Sailor Bob's Memorial Service 15th Feb 2025

Welcome everyone and thank you for coming for the celebration of the beautiful rich life of Sailor Bob. My name is Kat Adamson and I'm his widow. And we gonna start maybe from requesting you switch off your mobile phones or put it in silent. There is water at the back of the room and the toilets if anyone needs to, right behind that wall here. And we're going to have about an hour and a half of events in this place. And then back in the bar there will be refreshments. We will request you to get off the chairs. The chairs will be moved aside and the table will come in the middle.

So that's organizationally. We would like now to start, if you don't mind, from a minute of silence. Just a minute. . Thank you. Thank you. And we may start from just a quick remark that we have here. What's the main of what? And that's not the body. That's not what we would expect. The permission director called with a heartfelt apologies. They didn't make it on time. So what's the main of Bob? So what totality of Bob is the emptiness just the way he would want it? And on that note, we may still cry to the poem that Taz promised to recite for us. Or not cry.

I Am the Sunlight Unripened Grain, I Am the Gentle Water Rain. When you are wengen in the morning's hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds encircled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand by grave and cry. I am not dead, as if not dying. The... Veda. And now Jane. Thank you, Tony. Oh, good. Interpreter 2 has a question. Come ye, disconsolate. Where ye languish, come to the mercy sweet, Fervently near his feet the comforter Fervently saying Earth and we say in Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure Joy of the desolate light of the straying hope, Hope of the penitent fervently clear.

He'll take your wounded heart. He'll take your anguish. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure. I said, Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure. May you find it now. Thank you. I will ask Tass and Dean to present fragment of that book, because you'll take the rest of it with you. I gave me a copy of this book in 2019 and mine is much more warm than this one. And last year, early last year, I was at Dean's place and I woke up one morning and I heard him reciting something and he had started learning the book off my heart and it really inspired me.

And so since that day I've been learning it and it's the way I start my morning. And it's a beautiful reminder. This is not a practice. So, what we're going to do, or try to do, is just recite a few pages of that for you now. A reference point with any substance or independent nature cannot be found. There is only emptiness, nothingness. The realization is only emptiness in self, suffused with knowingness, just as the sun, suffused with light, is self-shining. Keep seeing that there is no thing that sees. Recognize that seeing of itself is happening naturally, and the recognizing of the natural seeing will appear to last longer.

The realization will dawn that it is always and ever happening quite naturally, though seemingly clouded by thoughts. It is the space in which things appear and disappear, yet it is no thing. In seeing that the reference point, self-center, ego or idea of me is actually insubstantial, Without any independent nature the actuality is like basic space Emptiness nothing There is nowhere for a thought feeling or emotion to attach to or fixate on So with no point or reference, it is realized. I feel like this book is like a real... Welcome everyone. It's really lovely to see everyone. I just want to say that this book is like a real, for those who know Bob really well, I'm sure there are a lot of people who understand that this is a distillation, like a poignant aspect of what Bob spent and dedicated his whole life towards.

And the words, like now, they're just words in a sense, and the word is not the thing. And yet the words point to what is absolutely evident to everyone, whether they've seen it or they've had clarity or they've had glimpses. And it's absolutely magnificent to be here and honour that and may the essence of that be our true nature, which is right here, right now, and may infuse this whole day of memorial and tribute to Bob. And what he stood for and Tess can continue to read some more but... No. Sorry. I might just... No? Yeah, thanks. Thank you. Thank you very much guys. I strongly encourage you if you feel like it to just look through it.

The essence of Bob, the magic of Bob, his life commitment is there in between the lines. In that empty space on which the lines are appearing. And as Dean mentioned, his life, because I'm going to be presenting a little bit of his life, I could speak nights and days because it was so long and so rich, but majority of it was, and his first and longest standing love was towards that message of nonduality. It was nearly 49 years since he heard Nisargadatta. In a couple of months it would be 49 years. And that was how long he was pointing to it with bigger or smaller audiences.

And his second longest love endeavor was his first marriage. But the last nine years and nine days, I was the lock his life. Because I'm gonna, and I was not led to forget about that, I'm gonna present his theology from that angle, because all that Bob was for me and for many of you, it was love. That was so much love that he was presenting in so many ways and sharing, and he had special love for all of you, and that love I'm gonna show right from the beginning, from the time when he took his first breath to the end. So I'm going to just open, get myself a little bit of an aid and tell you all about it.

Let's see. So we're going to talk about the dream character because Bob as life or emptiness, life never dies. He's not a body and then he's love, that's all he is. There is no beginning to it, but his ancestry are British-Scottish coming on the boat here from both ends. His father landed in Beaconsfield, Gallipoli survivor Robert Sim, met his mum Mary, and after the war they got married and when the two came together, Everybody knows the drill. Life in those cells that sperm and ovum created the little fetus. And there is an Mbob who took his first breath and knew nothing of it, just as he didn't know anything about taking the last.

And the first decade of his life was about the love that was shared in the family. He had two older sisters and a younger brother and tons of cousins. The whole Beaconsfield was about Adamsons, plenty of them, to the point that to this day you have Adamsons Road and Adamsons Street in Beaconsfield. And there was plenty of Adamsons in the school too This is Bob two years old on the pony And the love that he had in in childhood was for the wildlife and the birds Uncle Arthur who was taking care of them while the father was super super busy providing for the family Uncle Arthur would take them tree climbing, they would pick the eggs from the nests of little magpies, little rosellas, they would bring them up, make those pets.

This is a dramatic little story which Bob remembered for all his life and told me in his 90s. A pet possum, he was five years old and he loved the little creature and one fine morning he found it under the blanket he slept with him, suffocated. And the guilt and the shame and the pain of that little child, the sensitivity of that little child made him so vigilant for all of his life that as we were walking about He would check all the gutters and if there was a little creature to be saved, it would find a way to climb Bob's leg. State school 3033.

Not too funny, he was too full of life to sit in school, so he would gaze the window and check when to climb the trees again. But the 3033 was our tram too, just as a memory of the school. We would watch that tram for the 15 years, checking the accidents and the change of costumes of the tram. His teens years, also love, there was more adventure with Uncle Arthur. Arthur, love unfortunately misguided towards the booze and a patriotic love for the country. This is Dandinong High, the school he transitioned and he was a terrible student and flunked the first year and then he repeated the year and was top student of the whole class.

