This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
And on we go. And welcome everyone. We have Tanya with us, Julia, Kavisha, Andy, and Bob wanted to say hi. He didn't want to participate. Oh, you have the kitty cat. And Bob, you want to say hi, darling? Hi. There you go. He has the companion and he's going to hear everyone. And we're going to plug in. And we invited Andy today to give us a little bit of a burst, a little bit of an introduction, and put us on the same page of non-duality. It is a group discussion, so... Okay, thanks, Kat. And welcome to everyone who's online there, and lovely to be here with you.
You all and that's quite an honour to speak here at Bob's non-duality space. So I'll just say a few things about non-duality and my experience of this. I want to start with how important Bob has been as ato me because one thing I've loved is always being able to drop in as time would allow in the space of no time to connect in with Bob's teaching. The marvellous thing about the teaching is there's nothing you have to remember or, you know, because the best teaching is non-teaching, you know. So that's the thing about non-duality because you've moved out of the domain of mind knowing and you're going into basically a direct perception of your beingness.
And in that, all the stuff around mind knowing, which is subject-object knowing, is gone. So you're really coming into a very deep nakedness of yourself, which is basically being in totality. So being able to come here, I always know that you can get that sort of spirit, if you like, of non-duality here from a person who's in direct experience of that. And you could be asked outside, what were you talking about? And I was like, nothing.And lately, you know, it's been a bit of a revelation to me to also have discovered, you know, right at the beginning of... Western history, if you like, in ancient Greece, there was a teacher there who was speaking exactly the same stuff, a guy called Parmenides.
And it's really, this is hidden. You know, you can only, there's only a few people who have translated his work and understand it correctly. That he was an absolute thoroughgoing mystic and in a direct experience of non-duality. But if you go on and have a look at any of the interpretations of his work by academics and all that, completely missed the mark. Completely. You know, they just don't understand. Who's got the best translation? You need to go to a guy called Peter Kingsley, who's written a few books. One of the latest ones is called Reality. Reality, yeah. And he just went through, you know, he was like myself.
You know, he went through a thing about... There's someone out there who actually knows this stuff right at the beginning in ancient Greece, but for some reason it's just not there. You read the academics, and the academics, because they don't understand non-duology themselves or have that experience,I just think he's talking gobbledygook. All that was relevant was the logic that he used to speak about it. Because you come to one of Bob's talks here, he's speaking completely logically, completely logically, using reason about something that's beyond reason altogether. And that was the thing that Parmenides was doing. He enlisted logic in a way to talk about stuff that the mind is not invited to.
So that's been quite a revelation. Shifted things a bit to me to know that there was a jewel in Western spirituality, if you like, that knew this way back, way, way back. And here's part of what's called the pre-Socratic tradition. But you look at his stuff and you read it and you go, yeah. There's a good data 101. So that's been terrific. And non-duality as the core experience of us being alive is... Is something that our world has completely missed. And here in the West in particular, we've gone down the way of mind knowing, which there's nothing wrong with.that, you know, it's fine. But if you don't have the other, if you don't actually have the spiritual dimension of who you really are, you've fundamentally missed your journey as a human being, you know.
And so, you know, people wonder why, you know, they're kind of depressed and anxious and sort of, um, you know, feel kind of lost and confused and grasp for ideologies and things like that. It's because they're missing this huge place, you know, I'm pointing at my heart here because it's really, it's in the heart knowing because your direct perception takes you into love. And that's the basis of all being is this love. It's purely experiential. It's purely experiential. It's been a big journey for me discovering that direct experience of life in that way, but it just changes everything. Nothing is untouched by this, you know, from the way you work to your relationships to everything.
It just brings in a humility in your own living that mind knowing just doesn't get. So there's no...You then have no ability to parade knowledge, you know, or to hang your hat on some sort of thing like that. Achievement. Achievement. Achievement oriented or ambition or, you know, any of those things that mind knowing is all about. And I have been to university. I know about all these sort of things.In the West, you could go through, there's different mystics who also have that to some degree, who have this understanding of non-duality, and probably depending on how much they've been conditioned by the surrounding culture, as to how far they've gone in letting go conditioning itself.
Because the deeper you go into non-duality, your conditioning just gets...It's jettisoned, it's gone. You still have the ability, of course, to speak and have language and function in the world, although sometimes that can be a bit tricky. I'm not the best at that. Probably it's because you, with that, spacious point of view, more acceptance comes in. There is an acceptance of, because there is nothing that is not that, therefore, my problems are that also not rather than something to be rejected and fought against. So you go, okay, now I embrace because that's part of it. So, you know, something about acceptance in there. Oh, totally.
