Nonduality small group discussion on 15 Dec 2024

Welcome everyone, we have Michael, Jacinta, Tania, Kat and Bob. Bob wanted to be in the meeting, just in case there are any comments to be made. We are lucky to have him. He may just be listening in, we were just joking. After our Zoom calls he always gives us positive feedback. Tania and I are doing Zoom calls now. He says he has to because otherwise we will start talking and we're not going to be speaking. He's got really well-wishing, loving desire for that to continue because it's good for us and it's good for everyone. He has the beautiful and heartwarming confidence in the message and in us transmitting the message.

So that is lovely. He is very good with the positive reinforcement and the pats on the head. Very good. Say something to that. You are not taking any notice of the notice. You are not taking notice of the notice. Cut the bull. Okay, we're going to bring the notice to the picture then. Here is the notice. Bob got a Nobel Prize. It was Michael's invention. And it gets a lot of recognition from all the doctors, palliatives and service providers that he is the Nobel, no bullshit, messenger. And, um, okay, Daniel, would you like to say a couple of words? I just... Oh, gosh. Yeah, just, just, just...

Um, Michael, would you like to say a couple of words? Why don't you go first? You go first. I've got this. Oh, you go with the stick. He's got the big one. Yeah, you go. Well, the Nobel Prize, I guess I can talk about that because, um, yeah, it's, when I first came, I don't know how many years ago it was now, but it might be three years, or even four. I was recommended by TAS that I come along first. I sat here and I listened to Bob and tried to understand it and basically found it very difficult to understand and just got very confused and asked lots of questions.

I'm back in those early days I was really helpful to have you to cat because you were explaining like I've got a very left brain like me from an engineering IT background. I've got a very left brain scientific logical kind of rational mind that wants to understand everything. And so it was beautiful that cat could kind of hit all those logical points and Bob's pointers are so direct and so simple. I don't know how long it took, but eventually at some point I'm trying to understand, trying to get it, trying to work it out, watching everything that I could ever find on nonduality, you know, watching all these different teachers and I don't know why I was so drawn to it, almost obsessed by it, but couldn't get it.

And then at some point I remember sitting here and all of a sudden I'm just sitting there and I'm not really listening to Bob anymore. I'm just sort of sitting there and it's almost like hearing the silences in between. Which I can't really put it into words but it's like I'm hearing the words and they're not really, I'm not even really listening. There's just that energy. And it's just, yeah you can't get it with the mind. So it's just feeling it. And it's really delicious, the feeling of it. I Am The One The subject and the object. But logically, the whole universe is happening for you.

It's that simple. Because you're there. And if you look at time, logically again, you can't go back a second or forward a second. It's just an idea in the mind. So again, just without feeling it, because you do have to feel it, but even without feeling it and thinking about it, you can't deny it. You can't go back a second or ten weeks or three. It's all just thoughts, which is just a movement of energy. It's just neurons firing. But there is a difference between understanding it logically and then feeling it. But if you feel it, there's a sense that it's within you and not outside of you.

So it's actually, it's all happening. And again, logically you can't deny this either because you're there. www I don even believe it anymore when it happens www Watch Bob's videos, read the books, read them over and over again. I think Bob recommended it to Jane, and I think Jane told me it was I Am That before she really got it. He said, just keep reading it. And she just kept reading it. One day she said, I don't need to read it anymore. And it just clicked. So however you get the message, I think it's actually just persist. If you've got that drive, that urge, that desire, then just keep persisting.

And one day you'll just feel it more. That's so beautiful. That's just wonderful. Don't we all love those, you know, like sort of a positive reinforcement that it can actually land. And Bob, I like the way Bob calls it, the conviction in the message grows. Suddenly it is more obvious and more important and more prominent than the stories running overlaying it. So lovely. Jacinta, would you like to say how it landed for you? Because that is beautiful. I think what's landed for me, you know, a bit different to Michael, I've been compliant all my life. As a little girl, most of my life I was compliant with what everyone said and I never questioned anything.

I am a person of the nature. I'm just everything the trees and if I even ask is that a tree what comes back is silence and then you know that you're part of everything you can see that you're not separate and then I said to Bob one day I'm not running the show and I've heard Bob say that before but it's God doing intelligence energy that's running the show and that is you know we still get caught up in the mind and different things but that's what I love because I question now and because I I have never questioned as a child. I always knew that there was something there.

I don't know what I knew. I always believed in God where most people I know are atheist these days. And there was always that silence, you know, let go and let God and it's just that knowing that I already knew, but I didn't know that you already knew things even as a little girl. I Aam That, Ramana Maharshi, I Nisargad tathagat, presence-awareness, Mahavakya. I am a member of the National Association of Indigenous Peoples of Australia. I am a member of the National Association of Indigenous Peoples of Australia. In this room you can see trees, but beyond the trees there's a tram, and a sky. Everything is just there.

It's so huge. We're just part of everything. We're just part of everything, which I feel more and more. That's what I love. Just that. This is beautiful and I love actually what you say that you know what you discover is that it has always been there and you always knew that. We always knew that. And that's the magnificent that I didn't know but now I know that I was always that. Yes. But I couldn't see it for so many and I think most people can't see it and I'm feeling teary now not because I'm sad but because I already knew it as a little girl.

Absolutely. Sorry. How it landed for you? I made a confession last Sunday. You did. I don't know if I should repeat it. But just what you were saying earlier Kat and what Michael and Jacinta were saying. I think there is a kind of a keep going, as you say, forbearance is really important. Patience just keep going even though you not doing anything it just happening because it has to be just happening because there is no individual entity there But at some point after earnestness has been there for a while that veil becomes a bit thinner and becomes clearer It's just as happening naturally and it feels like it's happening over time but of course it's not.

