simulation? Wow, what an interesting question. Well, basically the nature of non-duality, we don't even identify ourselves as non-dualists because the identity is the problem. But the main thing is the belief. We generally investigate the beliefs. So if there was a belief that we live in a simulation, we would just look behind that belief and we would find probably nothing there. So coming back to the basic space before the belief or description. And yes, we do describe things in metaphors and in stories.
We do sometimes say that it is like, you know, I like to compare the whole projector here to the computer or the narrative to the text to speech. You know, I like the metaphors of biological machinery that creates the world. And we do often use the metaphor of a dream, you know, the daydream. When you're daydreaming, you're kind of creating the reality of the future. That's the daydream. Those are only descriptions.They are necessary to describe the experience. The experience is non-conceptual. There is no belief in it. There is no need to hang on to the story that, oh, this is illusion. Oh, this is a dream.
Oh, this is simulation. Those words are completely unnecessary. Those are only coming up as a description of the experience. So we are not attached to any of those concepts. If the concepts arise and they fit someone's descriptions, we don't object to anything because there is no one who has any choice what resonates, what doesn't. I actually heard that metaphor of simulation. I think it's kind of cute. It's kind of cute. I think we use metaphors depending on where we are. Because we have computers now, we use metaphors of simulations, whereas in past times we used metaphors of dreams. But I think, like I was saying before, a lot of these pointers...
Are like thorns to remove a thorn. We have a wrong idea in place that this is a solid reality and it's external from us and we're separate from it. And that's a thorn and these ideas of a dream and simulation or whatever can be thorns that kind of remove that, but ultimately they're both discarded. And what we're left with is non-conceptual. Because what we are, what reality really is, which is that which never changes, is non-conceptual.conceptual. I can't, I can't, you can't hang a concept on it. So any concept is not going to be true. They're just pointers. Some concepts are more accurate than others, but ultimately all concepts are to be dropped, to be left with the happiness.
And we're using them. We're using concepts really, and I put it on the cards. I kind of love how it came to me because it wasn't really nothing. There is no me, so nothing is really mine. I open my mouth and it expresses itself. In those four basic ways of investigating, we're using metaphors and concepts to offer the resonation. If something resonates, that is the energy that is behind the concept that is resonating, that rings the bell. Recognition, something that is supposed to... Ah! Yeah, I've seen it. Oh, yeah, of course. And reflection. We reflect on metaphors. We reflect on a metaphor of a biocomputer or a dream or whatever.
And they, again, can bring back that relaxation. And we relax. So I put the cards, the four colors, four R. Resonate, relax, recognize, and reflect. So this is really what we're doing. Description is never described. Metaphor, metaphor of the mirror. Metaphor of the eye on stick in a fire. Or metaphor of the blue sea and the blue sky. They are just descriptions that are supposed to invite people to actually just be touched by it. And, ah, yes, right.But what that resonation or that recognition is, is completely beyond the words. It's more kind of energetic. It's more of the heart rather than the intellectual, I agree, I disagree, or this is stupid, or this is right, or this is correct, or I believe it, or I don't believe it.
That's the beauty of it. It's just much, it doesn't require anyone to have any belief system whatsoever. If anything, we invite people to just look through it and discard it and let the life to be that beautiful, radiant mystery that it is. Unknowable, undeniable, but unknowable. We can't deny the existence, but we can't capture it. We can't put it in any frame of reference. We can't objectify it because it's a pure subjectivity. And I see Carl has the mic. Yeah, I do. This feels a bit historical after the last five minutes. Of course, whatever we say is not going to cut it. I mean, speech and ideas are never going to capture.
What we're on about in this room, but that's, you know, as people say, that's all you've got. So I was going to actually throw in a couple of ideas or concepts. And it's like, and I just wanted to share them with you.that, you know, the thoughts, thoughts that, oh, this is a total disaster. Oh, what am I going to do? You know, they come up all the time. But, you know, there's a lovely little pause and then I think, Well, what could possibly, possibly go wrong? You know, it's, it's, that, and that's, that's, I suppose, that's really what I wanted to say. Just ask yourselves the question, what could possibly, possibly go wrong?
Nothing. Beautiful. Keep it, put it in, Marty.I just want to go back a couple of steps to when you guys were talking about trusting life. And I guess I wanted to frame it this way, which sometimes comes up in this mind, is from the moment I was born, did I see myself in this room right now? And the answer is no. And, you know, even two days ago, did I see myself in this room in this moment right now talking to all of you? No, I didn't. And do I really think that I led myself here? And the answer is obviously no, I didn't lead myself here because it's impossible for the intellect to comprehend all of those moments across time.And, yeah, I guess it...