Acceptance is primary in, you know, the heart opening. It's just, yeah. Even the horrible things. Even the difficult ones. They're the best teachers. Yeah. There's also a very good old comedy that happens if you can. I think I'll just start over. I'm just going to clip this one in this arm. Yeah. Should we have a writing? Yeah, we could. Top of the stick. Give us two minutes. Dean's twerking stick. Yeah.Okay. Let me keep talking. There we go. Okay, touch it some way. Yes, so I'll just add in the meantime that we have a couple of welcoming messages from people who are with us online. And acceptance is a beautiful, beautiful topic.
And of course, as we know, but not everyone around, is something that not that you do, but something that you discover already present. So you look in and, oh gosh, there is an acceptance. Wow, I haven't done it. It is there. It is there. But it is a gorgeous aspect. And yes, thank you, Andy. Andy's background is philosophy, so that's why we get a little bit of a broader overview, philosophical overview. He's very well educated in that matter and any others. But yes, you don't really have to research old philosophers because Bob gives it all. It is just a digression that it isn't new, it is ancient, right?
It's never been hidden. Yeah. Okay, go on, Andy. Oh, gee, all right, all right. Yeah, so whether, and I think that's part of the beauty, when you do look at some of the ancients, you know, you look at the Taoist philosophers, you know, Chang Tzu, Lao Tzu, Non-duality is absolutely there. Or you look at...You know, some of the great Buddhist sages as well, non-duality is primary. That's their experience. And I love that, you know, being able to dip into the ancient and the modern all the same. You know, there's no... difference, the experience is the experience. And that's really what matters. And whether we're experiencing it is the critical thing.
That's in our daily living. And the more that you're getting your head out of the way, which really only comes through understanding, is seeing that the mind just can't grasp these things. Necessarily always comes up short. It's not, can't do it, just can't. Yeah. You won't find the answer in the mind. Not in the mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My favourite point is that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And always what's wrong with right now is the, Unless you think about it, because if you start thinking about it, there's always going to be something wrong. And then you miss it, you know, what's eternally present.Would anybody else like to join in and say a few things about this?
I just love Bob's simplicity in that he cuts out a lot of the spiritual mumbo-jumbo. I was just saying that I love how Bob makes it, or at least makes it very simple, cuts out a lot of the... The spiritual languaging for this character anyway, I think is helpful to just go to the directWords can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I'm having a hard time sometimes with words that really fail. It's just that when you brought up acceptance and you tied in, you know, that's already here. That he took sense. And nobody accepted, but it's, yeah, and I don't have much else to say except that I love that, how he makes it really, really simple.
So it's been said, you know, I've heard Krishna Murti. But if it hadn't been for Bob, I wouldn't have understood anything of Vinitasagadatta and Krishnamurti and all these. And now it's just like, oh, yeah. I remember once you, you know, telling me that, you know, I think, I don't know if you came to I Am That before or after Bob, but then after meeting Bob and listening to I Am That or reading it, it was just like, yeah, well, yeah. There was no surprises there. There was absolutely nothing new in the way he described it. He did it in a very, very poetic way. But that's it.
The poetry of the language made me really appreciate the way he put things. But there was absolutely nothing that I could learn or discover new that I didn't really know before from Bob. And really the core of the message is to discover what's already present. This is the thing. And I was actually contemplating inviting people to check our website.because yesterday was quite a sweet day for Bob and I because exactly nine years ago, exactly to the day nine years ago, I came to him in absolute darkest night of the soul, crying my eyes out, and I walked out on the same, the only one-on-one meeting I ever did with Bob, with the tears of elation and joy.
Uneventful event, no earthquakes, no shattering skies or whatever, thunders or anything. And at the same time, in a moment, the whole darkness and misery and heavy weight just got lifted. And it never re-established itself because the realization, and that was the only realization that ever happened, that what I thought myself to be is not the case. The conceptual image that I identified as wasn't who I was. Suddenly it was seen and just dissipated. So because it was nine years ago, I kind of brought up a little bit of a memory of what we've done with the message, how it could be presented. And that was probably around about that time or maybe a little bit later when I converted one of the transcriptions of Bob's spiel.
