This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
Anita, Tony, Zulman, Robin, Sue, Sim, Jimmy, Jason, Cliff, Cole, Rob, Jeffrey, and then he's sitting here, and Lucky, and this is us. Oopsie. And welcome to everyone who is online with us as well. And I will start maybe, because later on it may go out of hands. Oh, I'll do it. Nice to see you all. We didn't have a full house for a while. And this is... Just the last one for a moment, because not the last one, there will be meeting, there will be going on, but the last one for me to see from that chair, because I'm going to go after 10 years of my absence to the motherland.
I'm going to go to Poland, meet the family members who were born for the last 10 years, and I never got the chance to see them, apart from just looking at the picture on the screen. So the next three Sundays, Tanya of course will be assisting and I wish she was sitting on that chair but she will one day. She promised she wanted to assist.three people covering the three meetings. Just for the record, we did request Gilbert to come and we even offered, Tanya offered to cover his fair and he said yes, but then things changed in his area so he had to step down.
We then requested Sanjay, some of you may know Sanjay. Those who don't, he's looking after, I think, Ramana Ashram, so he does non-duality. And he was, for the last couple of years, Bob's neurologist, his Parkinson's specialist. So apart from riding the same non-dual wave under current, they were also dear friends and Sanjay was really, really helpful. And he was happy to do that. The next one, that will be the 3rd of August. The 10th of August will be Jane. Everyone almost, I think everyone knows Jane. So here Jane again. And then we managed to really hard squeeze the commitment from Dean to do that. He's running his own Zoom group for a while and he's perfectly capable.
He's just dodging the bullet, but he promised. So that's that. And then I'll be back in four weeks. I think, well, as much as I promised Bob to always show up if anyone shows up to listen, I will try, depending on the Wi-Fi where I am, I will try to show up on one of the screens, maybe joining via Zoom.Just to be with the community. Or maybe say a word if I move to. Just bathe in that certainty of existence. Because that's what we are doing here, essentially. That's what it is about. Bringing back force, bringing the recognition of the natural state, which is already fully present.
Nobody is not fully present and aware of their existence. Nobody is not conscious here. So this is it, this is the final truth, the awareness of presence or awareness of existence, the non-conceptual, ever-fresh presence awareness. Which is often clouded by the concepts, by the ideas, and therefore ignored, because habitually we focus to the content of thinking. Innocently, we have been conditioned, those body-mind machines that are the vehicles for that life essence to experience and express itself, they were also conditioned to cater for themselves and survive. So they are designed in the way to always prioritize danger above all else, negative thinking, complaining and all that, in order to make sure that the vehicle is present so the life can use it, they use the eyes, look out of the eyes.hear and taste and touch and smell.
So in a joking way of saying it's like that, you know, God needs you. Although there is, of course, there is no God and there is no you, it's just one life, one essence, experiencing and expressing as everything. But for the purpose of pointing that little distinction that life has its, that the body has its play, has its function, and body is to be as everything in the appearance, seen for what it is, an incredibly miraculous expression of that one life essence, deserving full appreciation for its presence. So, through the body, you can experience that where the dream and how the dream fools you because there is a direct knowing in the body that like the life essence is is um it's moving through the body as that life energy and it's expressing through the available channels of seeing hearing tasting touching smelling this is all immediate conversion of that raw power or omnipotence into the channels of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, always immediate, always present, always related to the current happening.
You cannot sense the temperature yesterday.You can only sense it right now. The seeing, the content, the objects of seeing, only right now. The feeling, the smelling, fragrances, whatever it is, is always present. What is not, there is that sixth sense, as Buddhist tradition calls it, is the thinking. The thinking is also happening presently. There is nothing that can happen at any other time because there is no other time. The other time, past, future, whatever it is, is only imagined, is in the mind, is in the capacity of thinking. Thinking is time. Mind is time. You can see that even thinking happening presently, relating to the memory of the past or relating to the imagination of the future, is happening presently.
But again, because of the design of the body-mind machine and predicting future, that's... One of the features of making that particular species of animal so successful. Learning from the past, having the memory, again, this is all linked to the survival. So the navigational aid, as I jokingly call it, because we have sailboat and I'm a sailor too, the navigational aid being the conceptual mind, being the capacity of projecting future and remembering past in the present moment, is what is allalso linked to survival and is also innocently present and unavoidable, but it can be recognized. The recognition is totally on the menu to see when the planning happens.
It happens of its own, it happens in the present. When reminiscence happened or is happening, it is also just a display from the memory happening in the present moment. And this is the difference between direct knowing, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, and imagining, projecting past, future, context, other locations. And this is what Nisargadatta would say, that nothing can trouble you but in your own imagination. Imagination can pleasure too. So it isn't linked out if it was just a trouble and just a source of suffering. The function would be disabled long ago because apart from survival, the whole body-mind mechanism is also wired to attraction towards pleasure and satisfaction and repulsion, aversion from pain.
So this natural functioning is just a design. No one does it. There is no one who is choosing to be attracted to pleasure. There is no one who is choosing to plan the future. There is no one who is choosing to beat themselves.up for the past transgression or experience guilt. It is again an autopilot, it's an automatic function that has been installed just the same way as any other computer program is installed. It is designed and then it learns. Like you watch the facial recognition software on Facebook or Instagram or other social medias, it was first designed and then it learned. Through just being utilized.
The same way when you see that little baby that is born, it doesn't recognize faces at first, it recognizes sounds first, and then it starts following, starts giving importance. This is all a software that is underdeveloped and as it is used up more, it learns. And then by this day, We are capable of recognizing multitudes, probably hundreds of faces if you think about it, all the actors and musicians that we can recognize faces, with an incredible capacity that has been developed. And other capacities that this incredible navigational aids develops are present also. Capacity to imagine, capacity to reflect and learn from experience, capacity to narrate, capacity to join through exchanging stories.
Oh, I was beaten as a child.I was too. Oh, now we're together, now we're joining. Oh, but I wasn't part of the child. Oh yeah, but my sister hasn't been either. Okay, then we're joining in this way. We're joining in thousands of ways by sharing stories. And again, none. Of us does it. This is all automatic function, just the same as digestion. If we realize how those programs, there is no one running facial recognition software in Facebook. It is installed, it is pressed to be on, and it runs itself. There is no little creature there doing it, choosing to do it. In your case it's the same.
