This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
Sing. Sing. John. John. David. And we got Bob and Tanya. And welcome those who are with us online. And as usual, we're going to start from an invitation, if anyone would like to give us an introductory spiel. It is particularly fun to actually hear the same message from other musical instruments that will sing it out. It's an indication, it's not a push, but everyone here knows with 100% certainty that you exist. And this is the final truth, so everybody's already not even having it, but being it. You are, you exist, that's it. Now we can just investigate and look and distinguish what stands in the way of fully giving it its due recognition.
Because it's not even important, it's the only thing that matters, the recognition. Anyone taking it? Anyone for the invitation? Just a few words, whether it's 10 minutes or 20 minutes or half an hour or anything.How about you, Dean? Not at the moment. Not at the moment, okay. Okay, so, what are the honors? And it is a privilege, it is a privilege and an honor to actually see that this is the only thing that matters and not to be swayed or distracted by the little nonsense, the little personal story or the little dramas that are happening in this room, outside, in the world, in the imagination because let's face it where is the world if we don't think about it?
The only thing that is happening right now is this, is this moment, is this room, one could say. But even this room is just a label put upon the set of perceptions and sensations that are happening presently, that are unique and different and alive and fresh and present, immediate.While usually we have this brilliant equipment here installed in that biocomputer which focuses attention and creates the image of space outside the room. Where is that space? Where is the space outside? It is in the realm of imagination. It is in that vastness of conceptual space, of imagined conceptual space. So another countries, another galaxies, another rooms, another people, they all exist when we think about them.
They cannot be experienced directly. They are experienced through the memories, through the imagination, through the visions. And there's nothing wrong, it's quite wonderful. That we can even experience completely fictional entities. Like the boys were talking about the cartoons. We can experience the feelings of entities that were drawn. That are not even... Is there anything... Yeah, there's nothing wrong with right now. Hopefully that's going to work. It might be a volume problem. Okay. Okay. Is there anybody reporting the volume problem? Yeah. Sorry for that. Yeah. Sorry. Sometimes we struggle with technology.of that biocomputer here, to create multiverse, to create worlds that are not immediately experienced through the senses, but are experienced through the mental images, through the memories, through the fantasies, through dreams at night.
That is to be appreciated. But when we mistake it for the reality, there is a backfire, we suffer. If I think that's the truth, that, oh my God, my mother doesn't love me, and my father died, of course, then this is suffering. But if this is seen for what it is, if it is seen for just a mental image, just a conceptual story, then there is no problem. Wow, what a story. Cool. And the story will always have to be colorful and it will have to have its ups and downs because without it, there is no story. Nobody would be interested in viewing a story in which everything is blunt and boring.
The possibility and the capacity for this life essence to experience in all its shades and all its colors is the beauty of that dream called life. So to be able to appreciate the beauty, including the beauty of darkness, including the coldness of winters, without being swayed by it, without being tormented by it. That's what's on offer. That's living.from the natural state that's living like everything is living in nature the tree doesn't fear its death it doesn't imagine its old age it isn't tormented by potential diseases or abandonments or the or the insect or the wild creature they are completely present they are not distracted by the storing storytelling program installed in their navigational aid they don't have that capacity and and it's again the capacity is nothing wrong with it we don't want to switch it off that is it is a beautiful capacity it's a capacity for creativity for incredible art for visionary inventions is lovely it's just that if and Bob would say it often if the capacity uses you well you're a slave to it and if you are using the capacity well there is a brilliant capacity so let not the mind use you let you use the mind and again it sounds like duality here it sounds like there is an eye and the mind no there is only one essence one life which expresses through and us the mind mind is not excluded mind is just one of multitude of ways through which that one essence existsSo the wave is not excluded from the experiencing and expression of the ocean.
The mind, the individuality, the personality, the credit-taking habit, because personality you can see in animals as well. Every wave is uniquely different. It has different... Shape and form and salinity and temperature and all that. But the idea that I am that, the identity with the form, that is unique capacity which only human pattern has. Animals, birds, insects, waves and trees, they don't have that capacity as far as we can tell. Scanning their computers. There is an awareness of the shape and the size of the vehicle, just like there is an awareness of the shape and the size of a vehicle when you put a little bit bigger suit or when you drive a bigger car.
But it doesn't translate to I am this vehicle. And if it does, it's not really taken that seriously. It's again, it's an aid in navigation. It's not a belief into the reality. But the human pattern does have a tendency to believe into a reality, the idea that I am the controller, the choice maker, the doer, the thinker.And I am some sort of a soul or ego or some translucent little creature, little thingy there inside somewhere, which is responsible for my choices and my decisions and my mistakes. And we honor those who can. Own their mistakes and we disregard as immature or silly those who cannot own their mistakes.
So the society promotes that model of functioning in which I am responsible for my thoughts, I am responsible for my actions, for my behaviors. I am the doer of my deeds and I am the choice maker, decision maker. And therefore I'll be punished or rewarded. And I'll be molded in this way. Since early childhood, I'll be perhaps, well, again, depends on the family. Bob would say if you have warm and loving family, it will be less insecure and less vulnerable. You'll have more healthy self-confidence and self-worth. But if you've been abused and if you've been diminished or you didn't have the voice or you were abandoned, then you will be more insecure and more traumatized and you will be less functional with less of a healthy self-confidence and so on.
That is all about the vehicle. But the awareness of good childor bad childhood or trauma or absence of it or confidence high and low, the awareness does not have inequalities. The awareness of the bad weather is not bad. The awareness of a good weather is not good. The awareness is like sky. In that sky, in that space, you can witness how this conditioned body responds to the environment. You can see how the trauma response, the early abandonment or early negligence or whatever happened, is going to play out in a situation. Which you are witnessing you are the space and the behavior arises in the space is that yours is that you know is the body mind arising in the space of awareness you are the awareness and yet the nature of a dream is such that that observation and that witnessing happens through the dream character you're using its eyes and its ears and its bodily sensations to witness so it can't be fully separated the witnessing presence it is the space like awareness the sky like awareness but the sky so to speak, knows its own existence because of the clouds that give it, make it experience.If there is only one, if there is no expression, if there is no vibration, if there is a pure field of infinite possibilities out of which none has transpired into an actuality, well, there is no actuality.