Into a set of questions because Bob would very often start the spiel from I can't tell you anything I can't teach you anything. There's nothing that you will learn here If you came here to this place to learn something that you don't already know Zonk is not gonna happenNothing. You only are to look inside and discover whether there is a resonation. I'm pointing and you look for yourself if that is true, what I'm pointing to, like discovering the acceptance. So I was reading to Bob yesterday in the morning that 111 questions that I actually drew out of one transcription, random transcription of one of the spiels.
And the first question was, as far as I remember, well, did you come here to learn something? And this is the question to take inside and see. And it's not necessarily coming in here. It may be watching a video, reading a book. Is there an agenda there? Is there a me that wants to get something, become someone, learn something? Because if there is, well, wonderful to know, isn't it? It's just great to know. And now the investigation can follow. Is there really a me? And there will be more, 110 more questions to help to see through that that agenda, even if it arises, is just a phenomenon arising.
There is no me who wants something. There is just an urge arising. And those questions, this is one of the things that I just encourage people to check out. They might be helpful. I used to cover up for Bob some six, seven years ago and print them out and give away. And I remember people did actually find some appreciation for the format because it really takes you within and you have to check out, see for yourself.So it is on www.sailorbobadamson.com and there is a link to Spiel and there is a link to questions. And we have another page showing up on that website. And this is kind of exciting.
You have another opportunity for another deck of cards, don't you? Yes, we have a friend, Julia. This is really kind of a part of a credit, all credit goes to life. But it expressed to you, Julia, about, was it three or four years ago when Julia moved to Australia, she really wanted to have an extra Zoom meeting from people from her side of the world. So we got the Zoom meeting for the American crowd, and that's going to happen tomorrow. And one of the participants of the meeting, Carl, actually took up, he downloaded from live that beautiful idea of having virtual version of the card.
And he was working, he was working probably 100 hours of really high quality attention, love and service. He didn't charge us for it. But he says that would be a way to, because the physical cards are, They weren't that expensive really to produce and to sell. I sell them for the cost that I pay actually under, lower than the cost. But the postage is a killer. The postage to Europe is a killer. I put down on eBay $25, but it cost over $40. I just paid the difference. It's a killer. So the virtual cards is the opportunity to just have them on your mobile phone.
You can get an app.No, we don't have an app. We have the server. So I can actually just very, very quickly show, just drop the camera and show it how it looks like. And it is all on our website, so the links are there, they can be purchased on eBay. I think this is going to really show it. This is the computer screen and you can have, once you get the access through buying a product and getting the email insert in the system, all cards show up. You just can pick a random one, whatever this one. And it shows up, yes, a beautiful big card.
And you can even have our dear Carl. It can be learned without darkness. There can be no light without darkness. No sound without silence. No pleasure without pain. It either appears as duality or there is no manifestation, no experiencing, and no expression at all. Thank you, Carl. And then we can go back, click the home button, and pick another one. And of course, we can change the size of them, just as usually things you do on the computer. Sorry. Anyway, that's the thing. That's just a digression. That's what happened on our website, www.sailorbabadamson.com. And this...for those who actually wanted and asked to support us in the situation we are now.
We can't have the donation button or anything. We had some threats from people who are actually really engaged in making Bob's life rather more difficult than easy. So if you purchase a card, Carl didn't want a payment. The 20 bucks goes to Bob. Oh, beautiful. That's a great way. Yes. You could also do card of the day that you put up yourself to initiate a conversation. Yeah. On the Facebook book. Card of the day. Boom. Yeah, yeah. Could do that too. Absolutely. That will bring people to the cards to have a further look. It's a good idea. Yeah, great, great idea. Yeah, I'll sell it to Carl because I don't really know.
I mean, I could probably learn how to do these things. I've learned over a course of three days how to raise the website when people damaged it. Then you take a selfie with the card. Oh, I thought you meant to have it linked to the home. No, no, no, that's later. You took a selfie with the card and then... I don't need a selfie. I produce those cards, so I have them. I have the JPEGs in the computer. Too easy. That's more fun with you in it. It's true. What's your hair in that day? You are too sweet. Okay, let me just include, we have a few people here.commenting and love and appreciation for from Deborah apart from other good morning messages and we have Christopher say hey everyone oh that's Caroline actually And she says hi to Christopher and Christopher says hi to Caroline.