It's just the experience of now and then the experience of now and then the experience of now. But it's just, wow, I have no idea what's going on and happy to not know. Just satisfied, content with whatever and it's just even, what a shift to realise that the idea of thoughts, the idea of concepts is itself an idea and a concept And also part of awareness but really not anything substantial. It's just phenomena. But we were reading a passage from a book today and it struck both Kat and I. What was it? The thoughts are harder than the body? The body or the... than the body.

Thoughts are harder than the body. Beliefs are harder than the body. Yeah. Yeah. Beliefs can be, you know, totally resistant, rock solid, robust, you know, where the body can be fragile by comparison. Some of those beliefs just, you know, the cultural ones and the image ones. Sometimes it's easier to kill the body than to kill the belief system. People die completely, completely trapped in that. And that's perfect too, from life's perspective. That's exactly what was wanted. That's it. That's exactly what's meant to be happening, for want of a better expression. And I'm just rambling because sometimes I'm just content and quiet and silent and just blah, blah, blah.

I mean with time, we know time's now, but how much, I mean we still can occasionally go, but how much energy is wasted in that story? And once you let go, like at times, I laugh at my story sometimes, I think it's quite, you know, how stupid I was. I mean I didn't know and I was so caught up in it but it is this because there's no attachment to that story you can see the funny side of it now and we're really writing our own play aren't we and oh my god what a wonderful angle isn't it when you can actually see your own stories in a new light when they are not personal yeah when they are they have nothing to do about you you don't have to defend your position you don't have to be right no one is making you I Am That, Ramana Maharshi, I Nchagiri, Dzogchen, Veda, Vedanta, presence-awareness, Mahavakya.

The Without which it couldn't have even played out. It's completely ignored. The Buddha mind completely exchanged for the story, for the thought. What's Bob's definition of belief again? You want to say belief? What's belief unquestioned? Acceptance of something in the absence of reason. acceptance of an alleged fact without positive knowledge or proof. And it's got the word lie in it, belief. Belief. Be lie in. Be lie in. And if you look at the anagram for lie, it's love, intelligence, energy. Therefore, everything that we think with a belief or a lie, it's the intelligence energy that's always behind it. Helping point us somewhere else. Yeah it always there There nothing that is not it Like Bob often says and I also love that expression everything is one in its essence but it is a multitude in the way it expresses the vibrations, patterns, shapes and forms.

Or it is real in the essence, but it is maya, it is illusion in the appearance. And I have few things here from our community, and thank you for hanging out with us guys. Tania says good morning, lovely to see you Bob and big love to Bob and to all from Jenny and Jenny doesn't sleep again, nice to have you with us. And Caroline says love to Bob and all of you and thank you and lots of other loves and hearts and Tony says you looking good and Jenny says the freedom of all being well no matter what is going on in the head office.

I love it! It's a good one. Yeah, isn't it brilliant? It's quote on quote, but it's a brilliant quote. And greetings from David and love from John David and Catherine. Wonderful to share this time with you all. Love never ends and never discriminates. And happy Sunday Bob and Kat. Love you from Melinda. Melinda and Jyoti loving the exchange. Good morning Bobcat and everyone and Anika. Good morning. So lovely to see Bob being witty and very present. And thank you also Bob for what has now become a mantra what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it. You can't imagine how quickly mind ceases as soon as the lie is exposed, the ever-present beautiful now, the light of Sat Chit Ananda.

And Tazi says, hi Bobcat and co. Good to see you looking so lively, Bob. Yes. He's a joker. He sleeps much more today, these days, conserving the energy, but when he is awake, he is awake. Yeah, and happy to be. So, now, okay, let's, anyone has anything to add or we just go on the basic sort of pointing? Yeah, go. I'm just going to say that love, that idea of love, that's something that I'm still just stepping into. But I think one thing that came through is that if it's all happening for you, then that's every blade of grass, every star, every leaf on every tree, every atom, every molecule.

It's just because there's only you that's here for it. I'm starting to sense into that as being love. Loving to be is one way of looking at love. Sat Chit Ananda, being, knowing, loving to be. Everything, including the maggots and the rats and galaxies and objects, has this inherent self-preservation capacity, That last thing, beating the impermanence, survival instinct, that's loving to be. Another way of not wanting to die is loving to be. And I'm going to find again that, or maybe I won't, I don't know, let's see what happens. That quote that Nisargadatta explains Bob with, and I'll send it to you, because if you want to do a contemplation, how Bob often says, you know, they say, God is omnipresent and God is everything and there is nothing that is not it.

They call God love, so what's love? Love is God, God is love. Love is life also. Nisargadatta says life itself being prolific, expressing as everything, as that loving-to-be. And that includes fear, dread, suffering, all of it is included. That includes the nasty behavior, nasty is a judgment. So whatever is nasty for the society might be absolutely rewarding for the individual. And always behind that behavior is some sort of a loving care towards oneself. Even if the behavior is self-harm or self-hatred. I met people with anorexia, people with self-harm habits. You know, how they want to diminish their own sense of suffering emotional hell through, you know, diverting the attention to physical pain, which is much, much more bearable than the sense of unworthiness.

It's incredible how everything, looking from the back door, the intention, the intent, the motivation behind every action is love. Love. And I think I will find that Nisargadatta quote because it's just so good. It really brings everything to the table. It's a little bit hard to find. I have so many things there. Maybe here? Nope. I have it on my Facebook somewhere. Can I say something? Yes, please. I remember when I first came and Bob said God is here and now and presence. So every time that you and which God is love, so every time you say

All of these terms are love, here and now, presence.