So the smart boy he was even though he was lazy at school. He decided to discontinue education and at the age of 15 he was helping the family, providing, picking fruits and doing all odd jobs. It was Great Depression so it was very welcome. He was though working with the darkest elements of the war deserters and the criminals on the run, who taught him how to drink and smoke and fight. And that was this unfortunate love affair with the booze, which made him bad-tempered, aggressive, restless and discontent. He was also working as a jacquard when he was delivering Moscow telegrams, waiting to come of age, He also loved the country, we requested the flag because he wanted to fight for Australia just like his dad who fought in both wars.

So eventually he made it to the navy, unfortunately already drinking, he got the Gladstone Corvette, his grandma, he was a favourite. He visited her before he signed the 12 years contract for the destroyer Arunta. He didn't last the 12 years. After two and a half years he got sacked for the police. But before that happened he had the gun exercises and nuke weapons testing which impaired his hearing and which eventually gave us a gold card. For the end of life it was super convenient. But you can see the drunk eyes there and you could anticipate very easily what would have happened next. And what has happened was a huge trauma of being transported in the padded cell from Japan to Sydney's psych ward, which Bob wasn't sure whether he's gonna make it.

He was actually expecting, why would they even want to save him? They'll throw him overboard and nobody will know nothing about it. So he ended up as a highwayman on a shearing shed following across Australia all the other drunks. I mean, there were two sober people there as well. But the drunks, he was witnessing death of exhaustion and alcoholism. He had the gun in his mouth. That was the hardest, toughest part where he would have zoo knights and the terrible little creatures, imaginary spiders and dragons wanting to eat him. In Delirium Tremens Nights. So that was the themes. The Consolation was a beautiful Australian bush poetry which made him cry and laugh.

And until his 90s many of you might have heard him and see the tears in his eyes when he would recite Banjo Pedersen and Henry Lawson. He got back to the sea eventually and look at this smiley face. He was a drunk and he had funny stories. On the ship, one of the ships, Mulkra, they were carrying tanks with altar wine. So he had three booze and he got away with it. He got sacked for something else a little bit later, not much, because he ended

Coming late, the ship was about to depart and he didn't show up. He showed up two hours later completely covered in a sweet sticky white sugar that he fell asleep in a pile of.

And as the captain sent him back to the cabin to sleep over it, he took an offense. And as he took an offense, the table like that, which as you may know on the ship which is rolling and pitching, is set fast, is bolted to the floor. He ripped it off and a huge intimidating strong man he was, he chased the captain and that was it. There was no more second chances on this one. He got dismissed and declared unemployable and never came back to the capacity of being the deckhand on the ships. He did get the second chance but in a different capacity. So that was the end of the decade of his 20s.

30s were all about gaining and regaining and retaining the sobriety and spiritual search, the love for the truth, which he first looked for the higher power in all the Christian sects. He got baptized in various traditions. Then he went to the East, tried different yogas, He was following Maharishi Maharishi Yogi for 10 years, got introduced to Soham TM meditation mantra, which means I am that. And eventually he, oh, that was a little digression. Because he couldn't work at sea anymore and he still had to provide for himself in early years of sobriety, He got to work in various odd jobs. That was in a brewery, a sober guy in a brewery, going in that slug of the dark matter in the bottom of a tank, which was sent away to Vegemite factory.

And believe or not, to the last day he loved Vegemite, and toast with Vegemite was one of the last things that he actually ate with great pleasure. He was also a dam builder, which you will hear in the Highwaymen song later on. He did get back to the sea, but he was a steward. And that was with the great help of a friend from the fellowship, who guaranteed that this guy was six years sober and he's not going to touch the booze again. They gave him a second chance. And the end of that decade of his thirties, he met Barbara, who was his gym instructor.

And that is actually a photo from their first date. Both of those photos are from their first date. So that was his forties. She was his first woman at forties. Relationship had ups and downs because she had four children from the previous marriage. And Bob was still crazy after the life of drinking. And at this point he wanted to be close to the beloved, He quit working at sea and started working on the wharf, which wasn't really that great because she was bashed by life with the divorced, left with the children without the money. He was bashed by his bad temper through the drinking years and arrogance.

So very quickly the relationship started running into a crisis and he ended up in the ashram of Muktananda where he expected he will stay. But he lasted only for one month because the energy was so outrageously wild. And once he did, he actually fought her back and the same year they got married. And those photos of their marriage I developed from the negatives. The photos were actually never picked, collected from the photographer because they had another beef. The marriage lasted, there was five years age gap, Barbara was married before, and they got their first home in Eisenhower soon after. They were fairly happy for a year and a half and then another beef she took off and Bob ended up going back to India, nowhere else he could go.

So he went to Ganeshpuri, this time he believed for life. Love for the truth was the only love he had at this point. And life took him, even though he was resisting it with all force, life took him to Nisargadatta, who he heard actually on his very first encounter. And that was the date here, 76 March 23rd, where they actually met and became friends. As they say in the spiritual scriptures, seek ye first the kingdom and the rest will be added. So it was added. Barbara came about 12 months later. They started dating again traveling a little bit and the marriage returned So 49 he was when he got back to the work he got back to Barb She actually sent him the airplane tickets to bring him back home.

The home in Ivanhoe was gone, they had a couple of other homes in the way. The decade of his 50s, they were finally relieved from the duty of parenting, and that was pretty The very rough business life was ups and downs. Barbara's dream was to live off the land. And they got the land from her first husband. They had the beautiful farm set up with incredible wild animals that they tamed, the deers, the foxes, the geese, the Angora goats. They had a train, they had crowds of kids. They trained the dogs, they had Devonshire tea and they had ads in the paper. Unfortunately there wasn't that many people, there was a little bit of pointing going on, but he couldn't really blossom, it was her dream and he was supporting her.

Plus there were droughts and floods and lawsuits, insurance claims and eventually they had to To fold it up and move back to Melbourne where Bob could renew the pointing, renew the mentoring. They bought the Vermont health food store. Again Barbara was the brain and initiative over the businesses. Bob's love was with the truth, but she was skilled and smart with money. So they got the health food store and they actually made money this time in life. This was Barbara's brother who also made money, but that's a different story. The decade of their sixties, they had two health food stores. Bob sold his and got retired.