Oh, yeah, well. And so nice to be with you all, says Bill. And Jenny, beautiful to tune into the field like this just before turning lights out to go to sleep. Just the simple fact that there is day where you are at night shows that all is one. Oh, Jenny, that's so sweet. She's, yeah, it's probably one o'clock at night. And so simple, Tanya says, we miss it. And Ruchika says, I love one of Bob's quote, recognize that seeing of itself is happening naturally. Isn't it? It's brilliant. Yes. And you can transmit it to every other area of experiencing. All of it. But seeing is a great example.
And Jenny says that was so amazing work, Kat. Those questions are gold. Yeah, I think they are helpful. Some of them are kind of. Yeah, but thank you, Jenny. And Christopher says, from my perspective, there can be... non-dual awakening but this does not necessarily translate to heart opening just an observation there isa beauty in both and to be wedded to non-dual words is a prison in itself loving the group also and thanks so much bob for everything thanks bob and that's beautifully said it's a great point i don't i wouldn't necessarily call it non-dual awakening because you know the conceptual understanding and just feeling that i'm better or smarter because i get something you don't it's not quite the understanding and i remember nisargadatta pointing out that you know whether you start seemingly seeming dream character start on the path of seeming path of jnana or seeming path of bhakta you end up in the same position when they both dissolve in oneness so whether the understanding initiate realization that everything is one therefore everything
is what I am, therefore I can't help but love it, or whether the realization is from the devotion to the oneness in every form, to the realization that, oh, I am that one.
The end result is the dissolution of dream character, so there's no one to awaken. But it is a very, very good point. There are people who are very cynical and very... Kind of dry and not very compassionate and not very heart-opened speaking about that message and even feeling offended or mildly irritated hearing about the heart-opening or the love aspect. And that's kind of sad, isn't it? They're caught in their own mind-knowing, you know, and they actually won't experience. Oneness until that's dropped, until that cynicism just dies. It's engulfed in love. Ananda sits in heart, it is there just to be discovered. And again, they are also life expressing, so nobody's doing anything wrong or getting it wrong, there is nobody there.
It's just life expressing through the dream character who thinks it gets it. And I'm still thinking, because until it really lands and embraces and shows in action, well, yes, then it's just thinking. And Bill says,cats that is such beautiful moving story of how you came to Bob in your dark night of the soul and it was all overwhelmed and illuminated by your own heart's pure eternal light of consciousness and love. Thank you Bill. Incredibly insignificant and absolutely life transforming yes and tanya says there is no me that believes thoughts just thought appears that says i'm still believing in thoughts just thought about thought thoughts effortlessly appearing inseparably from all appearances beautifully said tanya and jyoti says my constant companion is what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it and there's a couple of hearts and a second to it and jenny says mine too Oh yes, give us some.
There's a song coming over. Yes, we will. The other day, you know, because you associate what should we do with the drunken sailor with Bob, right? So we changed it to what should we do with the wake and sailor. And put his words to it. And he goes, what's wrong? What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? What's wrong with right now?Now if you don't think about it, there's nothing that is not bad. There's nothing that is not bad. What shall we do with the awakened sailor? What shall we do with the awakened sailor?
What shall we do with the awakened sailor? There's nothing bad, it's not bad.What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? There's nothing that is not there. There's nothing that is not there. There's nothing that is not. Beautiful! That is my favourite. Oh my goodness, did you hear it, Donny? Beautiful. Thank you for that. That is, what a wonderful suggestion. Actually, it was Tussles that suggested that when you had Bob's birthday before, to do something on that song. And I never was able to come, but then I thought about it afterwards. I thought, oh, these words fit to that tune.
So that's Bob's theme tune. If I put it on the website? No, no, no, of course. And I could do another recording for you. Oh, yes. Make another file so you can download it from iTunes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, not iTunes. No, no, I'll put it on. Do a band camp. Then you can make some money off of it. For donations. Yeah. And Jenny sends a heart and says,So beautiful. The chica says beautiful. There's a load of hearts going in. I think that's going to shift the way we think about the song. What's wrong? What should we do with the way it's said? Yeah, we're going to be all thinking about that one now, not the drunken sailor business.
Yeah, well, no. On the first day we had the sober sailor, but awakened sailor is actually nicer. More accurate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how beautiful it is. Actually, this is the part, even though we are technically, and Nisargadatta is technically all about the jnana understanding thing, how naturally the love and gratitude for the way the message has been given, presented, downloaded and expressed by Bob brings up the heart essence to it. Like, his infinite patience and love, and how could that not be reciprocated in a just most obvious, natural way? And yes, he's with us, he's listening, he's got the cat on his lap and he's enjoying it.