That saying, it took me a while to realize, let go and let God. We're not running the show, Jacinta is not running the show. Every time I let go into that now, you can see that you've let go of the thought, and you've just come in to the peace and stillness. Bob says stillness and space. It's all just love. I got that one on Nisargadatta. Before you read that, I'm going to just say that we're not promoting any other teachers. This is Bob's student. So now you go, okay? I was reading a bit of it to Bob this morning, and it was just so serendipitous what you were saying.

Pain is an idea, a reference point. The reality of pain is its essence, which is joy. With patience and a distrust of cultural nostrums this will be found. The being founded on there being a difference between pleasure and pain dissolves when then true nature, which is a unity underlying the mind's labels, is discovered. Because all those words, anger, fear, grief, they're just words and labels and vibrations in space. And they're just, if you drop all that, it's just what's happening. And it's always just life being prolific and just expressing. And the interpretation, come in, Adren, come. Yeah, we have our... Grab the chair and come.

Yeah. And Bob is with us. Yes, I'm just gonna, I found we are talking about love. Michael says he struggles a little bit sometimes still with actually realizing that behind everything that is that love. So we actually touch on the aspect of loving to be, being a way of just everything, wanting to survive. This is where I like to include Nisargadatta. I made that little meme from his book, where he answers the question whether love acts deliberately. They ask, you know, that action of love. Obviously someone had an idea that love has some sort of a... that this is a movement that does something or...

How do you answer that? There is a presumption even in a question. But Nisargadatta brings it beautifully back home by saying yes and no. It neither acts nor it doesn't act. And then he says life is love and love is life. What keeps the body together but love? And now you can look at that. The instinct to look after the body is an instinct. Nobody does that and yet it is there in animals, in insects, in everyone. So, what keeps the body together but love? What is desire but love of the self? What is fear but the urge to protect? And what is knowledge but the love of truth?

And then he's got the little disclaimer on this one, including the human condition, because this one completely relates to the whole manifested world. But the human condition here, the means and forms may be wrong, wrong again, that judgment, but the motive behind is always love, love of the me and the mine. The me and the mind, the mine may be small or may explode and embrace the universe. That when the sense of separate self is gone and it's just the whole universe is what you are. But love remains. Love as that movement, as that activity that remains. And I love that quote because you can see now, try to find something that is an opposite.

You know, people say hatred is opposite. Nonsense! You know, if there is, let's say, if the hatred arises to someone who, let's say, try to harm Bob, how is that not love? It's unthinkable. Or if the hatred arises for someone who wants to burn my house or harm the body, how is that not love? Like, or fear, they say, you know, the love and the fear, they are opposite. Some of the New Age ideas are that they are opposite. And there's nothing wrong with any of those ideas because they may have different definitions, they may be helpful, they may be really kind of, you know, all life meets itself where it is.

People who actually need to work out and experience that duality. Life is just dancing through the dualistic expression. But ultimately, how is fear not love? As Nisargadatta says, the urge to protect. And fear, I had a conversation this morning with a friend. We have morning calls every day, just a check-in sort of calls. And we were talking about that ideas that are build up on the sense of the need to control the mind, the ego needing to be in charge needing to manipulate needing to set boundaries needing to make sure that you do as I say and everybody respect me and my boundaries That and incredible fear from that central head office I love that one, it's brilliant.

We are stealing from you, Jenny. So the fear from that head office that the sense of control is gonna be lost. And I often have conversations with people saying that yes, I do understand logically, but I'm not ready to let go of that sense of control. Because, you know, when I stop controlling, my life will fall apart. And it is really just a gentle, very very gentle realization that the sense of control is an illusion. That the only control you ever have in life is the illusion of control. Do you have control over the seeing, the process of seeing? You wake up in the morning, you open your eyes, seeing is there, you haven't done it, you can't control it.

There may be an illusion that yes, but I can look at positive and not at negative, This is a mechanical behaviour pattern, and that pattern can only be exercised if the thought arises for that pattern to be followed. And is there any control over the thought? Nobody knows the next thought. So if the thought doesn't arise, the seeing will just remain as it has been pre-conditioned and everything else in life. All of these are the elements of the life, realizing just even a moment of contemplation to see what is the fear of losing control if there never has been any control in the first place.

Animals don't experience that fear because they don't hallucinate separate self-insight and they don't imagine that that separate self-insight has any control. So they just move with life. If the body brings an urge of hunger, they go and hunt or they go look for the food. If the time comes for mating, they go and start the family and they leave it as soon as the pattern has been exhausted and different animals have different conditions, different programs. So it makes it really easy looking out in nature and seeing what's natural and you will see how little difference there is. Like Jacinta was saying before, you realize that what we are talking, everybody knew always and forever.

I am not sure if I am saying this right. I think it is just ignored and overlooked because it didn't really seem significant enough. It really felt like, because looking from the mind's perspective, what does it matter that there is space in which all the mind arises, all the ten thousand things arises? Well, that space, it can't be objectified. It says nothing. Why bother? So mind doesn't even bother. Mind is the symbolic language. That's what constitutes the mind, the thinking and putting labels, symbolic language, comparing. All of this is automatic, comparing, doing all the operations like in the computer, narrating, commenting. It's all automatic processes.

How can it relate to the empty space? For the mind it is vacuum, void, nothing, nonsense, why bother? But then, relaxing out of that computation, letting that computer slow down a little bit, And landing up in the heart of being. And now, suddenly, how is that nothing? And Bob, I love when Bob says, it's not a nothing, it's the no-thing. Because it isn't a thing. The radiant, luminous aliveness, the miracle of existence is not a thing, it is not an object. But how is it nothing? It's a prerequisite for absolutely everything. It's the field of infinite potentiality because that one field is the base on which and of which everything arises.

