This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
Now, Julie. I'm love. Love. Anita. I don't know. Jimmy. Elsie. Lockie. Ross. T-Bone. Yeah. Right. Dane. Dane. And we're going to move it up. I'll fix it. Yeah. Hello. Hello. Okay. Yes, so I have a couple of contradictory requests of how the meetings should be run. For example, I had a request from people who wanted it to be started with silence, or who wanted it to be started with meditation, or with some sort of a guided inquiry. Or who wanted to have less pointers and more gaps, or who wanted to have more pointers and less gaps, who wanted to be speaking faster or slower. Yes, please.
Thank you. I'll take ownership of that opinion. Yes, everyone has the tendency to fix the world to their own liking. And there is no one that is just live expressing the preference. It's not the problem.And now we are on the journey of discovery, how the life is going to unfold in the moment. All the considerations, and some of them are really kind of like bullying, nasty commentary that comes over emails or WhatsApp. You're doing it wrong, everything is wrong. Some of them are gentle and sweet requests. Look, you know, it's going to be better. People will hear it. No people, you. But okay. Because everyone has their unique sense of like resonation of frequency.
So what Bob usually starts the whole gatherings from, apart from reminding that there is nothing else to be learned or taught and there is nothing that anyone could tell you, is just a reminder that you are already existing and you are already aware that you are existing and there is really just this and nothing else. He also reminds that if you are here with a genuine longing for the message, don't worry about the messenger, don't worry about how it comes through, is it too feminine for your liking or is too slow for your liking or is too little gaps for your liking. Just push that I, that self-centeredness and that preferences aside for the time being and see if there is anything in the message that really resonates.
I had the request that the meeting should never feel good. The energy should be nice.The ego is real and it needs humiliation. Well, that's not Bob's teaching. So if there is anything that comes up that is difficult, that is challenging, we can bring it back to the realization that this is also the content. And if there is anything that is resonating and is worthy of highlighting, we'll also bring it into, well, it isn't really a miserable realization that there is no self. There is nothing to cry about. There is no self that is going to die or be murdered. When you realize that Santa Claus isn't real, you don't mourn him.
It is just a retranslation or reinterpretation of the reality, which somehow becomes simpler, easier, more effortless, more joyous, more interesting. There is more to discover. There is nothing, because I know people, in fact, who's been with Bob for decades, whose life became significantly more miserable, since they heard there is no self and there's no ego that is in charge, and still that tendency. To find faults and criticize has not been questioned enough. So as it arises, because it will continue to arise, it is beingbelieved unconditionally as the truth. So this is the invitation to resonate with the simplicity of realization that you already exist. You are already fully conscious.
You are not, there is nothing that you need to add or find or become. There is nothing that you even need to reject or unlearn. It's a simple recognition. Are you unaware?And now, of course, there will be a deeply conditioned program of the mind saying, yes, but. Because the mind, so-called mind, that program, that survival mechanism and that pleasure-finding mechanism, that stimulus response, as Tanya calls it, you know, the tendency to follow the bliss, to follow the pleasure, to find fulfillment. It will still run. So wanting to change everything and everyone to your liking, it will still run. But there is no need to be slave to it.
The preference for the sunny day over the rain if you go for a picnic is acknowledged in consciousness. But it doesn't mean you have to be slave to it. It doesn't have to be unconditionally believed and justified at all. God is against me. World is against me. I'm a good guy having a bad throat, like Bob used to say when he was describing his years of alcoholism. Years of debilitating addiction which would which instead of loosening up that that sense of control that illusion of control it strengthens it so if if the complaining mind arises and says yes okay i understandintellectually that I exist and I am conscious, but I don't experience it.
Don't believe it. Just don't believe it. Because there is nothing but experiencing it. It is being experienced uninterruptedly. Since before the body even went out of the womb. The consciousness of existence, the fact of existence, is uninterruptedly experienced directly. Now the narrative comes and says, no, it is only known intellectually, it is not experienced. Okay, try. And not experience the awareness of presence.It is impossible. It can't be switched off. Yes, but, you know, at night I don't experience it. Well, is it a night right now? Somewhere in the world, but not right here. So in the direct experience, direct experience, the timeless experience, the present experience, the here now experience, there is aliveness that can't be switched off.
There is existence. And it is known. It is not like a theoretical knowing. It can't be suspended. Even when the body is experiencing a psychedelic trip or is being drunk right now, if it is the case. Because also 20 years ago when the big bully boys were coming to the groups, half of the groups would come stoned because they would be more receptive. So even if that is happening, it is still happening in that presence of awareness, in that consciousness that cannot be stopped or suspended, that is already fully shining in its full glow. Now whatever appears and directs the attention to something else, to the narrative, to the complaint, to the story, and obscures that sense of presence, well, does it really obscure it fully?
Does it really annihilate it?Does the fact that attention is fully believing the complaints, that this is all wrong, you know, it shouldn't be happening this way. She should be having male voice or making longer gaps or whatever. This is wrong. I can't listen. I can't be here. Even that appears in that presence of awareness. It is impossible if the awareness, the presence, the existence wasn't there. Well, the corpse would be sitting here. The corpse can't hear. The corpse can't direct attention to anything. And of course, no one does the directing. It is habitual directing. The attention is moving wherever it is habitually drawn to move.You may have someone who is educated as a biologist and they will be analyzing the bodies, the way the bodies function.
Someone else may be preconditioned as a photographer, look for beauty, always finding something that is worthy of capturing. Yet other people may have other interests and that attention will be conditionally directed to whatever has been programmed. It's not a matter of choosing where the attention goes. It is a matter of discovering where it is going. What is obscuring that awareness? And is it really? Because if not for that awareness, attention couldn't move anywhere. The generator of attention would be off. It couldn't move anywhere. And this is overestimation to call it a generator. Of course it's not. I mean, the attention and the vehicle of expression are inseparable.