But, yeah. I might make a confession. So 30 years of being an academic and having a science background and never really beingreligious at all. In fact, you could have described me as an atheist in that I didn't have any interest in any higher power, you know, up there in the clouds or outside of myself, so to speak. At some point, life just, you know, challenges and there was a longing to go home. Didn't know what that meant. But then there was a brief period of looking about, learning, and found this thing online that basically was just a few lines and it was about something that felt like truth, absolute truth, and it was speaking a language that the heart understood.
And I thought I'll have to, you know, the immediate thought comes of the academic, the scientist, whatever, approach your right, let's go to the source. So what you were saying was interesting, because I was looking for that authenticity. And there's so much fakery out there. That's why people like the famous folks. All of that. And I knew it wasn't there. It was going to be something more obscure that not everybody was aware of. But, you know, found some materials. Didn't quite understand it, but wow, what a surprise, what a...when Bob arrived, right? And my field is I'm an alcohol researcher. So for 30 years I've been studying, this is my area, and there's Bob with his history and everything else, right?
And the beauty and the clarity and the simplicity of how he explained all that stuff that was written in flowery language or some kind of presented in some way I couldn't quite grasp or encouraged a requirement to create some imaginary existence or something that was fantastical which didn't sit well either but with Bob it was like Wow, it's just that simple. Let go of this self-image. There is nobody there. And that moment of clarity came to me, and I've talked so much about the book, Beyond Words, Beyond Mind, because it was that I was reading it, opened it up, I had it for like two weeks, was in bed, was about to go to sleep, I'm going to have a read, opened it up, it was the first two lines in that book.
That just went, wow. It's something to the effect of, you know, I wish I need to get it because I can't remember the exact words. But basically, there is... Take a look. It's an invitation to investigate. Take a look.There is no reference point. No reference point. Yeah. A reference point or self-centre with any substance or independent nature cannot be found. That's it. That's it. That's it. And all this, you know, when you're a child, people, you might get asked the question at various points in your life, like, who are you? What are you going to be when you grow up? Far out. I thought I was the only one who couldn't answer that question.
So I had to invent something. Might take something on. And you grab pieces from here and there and you create this conceptual image. And you get caught up in it and you become this house of cards of concepts. Identity. Yeah, I am. And that's all okay too, but wow, what a release. Yeah. A pleasure. Pleasure. It is. Freedom. Even the tough stuff. Just to go. Accept it all, even the rotten stuff that seems rotten because there's beauty and joy in that too. If you don't resist, if you go deep into it and go, yep, come on, come on, you feel it. You can feel that joy and love through everything.
Yeah, it's almost absurd that you welcome unpleasant sensations because the underlying freedom...allows you to embrace it, it's so rewarding. That's it. Yeah. So, and here I am with Bob and Kat. I love the way you said longing, because, you know, I think all of us, you know, otherwise here, unless you respond to that longing, that puts you in touch with another dimensional experience of being, because that's what you're longing for is who you really are. That's the thing. And so you come across someone like Bob, or you pick up a book with some... non-teaching in it, you know, that will bring you back home, you know.
But that longing is real and it's kind of denied or... Overlooked, ignored. Ignored, slayed over with, you know, seeking sensation or seeking, you know, anything. But that true longing to be home... Deeply as you are in yourself. Yeah, you would long if you didn't know it. Yeah, you only long a desire, something that you deeply know in your heart. And that very, very deep knowing, if you follow the longing to the bottom of it, you realize, oh my God. Yeah. That's who I am. Yes, that's who I am. Don't have to long for it.Please. You were talking about the hard stuff and how we tend to avoid it.
But there's a beautiful poem by Rumi. Who talks about Actually, if you turned and faced it, you will find actually a deep solution. Don't turn away from grief, oh soul. Look for the remedy inside the pain. Because the rose came from the thorn and the ruby.From a stone Don't turn away from grief or sorrow. Look for the remedy inside the pain. Because the rose came from the thorn and the ruby from a stone.From a star From a star Yeah, Ruby, from a stone.From grief, oh soul Look for the remedy inside the pain Because the rose came from the thorn and the ruby from a stone.From a stone Yes, the ruby from a stone.