It just sort of shows you that life is happening right now without anyone leading it anywhere. And these thoughts, these obtrusive thoughts that you've been talking about, just like sort of... You know, wedges in the river that sort of block the flow of life. And, you know, we're all experiencing these wedges as suffering. You know, stopping the life, the river that wants to flow from just flowing freely. And I think what we're talking about here is seeing that the river is already flowing and you can't stop it. But these thoughts can be, I guess, somewhat removed and allowed for the river to just, you know, life to do already what it's doing without the friction that has been, you know, on it.
And I think that's, you know, that's kind of how I view it is that my life's already been lived this entire time and it's kind of funny that someone ever thought that they were doing anything about it. Yeah, and once you let that go,You know, life flows, whether it flows and you have a moment where you experience so-called sadness or so-called happiness, it doesn't really matter what that experience ends up being. It doesn't have to be necessarily happiness all the time. But that's just the way that life intended to flow. And I guess just accepting that. That's exactly it. And if I could just add that the happiness is the acceptance of the sadness.
So when the sadness is there, that's why I said it's not a positive, it's not happiness is the opposite of sadness. Sadness can be there, the grief can be there. The fear can be there, the anger can be there, but the underlying happiness is the acceptance that it's okay for it to be there, that it doesn't need to be other than what it is. That's the happiness, that it's okay. Even the thoughts, the thoughts themselves aren't a block. Because the thoughts never stop occurring of whatever, what if this happens, negative thoughts. The thoughts have no power to do anything. They have no power to block the energy to do anything.
The only blockage is the energy of belief that goes in to the thoughts or the non-acceptance that it's real. Thoughts can do whatever they like.The true happiness is the acceptance of the thoughts being there, the sadness being there, the grief being there. And left as it is, it moves on naturally as life, as that river continues to flow, the thoughts, the feelings, everything are free to move on. It's the energy, the sort of contracted energy of belief that goes in it that keeps those things hanging around and like a friction creating heat. You know, and that feeling that, to me, the happiness is the acceptance that even when I'm sad, I'm still happy because I'm accepting of the sadness.
Yeah, just, I mean, on the point of language as well, like it's almost, it strikes me, it's almost like it would be better if we didn't use the word happiness, you know, because immediately use the word in language, language works in binary opposites. And so it sounds like we're talking about the same old. You know, happiness from eating a chocolate cake or, you know, whatever it is. And it's not that. It's so not that. And I think, as I've said before, for me, One of my sort of big misconceptions was the expectation that the sense of duality or theimpression of duality and all that goes with that would sort of disappear in a puff of smoke at some point, you know, and then you get to this other place of non-duality, right?
Whereas in fact, the duality is part of it. And like the ocean being blue, the ocean is going to stay being blue. So grief is going to remain grief. There is nothing that is not, let's say, the natural state. There is nothing, absolutely, like absolutely nothing. So in that sense, triggering, for instance, is the most beautiful action of the natural state.if we understand it. And, you know, there is no crap, right? I mean, I know relatively that's the way we speak, but... That's my understanding anyway, that it's everything. It's like every single minute. Movement or experience, if we understand it, then it's all part of it.
And for me, that was like a huge... All right. Because I think the feeling was that now I inhabit this. It's not just a concept anymore. This is what I am. I think that was, again, I'm just trying to use language here. Yeah, beautiful. The way Bob puts it in a beautiful, bluntly simple one-liner is the psychological suffering is caused by the resistance to what is. And when the resistance is recognized, it naturally relaxes. It can still be there, but the belief goes out of it. So the thought, like Jamie was saying, thought is not a problem. Thoughts will keep coming up. And even what Carl was saying, you know, the...possible dark scenarios, what else can go wrong?
That's a wonderful way of that assisting software to assist the survival, you know, to get to learn, to get prepared. This is what it does. This is what it is designed to do. But now believing it unconditionally and getting work out every time the dark scenario comes and creating the cortisol in the body, that one is optional if there is a discipline, if there is a resonation and a discipline to investigate. Hey, wait a minute. Yeah, I mean, a phrase I think that I've heard, and which seems to work for me, is like, it's like a double awareness. A double awareness. So the duality is still there, but it's now in a different sort of experiential perspective, as it were.