They are one thing. But that's just another aspect. And for the sake of pointing, recognizing that this moment right now, you are fully present. You are fully aware. And there is nothing wrong. Unless you believe the thought that may show up and say otherwise. And then believing the thought that shows up, it can be seen through, it can be questioned, it can be seen as another movement of energy. Now the thought arises and there is a belief.believing there is a tendency to subscribe to it. And that tendency is preconditioned. This is not you doing any of it. It's just like it's not you doing the cold, if it's cold, or sweating when it's hot.
It is just happening. The attention moves as it happens to be conditioned. Just like the narrative in your mobile phone, you'll ask it a question and it will answer, the Siri or Alexa or whatever it is, it will answer, Google. The attention is moved when it is preconditioned. And your narrative little program in your phone is preconditioned to serve. And so it is the so-called mind. But it serves the programming of survival. It serves the programming of thriving and pleasure-seeking.So seeing that nothing has ever happened and no one has ever done a thing, doesn't matter where that message comes from and how that message comes from, you have to see it for yourself.
You don't have to hear it from the eligible speaker and believe it. That is not going to do the trick. You have to recognize it in your own life. How is like Bob's one of his big pointers, how is this particular body-mind functioning? How is it operating? Where is it drawn? What is it following? What is it avoiding? What triggers it? What doesn't? Without any need to or ambition to fix it. Or alter it, oh I'm not good enough, this has to change, I'm not loving enough, I'm not kind enough, I'm not this or that. This is again subscribing, believing to the idea that there is someone, that there is an agency somewhere there that is in charge and that agency can fix or change.
The appearance will be always like that. The appearance that, okay, I don't know how to cook, so I'll take cooking classes and I will learn. And in the appearance it feels like, yes, I'm fixing myself.But that's just the appearance. In truth, you couldn't have taken the cooking classes if the thought didn't arise. And you did not manufacture the thought. So the whole world, they are chairs and they are soft. Everything that arises, arises as a consequence of spontaneous functioning. And spontaneous functioning envelops everything. The crowd around you, who can cook perhaps, the parents, the society, the times you were growing up, the available food, the ideas that are being circled around, the political affiliations, everything, the whole mix of the energy patterns produce this spontaneous outcome of, okay, the thought arises, I want to learn to cook, or I want to learn to meditate, or I want to learn to do the inquiry by the way of oil or method of this, that and the other.
None of that is anyone's doing. Life is guiding you, life is leading you, life is moving you. And you may just be this chilled presence in which you discover where is that movement going? How is it happening? How is the body responding? What is it enjoying?What addictions is it prone to? And see that none of it is your doing. Recognize that life is leaving you. You are being lived. The next thought, the next heartbeat, the next expansion of lungs is all in life. The next complaint and even believing a complaint and even following to the point of bullying or abusing, all of it is in life.
The life has conditioned this body. The life has conditioned pedophile to be a pedophile. If he was growing up in a different environment, he would be growing up as a different creature. And nobody has chosen it. The spiritual ideas that you choose your incarnation, that you choose your parents, is very beautiful and very romantic. If you see it for what it is, it's an idea. And freedom, the ultimate freedom is a freedom from ideas. And if there is no idea whatsoever, who are you? Can you even sigh? Where are you?Well, the experience, the direct experience is here, without even putting a label here. But is that here, being here, without any idea, without any thought, without any concept put on it, is that here, having any boundaries?
Without the thought, does it have any shape?Has it ever been born? That direct experience of presence here without the thought. Does it have any shine? Just have a look. Can you say anything about it? Can you deny it? Well, the denial may show up. I mean, Dean objects to everything. But you have to be there to deny. The presence is required to deny. So in the direct experience, can you stop being?Can you assert the shape and form of your existence? Without the thought, can you give it an age? Without the thought, can you give it a boundary? Can you put any time on it? Without the thought, can you assign any past to it?
Do you have the past in the direct experience without the thought? And without the past, can you know?And that is the direct experience that is called the reality in the scriptures. The Sat Chit Ananda, awareness of presence, blissful, peaceful awareness of presence. That in the direct experience here, One could say it in the core or the essence or in the heart. Without that narrative, without the thinking, the interpreting. It is undeniable and it is yours for granted. It is never not here. You are already that. Awareness of presence, peaceful, blissful, calm awareness of presence, Sat Chit Ananda, the reality. And then that beautiful device that interprets and navigates through the dream comes online and runs its facial recognition system.
Oh, look, this is my face, this is yours, this is yours, oh yes. And then it runs another interpretation. Oh, we are in this room, we came here from there. And yesterday that happened. Fantastic! This is what is defined in the scriptures as maya, as illusion or dream, the namarupa, everything that comes with labeling, with names, with forms, with interpretations, with facial recognition patterns, with narratives. All the algorithms of survival. This gives me pleasure. How do I know? Because that has beenconditioned in the past. This gives pain, so there is an update. There is a constant update of that machinery, just like in the cat here.
He's got absolutely the same rule of functioning. When he's hungry, he'll find the food. When he needs a cuddle, he will go and demand it. The survival mechanism and the pleasure-seeking mechanism. But that's the content of the dream. It wouldn't be here if not for the Sat Chit Ananda. The awareness of presence, the peaceful awareness of presence that has been with you regardless of all the stories. Right before, from the time you were born, it is only remembered as the memory. You can remember yourself as a child, that the presence was there and the presence was the same. Your presence wasn't smaller when the body was smaller.
The presence is completely shapeless. And then when the body got bigger, the presence didn't get bigger. It may be less obscured when you sit in silence, but there is only a subjective experience of it being less obscured. Because it is always the same, it does not have qualities.And it is never not here. And that is what you are. And that is what the cut is too. The discussions of animals having a Buddha nature or not having a Buddha nature. Everything is that. Everything is that presence, that one essence, appearing and expressing as everything. Yeah, he invited him to the room. There he is.And is there any doubt about being present?