Yeah, the ruby from a stone. Did you write the melody? Yeah, wow. Gorgeous. Yeah, melody does the whole poem. It just makes it shine like a ruby. It's a handy song to have up your sleeve when you're going through shit. Oh, yes. And heart opening, too. Anyway, the garden wouldn't grow without the shit, so... Yeah. No day without the night. No pleasure without pain. And Giotti says, very beautiful. And on that note, actually, it reminded me when Tanya was sharing, you know, Bob being, she's an alcohol researcher, and Bob's being through the drunken sailor part before he became sober and awakened sailor. And I get, and this is what I would like to tell to everyone who is actually writing emails or messages.
I read them all to Bob, and he does appreciate it. And I have a sample.email which I just found, yeah, just a fragment from someone who had an individual meeting with him, but we also got emails from those who just were touched by the videos or by the books and expressed the gratitude. He receives it all. So John says, I once told Bob something like, after all those years of seeking, I should have known that my spiritual guru was going to be a regular working class bloke from Australia. I wasn't going to be convinced by all that esoteric swami bullshit. Bob really, really loved that.
His sense of humor is a true mark of awakening. And please accept my love for you, Bob, you and Bob, and wish you could be there in person. And for all of you who also request to be here in person, Thank you for your request. However, yes, it is a little bit kind of a more of a quiet time and a very, very close friendship time, which even that is limited to the shorter slots, like half an hour, an hour. We're going to have international visitor who is a dear friend, also spend hundreds of hours on one-on-one meetings, never saw Bob in person. It's arriving in the afternoon, tomorrow another one.
But those are just really...brief situations. It's not really in the space when he's very, very talkative, conversational. He is cracking a joke every now and then, of course. He's laughing a lot and he's very, very loving and very sweet. But yes, this is more of a time when he wants to be with his two wives. He's got two. Yes. Yeah, funny enough, we got that wind of miracle blowing Tanya into our life. And that is such grace. I cannot believe, I cannot wrap my head around how much the life answers requests that haven't been even made. And it provides. But Tanya was hiding around so we could actually have time for ourselves, like for half a day or so.
And the moment I disappear from his eyes, he asks Tanya, where is Kat? The moment Tanya disappears, he asks Kat, where is Tanya? So he does have the companion, companion that is quiet and undemanding and just providing. And also thank you everyone who do offer to provide a meal or a help of any kind. That is so beautiful. That love in action is really, really beautiful. And just please rest assured, if we need it, we're going to yell out. We're going to ask. And Kat, that wind of grace blows both ways. Just to be clear, it is just...Wonderful. It is. So wonderful. And it is, I keep saying, so easy and natural.
It is. No, it's just flowing. It's natural. There's calmness. There's love and, you know, joy. Joy, yes. You know, sometimes there is a struggle, or not a struggle, but, you know, you've got to get on top of something quickly. But it's all being dealt with very easily, without any head shit. It's just happening. It's just happening. And there's a recognition of that. And that is just, oh, wow, life. Wow. Gratitude. It is. And Bob is still going out and rearranging trees in the gardens. Telling us we're getting it wrong. Telling us off, yes. Eating ice cream. So life is good. Life is good. You know, I just think, I mean, watching you say this is what many, see, when I was watching my father pass, it was harder to watch him go than it was, you know, after he went.
Because you're more in your head, or you can be anyway, as you're watching this, you know what's coming, or at least you think you do.But in this scenario, at least from what I'm observing, you know, what's beautiful is one could say, well, this would be the hardest time of your life. And yet, look at how it's expressing and how beautifully graceful you guys are all, you two, actually you especially, how you're... We know the missing out. No, and you're enjoying every moment. You know, you're not missing anything. You're just enjoying every second. And how beautiful is that? I don't know. She's so present. Yeah. Totally crazy.
Yeah, she's nodding her head about what's going to happen or where's it going to go and what can I do? I'm not seeing that anyway. I'm just seeing you now just enjoying every moment. And that to me is like, well. Proof in the pudding. And yes, we still, at the same time, we are actually having a magnificent support. So we are prepared. Life prepares us for the next step. So we do have a line ahead marked. We don't think about it. But when the information comes and the action taught comes, that is all lined up. But this takes five minutes a week. And the rest of the week is actually spent, invested in what is happening, not the story about what is happening.
And they are...moments through the day that would be probably good 10 sometimes 20 minutes a day when somehow the the pain of the challenge kind of sneaks through and we'll have to address it but still even if that is 20 minutes even if that is 30 minutes the pain is never really acute we get on top of it fairly quickly the rest 23 and a half hours is just Lovely. So it is not like unfortunately often happens when you see someone unwell, it makes people sad. That doesn't help the person who is unwell. Is he really unwell if you don't think about it? You know, ask the people who are seeing him cracking jokes and laughing.