There is no little creature that chooses to recognize the faces in the room. There is no little creature choosing to think about tomorrow or plan your trip or do any of it. Those are all pieces of software joined together. And working as efficiently as they possibly can because the body is designed to survive and to thrive and to be a vehicle for the life to experience and express. And again, the disclaimer, body and life are not two. Body is one of the expressions of life. Life vibrates into patterns, shapes and forms and body is one of those patterns and shapes and forms. And another disclaimer, the body wasn't growing for 40, 50, 100 years from a baby.
It is appearing in the consciousness right now.Because time is mind. So in right now, the body that has been 50 or 60 or whatever, how many years around, it is included in this moment, in this present moment now. But we don't have to overthink it, we don't have to understand it. If anyone wants the details about it, Chuck GPT knows everything. We don't go into the... They're absolutely fascinating how science grapples with it, how neuroscience has it all also mapped out. But it is not relevant. What's the most relevant is the non-conceptual, ever-fresh presence awareness. The awareness that is with you right now, that doesn't need to have very stretched, very flexible scientific brain to follow up any concepts.
It is enough actually to resonate with just one pointer. It is enough to just Stop thinking for a moment and realize that when you are not thinking or in the real gap between the thoughts, existence is still there. You didn't disappear. There is presence still there and you can't deny it. So the existence, the awareness of presence is there prior to that wonderful function of imagination, past, future, other locations.stories, all that incredibly juicy entertainment system. It comes along programmed after the existence is already there, not after in time, but in the same way after as when you have the page with the print on it.
The page and the print, they did not come up, the print didn't come up after. But the page is more primal. The page can exist without the print, but the print cannot exist without the page. So page is somehow just like the space. It can exist without content, but the content cannot exist without space. But does the space even exist? Well, try and deny it. Try and deny that spacious existence of awareness within you or the spacious presence of the aliveness, the fact that there is sentience there, that there is... There is a sentience, there is an existence, aliveness, that cannot be denied. It cannot be comprehended by the mind because it's not an object.
It cannot be grasped or described because if that is your essential self, how could you possibly describe something that you are?You have to move away from it to actually even embrace it as an object and then you're not it. So whatever you're describing is not it. It can't be described, it can't be grasped, it can't be made to a symbol because that's the way the mind works. It uses language and it makes mental representations or symbols. That essential nature, that aliveness, that space-like awareness cannot be objectified in any way. But it can't be denied. It is prior to any imagination, any time, any sense perception.It is there, full stop.
And it is radiant. It isn't dull. When you look with the mind, it feels like, oh, nothing. Come on, nothing. But if you really dive deeper, rest, relax from that thinking and land in the heart, Suddenly that nothing, nothing becomes no thing. It isn't a thing, but at the same time it is vibrant, it is radiant. The sentience, the aliveness, the capacities, the miraculousness of the capacity to see the world. How is that nothing? The capacity to experience sensations. The capacity to even witness the storytelling, the narration, the mind. The possibility for the world to be there, to arise in the consciousness. How is that nothing?
Still not a thing, it's a possibility, it's a potentiality, not a thing. But with the potential of the 10,000 things, of the infinity, of the totality, of everything. And that is your...essential nature. Not the story that I'm a person, I'm a woman, I'm Australian or Polish or whatever. This one appears later. Before you got that story, that radiant existence, that capacity to experience and express in the world as the world. Was already fully present just as it is right now. It's never not been here. It's only been clouded by the stories. But underneath those stories, it is still as radiant, as alive as ever.So to see through the clouds, to see through that entertainment system, the identity made of thoughts, I am this, I am not good enough, or I have to get it, I don't quite understand it, or I get it conceptually or intellectually, but I don't feel it.
That I. That sense that there is a separate entity somewhere there and everything is related to that separate entity well that's a software too you can see how that program comes online when it's relevant you go in the nature or you go to the top of the mountains or you listen to music and there is no sense of self there is just that blissful presence with no concepts on it. And then it comes online when it's relevant, when there is a discussion, a connection, when there is a relationship arising. But you were there before it came online. How could you be it?watching the mind, watching that sense of presence, that sense of I arising, falling away.
If you are able to witness it, you are prior to it. You are the presence witnessing the arising of a phenomenon. The identity is a phenomenon. If you look back into that non-existent time and recall the non-existent future, see what sense of identity you had as a five-year-old.See how much of it is here now. The self-description. Has changed and is changing all the time, is changing throughout the day. You might have a good day and you may feel good about yourself, you may feel confident, you may feel well adjusted to the world, you may feel grateful. And then you're having a bad day or you had a poor breakfast or whatever else happened, someone said 10,000 things that can shift it.
And suddenly, not only the sense of identity shifts, the sense of the world shifts. Suddenly, I'm not good enough. The world is hostile. People are not friendly. I'm in danger. These things are changing through the day. Through the hour. Those things are like the weather on the sky. The identity is literally as changeful as the weather on the sky. As the situation of the planet, they say that the universe is holographic, it's just as above so below. As the whole planet Earth. Being under infinite amount of influences from within and from without. So every individual, so-called individual on this planet, under constant infinite number of influences from within and from outside,from without.
There really is no within or without, it's just those influences and this cluster of whatever particles moving through and calling itself I, for the convenience again, the navigational aid. And what's wrong with that? Once you see through, once you see the whole going through, once you see that you never thought a thought, you never performed an action, it was the whole universe installing that action thought, moving the body, creating the urge. Where is the taking credit pattern then? If you haven't done a thing in your life, how could you have done anything wrong?even if you happen to have the conditioning of a sociopath. Dean was telling me about the song of an Aussie guy who was actually a poet, Chris something, the guy that was singing a song from the perspective of a pathological killer or a murderer and just embracing completely the personality in which the consciousness finds itself and seeing how every action is absolutely conditioned and irresistible.
And realizing he couldn't have possibly do any other thing because the body wasn't designed to do any other thing. So how are you the doer? Does it mean you haven't done anything wrong? You haven't. But do the wrong thing happen in the world? Well, as much as there is a judgment, there will be tons of wrong things happening. And there will be tons of wrong things happening performed by this particular vehicle, by this particular machine. It will be doing hurtful things and it will never know any of it. People get hurt without even noticing. People get hurt others without knowing they do it. People get misunderstood and that causes havoc.