That's kind of... In the context of wholeness. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, because the ocean's always going to appear blue. Yeah. But we know the truth because we've investigated. So the ocean appearing blue is no longer a problem. And so you can't, you know, if you think, okay, like someone watching said, you know, now I have to go off and make some money. But you're not going off anywhere. There's no going off. It's like you can't.You can't leave the natural state because it's a natural state. I have a couple of comments from our online contributions. And this is helpful. Sally says, I find being curious helpful.
I wonder what will happen next. And this is the attitude that Bob has towards life. Anything throughout his long life that would corner him in some way or another. The curiosity. I wonder, how is life going to resolve that one? Because the fact that it will is beyond question. I wonder how is it going to happen? Wow, curious, interesting. Thank you, Sally. And Michael says, beautiful. Thanks, Kat and Julia and Jamie. Awesome. And Bill says, can you put the mic closer to your lips? Can't hear. Even with the volume up 100%, thank you all for your love and wisdom. Yes, please remember, Mike, as close as we can.
And thank you, Bill. And Gilbert says, awareness has absolutely no mechanical nature. Whatever concept you put on it fails. Non-conceptual awareness is great perfection. Beautiful. I love it. I love it. I love actually using a metaphor of that whole thing to be like a machinery. But the truth is that machinery is made of consciousness. There is nothing mechanical. It is all alive, spontaneous. The way.it pattern
Maybe very binary, you know, day, night, good, bad. But it is still behind that, the energy that gives life to that very, very mechanical pattern, seemingly, is pure life, is pure life essence. Thank you, Gilbert. And Michael says, beautiful call, powerful question.
And he also says, I can hear all okay, maybe your stream. Okay. Thank you for feedback.And we may also make sure that all the connections are right. Thank you, Jamie, and thank you, Kat. It was really great. I mean, thanks for sharing your experience and its simplicity, because just my mind is addicted to complications. And I also noticed that when I, I mean, I'm going to ask another silly question, but I shared this experience first. That when I actually, just you know, because I just want to question, I'm obsessed with this, like last five years I've been really obsessed with this. And after asking... So many questions and you know really just most of the time I'm more confused and but anyway I tried to just use Bob's pointer am I aware you know and I just when I ask that question I just go to that experience right andJust going there as often as I can remember this, right?
I don't still have a very clear idea of what it is, but I mean, it's very simple. I mean, I just go to being, right? I just go there. And when I remember to ask that question, you know, as often during the day, Going there just gave me out of that desperate seeker thing that I am. And it's just constantly listening to YouTube and everything. It's just tiring. But I feel like less inclined to do that when I remember to do it as often. And I feel that sense of peace, you know. But again, maybe in a couple of days I'll forget to do it as often and I'm just back to being the seeker.
And anyway, so I'm just really honestly trying. I thought about today to go and buy something like a reminder that is on my wrist because I don't carry my mobile everywhere. And every five minutes it just reminds me of the vibration. I don't know if there is such a thing. If anyone knows something like that, please let me know. Are you designing an app to do that? Yeah, but I don't want to carry my mobile. So something around my wrist, just a vibration. I don't like the noise. If you know anything, let me know. I would suggest from what you're explaining.is if you Sometimes we need a break from all of this, from all the concepts and from all the videos and all the talks.
Just, in the past, I used to do the same thing. Because I was in exactly the same state of like, what is it? I've got to understand it and watching videos and trying it. And I just stopped. Just go and play some guitar. Go and, like, it's not that important. It really isn't. And we, because we get trapped in the mind. And that's the only thing I'd suggest is, is if it's starting to make you a little bit crazy, just give it a rest for a while. Because it's not like, I know, I know, I know the feeling. I wish I could. Yeah, I know the feeling.
I can't. I'm just, from the second I open my eyes, I'm on this until I really fall asleep. Yeah, because what you'll find is it'll hit you. Out of the blue because your head's in the tiger's mouth obviously if you if you if you if you have that passion that your head's in the tiger's mouth it's gonna it's gonna hit eventually but maybe just by it's just a suggestion What's going to happen is going to happen, but what I found, you...was just to take a break from it all, play some guitar, go for a walk in the park, and then just all of a sudden out of the blue, just a download will just hit you.