Sometimes people say, oh, I have to stay in the now, I have to stay present. The I that has to be in the now and has to stay present is the avatar, is the Siri. It can't do anything. It doesn't have any form. It is imagined. It's like Santa Claus. It cannot stay present. It cannot stay in the now because it doesn't have existence. That I that wants to understand and be enlightened and that I that is devotionally surrendered to the idea of enlightenment, the cosmic union, an external, eternal pleasure of bliss that never ends. That eye is imagined, it doesn't have any shape, it doesn't have any sentience to it.
The only sentience that it has is the borrowed one. It's like Bob's metaphor of the iron rod in the fire. It's not Bob's, it's an ancient metaphor. But that iron rod doesn't have any heat in it, doesn't have any light in it. But when you put it in the fire, it borrows that energy.of the fire, that aliveness of the fire, and it feels like it can heat you, it can burn you, just like the fire. And if it could speak, it would say, I am the fire, I am alive, I can burn. The same with that imagined self, with that I, that conceptual image. It feels like it is sentient.
It feels like it is alive. As it can choose, it can complain. As it can be present or less present or more present. It feels this way because it borrowed that heat, that fire from that source of all life. It is being believed. The belief, the energy of life, the energy of belief is fueling that image. It's just like people believing in angels or Jehovah or devils or Kali. They also experience whatever they believe in.And that is part of the conditioning too. It's the confirmation bias. That is part of the running software in the body. And if the brain functions properly, it will experience all those programs.
It's lovely to see them. Happy creature. Not intimidated. Safe.Like Bob says, being born or growing up in a happy family, in a safe environment, makes the body-mind, makes the biocomputer programmed a little bit more efficiently. There will be less insecurity in the program. There will be less anxiety running. And of course there will be less psychological suffering because the psychological suffering comes also in a way that is pre-programmed. Although that is the speculation too. Because subjectively everything is polarized in the appearance. Yes, so what we are again inviting to is to acknowledge the fact that you are already existing and you are already aware of existence and that is all that ever needs to be realized.
Acknowledge that you have already realized the truth of your own being. 100% and there is no doubt about that you can't stop it and now see what comes up and doubts it see what obscures it hear that software hey but that's not enough pleasure in it it must be you know they build the huge temples they talk about buddha great enlightenment jesus obviously i'm not that i'm not experiencing that much love I don't put the other cheek if someone wants to hit me. So there must be more. There must be more to it. That can't be it. And for that imagined self, that's absolute truth.
That can't be it, because for the imagined self, the awareness of presence is nothing. It's nothing, it can't be objectified. It can't be gotten, you can't have it, you can't understand it. That image is...You ask that imagined self, can never ever get it or understand it, because it's not an object. So it will never be enough. That part of you that says, that narrative part that says, this is not it, this is not enough, it can never be like this, there must be more. They've promised us the great pleasure awakening. There must be more. That part is your theory, is the blah blah blah, is the thought, is just a hiding narrative.
That part has to be recognized as just talking and the belief in it has to be questioned. Not looking from the imagined self, from the head that always wants more, more pleasure, more fulfillment, more love, more kindness, which is our pleasure, isn't it? That part which is designed to always seek more. It's just doing its job. But that's not who you are. Who you are is that relaxed presence, aware of that pattern, free from it, always. Now you can look at that pattern, you can enjoy that pattern, you can blow it a kiss, you can laugh at it. And if the attention goes to it fully,You can just congratulate it.
Wow, well done. What an illusion. What a dream. And there will be moments, there will be glimpses, when relaxation from that perspective of the head, of that perspective of that narrative, of that self, that imagined self, loosens up a little bit. And the mind is noticed as an object in consciousness. And that, where it is noticed from, is not the mind. Because it doesn't have any qualifying statements, it doesn't have any judgments, if anything. It's mildly amused and it's just, wow, interesting. Life interested in the expressions and the reflections of itself, but really completely neutral and untouched, cognizing emptiness. It has the capacity to cognize, but it is empty of any attachment.
Of any judgment. Judgment comes on it, but not of it. Well, everything in a way comes of it because it's all one. But as a pointer, the space doesn't judge. It just is. It is cognizing. There is an intelligence. In it, it just is. And that is where you are.That is your essential nature. Even when the attention goes and take up the role, I am a person, I am a woman, I am a widow, or wife, or mother, or father, or lover, whatever. Even when that role is assumed, It is that which always changes. It is not the reality. It lasts for a moment. It doesn't even stay the same.
It's temporary. It's fleeting. And it is enjoyed from the space of the cognizing emptiness. You can see how the body enjoys its position, it takes the position and defends the political affiliation, religion, diet or whatever. It just throws itself into it. And you can remain in that free attention, that relaxed attention that is enjoying the show.And you can see on a daily basis, see and find where it is true, where it is true. The moment of respite, the moment of relaxation, the moment of recognizing that trap of attention in the thinking. The tendency to have that spiritual ambition and stay free is just another piece of narrative.
Catch yourself some slack. There's no need to try and stay present. Try and be mindful. Try and be more in the now.The one that is trying is the imagined self. Notice the trying. Love with a kiss. Like Bob would say, give it a wink. Give it a hug, a nudge. The trying self is not who you are. It's the mind serving the purpose. It has been programmed to seek. It really has been programmed to seek pleasure at large, to fix, to seek pleasure, to do whatever it has been programmed. There's a lot of different algorithms running there. But the spiritual seeking is the seeking for the very, very noble, ultimate pleasure of cosmic union.
It's the same pattern. It's really no different. Even though it feels like, and I know from experience, and most people that I talk with on the individual calls are people who are desperately locked in the persistent identity of being a spiritual seeker. This is who I am. This is me. How can I get out of it? How can I stop it? This is all that I ever do. No.That's what appears, that's what's persistent. But it is also an appearance. You weren't born like that. So just notice the appearances, enjoy them in the relaxed state. Because that which appears, the role, the identity, the conceptual image, is always changing.