There is nothing that is in your hands to control. If you can see how the whole girldesign has been done to work in the most optimal way. If your body is designed to drive the car, it will be driving. If it doesn't have those skills, it won't. If it is designed to be warm and empathetic and loving, it will most probably utilize those skills. Whether it realizes that there is a self running the show or there is no self running the show. Whether it believes that there is a self or no self running the show. However, if there is a realization that there is no me doing anything, there is no me to beat myself up, there is no me to reference past actions or future actions, The tension, the stress, the turmoil, the mental suffering, the psychological horror drops away in an instant.
Because what is that horror? I shouldn't have done this. They shouldn't have treated me this way. They shouldn't have said that. This war shouldn't have happened. If there is no doer here, there is no doer there. That narrative makes no sense anymore. It drops away. Without that narrative, what can ever hurt? The physical pain, of course, the physical pain can be there, but if theThere is no narrative saying, hello, this pain shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't be having a headache or whatever. problem is then? What is the problem? Where is the problem? If there is no thought, So if all psychological and emotional suffering there ever is comes from belief in the narrative, they call it narrative self, that mental construct that has been programmed, has been installed as a navigational aid to make it easy to connect via stories.
To make it easy to organize in the big groups. If that program is seen through, it is still utilized. You can still go to all your fun clubs and all your football teams and meet at the gathering of women or men or whatever. In fact, you have no saying, you have no choice. If the body is drawn to follow those patterns, it will be following those patterns. But without the delusion that I am choosing it, I am doing it, it is me, it is I. I can do different, I can choose different. This is the illusion of self. Which again, seem to be working as it does in the society, but it causes so much of psychological suffering that could frankly be avoided.Where is the control?
Who is in control? Who is the controller? Show me the one who can control the thoughts. The one who can choose to think or not to think next thought. Choose to not think for half an hour or one day. And you will see if you have any power to choose at all, if you are in charge, if you are in control of any feeling. People feel that, oh, my core of my identity is the spiritual search. I must, I have to, I need to find the truth. That I, which must and has to and needs to, is the piece of software. Life already is. You already are.
There is already an existence, already awareness of presence. There is nothing missing, nothing lost. You are already fully present, not less than Buddha and Jesus, they are dead, but okay. Not less than this enlightened cat that was walking through. It doesn't have any illusion of self. It doesn't have any illusion of control. It's the body moved by impulses. And it has never any psychological suffering. Even though he said, very skillful manipulator, but just now.But just as the evolution, life itself, programmed that beautiful little fluid machine. And so are you. Just like the evolution, so-called evolution, a life force, programmed this body to take the nutrients, to extract them and to discard the whatever.
To eat and sleep and shit. Just the same way, everything else has been installed and programmed in that body-mind. So what is it that you can do? What is it that you are in the whole conundrum? Because you can't deny your own existence. What are you? If you are not the doer, if you can't control your digestion, or you may seem to control it if you eat properly, but you can't control your thought, what you're going to eat. This is also totally conditioned by the environment, people around you, the YouTube channels that you're moved to choose or whatever it is. You can see how everything is conditioned, is totally interchanging and interdependent, inseparable from the environment.
So what is it? Where is the space for the individual self? What would that individual self, what the job of that would be?So now there is an existence. There is undeniable presence. There is undeniable sense that I am. But there is no individual self. There is no individual doing. So what must I be? I must be, there is nothing else, nothing left, that existence, that blank page or blank canvas underneath the story that is written on it. I am a person, I can choose my thoughts, I can choose my profession or my partner or whatever. You are that inseparable witnessing presence or life essence or space-like, sky-like awareness.
In which the body-mind appears, facial recognition software appears, the narrative software appears, the speech-to-text and all the other software appears. You are the witnessing presence, aware of all that software's now. Be curious, find out what's your next thought gonna be, what's your next action gonna be, what's your next interaction gonna be, what is the next thing that this body will bring into the picture, what is the next thing that the so-called universe, which is one with it, it constantly exchanges everything, the impressions, the food,the air, what is that going to bring? What's the next feeling going to come up? I don't know. I'm the presence, space-like, open field of knowing.
And once it shows up, it's going to be known in the immediacy. It's going to be known presently. Everything that appears is known presently. There is no nowhere, no individual self knowing it. It is all known as one, inseparable, one essence, one life. It's only the thought that says otherwise. It's only the thought that says I am a separate individual person, a being, a poor miserable me, not good enough, not getting it, not enlightened. All thoughts, all mental noise, vibration, happening in the knowing, in the space like awareness, in that presence that you are, that undeniable fact of I am.And that I am, that sky-like awareness, it doesn't mind.
It is perfectly fine with the identity arising in it. It's perfectly fine with the identity changing in it. Shape-shifting. Taking different roles. Space doesn't object to anything. If you can relax out of that judgmental program running, because the attention is trapped in the individuality, relax a little bit of an attention to just witness those programs. To be space-like and don't object to any of it. Leave it unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected because that's what the space does. It doesn't even let go of anything because it doesn't have a capacity to let in or let out or anything. It just is. And that's your essential nature, just is, that is-ness.I think that's enough.
Very good. I'll say something. Thanks, Katerina. Of course. Good luck on your holy trip. Thank you. You too. I was just thinking of the searching. And I get around various spiritual places and a lot of people searching. Searching for something. As I have done part of my journey is searching. I was thinking, why have I come here today? Why do I do anything? The mind is always searching. In my case, it's searching for peace. So it's in peace of mind.It's very confusing, some of the literature I've read, they say, well, you try to work with the mind to find truth or something, but it's not in the mind, the mind can't find it.
So for many years I was very confused about this, what can I do? I sort of use the mind, I might go to this gathering or that gathering or read this book or explore this ritual. At the same time, that's not it, I can't do it with the mind. So I've been very confused about that. But that's all we have is our thinking mind and part of that function we'll talk about is that searching, is the natural function of the mind because we all want to be at peace, feel comfort and I was driving down the road one day and passing this big hamburger chain shop.
It had a big sign in the window, the search is over. Wow, the search is over. And this Indian guru, Papaji, had a book titled, you know, Call Off the Search. And so I sort of think about that, the search is over. There's an element of truth in that because if that hamburger makes you feel really good,You go in there and you're eating a hamburger and you're in the moment, oh, this is the one, you know. Then in that moment, the search is over. And because the mind is happy with. So when my mind is happy with a situation, the search is over, there's peace.