When the actuality is there, it points out to that field of infinite possibility. Like in this old metaphor with the glass window or a glass door, you can see sometimes maybe the birds just flying and not seeing the glass and just banging themselves and knocking themselves unconscious because of the glass. So people would put a little thingies like, you know, little decorations or glues, sticks, something blingy, so the bird can see the glass. And now the presence of those little decorations is pointing to the presence of the glass. Without the decorations, glass is invisible. So it is almost as if the presence of a dream character brings into the known the field of possibility from which that presence emerged.
So in a way, one could say the separation is required to realize the underlying oneness of it.So like if you have the whiteboard, you put the black dot, now you can call it white. Before that, there's just nothing. If everything is white, there is no white. Because white only exists as something opposite to not white. And that's why that this is not really why, but we could we could say it this way. The potentiality of experiencing and expressing, showing up the world, showing up as a vibration into the infinite amount of things, the things, the objects, the phenomena. Is the way the infinite potentiality dances.
It's like the metaphor of Shiva being the sky and the Shakti being the earth, being the form, life-giving, birth-giving, nature, mother earth. So without that, without the form, emptiness is still there, but it's unrealized. It doesn't matter. It doesn't, you can't even say it is there. I mean, can we even say there is such thing as emptiness? It's not a thing. We can't really call it a thing. It's the potentiality. It neither exists nor it doesn't. And that is your essential nature. But right in this moment,That potentiality appears in the field of knowing as the I am. Undeniable sense of existence. It's not a potentiality.
Or maybe I exist, maybe I don't. Even to have that question, there is an existence. To question its own existence, it is first. So the actuality of this present moment right now is that I am. I don't have to use the words I am, but there is a conviction. There is a certainty that I am. And that's an obvious certainty. And on the hearts of hearts, everybody, no one doubts it. Everybody knows it with 100% certainty. There's no doubt in existence. You can doubt everything else and you should. But not the fact of your own existence. You can see that from the dream to the dream, everything changes.
Your shape, the size of the vehicle, the self-image of the vehicle. On a good day, you may have high self-esteem. On a bad day, you may feel unworthy and shit. All those things change the external circumstances is different in the fantasy of hawaii is different in a last night horror dream or you know all of that changes constantly but being that point in consciousnessthat presence witnessing that whole field that one never changes even calling it a point it is no point it has no boundaries it's just the presence so that never changes that's the truth that's the reality that which does change is the movie, is the dream, is what is displayed on that screen of presence.
You are that which never changes. Reality is that which never changes. You are that which witnesses changes. So you can't be the change itself. You are witnessing of a change. And that is the natural state. And that is home. And that is who you are. Now let's see how quickly it gets obscured and what is obscuring it. Yes, but I understand it. I get it intellectually. I hear everything. I heard it a thousand times. Everybody says the same shit. But... But...I still want more pleasure. This moment is not good enough. I want more adoration from the world or more money or more health or more something.
Not this. No. Says who? The life itself, the life essence does not object to itself. It is itself. It is always at peace. That witnessing presence is the peace that passes all understanding. It does not speak. It does not label, this is good, this is bad, I want more of this, I want less of that. No, who is speaking? Who is objecting to the reality? Anybody there? Let's see. So there is a thought arising. This is not good enough. You know, they told me that enlightenment is an eternal bliss and ecstasy. And they told me, who told you? They told me that everybody, you know, every tree was going to bow down to me.
I'll be so great. Everybody will be just coming to me. Wow, eternal dream of ego, superiority, grandiosity. Those images, those crazy images, are just part of the hide-and-seek play of life. Once you see them for what they are, they're so cute. They're so cute.Laughable. I want to be, you know, I'm so inferior, so poor, miserable little me, you know, I was always so tiny, my parents were so big. I want to feel big, I want to feel complete. Says who? Space is never incomplete. You are never incomplete. Who you are owns the world, like Nisargadatta says, swallows the world. The whole world appears in what you are.
Where is the incompleteness? The sense of incompleteness, what is it? It is a conditioned thought. And you weren't born with that conditioned thought. When the baby comes out of a womb, It looks out, it doesn't even see, or there is some seeing happening, but there is no understanding of what is what. Apparently, even the whole image is upside down. The hearing is all scrambled. It's all... Whatever again as far as we know about that biocomputer how it generates and processes the the images so the the baby gets conditioned to even understand make sense of the world and that is the programming And through that programming, when the baby gets enough of the language, it learns to refer and relate everything to this as me.This is I.
If he could speak, there is a pesto hour red card here. If he could speak, he would say I. Anyone and everyone relating to themselves says I. And this is just a symbol. This is called symbolic language. And in that symbol, In that symbolism, the relating happens, the credit taking happens. This is a program in which whatever is happening in life is being translated as relevant or irrelevant, helpful or unhelpful, pleasant or unpleasant. And then as what follows is the desire or aversion. If it's pleasant, I want more of it. Or I don't want to get rid of it. I want to keep it. And if it's unpleasant, then I want to push it away.
So there is an I, and the I gets stronger. With every bit of conditioning, it gets more rigid. I like this smell. I like this taste. I don't like this person. I like that one. And it gets more and more solidified. And what's the truth of life? Constant change, constant flux. So that I, which constantly tries to fight with life, to fight with the natural change of things, well, is bound to suffer. It's just you can see through it.ridiculous it is to object to the weather and to hate the changing weather. And yet this is how this biocomputer got conditioned. If this is me, if I'm in charge, if I'm responsible, if I'm responsible for my thoughts, Oh shit, I have so many nasty judgmental thoughts.