The image of being vulnerable, the image of being a seeker, the image of being not good enough, existential angst that everybody gets it but I can't get it, or I had it and now I lost it.What a drama. But that is that which is the illusion, the nama rupa, the content of the dream. It all happens because you are present and aware of presence. Because you are alive, you are that life. Are we going over time? No, we're not. That was beautiful. That was beautiful. I really resonated.what he said about worshipping the messenger. And there really is only one guru, not even one. And it is you, the real, the truth of you, not the name and the form.
But the ordinary awareness. That we all have all the time. It never leaves, it never changes. It's like cats, it has no size. It didn't change size as you grew. It's always been there, exactly the same. And it's that which, when the mind, seeing mind, calls for it, is silent.There's nothing more to be said. What you, you know, described, where else is there to go? You're doing netty-netty, right? And that's... That is the capacity to do that. The nitty-gritty. I'm not this, I'm not that, I'm not this, I'm not that. Who's looking? Who's searching? Who's doing the nitty-gritty? What's allowing it to happen? Silence in the background.
It's always there. And we know it intrinsically. But it's seemingly obscured. By nothing more than vibrations in us.And it's a beautiful illusion. And there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing wrong with it. Yeah, but there is only not even one guru. That's all you need. You don't need to look any further. That's it. I have actually a couple of statements, comments from online community and welcome. Welcome everyone. Jyoti says good morning and Tanya says good morning. If a thought appears that you want to quit your job as you didn't want to work in that field in the first place and there is too much sales involved and too hard to get regular clients, it is just thought making a mountain.
Out of a mohill, if there is a tense sensation that appears along with that thought, if there is seeming suffering even though there is no me here. Yeah, there you go, that's a beautiful description. A mountain made of a mohill. Yes, and ultimately, again, look at our beautiful cats. Life moved them. And they don't have the privilege of having a beautiful, long, winded story told about why life is moving them, or whether they should be doing it, or they shouldn't.If you find yourself quitting your job, that's what's happening. If you find yourself not quitting your job, that's what's happening. And life will move you and the narrative will make a big, big drama and will occupy a lot of space and will obsess about it and will have you.
Yes, that's lovely. And Jenny says, good morning, good night, Jenny. All down under, this body-mind pattern is heating the hay. Also, a way to enjoy the show that is the is-ness of is-ness. Nothing to add, nothing to subtract. Beautiful. And Peggy says, wonderful conversation. And Peter, I love the freedom to notice and enjoy the pleasure and fun and all the sensations of the ever-changing dream character. The saving spiritual eye tries to present this difficult way of living. When the reality is all so easy. Yeah, that's beautiful. It is so easy. Yes, and I love the way that I try to present. Oh my gosh, such a challenge.
It's so hard. This is so overwhelming. What is it without the salt? What's wrong right now if you don't think about it? Is it still overwhelming without the salt?And the body may have reactions, the body may have PTSD, the body may have all sorts of different ways of coping with the situation that we're programmed. But there is nothing wrong unless you say it and believe it. Okay, Peter. It's like the cat being guilty, not being doggy. That's good.That's brilliant. Well done. I just want to make a comment on the experience of nowness and the movement that occurs, the ever unfolding movement and change that is constantly in the now, apparently.
I say apparently because of course the experience is that everything comes and goes, but there's something which never, which is always ever witnessing. And that point, the witnesses even suggest that there's somebody or something that's a witness, but that's not even that. It's just this ever-changing play and change always occurs and it's not denied. This plane is not denied, it's not rejected, it's not accepted and it's not objective. So that's the experience here. The absolute joy and delight of whatever is unfolding right now, the play, the play of life, is very beautiful and it's full of vitality, full of life, full of life, nothing detracts from that.
It couldn't be anything else.And it relieves you of, well, I say responsibility, but identifying with it. So there's a deep relaxation that comes with that. Yeah, it's so magnificent. You know, what a joy. And it's here. It's so close. It's right here. Closer. Closer, yes. Such a joy. Anyway, I just wanted to put that in because it's a never-changing. And the experience here is that there's love behind it. And love suggests a movement or an activity, but it's not even that. There's something more. Still than that and it's kindness and love or something some kind of quality like that that's the experience and you know I've been in India for some time and there's so many gurus my god the amount of why?
Because there are so many seekers yeah the seekers create the gurus and there are so many beautiful gurus who are just present in the now and they allow whatever unfolds around them and not rejecting anything. So you know, it's the way that the roles just unfold. Yeah, and there's a lot of stupid, not stupid, that's the wrong word. Everything has a role and a play, and it's just like a play on the stage.Anyway, that's my two cents worth. Anybody else? Question? I have a question. Please. I think what stood out to me when you were talking is the trying. There can be no trying. Because like, if you look at my story, there was so much trying to find stillness.
Even it came up, I was in therapy two weeks ago, and I thought it was like, you're meditating, you're yoga, you're going on day.It's like you're looking, coming from this restlessness and just allowing it all just to... Yeah, that's beautiful, just allowing it all to be, because the intelligence of life is so, so far greater than the intelligence of one little narrative interface that has been designed to find faults and resolve them. So trusting that narrative interface. Is well a joke rather than trusting life that will just allow everything to appear will just flow and move you wherever you need to be and if that's to be a therapy or dating that's beautiful i mean it's such a rich dream it's nothing wrong in any way expresses and if we look at the dream at the life from from life's perspective it will have situations where you know one dog will be kicked and beaten up and traumatized and will be biting around everyone and everything another one will be loved and cherished and it will be celebrated and yet there will be a bird and there will be a hippo and there will be a whale and there will be a eight billion people and every person will have hundred identities and roles to play, the richness of the experience, the richness of the dream, the totality of the way it experiences and expresses.It's absolutely mind-blowing.
And just like Anita was saying, you know, in that stillness where it all unfolds, in the freedom where it unfolds as it should, there is nothing wrong in the experience of pain, in the experience of humiliation, in the experience of anything, because they are all temporary experiences. They are passing phenomena. In the experience of multi-orgasm, of bliss, or whatever it is, there is nothing wrong in any of it. They are just passing through the field. They are just fleeting expressions. But that which never changes, that field of knowing, that cognizing emptiness, is free from all of them. And I have a couple of comments here from online community.