Honestly, I'm trying. I know I'm describing trying to do something, but that was my experience. I just found it useful. To just turn off, close the computer and just play some guitar. And the other thing, just from what you were saying, where you say you continually awareness, I go to awareness. There's no you and awareness. Awareness is what you are. So it's not going to awareness, it's the recognition. Of awareness that this is the reality. There's no you and awareness. It's non-dual. You are awareness. That's the nature of what we all are. So it's not going somewhere. It's just the recognition of what is already so.
Yes. But I wanted to ask a question about that. So when I go to that awareness, right, it just feels like there is, I wouldn't say a person, right, but an observer, like there is, like now the awareness. Is I feel empty, I feel emptiness. There is no, I couldn't, I really look for it so many times.Certain there is no one in here. But still there is a sense of observer, like now observer is observing. And when I look, when I close my eyes and I say, am I aware right now? Yes, I sense the being, but there's always this observer observing this being. Is it that that is observing or just a thought?
It's just something that might serve you well and might just bring the mind to a stop eventually. I don't know. There's no technique. The only thing I could suggest is that what we are is prior to the senses. So it can't be seen, it can't be tasted, touched. It's not available to the senses to investigate. It's prior. Prior to the seeing, prior to all the senses. It's that. So you are absolutely 100% you know you're aware, you exist. Yes. How do you know that?It just is annoying. It just is, isn't it? You don't need to go to your senses to know you're aware. It just is.
It's just the reality of being alive. It's the aliveness. It's not... And it's... It's just the obvious awareness, but it's not something you go to. It's just what we all are. But that sense of witness then is a thought, is an addition of mind. Yeah. Okay. I have a comment from Gilbert here. He says, no one can go to awareness the way the very idea of needing to do or go anywhere is the illusion of separation. So if you recognize that, Bob has a few different tips and points. First one is just relax. You know, you see how everything is known in the space of awareness effortlessly.
So rather than focusing on specific thoughts, one thought tell you, oh, go there or look that or reflect on this. Just the whole field of thinking, relaxing of particular thoughts into the field of thinking. Bob has another point which says, you know, like relax your attention from that specific focus on something. Like let's say you're looking intensely at something. Relax your gaze. And instead...of I am a seer of that object, be the whole field of seeing. You are the seeing itself. Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. If every moment, at any moment in time, if you realize that there are objects in the awareness, let's say the breath is an object in the awareness, but that object is only known, is only cognized because of that field of presence.
And then straight away, the breathing, the breath is actually secondary and the field is primary. The thought is secondary. So that field is the natural state of life itself. And now the mind interprets it by saying, oh, but this is me witnessing the content. But who witnesses the me? Something is witnessing. Or something. And what is knowing about that something that witnesses the content? Even that witnessing is cognized, is known. So prior to that witnessing, there is a knowing in which it arises. Yes. So witnessing is not important. It's just kind of like a translation. It's a thought translating what is happening. But if you push aside that thought, you can see that in that field, whatever arises is being cognized.
So the cognition, the cognizing, just like field of seeing.is happening prior to the objects of seeing. So I was getting curious about what is that that is witnessing because I couldn't find anyone. It's not an object. So now I just dropped the thought like there is nothing, right? I just go to that. Drop the thought by all means. It is really, this is the obscuration. Believe in the thought. The thought arises when you believe in it. Now suddenly there is an illusion of separation. This is me, I am right. This is what I think and this is important. When you see it as just passing thought, there is no engagement with that thought.
And there is no investment, no belief, no me, which is right or wrong or whatever. I thought I'll use it as a point of inquiry, like, because I was very curious about what is it that he's witnessing. But it's a thought, right? So I just better not to even be curious about it. I just drop it. Drop it, absolutely. If there's any possibility in the space to just disengage with the discursive narrative dynamic mind, that's what you do. Prioritize the field, not the mind, no matter how important it seems to be what it says. Can I just say something? I just included as the field.
So the thought, the beautiful, beautiful thought is also, it's all the same. So include, include.It's, what's being pointed is, it's just a, it's a relaxation. If I could use one concept to describe it and what happened here in the seeing of it, that's why I suggested just try having a break from all the stuff because it's, it's only, While we're involved in trying to see this and that and we're just We're going in the wrong direction in the natural relaxation that you can't do like I it's like if someone says relax You can't just relax. It's something that happens but in the natural relaxation There's a natural This, it's always been this way.