I hate that weather. I hate that person. Oh, what's wrong with me? Oh my God, I'm unworthy. The conditioning which presumes that I am in charge, that I am a doer, is the root cause of suffering. Of course, initially is the I itself. Having a power, imagined power. The power is there. The omnipotence is there. Life is all powerful and you as life are all powerful. But if you imagine yourself to be a little avatar in a little game, in a little 3D reality that has a power other than the power of life that is given to you, Well, of course, that is too ridiculous.
That is bound to be exposed. Sooner or later, that power will be challenged. Like the little metaphor about the ant on the head of the elephant. Thinking that it is having a power to steer the elephant. The elephant goes ahead and the little mouse or the little ant says, go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, I get it.driving it and then it says go to the left go to the left but elephant turns to the right oh shit what's going on I was having it now I lost it how am I gonna get back to it I want to get back control the control of the elephant well you never had it Never.
Whatever anyone is looking for as something that you had and you lost. Whatever can be had or lost is phenomena. Whatever experience, whatever pleasures, whatever realization, which is intellectual pleasure or conceptual pleasure, All those things are phenomena, are changing. And the habitual pre-programmed way of that navigational aid to work is always focused on the change. If you look at the field of vision or field of hearing, If there is no disturbing sound, let's say there is a sound of a heater in the background, after a while you won't hear it. It just gets selected out of the field of attention. But if there is a sudden sound, straight away attention goes there.
If there is a sudden explosion or a sudden change in vision, attention goes there. So the whole machine, the whole biocomputer,is designed to focus on change, to scan environment, to find and prevent the danger from harming the whole body. So if you listen to the mind, you're listening to the impermanence. You are engaged with the changing. constantly that which changes the objects. While the reality, that which is always here, same for everyone, lacking any capacities, peace that passes all understanding, for the mind, invisible, non-existent. For the heart, undeniable, always here. It gets ignored. And that is why Bob was hammering down always. There's no way.
It's not difficult. It's impossible to find the answer in the mind, to grasp it with the mind, to use that device which is designed to focus on changes. And look for the changeless. Ridiculous is objectively, logically, even logically is ridiculous, it's impossible. To use the equipment which tunes all the senses to find what's threatening, to complain, to find the dangers and mitigate them. And use that very same device, the narrative device, the biocomputer, to acknowledge that radiant miraculousness of existence. You can't do that. It's not going to happen. It's not difficult. It's impossible. To realize that it is impossible, full stop. There is a chance the mind will just relax.Just relax.
And in that relaxation, Suddenly, what's wrong? There's nothing wrong. It's only the mind that creates things that are wrong. Yes, but there are objectively wrong things, you know, the war. Objectively wrong. Absolutely. In the realm of conceptualized reality, on the overlay of that pure existence. Yes, in the dream, terrible. Absolutely horrific. But in this moment now,in this moment now, in the relaxation. Because this is not about denying the reality of the dream, the horror of any dreams that you had, the horrors of childhood, the horrors of potential dramas that may come with whatever future. It's not. It's just to deny them attention. And give attention to that which is shining right in front and is being ignored, is being exchanged for the thought, the unborn Buddha mind, the radiance of pure existence.
Once this get acknowledged once this is given its rightful place in the heart and in the mind because then you know if that light is shining and in that in that shining light radiance of of existence the dream is being seen for what it is That is the chance for the right action, right behavior, and all that stuff that Buddhism is talking about. The right attitude, the right mindset, the right, right, right, right. You can't contrive it. You can't pretend it. You can't, you know, following Jesus'teaching, I'll be pretending that I'm, you know, show the other chick and all that stuff. It is sweet, but it is just an act.acting game, being an actor, being a pretender, there is a natural authenticity stemming from complete relaxation into the natural state.
And if you look at the animal, you should see that pester playing with Jim. He does not have any ideas of what to be or how to behave. In that natural state, in that presence, that presence thatthat is never not here. Whatever actions are arising, whatever thoughts are arising, they are most likely, of course, it will still be conditioned by the machine, but they're most likely the optimal in a given circumstances. If the body is conditioned to express joy in singing, the body will be singing. If the body is conditioned to express stress by crying, the body will be crying. But in the immediacy, the most optimal, uncontrived by overthinking, overanalyzing response will come just the same way it does in nature.
The only difference, of course, suffering, psychological suffering, the conditioned behavior of the humans living in their heads, living in their imagined dramas. This one doesn't like me, this one hate me, this one disrespect me, this one this about me, me, me, me. Even that is natural. The conditioning is natural because everything is nothing out of nature. It's just unnecessary. There is another way of living the life. And this is the way in which many people have the claims, of course, again, the illusion of grandeur. This is...I will be ignoring suffering. I will be, I will be spiritually bypassing. And now we have people like Bob being a living proof that being completely grounded in the present moment, he would not once choose his own dinner over helping someone in need.
He would put everything down and run to the phone and pick the phone. If the necessity was there to speak with someone for an hour or two, he would just be there. The natural compassion from the natural state, when you don't feel inferior, insufficient, incomplete. You're one with life. Whatever the life is presenting, whatever shows up in a field of attention, the life naturally moves through you and through the field as inseparable one. So the fears and the silly claims of some conceptual dangers associated with the spontaneous and natural and immediate recognition that there is nothing wrong in that moment. And ideas that this is a denial of all the mental shit that goes on in here.
All the ideas of every death and every...thickness and every drama and every suffering. It's not. It's not. Really, the capacity, and Bob had another beautiful example, the capacity to be at service increases hundredfold. You know, sitting in a tram, he had this example about the tram, sitting in a tram, torturing yourself with the imagination about how many people died today in the car accidents and how many people got diagnosed with cancer and how many children got raped and how many of, you know, and just living in that nightmare in your head. And you're missing out. Someone just in front of you had a fall when the Trump put a brake.