The body is that emptiness vibrating into the pattern of the body. The thought is that emptiness, that no-thingness vibrating into a shape, a form of a thought. All the feeling or anything or the world. This is all the emptiness vibrating. So how is it nothing? It's not nothing. Do you want to add something? I see you moving. No? No, okay. Okay, so anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Yeah? No, no, no. Alright, okay. No push. It's not only not interesting to the mind, but it's like when mind seems to be wired to look for difference. We have to survive, so we have to look for difference. Threats. Because even if you're out driving, you might be daydreaming, and a car comes out or someone runs across the road, basically all of a sudden that's all your attention.

Yes. But everything's still happening. But all of that, it seems like we're fully wired just to notice difference. And there's no difference with this. So why no need to look at it? Because it's like a fish in water. It's just not going to know it's in water. It's all distraction. It's all distraction away from that presence-awareness. It's a distraction, but it's always there, unchanged. It's been like that since you can remember. Always wherever you go whatever you doing it always there the same unchanging That reality But everything else is a distraction It's like the currency, our attention is currency. It's the real currency. Like everything tries to steal our attention, doesn't it?

That's what I was going to say. It doesn't matter where you look, everything wants your attention. Yes, yes. Is it just the waffle? No, no, it's just a Facebook presentation. It shows me the video but no comments. But what a wonderful point, you know, because this is, you're right, logic in the whole process has its place by all means. We say that this is more kind of intuitive knowing than the logic that can be explained. But it has its place. People who come here initially, they only use the only instrument they ever know how to. They really just look and listen through that computing capacity.

And you're right, the fact that the computing capacity is only focusing on the differences, on the changes, that the stillness, the space, it is only known from the perspective of movement and of noise. But it is only assumed to be, it can't be perceived because it doesn't change. So that stillness which is an opposite to movement is not it. There is a field in which the both opposites are being known. So it is prior to that and that prior to the opposites of stillness and movement, silence and sound, that never changes. So it is completely uncomputable, unperceptible, it can't be known. And realizing that helps perhaps to relax the expectation that it can be grasped.

And the only problem with that message is the grasping, is the idea, because it all comes from the ideas, you know, first idea, I'm separate. I have to conquer it, I have to understand it, I have to get it. There is a me and there is a future. If I try hard enough and work hard enough and contemplate long enough, then I will eventually arrive at that sense, at that state perhaps, state of mind, when I am saint and holy and I am never angry and I never suffer. They said there is a freedom from psychological suffering, right? So it must be a state. No, it isn't.

It isn't. The realization that what you are is underneath that overlay of interpretation which causes psychological suffering. Because psychological suffering is only the interpretation that things shouldn't be the way they are. Physical suffering of the body or physical pain of the body is inevitable. Because every form, everything that has the beginning has an end. And it will change in a way that sometimes gets better, sometimes gets worse. This is a judgement, but that one also applies to the animals. But psychological suffering coming from the idea that it shouldn't be this way, that why me? That everybody else should, like, you know, dog doesn't have the thought when it gets hit by the car, that, oh, I wish other dog got hit, not me.

Or God has it against me. And this causes such turmoil, such suffering, that this is, you know, like depression. Translation I am not going to die. This is narrative. This is the commentary. And if there is enough understanding to realize that this commentary is not personal, it doesn't have anything to do with the existence itself, and existence is what I am. If the commentary is raving about the dream character not being enough, not being pretty enough, smart enough, slim enough, or whatever, or rich enough, or whatever it is, That is just a part of the show. You could really, even if that still comes up, and even if that still is on the surface level, getting attention and getting some action following is the same as watching a movie.

It isn't really about the consciousness in which that whole play is happening. Relaxing out of the play and being that witnessing presence is the natural state And that can be achieved because it already here It can only be recognized Everything that anyone ever wants And funny enough, even the law of attraction tells you that you have to already see that you have what you want to have. Recognition, that's the only way the whole manifestation works because there is only now. If you recognize right now that there is a knowing principle underlying all the thinking and all the turmoils, there is a knowing principle, even that recognition takes some of the attention away from that self-centeredness, from the idea that, oh, this is me.

Okay, I know there is a principle, but I don't get it. I don't understand it. Even realizing that there is a basic space in which the psychological suffering plays out, even that acknowledgement already pulls out some of that processing capacity and let it relax in the space. And more of that recognition, the more of that processing capacities is eased off and relaxed, The less goes into making it real through the energy of belief in the mind. I think that's the key. Sorry. Oh yeah, this is longer. Yeah, experience here has been, because that little separate self at times gets triggered and it sparks up some thoughts and emotions and I've realized The main thing has been returning to the space as soon as possible, or returning as the space as soon as possible with attention back there, as that awareness.

And then it can't be hit by the surface stuff. And then you can revisit the situation from that place, which is going to be more pure. Oh, boy, it's going to be almost pleasant. Yeah. When you revisit, you don't have to... You're not carrying the story with it and it'll come from an intuitive place, more spontaneous. So, but those triggers are getting not as... They still, they can be dramatic, but they lose their power much quicker. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And they dissolve up a lot quicker when you return as the space-aware attention back, Whatever you want to call it, it's a tension away from there, back to the real.

Beautiful. That's the only doing which is non-doing. Because it almost seems like there is a prescription, you know, just relax. But what is relaxation? Tension is the doing, contraction is the doing, so stop it! Stop it! Relaxation is natural. It's this engaging with the source of tension that is natural relaxation. And that's the only thing, yeah. It's really just repeated and I love the way, you know, Bob's pointers were put on the cards. And of course, you know, no one claims any credit for anything. Bob doesn't claim the credit for the pointers because everything has been said throughout the ages if we just borrow the idea of time for a moment.