So, you know, like if I buy a new set of shoes or clothes, wow, these are the ones, you know. For that moment, I'm happy, I'm at peace, you know. If I sort of meet and have a new girlfriend or boyfriend in that flush, you know, oh, this is the one, you know, the search is over, the happiness comes. And this is because I've noticed with my mind, it's like, whatever I project out that's going to give me peace, will give me peace. That's a projection out from my mind. And my mind is, I don't know about you, my mind is constantly projecting out, selecting things from the environment.
I like that. I don't like that. And things that I like, I'm happy with. And things that I don't like, I'm not happy with and get irritated with. And it's constantly a projection of the mind. And I see it all the time in other people, how that projection takes them out of peace.You know, people going along and suddenly they grab onto something, some thoughts come and the peace ends, you know. And so really the only thing I can do with my mind, I think as Krishnamurti said, is just to see that functioning. And he said, calling the false is a false. It might have been Sagar Dada, I don't know, someone said it.
But just seeing the whole mechanism, how that projection will take me out of peace. And just seeing that, that is how the mind functions. And I don't have to be worried about it. Just seeing that, I don't have to be concerned about how the mind is working, just noticing that when that peace goes, when I leave that feeling of peace, just how my mind has left, it's gone into some train of thought. And then when I come back to catch that, oh yes, I was thinking the world should be a better place or whatever thought I'm having about certain politicians around the world. When everyone's just doing the best they can.
But to notice my thoughts taking me out of that peace. Once I catch that, then I'm back in the peace. Surely. Once I catch that, because as you say, there's nothing to do. That's quite a profound statement, no thing to do.Sometimes my mind needs to do things or is doing things. So just to catch that, my mind taking me out of that peace and then immediately I'm back into the peace and into the present. I was talking to a guy recently and I said, how are you feeling? And he said to me, I'm feeling present. Wow, what a wonderful statement, I'm feeling present. How often do you hear that?
How often do you ask people how they're feeling? Oh, I had a rotten day, or apes and pains are playing up, or whatever. But to be present is quite a profound thing. Like, to do no thing does bring me back into the present. At the same time, my mind is very active, so I'm going to be searching. I'm quite amazed when I see people at some spiritual gatherings, the projection out that there's something outside is quite profound and I see them quite agitated that someone else has got it or they've got to get it. And I think, wow, I'm so fortunate that I don't have to do anything.
How a blessing. I'm really fortunate. And I was very pleased to meet Bob Adamson in 89 and be introduced to him to find a similar being who also would reaffirm,You don't have to do anything, Jeff. You know, just be here today and the mind will go on as it has. And it's such a blessing just to be able to be here and not to put that effort. It takes a great deal of effort to keep up this following the mind and chasing things. If only I had the new BMW or the new EV or whatever, if only I had the bigger house. Always chasing and chasing.
It takes quite a bit of effort. In my own thinking mind, when I'm stressing out about something, stress will come that someone else's behaviour should be different or accommodating me in a better way or something. That I see, when I start to get into that, conflicts come into mind about how reality should be and then I'm back in the stress. Then I'm back in the stress. So as soon as I see that, oh, I'm getting a bit stressed here, what is my thought projecting how life should be and how is the actuality of life? Because the actuality of life is not often, you know, doesn't always agree with my thinking.
Strange, isn't it? I'm waiting for the tram.the actuality of what's happening sometimes and people will, you know, maybe, I think we've spoken about this before, sometimes they might reject me or, you know, and I'm looking for acceptance. You know, it can be very, very subtle sometimes that the mind and catch it is the trick. Seeing the false as a false, just seeing how that, there's nothing wrong with that, but I notice that it takes me out of my peace. And as I said, as soon as I see that, I'm back in a feeling of peace because I'm not arguing internally, and I'm not arguing with what's happening outside.
So how do I know I am where, you know, how do I know I'm in the right places? Because this is how it is. How do I know the things are as they should be? Because this is the way they actually are. How should reality be? Well, it's occurring as it is. That's how I know it's reality. That's how it's the truth of reality. It's just the way it is occurring. Not so much how I think it should be. And of course as a trap you get older, you say to young fellas, I remember the good old days when we used to be able to get good parking spots or whatever it was.
And you know, it is as it is. And like if you're a very...If you're a little child, you're just seeing the world as it is now. There's no past. And of course we have the past. Continually I am memories of the past and projecting into the future. What's it going to be like travelling or doing something? But just to catch that and not let it take me out of the piece. So that's my sharing for today. Thanks for listening. Yeah, beautiful, beautiful, Jeff. Thank you. Yeah. Just one thing, because you beautifully presented the whole lot, and it's just so relatable, such a brilliant description. It's just I would use a different wording in that sort of a paradigm shift, you know, when you actually see the mind overthinking and you catch the mind.
It's not really mind catching the mind. But I know you mean the same thing, obviously. I mean, you know, it's just for the sake of language. James here said, Bob would say, show me your mind. Mind can't catch the mind because... It's just one wave of noise. The noise does not have a capacity to catch anything. But recognition of the moving mind, you know, the moment you are gliding with the cloud of distraction and the moment that attention is relaxed.And you watch that cloud gliding by itself. And you are still. You are the stillness. Recognizing that the movement of mind is happening within the stillness of presence.
Rather than... Just go like there is also another metaphor of the train of thought you know you catch the train and it just takes you out it doesn't take you it takes attention but stepping out of that train and seeing it it soon just get out of sight it doesn't have it loses its attraction. The roller coaster is fun when you want it. But once you step out, it still looks amazing, it can still be appreciated fully, but that sense of This is my thought. This thought is right. It happens in my head. It is important. It's serious. You know, like I love the metaphor, waiting for a trauma.
It's not coming. Shit, you know. The body gets dysregulated, shaky, the stress level, the cortisol, all of that happens within the body. And yet... Even if most of the attention is trapped in that cloud, there is still the awareness of the whole scene, including the front stop, including that body, including that cortisol, all of it. And that's that. It doesn't even need any...action is actually inaction. That mind doesn't have to watch. This was the thing that I fell for when I was a seeker and then when I say I, I say that part of the conditioning that identifies that cage of concepts that life was trapped seemingly in, listening to all the non-dual speakers, oh you have to be alert, you have to be vigilant.