Missing out on what is happening in the immediacy. Well, if you are fully present, you are attuned to what is happening. We used to have, because this is a busy intersection, Paula just reminded me a few days ago, she came, a friend, she comes sometimes here, came to the meeting and we put a movie to watch the three of us, Bob, I and Paula, and suddenly smashed the cars, crashed. So I ran out of the house, of course, called the ambulances. They're not going very fast, so they're not floating, flying limbs and blood or anything. It's just a little shock. And I've been through those, maybe 20 or 30 of them.It's, you know, yeah, it's where we live.
It's not a big deal, but they're usually shaken. They usually forget about calling their loved ones who wait for them or forget the number to the ambulance. It's just a little thing, little assistance. I usually get the blanket and a bottle of water or something. And then I came back a half an hour later again. The same thing happened. But if we were living in our heads, thinking about the horrible things that happen elsewhere, we wouldn't even hear it. People who don't live here, they're not accustomed to that particular sound. They wouldn't even hear it. So being grounded, being present, being open, having the five senses wide open, not bypass or ignore or deny the dramas of the world, but place you right here.
And if there is right here any necessity for any action, for any service, that's where you are. That's where you can deliver. If there is any necessity for the action of service about the war in Middle East or in Ukraine, and it comes clear, you know, to send a donation or whatever, it comes clear in a consciousness in the present moment that it's also a present act.But if there is a ruminating and beating up and dramatizing and just basically indulging, there are people who are really, really addicted to that darkness, indulging. You know, there's so many people who have it worse than me. How good really nah there really there is a way of living life out of the constant imagination but being right here being fully with it appreciating every sound, every sight, every sensation, delighting in the fact that there is a breath going through the body.
That there is a seeing, a miracle of seeing. How amazing is that? The capacity itself. And so taken for granted. The capacity of thinking, making sense of the world. And again, seeing that biocomputer offering, constantly offering different interpretation of what's going on.meaning making like Tony would say the meaning making machine constantly seeing that machine making sense of the world Wow being a presence being the witnessing of that which arises be it a scene being a sound being a thought being an image being a surge of feeling, whether it is compassion or sadness or whatever it is, being a presence in which life can bring up this beautiful creation and seeing them as that.
This is, I am the ocean. This is one of the waves. And now the wave of sadness, wow. Or the wave of imaginary drama that could happen if something or the other. But it's not me, it's not personal. It's just a thought formation showing up and fading away without any need to be engaged, to embark that train of thoughts and follow it. The freedom from being swayed by every Every breeze, everything that comes along, yes.to being swayed by it too, if that's what's happening. But the one that is swayed is only the mind, the presence, the stillness, that peace that passeth all understanding. The space is always untouched.
Even when you look at the cat, you know, and the cat is called for the food or the cat is playing with the other cat, it gets engaged. And it has fun or it has no fun or it has discomfort. That is the content of a dream. But the space, the space is never touched by any of it. And we humans have that possibility of acknowledging that because cats take it for granted, there is no possibility for the cat to realize that there is, you know, that there is an existence underlying experiencing because existence and experiencing are inseparable. It can't be separated because even the existence itself is a subtle, it's not an experience, but it's the experiencing.
But for the cat, it isn't. For the cat, there is no insight. Because it is like the, you know, you have the fish. Fish is made mainly of water and it swims in the water and the water is all it knows. It doesn't know it because it doesn't.It doesn't have an opposite. It doesn't know no water, so it can't know water. Take the fish out. And now it appreciates the water. So take the human out. This is another Zen metaphor which says, you know, the freedom starts making sense if you are already a seeker. Because there's a lot of people who are not the seekers.
They naturally embrace the miracle of existence and they're naturally grateful and appreciative of everything that shows up. And in the love and appreciation, there really is not much relating happening. There is no, not much of a self. When you are presented with the breathtaking beauty of a fantastic landscape, you don't conceptualize yourself somewhere there. No, it's just, wow, that's all there is. But when they talk someone being already a seeker, already being bugged by the imagination of something else, something more and something different than this present moment right now. They reject by nature the program of seeking is rejecting this present moment is saying this is not good enough.
This is shit. I need something more something other. I. That the separation I know better than God. I know better than life that this moment is not good. So if someone is alreadygot that virus of seeking, then the way out is to seek to the point when you are craving the liberation from that nightmare of seeking as much as you would crave air when your head is submerged for three minutes. And you're gasping, you're dreaming for a breath of air, but your water is submerged in a bucket or in a lake or anywhere, then you are ready to appreciate it. And then you take that breath, it's not for granted.
Breath is a miracle. It's a miracle of aliveness. And it's here. It's not for granted.And I guess, yeah, that's the blessing and the curse of finding out, of witnessing that presence, being that witnessing presence in that costume of the human creature, of that meat costume, or what was it Bob was saying? I think Nisargadatta was calling it meat body, and Muktananda took it a step further, shit factory. So having that experience of wearing that virtual 3D reality costume, which gives you a vision and hearing and seeing and tasting and touching and smelling and all the pleasures coming and all the pains coming from having the meat body on.
But at the same time, realizing that you know very little about that meat body. You are witnessing it. You are witnessing it growing. You are witnessing it changing. Very little you know about the cell replacement in your bones. That's not who you are. That's your machine. You probably know more about your car. How to change the, well, maybe today nobody knows enough, really. There are specialists for every little piece of the machinery, just like in a human body. The complexity of it is so immense.It's still, you know, fascinating way in which even within the dream, everything is so obviously interdependent. Obviously, not only the human body is dependent on air, water, food and everything else, but also on everyone else.
On those mechanics that know how the bone marrow works and how the hips work and all that those mechanics that can replace the parts of this body or can even up the chemical imbalance in the body and those mechanics who are these programmers who know how the machinery works and they offer some cbt or some other programs which kind of help mitigating a little bit of different disorders in the programming, some ADHDs or other things. They're just part of the dreams. They are not right or wrong. They're inseparable and interdependent. There wouldn't be any CBT if there was no need for it. And there wouldn't be any mechanics if the bodies were ethereal or whatever.