Nothing belongs to anyone because there isn't anyone. But I do love the way the cards actually came through me in those four colors. Because those four colors actually exhaust the whole nondual nondoing. In the color blue you have the beach and the sea and the sky and the wind, but in the color blue relaxing. And there are pointers on the blue from Bob, you know, blue sky and blue sea. It's just relaxing, really. That's all that's required. Then there is resonation. That's why those meetings. That's why the life itself delights in expressing and describing and just transmitting that frequency of clarity through words, through songs, through presence, through anything.

There is a loving to be showing us an expression. And for those who are naturally speakers will be speaking, for those who are naturally singers or painters, That's still the frequency of clarity of that life shining of its own. So that is the invitation to resonate and Bob's pointers, there's no one in the world who makes them so crystal, so crystal clear. And then it's recognition. Full stop. Full stop. Yes. That's what I was going to say. Full stop. Yes. You can just get that somehow. Just full stop. Yeah. Yeah. I like the recognize. Recognize. I come back, recognize what I am. Absolutely. And when I was actually designing the colors for the cards, I was thinking about all nice shiny colors like, you know, gold, copper, silver.

And I say, darling, what do I do with them? Resonate or recognize which one is gold, which one is copper? And he said, recognize is gold. That's why all the 22 cards that have recognized on the side that color, they're gold. That's the alchemy really, isn't it? Yes, it is gold. It is the recognition. This is it. Like, wow, this is the paradigm shift. This is where the perspective of the reference point or the identity or the entity is dropped, dissolved. It's a paradigm shift. It's not something that can be achieved or learned because it is always here. Only when the position is taken as an individual, everything is related to that individual and therefore is completely misinterpreted, I am not sure if I can translate it.

It is completely lost in that activity of interpreting or translating or relating to the reference points. So the recognition cards are gold. And then reflection. How, you know, like especially Michael what you were saying, you know, the logic convincing the mind that it can't grasp it. I have to reflect on it, contemplate on it and it really brings about that stabilization later on because even when the doubts arise, oh yeah, I've seen through it. It is reflected, it is the reflection, the contemplation is being brought through it. So that one I put in silver because silver is a reflective surface, you know. I have reflections of the clouds in the sky, I have reflections of the sun in the waves, or reflection of the moon.

Reflection, reflecting is lovely. We should just go and get a box and randomly open one and see what one comes out. They're not far away, they're big ones. Just one. Sorry. And I am, so when we say relax, what do we mean? What does it mean, relax? Surrender? Surrender, because people think surrender is giving up the white flag, but it's not, because the white, you know, in the army in the movies, you know, if you surrendered you were looked at as weak. But actually surrendering is when you surrender in the now, you're surrendering to who you are, to that who you are. And that implies a kind of vulnerability, doesn't it?

And to the courage kind of to be vulnerable. But when you have that, you're invulnerable. You're happy to be vulnerable. And you're not in control. Not in control. So you know, drop the expectations, drop the grasping, you know, forget about the resisting and just... But it must be a more articulate way. That's perfect. That's perfect. And Bob picked gold. I am A. I Am is a thought, a mental image. Beautiful! Yes, just what we spoke about. Nothing can live without energy. Energy of belief put into thought. And that's the gold. And reflecting on those pointers, my goodness, what a joy! There's absolutely no requirement, no...

we think there is, that's a concept too, to put energy of belief into any thought. There's no obligation. But we're socialized, conditioned to pay attention to those thoughts and energy of belief into them. But what a freedom to then realize that it's not necessary. It's not a requirement. Thank you for watching. I don't have a voice in my head. Well, that's the voice in your head. But they say that Stanford University have done studies 60 thoughts a day That is Somebody a little while ago was reading out some old Hindu text and the mind was described as 10,000 rutting elephants. I thought, yeah, it can be like that.

And at the same time, if you understand the function of the mind, it's so natural, it's so obvious. It's so obvious. I mean, if you had only positive thoughts, you probably wouldn't be here today because, you know, you wouldn't survive. The humanity, as we were growing as a species and we were getting conditioned by the environment, again, borrowing the idea of time, it was necessary to pay more attention to negative thoughts because if you miss out on the negative thoughts, that can cost you life. And missing out on positive thoughts, well, a big deal, okay, and some pleasure will not be there. So the fact that the mind is complaining all the time, it is doing its job.

It is doing its job to protect you, to ensure survival and thriving. And even if there is no imminent danger, it is conditioned to perceive danger, so it will make one up, because its nature again is to always serve. So if there is even the habit of looking out for danger, then the mind, its beautiful capacity to improvise the answer when it is requested, will make up a danger. The pattern of looking out is there, danger isn't, okay, oh, he looked at me wrong way, oh shit, I'm gonna get rejected, I'm gonna get condemned. Yeah, and you look at that machine and you marvel. And now how are the complaints are gonna bother you now?

Bob and I, we have a long-standing habit of having an absolute heartfelt laughter anytime the complaint is even traced because it's never believed. I see if I can include online community. Sorry, guys. The phone is fairly old. There's no budget for the new one. See? Beautiful. I got the... I hope I have them all. Julia says, I'm so thankful for Bob's beautiful simplicity and clarity. Recognition What are these cards? Please explain. Julia sent a link to SailorBobAdamson.com. We have them in online version too, but not like an app, but on the page on the website that has been lovingly made by our American friend. I don't know if that's working on eBay or not.

My random card message Consciousness is existence, utterly aware that it exists. I love that. Yes, that's another of Bob's gold pearls. Beautiful. And Julia says leaving everything unaltered, unmodified and uncorrected is a most beautiful pointer to dropping efforts to control. Beautiful. Now Julia also sent a link to eBay. Oops, I lost the comments again. Maybe Adrian would you like to read it on your phone? Thank you Julia, it's a wonderful font but it's just playing out. It was a very, very, very pricey font that I would never afford by myself from Julia, but it was three years ago. I am a woman, I am a woman.