It's just a natural relaxation. It's almost like, you know when you're trying to remember someone's name, you can't remember it and you're like, oh, what, and you're brushing your brain and then like an hour later when you've forgotten about it, all of a sudden the name just comes to you. It's kind of a similar thing like that. You know, Jamie, honestly, I try to drop this so many times. But try, try. Try. All right. So that's the thing. Don't try and don't try not to try as well. Yeah. That's all confused. So what was my way was when I actually remember to ask that question, right?
Naturally, I'm less inclined.to again listen to another talk, to find this, to find out about that. So that's why my way is because I'm such an addictive personality. Like I can't drop even cigarettes, right? So imagine this. This is for me 100 times worse than cigarette, right? So it's just I've got that kind of personality. So I need to get one of those reminders and just get that. So naturally it's dropped. Controlling again. I can't otherwise I'll be listening to YouTube every second. I'm telling you I'm cooking I'm listening. I'm going to the bathroom I'm listening. What's the first thing you see in front of you?Right now you, right?
Air. Space. Yes, air, yeah. Yet we kind of ignore the space. Exactly. But it's the reality. That's all space. I know. That's what I need to remember. To then the search just drops by itself. You know what I'm saying? That's why I need that reminder that vibrates like buzz, buzz, buzz. Get back there, get back there until I remember. Otherwise I'm just a desperate seeker. I can't, it's in the tiger, like whole head. Seeking will be there until it's not. Yes. Okay. Thank you so much. What does Bob always say? You're never born and you never die. If you ask yourself, where is Mitra now?
Ask yourself, where is Mitra? It doesn't exist. There you go. You were never born and you never died. I know. But I'm still... But you're creating that because you think that you need to find an answer. But in actual fact, just experience life as it is. It's... Metris not experiencing it. Intelligence energies. You're never born and you never die. You're just experiencing it. You could say like, hi, Thor. Oh, bye. Yeah. I learned that from a book before I discovered any of this, and I was getting sick when I drank coffee to start with, and then when I liked some guy, I was getting physically sick.
And then this book.says, oh, it's just a thought. If it comes up, say hi. Oh, bye, bye. Just get yourself a gentle way of, you know, of, yeah, the process happening. I have a couple of things that I have to include from the online community. Here, Bill says there is a feeling at the heart of life, the ananda. Beyond words and forms. The feel of our being, our consciousness, always timelessly here. That's a good thing to focus on. And Gilbert says, the fixation on me is desperate to be free, but every movement to get free tightens the bondage of an imaginary self. And I also wanted to include, because Lise didn't have a mic, and this is important, the thought, when it steals the show, it is the exclusive point of attention.
If you relax the attention, thought is not excluded. It is also there, but it's important, it's dissipated. It's not important. So relaxing that field. And you may also notice, and this devotion, this is the commitment, it's beautiful, but you may notice how much of a desire to control the process is there. I must have this. I must do this. I must stop watching. I must, you know, that is not in your hands. Give credit where credit is due. It's the life moving you to put the band. It's none of your business. Life is moving.Maybe life will do it, maybe life will not. Is life moving you to relax or to stop watching?
If it does it, it does. But don't take credit for it because then you will be in that bondage of always worrying whether I did the right thing, whether I'm going the right way. And you will give yourself so much grief and suffering. While you recognize that you're not breathing, life is doing it. You're not beating your heart, life is doing it. You're not looking out of your eyes, life is doing it. You don't know your next thought, life will bring one. So if the life brings an obsession that I have to have some reminder or I have to control myself, put that on life too.
And then you are the space in which life is acting out addictions and obsessions. And that's not personal. You can bring again the curiosity. Oh, I wonder how intense is that going to be? What's the next acting out is going to happen? And you are free. That baseless joy, that ananda is going to be underneath that behavior, the addictive behavior. And a little bit of a respite. And again, action will arise. That belongs to life. Cole, you wanted to have a last word? I just wanted to say one really quick thing. You know, when you want something, when you're looking for an app to remind you, what are you reminding?
You're reminding your mind, and it's with your mind that you're addressing all of this stuff.If you can just notice when it's the mind and when things just happen. And you don't think it's the me that gets involved in all the things that you're trying to do. And it's always preceded by an I. So just watch that and use that to help you to see when the eye is getting in the way and it wants to take over and do something. There is no agency. It's an idea. Ten minutes over. Yes, thank you. Thank you, everyone. The clock changes for you all on these coasts. Next week's meeting will be a different time for you.
Yeah, if any part of the world is adjusting time, that's on you. Check on the website.