Oh my god, that's gonna be so tiring. I can maybe do it for an hour a day, but shit, you know, I'm unworthy, I can't, no, it's just... None of it is the exact opposite of that incredible anal controlling pattern of being the alert. Doer. Doer, yes. The SS soldier, the guard, prison guard, watching over the thought, not letting it pass. It's the opposite. It's relaxation a little bit out of that contraction. And then the attention trapped in that strain or trapped in that cloud, back in space in stillness. Like Jeff was saying, I loved it also, how I'm feeling present is back in just beingpresent, nothing can be said about it, is motionless, is not moving.
Any part of that attention, relaxed and not moving, this is where the recognition spontaneously arises of that rushing mind, following, chasing thought, stressing the body, sounds, the explosions, whatever it is. They all happen within that presence, that stillness that is always here. Yeah, show me your mind, says James, because we actually have, Katrin says love and gratitude from South Australia, darlings, and Deborah says the volume to the beauty of justice, I'm afraid I'll have to just do it on the computer because I don't really know what else to do. So, anyone would like to add something, a little tip that could help anyone else, or favorite pointer of Bob's, or question, or, you know, anything that comes up.
You go, you go. Were you going to say something? You go, Dean. You go, Jay. Okay. So, yeah, just now, the prison guard, you know? The prison guard, the thief, the judge, the policeman, the whole show, like, it's all made of the same stuff.And it's, what are they? They're all thoughts. And to believe that our peace is contingent on everyone behaving is impossible. And the whole mind is designed to be a circus of interrelated opposites, of movement, of incredible peace, of ecstasy, of excitement, of dullness, of happiness, of joy, of misery, of everything, every gamut of the whole life spectrum. But if there's a belief that our peace is contingent on it formulating itself in a manner that there's no hope.
But I guess what's the saying, you know, peace is when the mind is not. It doesn't mean that there's no mind or there's no thoughts. It just means that
They're all seen as like just this energy appearing on the screen. And the energy is a movement. The movement of energy is like a vibration, like a thought, like a word. It's like a silent word. And they're just appearances describing that which can't be described, which is the absolute presence of your being, of the awareness, of knowing the existence itself. I just thought it was good. Today was really good. I think you covered everything so thoroughly that if anyone's got a question or a doubt, following that, like, I mean, how can it, like, you know, I think you just described, like, what we called, you know, you described the software, for example.
Like, isn't it incredible to know that all this kind of machinery, software, programs are running themselves? And they're just running and there's no runner of this program. And isn't that like incredible relief to know that there's nothing anyone can do, has ever done and needs to do in any way. So the interest or the desire to want to change, modify, improve, alter, it starts to, how can it possibly have any volition when it's so obvious that it's running, there's no runner.of the software as such. So I can look at this life now, look at, in this image, this appearance of what is, and there could be an overlay of, based on conditioning of trauma, based on sociological, psychological way, like everything can be viewed in infinite manner, and no one's doing that.
That's the software playing out, and how the software was developed. God knows, like it's genetics of my family and my grandmother and my grandparents and their grandparents and what they ate before conception, then in the environment that they were brought up in, and that created the exact genetic profile, if you like, or blueprint of what this body became, which is influenced by infinite factors in its environment, where it was born sociologically. Like I can eat one pea and my endocrine levels might change. Or a chemical level in the brain alters. Who's doing any of this? Look, all of this process, whatever it is, it's working on so many different levels.
The biology itself is just, you know, incredible, just the biology. Then the environmental factors that are influencing the biology. Who's doing it? It goes back to the simplicity of the breathing, doing the digestion.see that really clearly. It's like in front of you, like who's growing your nails, your skin, your hair? Who's doing the breathing? No one's doing it. And so it is with all the other factors, the infinite factors that have, and in a funny way, they've created what the appearance and how it appears now, who cares? Like, it's going to change in the next second. It's always changing and what doesn't change is, and what is the only sense of peace throughout all of this, is the realisation that like all these things are just constantly going on.
The software, the projections, the ideas, thoughts, memories, but you are none of them. And you are all of them at the same time, because you are the whole show. Because there's no reference point, so you can't be a centre, you can't be someone, a someone. How can you be a someone or an individual? How can that exist in this sphere? When infinity or the universe or life itself created the whole show. Created, if that's how it happened in this body, it created it in that body, it created it in everything, in nature. So I am, what am I then? Who am I? And then you realize, it's just the spontaneity of now, these words, these notions, these ideas, all appearing on that screen.There's no beginning, there's no end, there's no bottom or top or centre or circumference.
You can't get in it, you can't get out of it. There is no right or wrong. It is a screen in which all of that kind of... I could say some rude words to describe it, or I could say some funny words. There's so many descriptions that can pop out about it. Sometimes these days the kaleidoscope is like just infinite patterns, the array of the show, and all its complexities and beauty and miseries and dramas is all appearing on that screen. So who the hell cares how, like what difference, how can you get anywhere from the details? How can you, how can, there's no you.
So there is no movement, there is no way to get in or out of it or to discover it or to realize it through any of those notions because it is. It's the aliveness. The very presence and I don't know, I thought today when you spoke Kat, it just made it really obvious that there's actually, you know, everything, this is the great perfection appearing right now and there's nothing that anyone needs to get. To know, to understand, to comprehend, to get in the future or to heal in the past. All these notions are just, wow, like software running themselves. And there's no one doing it.So what a sense of relief and joy.
And that's the peace. The peace is that there's nothing that anyone has ever needed to do. And it's just this. And this thisness is... Everything, all complete, all perfect. This is omnipotence, this is omniscient, this is God, if you like. I know Bob didn't use that word for all sorts of reasons and people's ideas of it, but sometimes this is God. Every aspect, every breath, everything seen, everything, every expression, every sensory experience, and the absolute aliveness is God in its absolute glory. Always has been, always will be. The end. Oh, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I just read one comment from Gilbert here we have, and I'll give it a click.
Gilbert says, it could be said to be beyond doing and non-doing, beyond words, beyond mind. Yet, where is this beyond? Just the simple activity of knowing, formless, self-evident. Who is in the mind directing the activities? No one. Life is spontaneous and there is nothing you can do to change that or anything. That's beautiful. That's really beautiful. Thank you, Gilbert. And Sol says,I can't just join the Facebook, the volume is low. Hmm, is the hand held on? Yes, they are on. They are on. Hmm, well. Well, I don't know how to follow all that now. I was just going to talk about hamburgers. Sorry. No, I was just talking about mind.