Do you have comments If you silence it I think it beautiful Put it down the sound And yes, Catherine says, Kat, you are the perfect navigator. Your pointers navigate us out of the illusion of being separate entity. Thank you, Catherine and James, that's so nice. And they are not moving. Oh yeah, they're moving. Thank you, Catherine and James. Okay, and now David says, space-like awareness is like being a fish in the water. He also says, this is a lot gentler than it used to be in the old days. And what are these cards? Okay, this we went here before. There's nothing else to your styling then.

Yeah, it doesn't actually... It's a bit weird hearing yourself. Doesn't... Yeah, you go. I just thought that was an interesting reference to this being a lot gentler than the old days. Oh, yeah. I don't have a sense of the old days because of this format maybe or the speaking. I wonder what Bob has to say about that. What do you reckon Bob? He remembers people pulling the hair of one another in the meeting. You want to say something about that? Not particularly. Not particularly. But yes, I've seen the meetings a good 10, 11 years ago. It was, the energy was different and again, energy always changes.

So they are different meetings. We have Zoom meetings, sometimes the energy gets really passionate, sometimes it gets very very gentle, sometimes it gets almost like you can feel bickering, or sometimes I'm a bully and I have to bring back someone who is completely off the razor's edge promoting some sort of ideas that are completely contradictory or opposite to what Bob is pointing. But mainly we do try to actually just, you know, navigate the meeting around the main central idea that you are already that. So there is no one who does not understand that they exist. So there is no one who is wrong or stupid because in the hearts of heart you know that you exist.

If there are some ideas that need dispelling or that needs to be investigated or shed light so that shadowy ideas will just disappear in the light of consciousness, by all means we do that too and we try to do it as gently as possible because suffering is unnecessary. And the ideas that I heard 10, 11 years ago that, oh, you got to be rough because people Translation Rather than smashing down what is false, there is no need for any roughness in the process. Because we all know how animals behave. You kick your dog and you expect it to come back to you or obey you.

Well, good luck with that. You reward it. Mind is simple. It's not like I'm comparing spiritual seekers, which is most of what I consider myself to be in my life, to the animal. Not at all. It's just acknowledgement that this is a simple machine that is wired to defend when attacked. So putting anyone in the defense mode in order to whatever, you know, annihilate or humiliate the ego which is never real, it's just a misconception. And it's also like, it's change. Yeah. You can't, it's always going to change. So it's different seemingly now, whatever they describe it, to what it used to be in somebody's imaginary memory, right?

Which is all just thoughts and collections of inaccurate whatever, put through a lens. Well, should we be surprised that it is different? Absolutely not. Not, because... We would be surprised if it was the same. Because that is how life expresses with constant change. Everything is changing all the time. And how wonderful that it does. How dull. Well that's just a concept and a word, but thank you life for keeping it interesting. Absolutely. Okay so Jenny says that was a good one Technology asserting impermanence Yeah and Wendy says if the market It's actually the mind. She corrected it. Oh, sorry. Yeah, okay. If the mind be at times is trying to protect me, do I pay attention?

And thank you both. I hear you. Oh, that's wonderful that you can hear it. Yes, if there is any possibility to just not pay attention, but just give a little bit of the recognition of that consciousness without which the mind wouldn't even be able to warn or complain, you will see how the true danger is actually happening on completely different mode of operation, The following is a summary of the presentation. So if there is any possibility, because at some, sometimes there isn't one, sometimes, you know, the full attention is completely required or completely sucked in to the complaint or the story. And that's fine. In this moment, there is absolutely no problem.

Life is utilizing the energy the way it pleases. The problem only shows up when there is the hindsight. Now I'm looking and oh shit, last hour I was completely, completely worked up, but what someone told me or did not tell me, or I was completely in the story and just dysregulated and frustrated. The problem wasn't then. There was no separation. That was just one field of energy, one volcano erupting, no separation. That was how life experienced itself as the pure field of that eruption. Later on, well, I shouldn't have, I should have, I could have, I would have. Now there is me and the past.

Obviously now the whole scene happens in the mind. Now the natural state is completely forgotten and divided. Me and the world. I did this, the world did this. This is the only suffering. In a moment of action there usually isn't any suffering. Even we can hear the relation from soldiers having their arms and legs blown off by the bombs. The following is the second part of the session. Then is real hell. Then there is me and the world and there is me and the past and there is a separation. So this is the moment when relaxing out of that narrative and realizing that it happens in one field.

And once you realize you are that one field, then how many voices appears in that field, how many mental images appears in that field. You are with that one field or one screen. And that's where the relief comes. What's the statistic on, because I know I've heard you say it before, but how long does the mind take to verbalize whatever happens? There's a delay, they've studied it. Yeah, there is... So the thought comes after. Yeah, there was less than half a second, I think. It was the Benjamin Libet experiment when they basically saw that the chemicals in the body already moving the hand and then the mind narrated the movement of the hand.

It was some experiment with the clock, electrodes on the brain that was looking at the neurotransmitters and chemicals. So it happens fairly quickly. Nonetheless it happens after the action. After the event. It is redundant. It's like the commentator up in the commentary box talking about the game. And what does Bob always ask when people are in a meeting to someone? Are you aware of... Are you unaware? Are you unaware? Because you can't deny the fact of awareness. If you try and see if there is no awareness there, well you can't, because you have to be aware to see. So yeah, you can't say that you are unaware, you can't say you are unconscious.

You couldn't speak if you were unconscious. So that consciousness or awareness is already acknowledged. What else do we need? I have another couple. David says, yes, that's it. And Catherine James made the observation that in a way we are all sailors navigating our way through this illusion. It's great, isn't it? Yes, he says how lucky Sailor Bob is to have found you as a navigator to help anyone interested through the illusion of time and space. And yes, it works both ways. How lucky it was for this body-mind vehicle of a navigator to find the sailor who actually really charted all the seas for me. And now Tazi says, for myself there is a deep appreciation for the times it was pointed out that my understanding was wrong.