They bought the house in Deepdyn. They had one before in Kalorama and they went to Europe. When he appeared on the TV interviews, started getting a little bit more known. They traveled around a little bit and the marriage was pretty good at that point already. The meetings were happening in the rented spaces. They also travelled following antiques, again, Barbara's dreams and him supporting his love. Eventually moved to Deep Deep in 1991, they had a couple of years earlier. And another trips around Europe, welcoming Bob's beloved granddaughter, also in Europe. Another trip for antiques for Barb. And the decade of 70s out of his past decades was his favorite because marriage was really good and happy then.

The trips that they did was again for books started showing up. That is when Gilbert came into the picture, got him known through Urban Guru Cafe, published the first book. They went to France to visit friends. Barb also talked Bob into going to America, where he was actually fulfilling his love for the truth, giving some talks. Another book got published after they traveled the country a little bit. In the meantime, family life was peaceful and thriving. Stepchildren had step-grandchildren, and that was a big part of life. Then the meetings were transferred into the home instead of having the rental spaces. The decade of 80s was pretty rough.

A lot was happening, a lot of transitions and transformations. First of all, there was more books showing up on the picture, more people showing up and wanting to know Bob. Barbara, unfortunately, got diagnosed with leukemia and died six months later. So that was the time when Bob had four years of solitude. And he believed that he wasn't really grieving, but it didn't look the same way for those who knew him. He used to say that they were 42 years together and she was a good woman. She, this is my remark, she tamed him, she humbled him, she kept him humble. He wasn't the love of her life.

So that was very humbling that it made it extremely easy for me to step into that position. So I have nothing but love and gratitude for the way she actually shaped the man. And that is how he looked when he was a widower. He said he, you know, was strong with right now if I don't think about it. So there was an outburst of waiting and crying, but he didn't look that happy. And as I know from close friends and neighbors, he seemed like he was ready to do the gambler and die in his sleep. And he ate shit. Stepdaughter was taking him for doctor's appointment because the body was falling apart.

The niece and the step was looking after him and neighbors were literally feeding him And the tides turned again when the ship and that is nor that my workplace brought me to Bob for my first and one and only individual appointment. I knew him for a couple of years before, but this was the one time when I came in a point of darkest night of the soul, devastation of tears. And I walked out with the tears of elation because I heard the message just like he heard Nisargadatta. The message made us equal and the rest was heaven. Two months later, that is the picture of our first date together.

And the rest was heaven. I moved in with him soon after our little creatures, pestos, moved in with us. And then Bob was reliving a past of being a shearer. And in the meantime, as a shearer, he got so fast, he used to be the best at the job, he used to be a gun shearer, the fastest of the troops, occasionally having a little accident from cutting the guts off, he cut off my ear. And he laughed that he branded me for life, and yes, I am branded, it never grew back. Now we got the scooter from a friend who saw him once, a $5,000 gift which added hundreds of kilometers of wonderful trips and adventures that we did.

He wanted me next to him because that's what he always wanted as a partner in pointing, but I wasn't ready yet for the crucifixion because the relationship, for obvious reasons, caused a lot of backlash and a lot of resistance. Understandably so, I would have judgments myself. So I blended in the back of the rooms and then he had the knee replacement first, the knee replacements came next and I had to stand up for him in the rooms. That wasn't very pleasant for those who wanted to be successors. But then the decades of 90s was about our perfect joining, we had a wonderful, wonderful birthday party.

And now he was still getting over the anesthetic. Look at him. He is pretty not with it. And that took about three months. So he threatened that if I don't sit next to him and help with the meetings, he will close the circus down. That's how it happened. Since then, we were doing it hand by hand. But because of the backlash, our wedding, which happened a couple of months later, we didn't really know who we can trust. So we only had our beautiful neighbors as witnesses to be on the ceremony with us. There was more of the trips and the beautiful life that we shared together with magical moments, the favorite thing of togetherness when the COVID hit.

And of course we had to go online, start on the Zoom. In the meantime, more books came up. Being online, we started getting tribute songs, which was just so wonderful. You're going to hear them in a bag. Not that many people actually write songs and poems. This man was so loved and so deservingly so. We had much more of a birthday party as well, and the community started growing closer together. Eventually, they got over the horrible age gap, which was a blessing rather than the curse. And this is a magical moment when Bob was getting his hat as a gift in a small group, and we got the phone call.

It was August 2023, in which he was told that he has a very short few August 2023, he outlived it a big way. But the rest of that outliving, we just really made the most of it. Look at the size of that apple crumble with ice cream. Look at the size of the cakes. And life that we had was rich and full. Even though there was chemotherapy and the immunotherapy, It was still place for theaters, for concerts, for cinemas, for wonderful Christmas. Only just now he was on his deathbed and still happy to be and still loving every bit of it. Shining and radiating love.

And this is the meeting that happened just three and a half days before he took his last breath. And he's speaking on this meeting, pointing to the last breath. And then that's the end of the story. And as his wish was, the show kept going on. We had the meeting without him. And so we're gonna have tomorrow. And just for those who are going to come, I left out few of his beautiful silky shirts. If anyone wants to have a little souvenir after the meetings I kept whatever I wanted to keep I wear his perfume so never think but for those who are there will be things there So this is really it for the uology.

I mean, I have thousands of stories that I would share for the whole night, but it really is about that love in his life. So now we're gonna present you with one of the last of the beautiful tribute songs, just to have a little bit of a change of mood. And then we're gonna invite speakers. I am going to start again. I love the sail, always happy to be sailing without destination. Visiting harbors as I'm ready to leave, people ask me the same question. How to be happy, impossible one, and this answer I give without smile. Don't look behind you, I'm stuck sailing away, Life is only a wave, waiting for you to pay.

There is no reason for not living today, When the changes of seasons, None will take care of you all the way. I've seen many places, maybe so more than twice, The There is no reason for not leaving today. The changes of seasons, that will take care of you all the way. There is nothing can take you apart, if you're willing to follow your heart. Linesage terms are as follows. Waitinging for you, happy day, and there is no reason for not leaving, but today, having changed our senses, love will take care of you all the way. Thank you. Thank you, my name is Lina. When I was driving here I had Spotify on and my playlist Country Mix and a song came on and the lyric that jumped out to me was hurting a little but very, very free.