Mind is sort of, it describes what's going on, I suppose, and translates reality as it's happening. There's this intelligence that's running the show. It's living us, breathing us, giving us what happens in the day. But it's sort of translating what needs to be done. Like talking about the hamburger, I was just thinking, well, the thought, I want a hamburger. They might be driving you to get a hamburger or you really want that hamburger, you can't have any peace till you get the hamburger or something. So you go for the hamburger and then the mind says, well, that was pretty good. I'll have the hamburger tomorrow.
And then having the hamburger tomorrow, yeah, that was pretty good. I'll have another hamburger the next day. Oh, no, that was terrible. I feel sick after eating that hamburger. I won't eat hamburgers anymore. And then the next day, oh, I should never eat hamburgers. I was really bad at hamburgers. So it goes on.But, you know, that flow, the push forward and the pull backwards sort of thing in the mind happens too. But it is the livingness. It's taking us on that journey too in translating what sort of will be done too, you know, what needs to occur. And then, you know, the resistance to that too, and all that's part of it, but, you know, the show goes on anyway, whatever the thought happens, you know, whether it's for it, against it, or whatever, it just keeps taking us where the flow of life wants to go.
I think Bob would sometimes talk about the river, you know, and just like being in that river and taking us on the journey through the things that seem good and the things that we resist and repel us. But whatever, the problem is believing the story or thinking that this... This in fact is it and that's all that it's all about, you know, trying to contain it in the mind and take a position on it and have that position in some sort of way of guiding me because it changes all the time. Do you like fries with that? Fries with that? I might get a piece of it.
We should start an ABC sports commentary.And then he did that and then, was it good? No, that wasn't very good. Yeah, that's right. It's like constant commentary. Go time. Tony and Robin. Yes, I concur most of what Dean says. I mean, I'll just reiterate the stuff I always reiterate. Like here, the whole liveness or awareness, consciousness, all those are really just concepts that just pop up after the event. With some memories perhaps, you know, with the package. But in the moment here is really just... And all the painting and nothing else, no comment about it whatsoever. The sense of stillness and all those things are really just comparisons that pop up later and are in the conceptual realm just as much a part of reality as, you know, the brigade or the firm is a special other thing, you know.
But also like here, and Cutting J was pointing it out quite nicely a while back, that some people, I, you know, stuff, not the right stuff happening for me is so intense for them and they're so distressed by it that when the realisation comes about, oh, you know, it doesn't have to be like that, it could just be shit happening, you know, it could just be movement, it could be energy, you know, nothing, it can be not void, and that's it. For them, it is, you know, I know people, it's been a couple of weeks where it's just pure being there and the odd thought might pop, oh, tomatoes for lunch.Okay, you know, who's, you know, such and such when their name's pulled out.
But for here, that was kind of like half of that was kind of normal and half was just took a little bit of pointing out and nothing much. It was like, yeah, no biggie. But there's still a constant triggering of the environment and the patterns of being, you know, parading out all the time. Like, I think Wilbur puts it as cleaning up, growing up, waking up. So waking up is... Like I can come here and just dimension non-duality and it clears up. There's nothing there. Half a bit later, an environment trigger comes in. And so the cleaning up process is a huge one that takes place here because that seems to...
Okay, there's no reason for it, but it takes place here. And then there is more. Time spent in the waking up. So the waking up is easy now, it just happens by triggers, mention of what's it like when you're not thinking about it essentially. And the growing up is kind of when the environmental triggers knock you out, you're not really growing up and you can look into spiral dynamics and things like that which help with the growing up. If you're not very grown up, it's like, oh, that fucking bastard did that to me. You know, this year it's like, oh, that's an annoying pattern. Gosh, so frustrating that pattern shows up over and over.
You know, because it's a little bit further along in the growing up. But the cleaning up is very, like, minimal. You know, it's very kind of...So, and it just, you know, just happens like probably for most of this, a few of the cleaning out process is taking place more than listening. But the, yeah, I'd just like to say that there are a couple of other things out there beyond seeing there's no I being the end on the end. And it happens for some and it happens thoroughly for some for a set amount of time. It happens in an outfit for some. And for others it's just like, this is all such shit.
There's a lot of triggering going on, this is interesting. And there will be movement and some setups for that to clear out. Just because, you know, and others not. And so they might seem to understand all of this emptiness and what it's like, no thoughts, but then will be triggered a lot by bullshit and betray bullshit and be triggering until other triggers disappear, you know. And that's just all part of it. Yeah, and it doesn't matter either. It's more acceptable than the other part of it. Yeah. Robin. Robin. Yeah, thank you, Tanya. Thank you, Tanya. Yeah, we don't know. You don't know why that's happening.
Probably tea. Wonderful people are saying. Just quickly. Saying the unsayable. Words get around the circumference.at the center, which is not there. It's just, you know, how can you say the unsayable of it? The main thing is, with seeking, You have to catch. Just a way of saying you have to catch the eye compulsion red-handed. You have to see that the habitual compulsion to make a self is going on and you're doing it unconsciously or semi-consciously. And you just see that, oh, it's not true. And it all falls away. And then you can say all these wonderful things. All this beautiful, beautiful stages coming out of people.
But it's all saying, It's all trying to say, what is when words won't go there?I can't say as well as you people. I'm not trained in it. But you can write. We can read it. He's got incredible books of poetry. Incredible. I didn't do it. It's just that... You have to be led to it through a conversation of some sort to see this eye is just a sound. It's just a remembered sound. And it has nothing attached to it whatsoever. Not the feeling here, not the feeling here, not all the memories, all the self-images, all the... Faces in various expressions and bodies in certain body language and all that sort of stuff that get dredged up whenever I is mentioned.
And you just, when you say that it's just a standalone thing, I, a sound. It's just a sound. It has nothing attached to it at all.And then all this that we've been talking about. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, that's a beautiful way to put it. Yeah. Where is your evidence? How do you know that the thought is what drives you to do anything? There seems to be some kind of, there's an assumption that in order to desire the hamburger and drive there requires, a thought is required to do so. What if, in actuality, if you look, The thought comes after.as an optional narrative. What if the thoughts actually totally unnecessary to any of those actions?