Glenn says, how interesting. When Kat is talking, there is no seeking. Only inexplicable, clear awareness, aware nothing, completely peaceful, absolutely absent of characteristics. Causeless and kind of astonishing in a very quiet way and writing this comment and thinking about posting it in the chat there is a tremulous sense of vulnerability bodily activation, vague misgiving about how this will be seen.and so easy to say all this is me not the same sublime ease that is such a magnificent description wow this is such a great summary of how that interface called mind protects the whole system from being judged, from being rejected, from being vulnerable, even that.
It's lovely to see how that program suddenly brings the tremble, brings the anxiety. Don't stand out, you know, they can chop your head off. It's just beautiful. But the space in which it happens, the space of experiencing, and do nothing but wonder like oh wow this is this is so lovely thank you and claudia says here thank you god i love what you just explained the identifications with the illusions of the mind clear seeing seeing clearly like bob taught me to relax into the being that we are the absolute Yes, exactly. Just when you relax and when there is no thought, there is just being.
Nothing can be said about it. Nothing is wrong or right. And Tanya says, thank you for the reminder that life will move this body to do whatever it does. No need to obsess over.will work itself out without any effort. And needless to say, sometimes the way life moves the body is by having all the bullies reminding you to shut up and shut down the meetings. It might be. Or it might be everyone else stepping on your toes and and telling you to quit the job. Or it might be to just act as a contrarian and say, you want me to do this, I'll do the opposite.
And just figure out how life is going to pursue its own movement, how that river of life is going to move in your case. Just be curious and let it unfold as it does. And Louis says, congratulations from Mexico. Loving memories, Sailor Bob. I wonder if you can see him here. Yes, between there. You can see? Yeah. Tanya says, without taking thoughts seriously, what is left is space, presence, peace, just what is appearing, colors, sounds, sensations, thoughts. Maybe that is what is even with thoughts. Hence, sensations dissolve in this scene. Exactly, yeah. Buddhists are talking aboutIn Hindu, habitually, we talk about five senses, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling.
Would this talk about six senses? Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, thinking? Because thinking is also a capacity of cognizing the world through the interpretation of all the other senses. Because the senses are not completely disconnected from thinking. You know, the seeing is interpreted by thinking. And the smelling, sensing, all of it is somehow not separate. Nothing is really separate. But it is a way of looking at it in which thinking is just another way of sensing. And it's happening in the same way that smelling is happening. You cannot choose your next smell. It is inseparable from the environment. Well, technically you can go and spray the perfume, but you have to have a thought to go and do that.
So the illusion of choice may exist, but the choice is not yours. It depends on the environment that provides the thought. And that's that. It's a great reminder to the six senses that you are not the doer of thinking. We can recognise, not the door of the sensation of smell, that's kind of an obvious one, that comes in, you smell it, you can understand the lack of choice. But it's also the same with thinking. There's no choice there either. You're not the doer. It's just happening. And it's just a discovery. Dean? I think it's all in the timing of the cat and the year. I wanted to captivate my feet, so I'm waiting until I have them.
No, well, what I want to do is demolish it. We're not barking enough. Dean, you go.Silence. Yes. I didn't say anything. Go for it. Go for it. You didn't say anything. Say something. What's coming to mind in the moment is somebody that I know who's going through a hard time. He's got a lot of anxiety.And the other day we were talking and he was saying, well, you know, this is real. You know? Maybe you've heard the acronym of fear. Yes. There's two different interpretations that I know of. There's fuck everything I'm writing. And then there's false evidence appearing real.They're both correct. Yeah. Or is that the very same part?
Yeah, that's right. Anyway, he's in his head about what is not. And saying that it's got to be realistic. Yes. And I was trying to explain to him, maybe something this crowd can understand a little better, but like you're being fearful is actually not being realistic. Okay, so when we go into our heads and our stories about what could happen, you know, what's gonna, what are they gonna think and all of that. We're actually not in reality. The only moment we can actually be in reality is when we're just experiencing what we're experiencing without even narrating it. Yes. No thought about it, no story, no judgment against it.
You're just in that raw,experiencing it. And then you're in reality. And I had a Christian path for a while, if you want to call it that. I think you could use that word retrospectively. The same with try. You know, you can't say you're trying now. I like the way Yoda put it. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try. You could say in the past that you took a bunch of actions, but another thing I heard about trying is that it's wanting approval for something we have no intention of doing. I'm trying. I'm trying. So you could say, oh good, okay, you're trying.
You don't do shit. Yep. And you never did. Mm-hmm. Isn't that wonderful? Yeah. Let go of this. Yeah. Nobody else did either. Mm-hmm. And that's very liberating, and you can understand what it is that I'm talking about, that nobody ever did anything.That takes a lot of the shooting. We're full of should. We're full of should. You shouldn't talk this way. You shouldn't talk so fast. You shouldn't get angry ever. You know, you shouldn't yell. You shouldn't whisper. You shouldn't talk. You have no business talking. Really. We're big bull in this shit. And all of that, I guess, is like, that shit is a, wow, isn't that coming from a thought?
You know?I mean, the cat doesn't like oranges, but they don't have a shit about it. They just don't eat it. Mmm. Yeah, good point. Mm-hmm. So. Should I say anything else? No. Yeah, we have... No, we actually have that one. Tense sensation dissolves in the sink.Yes, so that tendency of shooting, it comes from the belief of doership, in doership. That, you know, if the I is real, I should try harder, I should do more, I should fix itself. And again, as a narration, well, it's a useful concept. It's not completely like a swear word. It's a useful concept. You know, it's such a beautiful ideals we hold as a tribe, you know, that our government should be transparent and should not be squandering money.