Wow, thanks Bob, thanks Bob. I've got to stick to the script. I'd like to thank Kat for asking me to share with all of you who obviously loved him and As you've already heard, Bob lived two extreme lives. Part A, merchant seaman, a sailor, a wharfie and an alcoholic. I have many stories of his drinking with me and the one that sticks out the most and perhaps describes alcoholism to the layperson is the one that would see him being picked up for the first time for drunken disorderly, coming to in the lock up the next morning full of guilt, remorse and humiliation. And a few weeks later getting picked up again, coming to in the morning a little less guilty, a little less remorse and a little less humiliation.

And the third time getting picked up, getting dragged in the cell and going, evening Sarge, you got a good room for me. So the unacceptable became the acceptable for the alcoholic, but he could see his demise. That's just the snapshot. And then there's part B, which all of you know about. When he accepted his alcoholism and realized he needed help, he got into recovery in 1960. He didn't find it easy, and even after five years without a drink, he was still having suicidal thoughts. I met Bob when I went into recovery in 1977, and he was 16 years sober. I heard him share his experience, And he had a light in his eye that I just needed to get a piece of.

The old boy was on fire. He had just returned from India and it was a light. I would go to his place regularly and he would share with me. I found it so very, very confusing. I was too into my own head to understand the simplicity of his words. He gave me a copy of I Am That by Sreeni Sargadatta. That was most confusing. I put it on the bookshelf. He came around to my place a few months later and asked if I still had the book. I said, yeah, I pointed to it on the bookshelf. He reached it and said, you haven't even read this.

I asked, how do you know? He said, it was bound and printed in India. If you opened it once, it would have fallen apart. I got caught out. Bob and Barbara moved to the country, as you heard, to her country lifestyle. And when he came back, our paths crossed again, and I was more open and receptive. I would go to his home in Glenferry Road on top of the health food store every Saturday morning for a couple of hours. And he would go through the literature, always pointing to me the truth. We really got into Krishnamurti's awareness. And every morning for a very, very long time, I would call him at the Flinders Street station.

We didn't have mobiles then. I was told he would constantly repeat the same message back to me and keep me on track for that day. I could not count the thousands of hours he shared with me over our 48 year friendship. Others started to hear about his teaching of nonduality and it was decided then to have groups in his home one evening a week and the people would come and listen to him share and that was on top of the health food store in Hawthorne that you saw a photograph of. As the numbers grew and a hall was needed to accommodate the people in those days, most attendees really were from recovery from alcohol or drug addiction.

Bob and Barbara were both very supportive to me. I can remember when my dad died when I was 34 and Barbara said that they needed to adopt me now as I didn't have any parents. She was very, very sweet. I also remember after a breakup of a romance, me driving up to their place in Kalarama at Seng-Maraj, I Mawyayin, I Ach, I Tharnan, I Mawyya, I Mwla, I Anum, I Armariya, I Wurri, I Mkha, Njimara, I Asm. They were so wonderful and warm. They would dance all over the place, sing and dance in the morning. Bob gave completely of himself to so many. He was the most giving person I have ever met on the planet.

It would be very common for the phone to ring while dinner was being served and he would leave his food to get cold and speak to whoever needed, much to Barbara's chagrin. It was very difficult seeing Bob live on his own when Barbara passed and those photos really did depict that. I just got the sense that he really didn't want to keep going. Kat came into his life and the light came back into him. He got his spark back and with such loving care, I believed he lived so much longer than he would have otherwise. He got back a zest for living, thanks to Kat.

I don't know. Turn up, turn up. Those last few weeks were difficult to see this tall, tattooed, one-time wharfie become so frail in his body, but his mind and spirit were totally present. And I'll never forget one of my visits as I walked into the foyer, the lovely lady's here, she was told no visitors that morning. I was forgotten to put on the list and we kind of stood toe to toe at the door And she said look I sorry can have any videos I said no it fine She said no look I sorry I said look it really will be fine And the poor girl backed away And Bob obviously could hear all that And as I walked out from the foyer into where he was sleeping in the living room, his frail little Parkinson arm came out and was shaking.

And he had this smile on his face that I thought, there's God. There is the presence of God and my heart just exploded. His love permeated through me. We hugged and I thanked him for all the wonderful things he had done for me and he said, I could have done better. I also asked if his pain was getting too much and he said it is, but I'm going to be dead a long time. So I took that to believe he wasn't ready and when I was asked to get his hearing aid repaired, I took that as a really good sign. It was being, I got it repaired overnight and took it back the next day.

Sadly, he was much worse and the hearing aid was only assisted him for one more day. His body just couldn't take it anymore. He will always be in my heart and I will reply that perfect loving smile he gave me forever. To feel Bob's love is everything. Thank you. Such a big impact on getting the message out in the world and long-standing friendship that they both value. Thank you. Wow, look at all these people. And everyone has a story to tell about how they met Bob and the influence that he had on their lives. And it's emotional. We all have emotions connected with our contact with Bob.

So I was living my life, living in Sydney, and I'll try and keep this brief. But somebody, my ex-brother-in-law gave me two copies of I Am Matt, which was published as two volumes. Many years later he asked for them back, I said no, buy your own. I read these books every day, I read a page or two, and I had the habit of underlining in pencil the pointers and the bits that really resonated with me. Those two volumes are full of pencil lines and I shouldn't have even bothered to underline because the whole books are just so potent. Anyway, after four years of reading this, I decided I had to go to India and find some trace of Nisargadatta.

Somebody over there must have, you know, sort of got the message or whatever. The only person I could find online was Ramesh Bhalsakar, so I went to India and saw him. And on the very first day I was there, I spoke in the meeting for almost the whole meeting with Ramesh. And there was another Australian guy, who I'm not sure he's here today, Chris Dale. And he came up to me because he recognised my Australian accent. And he said, come to lunch. And so we went to lunch. And we were walking, I still remember it, we were walking down some side street in Bombay. And there was this guy selling oranges.