So that beautiful interdependence pointing to oneness, pointing to inseparability of the whole dream is still looking at the expression. But what's beneath?that expression is the pure potentiality for it, which makes every moment unique and unrepeatable. So to acknowledge that uniqueness of each moment is to live it fully, is to be open to it fully, embrace it, appreciate it. Even if the content of this moment is the mind that complains, yeah, but where is the ecstasy? Or why don't I look younger? Why am I not richer? Why not everybody loves me? That is the content of this moment also to be appreciated. Appreciating the complaints of that navigational aid, which is designed to complain.
Because whatever it brings is supposed to help the survival. Yes, ma'am. If you want some biscuits. Yeah. So much love coming this way. It's not that big. Yeah, it's a very, very simple language. It's a very simple language of a cat. He's bringing, he's coming, and everything in life is really that very, very simple language of that one essence, of that one life.If you really, really see the world in that singular way, like Nisargadatta was pointing, everything is love. Hunger for wisdom is love, love for the truth. Violence in which you are robbing and raping others is love for oneself. Is trying to get more looking after self-care in a little bit disguised and misguided way, but it's still love behind it.
It's love for the me and the mine, he would say. The me and the mine who may be conceptualized as a tiny little creature, or it can expand and embrace the whole universe, the whole oneness. And then the love, love remains, love is always there. The mind complaining, oh, what's wrong with me? I'm unworthy. It's the mind saying, I care. I love. I want it to be the best it can. I want the acknowledgement and love. The mind that complains, yeah, but my boss is a bully, is really saying, look, again, there is a love and there is a care, and I don't want anything bad to happen to it.
Seeing the mind for what it is, navigational aid, which has preconditioned often unhealthy ways, unhealthy by who? By the society, of course. It's another way of judging the programming.But it might be just painful and uncomfortable ways of expressing that love. Witnessing that mind ask what it is takes this thing away completely. It makes it cute. It makes it funny. Even the commentary which would say, oh, look, you're fat and ugly, whatever. Oh, wow. Cool. I can't believe it anymore because I'm not this body. So whatever it says, it's just a conditioned behavior. It's just the autopilot. It doesn't say it anymore, by the way, but it used to.
Now, maybe it does, but nobody listens. I don't know. It's just whatever the narrative brings up is just like your chat GPT. Whatever has been programmed in is coming out. Or like your Siri or your automatic subtitles. It just brings out what was programmed. You ask a question, it brings up the answer. Is there anybody there doing it? Just like in this machine, there is no one there doing it. The only conscious part of the whole thing is the knowing, is the being knowing. The rest is a machine, the being knowing, expressing through the machine, as the machine. Of course, every part of the machine, every cell of the machine,machine is suffused with life is alive every blood cell is alive and it has its own intelligence but for the for the sake of pointing to say the knowing the consciousness is the only conscious part is close enough to pointing to that which is a presence which is witnessing being knowing sat chit ananda being knowing loving to be which is for granted is already is already yours is already experienced fully there is no doubt in being no one doubts their own being no one stops can stop pause and check like the fish
taken out of the water to experience the water you can't be taken out of your being to experience it as an object but at the same time you can't deny it because even to deny it you are first and there is a presence there is an awareness of the being whether you want to label it this way or not Because the labels are never it.
That was brilliant. That was too long. It was divine. It's just... You can do it. It starts when I go too long. I didn't want to stop you. It was just flowing so beautifully. But everyone knows that we want to include everyone. I know, but it is what it is, darling. Yes. You know, that's what you said, the mind is designed to complain, to be dissatisfied. There's no such thing as mind, but if there were, it's designed to complain. Even if you're experiencing at this moment the most beautiful thing,happening still thoughts come up trying you know distract you of oh oh I really want this to keep going what am I going to do to make this keep happening I really like this feeling I want it to keep going instead of just focusing on it and missing it while it's happening Yeah, so good.
You know, it's interesting sitting here. I just want to say something that is very different, yet the same. This area is really difficult to talk about. So I'll just start with the cat. I mean, when we look at the cat, it's possible to look at the cat and see that it's a mechanism, a mechanism that...seems to act in its own survival. Yeah? So, so, really, we're mechanisms, exactly the same as a cat. That's what we do. That's what we're programmed to do over the 100,000 years or whatever. And when we talk about this, that we ignore all the illusions that we have about it, the illusion that things are separate, or the illusion of time, or the illusion that I haven't got it.
That I'm not in my natural state, another illusion. And I should be able to think of a few others, but I can't while I'm on the spot, yeah? The mix-up that we get with the symbol and the symbolised, all of these cloud our... They're clouding things. Okay? So...I just want to say that when we hear somebody speak about something, it probably goes into our minds and we regurgitate it and we turn it over and we play with it in the mind, yeah? But I don't think that that, as everybody knows, you don't get anything from the mind. It doesn't get anywhere. It just regurgitates and regurgitates.
Now, if you just look at what is, just for a moment, just for a moment, just look at what is. And some of you heard this before. In your own awareness right now, how many ears have you got? And I suggest that you will say, I'm not aware of my ears. That's a suggestion. Do it right now. How many ears have you got? Now, again, let me ask you another question. Are you in your own awareness right now? Who's there? Is there a me or is there just your awareness? Aren't you just aware of sounds?This room, the people in front of you. So another thing that I found it useful.
When I say I, I'm talking as mechanism, absolute programmed mechanism. When you just sit there and look for yourself, Do you notice, keep in mind, that this story, there's a brain and it has seeing and hearing and the other senses, yeah? And we've got this brain which also interprets everything that shows up, yeah? So, if you, and you actually have got, you have this seeming control to look at something and not make interpretations. Yeah?And when you look without those interpretations, there's absolutely nothing to say. Nothing to say about anything. We don't know anything at all. You know, we are aware. And you can use your imagination.
You can lie in the middle of the night in perfect darkness with eyes that are like telescopes and zoom in on the universe, you know. And, and, and. And you can't actually say anything about it. You're just aware. No, there is absolutely, in that awareness, there is no I. I is purely part of, isn't it, part of the programming of that mechanism. Okay? And we say, as a story, that sense of I gets us into... Angst it gets us into all sorts of problems it gets us into fear it gets us into all of these things so i just want to finish off just look for yourself are you aware of your ears are you aware of an eye I'll be out here.