I'm still here. And ask the doctors who are amazed that he's, yes, there really is nothing to be sad about at this moment. Watching old black and white movies. Oh, yeah. Loving it, you know? Oh, yes. You watched that favourite one of his last night. One of my favourite. Razor's Edge. From 1946. 1946. You can find it free online. Gorgeous, yeah. Yeah, watching movies, eating ice creams, patting the cats, cuddling up, having the foot massage and the leg massage.It's beautiful. And there isn't any of that going into the story. So I've witnessed a little of the pain, at least visually, from a different, you know, watching him.
And you can see he's going through what appears to be a very painful moment. And his comment was, the description can never be the described. Which I thought was kind of perfect. And then at the same time, as he was going through this really painful moment, you could see, but then he was going, ah! And then it went to him. He was like laughing at it, you know? Yeah, he's... We have that little theme, Bob and I, for the last nearly nine years of kind of putting the mind on the spot, exaggerating its complaint and cracking laughing. Because if you view the mind as for what it is, it's just...
the set of programming, set of conditioned behaviors and responses that are completely impersonal, that not you and they are not yours. And just looking at it from that space of witnessing presence as a curiosum, as something weird and funny. You know, how disarming it is for whatever the complaint mind presents. And that's really a practicality of that message, of the understanding of that message. You don't take thoughts personally, they're just thoughts. And the thoughts appearing seemingly inside are no different to thoughts appearing on the TV screen or appearing in a conversation of someone in a supermarket. They're just arising, nobody thinks them. So why bother?
Why engage? I mean, not that there is any choice. If there is still a habitual engagement with the thought, even that could be witnessed and laughed at, taken lightly.Okay, so that is... Vivek says, cat plus Tanya equals non-duality, love in practice. Yeah, in a way, we both have a really soft spot for Bob and some sort of a worshipping note, but not as a messenger, because the message is life itself. It's no different in anyone. It's that core or the essence. But the pattern, such a gorgeous pattern. It is. It's like, you know, you may love the life behind every form, but you may not necessarily like it, you know?
Like, you may not necessarily like a dying rat we witnessed this morning. Or... Unkindness or violence or burning synagogues or stuff like that. But it's the same life that you can love. But with Bob, that pattern, that particular sand mandala is just so easy to love because there is just this maturity of the message which kind of over time translated because, well, let's be frank, 48 years ago, that amount of loving kindness and patience, especially patience, wasn't there. And he's really honest about it. He was still, you know,cracking the shits every now and then. That pattern gets rewritten over time. Now he's so sweet, he's almost a saint, but it isn't.
Everything contributes to it again, you know, life circumstances, the maturity of the understanding and aging by itself when there is no rigidity and no fear and no anxiety attached to it. So yes, he is a pattern, us a pattern, he isn't a pattern, he expresses us a pattern. But as a pattern, he's so easy to watch.And it's quite a few hearts flowing. How we are for time, we have another half an hour. So we don't really have to, I mean, if we have a big group of people, they usually kind of extend over, we don't really have to stretch it to just fill up this half an hour.
If there is no questions and no one from viewing, watching online, point us to any direction, particular direction of contemplation, we can wrap it up at any point. But we can go on if there is anything that comes up for you guys. You can do the field. Yeah, I was going to say, could we have another song?Beyond ideas are all doing Beyond ideas are right doing There is a field A beautiful field I'll meet you there I'll meet you there. Beyond ideas of wrongdoing Beyond ideas of right doing There is a field A beautiful field I'll meet you there I'll meet you there.You wrote the melody to this one as well.
Yes.Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. I don't know if I can call it writing things because they just sort of... They come to you, of course. They just come, I hear it and I just do it. And then I'll, afterwards, I'll go to the piano, work out the notes and then I'll write it down. And you could download this from your band camp. One day, they're not quite there yet. I have got quite a lot of my songs like this on my band camp called Empty Sky. But I've got to do another Empty Sky album. Project for when we move. Yes, when we move, yeah. But there's lots of, there's so many beautiful poems of the mystics that express what we're talking about.
And, you know, St. Francis, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there's hatred, let me sow love. Well, it doesn't have to be... We have to be... Yeah, yeah.That's it. Make me an instrument of thy peace. Make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me soar. Where there is hatred, let me soar. Make me an instrument of thy peace. Make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me soar. Where there is hatred, let me soar. Let me so love. Let me so love. Wow. Amen. And we have a couple of comments now. Jenny says, so easy to love a pattern that radiates that.pattern that invites other patterns to recognize that all is well, that they, quote unquote, are what they have been looking for.