There were so many oranges. I'd never seen so many oranges on this stand. And we're walking past that and he turns to me, he says, have you heard of Sailor Bob? I said, Sailor Bob? Shree, shree, Sailor Bob? I agree. I said, no, no. And I thought he was talking about some cartoon character. And he said, no, no. He holds meetings in Melbourne and he was with Nisargadatta. There are lots of companies in Australia where you can get the information and also the information is very clear. I was trying to find out what I was doing and I thought that if the agency had a meeting with me then that would be good.

I said, no, that's not the case. I was just saying, I got to the point that I wanted to get the information and I was So I started listening to this tape and it was like hitting me like it was really bad audio by the way I used to be an audio engineer so I had to tweak all the equalisation or the tone I a I'm going to be careful. Anyway, I filled up this last piece of A4 paper and the writing got smaller and smaller and smaller and I had to turn it over. So I said, ah, stuff it, I'll do it tomorrow on my computer.

So the next day I started transcribing this meeting, the whole meeting. I put together a little book called The Answer Is Not In Mind. And I rang up Bob and I said, do you mind if I make a little booklet of one of your meetings? He said, no, no. He said, people have promised to do this for a long time. And he didn't mind. So later on he told me he didn't expect me to do it. But I'd already done it and I put it in a post the next day. I was very happy to meet Bob and Barbara. Barbara told me that when the booklet turned up, she cried.

When she read this little booklet, she just cried because here it was. It was written down to people to clearly understand what Bob was on about. So anyway, I did come down in November 2000 And Bob, we decided we'd do a proper book. So he said, I'll give you some more tapes. And he went over to that cabinet, he opened the first door, and he's down on his hands and he's with a grey Woolworths or shopping plastic bag. And he starts putting, he's looking at his cassettes and he starts putting them in the bag. And he keeps putting them in the bag. I said, what's that Bob?

31 cassettes. He came over and he handed it to me. He said, there you go, see if we can make a book out of that. So I went back to Sydney and I worked for quite a long time. And it kind of happened by itself. Some really good editing skills came into play without much work on my part. So I eventually got the book done and I came down to Melbourne again and I said, what do you want to call the book, Bob? He said, I don't know, you pick a name. And he said, great, thanks, Bob. And the first thing that came to mind was the pointer in the book that struck me the most.

What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? So that's the story of the first book. And, oh man, I love that guy. And it's beyond words, it's beyond mind, it's beyond the heart, really. But he hasn't gone anywhere. If you ask Bob, you know, where are you gonna go? Well, where can I go? So, I mean, that's the essence of the life essence, the intelligence energy. It's in all of us. And in a way Bob is in all of this, even if it's only through the experiences we had with him. Everyone here has had those experiences and each one's unique. But in essence it's the same intelligence energy, it's the same life energy, it's the same pulse of indescribable.

The intellect can't really come up with words for it. That's why they say it's beyond words, beyond mind. And I'll finish off with just going over how that little booklet came about. So, there's a few years I've been going to Bob's and I lived in Melbourne for a while. And one day I turned up and he handed me this couple of sheets of A4 paper typed, which he'd typed it out himself. And he said, what do you think of this? So I went and sat down and read this thing and it just blew me away. I said, oh, it's stunning. Where did you get it?

Because, you know, he often showed me things that were from Tibetan things or whatever. He said, well, you know, he didn't actually say I wrote it, but he said something like that. He never claimed anything as a doer, but there it was. And so the idea that he had about that booklet, he wanted a little booklet that people could, I'm not too long, you could put it in their pocket and they could pull it out on the train or in the bus and wherever they were they could pull it out, read it, put it back in. And that idea came from Raman Maharshi Raman Maharshi of course institution put out a little booklet which was very small and very potent And that book is a masterpiece and everyone that has got a copy of it I Aam That Ramana Maharshi I Nchagiri Dzogchen Veda Vedanta presence Mahavakya And this is the key.

When we start to look back into what's going on in a conscious way, without looking at the outside world, we can see the inside world. And that's the key. When we start to look back into what's going on in a conscious way, without looking at the outside world, So, I'll leave it there. Thank you very much. I just say a word when Bob handed over all the groups to me. I started getting requests for individual calls which he was again offering free for people over the world. And as Lena was saying, whenever the phone rang, he would leave the food cold. There was always a priority, you guys, and whenever there was a suffering in the world, that was a priority.

It was a priority. It was more important than anything. It was his first love and it was always a big thing in his life. The task was a bit overwhelming and I did request Tazi and he stepped in to help. So you'll find him on the website if anyone needs the individual appointment or meeting. He also helps with Julia's Zoom groups. So that's my great gratitude and also request to say a few words. They knew each other for a couple of decades. Would you like to come in? Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah, hi, welcome everybody. Wow, what a crowd. Yeah, well, where do we start? I guess we should thank the good Lord for alcohol, because without alcohol, we wouldn't have the Drunken Sailor Bob.

And without the Drunken Sailor Bob, We might not have got our wonderful mentor, nondual mentor, Sahil Bob. So, yeah, I met Sahil Bob about 17 or 18 years ago, something like that. I've been a lifelong seeker. Actually, we kind of almost crossed paths in India because we had the same guru and we went to the same ashram, but I missed him there by about a year, I guess, And then Nisargadatta died around the time I got there. So anyway, I ended up spending about three or four years there and came back to Australia and I was like, that's it. Finished with spirituality, don't give a shit about it, it's all over.

And so for 20 years, I just went on with my life and went surfing, smoking pot and doing all the things I like to do. Then after 20 years, suddenly this sort of resurgence came, this energy came. I wanted to know again. I really wanted to find out. So I started reading I Am That, meditating a lot, and I got to a stage in meditation where I just could not go beyond this particular state that I used to arrive at, which was just a state of nothingness. And I'd always said I'd never have another guru after Bhakti Ananda. That was it. I was going to do it on my own.

I wish I used to have another guru. But I reached a point where I had to find someone who could help me. And I really didn't want to, but I had to do that, so I went online and I thought, well, I need someone, or hopefully I can find someone new to Nisargadatta, because I'd spent so much time reading I Am That. And what do you know, here's this bloke in Melbourne, Sailor Bob, who'd been with Nisargadatta. And I was like, fuck, that's amazing. So I got on the first plane, I didn't know anything about him or anything, and walked in the door to my first meeting, And there he was, giving the spiel.