Brilliant.I have a couple of comments from the online community. Thank you, Cole. I love listening to your practicality. It's just so helpful. Yeah. We have a few good morning messages. And Catherine says, wonderful to hear the pointers so clearly elucidated. Love from James and Catherine. Thank you, guys. And beautiful spiel says Giotti. And Peter says, recognizing how the optimal unfoldment of the dream is occurring as it is left alone and there is simply being space-like awareness. Beautiful input.Yeah, so anyone? Even just highlighting. Oh, wonderful. Lucky us. Can you pass them? Absolutely. That was a pressure. I think, Kat, that was such a powerful and beautiful transmission today.
It was just, I was shocked when you handed it over and almost an hour had passed.Yeah, just tuning into that message and as the thoughts subside, it's kind of time subsides. It's just the time is so obviously just a game the mind plays of something other than now. And it starts, well, when will this end? Will this go on? Like, exactly what you were saying. Yeah, when it subsides, it's just that beautiful, spacious awareness. And I think at one point, I can't remember what you were, there's something about, like, where's your focus of attention or something to that effect. And when the thought's not there, the different senses, if you look closely at them, they're not separate senses, it's just experiencing.
So there's the experiencing of sight at the same time as the experiencing of sound and sense. And we kind of separate them as coming from these different organs, but it's just happening now all at once. And even a thought coming in is still that just another aspect of experience. And you have, well, at least I have to look closely and to see that there's actually no,difference between these things that are happening. And there's just a relaxation. All of the relaxation allows the seeing of this almost. When the mind's not trying to capture and categorize this is different to this is different to this. There's just that happening.
And it's so easy when listening to you talk. That seems to happen. There's just such a powerful transmission that seems to happen automatically. Yeah, it was just an hour of joyous awareness listening to you talk, so thank you. I thought I was going to say something else, but I forgot what it was, so that was it. Yeah, thank you. So what are you going to do with yourself when she stops speaking? Oh, I don't know. I need to think about it. Yeah, I liked also Cole's practical approach and I'm noticing that I'm of course a quite practical person and seeing a scenario picture I feel always uncomfortable with seeing in the back thoughts while you did you spell and sometimes I'm like I should be presentBut then maybe this has just come to presence as it needed to be.
And when you spoke about the idea, the thoughts, for me it was like maybe belief systems or the idea that I am separated or I am excluded. And that came up and then I looked at that a bit more and yeah, if the thought, the thing that came up was if I think I'm excluded, therefore I'm not present. Then I realized, ah, if that is present in the thought pattern mechanism, the surrounding, there won't be presence to actually connect in a different way. And I was like, oh, how do I, what has to be changed to... Something needs to be changed into the thought belief pattern to create the outside world differently.
So there was something which came up today. It was really interesting. And I'm also noticing while I was in that space, it's a space of school where I pick up my son. And this is where usually everything comes up. I was more in acceptance that I was not so connected and I was more observant.in that acceptance and I noticed other things I didn't notice before. I noticed another child of the, who do, they've been applied and I'm watching the children and I noticed that one child was also never want to go to the group. It always stayed out and I'm realizing I never noticed that before.
And I thought, why do I notice these things now? So there's a lot of things coming up when you spoke that I'm like, oh, yeah, that is some things I noticed. And I got aware of. It was very interesting to... See that the spill in a practical way because this all happens in thoughts. Yeah. You know, that examples from the school showing you, this is exactly the beautiful attitude of being curious about your machine. Because every machine has different tendency. Some machine will be very attuned to observe the finest little details. Other machines will be attuned to see the bigger picture and interpret it in some ways.
Yet other machines will be attuned to notice particular things. Like I think I've given an example many times.used to walk with Bob every day, sometimes twice a day, just to keep us mobile and to enjoy the togetherness. He would always focus attention. His tendency was always probably more like yours, drawn towards the technical details, you know, the trams, the cars, the buildings, the... The stuff that required some technical mind, why I was always a glutton. I couldn't help it. I would just look at that which brings the most pleasure to the system. Beautiful reflection of light in the pond of water. A beautiful reflection of a droplet of water on the flower on the way.
A gorgeous dress on a gorgeous woman passing by. Different focus of attention, different training of attention. He got somehow, his machine was more attuned and it was more exciting, curious, interesting, comfortable to just look at those technicalities. Although he would acknowledge every person and would look in their eyes and say hi. I don't have that naturally. I learned that from him. Naturally, I would just look, oh my gosh, she's got such a beautiful eyes. But I wouldn't intimidate her by acknowledging it. I would just, mm, mm, mm. It's my pleasure. And just look at what?But you can see how, you know, you can learn how your body, mind works, how it functions.
The Bob's powerful pointer, watch the mind. See where the attention is drawn to. See what it misses out. See where it gains its kick. Some people get the kick from seeing something ugly, something, you know, off, because that makes them feel a little bit more comfortable. It's different attention habits. Nobody is the doer. They are all programmed devices. And at the same time, you notice this is also what Bob was saying. You notice you're in attention. You know, I'm not present from the point of attention. So you are present enough to notice that you are not present. So presence is never away. It's always there.
It's just the attention may not be in what is happening in the room. The attention may be out in school there with those kids. But you are present to realize where the attention is. The present you never not hear. But attention is a fascinating thing to watch. It's an endless game. It's like really watching a dream from the point of being relaxed, sitting on the back in the box seat in the theater or in the cinema.and watching the dream character being drawn towards this or repelled by this attraction aversion all of that naturally happening like in the cat or in the child there's no one doing it there's no doer the relaxed attention curious about oh what's the next thought of this body mind machine hmm what is this going to pay attention to next where is that attention going to go here here here hmm fascinating and it's also like when you say about the attention and thoughts it's attention of a thought pattern Yes.