So we are talking ideals, romantic, beautiful, to be loved and appreciated. Completely unrealistic, but because things are as they are, and they are neither right or wrong, good or bad, they're just as they are. But holding those beautiful ideas, oh, I would always love to be loving, kind and never angry, sweet, is an expression of life, is another beautiful painting of a beautiful dream. So, taken seriously, is a source of suffering. I should not feel what I feel. I should not think what I think. Delusion. There is no I that could or would or should do anything differently. That is what is unfolding. That is how life is presenting itself.I do see it a little bit as a cuss word.
I love cuss words. So long as it is loving of cuss words. Yes, I love the cuss words. Shit. Yeah, it's an early memory actually of me and my mom because I've always had a potty mouth and my mom gave me a hard time for it. And I'm like, really? What's the big deal about this word shit? Why is that a problem? And she thought about it for a moment and she said, actually the word jazz used to mean shit. The expression and all that jazz and it became so used that people forgot the meaning of it. So, but the word should, it is a little bit of a, it's only in that it brings attention to itself, you know what I mean?
Because we don't even notice it when we're saying it. But I remember like a long, long time ago, back in the 1990s, I used to go to these Tony Robbins events and he would have us... Do these exercises. But the word was not should, it was but. So you had to have a debate with somebody, you know, you're pro-life and they're pro-choice or you like Trump and they like whoever, whatever, but you had to have a very serious debate. And when somebody was disagreeing with you and they said, yeah, but, You're supposed to jump up and yell at me, you said the part word! You know?
And that, so that word should sort of became like, but I notice it. And yet that word should shows up too. You know, it's fine. I don't have a problem. It's not that bad. But at the same time, it's like, it's a useful thing to notice where the resistance is showing up. Yes. And there's nothing wrong with resistance. I don't really accept that we feel like shit when we're living it. And that's fine too. I suppose. Some people like to feel like shit. I mean, some people like to be whipped in space. Space doesn't mind. Exactly. It will change. That's right. It will change. The reality doesn't have a problem with any of it.
Yes. And it will change. Yeah. Unless, yeah. Unless they kill themselves, which doesn't matter anymore. That does the change too. And everyone is going to die. Yeah. I do like that word. That thing is at least a pointer because it's when we're shitting, really. I mean, the only thing that should be if you want a real shit is what is. So if it's what's showing up is a story about should, that's exactly what should be. Okay. Right? Just like that word, like a lot of people think of destiny. So romantic, isn't it? Yeah. You know, the purpose of having... All of us are a good one as well.Yeah.
They're a little bit far out, though. That's sweet. It's the idea of destiny. It's usually reserved for a romantic thing. We're destined to be friends. We're destined to be... You were also destined to have the car accident or the person who beat you up or whatever. That was destiny too. Get on with it. Yeah, lucky. Yeah, this is the first time I've come back since Bob's passing and what you talk at. And I guess I was like, not sure, was it going to be the same? Never. But we were talking to you a couple of weeks ago and you were saying that Bob, you know, he hasn't gone anywhere, he's right here.
And it's just so evidently true listening to you speak that nothing, like everything's changed but nothing has changed. And that exact same vibration of just clarity and love is there just flowing through you into the group. And it was just really beautiful. Often before both meetings I would come and sit on one of the couches five to ten minutes early and that there was just always this underlying kind of energy in the room of stillness and love and it was exactly the same when I came and sat.Yeah, it's not even an energy and it's you, well I like, I guess everyone sees them, like you're showing us ourselves or like who we truly are in this space and it's amazing that, you know, so much can change and nothing can change, it's still, this is unchanging.
And unchangeable, this, you know, whatever we're looking at here, or whatever is looking. Yes. And it was just wonderful, and I just want to really, like, thank you and acknowledge it, because it's so nice that we have access to this. Every week that you're still like showing up. Yeah, it's amazing. I just feel so grateful and blessed to have access to this. It's really, really nice. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. It's wonderful. Well, that's because the resonation is in there. And yes, it is in this room. Absolutely. And it is because it is really the way Bob has shown us in a way that is so simple and so undeniable.
So non-arguable. It's not like we can discuss about our opinions on something or the other. It's right in the face. But thank you. Yes, I do hope that this house and this space and...This was his wish, will be preserved and the space will be there for that, for that questioning and recognition. And it's a great privilege too, to actually... I mean, this is the only game in the town. The loveliest of the topics. Like Rumi would say, acknowledging the face of a beloved in everywhere, in everything, in every reflection of that. Yes, that's great. During the talk I was thinking that, you know, some thoughts were coming up about, you're talking about seeking and this energy of seeking, and I obviously like also have that energy that kind of seems to show up in this, and it like, almost the passive version of that is which is like waiting.
Oh yes. Or it's just like, wait, waiting, oh something, like, after this thing, something will... And it's just so laughable because I'm in this space and I see like I'm waiting for this moment. Like I'm waiting for this moment. When's this moment going to arrive? And it's so ridiculous when you see it. And it's just like waiting is happening. Yeah, brilliant. It's really good. This moment is all that I'm waiting for. So it's so funny when you see that. The thought kind of softens or falls away and it's like, oh, there's nothing to wait for.Yes. Beautiful. I love that. Waiting. I just don't get a metaphor of what Julia was saying.
It's like, this is the rock, and shirts are the way, smashing against it. And neither is less, and neither is more. Yeah. Oh, no, I just, that was so... Lucky, what Lucky was saying. Yeah, there was so much vitality in that, and freshness. Freshness, yeah. It was waiting, really. Brilliant. Exactly, waiting for what? There's only ever, ever now. Now, now, now, now. I'm telling you. The everlasting now. Yeah, that's it. Ever present. Yeah. And there's, how can there possibly be, you know, in an ever now, a someone? What is a someone? Someone is made up of time and memory. But even that is spontaneous. Now, now, that's coming now.