She's a puff. And there is no, take a look, take a look, this thing we call, this thing we give life and call a mind, it doesn't exist. There's nothing, there's nothing there. It's as illusory as the individual I.Anything that comes and goes as a beginning and an end that changes. It's an illusion. It's not real. The only thing that's real is that sense, that stillness, that sense of presence, give it whatever word you want. You know what it is. It's that just can you not be? You can only really say it in negative terms because you can't put your finger on it and describe it.
That's the only thing that doesn't, and it's not a thing, but it's that which doesn't change, that is still and silent. And it is as it is no matter what the heck is going on, always. And you can't get away from it. If you wanted to, you couldn't. It is everything. It is the underlying matrix, fabric, whatever. Everything happens in it, including the... The transient belief in a mind that does something.That's the same thing as believing there's a doer. We're making all this happen, that we are the causal agent. No. No. Beautiful. I just really quickly like the sense of presence, like the knowing that we are.
Then there's like the thought I am. But the thought I am is not what I am. Like the thought I am cannot be this sense of presence. Yet Nisargadatta used to always refer to it as like the primary thought in which all other thoughts of self, in which the self is formulated around that sense of or that idea or that thought that I am. And if you look, like every thought, every... My me my thought has that sense of my me my me and me me me embedded in it or or or associated with that stream of thoughts and and none of them are true but like it's just quite easy to see that they stem from that It's like a mind or a thought interpreting the sense of presence that is absolutely obvious and bright.and illuminating this whole show and then oh oh yeah this is life this is aliveness it's a thought it's an idea oh this is my aliveness because i'm this good guy dean and i'm a bloody good guy oh no but sometimes i'm really shit sometimes smart sometimes an absolute idiot whatever we go on she's nice oh she's not that nice bang, the whole universe, every bit of fuckery under the sun starts to emerge.
And then it's like this weird thing. We're so lost and entwined, and then it's like a tracing back to that simplicity, going back to the very beginning, which is like, oh, I'm aware. And the thought I am is actually... Is really on top of like the absolute presence and the presence is undeniable and then you know that whole stream doesn't need to be followed or believed or it can't be it's not possible and there's no one doing that either that's just how it all plays itself out But it plays itself out in such an incredible array, like for each so-called, like every little, every person, every, the infinite factors are at play and making the expression or the realisation or the understanding come together in endless ways.
It doesn't matter. Because ultimately it comes back to that sense of presence. And it's not my sense of presence. It is the sense.sense of presence. There's no one who has a different sense of presence or a higher sense of presence or a higher level of consciousness or is functioning on level 454 on the consciousness scale, whatever. It's the same sense of presence. And we or it, it is that one essence again. patterning, shaping, forming as all the different expressions, but the sense of presence can't be different. It's the one presence, one life expressing through it all. Sorry, I'm talking a bit too much. Yes. Beautiful.
Beautiful. We have the mic working now, apparently, only now. Yes, yes. And Bradley says, life is like poetry without words, music without phrases, love without a lover, movement without being moved. There is no you in flow. I love his pearls. Thank you, Bradley. And we have, Catherine says, the body is nothing but a psychosomatic apparatus with no independent existence apart from life itself. Absolutely, absolutely, yes. I've noticed that even though the self is seen through, the self is seen through and not believed in,Plenty of what I call self, you know. Plenty of self as echoes and plenty of self still arises. I still have judgments.
Of course. I still have all this bullshit. Yeah, the automatic software. Planning what to say and all that sort of thing. It's not as if we become a blank slate suddenly where everything is... It's just impinging. It's just, there's still plenty of self. The body keeps dying. So nothing actually really changes. There never was a doer. Right, that's right. Never was. The doing happens. Doing just, it did say, the action happens. The stimulus and the response happens, constant, constant change in the dream. But, you know, of course stuff just goes on. What do you do? The you was never there. The controller was never there.That's the thing.
You were never the doer. It's not that you become realised and all of a sudden something changes in that way. It's just seeing through. Seeing through. They can't hear you. The mind still interprets it in that way because I might be putting on my shoes and you say, what are you doing? I'm putting on my shoes, but it's just the mind interpreting or the thought interpreting what's happening. Yeah, and the limitations of language and something with boundaries. To me, it's just like an ABC sports program. And you are the television, you are the players, and you are the commentary. And there's all that commentary, and then they're running up the stairs, and, oh, no, there's a, what's the ball?
It's just like that. What if there was no commentary, but it still happened? And the screen would still be there. It can only happen on the screen. The commentary is not driving me out. Yeah, that's right. The whole lot. The action will continue without the commentary. And what you really are is that which is the true in essence and false in which it appears. So the Maya, the screen, the commentator, the news.The electromagnetic waves going through the screen and all that is Maya. But it is the same one in essence, the source. Oh, Lila, Maya, Shakti, whatever. So vibration is an expression. Then the dance is so beautiful.
Then the dance becomes beautiful. The expression is spontaneous. It always was spontaneous. It can be more spontaneous. What a joy. Playfulness. Playfulness. That's what that's mostly with the non-dualists. I really like what you said, Dean, about we don't own that presence. It's a wonderful point because me being a special child in the world thinks that I'm special. As a psychologist for some 30 plus years, I'd work with the mind and if people thought that, well, great, you know, it's great. But when they would start to suffer, sort of challenge that little belief a bit. And it's just such a gift that we all have this presence, this gift.
No one owns it, you know, it's just like, and that's not a loss, it's a gain. You know, it's not a loss that is such a common sort of thing, this everyday thing. It's a beautiful recognition and I just feel overwhelmed by the beauty of, wow, this presence somehow.I'm experiencing this life, this beingness, it's just fantastic until it ends. And I don't know when that will be. Just the watching of that every day is just beautiful. And constantly the mind will come up with things and does. And I don't have to have any... Argument with that you know it's just so beautiful I don't have to argue with myself about about anything you know like you're saying Dean just appearing and but some people do put people up as special and I like the Dalai Lama he's got more enlightenment and this next fella or whatever And he was once asked, do you ever get angry?