Because it's just repeating. Yes. So that was sort of what came up. Like, oh, it's actually a thought pattern. Like, oh, it's always going to be the way, except you're actually realizing it's a thought pattern. Absolutely. Yes. And we have few love hearts and smiley faces. And Joe sends love to you all. And we love you too, darling.Yes, so anyone? I haven't got anything. Yeah, it's, I said earlier, you know, watch the mind and, you know, Douglas Harding always says, look for yourself. And Bob also says that. I think it's a really good pointer. You know, this mechanism is curious. So it's curious about everything.
So one of the things it's curious about is its mind. You know, what goes on supposedly up here. But it's just something we're aware of. So it's not something that we... Only in the stories up here, it's just something that we're aware of. So watch it and see what it does. So watch it and see that it can interpret or it cannot interpret. And another thing that's just come up for me, listening to everybody, is notice that it still says, I want. I want to do this. I want, what do I need to do? Or do I need to change something? Okay, that's the mind still.caught up in the illusion that there's something there to do something.
So just notice that it does that. There's nothing to do about it. It will do that as long as it wants to do that. And then maybe it will stop, maybe it won't. But just watch the mind because it's a really, really fascinating experience watching the mind and seeing what it does. Yeah, brilliant. Beautiful. And you just pointed and explained really practically a pointer of Bob's leave it as it is, unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected, which is such a wonderful instruction. You know, like who is there to follow the instruction of doing nothing? You don't need a doer to follow. Leave it as it is, unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected.
Like Cole beautifully said, even if the mind says, I want this, I want that, I am in charge, I am in control. Well, leave it as it is. Watch it as if it is an amazing phenomenon arising. Don't touch it because the space doesn't touch. Space doesn't do. It has no hands, legs, nothing. It just is. Do you want to answer it for me?I haven't changed up for this year. Maybe it's after. It's going to give us a nice background music, no? Yes, and another thing I think you touched upon, you know, that natural curiosity with whether the mind will offer an interpretation or not.
Lovely. Oh, it has the story about the situation. Leave it as it is. Oh, it has no story about the situation. And this is where another Bob's pointer comes about, which is not an instruction. It is an inspiration. And it's not necessarily for the mind because mind is a dead machine. But it somehow, if it resonates in the heart, the inspiration appears in action. And this is what is wrong with right now if I don't interpret. What is wrong with right now if there is no story about what's happening? It's just... The mystery of this moment. There is no interpretation. There is no group of people sitting discussing here.
There is no room in Australia, in Victoria. No, no commentary. Oh, there is that many men and that many... No, nothing. Oh, how do I look? Oh, what people think about me? No. What is wrong with right now if there is no story going on at all? Quite sweet. Nothing wrong. Yeah, and...Thank you for bringing it up in like a juicy, practical way. So relatable. It doesn't need a slogans. Just, of course. Hmm. I'm enjoying the freedom of looking at each of you. Like the cat, I can stare at you and look at you and it's all right. I can feel the energy if I want to.
I can make up stories about you. It's fun.Yeah, and get cold too. And Kat was pointing us back to what's your own experience? Really, when you really look, when you really pay attention to how it's unfolding, happening, rising spontaneously, whatever, all those words that we use, which are totally unnecessary. Because just a reliance on what your own experience is. And the example of how many ears are listening now, that's a beauty, isn't it? Yeah, none. Yeah, and that is the invitation that Bob always gave, is the invitation to do the investigation. Take a look for yourself without any, you know, all the pointers are marvellous, are gold, beautiful, but they're just pointing back at you.
That's all they do. Yeah. Anyway, what a great session. Yeah. The joy of direct experience, which is the only thing that matters, is the only thing that is valid. See how you don't have a face unless you imagine and believe that you do. In direct experience, where is the face? There is a reflection, but I'm not the reflection. This reflection is out there. But in here, directly, the ears, the nose, whatever, they can only be experienced through the means of imagination. What I experience directly is some buzzing tingling. That's not face, it's buzzing tingling. Labeled a face, or labeled lips, or labeled whatever. But directly, it is all incredibly unpenetrable mystery of just buzz, of buzz, of buzzing life.
And the interpretation, this wonderful mechanism that makes sense of all of it, is to be celebrated. It's not to be denied. It's not to attempt to switch it off. Like sometimes in those non-dual circles, people believe that, oh, I have to switch off my thinking capacity. I have to stop thinking, suppress thinking, or thought is a sin. Oh, I just had a thought. Shit, you know, hopeless. You didn't. You didn't. The thoughts are appearing the same way as any other sound. Again, the ears for external sounds, not really.and the internal ear or whatever not really sounds are appearing the division into within me and without outside is again only a conceptual division the sound there is absolutely no difference between the sound arising as a dialogue in the head and the sound arising as a monologue of any one of you or the sound arising as a movement of the tree outside or the trampassing they are all whatever is appearing in this moment in that witnessing presence in consciousness the sound there is a tramp the sound the sight the sensation, the buzzing life here or there.
It's just a discovery, endless discovery of the richness of this dream in a present arising. From that peacefulness of presence, that peacefulness of the stillness, the sameness, it's called. Yeah, just a quick one. You know, we seem to have a bit of an emphasis on looking for yourself. And I just want to add to that, I guess. You know, we come into this room and we hear about something, yeah? Now, let's suppose we were hearing about perfumes. Yeah? Let's suppose we've got a whole...library of books about perfumes but we never ever know what perfumes are and this is an invitation to go into the fields and smell the grass smell the flowers smell the drains smell the chemicals in all your bottles of chemicals at home without judgment and just look at them.
That's what this is about. It's about doing it for yourself. It's not about ideas. Okay. Beautiful. You want to say something, Daniel? I'll speak for both. No, you speak to one. Only one. Like Cole was saying, like the investigation, yeah. Do the investigation for yourself, as yourself, within yourself, to realize that there is no self, because there is no one doing it. As such. And what an amazing thing, like, you know, this whole meeting and everyone here and Kat's spiel and everything that was said, like, it's so immediate. Like, it's just, so there's no more, there's no analysis or you could say, like, Words are like energy.