That so-called memory of the past, which defines who you are, is now. It's fresh and new now. Wow. Holy shit.When that sinks in, if it is only spontaneous, fresh and new, right now, how could there ever possibly be a name and form me? Thanks, Lockie. Cut to the chase. Yes. At the start, Kat was going through the preamble of the comments that I mentioned.What was it? We should start with meditation. No, we should start with silence. And as Lopie said, when you get to the silence, there's also the love. And also Kat mentioned the six senses. And we all agree from our experience that all of those things are happening naturally, including the thinking.
But behind that, you know, I suspect what is the same place that Lucky's talking about is the luminous mind. Some commentators like Ron Chepper have said that that's all there is, a luminous mind from which comes One might even be the same place that Bob talks about as a cognising emptiness. And out of the emptiness and the silence, which is the same source, everything comes.linguistically originated delusion, which is the dream. We'll get carried away with the dream. But again, the board has said we should consider that. All of this delusion as dreams, as much impact as dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows.And finish like that. Yeah. But the real guts of what we're talking about is what is the love and the silence.
That holds everything, from which everything comes, emanates. In this magical emanation that appears. It's out of nothing. And we call the universe, the cosmos, the world.All from the same place. It's magical. And it's a mystery, a mystery, mysterious. We're all on a magical mystery tour. A magical mystery bus. Beautiful. A bus without a driver and no passengers. Apparently. Oh, I can't. You go, you know. My brain's gone. It does that, doesn't it? Yeah. Thanks, Ross. It's a powerful love. The love that you are is really powerful behind the... It is this, if you like, of words and everything. So thank you. I do love you.
I just wanted to address the... The... I know what you mean. I was listening to... Guy on the radio playing Louis Armstrong's It's a Wonderful World. And there's a line in that that Louis is singing, he meets thisseems to have the connotation, he's meeting someone on the street and he says, how do you do? I really meant I love you. Just one thing with reference to shoulds and have tos. I once knew a friend, he said, if you shouldn't have to, there's a brick in your personal jail. Wow. That's the way to put it, isn't it? Wow, brilliant. Yeah. He used to teach a psychotherapy technique where he had people walk up to him and say, he would take them by the hand.
A woman or a man may come to him and say, look, I'm really fucked by life. He said, okay, well, I'll take your hand. He just brings people like this. Without saying anything, up the flight of stairs, the weapon goes. People get up and they walk up the flight of stairs until they decide, what the fuck? We're just doing all this work walking up the flight of stairs. That's all the teaching was, really. Doing it to yourself, you know? Stop it. Stop it. I'll just add something that you were saying, Ross, and this is for the mind.Even modern physics now shows there is no time.
Time doesn't exist. And things don't actually exist within time if you look away and they're no longer there. And this is actually a proven theory now in modern physics. So I just find that it's finally caught up with our non-jewels. That reminds me of something Julia posted recently about an action. The action was 0.999%. It's empty.So, and she said, so the chair you're sitting on, and you yourself, are really not there. I think another thing that Julia posted too, was very interesting, that, what was that? I'm gonna make a lot of shit. Oh yeah, that was a microscopic picture of amoment when a sperm penetrates the egg and in that moment there's a burst of life.
This is shown in a little video, there's a burst of life and then Julius signed off with So, life is life.I didn't say that but I like it. Actually the video that comes from that says that. And the other interesting thing is in IVF when they're doing a sperm injection, a sperm DNA into an egg, they shoot it with it. To get that explosion for it too at the point of doing that process. So yeah, in life, light, energy, whatever, manifestation. And also I love the idea of trying to get to find what the fundamental structure of reality is, you know, Atum and the quarks and all the other weird names I've got there.
I haven't found the elemental structure. which is fundamental to the manifestation of reality. My son, what they found is space, yeah. That's fine. Bigger and bigger atomic spaces. Anyway, I love all that. This mind loves playing with those things. I'm thinking of when you were the post... And I remember it because, actually it was a little bit of a trigger because I had some Christian programming as part of the programming and the Christian faith seems to think that life has a beginning and an end. And they're suggesting in the meme that it begins with that light. Right? And I'm like, yeah, well, can a dead egg get inseminated?
Good point. I mean, and that egg that eventually started, you know, became what, well, What we are today. Yeah, what we're calling this, whatever. Okay. Well, that's forms of life. So life forms have a beginning and an end, but not life. Right, the life form seems to have a beginning. It seems to have a beginning. It seems to have a beginning. It seems to. Can't trace it. But it's like that form, like even this form, It's like it just sort of metamorphosizes into different shapes and forms, but there's no beginning. So like it started out like this egg that eventually became this form, okay, started out in my mother's mother.My grandmother carried my mother, and my mother was born with all the eggs she would ever have.
So that body kind of began with your grandmother. And if she missed too many meals or something like that, or she got beaten or kicked and then... Whatever and then something happened to the eggs that your mother was like, you know, maybe would you happen like a lot of people can't make babies and they get very upset about that. I have some thoughts about that I won't go there. Here's some shoulds. What if we could fall in love with a child that really wants to be loved? Alright, there we'll go there. Sorry. Anyway, yeah, the thing, I think the meme was pointing to the light.
When I saw that, I'm like, yeah, well, they're trying to suggest that it starts here. Okay, at conception. Right? And that was like a Christian posting. And I'm like, yeah, and I think I might have even written it in the thing, but it has no beginning. It never began. Okay? It just also has no ending. Bob's like you said earlier, he's here, he's beating my heart, and he's growing your hair, and he's everything. He's no longer confined before. Not that he ever was. He never was. There was a knowing much earlier that he's not this form or whatever. And that is so, so liberating to know that, yeah, there's talking happening.Just what I got from that was the connection between light and life.
Yeah, no, I like that. I like that. That's why I said I like it. I really didn't catch that. I was just, I was seeing it from a different, like, oh, those Christians are trying to say it begins here. Right? But I love that you bring that up, the connection between light and life. You know? So, yeah, thank you for saying that. That's why I'm like, I didn't say it, but I like it. I'd like to also add on to that. Is that all apparent form can only be perceived because of the space around it. Yeah. It's within spaciousness. Yeah. And it's often missed, that spaciousness.