And he said, I'm only being asked stupid questions by reporters. And, you know, I see a lot of these fellas around and we all have the same emotions up and down and good days and bad days, so to speak. Experiencing of it is just so beautiful just having the experience in continuing and continuing so thank you living this yes you are the sky and realizing that you are the sky does not change the pattern of the weather like Robin was saying there is still a lot of things coming up or you were just saying now you know positive negative emotions judgment statements ideas narrative it all comes up because the sky isunconditionally embracing every weather that's the hurricanes go through that sky the winds the nice clouds and the and the heavy rainy grays whatever whatever the clouds realization doesn't change the nature of the weather the nature of the appearance the fact that everything is constantly changing fluctuating The realization that there is no one running the show does not impact the show in a way one would want to expect it.
Now there is going to be only ecstasy in the body. There is never going to be one negative thought. There is never going to be an anger or sickness. Now the realization that no one runs the show follows the realization that no one ran the show before also. No one ran the show when you were seven years old. No one ran the show yesterday. Realizing that no one runs the show right now means no one ever did and never could and never will. There is no one there full stop. And if the show contains the thunderstorms and the fires and the floods, it will contain the thunderstorms and the fires and the floods.
It's just that no one now will beat itself up for I should have chose differently. I should have behaved differently. This still comes up in the narrative because it's a part of a learning software. But believing that this is I speaking, it won't happen if there isthe clarity and obviousness that there is no I. Oh my gosh, it is a game changer. Yes, the suffering, psychological suffering drops. The weather is still, you know, the hot flashes or whatever, or whatever it comes with the, you know, body falling apart or different moods, the vitamin deficiencies, all those things are still playing out and they still affect the weather.
But the idea that there is a me who is affected, that this is happening to me, this is serious, this is important, this is personal, that one is not. It happens to life. Oh, judgment happens to life. Hmm, interesting. Who cares? Everything that happens, happens to life, happens to weather, to the sky. I am the sky. It happens to the totality. There is no objections to anything that happens, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant. That's the freedom. Jimmy's going to speak, but I was just going to say, so if nothing ever, if no one's running this show, it also means no one's running any show. So you can be, you can do whatever you want.
And like, you know, it's not just the piece. It's the understanding. There's no one can, we're all one thing. One show, one thing, like expressing through Anita's voice and movement.and is the same one show going on. So how can there be any fault? Even in disputes, like there's no dispute really because there's no one doing it. No one's doing this, no one's doing that. As long as it goes my way. And I'm just, sorry, just one comment on that. Just, you know, travelling overseas a lot, as I do through all different cultures, the language is not needed because the self recognises the self, wherever it is, however it expresses, in whichever culture.
You know, you might need the language to order some food or get on a train or something, but it's the sameness. It's so obvious. Beautiful. I love how you said, who cares? Yes. Yes. Yeah, because when you do care, it sucks. Yeah. So I'm grateful. Serious pearls. Serious pearls. Yeah, I'm dropping bombs down here. That's all I wanted to say. That's a great non-duality mantra. Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? Yes, if there is a you, there is none of your business. But because there isn't any you,It's just no business, nothing to worry about, nothing to object to. And if the objection arises, the objection is just another cloud on the sky.
Don't bother with it. Don't care about it. If the caring arises, well, leave it unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected too. The show runs itself. There is no personal self who can alter it, fix it, modify. And if the illusion of self arises, well, wonderful, laugh at it too. It's cool. Isn't it incredible? The illusion of self? What a brilliant, brilliant projection. The life essence, the indivisible, the indivisibleness. Running itself that self-hypnosis that beautiful dream in which it seemingly fools itself to a belief of being something else and something other than itself absolutely impossible and how convincing Can't you not love it with all of your heart? It's brilliant.
You believe being that self? Cool. Look, it's not going to last. You know, if the worst comes to the worst, the dream is going to end when the body expires. So there is no way that illusion can ever last. So enjoy it while it's there. It's a brilliant, convincing play.Just this, oh no, we have only a couple of minutes. Anyone? Yay. Just from the beginning, Kat, when you spoke of, you know, the words can't exist without the page, you know, just and the sky. Yeah. There's just always that sense of priorness that. Yeah. Always is so reassuring when I come here. There's always just the prior.
And, you know, that's so beautifully put with the page and the words because it doesn't mean that the words don't exist. They just need the priorness. And so, as you kind of said, you can kind of celebrate them, the words for what they are. You're not the words, but you're part of the whole thing. So, yeah, thank you. Thank you. Yes, Nisar Gadad, I would say love it all or none of it. You know, the dream is not your problem. Dream is, wow, dream is, what a dream it is. Sometimes the dream is such that there is just a turmoil, just a war, just a suffering, just a scarcity.
Well, that's still a dream. Recognizing that it is a dream you can still be in all but what he says don't love pleasure and hate pain because that'sthe creation of the reference point that is now me and I like this and I don't like that I think Jeff would touch upon it also so indifference space is absolutely indifferent it it treats pain and pleasure equally it embraces equally it allows it to be equally it doesn't even allow it It just is, it just is, the neutrality, the background. But there is a subtle aspect of loving to be, which when you land, relax out of that constant narration and believing in the narration to be the reality, there is a subtle joy of being, subtle preference for being.
That is sweet. There is a sweetness of being. There is that peacefulness, stillness of being. And that is also a big aspect of that because in the turmoil of that self-defense mode, that self-referencing mode in which I'm constantly preoccupied of how am I, me, me, the person, how am I perceived, how am I received, who is, where is the next danger, what else is going to go wrong. If I'm constantly believing that negative thinker there, which is a survival mechanism,The joy, the subtle love of being is obscured, is ignored, is somehow covered up with that whole cortisol tension, existential angst. And it doesn't have to be this way.
Because it is there underlying, no matter how much it is obscured, it is never not here. And just, yeah, disregard the...the messy horror maker for a moment, the drama queen, the storyteller. And that is the page, that is that blankness, that is that blank page which is always relaxed, which there is no tension in it. Still. Still, still silent. All the tension, still, still. All the tension arises and falls back into, like in the deep sleep. There's no problem. There is also no awareness of presence, but it doesn't matter because there is no one who cares. There's no one who prefers that awareness to be.
It's just a part of the operational mode, whether there is the presence of consciousness or the absence of consciousness. Space is never absent. And that's when the dream ends. Space remains. Although the dream character is not there to acknowledge it. Who cares? Yeah, so it is really a celebration, primal innocence, few hearts, and that's it for the online contribution. And I think that's it for joining us. And thank you for contributing. Thank you for being here.