I'll just call it all energy just as an example of explaining things.My goodness, it's like there's Kat's explanation of descriptions, of pointers, of different facets of what we call this life. And then it seems like there's like these other interpretations of these facets. And it's all appearing in space. Like there's no point where it's appearing, where it starts to appear. There's no point where it begins. There's no point where it ends. There's no point where it goes to. It's just all appearing in this emptiness, like this boundlessness of now. And it doesn't, and there's no one it appears for. It's just appearing. And it's doing its own analysis.
And attention moves from here to there. And it expands to everything. And that's not it. Nothing is it. There's no it. There's no, ah, now, such and such. No, it's not like that. Because there's no end. There's no position. There's no positionality. There's no reference or center where, you know, so it's in this flux of movement. So there's no actual final realization or understanding or interpretation of any description, and yet it's the ground, the immediacy in which all descriptions and the energy of these as thoughts or as wordsor as whatever you want to call them, or feelings, they're all in that appearance. Back to that whole oneness of one essence, back to the very fundamentals of what's going on, like the one essence, patterning, shaping, forming, as thoughts, as feelings, as interpretations, as attention, as...
As analysis or as recognition or as knowing or as doing investigations. It's all that same thing. So you can't mess it up in any way in that sense because it's also known or called and understood and seen as the great perfection. And in this appearance, this is now appearing as all these different facets, endless amount of facets. So it's actually now appearing as it could appear as a contracted me looking to fix it, which is still perfect, yet it causes this. This energetic sort of sense of something being wrong. But actually, even that is the great perfection, expressing life as there is no wrong as such, yet it is the cause of the psychological suffering.
And Pesto, would you like to say something? There was something else I wanted to say. I can't remember what it was. But it's pretty...So, yeah, I think what everyone said has been pretty good, even you, except for Joseph. You might have to take back those words. No, no, no. How can there be anything wrong? Like, it's amazing. Like, there's no better explanation or cat articulates things in an absolutely magnificent way. The skill and the machinery, if you like to describe, and the ability to articulate and cover all these different facets. Is like, boom, it's like gold, you know. And then this machinery blunders out these stupid words and muddles things up and explains things in whatever.
Like there's no wrong. This is life. This is the one lesson. Appearing as Dean speaking right now or appearing as cat padding right then. But in that, I think I might just stop there for now. That was fantastic, didn't it? The way you got to the great perfection. Well, I was listening to Lockie describing Kat's talk and the joy in that, just listening to that. And it occurred to me that there's a process that takes place.You start off with there's me listening and there's someone else talking and it gradually becomes just an experience of what's happening. And the subject objectivity of it fades into the background.
And as Dean explained, it eventually gets to the great perfection, the Zog Chen, the great perfection of one.And in the experience, It's just lovely to be there when you're not there. But there's listening, there's seeing, tasting, touching, smelling. All just happening naturally. And, uh... It's a beautiful thing. As someone said.and there's a stillness and silence that supports it all. Whatever arises, arises, disappears, something else arises. So it goes. It can never be for anyone. No. I'm describing like it can't be for anyone. No one can own this. No one can have this as such. Because there is no one to have it. Yeah, no, no.
The dropping away is the... That's the one. Shakespeare talks about when he says, since I nor any man but man be, with nothing can he be pleased till he be eased with being nothing. It is. We're being nothing. Take it easy, you're nothing. People always tell me I was a nobody and I can't believe it. They were right, but that's not an insult. That's wonderful news. And if Bob used to describe the one about the guy went to go see the king?Oh yeah, there was this another metaphor, that's another old Zen metaphor about an old guy looking homeless going through a foreign kingdom and he found there was a big celebration to happen in the town and there was a big like a podium and a big throne sitting on it and the flowers everywhere and the food and he just walked straight through it on the whatever today it would be a red carpet and he climbed on the on the stage and he sat on the throne And everyone, all the security, all the knights got worked out and they rushed through.
Shit, what's going on? Who are you? How dare you? Are you the dignitary of another country? No, I'm more than that. Oh. Who are you then? Are you the king of another country? No, I'm more than that. More than the king. Are you God? He said, no, I'm more than that. But there is nothing that is more than God. That's what I'm saying. I am that nothing. And then there is a comment. Yeah, bringing back to the joy of being nothing.My goodness, what a life. What a relief. I remember having the most, probably the darkest nights of the soul, coming from the abandonment, early childhood trauma and all that nonsense being reflected in one of my relationships.
As being completely invisible, completely unseen, unheard, ununderstood, neglected and so forth. And I came to Bob in tears. You know, he treats me like nothing. I'm just a walking bank machine, catering to his needs. I'm nothing. And I walked out on the same day that was nearly 10 years ago. With great relief coming up from that fact that, oh shit, he was so right. But that's such a good news. I am nothing, but not in a way the ego will consider being treated like nothing, being neglected and abused and all that. Being nothing means having no need to drag onto any personal drama of being a victim of neglect.
Suddenly the freedom of needing to be seen and needing to be catered to, understood and heard. What a ride. So there is another couple of...A couple of comments. Gioti says, much gratitude, Cole. And Tabor says, there is no point, just pointers. And Benjamin says, exactly, without judgment. It seems that the key is to not attach to the thoughts, sounds, etc. And assert presence or whatever this phenomenon are good. Or whether these phenomena are good or bad, it seems that duality collapses when we don't see ourselves as the witness or the witness, but rather as the witnessing itself. That is beautifully put. That's it, the ing, the process, not the separation between the subject object, which only comes from conceptualizing.
But the processing, the existing, the witnessing, the knowing, the being. And that's direct experience without the thoughts. There is no separation. There's no split unless the interpretation comes online and offers it. And as Carl was saying, there is no need to take the offer. What's wrong with right now if you don't think about it? Let it do its job. Leave it as it is. There is no need to take it seriously.Thank you everyone.