And I was like, wow. And then when I left, he gave me a piece of paper with his phone number on it and he said, here's my number, ring me any time you need help. I was like, wow, that's really cool. So over the next, I guess, about a year, I'd fly back as enforced because I was living in South Australia about every six weeks or so and go to a meeting and talk to Bob on the phone, I'm on the phone maybe every three weeks or something like that. And then one day after about a year, I rang him up and I said, Bob, I don't need any more help.

I said, I'm cooked. I'm done. That's it. And he was like, great. And then I sort of drifted away. Didn't really go to any meetings and sort of fell out of the whole scene. I mean, I got what I want, so I was just off living life. And then, I guess a couple of years ago, I had some friends who said, you know, you should catch up with Bob again. So I sort of got back involved again. But what a generous man. The most generous man I think any of us will ever know. To give us so much time and with so much patience, put up with their bullshit.

Week after week, month after month, year after year, and never complained. And the thing I was just talking to Jane today, and I was just saying, you know, when I met Bob, I never had any doubt at all that he knew. He had that incredible confidence, that amazing conviction, and it was so rock-solid. And there was never any wavering, you know, and he always had the right answer, always had the right point, every time. And just, but this metaphor came up of like, I don't know if it had done any shooting, but shooting clay pigeons, you know, you have the guy with the gun and shooting, and you have the guy with the clay pigeon machine, and the shooter says, Paul, and that'd be Bob asking me a question, and I'd follow my concept, clay pigeon up, and he'd just go, boom!

Boo! Every concept just blown the smithereens. Sorry, got to go to the morgue. It would be carried away. Yeah, just blow your concepts. Every one. Until, yeah, there's no concept left, you know. It's concept-free state, basically. And yeah, so it's amazing the transformation of this bloke, you know, to go from a complete out-of-control alcoholic Through to being one of the great teachers and mentors and friends that any of us could ever have. Yeah, the confidence, the steadiness, the conviction, I think was really the thing that... It just has that power, you know? It just has that power that just cuts through. And it was so strong and so powerful, the question like, does this guy know?

Never even, never even entered my mind right from that first moment, that first meeting. It was like, yep, he's got it. He knows what he's talking about. So yeah, so and as Gilbert was saying, he hasn't gone anywhere. The body might have gone somewhere, but the essence hasn't gone anywhere. Remember what he used to say? I'm not talking to anybody. I'm not talking to anybody, only Maha-Inchagiri, Dzogchen, Veda, I Am That, I Am. And then when that recognition hits, that this I Am, this presence-awareness, is that presence-awareness that we all have. This being is the being of all beings. Yeah, then, yeah, the deal's done.

So, yeah, thanks to all, and thanks everyone for being here. And we have a few more speakers, but perhaps it's time to break a little bit with the song. Jamie, would you like to say a few words and sing for us? There's a lot of people in. I've been sitting in the front room, realised I went all the way back there. Hello everybody, my name's Jamie. I didn't know Bob as long as a lot of our friends here have obviously have long stories to tell. So I'm not going to sort of go into that. I will just say though, it was 10 years ago almost to the day that I met Bob.

I found him by accident on one of my rebel searches online. I found a video and it said, Enlightened Master living in Melbourne And I thought to myself wow I live in Melbourne So I found out about the meetings and I got in my car At the time I was suffering quite a bit a lot of anxiety and I wasn really feeling good about the world and myself Some energy drove me to get in my car and just drive to Deeddeen. I remember driving there all the way. The head was just going off going, What are you doing? You idiot. Turn out your notes guy.

Turn around and go home. Something just drove me to keep going and I ended up on the Bob's tour set. And what stayed with me forever, and I tell everybody this, is I walked in and just the energy, first thing it just gave me a great big smile, didn't know me from the bar or so, and just opened his arms and hugged me and just welcomed me. I was dumb. I didn't hear anything from the rest of the media. Just that feeling that Harvey Gowrie did it for me and that was over. And he said, do you know who you are? I said, I do not.

Anyway, Bob was always and will always remain the one thing that's special. People will pay at the minute. And just before I, so I always wanted to, I never got a chance to do this, pay this sum for Bob. So I know Bob is here, he's seen through all our lives now. Just like with this one last thing before I fade some is after every meeting that I spent with Bob, I would just go and say bye, you know, because I didn't really hang around and talk much. I know, you know, just say bye. And he always look at me with his cheeky little grin and he just make eye contact and almost like give me a bit of a wink.

It's like, what's seen through these eyes? And I'd say, we're the same. And it was, I'm just, it's like, now it's just so obvious. And that look will stay with me forever. And I feel, Bob, now that energy is closer than me, which we, as it has ever been, and there's a line remaining with me to always. So I'm just on that note, I'll do a song now for Bob and Kiers. I Am That, Ramana Maharshi, I Am That, Ramana Maharshi, I Am. Sip. Andre. You are the only one, the only one who can lead a family. It's an impossible task, need to take care of children, and run away.

Please don't forget he's waiting to die, you are the only one who can lead us. Nothing's gonna change my world. Mirages of broken light which dies before the eye from the night, close behind all, and cross the universe. Towards the end of the night you restless, hang inside a letterbox, face the whole night as they bring you across the universe. Chalai bimum jibah bimum Nafi's goni change my world Nafi's goni change my world Nothing's gonna change my way. Sounds and laughter shades of light the rain my hundred days and the signs he gave My My My My My My My My My My My My Nothing's gonna change my world.

Linesage terms for the Thank you. Lindsay, she knows since she was a teenager. Would you like to come and not make me cry? She keeps me one gaze in my eyes and we both cry. I love you. I love you too. Wow. So a lot of people. In true fashion of the meetings that we all went to, I have no idea what I'm going to say. True. And memory keeps coming up to me at the very first time that I met Bob. And I want to say my name's Lindsay and I'm not an alcoholic. But it was at an AA meeting that I met Bob for the first time.

I went with my dad who identified as an alcoholic. I sat in the audience and I was 19 and I just went along to support him but I was really really lost. Yeah, really lost and the man up front said, I was just like, is there anyone that would like to come up and share? And my hand goes up and my body starts walking to the front and my mind's going, what the fuck are you doing? Sit back down. But I went up and I looked out at all the folks in the audience before me and I just cried. I just cried and I said my name and said I'm not an alcoholic but I love you all.