It is painful but necessary in my experience. Absolutely Tazi, I agree with that. There is nothing wrong in the way, even when people came here and one would pull hair of the other, and even when people, yeah that happened, I know both. And even if people were threatening each other, you step out of this door and you watch out, you watch your back. Because there was so much more testosterone, there was, you know, Bob was 20 or 30 years younger and everyone else here that he attracted. They were people from different walks of lives and that was how life unfolded and it was absolutely nothing wrong.

It was perfect, it was what life provided. Right now, perhaps, is the time for gentleness. Tomorrow, it may change again. And we never say if someone has a wrong understanding that this wrong understanding is right understanding, I hope. And funny you should mention Robin Dale's testimonial, Tazi, because the fragment of a book that Tania was reading is from Robin Dale's book. Robin Zay was Bob's student. So we're not promoting other teachers or anything, just sharing something. And Tazi says, I first went to Bob's group in year 2000. Several of people there mercilessly wounded me and my intellectual arrogance was wounded. And dot dot dot was followed was transformation after transformation.

And David says, yeah, there was a lot of catharsis. Yeah, the intelligence of life self-regulates. You know, when there is time for roughness, roughness is provided. When there is time for gentleness, gentleness is provided. There is no one to say which one is better or worse because this is up to life. But thank you for bringing it up. Absolutely. Yeah, and you should... Yeah, we miss you on our Zoom sometimes. You should show up sometimes if you can. Yes, so I have a couple of comments on that, on that, on that colors of the cards here, just because it sits on my lap. Blue-ish cards call for relaxing into thatness.

This is relaxing the search, relaxing attention and resting in this uncontrived singularity. That's what relaxing points to. Relaxing search, relaxing attention. Really, really, that is to inspire. The word is just to inspire natural relaxation because nobody can do that. And that is the only doing ever required for the truth to shine forth. That doing is really non-doing, a cessation of attachment to mental activity and taking credit for it, relaxing out of misidentification with thinking. This is about leaving things as they are, letting them be, stepping over thoughts, being who you are, being like space, space like awareness, open and cognizant, free and unattached. It is about being light, at ease, with ease, in the natural state.

And now the gold. Can I ask you a question about the relax? Yeah. That was exactly what I was hoping for. I am a Maybe to notice, oh, if I'm really tense, I'm holding something, what am I? You know, you can feel it in the body. Sometimes it can give you a hint, can't it? Totally. You can watch the kinesthetic part of the whole appearance because it's all one. You can watch the auditory field, whether there is a lot of narrative going on. And that can be done through meditation or through just sitting in a relaxed state. Meditation, Bob always points out that as much as life directs it, there is no one to tell you what to do or what not to do.

But the danger with meditation is that it often reinforces the identity as I am the meditator. So just keeping that in mind, sitting in the relaxed natural state is kind of safer. It kind of safer but knowing that danger there nothing wrong Bob used to meditate for years and so did I There is nothing wrong with anything Life self But definitely the reflection of that tension happens in everything in the body in the thinking in the narrative in the feelings It is one. It is reflected everywhere, like holographically. In your communications. Yeah, absolutely. In what we call relationships. Totally, totally, you can hear yourself snapping without even realizing, oh shit, I was tense.

Yes, I have another color, this is the gold, the gold, gold color. Images are affirming recognizing that, recognizing that. Bob says recognition is gold. Re-cognize means to know again, to re-member what was once obvious, what was clear before language, what is prior to thought. Rekognize and affirm the truth in statements from your heart and not with learned logic. Look at nature and see its brilliance. See how nature wires everything for survival. Paint stripes on tigers' back. Give chameleons their colors, birds their eyesight, dogs their smell, etc. It equips humans with their fight-flight-freeze responses and their amazing creativity to build machinery enabling them to enhance their sight, to fly, the whole reasoning capacity as Bob calls it.

Recognize the mysterious miracle of this manifestation and delight in it. Copper is the resonance, the invitation to find where it rings the bell and when you know it already, when it rings true. Copper glow or rose gold are to inspire resonance with that. Let the pointer ring true. Direct your attention back to the source of it. Realize what you are not, oh, realize what you are not and stop trying to work out the unknowable, the ineffable. Yeah, that actually points out a lot of that wrong concepts of what we think we are and we're not. Embrace the metaphors, watch the mind and its ways, the functioning of the duality, which is also one of Bob's really profound pointers that is to be reflected on.

Watch the mind, get to know the machine, see how it functions, see how it operates. And then, of course, you'll see that that's not what you are, it's just mechanical. Realize where and then realize where you are looking from. Notice lovingly any attempt to argue. Debate with the pointers and remember what they are meant for, what they are to awaken, bring forth. That's again the initial statement when the mind comes and, oh, I disagree with that. Oh, no, I am not doing it. It's just life's natural guidance. To focus on the intention if you realize that everyone is already that and may just not be fully aware of it.

But whatever they are communicating is from that natural awakened state. You bring forth what is clear rather than humiliate what is unclear. Although that comes naturally as well because it is in a contradiction. I like that thing with the pointer awakens the resonance. Yeah. The intention behind it awakens the resonance. That's it, yes. It's like something connects with it and it wakes up that greater part and sees through the conceptual stuff. That is one of the rare situations when the word awaken actually helps and serves rather than confuses. There's a couple of comments here whenever you read. Oh yeah, we can include them now. Do you want me to read them?