Unless they get really, really close. Even this close.And the spaciousness or the... Yeah, the perceived separation. The perceived separation, that's right. It's only when we look at form that we can imagine that there's a separate thing happening. Yes, there is a calibration of the eye and there is an interpretation of the mind that calculates that form. Yes, that's right. That identifies it. But in fact, everything, all things, things are happening within space, which is also something. It's not separate. Everything is within that. It's a great analogy for... Consciousness, really. It is spacious and second consciousness. Because it all happens within that. Things are not separate to that.
That, no thing. Yeah, no thing. I have nothing to say. Okay, let me bring it to the idea, because it is a beautiful point, and it's a great point, when Bob says that everything is, nothing has the beginning and the end. And yes, the ovum in the grandmother was also a result of the food and panna that they were eating, breathing, programs in the DNA, and the RNA, or whatever. You know, it doesn't really, it can't be traced to the beginning. But that metaphor consists, it contains the...idea of time that it happened all over time and it is a beautiful pointer because it brings the direct you know it is really really serving within that confines of the dream which seems to be persistent and occurring in time but if we bring it to any other dream that is experienced just as an idea at night we can see how the dream at night appears with the past already included and it will give us a hint how this dream also has the past already included.
So when I am meeting someone in the dream at night, the presumption is that that someone was a baby at some point. And that someone had parents and grandparents and they were breathing prana and eating food and then their little cells developed. And there is a presumption that if we are in the city that those buildings have been built by someone, that there is a history and there is a certain age or year or whatever. All those things are appearing in the dream like that. Or in a psychedelic experience or whatever it is, it's just a dream presenting itself. And the narrative adds to that dream, it adds depth, it grounds it, it makes it real, the belief makes it real.
And same with this dream, the direct experience is of this present moment now. And the thought will tell me that I was born as a baby of that mother and that father.the thought in the direct experience that one is only known as a thought so really the whole past is dreamt in this moment also and you can see when there is a dream the brain damage or or coma experience or even a psychedelic experience or even complete engagement in eating your chocolate brownie the past disappears because there is not enough of the computing capacity to imagine, to dream that past into existence and there's not enough of the energy of belief that would fuel that past.
The presumption, the conceptual image that is being hallucinated in that, you know, they even kind of located the part of the network that hallucinates it and it is being sustained for the practical reason of navigating within the dream. But it is assumed real and it causes the byproduct of psychological suffering. There is nothing wrong in any of those functions. It just doesn't have to be unconditionally believed. It can be understood and noticed and witnessed and experienced as what it is. Another part of the computing capacity. Another aid to navigating the dream. When I say I, this the body-mind mechanism is meant. Or when I say, well, when I say I'm walking or I'm going to eat, that body-mind mechanism is meant.When I say I felt offended, then the past image of the emotional self is being met.
So that I, every time, in every sentence, it may mean something completely different. But for the purpose of communication and connection and within the dream, that's a great joy to have the connection, to have that reflection of, yes, we are on the same page, we are sharing the same space, or we are all humans, or we are all Australians, or whatever it is. It's a great joy in that way of a dream expressing itself as a story, as a shared story. When it is believed, of course, you know, but I'm better than you. Oh, I'm worse than you. And then the drama comes. But even then, if the realization of that is present, it becomes playful and there's nothing wrong.
But seeing it as the whole past arising in the dream in this moment now, brings yet another dimension to that present moment, to the potency and the infinity of that present moment, that infinite possibilities and potentialities of that present moment to contain multiverses within itself that arrive into the field of knowing as a thought that unpacks itself and brings up all the life is love or life is light or life isinfinite the self-appreciation of that of that one essence expressing and experiencing as everything as the pattern that has the capacity to notice to think to appreciate Next slide again. And we have A, B, C.
I missed the introduction at the start, therefore please can I check my understanding about what is meant by cognizing emptiness? Could it be said that the one consciousness is vibrating to form headsets, bodies, headsets, I like that, for itself to put on and view itself through? So basically, the one universal subject is experiencing itself from different points of view. Is that correct? If not, could you please correct my understanding? It is lovely, it's really, really lovely way to put it. Checking your own heart, if that's correct, because many people can interpret it or understand it in different ways. But I would say it sounds pretty good.
Bob often says, and I love that expression also, and one of his books is titled,It is one essence experiencing, appearing, experiencing and expressing as everything. And that's roughly what you say. It is like one field of potentiality expressing emptiness becoming a form. As every form, as a reflection of itself, as if the emptiness needs the reflecting surface and becomes a reflecting surface. It doesn't become, it is a reflecting surface. But the multitude of forms, the thought form, the feeling form, the body form, And cognizing emptiness, the way Bob explains it is because people often think that, okay, I am cognizing. So what is the emptiness?
I should be trying to cognize? No, it isn't about the I. It is the emptiness itself that possesses the capacity, already inherently capacity of knowing or cognizing. And that capacity is in your direct experience. You are that emptiness with the capacity of knowing or cognizing. Bob used to remind us you can give any label you want to it. And one of his favorites was ordinary awareness. Ordinary awareness. I like dog shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dog, you know, the ordinary is dog shit. And it's so familiar.It's so intrinsic and subtle that it can be seemingly overlooked. But it's just ordinary awareness. Dog shadow awareness. It's beautiful.
And it's never not here. And it's undeniable. And the rest besides. It's all light and wonderful love and everything. Isn't it as well as dog shit and wens? The whole thing manifesting at once. I think that's the only thing we need to understand really is that we're all eternally free, boundless, without any limit. You're free now to assume whatever form you want. Because you're God. God is the dog shit awareness. God is everything manifesting as this is the thing. Don't bring me into it. That's it. Come on, say the word. I think it's just the word. One word. Here. But it's too... Oh, shut up.
Oh, God come, the word God come is so many... Too much baggage of connotation, Mark. It makes a lot of people uncomfortable. It's just that. Fuck the definitions, come on. It's just that. Who cares? That's all for us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dean.