And I felt just such a sense of belonging that I think I was really seeking. And it was after that meeting Bob was in the audience and he came up to me and he introduced himself and he said, come to a meeting. I have meetings every Tuesday and Thursday and Sunday. And they're about the health food store, I'm sure many of you went there. Yeah. And I went shaking, really, really, really scared. And I walked in and I sat down and I lisight. I was in the site and I had no words but I knew it just went straight, bypassed the mind, went straight to the heart and I knew I was home.

And Bob was like a father to me. He been my mentor my father my teacher for decades I love him And like many of you have already shared, you know, he was always there and always the same spiel. So reliable. It always kind of made me doubt him sometimes. It's like, how the fuck can you just be so reliable? Thank you. I am the essence of the essence. presence here felt more coherent or more refined or something because I could lean on the totality knowing that I was leaning on the essence of who Bob was. And so, I don't know, I don't really think I have much more to say than that but...

I'm so, so deeply grateful. Just, I... There's something about, you know, seeing Bob again and again and again and again and hearing the same thing over and over and over again. And what really I've noticed through time is this life, how this life becomes more and more authentic, more and more real, not because of anything at all, but just because of the truth. Just because of the truth and Bob saved my life. He literally saved my life. I'm so happy to have so many lives here. I love you Bob. I love you so much and so, so deeply. Thank you. Thank you. Oh cool. Thank you.

Hey everyone. So June 6th, 2010. That was the day that I made my way through the hallowed doorway for 1.950 Bourke Street. I had just, it was a Queen's birthday weekend and I literally had heard about Bob about six months prior up in Brisbane. I was what you might call part of the DSN crew. And that's quite a significant subset of us. DSN meaning Desperately Seeking Nisargadatta. But unfortunately, Nisargadatta was dead, so we were looking for some connection to him somewhere. And like, as Tessie also mentioned earlier, and Gilbert as well, we looked and finally we found this man in Melbourne. So I literally got on the plane and I flew down to Melbourne.

And I attended a meeting on that weekend, that Queensland birthday weekend, and from the very beginning, Bob was just shattering all my illusions of what a spiritual teacher or spiritual enlightened being should be. Like from the very, from the get-go, I walk in through the door, and there's a guy there standing by the little table and he's like, I was like, excuse me? You're all going to charge? This knowledge is supposed to be free? Available to everybody? And you were charging? And then we had the meeting and the meeting was fantastic of course. I remember getting up and I walked into the dining area and I see Bob coming out of the kitchen.

At that time he was still very upright and he was big and he looked at me and he stretched his arms out like this. Big bearded man. Nisargadatta used to call him Bhima, Bhishma, who was the big warrior in the Mahabharata saga. And he really did look like Bhishma in that moment. And he came marching towards me, arms open wide, grabs me, gives me a huge bear hug. And he's almost as if to say, welcome to the linear tonight. And I'm looking up at Bob and the first thing that I could think of asking him, out of all the questions that I could possibly ask, was, are you vegetarian?

It's like the... the boing guy. And he would order the beef curry and he wouldn't even have freaking rice. It would just be a plate of beef curry and he'd be chowing down on it. That was the second fruit conception he shot. The third one was another very amusing one. So at this point I had now decided to pack up Brisbane. So I finished up my contract, got on the plane, flew down to Melbourne and I pretty much relocated. I was 99% involved and I'd been attending a few meetings and the subject of Nisargadatta came up during, it was a Tuesday or Thursday night meeting, the subject of Nisargadatta came up and also some of his disciples.

And the name Ramesh Bhalsakar came up. And at that time, Ramesh Bhalsakar had been, well, maybe a few years before that, he'd been involved in a scandal involving some nefarious activity of young legs. And either he was seducing or the leg was seducing, I'm not sure, but it's not that. And of course I was like, how could he do that? That's an abomination. Sacrilegious. And I said to Bob, Bob, how could you say he knows the stuff and he's behaving like that? And Bob just looks at me and goes, well mate, if he can still get it up at that age, good on him. Good audience!

Because I mean, you know, Ramesh Bhalsakar was well into his 80s at the time and this is supposed to be Adler. He hadn't said that. Anyway, so that kind of period went on for a bit, sort of, up until about, um, Up until the end of 2011 Barbara had passed away, New Year's Eve, and now the whole thing changed after that. Because now Bob became very available. And he was free and he didn't have this naggy wife in the background. So I took full advantage of that and I asked Bob, look, can I be your doorman? So Bob gave me the job of being his full-time doormat.

So I was literally there three meetings a week for a whole year, welcoming people in. And on top of that, I would also spend a lot of time with Bob in the evenings and we would sit and I was working over at the Coles in Hawthorne East at times, so I was very close to Bob. So after work, it was very easy just to pop in I a member of the National Association of Indigenous Peoples of Australia I was a dumbass seeker asking all these dumb questions over and over again not getting it And Bob just didn't face it. He would just keep answering my questions over and over again, just pushing, pushing, pushing.

But that was also counterbalanced with, you know, Bob had this Kali energy in him too. He had this fierce Shiva energy. And if you crossed the line, he would not hesitate to pull you in. Like, God help you. There was a time, I remember, it was a Sunday, and I was up at the meetings, we always upload the talk into his computer, and that was my responsibility as a doorman. And you know Bob had this thing on his desk, he had all these papers and he liked things to be where they are in their place. He moved shit around, God help you. Guys? One day, one Sunday, Bob was looking for something on his desk.

And he couldn't find it and he goes, Ram, where is it? I'm like, where's what Bob? I had some papers right here, what have you done with it? I'm like, I don't know. Oh, it's over here, Bob. What you fucking moving for? Sorry, Bob, I think I just accidentally just moved over there. Alright. Bob was like, well, if you can't do things properly and put these things in their proper place, you can fuck off! And I was like, huh? I'm like, whoa, this is the sheer energy now coming out of the Kali energy. But of course, you know, that was part of his personality, and that's not going to change regardless of how he is.