So I think this is a question. So Nisargadatta, this is from Russell. Nisargadatta said that rigorous, even arduous meditation is needed. The Buddhists also believe this, but they have many small steps towards breaking the conceptual mind. Does Bob agree that these smaller steps can be useful I Am Self-awareness. I Am That, Ramana Maharshi, I Nchagiri, Dzogchen, Veda, Veda, presence-awareness, Mahavakya. The natural mind, confirmation bias will find that this is the right thing to do. But this is only the narrative because we don't have another person who didn't follow. So Bob did some meditation because that's how life unfolded. And so did I and that's how life unfolded.

And would he be better off if he didn't? Or would he be better off if he did twice more? That is impossible to say. So if anyone is moved to follow instructions of Buddha, That is life following the instruction of Buddha. And there is the mind taking credit, no, this is me, I have to do because I was instructed. That is just a narrative. If the following of instruction happens, that's what's happening, that's how life is playing this particular story. But Bob does not give any practices, any recommendations. He does not tell people to go and do vipassana or go and do the... No, it's just, he does not, it's not, you know, like if you look at some other cultures, when the guru also have a social role to regulate people and to tell them about ethics and moralities and give them practices, Bob does not call himself a guru.

He invites the recognition and the So, Jenny wrote, even in regards to meditation, the form is called human being, not human doing. Thank you for a lovely being together now time for some sleep. Wendy then wrote, if I'm present, why meditate? Yeah, yeah, beautiful. Yeah, fantastic. And why call it anything? Although, you know, it's nothing wrong, even in that, there isn't really anything wrong. That's the point Nisargadatta puts, you know, realization that nothing is wrong anymore It is the ultimate freedom from the mind. It is just what is happening. That is what is happening. Bill wrote, A perspective about practicing the presence, we actually are presence.

Wendy wrote, wow. Brilliant. How can you practice what you are? How can you not be what you are? So we have a couple of minutes left. The goal says, notice lovingly any attempt to argue, debate with the pointers. That is a good point, notice lovingly the attempts to debate. And focusing on the intention behind will awaken the resonance. This is nothing new. And this is important, this is nothing new. What Jacinta was saying on the beginning, this is nothing new. This realization of what is always and forever been here, Even what you always knew intuitively prior to the language and even when you learn few words that the child is much much closer to it because its self-image is not solidified, it's not very detailed yet.

Horns haven't grown yet. That's it. So this is nothing new. Deep in our hearts we have always known it. And it is never far away. Never far away. It's always here. Here. Right here. The fact of being is undeniable. Try and deny it. See how well you go. And there is a silver one. The last bit. Silver cards are about reflecting on that. This is what Michael was saying It helps even the logic of it even finding it reasonable helps relax the mind Here you are invited to investigate ponder over statements and questions Look as often as you have to, but avoid chewing and engaging on concepts by analysing and indulging in narrative.

That is not invited. I mean it's not advisable, it may happen, and it's nothing wrong if it does. The investigation is to free the attention from mental imagery and to direct it back to experiencing this moment using the bodily senses. This eases the focus on thinking. Mind is to serve, not to command. And that was few words that Bob added in the beginning, but that's not about the pointers. And that's that. Any more? David said, thanks for another beautiful Sunday morning gathering. And David also said, presence is ever fresh, so it feels new. Yeah, ever fresh, ever new. Bob even quotes Dzogchen teaching when it talks about the presence-awareness, ever fresh.

There is not anything else that could possibly be or arise if not for that ever fresh presence awareness and is ever fresh. Non-conceptual it also says, non-conceptual, ever fresh presence awareness. Everything else is secondary and that everything else is really just a reflection in the awareness. It is no thing. It's just a reflection. It's ever fresh, see. There's no... Carrying stuff with you is not necessary. Nope. It's a waste of time and energy. It's a distraction. Distraction, yes. I like the distraction, yes. Even though there is no one doing the distraction, it's still recognized as a distraction. Straight away it becomes much, much less seductive.

And it's really that's what it is on the field of recognition, recognizing distractions for what they are, recognizing thought formations and mental images for what they are, and mainly recognizing that most sticky mental image of self-center for what it is. It's just a mental image that because over the years it's constantly been related to and it became a habit. It's almost on this neuro pathways that become a highway. It always goes on the autopilot into referring and relating. But let it do it. That's its job. Recognizing that this is a mechanical pattern autopilot going on always happens from beneath, From beyond, from that freedom, from that cognizing emptiness.

And then, how personal is that? Yeah. Well, there's a couple of final comments, but if you were going to... I was just going to say, I love it when you give the comparison of the mind and its functioning to the production of red blood cells and the bone marrow. And it's just everything is just... And the breathing just doing its duty, it's playing its role. Just another function. Yeah, exactly, another function. And it's beautiful in a way. It's there by design. Yes. It's our superpower really. The imagination and creativity. Yeah, it's just not all... Yeah, there's a lot of different ways you can look at it I suppose.

Do you want me to read this out? Yes, please. Maggie, hi Kat and Bob and everyone. On the concept of Guru, Guru means dark roo, means light from Sanskrit. So essentially Bob doesn't identify with the notion of Guru and yet he has taken from the dark of ignorance to the light of truth. Thank you. And Julia said thank you for your loving service. And Ram wrote, recognize the Parabrahman, which is the basis of your innate beingness. Yeah, that's beautiful. There we are. Thank you everyone. We managed to put Bob to sleep. He must have been boring. No, no, he is just, he is so trusting.

He knows that the energy is clean and he doesn't have to keep an eye. He watches all the Zoom meetings on the TV screen there. We cast it for him. He doesn't contribute much, but he always watches and if he manages, and so far, almost all of them, he stayed awake. He gave us feedback. He loved, Jenny, what you were saying on the last meeting and a few others. He would just comment, Nick, and that's lovely. Thank you everyone, thank you for hanging out with us and thank you very very much guys for helping the conversation flow.