That's beautifully said, Jenny. Yes. And oh my goodness, I can't really overestimate how effective is Bob's style of pointing. When I heard, I always put the headphones on Bob, I used to do that, so people who he speaks one-on-one have that, what you call it, the confidence that they are, you know, they are There is no compromising on whatever feels very personal. But I hear his answers often. And it always circles around the fact that there is nothing you have to do. There is nothing you have to become. It is a recognition of what is always and forever there. So if the mind says, yes, but I'm not quite there yet, I understand it intellectually, don't worry about it.
That's just the mind, like Julia says, mind caca. What is there before that narrative, underlying that narrative, the presence, the aliveness, the awareness that enables that mind to have the doubts, that is what you are. Prior to whatever the doubts come, they come and go on.that which you are. You have never not been here. You have never not been that, that presence, that aliveness. And relentlessly he shows that it is impossible not to be that absolute, that life essence, because it expresses us everything. No one is not that at any point. It's a recognition. There's no doing required. It's relaxation of that chatter and recognition that prior to chatter, even if there is no thought going on, even if there is thought going on, that aliveness is always there underlying it.
And Sally says, Kavisha, would you share the chords for the field song? It is so beautiful. It's really easy. Aymanah. Just say, Aymanah.D, G, C. Yeah? Hang on, I'm doing it with a very small guitar that means that the chords are five, if you had a normal guitar and put a five, capo on the five, you do it in an E minor shape. So I'll just say E minor, but you can also translate it. E minor, D, G, C. E minor, D, G, C. Over and over again. But it's actually, see this is my problem. I'm not a schooled musician, so I find the intellectual stuff a bit hard to get a grip on.
I'm an instinctive musician. I'm not saying I'm not a musician, but I'm kind of a musician that doesn't do theory. So I find chords hard. But if you do the E minor, D, G, C, and then put a capo on, you'll get to this key. Okay? So put the capo on the fifth, but do an E minor shape, D, G, C, and you'll be right. So the key is the capo on the fifth? Yeah. That's the key. Yeah, yeah. Or that I'm doing any, that I'm doing any. But, you know, different people's voices, so you can adjust. But that's the shapes anyway. Is she happy with that explanation?
Are you happy?I can see that. Thumbs up. Goody. Yes. Anytime. Songbook coming out soon. Good. Yeah, lovely. Yes, so I guess we're nearly on time. I wonder if Bob wants to say hi again. He was with us all along, just kind of relaxed. And should we wrap it up or anyone has anything else coming up? Do you want to say something? Something at the end, yeah. Well, I better do that now. Just lovely to be here and share this special space with Bob. In this quiet, you know, one step on the staircase anyway. Beautiful. Thank you for being present in here and in this beingness of us here.
Beautiful. Non-duality is. And I'm just going to say this. Thank you very much for being with us, all three of you. We discovered just by incident, really, last week, we've discovered when a couple of people show up on our doorstep and there was three of us doing the meeting, that we can indeed have a tiny little group. We cannot have the full group meeting like with 20 or 30 people around Bob because the space is... But still, because the nature of those meetings is a group investigation,It is better than just having a talk or just the introduction, that's it. So we are really grateful and I put out the information for, we have like few people on WhatsApp and few people on Facebook group, that if anyone further along the way would like to join meeting like this, we have two people put their hands up for next week, so we already have five because we hope Dean is going to be with us as well.
And then next week we have already one person putting the hand, actually also two. So in January we're going to be, because Bob is actually not getting any worse, touch the wood. So I do hope we're going to be able to enjoy and live and love that pattern, that form for much longer. Because it is, it is, as sad it may look for other people, it really is a joy and love. It really is. So there is no, you know, he's loving to be. He is loving to be. There is nothing lacking or missing. Life is good. So we may continue like that. So we encourage people who are local, if they are, you know, that may be two, three weeks in advance, we're going to be able to accommodate two people every time.
We will expect those people to contribute a little bit to keep the conversation going. So just please feel free.Thank you. And thank you very, very much. I'm just going to say. Hi, my darling. You want to give us a wave again for the crowd here? Yeah. Here. Love you all. Oh, my darling. And she loves you too. There's a little kitty there. Okay. That's that. And you've got tons of hearts, my darling.