And I actually consider myself to be quite blessed to have experienced that side of him as well, because I've known people about him, and I started seeing that side of him. So that period went on for a few years. I was a doorman. Then the door duties became shared between myself and Dr. Mark and Nick. And three of us shared the door duties. I opened the door on a Sunday, and a little Slavic-looking lady asked, I welcomed her in, I said, what's your name? Katarina. Excuse me? Katarina. Oh, Katarina, okay, cool, cool. I think that might have been the first time I met Kat. And she came in and she used to always come right at the last moment she would knock on the door and they should be standing there.

And so she would often sit on the perimeter, on the periphery a little bit. She was very quiet, she didn't say too much. And then she started talking a bit more and asking more questions. And we kind of got to know her a little bit. And it was often the habit on Sundays we would go out for lunch, like a group of us with Bob, we would get together and make a dream to go to lunch. One Sunday afternoon, it was just me and Bob, everyone had left, nobody had stuck around for lunch. So Bob and I were trying to figure out what to do for lunch.

I was at lunch. I turned around and I saw Kat standing there. She had the letter. And she was fiddling with the board and she was looking at something or she was doing something. And I went over to her and I said, Kat, would you like to join us for lunch? And Kat was like, really? Kat? I said, of course. She wanted to join us. So we went out for lunch. It was really nice. We went to the cafe down the road. We came back and then Kat left. Bob and I were still in the dining area. Bob was like, so what does Ava note?

Not Mark, but it's not Richard Aitken. I said, no, she's nice, she's lovely. And he said, do you like her? No. And I was like, oh yeah, she's nice. He just, you should go for it, mate. That's right. Nice one. You better watch out for that big bastard boyfriend when they're still clubbing at. I think he finds out. Because Kat at the time, she was going out with this really big dude called David. The fuck, signal sign, Mass lives, that's his work. But you know as things turned out I think Bob eventually decided um yeah what he not the fucking group I the fucking group I should be at the big band.

And he did. He did. Sure. And I think that's amazing that Bob and Kat got together I think because honestly Bob has been threatening to die for a long time. For a long long fucking time. I think Kat coming into the picture really breathed a new spirit into the whole thing and really kind of breathed a new life into Bob. And Bob suddenly had this... I don't think Bob really gave a shit one way or the other, he really didn't. I think that Cap coming into the picture really gave Bob a reason and motivation to keep going for as long as he did. I would like to thank Cap for that.

I was in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago and I got a little artistic gift for Bob which I was going to give him. I knew it was going to be my last if, but as it turns out, he's not here, so it's not going to be that, so I'm going to give him a new cap. So, yeah, that's all I've got to say. Thank you all for coming. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, it was a new lease on life for him and he didn't want to go and his very last words were looking into my eyes and I look kill for that book.

For just one more of that book, that beautiful, beautiful, expensive book of love that no one ever do anyway, clones they out-beautifully unseated. And he just kept saying I love you for me and he just and we we both cried and I just repeat those I love you thanks so I want to actually present you a part of his life which wasn't really the main part of his life but it's kind of funny because he really liked the song his life was really about love it was really all the essence of his life in pointing and in everything but that's his jobs Lining up with one of his favorite songs and we're gonna have to do again the audio trick.

This one. Just because he really did all those jobs in which the guys are singing is kind of cute and fun and he loved the song. I was a sailor, I worked on a prototype with a CD I did buy. I sailed a school around the heart of Mexico. I went along with girls names a little old. And with me I broke off this city that I got killed. But I am living still. I was a dam builder, a closer river deep and wide, where steel and water did collide. A place called Holden on the wild, wild line, where I slipped and fell to the wind on Greenwood Road.

They married me in that great tomb at Rose Bowl side, but I don't still dwell. I'll always be around, around, around, around, around, around. I'm flying a starship across the universe divide. And when I reach the other side, I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps I may become a highwayman again or I may simply be a single drop of rain But I will remain I'll be back again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again Thank you. There will be more of those favourite beautiful songs played in the background later on, to go with the pictures. Just in closing remarks, I put it out on the program, the PayPal account, if anyone would want to participate in the course, I take it back, don't do that.

Two things happened after the brochure was already printed. I informed couple of people of Bob's passing. And those couple of people, and those were people who actually shown up in Bob's life, one just once and hang in for three days, another one never really met Bob face to face, but for a period of time was calling over Skype and Zoom every day. And one sent me a card with the open budget for the funeral. And another one sent me an information that two or three weeks ago he sent few thousand dollars over the account. So everything is covered. If you still feel like honoring the event, honor the palliative care.

I cannot tell you how much help we got in the last couple of years of his cancer from those incredible people that were looking after us every day, catering to every need. And people who were also showing up and writing comments in the Facebook or over the email. All of those words of love were reaching Bob, I was reading them to him every day. But the pallatives, my goodness, you know, if anyone has to go through what we went through, and we went through it with love and gratitude, gracefully, every day was shared love and absolute wonderful quality. At no point Bob wanted to give up on life.

At no point he wanted to end that beautiful dream that we were sharing. But this is because of that incredible care. He was pain-free for 90% of the time, 90, probably 90, 99% of the time. And if the pain would surface, it would surface and get reported and medicated very, very quickly. We are in the best country in the world It was a very meaningful experience. I would like to thank everyone and I hope that everyone will never need to have this kind of care. If you do, they will receive some sponsorship from the government, but they also drive and leave donations. And he's so worthy of every penny that was ever given.

There is plenty of volunteers also. We had people coming and playing a guitar, singing songs for Bob. We had people massaging his feet. We had a biographer who has scribbled down, I'm actually working on a book to include his teachings in it. So this beautiful and rich life, much, much, much bigger, could be presented in 15 minutes. We'll be on it one day as I promised to him. We also had people who are not with Palliative Care, but they were part of our group, Sally and the Threshold Choir, who sang for us few times, and the songs of the threshold for people passing, they were singing just few hours before he passed away.

And that was a beautiful moment as well. So for now, before I will play that on the background, I would like to thank everyone again for coming and honoring him and request you just turn the other way. There is a tea coffee table. There is a bar. The bar is open. Get yourself a drink or a soft drink or anything you want. And we're going to move those chairs to the sides and the table with refreshments will come in the middle. We're going to have things on the side. But if anyone would also like to give a testimony or say a few words, the mic will be lying here.

There will be space for that as well. But for now, thank you again. And if you could please just get up and head towards that way so we can get started.